Book Suggestions!

Okay, so I’m a sucker for a good Christian romance. I’d say it’s probably because I’m a romantic at heart and can’t wait until I fall in love someday. But until that day comes, I love to read good Christian romance stories!

I can spend hours upon hours reading books! I don’t have as much time to read as I used to, but when I get the chance, I have a whole bookshelf full of books that I’ve bought and haven’t gotten a chance to read yet!

I know that I love to hear what others think of books – and some of other people’s favorite authors/books, so I’m going to share some of mine with you!

Mary Connealy

I discovered Mary Connealy a few years ago when my Mom got the first book in the Kincaid Brides Series – Out of Control – to review. I don’t know what it was about the cover of that book that drew me in, but I started to read it and LOVED it. Soon after, I bought most of the books that Mary Connealy has published. I now have every book that she has ever published, and have never been disappointed with her books.
Most of them are set in the late 1800s and have cowboys, bad guys and a hero. They are a great read and keep you going from the first page until the very last!

Hollywood Nobody Series by Lisa Samson

I absolutely LOVE this book series. The main character is Scotty Dawn, a teenage girl who is SO easy to get along with that reading her book is so easy! She’s funny, down to earth and always says what she means. I can always relate to her! There are four books in this series, but I suggest getting all 4 at once if you’re going to read them. When I first read them, I didn’t read them all in order and it got a bit confusing.

But I believe that since then, I’ve read them about 5 times. No matter how much I read them, I can’t get enough! So fun!

Katie Parker Series by Jenny B. Jones

Okay, so Jenny B. Jones is another one of those amazing authors that writes so well that all her books are great! She’s quirky, funny and just plain amazing! Again, I can only hope to be half the writer that she is! (She hasn’t published a book in over a year and I can’t wait to see what she has up her sleeve next. Kind-of getting a bit antsy, truthfully!)

But anyways, the Katie Parker Series are another just plain fun series. They are of course, about Katie Parker. She’s a teenage girl who is in the foster care system and has been with the same family for a few years and loves it.

She’s also hilarious and you never know what’s going to come out of her mouth! If you like chick-lit, you’d love these books!

Those are my favorites, girls, but here’s a list of other great authors that you should check out as well:

Melody Carlson

Karen Kingsbury

Beverly Lewis

~Ashley

Are YOU in an Abusive Relationship? Quiz!

Hey girls! We're going to be starting a series on abusive relationships. This will be our first series here on To Die For, and we're very excited about it! :) This is the first post in the series. This post is going to be a little different from the rest because this post is going to be a quiz to help you determine if you're in an abusive relationship. You may know what an abusive relationship is, have no clue, or only know a little about them. It's fine either way, we're just hoping that this quiz can help point you in the right direction and help you get an idea if you may be having some issues with an abusive relationship or not. This series will include detailed descriptions of what abuse is, the different kinds of abusive relationships, how to get out of an abusive relationship, how to help a friend out of an abusive relationship, how to heal from a past abusive relationship, and how to prevent getting into an abusive relationship in the future.

Directions: Don't worry, this isn't going to be something complicated. You guys are like, a quiz? Really? Aren't we in summer? Yep, I'm sure most of you are. But don't worry, it won't be that bad. In fact, you can answer all of these questions with a simple Yes or No. Easy, right? I thought so.


1.) Does he continually blame everyone else or you for his problems? Have you heard him say things like, "You're so calm and together, and she was so crazy and paranoid."? If so, he is blaming someone else for his problems. If he's saying things like, "If you wouldn't have given me such an attitude, I wouldn't have had to.... (fill in the blank here)", he is blaming you for his problems. This is a bad sign upfront because it's showing that he's not going to take the blame for any of his own actions and can later try to make you believe that everything he did was your fault.

2.) Has he been known for calling you reguraly to find out where you are, what you're doing, or who you're with? If so, this is a sign of him being very controlling, which usually goes hand in hand with abusive relationships. Most of the time, in abusive relationships, the abuser can be very controlling or demanding. They can ask lots of questions and always seem to want to know what you're doing. What may be disguised under him being all sweet and caring about you, is really that he just always wants to know what you're doing 100% of the time. Your guy is supposed to genuinly care about you and your interests, but they are not supposed to be in your buisness 100% of the time in such a demanding way.

3.) Have you noticed a drop in friends or the people close to you since you started dating/spending more time with him? If so, this is because he is trying to issolate you away from your friends and family. He desires to have control and he feels more in control when you are alone. Alone means you're volunerable. With these types of guys, they desire to have control and don't like having anything getting in the way of that. Most of the time, you can experience a drop in friends without even really noticing it happened. It's not going to be black and white that it's your guy's fault, but always remember that if everyone else around you doesn't think he's good for you, chances are he isn't.

4.) Is he continually criticizing you on your looks or telling you ways you can "improve" yourself? If so, he's knocking your self esteem. The less highly you think about yourself, the more control he has over you. These guys can criticize you quite openly, or sometimes in a sarcastic mannar, and then when you become offended over it, tel you that you are just "over reacting" and need to "lighten up" Well girls, if he is joking around about your appearance at all, he's not trying to help you in any way. Don't get caught up in the lie that he wants you to really "improve".

5.) Does he try to rush you into a relationship too quickly, or try to convince you to do things you may not be comfortable with? This one goes back to his desire for control again. It may come off as him being really pushy and wanting to date you right NOW and not wanting to wait, or it could be something deeper as him trying to push you into something you're not ready for, such as kissing or drinking.

