speak love.

Man, I've definitely been challenged in my devotions lately especially with the one I read today. Today's was called Trash in. Trash out. Talking about what you put in you will come out like the music you're listening to, the tv you're watching. Just like Annie Downs, I've found myself influenced by especially the music I've been listening to. Today she encouraged us to take seven days to go on trash fast. Which means taking a step back and a break  from music and tv that is ungodly.
  So for the next seven days I will be filling my life with music that is honoring God. As I think of the amount of music I can listen to, it makes me so excited because I have so much music that I haven't listened to full length. I am so thankful for this challenge.
  Some of the music I am listening to is.

• Francesca Battistelli's albums- If We're Honest, My Paper Heart, Hundred More Years, Christmas
• Hillsong United albums- Empires.
• Natalie Grant- Be One Album
• Desperation Band- Banner Album
• CFC Worship- Break The Silence Album
• Kari Jobe- Majestic Album

Those are just some of my favorites to listen too!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
Xo  

where did the time go?

  Well almost 6 years ago, my Grandpa Ziegler passed away it was right after Thanksgiving in 2009. We knew his health was declining, so we made the trip to Ohio to spend time with him and Grandma and the whole family. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about him or I don't see a lot of Grandpas characteristics in my Dad.
  One of my fondest memories with Grandpa was when I was 5 or 6 years old and he made a rooster because he loved working with wood and tools. So after I watched him make the rooster I painted it red and it is one of my biggest memories with him. Then there was this one summer we were visiting them and Grandpa was diabetic but when I went to the store he told me to pick up Oreos ( which grandma was not happy about at all.)
    Every Christmas I would call him and talk to him, that is one of the things I miss most about him! But after he passed away, I saw one of the Bibles he had and I asked Grandma if I could have it for keeps. Of course she said, yes when I'm really missing him, I pull it out and see the things he underlined or highlighted.
  Yes, I would have loved to have him been at my graduation and my grad party but I wouldn't wish all that pain he had just to see me because I know he was looking down from heaven. I learned a lot from Grandpa and I know he is proud of me and who I've become.
  When November comes around it is such a happy time,but it  brings a flood of emotions because I remember that whole day and night when my Grandpa passed away. I remember after finding out what had happened I cried myself to sleep and the next day I wrote a piece of writing about my Grandpa. The next day, I read it to my Grandma and she told me, she wanted me to read it at the funeral and not to change a single word in it. Believe me I was scared to change anything so I didn't. This was the piece I wrote and read at his funeral.

Floyd Charles Ziegler Jr.

My Grandpa was in the Navy and he was a very loyal husband to Grandma and a loyal father to four kids there names are Todd, Mark, Esther, and Karen. Grandpa also liked to spend time with his grand-kids and he did coin collections and he liked to do wood work. One time I made a rooster with him and we will remember all the good times we had with him. Grandpa went to be with the Lord at 11:10 pm in Wadsworth, Ohio at Wadsworth Hospital on November 28th,2009. Grandpa was born December 2,1934, he was 74 years old he would have been 75 today. Grandpa was a Man of God, he was a preacher. Grandpa was married 49 1/2 years to Grandma, we knew this was going to hapen but we didn't think this was going to happen so fast. Grandpa like to read. I love my Grandpa Ziegler and will miss him a lot: he was the best Grandpa I could ever have. I feel I was really close to Grandpa Ziegler we used to do stuff together. I remember one time I stayed home with Grandpa I had a fun time. We will miss him a great deal. But we know he is not in any pain and he is watching over us and he will always be in my heart and there is a little bit of Grandpa in all of us it is in our hearts and we will have our ups and our downs. There will be days we will be fine and days we will cry. Grandpa was a beloved Veteran, husband, father, and grandfather. He will look down from Heaven and say "Now thes are family members I know and love."
1934-2009
I love you Grandpa
Micaela Ziegler
Granddaughter

keep your loved ones close and hug them tight!

have a great week!

fall craziness.

  I come with good news, my Grandpa's cancer is low which means its going down. Which is amazing news and I'm praising Jesus for this amazing news and amazing breakthrough. When I found out I was in complete awe and I just couldn't stop saying "Thank you Jesus".
  Being a college student is a little easier than I thought. I know that all my classes I have won't be easy for me but right now with the hard work I'm putting into my studies. I can't thank Jesus enough for all that He has done in my life these last couple of months. I give all the praise to Jesus! I think of Psalm 100. Jesus has gotten me through the first 8 weeks and he'll get me through the last 7 weeks! Here's to finishing the semester strong!

