My Most Favorite Things

Hey y'all! It has been quite sometime since I've put my fingers to keyboard, so I thought that I'd do just that tonight! My brothers just went to bed, I have the Wicked soundtrack playing in the background (because I'm a showtunes junky), and the house is pleasantly quiet!

I know that sometimes the blog can be pretty serious, and while I do love getting deep and really digging in with you, I thought that tonight I would just have a little bit of fun! So tonight... I'm listing some of my most favorite things! People, food, songs, etc...there is no limit to the things that I consider my favorites!

So, in no particular order... here we go!


1) Chocolate chip cookies! I love baking them for my friends and family...I feel like they are the epitome of love and warmth and pure, wholesome joy. My favorite recipe at the moment!

2) Really cheesy, Christian, romantic novels. These are a total guilty pleasure for me. I know how every book will go, but somehow they suck me in every. single. time! Currently, I'm indulging in The Unexpected Bride by Debra Ullrick, and you know what? I just can't put it down, guys. I'm hooked.

3) My youth group! Boy, I get so unbelievably excited to hang out with these people every week. They are probably some of my most favorite teenagers! They have such passionate hearts for Christ and they are the best worshippers I have ever seen.

4) Bethel music. Enough said. If you are not currently listening to any of their songs... go! Click off of this page and go spend some time well-spent in worship with them!

5) My girls. I have gone on and on about these precious gems in a previous post, so I'll keep this brief. They are the bomb. They are the funniest, kindest, most passionate group of girls I know. I want to be like them when I grow up.


6) Obviously...mi familia! Oh man! These people...I think I'll keep them :) they are supportive, hilarious, and so so so much fun to hang with! Most of the time, I'd rather be with them than any other group of people!

 

 

7) The new Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy nail polish! I love getting the shellac on my nails, but it is pretty destructive to my nails and it is EXPENSIVE! I love this stuff because it's relatively cheap, and it stays on for a while! Plus, it's easy to take off without killing my nails!

8) My big spirit jersey that I received from my high school for being a senior. Boom. Perks. It's huge and unflattering and insanely comfy. In fact, I am wearing it as I type this, and I love it.

9) I went back and forth about this one... only because I didn't want to super embarrass my buddy here... hehe! But I decided to take Nike's advice and "Just do It." So, this is Amie. I allude to her quite a bit in most of my blog posts. And if I say one thing, its this: Amie is not just my youth leader... she's my mentor and my buddy and my big sister. She is one of my most favorite adults, and I just thought that that HAD to be shared.

10) I think I'll round it out with this one. I love this precious nugget. I've had the privilege to be apart of her sweet little life since she was 4 weeks old, and I have LOVED watching her grow into a beautiful, spunky, insanely smart two-year old! And her parents are super awesome, too!






*Well, I've hoped that you've enjoyed seeing just a few of my most favorite things and people! Also, Share some of your favorites with me! Tag pictures on Facebook or Instagram to @daylie_parks with the hashtag (#beautifullybrokenfavorites)

Haiti 2014 (#1)

As many of you know, In August I went to Haiti with Compassion International and a group of the most amazing, God-fearing, compassionate, energetic, and loving people I've met. I've decided since I was given 700+ pictures (taken by the incomparable Steph Trowbridge) I'd do a blog series that encompasses our entire trip!

We left Denver at 7:00 in the morning, and arrived in Haiti at 6:00 in the evening! It was a long day, but I was able to meet and talk with everyone and it made the day fun (I even forgot how tired I was!)

I won't say a ton about the first leg of the trip (I'll let the pics speak for themselves) , but I will say this: I LOVED meeting everyone. Many of them may have been 10+ years older than me, but they were so welcoming and encouraging! They made the week so much fun!

Reality

Hello Friends! It is somewhat late at night (late for me anyways), and what usually happens when I'm up late and my mind is swirling with seven billion thoughts? I blog. What I will blog about is a mystery...but as I said-I have tons of thoughts and nowhere to put them but here.

As I look back at some of my previous blog posts I feel as if I sound super chipper all the time. And while I DO try and be chipper, what I end up acting like is often the complete opposite. Have I really ever just poured out my soul to you? I have I told you my hardships without an "it's all cool, I'm all cool" shpeel afterwards? Sometimes I feel like I'm just sending out a small piece of myself-not my whole self, and if this is going to be a helpful and real blog, shouldn't I pour out my heart at some point?

That point may just be today.

The other night was Wednesday, and Wednesday means youth group. I love my youth group! My youth pastor is awesome, and the people are equally as awesome! (P.S. if you like parties you should put Wednesday, September 3rd on your calendar...my youth group is having a party.) Anyway...Wednesday was youth, and I asked my youth pastor if I could share a little bit about my experience in Haiti, and challenge the youths a bit!