6.) Can you tell him anything without having him blow up, blame you, or midunderstand your meaning? Relationships are supposed to be built on trust and understanding. If he's continually blowing up on you and causing you to feel like you have to "walk on eggshells" in order to not make him angry, he's not exacting being understanding. You should be able to feel comfortable talking to your partner, and shouldn't feel so stressed to talk with him.

7.) Does he always seem to be overly interested in you and ask you lots of questions to "get to know you"? Sorry girls, but in this case, he's not just interested in getting to know you, though that's what he wants you to think. He's actually using all the information you're giving him to understand you better and how you work, only to use this information against you later. That's such a huge sign of an abusive relationship. Are they taking information and using it against you? That's never a good sign.

8.) Does he threaten to hurt himself or someone else if you leave? This one is pretty straightforward, but if so, that is never a good sign. They are trying to control your emotions here by making you feel bad and worried. You wouldn't want them to hurt themselves if you left, so you use that as an excuse to stay.

9.) Do they try to convince you that you can't persue your dreams? What may be disguised as a helpful suggestion saying they think you can't do something, is really a direct insult to you. Chances are, they know that you are capable of persuing your dreams, but the more you branch out away from them and their grasp, the less control they keep.

10.) Do you feel like you both are always fighting or fear "punishment" of any sort if you make him upset? You should never fear your partner, period. But if you and your partner are always getting into fights, the relationship isn't a healthy one already. Fearing punishment is worse because then you've associated that doing different things can create negitive responses in him such as not talking to you for a defined amount of time, physically punishing you, or verbally yelling at you until you give in. Usually giving in would be something like saying you're sorry, admitting he's right, or agreeing on something that gives him more control.

11.) Does he ever hit you, create bruises by pinching you or forcefully grabbing you, push or shove you, or tell his friends to "playfully" hit you? This one might be a little more ovbious, but if he's forcefully laying a hand on you in any way, you would answer this question with a yes. He shouldn't be forceful with you physically under any condition and should be respectful of your space and body.

12.) Has he ever said, "You would if you loved me"? If he's ever trying to get you to do something by telling you that you would do something if you loved him, the relationship is not headed in the right direction at all. Remember that the right guy is going to be respectful of you, your beliefs, and your dreams.

13.) Did he say, "I love you" right away? What might come off as sweet, can also come off a little creepy. He may show signs of wanting to jump right into the relationship quickly, and one of the ways he does this is by telling you he loves you dearly.

Note: Not all of these things are going to necessarily be displayed right away in a relationship. And though I tried to cover lots of different things that could be going on in an abusive relationship, there are many more signs that I haven't covered. I'd encourage you to find more information out there on symptoms of abusive relationships to help you identify if you are indeed in one.

If you answered Yes to any of the questions above, you're in an abusive relationship and you need to get out. You don't deserve to have the guy that you're currently with. Remember that we're all children of God and he cares about us dearly. He doesn't desire to watch his children get hurt or put down in any way. I'd encourage you to stay tuned for our next posts in this series where we'll be covering ways to get out of the abusive relationship, and ways to heal from the past. Remember that we're also here for you! If you need someone to talk to about this, or anything, feel free to send us an email form our "Contact Us" page and we will get back to you shortly. You don't have to go through this alone, we're here for you.

If you answered No to all of the above questions, then there is a good chance you're not in an abusive relationship. Like I said, I don't think I covered every possible sign of an abusive relationship out there and if you wanted to clarify, you can do some more reaserch, but I tried to cover some of the broad topics and major warning signs. We also welcome you to continue to read the series even if you're not in an abusive relationship now, because it could help you stay out of one for the future, or help a friend out of one someday as well. If you have a friend who is in an abusive relationship and needs help or prayer, feel free to contact us using our "Contact Us" page at the top of the blog and we would love to hear from you.

~Angelica

Idols Aren't Just Statues

Honesty time here, girls. In September of 2007, I was introduced to a teen boy band. Any guesses who? If you guessed The Jonas Brothers, you are correct!

I was introduced to the Jonas Brothers. And I LOVED them. I loved their faces, their singing voice, the fact that they were professing Christians. I just loved everything about these 3 guys from small-town, New Jersey. I wanted to meet them, wanted to marry one of them (preferably Nick!).

Boys bands are one of those things that come and go. The Jonas Brothers weren't what they were 3-5 years ago. They are no longer really singing together and the oldest, Kevin, has gotten married. Nick and Joe both went on to make their solo albums and do their own thing.

But when they were really famous, I really, really, capital REALLY liked them. I'll take it so far as to call it an obsession. I had hundreds of their pictures on my computer taking up space, I watched their YouTube videos over and over, and I even went to see them in concert. (Not gonna lie, even to this day I think that's pretty cool).

The thing that I didn't realize then, though, was that an obsession with a boy-band, an actor, ANY person who isn't Christ, is wrong. It's idolatry. We're putting someone up on a pedestal that shouldn't be on one! We're only going to be let down because these people are NOT perfect.

I have been let down by the Jonas Brothers many a time. When they could've professed their faith, or explained better why they wore purity rings, they backed off and shirked around the questioning. I'm not going to judge them and say that they're not Christians because I don't know what's in their hearts. But I do know that I have been let down by them many, many times.

"Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." 1 John 5:21

Putting our "faith" in people - or wasting our time on them - is only taking time away from the one thing that we should be truly focusing our time on - God. Looking up to people for advice, though, isn't always a bad thing! Don't get me wrong. But if we do it all the time - focus our time and energy on people of this world, we're not getting fed by Christ.

Since my obsession with the Jonas Brothers, I have grown a lot in my life. Not only have I learned my lesson on obsessing over people, but I've also grown a lot closer to God. My time spent loving the Jonas Brothers was time away from spending with God.

I didn't have time for God because I only had time to look up Jonas Brothers pictures, watch their videos, listen to their music.

I didn't have time to read the Bible because I was reading articles about these guys.

I didn't want to spend time with God, because I wanted to spend time with them.

"Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them." Jonah 2:8

Not going to even deny it - it was probably one of the dumbest times in my life. It was the time when I had more times for a boy band than God. I realize now that I was so far away from God at that point that I didn't even pray or read my Bible or listen to Christian contemporary music.

I just didn't have the time.

We NEED to make time for God. So stop adding those pictures to your computer. Stop watching those videos. Stop listening to that music for a while. Take time to pray, open your heart to God and spend time with Him.

I know that you'll feel less hungry for love and faith than you have before. God is the only thing we need and we NEED to spend time with Him.

As Christians, we need to learn that obsessing over anything but the Lord and his plan for our lives, is dumb. Plus, we're just going to continue to be let down by the people we are putting up on a pedestal. We will only be disappointed by them.

I don't know - maybe it's a lesson that all teenagers have to learn - to hold someone on a pedestal and slowly watch them fall. Maybe it's God's way of showing us that they're human and are going to make mistakes.

My advice to you is: if you're a Christian, prove it. Don't just say it because quite honestly, talk is cheap. Show people through your actions that you're a Christian. It's the only way for people who don't know you to find this out.

Like Blimey Cow would say, "If I spend a day with you and don't know that you're a Christian, you're doing it wrong."

So I urge you, spend time with Jesus. Get to know HIM a little better and get to know these celebrities a little less. God will never let you down. Everyone else will.






~Ashley

Topic Suggestions? Prayer Requests? Feedback? We'd LOVE to hear from you! Please send us an email at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we'll get back to you shortly!

Waiting on God

As humans, we all know that having to wait for things is hard. It really is. Depending on what we're trying to wait on and be patient for, waiting for someting can be a real pain sometimes. I've so been there and I bet that many of you guys have too. We hate having to wait for many different things but what about waiting on God? What happens when we ask God something and we have to wait for an answer? What should we do while we are waiting for that college acceptance letter to come in? Are we just supposed to sit back and be upset every day the letter doesn't come? Are we supposed to pray? Well let's explore what we are supposed to be doing while we wait on God.

Romans 12:12 says, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

While you are waiting on Him, God wants to use this time to grow you in your relationship through Him. He doesn't want us to just sit back over here waiting on something and not involving him in the process at all! Because God is a loving God, he longs to see the best in us. It all comes back to the point that God all has a plan and purpose for us(Jeremiah 29:11), and he wants to be involved in our daily lives. While we wait on Him for something, we are being given a chance to give something over to Him that we know we can't do on our own. Let me use an example.

When it comes time to send those college applications off, that is usually a very stressful time of high school. If you're going to college and you applied, usually you have more than one college that means a bit more to you that you really want to go to. This college has a higher level of importance to you than the others, though I'm sure you'd want to be accepted either way. But wouldn't you be excited for all the letters that came in? Yes, more than likely. But say you had gotten all of your letters in but the letter from the college you really wanted, it would be a lot harder to wait for that one, wouldn't it? Of course. That's just the way we work, as humans. We can become very impatient on God.

But actually, in this case above, what would you do while you were waiting on God to give you that letter from the college? Romans 12:12 above says that we should rejoyce in hope. This means that we should have hope for that letter that's coming. We should be trusting of God that he's going to get us that letter exactly when we need it, at the perfect time. It says that we should be patient with tribulation. In this case, the tribulation would just be waiting for the letter. But hey, that can get stressful right? We're supposed to have patience and just wait on the letter's arival. God knows what he's doing. He has the plan for our lives so mapped out, he knows the exact moment that letter's going to arrive. And in your plan, it's the perfect timing. Remember that. It also says to be constant in prayer. This isn't like, some joke. Or some small section of the Bible that we're just supposed to go, "Ohh yeah. I remember that somewhere..." and go on with our daily lives with. It says to be constant in prayer. This isn't because God doesn't want us to do anything else with our lives. Not at all. But we can pray and talk to him, while we are doing the other things in our life as well. He just wants us to continually keep Him in the loop, so to speak. It's so much easier to wait for something while you have God there to wait with you. He's always there with you, but when you acknowledge He's there, everything becomes easier.

So. Just to recap a bit, here are the three steps we should be taking when we are waiting on God, for anything:

1) Rejoice in Hope

2) Be Patient in Tribulation

3) Be Constant in Prayer

I'll be honest girls, this isn't really an easy thing to do. When we're waiting for things, we can often become realy impatient and want our answers now. But when we remember to do these things, waiting on God becomes so much easier. Let's go into this next week here remembering this, and trying to impliment it into our daily lives. I, for one, will be implimenting this into my own life as well. :)

If any of you girls need any prayer, want to talk, have a topic suggestion, comments about any of our posts, or just want to get ahold of us for any reason at all, you can contact us at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we will get back to you shortly! Thank you guys, we LOVE hearing from you!

