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God has really been speaking to me through the book of James, in my small group at school and even our youth group at church. James speaks a lot about faith and until I started college, I really did think I had a lot of faith in God. I trusted Him to guide me to the right school and provide a way for me to be able to afford it. Now looking back, I’m not sure if I completely trusted God or just assumed that I would figure everything out in due time. I realized that I actually have a problem with completely trusting God. I found myself struggling in school; studying for exams day and night only to be disappointed with my grades, and even struggling with friendships that were just hurting me. As I enter into my last semester of undergrad, I look back and see all the things I faced and overcame and I am reminded that God has a plan. Psalm 139 really helps me through those moments when I feel alone or like my life is out of control. Verses 1-6 say: “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!” Isn’t it amazing that our God knows everything about us? Even in my darkest times, God knows what I’m going through and He IS there. Sometimes I would question, is God really with me? If he is, why am I struggling? Did I do something wrong? Is this God punishing me? But James 2: 2-8 says: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” Through James, I have come to understand that I’m not being punished; my faith is being tested. With every obstacle that comes my way, with every problem that I face, I have the opportunity to grow in my faith and learn to trust God more and more. And why not trust Him, the one who loves me and cares for me most? Psalm 139:16-18 says: “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” I can search the world, but I will never find anyone who knows me as well as God does. He has planned out every day for me, He knows all my wants and needs, yet He still cares to know my thoughts and He is always thinking of me! He will never leave me. Psalm 139 ends with verses 23 and 24 by saying: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” God knows the desires of my heart. He knows how much I just want to please him and fulfill whatever plan he has for my life. During these next few months of uncertainty and waiting before I know what I’m going to do after graduation, I know God will be testing my faith more so than ever before. I know I will need to learn to trust God COMPLETELY. I need to remind myself that it’s okay to be scared, it’s okay to feel overwhelmed and lost. But I also need to remind myself that God isn’t going anywhere, He’s right here with me. -Meryl Jacob

“Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.” James‬ ‭3‬:‭2-12‬ NLT People say actions speak louder than words, but in reality, words have great power over people as well. Paul says that if we have every kind of knowledge and gift of the spirit but don’t have love, everything is meaningless. James 1:26 says that “if anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” If we don’t control our speech, we don’t control any area of our lives. If you are hateful with your tongue, it’s only natural that you are hateful in other areas of your behavior. I’m not talking about just abstaining from saying bad words or cuss words or the like. I’m talking about the way we address people in everyday conversation, like calling your friends stupid or worse. Words stick with people forever. In middle school, I was a depressed kid. Some of that had to do with names that people called me, saying I was ugly or fat. Once someone insults you about something, it’s hard to forget about it. Every time I looked in the mirror, I was reminded about what other people said to my face. No matter how many times different people told me to stop thinking that, that I was pretty, I could never believe them because the insults held more weight. There were so many times back then when I cried myself to sleep because I remembered words people have said to me. When we lose control in anger and let our tongues loose and say things we don’t mean, it’s hard for the other person to forget about it. They might forgive you, but those words will always be in the back of their minds. It’s so easy to lose control when we’re angry and say things that we don’t really mean, but what about those times when we’re just teasing or playing around? We don’t know how our words will affect other people. Proverbs 18:21 says “the tongue has the power of life AND death” James 3:10 says “out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be!”. Words are weapons, even the careless words. Proverbs 12:18 says “reckless words pierce like a sword” and in Jeremiah 3:8, a tongue is compared to a deadly arrow. James 3:8 says the tongue is full of deadly poison. I know this is hard to do, especially in the South Asian culture where Uncles and Aunties are the most blunt people you’ve ever met. It’s hard to resist saying something back when their words cut you like a knife. But as James says, we must be quick to listen, slow to anger, and slow to speak. Because once we start talking in anger, it’s hard for us to stop. It escalates quickly and gets out of control. On the other hand, it’s also hard in our culture to encourage people. People are slow to give compliments and horrible at receiving them. Mostly this has to do with remembering the pain of the hurtful words when anyone gives us good words. But Ephesians 4:29 says “don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” Proverbs 15:4 says that “kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim.” It’s all easier said than done though. We have to be vigilant and think before we speak. Psalm 141:3 says“set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Let this be our prayer, that our words come from a place of kindness to help our sisters instead of hurting them. Try to encourage your friend instead of calling them dumb or something similar. You never know how much your words can impact someone else’s life. ~Jency James

