Some days you feel so broken you can't think.

Other days you feel so down you can't breathe,

And then there comes the little Voice.


That says,

"There still is hope.

There still is love.

There is still a drop of sunshine for tomorrow left.

And always,

Always, there is Me."

He promises to you that He will never leave,

And you have nothing left to cling to but that one promise.


 So sometimes,
Just let go.

And let God,
Be God.

And when life throws you crap,

Pray.

And when you doubt every person and feel like you'll never be able to trust again,
Just wait.

Because your heart will grow back...

You just need time...

And grace...

That you must give...

To yourself.

Because always,
Always,
Always,

He is there.

Through every
Single

Drop of rain

That falls from the sky,

And from your face.

Just breathe,

And fall into His arms.

For He loves

YOU.

Fun with My friend Ali :) and sis

Random Summer Fun :)

Had an awesome time at the LIFE Leadership Summer Convention!! 2015 is the year of pursuing our purpose that God has put within us!!

This year is the year to break free from any chains or addiction or stronghold that may be holding you back from your life...and I know from my own experience, that only Jesus can truly break the chains that hold you down.  He died and rose again, conquering the sin that holds us down.  He won the victory for us.
And the reason I love LIFE Leadership so much is because it is life-changing information that helps people break free from any chains of free, pressure, guilt, brokenness etc. that's holding them back from truly LIVING their life!!!

To catch a glimpse of the difference LIFE is making, check out #lovelifeleadership @ instagram!!!

My new hair cut!! :) Mom cut 8 inches off!

Keep On

When your heart is broken...
And you're sick to your stomach of fighting,

Keep on.

When you feel so alone,
And everything within you craves for something that is not yours,

Keep on.

When you are afraid,

And tired,

And confused,

And weary,

And discouraged,

And anxious,

Oh especially when you're anxious...

Keep on.

Keep on.

And keep on.

My new outfit I threw together from the consignment shop yesterday!! :)

by Samantha Schmitz :) (me!)

Found

He was born into a world that did not want him,

And the gift of his life was taken for granted to those around his little soul.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months…into years,

And still he was the shadow in the corner,

The shadow of something greater,

That was just not experienced.

The potential in his soul always remained unshakable,

But season after season, no one took the time to draw out his potential,

 And show him who he could be,

And who he was,

Inside.

He remained a shadow, quiet and neglected,

Treated by the world as though his existence was somehow inferior to those around him.

He breathed through each day, so quiet and lonely,

That even he, doubted whether he was meant to live.

How long would he remain the shadow?

How long would he remain lost, forgotten, neglected, wounded?

Did not one soul in the world care that he was broken?

Did no one understand the way he felt day after day?

Year after year,

As he tried to survive hell…

On his own?
 

Tears were his food,

And his companion were his own dark thoughts that haunted him like consistent ghosts.

He tried to run from them,

But they seemed to a part of who he was.

He cried,

And cried,

And cried out…

But no ears were near to hear his agony.

Left alone in a world of dim hope,

Or better yet…

No hope at all.

What was hope?

He did not know the meaning of the word. 

All he knew was sorrow,

And pain that sliced so deep into his young soul that even the oldest, most experienced sufferer of them all would recoil in horror at this little one’s burden.

He lived through the unthinkable.

Years marched on,

And he grew,

But deep down, he was still the little soul,

Lost and neglected in a world that he was sure had no need of him.

Who needed someone so weak, anyway? 

He was sure he would never belong anywhere. 

But there comes a day in one’s life,

When after the longest,

Darkest,

Deepest night,

Comes a still, sweet dawning,

A dawning of something called hope,

And a hope that he thought only existed for those around him but never for him,

Suddenly grabbed him tight and wouldn’t let him go.

Hope took him ‘neath its wing and suddenly,

The boy,

 Became a man.

A man,

That knew,

Where he belonged.

He belonged in not the shadow of his fears,

But in the shadow of his victorious Savior.

He found himself,

When he lost himself…

In One greater than himself.

He once was lost,

But now…

He’s found.