~Angelica

When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be . . .

When I was little, I remember always dreaming of what I wanted to be when I was this so-called "grown up". I believe that first and foremost I wanted to be a waitress. This girl had big dreams when she was 5. Then I remember it turned into being an author. (That particular thing is still on my list of things to do, but it's not in the forefront of my mind anymore).

I finished my high school credits in February of this year. The feeling was amazing. I was FINALLY done with school. I could finally be done with school and never have to do it again if I didn't want to! I never had to open another text book or take another quiz or test.

Wow, living the dream, right? I'd have thought so. But even though it feels that way, my truthfulness will tell you that this was a step in my life that scared the bajeepers out of me.

I was then done with school. I then had to figure out if 1.) I wanted to go to college, or 2.) I wanted to continue on my career path.

My choice was career. I was already working for a small business and working as a part-time receptionist, and my cousin offered me the job to nanny her kids three days a week. I love to work and didn't want to go to college, so this is an exciting step that I will be taking.

Growing up isn't easy. And we wanted to grow up quickly? Why? Because it's part of our nature. We want to be an adult, we want to be treated like an adult, we want to make money, we want to move out and go to college, etc. 

In the last few months, I have had a falling out with a friend. She and I are no longer the best friends that we had been for years. We were growing up to be very different people than we were a few years ago. It seems like everything should stay the same - that we should be able to mend what went on and move on. And sometimes that's possible.

But I've realized that another part of growing up is growing apart from the people that we were close to. Friendships that were once great go from talking every day to talking every week, and then never talking. People we looked up to start to let us down.

I know that I've changed in the last few years. I have matured a lot, I have finished high school, have stepped into the work force and started making money and I have grown a lot closer to God. I know that I am never going to be the Ashley that I was a few years ago.

That Ashley always had time to do anything she wanted - she was bored, too, wishing she had things to do. The new Ashley is busy and barely has time for anything other than work! But that's okay. God knows what he's doing in my life.

And girls, God knows what he's doing in your life, as well! He knows exactly what you're going to do when you grow up, he knows exactly who your friends are going to be. He loves you and wants you to trust him in your life!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11






"There is hope for me yet
Because God won't forget
All the plans he's made for me
I have to wait & see
He's not finished with me yet."


Don't get discouraged if your life isn't exactly how you dreamed it up to be - and you're not just who you want to be or what you want to be. God has a plan for who you're supposed to be when you grow up! Let him be the lead of your life and it'll happen in His timing!

~Ashley

Topic Suggestions? Prayer Requests? Feedback? We'd LOVE to hear from you! Please send us an email at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we'll get back to you shortly!

Life is Ever Changing

Changes. 

Life is full of them, isn't it? We can't go through anything without there being some change in our lives. It's how God created things though. Things are supposed to change. Sometimes the changes can be seen as good through our eyes, such as getting a new job, going off to college, or having a friend or family member get employed. But sometimes we percieve change as a negitive thing, don't we? Someone in our family looses a job and we look at the negative- we don't have as much income as we had before. We didn't get accepted in that job that we wanted so we must not be good enough. That relationship didn't work out so we must not be lovable. Negative, Negative, Negative. 

To be honest, I do the exact same thing. Something changes in my life and I tend to panic. Instead of trusting that God has everything under control, I tend to just freak out and not trust Him. I question Him, balk at Him, and sometimes even get angry at Him. Why? Because I'm scared. A lot of time going through changes in our life can be a scary thing. But why is it so scary? If we're created and loved by a God who not only sees everything we're going through, but also loves us unconditionally and has our plan already created and mapped out, can someone tell me why we're so fearful? 

Humans are not created to live in fear. The Bible says so here. 

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."  2 Timothy 1:7

Looking back up at the examples I used earlier, what would be a way to look at those same situatons with a trusting heart? Someone in our family looses a job? That job is no longer in God's plan for that family member and God is going to give that person something better. We didn't get accepted into the job we wanted? That job wasn't the job that God has in mind for us, he has something better in mind .That relationship didn't work out? God is going to lead us to a better, healthier relationship. It wasn't the right time. 

You see, God knows everything that goes on in our lives. You and me both know this, but take a second and think about it. Everything. The big things, the small things, everything he knows. But he also knows the things that are going to happen in the future for us. He knows where our lives are going to take us, so why should we be afraid of life or the things in life? After all, he's in control. Honestly, this is one of the hardest concepts for me to understand and accept in my Christian walk. It's hard and I'm going to be honest- sometimes It is a lot easier to be fearful then to give things over to God and know he's going to take care of us. 

But when we really think about it, yes all these changes can be scary sometimes. God didn't promise us that everything would be peachy when we accepted Him as our Savior, did he? No, but he promised us he'd take care of us and he is. He is taking care of us and He does each and every day. 

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" Matthew 6:25

I have always found this BIble verse to be a really powerful one. If we're not even supposed to worry about what we're going to eat, drink or wear, where do we have room to worry about the other little things in life? I would say eating and drinking are pretty big things in life. But if we're not supposed to be concerned about those, maybe we should stop and look at the things we're worried about. The changes in our life, big or small. God is in control of these changes, therefore they shouldn't be scary ones. :) And it's not an easy process. Just giving this all over to God and accepting that it's all part of the plan. It takes time and many, many lessons. But eventually we start getting better at it. :) We have to start somewhere. 