The start of something new means entering into an area in which you are subject to adventure, fear, success, and even failure. “You never know unless you try.” So here’s to a beginning that I am not even quite sure will be the biggest success. Fear of the new, the regret of past, and the stress of the present. What else is left? What else do we hold on to? Every day is a new day in which we are to live to “the fullest” whatever that may be. We get caught up in the worries of life: school, work, home, children, parents, and the list continues… But when do we find the time to stop, breathe, and… wait for it… it’s coming… almost… oh yeah… Relax! Don’t lie to yourself, majority of you definitely just skipped over the ellipses, past the pointless in between words and got right to the word “relax” right? We expect the immediate results, but we can’t be completely blamed for it… society has started to mold us that way. Other than exploring the latest iPhone, latest Galaxy S(insert number here), or the latest device… have we explored the latest books? Or even the latest news? Chances are… no. Truth be told, I haven’t either. The internet, social media, the “411” on the Kardashians, or most common… the latest celebrity divorce, hangover, or arrest is where most of our attention goes to. Why do we live our lives vicariously through these objects or these people rather than living a life of our own? The thrill, the adventure, and the drama of these lives we see plastered on the televisions, internet, or even Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, has us either wanting the life they have, or being thankful we aren’t them. This can do one of two things… make us super happy that we had a better day than those posts read, or wishing “Man I wish I was them.” How long are we going to wait for the next biggest thrill of our lives in order to be happy about ONE day? Stop trying to look for the ideal way to live your life. Don’t wish someone else’s life was yours and most importantly… make each day count for something. Smile at someone, brighten their day, say thank you every chance you get, or even bless you when you hear a sneeze… be courteous and respectful, thankful for all you have, and live each day as though your past has been wiped clean because God’s taken care of that! ~Lincy Sam

In our society, “single” is a dirty word. If you aren’t with someone by the age of 13, it seems that you’ve caught the plague or people start to look at you as though you’re weird. As you get older, it only gets worse. When I was younger, I remember making up boyfriends so that my friends would just leave me alone about why I wasn’t dating someone. Everywhere I turned, everything had to do with relationships. TV, movies, books, music, everything was infested with “love”. I began to develop this unhealthy view of life having only to find your significant other and having children. When I entered college, people were getting engaged and married left, right, and center, and they weren’t even 21 yet. Everyone was so eager to date someone, anyone really, or even marry someone. If someone had just gotten out of a relationship, they were quick to get back onto their feet and start searching and playing the field again. I kept thinking to myself, “surely there must be more to life?” Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against marriage, love, children etc. If you asked my closest friends I was once that girl that would talk about nothing else. But Crazy Thought. What if God wanted us to be single? At least for a portion of our lives? What if He gave us the time to be single as a gift? At least to me, I don’t think it is a “what if”; I believe it is a fact. For the longest time I believed my life would only start once I got married. I’d been wanting the fairytale wedding, and the happily ever after for so long, that sadly, I had let so much time go to waste, missing out on opportunities in life. And now, I refuse to believe that my life will only “start” once I am married or start dating my “one true love”. My life started when I was born and my life restarted when I was saved and washed with the perfect blood of Jesus Christ many years ago. I want to live life to the fullest, and how can I do that if I waste the 20-30 something years that God has given to me to be single? For some of us God asks to wait for marriage for only a short period of time while others a longer time, but whatever the period of singleness, it should still be viewed as a gift and not a curse. There isn’t a perfect man that is going to come riding along on a white stallion in shining armor. There is no prince charming. And that’s what God had to wake me up from. I had spent so much time wishing I had this perfect somebody, looking at each guy that passed me thinking, “Are you the one?” that I never realized I’ve had my perfect somebody all along. His name is Jesus. God says in Isaiah 54:5 “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called” and in Jeremiah 3:14 “for I am your husband. I will choose you…and bring you to Zion”. Jesus chose ME. Over everyone else, he chose to love and cherish me, and I’ve been wasting this time with Him because I’ve been looking for a man to fill the void in my heart when really only God can fill a void of loneliness and wanting to love and be loved.The metaphor of our relationship with God being like a marriage is used over and over again in the Bible. It’s an accurate metaphor though, because just like a real marriage, there is a give and a take. In order to make the relationship with God work, you have to put in time and effort, give Him all your joys and pains, let Him be apart of your everyday life, not be ashamed of him, and ready to live your life to the fullest with Him, because “[He has] loved you with an everlasting love, therefore [He has] continued [His] faithfulness to you.” Jeremiah 31:3 So why not be faithful to Him? God has given us the time to be single, in order to give him our undivided attention. In 1 Corinthians 7:32 it says, “I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs-how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world”. Once we are married, we will be married (God-willing) for a very long time. Hopefully longer than our 20-30+ years of singleness. So instead of using up all the time of our singleness on thinking about the next 20-30+ years of being married, let’s use this time for God. To Make Him Known. And honestly I’ve stopped worrying about finding the right someone. I know at the right time God will provide for me what He has provided for those that have gone before me; not a perfect man because there is no such thing but the perfect man for me. Someone that will compensate for my weaknesses and will enhance my strengths. Someone that will never consider me below him, but will consider me an equal. A man that loves the Lord with all his heart and does not lean on his own understanding. However, if I am one of those chosen few to be single forever, like Paul in the Bible who says in 1 Corinthians 7:7-8 “ I wish that all were as I myself am [single and content]. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another,” then I will be happy with God’s will for my life. Some have the gift of singleness and some the gift of marriage. Most people get the gift of marriage but the gift of singleness really is a gift for those that can remain pure and content in it. With the gift of singleness, you don’t have to worry about the stresses and problems of other people or have to take care of another person, take into consideration another person’s thoughts, ideas and feelings, or even share your whole heart and love with anyone but Christ. He gets to have your undivided attention and love for the rest of your life WOW, what a way to live! You couldn’t just get up and go spread the gospel all around the world and make an impact as Paul did, with another person or even a whole family. Nothing in life is guaranteed, being single or being married. Our lives are complete in Christ. That should be enough and it really is enough if you let it be. So hopefully one day somebody’s, but if not, happily eternally God’s. ~Tabitha Thomas