The Love that Always Breaks Through

Love always breaks through.  That's the Gospel story, and it's my story.  My heart story.  My life story. 

Something I'm learning is life isn't black and white.  Sometimes...there's gray.  And life doesn't come with a script.  I can only do my best with what I've got, and give the rest of the gray, fuzziness and unknown scary parts up to God. 


But true love...love that is true...it will break through the gray & uncertainty, and always win.  Coming out on the other side. Always:)

This is Me & My Life Right Now :)

Fireproof...?

Okay, so let me just say that for those of you that haven't seen the movie Fireproof (by Sherwood Pictures) you are MISSING OUT!!!!  They are the same people that put on the movie Courageous:)

But what is my point in talking about this movie?  Well, in this movie, it's about a fireman that saves people from fires but is letting his own marriage burn to the ground.

Until, that is, he sees that marriage is a covenant between one man & one woman FOR LIFE, and how could he go & save people he has never even met while letting his wife & him drift apart?

I know you will cry when you watch this if you have a heart at all, but what I love about this movie is that not only does it show how one man decides to fight for his wife even when she was rejecting him & wanted divorce,

But it's a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL picture of how 'God demonstrated His OWN love toward us WHILE we were yet sinners...'  Jesus comes to us in the fire & wraps His loving arms around us & pulls toward safety, even though we rejected Him & DIDN'T WANT His help & His love, we wanted our own way,

He came & demonstrated His love for you anyway.


Doesn't matter that you were rejecting Him, spitting in His face, hating Him, running from Him.  You were the spouse that "wanted divorce".  Worse than that, in biblical terms, you actually weren't even the Bride of Christ until you got saved,

So before that, you were His enemy.

And yet He pursued you...because He loves you.

And something that the fireman (Kirk Cameron) on Fireproof learns is that LOVE IS NOT A FEELING but a DECISION,

and in marriage, it's FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE.

Sure, emotions are linked with love at first,

But there will come a day when the feelings & romantic/happy feelings are low or even gone altogether,

What then?

That's when true love steps in and preserves...

Is your love fireproof?  Or can it easily be burned up in the trials & hard times of life?

Our cat Sadie had her babies today! Seven little cuties!! :) Life is good!

This is the first kitten we've had that has been all white.  So neat!

I know you may be thinking, "Oh wow, those are some ugly little cats."  Which, to an extent, that's true, considering they sorta look like little rats with their long tails & bony little bodies & their little eyes closed!  But you just wait a few weeks, they will get bigger & cuter!!

But isn't it funny how something as simple & tiny & miniscule as baby kitties can get us so wound up?!  I mean, some of you may be laughin' your head off at me right now and sayin', "Oh wow, Sam!  They're just cats!"

But hang with me for a sec, I have a point I'm tryin' to make here:) 

Yes, in all reality, they are just baby cats, so why am I so excited over them?  Well, I guess you could say that in each of us there is an inborn love & appreciation for life, even the tiniest, seemingly worthless forms of life.  Yet no life is worthless.

And as I write, I am reminded of the French word,  nouvelle vie and also, dieudonne.  

In French, that means, "new life & God-given".  

So what is my point with this thing?  Between the baby kitties & the French phrases, I may have already lost ya!  Sorry if I have!

But my point is, YOU, you are dieudonne nouvelle vie!  (And for those of you that really write French, please forgive my lack of apostrophes!:) 

YOU, my friend, are a God-given, God-breathed miracle, a life, that He has made for His glory.  He loves you SOOO much!

And so, yes!  I am excited about the baby kitties because I am excited about LIFE!!!!!  And I am excited about MY life!!  This life that GOD has GIVEN me as a gift!  And I want to cherish & glory in it, & have joy & IMMENSE bubbling happiness, KNOWING that my life has a purpose & that is to glorify the One who made me!  I LOVE my life!  Praise the Lord!!!
 

Do you see your life as a gift like that?  Or are you throwing it away by begrudging God the way He made you?...

The Journey poem

They try to get it through your head that you're doin' better,

That you're makin' progress,

But all you see is the blood & feel the sharpness of the pain,

They try to tell you that you're gonna be okay,

You nod, but something in your heart doesn't agree,

A year passes,

Two years,

Goin' on three.