To go ahead and end this post, I'm going to share a story of something I'm currently going through in my life right now. The idea for this post actually came about because I have a terrible habit of worring over the changes that happen in my life. I honestly hate changes, big or small. But God is in the process of teaching me to trust Him with the changes in my life. One of the changes that recently happened in my life was that I recently got a job! :) Something that lots of people would look around them and decide was a very positive change. And you're right. It has been a very positive change in my life and it's a change I'm grateful for. But even something positive has been tough and has not come without it's challenges. I have had my moments where I get scared and I get mad at myself for feeling like I'm not catching on as fast as I would like. But that's the thing, why should I worry about it? Every day brings it's new challenges but with each and every day, we should be trusting God with the little things. And trust me when I tell you, I don't have this all down myself. Not even close. But it's something we can all work together on. When we notice that we're starting to be fearful of a new change in our life, we should take some time to talk to God about it and open our Bibles. We know we're already taken care of but when we go to God with our problems, we won't feel the need to worry about it as much because we are more trusting that He has everything in control. :)

So girls, I just want to encourage you that you're not alone in whatever it is that you may be facing. We're all in this together and we're here for you if you need support, encouragment or prayer. If you want to contact us, please email us at heistodiefor@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!

~ Angelica

Judge Not, or Ye Shall Be Judged

"See that girl over there? I can't believe she's wearing that much makeup!" 
"Ew....that boy needs a haircut." 
"That girls need more modest clothing."
"Oh, she's a terrible person! I can't believe she calls herself a Christian!" 


If we're honest with ourselves, we know that we think these things. We may not say them out loud, but thoughts like the ones above do run through our heads.

This is something that I have been working on getting better at lately. I used to look at someone and give them a label before I even got a chance to know them.
I saw people and instantly thoughts that weren't true came into my head.

Truthfully, I thought that people who were different than me, were just plain annoying.

As I've been reading through my Bible and trying to get closer to Jesus, I have come across a few verses that have stood out to me.

1 Samuel 16:7 says, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as a man sees, for a man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'" 


As we strive to become better Christians, we are striving to become more like Christ himself. Which means, as hard as it may be for us, we need to not judge by what a person looks like on the outside, but rather on what's on the inside.

Truthfully, I have become good friends with quite a few people whom I didn't think I could ever get along with!

But see, God made everyone. You. Me. That random person from church you barely ever talk to.

Jesus makes it pretty clear that we should not be judging others in Matthew 7.

"Judge not, that you be not judged." (Matthew 7:1)

Okay, makes sense. If we don't want to be judged, why do we judge others?

Simple answer: Human nature.

Christian answer: Because we are sinners.

Matthew 7:4 says, "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but do not consider the plank in your own?" 


Ohhh boy. Jesus hit the nail on the head there, didn't He? We find it so, so, so much easier to judge others on their actions, when we should be judging ourselves on ours.

"For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged." (1 Corinthians 11:31)

If, instead of judging the person at school or church, or that we see at the store, anywhere!, we judged ourselves - our actions, what we were saying - we would soon realize that everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God.

We all make mistakes.

No one is perfect.

So today - and from now on - let's try not to look at what people look like on the outside. And let's try not to make a rash judgement. Get to know them or stop your thoughts all together!

I heard a saying the other day about not judging other people because we have no idea what problems they may be facing.

So true.

I'm including a video of Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath. This songs say, "give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so I can see..."





Try seeing things through God's eyes. I know that it will make you (and me!) see the world better!

~Ashley

Topic Suggestions? Prayer Requests? Feedback? We'd LOVE to hear from you! Please send us an email at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we'll get back to you shortly!

Trusting in God

Trusting in God.

It's something that if we were all to be honest, we have heard a LOT. We hear it often in church. We see it on Bibles, bilboards, buisness cards, greeting cards, and it's spread among Christians like wildfire on a regular basis.

"Oh hey... I heard you were going through something. Keep trusting in God, he won't give you anything more than you can handle."

We usually respond back with something like, "I know, I'm trying. I know."

Do we really? Do we really know? Not really. Because I'm thinking that if we really knew how to trust God, we wouldn't have so many worries and stressors in our day to day life. We would be able to take any negative situation and just realize that God had 100% control over it and everything was going to be okay. This is actually true, but why don't we realize this often enough?

I think it's because our lack of trust stems from the fact that we need feel connected to God in order to  think we can trust Him. We want to see God work in our lives before we can trust him. Then, when we do actually see him work in our lives, we hesitate to trust Him still. What if that was a coincidence? How do we know that God actually aranged all of that for my good? Good question. The Bible has an answer.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

So I want to draw your attention to something in that Bible verse I posted above. What, exactly did God say that He will work together for our good? One thing? Something? No. Everything. He has promised us in His Word that he will work everything together for the good of us in our plan. Everything. Even the things that we're currently looking at with a negative perspective. He's already got that covered. All planned out. He knows everything about us, everything about our past, and every little detail about our future. And he has it already all working together for His good. That thought should be really calming when you think about it.

"When I am afraid, I will trust in you." Psalm 56:3 

The really beautiful thing is that through the Bible, we have been given the chance to see that God is very trustworthy. He has never let anyone down. Never. He doesn't make mistakes. Here are some verses in the Bible where other people are explaining God's trustworthiness.



"Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods." Psalm 40:4



"In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" Psalm 56:4


There are so many verses in the Bible on trusting in God. I'm only listing a few here but if you are interested in finding more of these Bible verses, a lot of Bibles have a place in the back where you can look up more of these verses under "trust" or "trustworthiness" or you could look up these verses online. Believe it or not, looking up these verses online can actually be a great reasource if you want to find more of these Bible verses or any of the others that we use in our posts. :)


So see girls, I think when it really comes down to it, we will only end up trusting God more and more with the things in our lives and eventually our entire lives in general if we get to know Him better. Funny enough, that's the simple answer. It really doesn't get any easier than that. Because the closer and closer we get to God, the more we learn about Him. The more we learn, the more we see His good intentions and His promises in the Bible not to harm us and to protect us. Everyone is going to struggle with trust and trusting God at some point in our lives. But my suggestion would be to get to know Him better- something I'm sure we all could use doing.

After all, we can't ever get too close to God. (:

If you have any feedback, suggestions, comments, or prayer requests, please do not hesitate to let us know! We would love to hear from you! Please contact us at heistodiefor.gmail.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible!

~ Angelica

Love Your Enemies? What?!

Probably one of the hardest things that Christians are commanded to do is to love our enemies. When we hear those words, our first thought is, "Um...what? Enemies are enemies for a good reason. Why would we possibly love them?"

Honesty time here, I've had a lot of people come into my life and leave because of various reasons. Friends and I have had falling outs. And the last thought that ever goes through my mind is, "I need to love them, even if they hate me, or aren't in my life anymore."

As a younger teen, one of the girls that I called my best friend at the time, hurled some pretty big and nasty insults on me. Things that a good friend should never say to you, but she said them anyways.
And forgiving her for what she did and said to me was very, very, very hard. They say, "Sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me."

That's a lie.

Words hurt. People say things that hurt worse than broken bones. Kids are bullied, hurt every day.
And we're supposed to love them? What?

Jesus tells us all about loving our enemies in the Gospel According to Matthew.

Matthew 5:43-48 says, " You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy", but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who cruse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the sons of the Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sens rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." 

Okay, so....there's a lot to digest there.

But Jesus is pretty adamant about the whole "love your enemies" thing.

"But I say to those who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hates you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who spitefully use you." (Luke 6:27)

When Jesus walked the earth, he had a lot of so-called "enemies". People who didn't want to believe; people who hated him.

And like us, when our friends do things to betray us , one of Jesus' own gave him over to the officials so that he would be hung on the cross.

But did Jesus hate those people who persecuted him, or who spat on him, or loathed him?

No. No. No.


Because, somehow, he loves everyone. No matter what they do - what WE do - he loves us.

As Christians, we need to practice to be more like Jesus every day. He said himself we need to love our enemies, so whether or not we understand it, we still must do it.

I struggle with this. A lot.

There are so many people in my life that I have a hard time loving. But as I was working on this post, I came across a verse in Romans that really helped me.

"For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:10)

Phew. Okay. Before we accept (or accepted) Christ as our personal Savior, we were God's enemy. But do you think that for one second that he hated us?

No!

So I urge you to pray for those people you don't like so much. If they're not Christians, especially pray that they will find the Lord.

But just pray for them.

You may never be friends with you those people that you call "enemies", but you don't have to hate them.
We'll work through this together. I'm just as much at fault of this as anyone else.

C'mon girls! Let's pray for our enemies.

Together - and with God's help - we'll make it through.

~Ashley

Topic Suggestions? Prayer Requests? Feedback? We'd LOVE to hear from you! Please send us an email at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we'll get back to you shortly!

The Lord is Close to the Brokenhearted

"We're sorry, but I don't think she's going to make it."

The words stabbed through my heart, and I felt the weight of them crush me like a ton of bricks. Was I even hearing her correctly? Maybe I was just seeing things. Or I could be dreaming. Yes, dreaming would be nice. Then I can just wake up and forget...

"Come on Anna, let's go visit her."

As my dad pulled me into the hospital room where my little sister was waiting, every step felt so hard to take. Every breath felt close to impossible. But still, I was alive. Alive in the very physical sense of the world. But as I sat there in the room with my little sister, being forced to say goodbye, everything felt impossible. In a sense it was like my world had fallen apart. She was my world. And now my world was over. 

Most everyone has experienced the feeling of being brokenhearted. Like Anna in the story, you easily could have had a situation in your past where everything just felt impossible. Breathing may seem labored and hard to manage. You might feel a constant pain or heaviness in your chest. Maybe even doing the simplest things are just hard to manage or even close to impossible anymore. I think everyone experiences the feeling of brokeness or brokenheartedness at some point in their lives. But do we really know how to respond when we feel this way? Most of us, when we get to this point, we have no clue where to turn! I've been there, and sometimes over things that are a lot less big than Anna's situation above. 

If you ask around and try talking to others on their opinion on how to handle this feeling, expecially as teenagers, most of them will say things like this.

~ "Oh, you're just a teenager. It's normal to be emotional. The feeling will pass."

~ "Why don't you try finding things to engage in to take your mind off of how your feeling?"

~ "Well, ya know, time heals everything. Just wait awhile and things will get better."

