Books worth reading

Biographies

• Jim Elliot - this man was a man who was called by God to be a missionary in Ecuador. This book tells about his senior year in high school up to the time of his last breath. It really puts in perspective how dangerous missions can be, but that didn't stop Jim and his friends. Will Jim and his friends see their loved ones again? Will they reach the lives of the people in Ecuador? This is an awesome biography (I'm not one who is all about biographies). I highly recommend this book for all ages.

Christian readings

• Do Hard Things - Alex and Brett tell you that just because you are called a teenager, you are expected to basically stun the world and meet even higher expectations. This is a must read, I highly recommend this book. What does the world expect from us teenagers? Are we really expected to do much less than the pioneer children were? This book tells us what the world expects out of kids our age. And what God expects out of kids our age. This book is very appropriate for the teen ages. 

Christian fiction

• Woman of the Forest - this fiction book is another really good book. This book is about a teenage boy who is really lost spiritually and always in some sort of trouble when he is around his friends. When his parents decide to change they are living their lives, the young boy decides home isn't the place he wants to be. Soon he finds himself lost and with a strange woman with a bunch of secrets, in the middle of nowhere. Will he ever get back home, or will he be stuck with the crazy old woman forever. This book is an awesome Christian book as well, it is appropriate for all ages.

Romance

• Mara Daughter of the Nile - this is such a great book...one I could read over and over again.  The book was about Mara, a young Egyptian slave girl who longs to be free.  As soon as she gets her chance, she soon finds herself falling in love with her new master...Lord Sheftu.  Sheftu who is caught up in some dangerous work finds himself falling in love with her too.  Will Mara help Sheftu in his dangerous work?  Will the two give into their love for one another?  You're going to have to read the book to find out!  This book is appropriate for ages 12+.

ttyl,

Alisha

December 27, 2005 is a night I will never forget

Eight years ago, I made the most important decision any nine year old could ever make...saving my self physically and emotionally - for the one God has for me.  Looking back now, I am so glad that I made the decision!  My parents have been a tremendous help with helping me through the tough times life throws at me.  Daddy has read the book: Before You Meet Prince Charming by Sarah Mally with me. In her book Miss Sarah explains the dangers about dating and having a boyfriend. This book is the perfect book for all the girls who want to remain pure. It gives advice when you find yourself daydreaming about a boy that has caught your attention. It has encouraged me in the choice I have made in purity.

In case you all are wondering here is my purity story:

My parents were never raised in a home that uplifted purity or salvation.  They were encouraged to leave home at 18, get a boyfriend right away, etc.  That's all they ever knew, until December 27, 2005 when I was about nine years old.  My family and I were invited to a wedding (it was actually our pastor's daughter's wedding).  I noticed that the bride was swinging her arms around, snapping her fingers, and not able to hold still, until her dad said: "You may now kiss the bride."  I asked my mom why the bride was so fidgety and she told me that kiss was the brides first kiss, and continued to tell me that purity, to the bride, was extremely important. It was that night I made a vow to the Lord that I would not kiss a boy until my wedding day.

ttyl,
Alisha

Is dating dangerous?

Everyday we are overcome by friends, family, books, media, etc about dating or boyfriend/girlfriend relationships. After a while it, honestly to tell the truth, gets quite annoying! So I ask, is dating biblical? Actually lets go a step further, are we putting ourselves in danger?

Lets start with - is dating biblical? No it isn't, no where in scripture does it say, "Be pure in all you do, but go ahead and say yes to the first guy who asks you out." Instead it tells us in Song of Songs 2:7, "Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." In 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 it tells us to treat others with absolute purity.

Now lets go to - are we putting ourselves in danger? Well yeah we are, in the book called "Before You Meet Prince Charming" the author Sarah Mally tells young girls that dating and the relationships that come along with the dating are practice for divorce. Our society is basically teaching us how to divorce. This is what she means by this:
Tyler really likes Andrea, they go to the same Christian school, church, they even live two blocks away from each other. Soon Tyler starts giving Andrea some unnecessary attention, he starts winking at her, putting his arm around her... just plain flirting. Andrea just loves the attention he's giving her, so she takes it all. Soon before Tyler and Andrea know it they are inseparable, they do everything together, and they start dating. What Andrea doesn't know is Tyler already has a girlfriend. Then one day when Andrea walks into the school building she spots Tyler out of the corner of her eye with his first girlfriend. Later that day Tyler comes up to her and tells her very nicely that their relationship has to come to an end.

Do you see how dating and the relationships lead up to the young adult "divorce"? Today in the marriage life, if one is doing something the other doesn't like they usually want a divorce. In a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship if one doesn't want to continue the relationship they "divorce" at a young age.

