So it's ten-thirty o'clock on a Sunday night and
I'm drinking coffee-ish stuff so I might as well blog. In particular I
will be blogging this talk I gave on Friday at this event called Praise
Fest. I was super nervous and I was kind of freaking out but it went very
well. I got some compliments and everything. For those of you who
don't know, at Praise Fest, us teens have Eucharistic Adoration, Benediction,
we say the Rosary, Chaplet, and sing songs and stuff. And we
socialize. Obviously. ;) But anyway, here is the talk. :) You
might not get some of this stuff if you have never been to Praise Fest or don't
know the people I talk about, or if you don't know me that well. But here
it is anyway.
Praise Fest Talk for November 7th, 2014
I remember one of the first Praise Fests I went to. It actually may have
been the first Praise Fest ever. It was at the McGrath's house and Elena
and Josh were giving the talks. I was a freshman and the seniors or
college students give the talks and so I had at least three or four years
before I would even have to worry about maybe giving a talk. But that
night, I distinctly remember thinking, "Wow. I am never going to
give a talk at Praise Fest. Mrs. Luke and Aunt Ce-Ce can try, but they
won't be able to convince me to give one when I'm a senior in four years.
That is totally not happening. I'm not going to give one. Ever."
Obviously, God had other plans, because here I am.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jessica Miller and I am
seventeen years old and a senior in High School. I have been homeschooled
for my entire life and I have lived in the Dayton area my whole life. I
am the second-oldest of six and I have three sisters and two little brothers.
I have a small extended family and I'm not really close to my three blood
cousins anymore. Therefore, our family has many adopted, spiritual
cousins. Our family likes to do a lot of things together including
laughing, playing games, and watching movies. Something we especially
like to do is to dance and "sing" and listen to music. We jam
out and play air-guitar, flip our hair and listen to a variety of music
anywhere from Matt Maher to Joe Bonamassa to Weird AL to Taylor Swift to
Jamie-Grace. It's one of my favorite things to do as a family.
So far, this year I have had a tough semester. People always told me that
junior year was the hardest, but for me, senior year is hard too. And on
top of all my school, I've been thinking about college. A friend of mine
said I have senioritis which is not being sure of what you're going to do in
college, or if you're even going to college. I think I agree.
About a month or two or three ago, a lot of people were doing this
"gratitude challenge" on Facebook and I think it went around on
Google -plus too. Basically for five days you would post five things you
were thankful for. I never actually did it, but it was cool to see people
posting random things they were thankful for. People were publicly being
thankful, even though it wasn't Thanksgiving. And they took the time to
show gratitude, because gratitude is worth it. Especially if you express
it. Because then it makes other people grateful that you remembered their
act of kindness or whatever they did to make you thankful. People are
happy that you care enough to thank them and then the gratitude gets spread
around. Gratitude leads to joy and if gratitude gets spread around,
then there is more joy. One of my favorite saints once said, "If you
are what you should be, you will set the world on fire!" I think we
were created to be joyful and grateful and to spread joy, so we are setting the
world on fire for God by just being appreciative. Saint
Catherine of Siena knows what's up.
I remember one of the times in my life when I was grateful for a new friend.
Some years back, I had a friend who I was pretty close to and I could see us
becoming closer and being good buddies. But her family was in the
military, so she moved away a couple years after we met. After that we
kept in touch for a while but we kind of lost touch and we haven't talked in
quite a while. I was pretty sad and even a few years after they were gone
I was still sad and missing her quite a bit even though I didn't realize how
much. Then, a couple years ago, I made a new friend. She was a lot
like my other friend since they were both from military families, had similar
personalities and even looked alike. I was so glad to have a new friend.
I really believe God put her in my life when I needed it and she unknowingly
filled a place in my heart. I found more opportunities to be thankful for
the friends I already had and very thankful for new friendships. One of
the easiest things for me to be thankful for now is friendships. All of
them. Now, I realize for that particular situation, God took one friend
out of my life and put a new one in, but He's not always going to do that.