Now don't get me wrong. Teenagers can and will be emotional sometimes. It can be a really good thing to find something else to do if you are feeling overwhelmed in your emotions. And for most things, time does heal things. But sometimes, these answers just aren't good enough. We want something more. Something to grab on to. Something that will encourage and inspire us. Something to give us hope when all seems lost. Well good news for us, God has given us the answer in the Bible. But firstly, we need to realize that not only does God have everything under control, but he is actually close to us! Look at what this Bible verse states in Psalms.

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted 

    and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalms 34:18 

What good news this is for us to hear. To know that even when we feel this way and even when we feel this broken, God has never left us and he actually is close to us instead. This is also worded in another way here. 

 "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

So in knowing that God is close to us when we feel broken, we need to run to Him when we feel this way. He is the only one who truly can understand the depth of the pain we feel or the weight in our chest. He understands the situation and knows every little part of it. The Bible says that he knows exactly how many hairs we have on our head!(Luke 12:17) God not only knows the problem and its extent but because he loves us so much, he wants us to take our problems and worries to Him. He doesn't want us to have to deal with our problems alone and actually tells us to give our worries, cares, and all of our problems over to Him so we don't have to carry them ourselves! He says that when we go to Him with our problems and give them over to Him, he will give us his peace.

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1

So today I just want to encourage you girls. Sometimes we feel brokenhearted. We just feel hurt and crushed and the things of life get us down. But girls, we don't have to deal with this alone! God is right here with us through everything we are going through. Every step of the way. And when we feel like we can't take another step, God is right there to tell us that we can, that we can heal, and we can get better. Remember that all things are possible through God(Matthew 19:26). When we feel this way, at any time in our lives, we need to run to God. He will help us and will give us the strength we need to acomplish anything!(Exodus 15:2)

I found this song the other day called "Hanging On" by Britt Nicole. This song is amazing because in a way, it's a cry out to God. At the end of the song she's saying that she's hanging on because she knows God will take care of her. A beautiful song to listen to for any occasion! I have posted the video below, so feel free to check it out and let us know what you think! 

Girls, if any of you have been feeling Brokenhearted recently, it is our prayer that this post was an encouragment to you! If you need someone to talk to, prayer, or support, please don't hesitate to email us at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we will get back to you shortly! God Bless! <3

~Angelica

Impurity and Purity

 
In the last month or so, I have seen pictures, previews, talk and pins on Pintrest all about the new movie that came out recently, Magic Mike. The movie stars a lot of Hollywood's favorite men, including Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer.

When I first saw the preview for this movie, I was really pretty appalled. I couldn't believe that someone would actually make a movie like this - something that was so trashy and messed up.

The synopsis reads, "A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women and make easy money."

Okay, so there's a lot going wrong in that, but the first thing that pops to mind is..."Wow, a movie about a stripper..." We, as girls, don't want our boyfriends, or young guy friends to go see a movie about a woman stripper, so why would men want us to go and see a movie about male strippers? I think that somehow that has become a double standard when it comes to this movie.

The saddest part has to be that a lot of my Christian friends are talking about how good this movie is. Or how they want to see it. This is something that I don't think that I will ever understand.

As Christians, God not only wants us to be physically pure, but also pure of heart and mind.

David said these words...Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a clean heart, oh God."


That should be the cry of all our hearts. To have a pure heart, a heart after Jesus Christ, and only after him.
When we go see movies like Magic Mike, we fill our mind with nothing but impure thoughts. I'm not saying that to judge anyone, as just about anything can spark impure thoughts in our brains. No one is perfect and we are born with a sinful nature.

But when we KNOW that the movie we are going t see is bad and yet we still go to see it, we are deliberately putting those thoughts into our minds.

Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."


I'm going to be honest with you girls, there have been a couple of times when I have wanted to go see some not-so-good movies. My mom was quick to tell me - every time - "Ashley, you don't need to fill your head with that kind-of stuff."

Our culture is so secular. There are so many movies out there that are not decent for Christian eyes - or any eyes, to be quite honest - yet people still go and see them and then rant and rave over them and they become popular.

1st Timothy 5:22 says, "...keep yourselves pure." 


2nd Timothy 2:22 says, "Flee yourself of youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." 


So instead of going to see a movie, or reading a book that you're not so sure about, hang out with a good Christian friend and watch a movie that you already own. Or pick up a good Christian fiction.


Titus 1:5 "To the pure, all things are pure..."
Also, if you're not sure about a movie that you've been wanting to see, check out the review on Plugged In. This is a Christian website that gives their honest opinion about movies, as well as saying all the not-so-savory things that happen in those said movies.

But remember, no matter what movies you've seen, or what you've filled your head with, know that Jesus will always forgive you, if you only ask him. He will wash you white as snow. So don't worry. He will be waiting anxiously.

~Ashley

Topic Suggestions? Prayer Requests? Feedback? We'd LOVE to hear from you! Please send us an email at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we'll get back to you shortly!

Through the Pain, To the Healing

A lot of times, you'll hear someone say that they just want to heal from a bad experience and move on with their life. This would make sense, as it would be kind of silly to think that you wouldn't want to heal from something. Why would you want to continue to hold all that pain close to you like that? Well unfortunately, there is something that can keep everyone from healing. Most of the time, it keeps a lot of people from even beginning the healing process. This thing is called pain. 