I'm not trying to be your conscience, but I just felt like I really needed to blog about this topic. I'm sorry if I sounded like I was trying to tell any of that you need to stop dating. But I'll be praying that the Lord used this post to touch your heart in anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Feel free to leave a comment I would really like to here what you have to say about this topic!

ttyl,
Alisha

Yummy banana bread

I thought I'd share this recipe with y'all, it is so yummy! I hope you and your family enjoy this recipe as much as we do :)

Cream together:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1 cup sugar

Add:

• 2 beaten eggs
• 3 well mashed ripe bananas
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. soda

Beat well. Bake in small square cake pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or loaf pan for 1 hour. Or you can cook it for 30 minutes for a 9 x 12 pan.

Again I hope you and your family enjoy this recipe :D

ttyl,
Alisha

You come up with a caption :D

What do you think she was saying when I took this picture?  You all come up with a caption for this picture of my lil' sister!

ttyl,
Alisha

I'm blessed to call her friend

Recently I've been thinking about how blessed I am to have the friends that I do. But really I thinking about one very, VERY special friend... my little sister.

She will be a friend that will always be there for me. My friendship with her will last a lifetime, and I recently been so worried about the choices in the friends I've made now, when I actually have a best friend by my side everyday.

Siblings are such a blessing and we need to take the time and enjoy the time we have with them. Instead of being worried about the next time we get to hang out with our friends from church or from school. It's okay to have good friends to hang out with, but those friends we meet at church or at school won't always be there for us when we're older. My mom has told my sister and I this many times in the past few years, and it's so true, there are friends that I used to ALWAYS play with when I was younger, and I don't even see them anymore. The only true friend you will ever have lives in the same house as you, you may even share a room with her, and she is the one that constantly wants to do everything that you want to do.

Sydney, you are the greatest friend and little sister I could ever have, I love you so much!

love you bug,
Sissy

Gateway to Heaven

"It is none other than the House of God - the gateway to Heaven!"

Genesis 28 :17

ttyl,

Alisha

A goal worth living for

What exactly is purity? I have been asked this question so many times. The answer is this: purity isn’t just saving all of the important firsts for your wedding day. It’s also being pure in body, heart, and mind. Being pure isn’t a set of rules some Christian set up for a better world. Being pure is how God orchestrated the single and married life. To me my heart is a precious gift, that I will one day be able to give to my Prince Charming. Miss Sarah Mally explains it like this:
Pretend you’re a princess and the King calls you to His throne and tells you, "My daughter in this bag are 100 (a candy of your choice). I want you to go into town and give the candy to a special person. Now you may go." Suppose you ask Him, "But Father, who is this special person?" But He won’t tell you. So you go into town, and along the way you see your friend. So you think to your-self, He has to be that special person, I’ll just give him one piece of candy just in case. Soon your walking along and you meet another person, so you think to your-self, Oh he has to be the one, but I’ll give him one piece of candy just in case. Pretty soon you have given almost the whole bag of candy away. Then suddenly you meet someone and you just know that he is the special person your Father told you about. When you hand him the bag of candy, he counts to make sure all 100 pieces are all a counted for. All of a sudden he has a very disappointed look on his face and he asks you, "Where’s the rest of the candy?" Then you have to tell him that you gave other people his candy along the way.
I wonder what the King thought when He heard that His daughter didn’t give that special someone ALL of the candy? This story is similar to what is going on today in our society. There are young men and women today who are going on dates and thinking to themselves, well she/he has to be the one. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be able to stand at the altar on my wedding day and be able to give the man of my dreams my entire heart with no guilt.

If you would like to ask the Lord take control of your heart then below is a prayer I found while reading a book called A life of Faith: Millie Keith: Millie’s Faithful Heart:
Jesus, please hold my heart in Your hand. Don’t let me give it or any piece of it away. I want YOU to give it away in Your time, to the right person. Please hold it tight, lock it up, and keep the key. ~Amen~

PS. If you placed your heart in the hands of the Lord, I would love to know (if of course you would feel comfortable with it). If you want you can contact me or you can leave a comment.

ttyl,
Alisha

Soft Sugar Cookies

This the yummiest sugar cookie recipe EVER!

What you'll need:
1 1/2 c. sugar
1c. butter
1/2 c. sourcream
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
4 c. flour

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Roll out in powdered sugar, cut and bake for approximately 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Hope y'all enjoy this recipe!

ttyl,
Alisha

What is the TRUE meaning behind Halloween?

I know that October 31st is coming up soon, so I thought that I would just write about it. 

