New Year's Resolution and North Korea

Please watch ^^
It's hard to know where to start after that. It's hard for me to comprehend the extent of what goes on in North Korea.
With ALL of the problems in this world, let it be hunger, violence, abuse of all kinds, addictions, family problems, the list goes on- how can I ever complain? How can I honestly sit here and be so upset that a key broke off of my keyboard? (true story)
Why are mediocre things so important to us that we allow them to take over and consume our lives?
Sometimes I go through rough times, but honestly, someone has it worse. Many someone's have it worse, and those people are closer to me than I often realize.
The question now is, what do I do with this? What am I going to do differently in my life because of what I just saw?
I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions. In fact, for what I remember, I've only half-seriously attempted them once (and failed within the first week if I remember correctly). I've never taken them seriously because I've never had anything I'd honestly wanted (enough to actually try) to break. But I have one this year. I want to stop complaining-about the big things and the little things. Even if it's just complaining about being tired, I want it to stop. There are so many worse things that I could be experiencing, and instead I want to praise in the goodness of what I do have. Instead of complaining, I want to lift up someone else in prayer. Someone else who might have it worse than me.

What are your thoughts or feelings from the video? I would love to hear!


To end on a lighter note, the following is a statement that only a few will understand, but is relative to the topic.
"We're goin in a bathtub!"

New Season

A new season is coming up in my life, and I could use some prayer!
We met together for the first time last night! -our team heading to El Salvador in May, that is. I know that God has put us all together right here right now for a reason, and I'm stoked to see all that He has in store. Part of the motto of World Serve (the overarching title of the missions groups from Simpson) is "to be discipled in order to MAKE DISCIPLES." I am going to fall under both of those categories! I will be attending leader training and prep sessions as well as co-leading team training and prep sessions (as well as the trip itself). Over the last year, God has really laid discipleship on my heart as something that I want to focus my life around. When I was discipled during DTS, it had such a strong impact on my life that I see the necessity for it everywhere.

I first off want to ask for prayer from you. If you wound't mind lifting me up in prayer as you read this, and adding me to your prayer list, I would greatly appreciate it. I realize that being put in a place of leadership is not something that is always going to be easy. In fact, I have already been experiencing some spiritual warfare. Specifically in the ways regarding the four words I will share in the next paragraph. I feel like these areas are really important for me to work on. I feel like in order to reach these goals, my time with God needs to increase. I also know that being in a place where I am called to disciple, I myself must be having that connection with God. In order for God to flow through me to others, I need to be connected to Him. I ask that you would pray with me that I would be able to stay connected to Him, that I would rely on Him as my lifeline. I don't want to try and do this on my own. That would be fruitless and pointless. I want to rely on Him.

Over the last few months, I feel like God has given me some words to focus on, some areas in which I need to improve in my life. These areas/words are Daily Surrender, Intentional, Relationships, and Service. I capitalized them because they hold that much importance to me right now. Here is a little bit of explaining on those four points.
Daily Surrender- I realized that in order to be successful in serving Him and living a life worthy of Him, I need to surrender daily to Him. Not occasionally, but every single day. I need to start my day by giving it and my choices to Him.
Intentional- He has been showing me that I need to be intentional in all that I do. In my studying, in my relationships,and  in my TIME MANAGEMENT particularly.
Relationships- This is been on my heart strongly for the last year, and even though I have been aware of it, I still haven't even come close to attaining the goal in which I have. In this area, I really want to be intentional in my relationships (repetitive, I know). I want to go deep in my relationships. I want to disciple and be discipled in my relationships. I want them to be meaningful, rooted in God. I want all that I do and say in my relationships to lead back to Him- not myself or my own personal gain. I want everything I do and say to direct my friends, those I love, to Him.
Service- God has shown me that in order to accomplish all of these, I must also being willing to serve. Serve in any way necessary. I must be willing to sacrifice my own time in order to relate with others, to help others- and to be intentional in that. (The intentional one really could be a cap on them all, because it does apply in every area.)

As I write these things down, I am reminded again at how not easy this is going to be. I don't mean this in a bad way, but I mean it in a way that these things are not necessarily instinct to me-but I want them to be. It's going to be a positive challenge. :) and so once again I ask for your prayers! These are things I want to wholeheartedly work on, but I can't do it on my own! I also ask for prayers against spiritual warfare.

Thank you for your support!
I want to finish this off with a video I just watched that I feel like I/we can relate to.