There's days that feel like blurs,

Just images, colors, places, faces, no emotion,

You try to take it in,

But you're lookin' on from the outside in,

If you're life was a DVD player,

You feel like you've been on PAUSE,

And no matter what you do or try, you can't figure out how to push PLAY again.

Pain, torment & sadness seem as if they are your only friends,

Even though you see the love on the faces around you.

Your heart is veiled to all joy & love,

Because you've protected yourself for so long,

You've built a wall...and now you can't tear it down no matter how hard you try.

They come to you with truth, with encouragement, but you only hear words,

 Words that touch you just as much as a fairy-tale.

You know there's more,

You WANT more,

You CRAVE for your life to resume back to play,

But you can't reach the play button...

They tell you that's okay...

You don't get it.

For years, you've tried to push it yourself,

But you couldn't.

Now, the strong arms of your friends,

Are lifting you up so you can reach that button,

And push PLAY.


The progress is happening,

Even though you don't see it,

 Your Author of your story sees it.

Just keep breathin',

That's all He's askin',

And keep trustin',

That's all He's askin',

And keep standin',

And when it gets too tough,

He sends them to your side to hold you up,

To be your barricade,

Your angels,

In your time of need.

Your life is a journey,

A journey of progress,

Of failure,

Of scars,

& scuffs,

& pain,

Yet joys,

Yet immense happiness,

Yet deep love,

Yet adventure,

Yet deep victory,

Yet purpose & beauty.


The progress is happening...


It's your journey.

by: Samantha 

Dear Single Friends (part 3)

Hey ya'll!  It's been warmer where I am...FINALLY!!!;)

I will probably end up adding more later... (like a Part 3b :), lol!)
but for now, I wanted to add something that I hadn't put on my other "single friend letters".

The MAIN purpose of marriage is to glorify God, and what's so beautiful about marriage is that IT IS THE HIGHEST EARTHLY EXPRESSION OF THE LOVE OF GOD BETWEEN HIM & US AS CHRISTIANS...!!!

Think about that for a second.  God wants an intimate, deep relationship with you.  He wants ALL of you.  He is a jealous God, He is jealous to have ALL of your heart....sounding a little like when you fall in love with someone??? ;)


I will add more Scripture later...but for now, check out Galatians 5!!!

His lil' work o' art,
Sam

You Gotta Love Who He's Made You

Hey ya'll! It's Sam!

Have you all ever heard the saying, "you gotta love yourself before you can love others"?

Well, that can be taken a very wrong way...but there is some truth to it.  Let me lay it out there like this...

Jesus has a view through which He sees you when you become a Christian.  And the entire point about bein' a Christian isn't that YOU are so good and amazing and that you should love yourself because of those things,

ON THE CONTRARY

what learnin' to love yourself as a CHRISTIAN, from what I understand, ALL that means, is that YOU GOTTA LOVE WHO YOU ARE NOW IN CHRIST.

IN Christ Jesus!! IN is the KEY word!!  Because remember, it's not about YOU and who YOU are in and of yourself, it's about HIM and WHO HE'S MADE YOU NOW AS HIS SON OR DAUGHTER!!!

Praise Him for the gifts He's given you, and love Him!

Who are you IN Him?

Redeemed
Saved
WORTHY!!
Made New
Set Free
Loved
Adopted
Pure
Spotless
Set Apart
Child of God
Beautiful
Safe
Washed
NEW!!!!!!!
Strong
Courageous
Empowered

May the praise of our lips be in grateful joy to HIM for all that He has done, and for WHO He has made us IN Him! 

This is what it means to love yourself...LOVE WHO HE HAS MADE YOU NOW!!  AND give Him ALL the glory and praise!!!

;)
 Comment in the comment box below which attribute touched your heart the most...

love you guys!
His little work of art,
Sam

My Junior Pictures...(lol, we took them a little late!)

Listen Like a Baby

If you come to the point where you don't know WHAT to think,
then simply come to the cross and cling to what you DO know...