I shared about JOY! Those kids in Haiti are so full of life, joy, and love, and I felt like that had to be shared. I challenged the students to be joyful even when the going gets tough! But as soon as I stepped off the stage I felt like a hypocrite. I sat down at my seat and was immediately filled with the complete opposite of joy! I was filled with sadness and anger and guilt because I had gone up there, put on a happy face, shared about joy, and then left feeling little joy.

I don't pretend to be a perfect person.I know that it isn't easy to be happy and joyful and chipper all of the time. I know that the enemy attacks and he seeks to kill and destroy. I know that 100% of the time, he's the one who puts those nasty feelings in my heart and in my head. But I still couldn't shake them. I felt like a bad sister because I had yelled at my brother about quitting football when I didn't know the whole story, I felt lonely because I'm still having a hard time getting over some emotional wounds I sustained last year, and I felt guilty because I had told everyone to be joyful when I wasn't.

My problem is that I expect so much out of myself. I guess I expect myself to be THE pillar of strength. But you know what? No one expects that from me. I'm an emotional teenage girl, and even though I sometimes feel out of place among teens, let's face it, I am one (tonight I watched a movie and so many emotions came out of me that I started sobbing. It was cathartic.)

As much as I would like to, I cannot be the strong one all of the time. I have perfected my role in my friend groups as the "mom." The strong, honest woman who would attack, with bear like strength, anyone who tried to hurt those I loved. I love that role. I love being the one my friends turn to when they're upset because on the inside I'm secretly a mom who wants to wipe their tears, tell them everything will be all right, give them a hug and a squeeze, and send them on their way.

I think I take that role too seriously. I've forgotten that sometimes I need to be held and hugged and be told everything is going to be okay.

The moral of this blog post is: sometimes I confuse pain and hurt with weakness. Strong women (and men) can hurt. God created us to be LIKE Him, not BE him! So maybe I should let God be the strong one sometimes. Hopefully I can get over myself long enough to let Him.

Grace upon grace

Hello friends! I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging this summer... partly because it has been a crazy and busy summer, and partly because every time I sat down to blog nothing came out! I couldn't put to words what I wanted to say--if I had tried it would've been a super confusing jumble of words that had no purpose.

But today, I felt a tug on my heart to take one more crack at it. It all started with a conversation that I was having with a friend. We were texting and she had apologized for forgetting to call me a few days ago! I responded with "don't worry about it" because it really was no big deal; however, what she said really took me by surprise! She replied: "you're so full of grace. I really appreciate that about your friendship to me!"

Something about me: it is often easier for me to give grace to others because I love them! I don't care that they made one little mistake because that's not WHO they are... it's just something they did. I don't expect the people around me to be perfect; I don't expect them to be the perfect friend because they're humans!

But her response surprised me because, lately, I haven't been feeling super gracious. I've been testy with family and most of all--with myself. I haven't been giving myself the grace that I probably should! I think: "wow, I could've done better, acted better, said something better, been a better friend, looked better, took better care of myself, been a better sister/daughter, etc." I've really put myself on a short leash! I've expected near-perfection from myself--something that no one expects from me!

God has given us undeserved, unrelenting, unconditional grace. A grace that it heaped upon us out of love. God KNOWS that we are not worthy of the grace that He has to offer, but he offers it anyway! Why? Because His grace makes us want to be better! When we see that the Lord has given us something that we don't deserve, it makes us want to show him that he hasn't made mistake in offering it to us!
The bible says a few (okay, more than a few) things about God's grace toward us:
"Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the [grace] of God."
{Romans 6:14}

"My grace is enough, it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness."
{2 Corinthians 12:9}

So, maybe I should take a lesson from God, and in part, from myself. I should be willing to show myself the grace that I am so willing to show to others, and I should willingly receive God's grace toward me without a thought of "am I enough?".

God's grace is so amazing. It is such a gift, and what's even crazier is that it's a gift we didn't ask for and one that we absolutely didn't deserve to receive! But He still gives it out every single day.

Provisions

So the end of junior year is upon me, and while I'm so excited for summer (like you have no idea), I'm pretty nervous because I am one year closer to graduating high school and leaving my comfy little nest that my parents have so skillfully built around me.

Lately, I've been anxious and nervous and moody and, frankly, a bit of a pain. This feeling of dread is overshadowing what should be a really fun and exciting time!

For example, yesterday I had a complete breakdown in my car in my driveway. I cried for a while then I went inside, ate some chili, and went to bed. I wish that that hadn't happened. I wish I was so pumped to be heading out on my own and doing some really cool stuff with my life, but I'm not.

