Hey all! :) For those of you who dont have me as a friend on facebook... I have news! :) My youth minister asked me and two of my lovely friends Christene and Liz to be peer leaders on the 10th grade confirmation retreat this weekend :) We leave in a little over 3 hours :) (not that im counting or anything!)
It seems that God realy wants me on this retreat because i prayed soo hard about it and everything with my work worked out! :) I am so excited and i cant wait! :) I am giving a talk on Saturday morning about Priorities- How to keep God in your life when you are super busy. So im going to post it on here :) let me know what you think! :) Email me at
ashleywalz@gmail.com for responses i would love to hear them! :)
God Bless,
Ashley
Priorities Talk
As teenagers are lives a full of things that we choose to do and things that we have to do. Alright so now I want to know what things that you guys choose to do in your life? Okay sounds good! What are something’s that you have to do in your life? (Go off of the things that they chose to do and the things they have to do)
Now off of that list you did (or didn’t mentioned, fit this to what they answered) what is the number one thing that should be shaping our lives today and should be something we do, is making time for God. How many of you feel that making time for God is something that you SHOULD do? (Please be honest!) Okay.. and how many of you are unsure exactly how God is going to fit into your life with how hectic our lives can get? Okay..
Honestly guys I felt that God was there only if I absolutley needed him, or as a last resort, I didn’t feel that I needed to pray to him or even have a prayer life. I thought that my life is totally fine so then why do I need to talk to God? I was busy enough as it is and I basically put God on a shelf and said “I will get to you later God” and knowing me I can tend to be somewhat of a procrastinator, not gonna lie! So for many years God was sitting on that shelf collecting dust. I went to mass, but only because my parents made me, and I thought it was an absolute waste of and hour of my time, but guys I didn’t know what I was missing out on!
Alright so now since I shared a little bit of my story with you I want you guys to know that I have not always been the way I am today, as you most likely noted in my little story. And I bet that some of you can relate to that old Ashley huh?! But here is where my story changed. God was “moving his way” off of the shelf and into my heart, but too bad it so long for me to realize that he was just sitting there waiting!
Gonna be honest with you guys right now, Talking to God and having a relationship with God is soooo AMAZING! But like I said God was sitting there waiting for me and I never realized it. I thought that only the “Good” and “holy” catholics were the ones who prayed, went to mass, and received all of those sacraments. And I definitely felt uncomfortable talking about God, because I didn’t give it a chance. Until one day I realized that we arent alone! God is always there for us, weither you have turned your back on him or maybe he is a casual friend. HE IS STILL THERE!
Now don’t get me wrong guys I am super busy as well, and the way society portrays our world is that we are a go go go generation. Always doing something! But now is the chance to CHANGE that. Think about when was the last time, if ever that you sat down with out and ipod, or a cell phone and just talked and prayed to God? For most of us not too often, because the time we have is limited.
Now I want to take a look at your list of priorities… where does God fall in that list? Im not going to tell you what is good or bad about where God is on that list because truthfully I don’t know what is right and what is wrong! I am not the person to judget at all. I just want you to look at that list and maybe once you have thought about it you will want to change where God falls on that list.
Because when life gets crazy and you just want to give up who are you going to turn to? Think about that, when you are on the brink of falling apart and giving up who is there to comfort you?
God is that shoulder to cry on, that hand to hold and the only person that you can truly rely on to get you through.
Pray to him, talk to him, cry with him, and believe in him. Life gets crazy, but God created this world, he created you and me and everything! If that’s not the person to talk about the things in your life that you are facing than I don’t know who else is better!
So please pray with me,
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Good and loving Lord thank you so much for bringing all of us together on this retreat this weekend. I know that you have amazing plans for all of us! Please help everyone in this room to know you Lord and to pray and talk to you. Help them to know that you havent abandoned them and that you are standing right there with your arms wide open ready to take them in. Please open all of our hearts to hear you this weekend Lord, and bring us closer as one community of faith. Life gets hard and we work so hard at so many different things, but help us to know that in the end, you are the prize, the one thing that we should be working towards is to knowing you. In your name we pray, Amen.
She is my best friend :)
I love her :)
This is what love looks like :)
Haha :)
