Crazy Love

Hey all!

In the past few days I have had at least 4 people reccomend this book to me. So yesterday, I was in Maple Grove after my Nanny job, so I decided to run to one of my favorite stores... Barnes and Noble! :) Woot! :) And of course they had the book! So im pretty pumped right now, I am "working" so hard to try and get my spritual life back to where it was, no wait scratch that, I want it BETTER than it was :)
I am only on the first chapter of "Crazy Love" and I cant wait! :)

Have you read it? What do you think of it? Any suggestions/comments? 

Continuing with my theme of growing and loosing my heart, I had a facebook chat with my lovely Youth Minister Kym, she gave me this fantastic analogy!
"Don't worry it will go away; it's like the seasons.... you have spiritual spring (TONS of faith-filled lovin'), then summer of dry-ness, the fall of faith (a good fall cleaning of your sins/great reconciling times with God), and then there's frozen tundra of doom (aka minnesota OR when it's a of questioning/uncertainity)..."- Oh Kym you rock! Thanks for always being there for me! Haha and after that MN comment can you tell she isnt from here??! haha :)

God Bless!
Ashley

Wake Up To God's Word! Social Experiment Chapter 1

Hey all! :)

Alrighty like I told you guys a few blogs back that my youth minister Kym, and I are doing a social experiment! We are both reading the same book, and blogging about our assigned chapters on here :) Its a way to see Kym's take on the book, Kym being a Wife, mother, youth minister, catholic! and so much more! And me being a catholic, being a junior in high school and still learning as I go:) You can visit Kym's blog by clicking -----> KYM   alright so here we go! :)

Our first book that we will be blogging about is "Wake Up to God's Word" By Mary H. Reaman :) 

Chapter 1 (my job! :))) haha)

So far this book is really interesting and cool to depict and figure out! In Chapter 1 the author is talking about the Israelites being slaves under Pharoah, and their journey to freedom. What I thought about while reading that part is how we are all slaves to the devil and to sin. This was something that was surrounding the Israelites, just like how sin, temptation, evil, greed, lust, dishonesty, and jealousy surround us on a daily basis.
"Though the idea of freedom must have sounded promising to the Israelites, they had to know it would cost something of them to gain it." (6)  Does that sound like our lives today?? Now when it said cost I thought... what?? But then once I re-read it I realized that its not the cost that we think of in our lives today, but the "cost"  of giving our lives to follow the Lord. That is what will lead us out of that sin, slavery and evil, and into that Freedom that we recieve following the Lord. Like it says in the book, Jesus set off on a journey and invited/told others to follow him on that path. The journey being freedom. This journey that the book talks about is not easy! It is helping us to grow, to learn and to live it out. That takes a lot! What stuck out to me in the beginning of this chapter is the fact that they refered to this journey as a "Transformation". Because turning away from that slavery and running to God, is a transformation, of your heart, mind, soul and whole being! :) This freedom may seem out of reach but, when you decide to take that step, it can only get closer!

Next in the chapter the book references a Cherokee Tradition Story of Two Wolves..
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.


"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."


The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"



The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Isnt that so true!?? The evil wolf being the devil and the beautiful wolf being the Lord. :) How relevant is that!

Some Key Points that I read and noticed were:

-Put on the Mind Of Christ
-For a better understanding of the word, dig deeper into scripture
-Ponder Jesus' call for us to be free
-Acknowledge that inside of us we have the capacity for both good and evil.
-When we are free from our selfish desires we move way from our "Ego"
-Become who God wants us to be
-Ger rid of the "Ego"
-Ego is an emotional response, but dont be locked down by it. Dont see yourself as a victium to it, live up to your full potential and overcome it.
-"The blueprint for dysfunction is something that every human carries within" (11)
- In the story of the Israelites the "ego" is represented by Pharoah, and his control over them.
-The "ego" is the "opponent" trying to distract and sabotage us. Also known as Satan, and Lucifer.
-Unleash Christ's consciousness and be truly free!
-Spread that freedom to the WORLD!
-God's word is within us, spread it! :)
-The living water is within our grasp!

All this "ego" is trying to do is to take us away from God and what we should be following and turn us in a different direction.

At the end of the chapter it gives you four things to do...

1. DEFINE and IDENTIFY what exactly your ego is. Sit quietly for 10 mins observe your thoughts as they come to you and do not resist them. Simply watch them. Do this for 10 to 20 mins in the morning and before you go to bed. This helps you determine what your ego is.
2. CONTEMPLATION-- Memorize this line... "Hear, O Israel, The LORD is our God, the Lord alone" Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Recite this line as often as you can. Contemplate and consider how your life journey is like the Israelites under Pharoh's rule.
3. PRAYER-- Pray that God will open you up to hearing his word in all the ways you can see it. Through people, actions, and so many more! :)
4. ACTION OF LOVING KINDNESS-- Look for someone who you think displays Christ's conciousness, Drop them a note or an email letting them know you noticed their compassion.

