Jesus is the reason for the season

I can't believe that the year has flown by so quickly. Sort of. It's already Christmas eve and tomorrow will be Christmas Day! I'm not doing much but just chill at home with the family (I presume). Material gifts don't mean much to me but I still have them. So I'm definitely thankful for that. I'm thankful that God has blessed me with so much in the past year. Soon enough, this year will end and a new year will come. It's just... weird. Especially not knowing what's ahead of you.


Break has been chill. At least school is one of the last things on my mind right now. Thank God! But I hope everyone's having a good break.

I wish you all a happy and joyful holiday with your family and loved ones.
Merry Christmas & God bless!


REMINDER!

Cherish everyone in your life. No matter how annoying/hurtful/a pain in the butt they may be. They're put in your life for a reason. Plus, you'll never know when they may leave. Spread the love ♥

Yours truly,

Bethany Nguyen

Glory Goes to You!

Thank God for the victorious battle Saturday night. He truly blessed us with success. The rally went great! Although lots of friends dropped and weren't able to make it.. God blessed us with other friends and even Pastor Bang's youths from Oregon! We all had fun with worship, games and food downstairs. P. Bang's message was very touching, and I pray that everyone in that room came home with a "gift." If you know what I mean!

Pictures from the rally will be posted when I receive them =)

Now that the rally is over, the Tacoma T.I.M.E.S. Youth Group intends to have a once a month "youth group night." It will be the 3rd Saturday of each month. So when we find the official date for January, I'll be sure to let you guys know and invite you all! Not a giant rally, but a small event.

It's already winter break! But it doesn't feel like it for some reason... Maybe lack of snow?

God is good, all the time.

Love, Bethany Nguyen

Love is a Habit
by Rick Warren

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. Luke 6:32 (NIV)

If you only love on and off, like a light switch, you're not loving like God wants you to love. Jesus said, "If you only love those who love you what credit is that to you?" (Luke 6:32a, NIV)

His point is - anybody can love those who love them. Becoming a master lover means you learn to love the unlovable. It's when you love people who don't love you, when you love people who irritate you, when you love people who stab you in the back or gossip about you.

This may seem like an impossible task and it is - that's why we need God's love in us, so we can then love others: "... We know and rely on the love God has for us." (1 John 4:16a, NIV)

When you realize how much God loves you - with an extravagant, irresistible, unconditional love - then his love will change you're entire focus on life. If we don't receive God's love for us, we'll have a hard time loving other people. I'm talking about loving the unlovely; loving the difficult; loving the irritable; loving people who are different or demanding.

You can't do that until you have God's love coming through you. You need to know God's love so it can overflow out of your life into others.

Love must become your lifestyle, the habit of your life. Through [the magazine, bundled material] we're going to learn the habit of love and you're going to become one of God's master lovers.

But it starts with a decision. Are you ready?

Your life is worth far more than you think, and by learning to love others with the love God gives you, you will have an influence far greater than you could ever imagine. If you will commit to this, you will experience love as God means it to be, filled hope, energy, and joy.

My prayer for you is "that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love ..." (Philippians 1:9, NCV)

Love cont'd.

COME TO THE WINTER RALLY NEXT SATURDAY @ 5PM!

Today's message with Rick Warren is about... showing love, through action.
God is good, all the time.

- Bethany


LOVE IS AN ACTION
by Rick Warren

Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. 1 John 3:18 (NLT)

The baby Jesus shows us that love is something you do. You show love by what you do, not just by what you feel.

Do you really love someone? Let's see how you act toward that person.

Love is more than attraction and more than arousal. It's also more than sentimentality, like so many of today's songs suggest. By this standard, is love dead when the emotion is gone? No, not at all. Because love is an action; love is a behavior.

Over and over again, in the Bible, God commands us to love each other. And you can't command an emotion. If I told you "Be sad!" right now, you couldn't be sad on cue. Just like an actor, you can fake it, but you're not wired for your emotions to change on command. Have you ever told a little kid, "Be happy!" I'm trying, daddy!

If love were just an emotion, then God couldn't command it. But love is something you do. It can produce emotion, but love is an action.

The Bible says, "Let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions" (1 John 3:18 NLT). We can talk a good act: "I love people." But do we really love them? Do you really love them? Our love is revealed in how we act toward them.

Spread the love!

I always get these daily e-mails that help me get through each day and learn about God. I think I'll be sharing with you guys the ones that I really like most. So.. enjoy! Hope you can get something out of it too.

- Bethany

LOVE IS A CHOICE

by Rick Warren

"... That you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Deuteronomy 30:20 (NIV)

The birth of Jesus reflects the truth that love is a choice and a commitment. You choose to love or you choose not to love.