Psalm 100
1     Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Be encouraged by this scripture! 

Have a great week! Xo 

My Confidence Journey.

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks I've been super busy with school and work. I thought I would share my confidence journey with you all. I just finished writing my first college paper on it.

Confidence hasn’t always been an easy characteristic for me to grasp hold of. As I said in my little paragraph of who has effected me and why, it took me awhile it was not an overnight process it took time. In a major way confidence has helped me become bold when making a decision and not to be timid like a rabbit. If I were to give confidence a definition for how much it has helped me it would be these few words bold, outgoing and,don’t not try something because you are too scared.

At first, I wasn’t to sure about this whole confidence deal. I mean I was fine, I had my friends and everything in my world was going great, at least that is what I thought. One day my junior year of high school I was being my normal self but not the bubbly,happy, smiley person I was as a freshman. So I decided to go to my guidance counselor and I asked her for help. I told her I was up for the challenge and that I wanted to become more confident in who I was. Right there it began, my “confidence training”, Each Friday I would go to her office and she would give me a challenge and depending on what I was struggling with that week it’d center around that issue. One of my first challenges was to raise my hand in class and ask the teacher a question I had. That week I asked a question in my history class and the two others in my math class. Friday came around and we talked about how my challenge had went and how I think it helped me become confident. Each week I’d do a new challenge and slowly I started gaining more confidence, I started talking more, and  standing up straight. One week I literally worked on looking people in the eye when I would talk to them. That was a really hard one to accomplish, because I did not like to confront a person and actually look them in the eye. There is a lot that happened those two years that she helped me with. Sometimes I would have to work on the same project just because I was having a really difficult time with it.

Next was putting the confidence that I had just gained, now it was time for me to put it into action. Whether that meant me being very talkative or if that meant me looking someone in the eye when I was talking to them. It took a lot of work, as I said in the beginning it wasn’t always easy. One of the big characteristics that I really learned is to be bold when I’m making a decision. Now when I have to make a decision, I tell myself “I’ve got this” and “I am going to do just fine” with whatever I choose”. One way this was put into action is when I went in to get my first job this past summer. I couldn’t be timid when I went into the restaurant to get an application. I had to be confident in asking for an application and it went really well when I went in to get an application. I ended up getting an interview later that week. So when I went into the interview I gave myself a little pep talk and I told myself “ you’ve got this, you are a very good candidate for this job, show them your bubbly, loveable self, go get em’ girl!”.

Finally, the biggest stepping stone I had to step over to really get my confidence to the top. I talked at senior chapel about my confidence journey and to be you for you, don’t be the you that your friends like just because they are influencing you a lot. In the end, friends come and go. People will always have something to say something about you that they don’t like about you. For me I really have to remember to be me for me, because at the end of the day my confidence is mine, it’s not someone else’s.  Now fast forward to this past spring, the morning of senior chapel, I was confident in myself and in the message I had to share and if I helped just one person then my job was done.

Gaining my confidence has been great for me because not only was it a little bit of a challenge to get at first but in the end all the hard work paid off. I’ve become more outgoing, I smile more, I found myself again since gaining confidence. It has truly changed my life. I’m not the same girl who walked into those high school doors.

summer 2015 recap

  This summer has been a whirlwind between graduation, looking for a job and accepting my dream job, registering for college, dinner at my grandparents every night.

Wow, were do I start? Well I'll start with this, I graduated, turned 19 and had my grad party and had a lot of lasts in the month of may! Well after that I started looking for a job, and looking, looking, and finally found my dream job. here is the back story to finding my job at Ryske's.

  When I was a little girl I used to go to Ryske's to eat when my grandparents would come and visit and I love their cinnamon rolls just a sidenote. So ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to work at Ryske's Restaurant. So one day in July I was scrolling through facebook and saw they were hiring. So I went and picked up an application, turned it in the same day, got a call the next day for an interview. Then I went in on Wednesday for the interview and was hired later that afternoon. I started that Friday as a busser. I absolutely love my job. Through that whole process I give all the Glory to God, God met me were I was at.