The problem for me is that I'm a planner, and extremely sentimental. I love knowing what is happening and when it's happening, and where; however, that it so not how God rolls. I'm also super sappy--I love my people: my friends and my family and my church.

My issue is that I am afraid of that scary place called the "unknown." I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that I don't have that "in" on what is happening next in my life! Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, for me, I don't get to choose how my life plays out.

God's got me. He knows what He's doing with me, even if I have absolutely no idea. I just have to be willing to put every ounce of my trust in Him.

This is not the first time I've been totally confused about what will happen next. When I moved to Colorado I was the new kid; I didn't have any friends, but God provided (like He often does) and brought me some really awesome people who made my first year in Colorado bearable.

When those friendships didn't work out, I was pretty lost. I felt alone and sad and like there was no way I would find friends who really loved and appreciated me for who I was, but again, I blessed with the most amazing friends.

God's provisions for me are unending; and although I often doubt my future and I often doubt God, He proves me wrong every single time. He shows me that He is in control, and all I have to do is sit back and trust.

His unending provisions have blessed me with a church family that feel just like flesh and blood family, with friends who are like my sisters, and mentors who often sit with me, in the before mentioned car, and let me cry and rant about my issues (thanks guys).

All this rambling aside, my point is to trust. Just trust that He's got you. And be willing to loosen the reigns and let Him take over. Because I'm sure that His journey for us is a whole lot better than any journey we could conjure up on our own.

Greater

Yesterday was Easter! And while I INHALED some really awesome Godiva chocolate truffles (thanks parents), I also heard an amazing message by my amazing pastor at my pretty amazing church.

The "theme" for this Easter was "Greater than..." and it asked us to take a look at the situations in our lives and remember that God is greater than all of them!

The verse that this entire message was based around was:

"Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world."
{I John 4:4}

Wow is that true! Sometimes it is so easy for the world to steal my joy and my love and compassion, but this verse reminds us that God is greater than any earthly trouble we may encounter.

Lately, the enemy has been really awesome at stealing my happiness. It is so easy for a minor incident to turn into a fiasco, and in that moment I totally forget about the good. I'm a pro at making a mountain out of a molehill, and recently I've been doing that a ton!

The truth is...I don't want my joy to be taken. I want the joy that comes from the Lord to just hang out with me all of the time! And it does, but I often forget about it or choose to ignore it.

So today I've chosen to remember those little things that bring me immense joy--a joy that can only come from the Lord's blessings that are continually showered on me. I choose to say that God is greater than the joystealer.

God's blessings have brought me a ton of happiness, and if you choose to notice them, you'll be pretty happy too. My happiness comes from fresh-cut flowers and family nights; from picture collages and sitting in my disheveled bed eating really awesome chocolate; from hanging out with really cool people and hearing little kids sing their hearts our for Jesus; from hugs and food; and of course from God.

So remember to continually be aware of the blessing  of God's "greater than-ness," and of the pure joy that comes with knowing how much you are loved.

My people...

Hey! So in my last blog, which seems like forever and a year ago, I told you that one day I would write a post about the amazing women who have shown me what true friendship is all about... well today's the day where I'm gonna brag on my people! ;) Woot woot!

Oh my... where to begin: well for starters let me say this... each and everyone of these ladies are crazy awesome, and I love them like they were my own flesh and blood, is that weird? I say no.

So these are just a few of the moments that I have had the pleasure of sharing with these amazing ladies! They are each such unique creations of God, and they have such amazing strength, wisdom, and faith. Sometimes I pray to be like them when I grow up ;)

 They all have an amazing sense of humor (seriously, they are probably the funniest group of people I know.) When I'm having a bad day, they have this weird magical ability to put a smile on my face, and I like that about them.

I grew up believing that if you weren't arguing with your friends it meant that you're friendship was fake; now I know that a good group of friends know to just be real with each other. These ladies let their feelings be known, and that's something that I'm working on daily.

I have loads of fun with these awesome women! They are a hoot and a holler! I've had past friendships where I've felt excluded, but these ladies always make me feel like they want to hang out with me, and that makes a girl feel like a million bucks! They are the people that I love to hang out with any day of the week!


 Aside from the amazing girls my age that have been put in my life, God has blessed me with some amazing women that have spoken into my life in ways that make me feel so so loved! They are more than mentors... they are friends! They love each and everyone of us ladies, and they make us feel important! Having them around is probably the closest I will ever be to having older sisters :)

To be honest... this whole post is a round-a-bout way of telling you all how blessed I feel. I don't know if I tell these really awesome women how blessed I am to even be in their presences', but its true! They are awesome, and my prayer for every young lady out there who is feeling lonely is that they'll remember that God has a plan for them. He'll bring in the right friends at exactly the right moment. Be patient, don't worry; your true friends are right around the corner waiting for you! xo