Today we've bought into this myth that love is uncontrollable, that it's something that just happens to us; it's not something we control. In fact, even the language we use implies the uncontrollability of love. We say, "I fell in love," as if love is some kind of a ditch. It's like I'm walking along one day and bam! - I fell in love. I couldn't help myself.

But I have to tell you the truth - that's not love. Love doesn't just happen to you. Love is a choice and it represents a commitment.

There's no doubt about it, attraction is uncontrollable and arousal is uncontrollable. But attraction and arousal are not love. They can lead to love, but they are not love. Love is a choice.

You must choose to love God; he won't force you to love him (Deuteronomy 30:20). You can thumb your nose at God and go a totally different way. You can destroy your life if you choose to do that. God still won't force you to love him. Because he knows love can't be forced.

And this same principle is true about your relationships: you can choose to love others, but God won't force you to love anyone.

It's all part of God's plan

Thank you to everyone and anyone who has been here for me lately. It means a lot to have someone there to support me in hard times.

I know, that things will happen unexpectedly. But this could be part of God's plan. Maybe it's not the right time. But through prayers, I could find out what's really meant to happen later on.

I've been praying a lot more each day. It definitely helps me grow closer to God, and to see what He has in store for me.

With time and patience, He will reveal what's meant to be.
In the meantime, cherish all things that you have. & don't ever take it for granted.

God is good, all the time.

Bethany A. Nguyen.

It's Official!

The Tacoma TIMES youth group's rally is set on
Saturday, DECEMBER 19th. We will start at 5:00 pm.
Mark your calendars!

HELP!

Could anyone help me put music on this page?
imeem refuses to play the full song.
and I don't know any other music players that has "auto play."

Help would be much appreciated! :O)

Winter Rally - Invite Night!

This winter break, the Tacoma T.I.M.E.S. youth group is hosting another rally (like our summer one). We are currently deciding on an official date to have this event. So this is all based on our friends who want to come!



(rides can be arranged if you don't have transportation!)

So what day is good for you?

FRIDAY, DEC. 18th

or

SATURDAY, DEC. 19th

Please let me know ASAP, leave a comment, call, text, respond in the chatbox on the right side!

Thank you, veterans!

It feels great to have a day off of school. Today I planned to go work out at the gym on base with Justin but other things came up and we weren't able to. Instead I just went shopping with my mom and sister at the Tacoma mall! It was pretty packed, but I didn't really buy much. Just trying to save up for Christmas gifts now. My mommy did, however buy me my lab coat and another scrub for my anatomy & physiology class! My mom says my lab coat makes me look like a doctor! :D

Afterwards we came home to prepare dinner. We had "bun rieu" and then watched Up on my laptop!

Not too excited about school tomorrow but luckily it will be a short day.
It's just gonna feel like a Monday, ya know? -__________-

But God is good, all the time.
Good night, world.

It's always nice to feel wanted.

There comes to a point in everyone's life where things begin to fall apart and you feel like you gotta be the rock that holds everything together. Actually, this process occurs often... but this is where I'm heading. It's difficult, especially when you don't have anyone to really lean on or talk to. It's even more difficult, when you rely on your best friend(s) to be there and they're not there. When you need someone more than ever but no one's there to catch you when you fall. That's when you lose hope, reliability, and trust. Sometimes, it's unfortunate that they aren't on the other side meeting you half-way. But it's tiring when it becomes repetitive. Maybe it's a lack of communication, or better yet lack of care.

One side of me is holding this against them.
The other side, God tells me to forgive instantaneously and let it go.

I think I'll listen to God. He knows best.
But I can't trust/rely on you as much as I did before.
I can't be let down anymore...

God has never forsaken me. And he never will!
He's the best friend, that I know will never disappoint me.

I hope that you do come back again someday. Sometime.. soon.

The whole world is sick!

The night when I received my PLU acceptance phone call... I got very sick :( and I haven't really left the house since. Even today, Sunday, I'm not going to church because I don't want to get the little kids sick and what not. I should be able to go back to school tomorrow though. Doctor said that I'm tested positive for influenza A but not sure which flu it is... (could even be SWINE FLU!?) ><

But after I fully recover I gotta go back to get my flu shots. Mmm, fun.

Well last night I was surprised because no one rang my door bell!
I put up a sign that said, "SORRY, NO CANDY! :(" but in the corner I added "God bless."

Instead of celebrating Halloween, me, Grace and Justin just watched movies last night till midnight! We had..
- confessions of a shopaholic
- mr. troop mom
- imagine that <- didn't get to finish though cause dad said it was getting late :(


no scary movies for me! I get easily scared and I wanna be able to SLEEP!