I think I have always known my whole life that I am meant to be different from everyone else around me. I chose to make Christ my Savior and Lord at the age of 9. I knew from that day that the decision I had made would forever color every other decision I would make in life. Throughout my high school and college life, I knew that I needed to live a life that pleases my Heavenly Father while giving honor to my earthly parents. Staying out of trouble as a teenager and young adult is possible when you know whose child you are. In high school, I was the quiet and studious child who was able to stay focused on the tasks in front of me despite distractions in the periphery. This doesn’t mean that I did not desire to be beautiful and popular as my classmates were. However, I made some tough choices throughout the many, many years that I was a student in different settings (high school, college, graduate school). In each of these places, I knew that it was vain to follow the lead of others for popularity’s sake. Now, as a mom, I find it important to impress upon my kids that it is not important to seek the approval of other people. Here are the important things I want to convey to my kids and to young people growing up today. You have to know who you are and whose you are. You are a child of the King of Kings. Once you know that and understand it, you do not mind living a life that is different from others. That means that you should not feel pressured to wear clothing that is immodest. It means that you should not go to places where a child of God does not belong. It means that the words of your mouth should reflect your understanding that you are an ambassador for the Almighty. Know who you are and whose child you are! ~Shiney Cherian Daniel

“When the music fades and all is stripped away, and I simply come…” …and so begins the worship classic, “Heart of Worship.” I don’t know much, but in my experience as a worship leader, I’ve found it can be very easy to turn worship into a jam session. A song turns into a performance, a congregation becomes an audience, and Jesus is simply out of the picture. We strive to make every detail of the music flow together perfectly, so much so that we forget why it even matters. At that point we have to ask ourselves, is the 30-minute set that we term “worship” glorifying God, or is it glorifying us? Our purpose should be to exalt His name, not ours, but nowadays it seems that leading worship is all about “me me me.” It all stems from a lack of intimacy with Jesus. When we begin to draw near to Jesus, true worship is inevitable. He is our “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6. He is “the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” Revelation 22:13. He is unchanging; therefore He will always be worthy of worship. That worship doesn’t stop when the music stops. It doesn’t stop when Sunday ends. It doesn’t stop when you’re in school or at work. It doesn’t stop when you’re at home with your family. It doesn’t stop when you’re with your friends. Your thoughts, your words, your actions—they’re all aimed to glorify Jesus. The reason I love the song “Heart of Worship” is because the lyrics of the song remind me even as I’m singing that it isn’t about my singing. God isn’t looking for perfection in our talents; He’s looking at the intention of our hearts. He is looking for the hearts that know what worship—what life itself is really about: “It’s all about you, Jesus.” ~Lesley Koruthu

Remember those times when a close friend or family member was going through a rough patch, and all you wanted to do was to help them and make them feel better? What about that time when they were crying at 3 in the morning and all they wanted to do was to call you so you could comfort them and give them advice? This process might have lasted for a couple of days, months, or maybe even a year. And through it all, you were the one person who was there for your friend or family member. But then all of a sudden, things start to get better and life is as perfect as it could be for that individual. As each day goes by, that person stops depending on you, calling you, crying out to you, and maybe they don’t talk to you as often anymore. You end up feeling upset, hurt, neglected, and even used. Many of us have been victims of this situation. But we are also guilty of this action when it comes to our relationship with God. I’ll be the first one to admit that my relationship with God is at its highest when I go through a tough situation or when things are not going the way I want it to go. After everything falls into place, I forget that God was the one who brought me out of my struggle and my relationship with him starts to fade all over again. We fail to realize that God also feels hurt when we distance ourselves from him. In Proverbs 3:5, it says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” God wants us to depend on him whether our life is going smoothly or whether we face trials. He wants us to constantly reach out to him and walk with him. Just like a parent wants to guide their child and build a strong bond with him or her, God desires to build an unbreakable bond with his children as well. If we work on trusting God and leaning on Him as each day goes by, we will be able to re-build and maintain a strong relationship with the one who has been by our side through it all. ~Shelby Thomas