I think He's taking things out of my life and making room for Himself. I
think that I don't have enough room for God and so He's taking out some
unnecessary things in my life and showing me He's better. And it's hard
because it's hard to be grateful when something doesn't go as I hoped.
For me it's hard to find anything to be grateful for when I'm suffering or
angry. But suffering brings me closer to Jesus. Mother Teresa of
Calcutta said "Pain and suffering have come into your life but
remember…Pain, sorrow, and suffering are but the kiss of Jesus. A sign
that you have come close to Him that can kiss you." That is a really
powerful message for me. It's amazing to know that I'm that close to
Jesus when I'm suffering. It gives me a reason to be grateful amidst
suffering and realize I can be joyful and know that I'm not suffering in vain.
It's very possible to grateful in suffering.
For me, gratitude is being thankful right now for the things I have right now.
It's not being thankful only on certain conditions or being grumpy that I don't
have something and wishing I did and only be grateful when I feel like it.
Gratitude is about being happy and thankful in the moment and keeping that
gratitude. It's about finding a reason to be grateful in every
circumstance and situation. And when I have rough times, I can look back
to when I was grateful and find that joy in the hard moment. I once saw a
quote that went something like this: "What if you woke up tomorrow with
only the things you thanked God for today?" For me, that quote
really hit home. It honestly made me think, wow. I better be more
grateful. There are so many things to be grateful for, but oftentimes I
forget that. I dwell on the bad and the things I don't have and I get
really annoyed. But, I need to slow down and be grateful because
gratitude truly brings joy. Some people think that Thanksgiving is
"that day to be grateful." But we're supposed to be grateful
everyday not just Thanksgiving or November. Thanksgiving is a great
holiday and it's so cool to have a holiday for just being thankful for what we
do have. But we should celebrate God's gift of life everyday and let
everyday be a celebration of gratitude. I have so much to be thankful
for, but I'll just list a few things that come to mind here. God, all the
saints in heaven, my family and friends, theater, music, the color purple, hot
apple cider, chocolate, 1950's dresses, handwritten letters, the Rosary, and of
course Praise Fest.
This year God has especially helped me in starting to trust Him. It probably
first started when I went to a Steubenville conference a couple years ago.
I was handed a Popsicle stick with a bible verse from Proverbs on it.
"She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of
the future." [Proverbs 31:25] For me, it was a reminder that God was in
charge and to not be afraid and just trust him. It wasn't that hard at
first, but recently I was having trouble trusting God mostly because I didn't
have college plans figured out. I was trying to manage everything and I
thought I had to do it all. But lately, God has been showing me that I
can trust him with anything and everything. He can do it all and I don't
have to be afraid. He know the plans He has for me and he'll show them to
me when it's the right time. And until then, I keep trusting Him and
trust He knows what He's doing. Because He does. And so I am very
grateful to God for helping me find this trust and peace and I trust that He'll
keep coming through. I thank God through prayer mostly, but there are
many ways to thank God. One way is obviously prayer. Prayer is an
excellent way to tell God how thankful you are in a personal way. And it
doesn't have to be elaborate because it's just between you and God and he knows
what you're thinking. Or it could be super elaborate; whatever expression
of gratitude works for you, God understands. But a different way I think
is a good way to thank God is by celebrating. And I mean celebrating by
having ice cream or something like that. Not using gratitude as an excuse
to eat ice cream, but rather a way to stop and take a physical thing to thank
God and appreciate Him with your senses. Sometimes I think it's good to
have a physical thing to remind us how grateful we are. It also could
help to make our gratitude more real and not just in our heads. I think
it works well for me.
Gratitude is a great thing to have all the time. There are so many
opportunities to be grateful and since joy comes in part from gratitude, the
world would be a happier place. First Thessalonians Chapter five, verse
eighteen says, "…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you." So I am thankful for having all of you
as friends and I have much gratitude that you listened to my talk about
gratitude. Have a happy Thanksgiving!!
So thank you for reading this far and for reading
any of my blog posts. I appreciate it. :) So have a wonderful
Thanksgiving, and remember to be thankful and joyous all the time. :) We
can work on it together. ;)
~Peace,
Jessica