People don't like pain. In fact, most people try to live their lives in such a way that they don't have to encounter pain. Why? Because as humans, we don't like getting hurt. But most of the time, if not all of the time, we have to go through the pain in order to reach that state of healing. If we never go through the pain, we will never get to the heart of the problem and allow ourselves to heal. Let me tell you a story. 

When I was a young girl, my birth mom decided that she no longer wanted to be a part of my life and left me in the hands of my birth dad. My birth dad struggled to take care of me the best he could for a little while, until he eventually decided to give me over to the hands of my wonderful parents now, and at the age of 4 1/2, they adopted me. Though many things happened in between, once I learned that I was adopted around the age of 12, I really struggled. I had lots of questions and felt rejected and upset a lot of time. Unfortunately, this lead into me acting out. I felt so hurt and rejected that I was being very rude and disrespectful to my loving parents. This continued for years until I recently had the opportunity to visit my birth dad in Nebraska over the summer. Always being a Momma's girl and being rather clingy, I wasn't thrilled at the idea of leaving home to spend time in another state for any amount of time. I really struggled in those upcoming weeks before heading to Nebraska. I had never talked about being adopted with my birth dad and I wasn't planning on talking to him if and when I did decide to head there. But that was the thing, I didn't realize it then, but once I went there and went through the pain, I was going to come back a much better person, and would be healed from a lot of my past wounds. But at the time, I didn't want any part of this thing called "Healing" if it would be painful.

Lucky for me, I didn't really have a choice in the matter. My parents knew it would be best for me to go anyway, and off I went to Nebraska to spend a week there. To be honest, it wasn't easy. But it was good for a few reasons. Firstly, it made me put my trust in God because I was too scared and too out of my element to do anything else. One of the things I was worried about was not having very good cell phone reception. Funny enough, I didn't have very good reception. God's way of saying, "Hey, I'm right here. Come to me, I'm with you." God has a funny way of working sometimes. And ya know, I did get a lot closer to God because of my time in Nebraska. Sometimes my stubbornness can get in the way of what I know is the right option, which in this case, was going to God. It was also good for me because while I was there, I was able to have a heart to heart talk with my birth dad about being adopted. A conversation I had been dreading having for years, ended up being a conversation I am going to remember for the rest of my life. It put a lot of things into perspective and allowed for me to see that God's hand was really in everything. My beginnings, everything that happened early on in my life, and everything going on in my life now. He's simply, always there. 

When I came back from my trip to Nebraska, there was a lot of healing that had taken place. I started seeing everyone else in my family differently because instead of being worried sick they were going to hurt me or leave all the time, I realized that they were all my family who were going to love and support me regardless of what I was going through. From then on out, I have been able to continue to heal my relationships with them. 

So that's the thing. As humans, we don't like pain. Most of us run from the idea of something being painful or unpleasant. But sometimes, we have to go through the pain and through that tough time in order to reach that state of healing. Luckily though, we are not asked to go through it alone. Jesus says that he will never leave us, so we need to remember that he is going to be there regardless of what we may be going through. 

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

So I just wanted to take the time to encourage you girls today. Sometimes we have to go through things that are going to be hard and unpleasant. But instead of being afraid of those times and wanting to run away from them, we should turn to God instead. He understands our fear and knows that some things might not be so easy. But he also says that he will give us his strength. 

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." Isaiah 40:29

So girls, stay encouraged. God never promised that as followers of Him we would be free from pain and suffering. Not at all. But instead, he promised us something even bigger than that. He promised us eternal life to everyone that repents, He promised to never leave, and He promised that He would always take care of us. For me, I'd much rather have some pain and suffering if it meant having an all knowing, all loving God who is always on my side, looking out for me. 

~ Angelica

Topic Suggestions? Prayer Requests?  Feedback? We'd LOVE to hear from you! Please send us an email at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we will get back to you shortly!

YOU'RE To Die For!

Do you ever feel useless? Unloved? Worthless? Not good enough? Not needed?
Let's face it. At one point or another, you've felt like that. And no matter what you do to try to convince yourself, a little voice comes into your head and says, "You're not good enough...you're not needed. You're not pretty enough."
We look in the mirror and only see the imperfections. The pimples, the crooked teeth, the messy hair. Everything that makes us a little bit different.
We want to be like the girls in the magazines. No matter how many times we hear those girls are airbrushed and not the real thing, we still want to look like that. They're beautiful.
Although I still have these terrible thoughts of not being good enough, no matter how many times I remind myself that I am, there are a couple of things that I keep telling myself, over and over and over.
First off, we are ALL beautiful. Everyone one of us. Doesn't matter what your skin color is, whether you're skinny or not, whether your hair is straight or curly.
"...God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." - Genesis 1:27
Why should we, for one second, say that we're ugly or not good enough, when we are made in God's image? Isn't it that when we scrutinize every little thing about ourselves, we're questioning the way God made us?
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." - Psalm 139:13-14
Wow, so God knew what we would look like and who we would be from the time we were in our mother's wombs.
He created us in his image.
So the truth is, it's the devil's voice we hear when we feel we're not good enough. He's trying to make us feel that way because if we feel inferior and less than enough, he wins.
The next time you hear that little voice when you look in the mirror and don't see what you want to see, push those thoughts away and say, "You know what? god made me this way...he loves me and I am going to love me, too."
The devil will cower and know that God won this battle. I'm sure you'd much rather listen to God than to the devil.
Because the devil says, "You're not good enough."
But God says, "You're to die for." 


Ashley & Angelica


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