Have you ever been told you couldn’t do something because of your gender? Girls you can’t play in the mud and get dirty, play sports, be loud, be fat, be hairy lol, etc. Guys you can’t like shopping, romance, arts and crafts, be sensitive, or being a genuinely sweet person etc. So what would you do, if someone told you couldn’t do something because you were a woman? That you weren’t good enough because you were “just a girl”? When did ” you do that like a girl” or “you’re such a girl” become an insult? How can being who we biologically are, be something bad or negative? Like in these videos, #Like a Girl and #Unstoppable we have to teach ourselves and the people around us that being a girl isn’t something bad. It doesn’t mean you are inferior, weak, or unable to do something. The glass ceiling that is visible and invisible needs to be broken! And it starts with YOU! It starts with ME. If you are a girl, own who you are and don’t let anything stop you, especially something you can not help like being a GiRL. If you are like me, you grew up in a family where anything was possible. As the oldest child, I quickly became the “all in one” child of the house. If my dad needed help building something he called me, If my mom needed help cleaning or cooking she asked for my help. If my sisters needed help with their homework or wanted me to play with them I became their friend. There wasn’t a situation in my household that “because I was a woman” I couldn’t do. My dad especially instilled in me to be a strong independent self-sufficient woman. We even used to be part of a father daughter organization like girl scouts but we actually would do what boy scouts did. We pitched tents, slept in the wilderness, learned to shoot, etc. I fell in love with nature because I cherished this time of not only being close to be my dad but even being close to my heavenly father. During my childhood, I also loved Barbies. I had over 20+ Barbies I played with them till I was 13. I would be being creative that way and make clothes and furniture for them and I sewed and made pillows for the longest time and just a bunch of diy projects. But at the same time I loved video games playing with my Gameboy and running outside with the neighborhood guys riding our bikes and playing in the mud and playing with the worms and doing “guy stuff”. I didn’t know that being a girl or being a guy was all that different from each other. Unfortunately, when middle school started, puberty happened. The guys I used to hangout with realized girls were gross to hangout with but were fine to date. I had always been a girly girl but 5th and 6th grade rapidly escalated that. Name brands became a huge thing and I was wasting so much money on Limited Too, Hollister, Abercrombie, Aeropostale, all those name brand clothes. Makeup, hair, the way you looked became a huge thing. And so evolved this girl that wasn’t sure how to really balance her feminine side with everything she had grown up with. I was never the pretty one, the tall one, the super nice one, And soon I became the no one. Growing up though, when you’re surrounded by guys “who automatically step into their “I am great mentality” but being a girl you are told to be quiet or less bossy, it’s hard to think of yourself as something. And from then on I always thought of myself as a nobody. Someone mediocre, not someone with any real talents. I hated interviews because you have to be able to sell yourself, and when they ask you about your strengths you come up with some kind of nonsense but when it comes to the weaknesses, you can go on and on forever. So I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself. And as I got older it really just got worse and worse. The transition from middle school to high school was awful and I just felt like I kept losing myself and that I didn’t have any worth. I kept going to jesus camps that really was opening up my spirituality but I was doing nothing to help my mental state of being just a girl. I started to do only girly things. If it had anything to do with I’m tired of people giving the same excuse over and over. I’m not good enough. I’m not ready. I’m scared. Or I love when they try to make a joke  or laugh when someone says something great over their life. Stop making excuses for yourself because so what? You are basing your achievements on yourself and not on God’s abilities. You can’t say your not good enough or qualified enough because God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called! And He is calling YOU. You are beautiful, you are talented, you are strong, you are worthy! Stop thinking yourself as anything less! YES YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! I had the chance to be part of an all women’s worship team and I always thought about my talents when I’m with them. Not because I’m insecure, but because I honestly believe I am probably the least talented person on the  team.  But as much as I’d like to quit due to my lack of talent, I can’t. It would be hypocritical of me to try to motivate other women with trying to do something with their abilities and talents, and me just up and quit.  Even when you feel you are inadequate for the job, you can’t give up. The great wall of china wasn’t built in a day, Michael Jordan become the best basketball player in a season.  And as a wise friend once told me, God sees your willingness over your ability to play. And really that is what makes you valuable in the kingdom: your willingness to do something for the Lord and for others. When you find your worth in Christ, then everything else seems to fade away. The worth that people see in you is nothing compared to the way God sees you. YOU are his beautiful bride, the daughter of the most high king, the proverbs 31 woman, and last but definitely not least you are HIS. When God knows where you are, it doesn’t matter if anyone else notices you..