My family and I used to celebrate Halloween and thought it was all fine and dandy.  After some research we decided to stop celebrating this holiday and do something else. I was not very happy with this decision, but I need to obey my parents like the Bible says. Instead of dressing up and trick or treating, we decided to rent a movie, have treats, and just stay at home. I really liked that I idea so I went on with my life without complaining to the Lord. After some years past they did more research and found out it is a Pagan Holiday. About 600 years ago the Pagans used to worship their god’s. Remember the first two commandments in the Bible Thou shalt not have no other god’s before me and Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Remember from the Halloween movies, the black cats, well cats in general are considered "holy." The Pagans used to sacrifice cats, sad huh? You know one of the things I liked most about Halloween, it was to carve pumpkins! Did you know that there used to be a guy named Jack? He would walk around carrying a lantern to keep the evil spirits away from him. So everyone would make the lanterns out of pumpkins to keep the evil spirits away from them. As you can see there is nothing glorifying to the Lord Almighty through this holiday.
My parents have discussed about having a costume party after October 31st. Now there is nothing wrong with having a costume party, until you dress up like zombies, mummies, witches, Medusa, the devil, or any other evil creature. I hope you all have a different perspective on this evil oriented holiday.

What would YOU like?

Okay, so I want to write posts that my reader are wanting to read.  So I am asking you all to do me a favor...please tell me what you would like me to write.  Even if it's something I've never posted about...tell me!  However, I will not post anything inappropriate, rude, or that will be pleasing to the Devil...that's just who I am.

1. Should I add interviews with young ladies?
2. Would you like more posts containing Scripture?
3. Would you like posts that involve more topics on purity, modesty, etc?
4. Would you like reading about me and my family have been up to?
5. Would you like more stories or poems that I've written?
6. Would you like scrap-booking/card-making tutorials?

I would really like your opinion, so feel free to leave a comment!  I want this blog to appeal to my readers - which means that what I write has to be what you want!

ttyl,

Alisha

What is a true young man?

Lately I have had the question "What is a true young man?" run through my head. This question made me stop and think, because honestly to tell you the truth I have never really thought about this before until now. So below are my answers to this question:

A true young man loves the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He is not scared to tell everyone about his Savior. He puts others before him-self. He loves being part of God's army. He is willing to lay down his life for the Lord, his wife, and his family. He saves his whole heart for the young lady the Lord has for him. He loves to make his wife laugh. He takes his role as the provider of his family seriously. He comforts his wife when she is sad and lonely. He helps out around the house. He cooks dinner for his wife when she's sick or when the baby is born.  He is soft spoken and gentle spirited, he isn't afraid of what others think of him.I'm sure I'll come up with other answers to this questions as the years go by!

If you have never come up with ways that you think a true young man should be, then I encourage you to do so. I'm sure I'll be keeping this list for the future, because these are some of the qualities that I want in my husband. 

Give Thanks! Challenge at KBR

There is a wonderful challenge over at KBR that would be worth taking part in.  With all the discontent in our society, we almost need to take a 30 day challenge to remember how blessed we are.

The 30 challenge starts: November 1, 2012  and ends: November 30, 2012

You can find the rules at the website that I have linked at the website!

ttyl,
Alisha

Cafeteria Monster

Inman Primary School...most second graders will tell you that this particular school makes learning fun, but four of them (who are now Sophomores) will tell you that this school made lunch time a horror story!

Me (8), Wyatt (8), Drew (8), and William (8) dreaded lunch time! Most kids find the cafeteria a place of refuge during the school week, but these four second graders thought the classroom as refuge. Why you ask? Well there was one lady that made our lunch time a horror story. Wyatt, Drew, and William gave this lady a name...the Cafeteria Monster. If you cannot fathom how awful their lunch time was, then allow me to give you about four examples:

 When the school would serve green beans and carrots, I would avoid them with my whole life (I hated carrots and green beans with a passion). However this is how the conversation between them:

“Hi there, can you not give me carrots and green beans please?”

“What's the matter you don't like them?”

“Well no it's not that it's...I...I just don't feel like carrots and green beans today.”

“Fine...”

After that four letter word came the scoops...scoop 1, scoop 2, scoop 3. This made me very angry, only because I would have to eat carrots and green beans at home too. Anyway, luckily there was always the trash can!

When they would serve macaroni and cheese, Wyatt would have an absolute blast! Allow me to preface how disgusting the macaroni and cheese was exactly! It wasn't thick and creamy, but watery and mushy! Anyway back to the story, this how Wyatt and Cafeteria Monster would talk to one another”

“Hi there, can you not give me Macaroni and cheese please?”

“What's the matter you don't like it?”

“Well no...it's just I'm gonna have it for dinner, so...”

“Fine...”

As usual the awful four letter word...scoop 1, scoop 2, scoop 3, scoop 4, and the hugest scoop 5! Luckily William loved the macaroni and cheese with his whole heart (yuck). This didn't make Wyatt happy, he tried going to the teacher one time, but the teacher thought he was making up a story...poor Wyatt!