"Jesus loves you"

"You're gonna be okay, because He's gotcha' "

"He's your keeper"


Sometimes you just have to shut up the endless questions and voices by listening to one, baby simple truth.

Hey there bloggers!!!

Today is VERY sunny and wonderful!!!

Today I was reading in Ephesians 2 and how God makes YOU ALIVE, though WERE once dead in sin, now you are ALIVE in Christ Jesus!  You are a NEW creation!

Dear You that Struggles with Anxiety,

Dear You that's struggling with anxiety...and it feels like you will never be able to breathe again,


Sometimes, with my extremely crazy STINKIN' OVERTHINKIN' brain, I just need to stop and think logically...

Because really what it boils down to is ME CLAIMING TRUTH AS A  DAUGHTER OF GOD.


You see, before you become a Christian, before I became a Christian, I had a general idea of Right & Wrong, because God writes His Law on each human heart to know that...

But you see, though, yes, I maybe was a good little girl on the outside, on the inside, I was a "white-washed" tomb, and had the potential within me of a little murderer.  Is is that too harsh?  Well, reality is, no, because all of us our sinners and our hearts are utterly wicked & deceitful before Christ comes and sets us free in salvation!!

BUT NOW, as a daughter of Jesus Christ, AND BUT NOW, if you have trusted Him to save you, because by His mercy He showed you that even the "little sins" were worthy of your judgement...

Then guess what you got??

You've got the POWER OF THE LIVING GOD LIVING INSIDE OF YOU!!!!!

You see, I feel like, in fact I KNOW that, a lot of times now as a daughter of God I begin to think...

"Oh no...oh no...okay Sam, here it goes.  This Christian life is up to you to wing it, better get it right.  You don't wanna mess up!"

But that was me BEFORE I was saved!  It was all me wingin' it, and it's only by God's grace that I wasn't worse off, because whew!  It's a scary place to be when you're wingin' it on your own!

But oh the SWEET awesome truth to KNOW that AS HIS DAUGHTER, MY LORD JESUS KEEPS ME, He holds me tight, HE guides my every step, thought, word & deed with His beautiful love He has for me!!

Isn't that a sweet, beautiful picture??


So for you that struggles with anxiety, or is having a tough time reigning in the wild horse of emotion & fear, (because trust me, I've been there...)

CLING TO JESUS, because as His Son or Daughter, YOU ARE SOOO SAFE!!!=)

Love!
Sam

Who's with Me?

Dear Friends!=) Hey there! It's Samantha again,

I wanted to start something that I thought would be really great for whoever would like to join...
Usually it's easy to post just about anything, but I was wondering...what if we started something that was more than just good...but something great?

Which is why I'm starting a Book Discussion for whoever wants to join!

The book is: The Cause Within You (by Matthew Barnett)
I read this a while ago, but recently my Mom just finished reading it (again;) and reminded me just how amazing/inspiring this book is.

Book Summary: "We are all searching for hope, meaning, and purpose in our lives. Yet you might be surprised that you already hold the key to your life's cause--a unique passion & calling that God has designed just for you & placed in your heart.

And you can start living it out today."
So I thought this would be a really awesome book that I could begin (again;) and also see who else is up to the challenge to read it with me,
And would post what takeaways/tidbits you got from it on the comments of this post...

So what d'ya say? Are ya up for the challenge?
Who's with me?=)

Dear Single Friend, (part 2)

Hello again ya'll!
Just wanted to say that I felt like I needed to say that to all my friends that have maybe thought, "Man, what if I've already given myself away?  I've already had sex outside of marriage!  It's too late for me to live for God!"

I understand that reality is, not every person reading this post will have kept themselves physically pure for marriage.  That's just reality, life.  Maybe you were raised in a home that wasn't Christian, or maybe you were and that was the reason you rebelled,

Or whatever.  Let me say this, your past is NOT your destination!  God says that if you "confess your sins, HE IS FAITHFUL & just to FORGIVE you!!!"  (1 John 1)

Today is a new day.  You may have messed up in the past, but that's beside the point.  The point is, you can go to God because the blood of Jesus is ready to wash you of all your sins, and He will wash you of ALL your impurities and you can begin to live for Him today:)

Dear Single Friends!