This first chapter covers a lot! :) I strongly encourage you to follow along with Kym and I! :) This book is giving great tips to show us how to uncover God's word :)

If you have any questions please comment here or email me at ashleywalz@gmail.com :)

Dont forget to look for chapter 2 on Kym's blog coming soon!
Please comment here with that you think!:) Feedback would be amazing! :)

Thanks for reading and God Bless,
Ashley

NCYC & Changes

Hey All! :) IM BACK! :)

Sooo many people have been asking me about NCYC and how it went...and man Kym was totally right.. you cannot explain it. But im going to try my best!

-We arrived at about 3:00 pm in Kansas City. Got to the hotel quick to change and drop off our stuff and then headed to the conference center.
- General Session I walked into and seeing everyone and all the music by John Angotti made me cry, along with my jaw dropping... Unbelieveable!
-Went to different workshops, such as A Catholic Comedian who was hillarious!, and to Mark Hart the bible Geek! :) Both amazing!
-General Sessions continued to raise the bar :)
-Jason and Crystalina Evert Spoke on Saturday night which brought me to tears... They are my idols and their message is so powerful and so true! Look up Jason Evert on youtube, you wont regret it!
-Steve Arigsano, and Jesse Manibusan were AMAZING emcee's :)
-I MET JASON AND CRYSTALINA! :) I completely freaked out and was in awe by them! :) I got a picture with them too! Plus Crystalina gave me her email adress and said that they would send me copies of their books to give out at my purity ball, and that i should let them know the dates to speak (If they can fit it in their busy schedule)
- Went to Reconciliation and Adoration
-Heard amazing teen speakers! My Favorite was Philip Ryan, he had an inoperable brain tumor which eventually just went away, along with other miracles from God... Sooo amazing!
-Took part in mass with 21,000 other catholic youth! Communion took 40 mins, and there were 140 clergy men persiding! :)
-HAD AN AMAZING TIME! :)

NCYC was so unbelieveable and so wonderful. I learned so much, the major one being that I am not alone! There are so many other Catholic's just like me! :) Completely blew me away!

Thank you for all who donated time, money and prayers for me and our delegation over the trip! They helped so much! Thank you all for this amazing opportunity!
 Here are some pictures.... :)

Now on to the changes aspect of this blog.... Here is a note that I wrote and posted on my facebook, hopefully this gives you the jist of what exactly went on... :

'Hey Everyone!
It has come to my attention that many of my status updates about my faith have been taken the wrong way. To some it was considered "Shoving it down peoples throats". I would like to apologize for those coming off that way. I honestly did not mean for the status' to come off in the wrong was and i am very sorry that people felt that way about it.


To me my faith is SO VERY important, and i just wanted to inspire and help others. I did not mean for it to be taken as me forcing people to be just like me. I know everyone is different that is for sure.



It has also come to my attention that lots of people still really enjoy reading my posts etc... well you people are in luck! :) I am going to continue blogging about more faith oriented things, inspirational things, struggles, life, God, Catholocism, my life, and so much more on my blog! :) I hope that all of you read it, by your own choice. Please visit www.highschoolcatholic.blogspot.com to read all that i have to say.



To me i just want to proclaim God's amazing message to the world, but i dont want to frusturate/irritate or hurt anyone in that process. I sincerly apologize if you were offended or hurt by any of my posts, that was not my intention.



If you choose so please let me know what you think of my blog posts! That would be soo appreciated to see that they are reaching someone and that someone actually gets something out of it. :) Please feel free to comment here, on my blog, message me with any questions/comments/concerns and email me at ashleywalz@gmail.com.



Thanks and God Bless All Of You :)'
 
So this blog is going to be my life, and i really hope to keep up with it! Sometimes its hard to sit down and take time to type and all of that, but honestly I dont just do it for me, i do it for the people that i can reach, help and hopefully inspire. Thank you so much for your loyalty to reading my blog and all its contents. And i apologize if i have offended anyone of you as my readers.
 
ON A LIGHTER NOTE!!! Since at NCYC i had a wonderful opportunity to stock up on a few books (6) my youth minister and I are doing a social experiment :) We are both going to read the same book, but we divided it up into chapters. Going every other chapter, so i am the 1st! :) I will post my interpretation of the chapter on my blog here, and then she will post her interpretation of the next chapter on her blog. I am really excited and glad that Kym came up with the idea! :) So please visit Kym's Blog to see her interpretations as well as mine on here. I can definately tell you that you will for sure get lots of things out of Kym's blog, she is an amazing mom, wife, Catholic, youth minister, smart, funny, and truly an inspiration to many. I hope you like our soical experiment! Let us know what you think, comment here or email me at ashleywalz@gmail.com :) 
 
Lord---
Thank you so much for all you do for me and my family. You truly bless me on a daily basis, and you open up doors for me in all different ways. Thank you for the AMAZING experience at NCYC, let us all be the light in the darkness, shining for all to see. You are an amazing God, who does so much because he loves me and all of you. Please continue to bless my writings here, and the eyes and people who read them. 
In your name,
Amen 
 
God Bless,
And please let me know what you think! :)
LOVE!
Ashley