In the darkness comes a soothing light!

Hey everyone I hope you all have had a great day so far!
This morning I woke up and I was just so thankful for each and every one of my family members! Including cousins and other relatives i mean EVERYONE! The reason for that is because my family means everything to me!
This blog update is going to be about darkness and the light that shines and brings HOPE!
This wednesday marks the one year anniversary of one of Pella High students 16 year old Blake Van Vark! His death shook the town of Pella! I didn't know Blake personally in fact I didn't know him at all! I had seen him at my old church in Pella and we went to the same youth group but I never said hi to him! The town of Pella came together and really supported one another in this tragedy. Blake's smile is one that when you see it you can't help but not smile! My heart goes out to the town of Pella this week as we remember the life of Blake!

Blake Van Vark
September 22 1995 - February 13 2012

In honor of Blake Van Vark the song How he loves by David Crowder band

How He loves Us- David Crowder Band

Heres the thing, in life there will be hardship but God is the one that carries us through it! God never gives us more then we can handle and He never will let us go especially when we are struggling! In the darkness a soothing light comes and that light is the love of Jesus Christ! OH HOW HE LOVES US! He loves us more then we can ever imagine! He NEVER WILL LEAVE US! He feels our pain when we our sad He feels our joy when we our filled with happiness! He has gone before us and He holds our life in His hands!
The thing that brings such joy to such a dark time like death is knowing and believing that there is life after death and we can only imagine what heaven will be like but we can believe that there is life after our life on earth with no pain, no sorrow, in Heaven ITS PERFECT!
So to wrap up I want to leave you with this no matter what you are going through wether its the death of a loved one or a close friend or maybe you'r so happy you can't contain your joy... Share it with someone because life isn't meant to be a solo journey God puts people in our life to walk the journey with us!
Closing song for this blog post
Find your wings- Mark Harris
Be blessed throughout this week God is with you every second of everyday!
Blessings
Mighty Mariah

Forgiveness

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great week! This blog post is going to be on something we ALL struggle with....forgiveness! About two weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to winter jam in Des moine! If you don't know what that is its where ten artists come and sing and help spread the gospel through music, videos and speakers and great messages! One of the artists that were there was Matthew west and one of the songs He sang was about forgiveness and He met this girl named Renee and her daughter was killed by a drunk driver! This man got sentenced to 22 years in prison for what he did! And to make a long story short Eric who was the drunk driver got his sentenced cut in half because Renee the mother wanted Eric to help spread messages about drunk driving and the cool thing about this is she forgave him! The reason I am telling you this is because forgiveness is not an easy thing to do! That's one of my struggles I have! So maybe you have someone in your life you think you can't forgive? Maybe you feel you can't forgive someone who has hurt you in the past? God helps us to forgive one another.  Well I don't know if many of you have seen the movie October baby but here's a little summary this girl named Hannah was a survivor of a failed abortion! She didn't know anything about being adopted or even being a failed attempt of abortion! And finally her dad told her but when she found out she went on a trip ended up in jail and then found her real mom! But her mom still didn't want to have anything to do with her. Hannah wanted so badly to figure out who she was! And forgiveness played a HUGE role in this movie because Hannah  felt hatred towards herself and her parents throughout the course and at the end of the movie she finds that she needs to forgive her real mother for trying to abort her! So she went to her work and left her a note saying "I forgive you" and from then on  I saw freedom in her eyes! It was just a cool transformation throughout the course of the movie. She even forgives her father and mother who didnt tell her any of this!
So I hope this blog post opens your eyes and heart! I know it's opening my eyes! But here's a saying I heard "Hate the crime,not the criminal!"
If any one is interested in hearing that song that was sung by Matthew west I will post it!
Here it is
"Forgiveness"
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VquoupNiypI
I hope this blog blesses you because what I shared really taught me a lot about forgiveness! It's not easy to forgive someone that hurt you but forgiveness really is a cool transformation of the heart and mind! It will free you from the bondage of hate and guilt and shame!
Be blessed through out this weekend!
Mighty Mariah
P.S feel free to comment on any of my blog posts! I would love to hear your thoughts!