Who are all my single friends out there?!  Well, this little letter is to YOU.=)

Lately, I've been thinking a lot on how much I desire to some day get married to a young man that loves Jesus, and have lots of babies!  (Yes, that sounds silly, but it's true!=)  That EXCITES me!)

I've always had a dream to have a family, but the other night the desire to someday become a Mom was strengthened when I dreamed I was actually 6 months pregnant!  It was the weirdest, strangest thing...because it felt so real!  You know how you will sometimes have those dreams that you think are so real, that when you wake up, you have to almost pinch yourself?  This was one of them!

But I just remember the feeling in my dream of being pregnant, the strange feeling that I was carrying a little life inside of me.  It was so sweet and beautiful that I was almost sad when I woke up to find out it was all just a dream.  I awoke with a new resolve that if I do nothing else in this world but raise a bunch of sweet babies into godly men & women for Jesus, then my life has been full!!  (Course my husband and I would raise them together, with my husband leading.=)


But that can sound all sweet & cute for a blog post, but what about reality?  What about the NOW that I have to deal with?  What about when a guy asks to have a relationship with you and you know you're not emotionally & spiritually mature & ready for one yet?

Or what if you think you are, but your parents don't think so?  Or what if you see your friends around you dating & seemingly having such carefree, wonderful times of self-fulfillment with their boyfriends and you just have to watch from the sidelines and kiss your Bible?

What then?

I know.  It's tough.

But, ya know, I know God is making something beautiful in me.  I know that He's painting a masterpiece out of the broken, messiness of my weird life...I just know He is.  He has been, and He will continue to.

I may not understand why I can't date now and some of my acquaintances and friends can,
and I may not understand why it seems like some people just do whatever they want and they don't have any consequences,
In fact, have you ever wondered..."WHY DO I EVEN TRY?"  Ever felt like the hopelessly perfect little Miss or Mister Goody-Two-Shoes?  And others made it clear that you were, too?

It FEELS hard to live for Jesus when everybody else seems to be conforming, conforming, conforming, and you try to transform your mind and say "no!"  It feels tough!  I know how it feels!

But what it really comes down to is me.  It comes down to my personal decision if I will obey God today and His will for me, and submit to His will by asking for His forgiveness for whatever I did that day, and trusting Him again,

Or disobeying my Savior that died for me so that I could live in obedience, and face the consequences.

As God's daughter now, I DON'T WANT to disobey Him!  He's changed my heart.  So it's just constant, quiet, humble surrenders every day.  It's me "decreasing and HIM increasing"!

Easy?  God never promised easy.  Worth it?  You kidding me?!  Worth me saying "no" to sex and unhealthy relationships now, so that the first time I say "yes" is on my wedding day to my husband?  Knowing that I had kept my heart tucked away just for him?  Not perfectly by any means!  But me knowing that the struggle of obeying God over self was worth it.

Because the joy that will come that day that I walk down the beach... =)

Sky blue and lilac-colored flowers tucked in my hair, a long, white shimmery veil covering my face,

My creme-colored satin wedding dress adorning my body, a bouquet of real flowers in my hands,

The shimmer of my lips from the lip gloss, ready to kiss my beloved whom I waited for,

The sparkle of joy and gratefulness in my eyes that no one can dampen,

My bare toes warm in the sand,

The ocean lapping beside me,

My loved ones, my friends, my family, watching on in teary awe,

The eyes of my beloved locking with my eyes as I walk toward him,

Though a bit frightened and maybe even still feeling a little unprepared, we both know we are ready,

The cry of the seagulls overhead,

The backdrop of the rosy sunset behind us,

WILL ALL BE WORTH the wait now...



So be encouraged single friend!  "Don't be conformed to this world...but be TRANSFORMED by the RENEWING of your mind!"  (Romans 12:1-2)  Because when you keep getting more and more transformed,

You won't believe the butterfly you became on that day!!