  I registered for my college courses while in the process of helping my mom with my Grandma and Grandpa, to tell you the least it isn't always easy. This summer has been  a whole lot of fun, a whole lot of family and a whole lot of Jesus.

psalm 71:14
"but as for me, I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more."
   I've learned a whole lot this summer. One of them being, it sucks more than anything to see my Grandpa sick and getting slower each day. No matter how bad his day is and how hard it is for me to see I will love him until his last breath whenever that may be.
oh and this summer I got a tattoo. three nails into a cross. it is simple but has so much meaning behind it.

Summer 2015 is in the books. here's to fall!

it's more than what meets the eye.

no pun intended. 

 psalm 71:14

But as for me, I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more.

 
When you read this post I do NOT want you feeling bad for me, this is my life and I want you to be encouraged by my story and to never give up. 

  For me life has been easy except when it comes to my eyes. You see when most everyone around me has two eyes that they can see with, well I can't I only have one eye because my other one in medical terms is called the "lazy eye". So from very little I've had glasses and it wasn't until I was 7 or 8 that I realized I was different, I couldn't see out of my right eye. This wasn't news to my parents because of my premature birth and various eyes surgeries, there was nothing the doctors could do. Let me tell you one thing I've learned over the past 19 years with being half blind. 

1. Never give up

I learned in middle school that it'd be difficult to play sports and yes it was hard playing volleyball only seeing half of the court. But I never gave up, yes there were days I wanted to because I was having a pity party for myself.  My freshman year I played tennis and yes at first it was hard, but I adjusted and got used to playing with only seeing half the court. No matter what came at me, I've tried to face it head on and say okay God I trust you and I know that you've got me in your hand. 

  Yes I have my days were I just wish I had two eyes and I get down and I get frustrated because what a normal task would be for you it might take me twice as long (especially reading a book). If you know me, I LOVE to read but because I only have one eye, I can't strain my left eye to much so I have to be extremely careful when it comes to reading. Also lights and the sun, sometimes they are both very bright I will have to put on my sunglasses just because my eye is very sensitive. 

I'm not mad at God for making me half blind, instead I praise Him for my one eye and my life because it is truly a miracle that I am living today. God is faithful! 

psalm 100:5

 For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations 

did someone say family?

sorry I missed a week, its been a busy couple of weeks. this post is all about family.
F-fun
A-adventure
M-memories
I-irreplaceable
L-loving
Y-young

 Family is a huge part of my life. Whether it be spending time with my parents or my grandparents, whether it's having supper or going shopping for groceries. These last few months have been surrounded around my grandparents for dinner and grocery shopping and many many laughs.

   It's been over 3 months since my Grandpa was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer that has also turned into bone cancer as well. So my mom and I go down almost every night except Wednesday's to have dinner with them and just have a fun and memorable time. I can tell you this I have more photos of my Grandma and I and my Grandpa and I then most people. Oh and one of my favorite things to do with my Grandma is watch Wheel of Fortune with her, you'd all laugh at some of the guesses we have for the puzzles. They are pretty hilarious. Here are 3 things that I've known but really learned over the last year but especially the last 3 months.

1. Love them.
No matter how irritated you are at them for what they said or did. LOVE them because you never know what will happen and you do not want to live with that regret and you don't want to feel like the worst person ever for just a petty thing. Love them with everything you have, tell them you love them just because. you don't have to have a reason to tell them you love them. the moments I cherish the most are when I tell my grandma I love her and she responds love ya too. the moments I especially cherish are when I tell my Grandpa that I love him and he actually says love you too! I cherish the hugs and the kisses goodbye and the see ya tomorrow once I get out of work.

2. Make memories and capture them. 
 Whether it's a trip to the grocery store or a trip to go get ice cream find a way to make it fun and if you're doing something funny, capture it with a picture. The saying a picture is worth a thousand words is so true. On my phone, I can look at one of the photos of my grandma and I and I will start laughing or just smiling because I remember what was going on in the photo.

3. Pray for them. 
Whether they are  believers or not, pray for them, pray for peace and pray for comfort. One thing I've always done my entire life is pray for my Grandma and Grandpa, it's not just when they've been sick, it's been about there everyday life. Prayer is so powerful, don't put limits on what God can do.

xoxo
have a fantastic week!