PS. Check out this link! They used my photo of Dick's Drive-In for their website and magazine thing? I don't get anything but they gave me credit and my names there!

Click here!



God is good, all the time.

Empty faces.

Today went all right. Typical classes: psychology, english, and a&p. I never learn anything in my psych class and now I'm having a hard time starting my paper. It's not the class, I think more of the teacher. After school I had a senior meeting at the high school talking about graduation and ordering our cap and gowns! Way crazy how fast high school is flying by so quickly...

Got to spend time with my favorite person in the world, Justin.
He took the day off of work just to be with me! How considerate, right?
Well randomly I received this phone call from a lady who told me...

"I would like to congratulate you for getting into PLU."

My first college acceptance. I was thrilled. Heart racing. Adrenaline rushing. I wanted to jump up and dance but I had to keep my composure. I was surely excited to surprise my parents...

But their faces looked like ghosts. No changes in facial expression. No "good job" or anything. It was the saddest moment of my life. Well... in a long time anyways. At that moment I wanted to break down into tears but I couldn't show them my pain. I couldn't let them see me hurt. But Justin was there for me and just encouraged me to keep my head up.

Since I haven't done anything really productive all day... I'm making it up now. Probably staying up pretty late to do some homework. Start on psych paper and study for my a&p exam on Wednesday. I still feel numb. I feel like I'm nothing to my parents. But I know that God is happy for me. It's cause of Him that I am where I am now.

God is good, all the time.

Life's too busy.

I haven't been on here in the LONGEST time!
I thought it would've been cool to update this daily with my life and thoughts but I just don't find the motivation to do it anymore. Or time.
or maybe because mine just isn't as cool as Ryan's lol :)

I don't know how to make mine look all pretty and nice but oh well.

Other than my lack of updating... Life's been way busy. Mostly school that is.
I want to reconnect with my friends but my classes get in the way and it seems like school is consuming up my life!

I'm looking forward to winter break.
Not only because I'll be free from school for awhile...
But to see my friends again (hopefully) and... the holidays!
I'm already thinking about all the Christmas gifts I have to get and how broke I will be -_____-



HOWEVER... I just might be getting this baby for Christmas :D This or a Canon T1i. What do you think? I'm a noob but I'm just looking for a pretty good beginner camera to get started. That is if I get one :P

Worry worry worry...

I can't believe it. Tomorrow is the first day of my senior year. But what sucks is that I won't be at the high school at all (full-time running start)! People think I'm crazy to miss out on an experience like this but I must make sacrifices for my future.
I'll still be there to share my last year with friends though!

Today is sort of a relaxing day for me. Nothing to do, yet nothing to really have to do. Sometimes, I worry myself :/

I'm sure everyone worries at some point; thinking about the future, what's going to happen, what HAS to happen! Worry will never help in any given situation and it seems that worry has been enveloped into my life!

I began to realize how much of a worry-person I am when I received my "Daily Devotional" in my e-mail the other day... So I wanted to share this with you guys. For those who do worry a lot, or even worry period. This may help:

Worry is:

- Unreasonable
- Unnatural
- Unhelpful
- Unnecessary

The more I begin to think about something, the bigger and bigger it gets, right? It’s so weird how it’s so implanted in our minds. But how do we break this habit of worrying?

“First, trust God with every area of your life: “But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them, and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to” (Matthew 6:32 LB).

Second, live just one day at a time: “So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time” (Matthew 6:34 LB).”

Worrying leads to stress. Stress leads to sadness. And the more time we spend.. being sad, the more likely you are to get some sort of disease! and of course, not enjoying what God has blessed us with.


So today is a relaxing day. Beautiful weather, and so much to be thankful for.
God is good, all the time.

To Seattle We Go! 08/31/09

I got home last night superbly tired so I didn't get the chance to write about it so this post is actually about yesterday! Pictures are posted to accompany the visual aid of my day.

August 31st, 2009

- drop off and pick up Grace from soccer practice
- prepared to go to Seattle with Grace, Justin, and AnnMarie.
- first went to Southcenter mall (surprisingly had a lot more fun in the apple store) lol.
- then off to Dick's Drive-In! Yummmm.
- finally off to the Mariner's game (where they lost 0-10 vs. L.A. Angels) bummer!

but it was fun being there. but I had a great day and the sun was shining brightly above--thanks to the man upstairs!

Good night, world.

My first step!

I was inspired to create a blogspot, first by my buddy Ryan (ryanpicardal.blogspot.com) but also because I didn't really have a place to express my thoughts. Venting and expressing here would be a good place to start for me I've decided! Also encouraged by a few friends to do it.

But we'll see how this goes :)