I have never been a fan of 1% white milk (or chocolate), but that's all Inman carried...that and orange juice. One day, I didn't feel like orange juice or milk. Cafeteria Monster noticed me contemplating over what drink to get, and made sure I knew that I was doing something wrong.

“Hey move it little girl, you're holding up the line!”

“I can't decide what to get for my drink.”

“Take some milk and get moving!”

“I don't like 1% milk.

“Grab water then! HURRY UP!”

“I don't want water.”

Hesitantly I grabbed the orange juice (which was 1% too). I made sure that I took her own drink in the future!

 Pizza day was William's favorite day...none of us were quite sure why. However we were really confused at why Cafeteria Monster was so “nice” to William. I soon found out the answer to our confusion...this is how William would talk to Cafeteria Monster on pizza day:

“How is your day going ma'am?”

“Good!”

“That's good...I don't want any pizza thank you?”

“What's the matter you don't like it?”

“No as a matter of fact I absolutely HATE the pizza here, but since I wont be eating dinner for a long time, then I might as well have some then huh?”

“FINE!”

Well you know the tradition, although William got himself into trouble and ended up giving his three friends a slice of pizza and still had one of his own!

Brief History on the Characters:

I am now 17 years old and am a Junior in high school. I enjoy photography, card-making, writing books, and scrap-booking. I hope that the books I write will reflect the Light of my Savior. I am currently working on a pure romance novel. 

(Wyatt, Drew, and William are non-fictional characters, however I haven't seen them since the sixth grade)

ttyl,

Alisha

Saturday photos

 My hardworking Daddy - he's cleaning out a gorilla glue bottle :D

 Sydney running across our driveway

Our basketball hoop...sadly we don't have one at the new house :(

Like my hair?

I decided to get my hair cut...it went from this:

to this:

8" was taken off...

...what do you think?

ttyl,

Alisha

Parents know what they're talking about

18...the age every sixteen year old girl wishes they could be...why?  Perhaps the "freedom" they will get.  Driver's License, graduating from High School, living on their own, perhaps the age their parents would allow them to have a "boyfriend", the age where they could possibly get married, etc.
Turning 18 will bring me all of the opposite: getting my Driver's License, being a Senior in High School, staying at home, trusting in the Lord to bring the right man along, going to Daddy about a certain somebody that has caught my eye, watching everyone around me get married, dreaming about the day my knight in shining armor will sweep me off my feet, learning how to cook, etc.
When I turned 17, my parents told me that life (as I knew it) wouldn't be the same!  On the outside I made it look like I believed them, but on the inside, I chuckled thinking:
yeah but you weren't raised the same way I'm being raised!  Let me tell you...parents know what they're talking about!!  Life as I knew it (finding it easy to trust Mamma and Daddy, getting along okay with my little sister, not caring about what a young man cares about you, etc) changed.  Now, six months before turning 18, my life as I knew is indeed drastically changing (finding it harder to trust what Mamma and Daddy choose is indeed the best for me, going to Daddy about a certain somebody that has caught my eye, caring about what the young man thinks of me, constantly being asked if I have (or want) a boyfriend, constantly being asked if I'm want to go to college, and just growing up).

Do I want to have trouble trusting what my parents choose for me is the best?  yes!!

Do I want to care about what the young man thinks of me?  well I don't really care (or at least I thought I didn't)!!

Do I have (or want) a boyfriend?  no...not at all...I'm sorry that road is not for me!!  My heart is reserved for the one God has for me...not who Alisha can track down!

Do I want to go to college?  nope...I don't think they have a degree in home-making and motherhood!

Do I want to grow up?  yes & no...if growing up means that I will be laughed at because: I still love Veggie Tales, still play Barbies with my sister, absolutely love teddy bears, etc. then no not really!  But if it means that my Lord can use me even better...then count me in!!

As you can tell, I'm currently confused about life!!  I've heard that it only gets worse as you get older (oh great...where's the time machine?)!  I have a little advice for those who are on the verge of adulthood (about to turn 17 or 18), don't let the Devil deceive you.  Listen to your parents...trust them (I know it may be hard at times)...don't take your eyes off of Jesus...dig deeper into God's Blueprint for your life (the Bible)

I used to be excited about almost being 18...but, can I borrow anyone's time machine? :D

Blessings to all on this day of rest!

ttyl,
Alisha

A giveaway worth peeking at

Hey everyone,

Just thought I'd post about this awesome giveaway over at King's Blooming Rose.  Don't miss this opportunity to miss this giveaway.  Deadline is: October 13, 2012

ttyl,

Alisha