A Couple Months in Review

No, I'm not dead lol First I want to appologize to all of my avid readers out there who have no doubt been and I quote "waiting with baited breath" for my next post. So much has been going on I hardly know where to start.

Lets see... My last post was in July so we'll just go from there. Well first it was the 4th of July and I went to Placerville to visit my mom and step-dad. We got together with my step-sisters and their families to enjoy the fireworks. May I just say that all my little nephews are super-duper cute! There is one missing from the below picture but unfortunately I don't have a pic with him in it. Wah!


So that was pretty much it for July, pretty sad eh?

August! The greatest month of the year! The month where genius' are born and dreams are made!

Yes, it was my birthday in August and yikes I turned 25! Wow a quarter of a century old, can you believe it? For my birthday I had 3 parties. It was awesome! My roomate called it my birthday week cus it revolved all around me, and rightly so lol j/k I also got to go see the play Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat. It was amazing and I tried my very hardest not to sing along with the cast and not to compare the guy who played Joseph to Donny Osmond and his version.

I also got two shopping sprees for my birthday and boy did I need it! Everyone practically demanded that I get a new wardrobe and thanks to them its coming along nicely.

A couple weekends ago was a long and was one of the most emotional I've had in a long time. One of my best friends, a friend from my childhood got married this weekend in my hometown of Tehachapi. Nicole and I were one of the four friends that were invited to the wedding. It was a small wedding but it was beautiful. The ceremony itself was very short, lasting no more than 10 min. Sarah, the bride was gorgeous in her wedding dress and the groom was cute if not unorthodox in his flip flops.



Today I went fishing! Wait let me start from the beginning, Thursday night I drove up to my mom's house to spend the weekend. I had Friday off because of a lovely thing called furloughs. They are awesome trust me. Though money is nice I would rather have three three-day weekends a month. So, anyway, I spent the night at my mom's house on thursday night. Roy (my step dad) had told me that they were going fishing on Friday morning and if I wanted to come I needed to stop by Walmart and get a one day fishing license. I did and I also bought SuperSmash Bros for Wii. After clobbering Roy in a couple games we went to bed, at a decent hour of 9:00pm.

I actually had a dream about fishing that night which was really weird but also really fun because I caught two huge fish in my dream. Hopefully it was a sign for the next morning. I also had a dream where I was in a musical... don't ask. Anyway, I was told that I would have to get up at 4:00 am but there is a difference between hearing it the night before when you are all hyper and awake and actually getting up that early in the morning.

Actually, perhaps because of the anticipation and the left over adrenaline from belting out a saucy song atop a barroom table in my last dream... I told you not to ask, but getting up wasnt as hard as I had thought it would be. I got up, layered myself with two pairs of pants and 3 shirts and piled into Roy's truck. It was still dark when we left and dark when we arrived at the lake an hour later. The eastern skyline had only the slightest hint of the comming dawn. Not wanting to fish in the dark we waited a half an hour in the truck until the sky was a couple shades lighter a blue then the inky black blue it had been when we arrived.

Then it was time to fish! We got out of the truck... well Roy did, when he opened the door and we felt the icy wind mom and I stayed behind for a couple minutes to put on a couple more layers of clothes; but we eventually waddled out of the truck and grabbed our fishing poles. Now I don't know if it was because of the altitude, the 5 layers of shirts and jackets I had on or just my complete lack of physical excellence but we had to walk up this small hill in order to get to the lake and I was dying! Not as bad as my mom who had to pace herself on the way up hehe but I was gasping for air by the time I got to the top and seriously thinking that I needed to stop and fill my lungs a couple dozen times. Roy just kept on, not phazed at all telling us it was the elevation as I wondered why he seemed to be ammune to the altitude change.


We got to a spot that seemed like it would be a good place to cast in our lines, baited our hooks with orange powerbait, and threw our lines into the water... some farther and straighter than others lol A few seconds after my line hit the water the rod started jumping. After a brief fishing lesson from Roy I reeled in a very small, very cute trout. I thought we were going to throw it back but Roy removed the hook (I wouldn't do it eww) and fastened the trout to the stringer. Yay I had caught the first fish of the day! I was secretly so proud of myself.


Well, the rest of the day consisted of Roy catching 6 (but mom reeled in three of them so she thinks those three count as hers lol)and I only caught one more. 8 was really good, especially when we looked at how many all the other people were catching... none of which had gotten there as early as we had mind you. Just to clarify, the reason Roy caught so many was because mom and I took a little nap in our chairs towards the end of our trip.

By the time we piled back in the truck at 1:30 pm we were all had sunburnt faces and we all had shed several layers of clothing. All in all it was a really good day... although we would have come home with 9 fish but Roy *cough* tried putting a fish on the stringer while it was in the water and the fish slipped through his hands and back into the lake... it was my fish too! So technically I caught 3 lol

Never Alone

Do you ever notice how people who feel the most alone or that when you feel the most alone that instead of seeking human companionship and grabbing gleefully at the oppertunity when people are present that you instead slink further out of their reach? I came here to my mother's house to find companionship and to escape loniliness. My sister and her husband have come over and instead of going down to join them I find myself upstairs typing this blog. "Melissa," you say, "go down and join them, be with them. If you are lonely it is your fault for secluding yourself from them." I would have to agree with you. The loneliness I feel is most likely prolonged by my own doing, but have you ever found that sitting amidst people who are laughing and talking when you feel like neither of those makes you feel even more alone than when you are by yourself? When the happiness of others so sharply contrasts your feelings that they make your sadness even more evident. That is how I feel tonight.

I have always struggled with loneliness, well ever since I can remember, except for one time in my life, when I felt that I finally always had someone to call or talk to and who I could see whenever I wanted and he would be happy to see me. I let my fiance filled that gap for me and I never realized how much I had come to rely on his presence until now, when it is gone.

When I was in my seat at the movie theater with none of my friends next to me I realized the pain had returned sharp and new and I cried out in my mind and in my heart, "I miss Rossam! If he were here I would not be alone!" Tears came to my eyes and my breath caught in my throat. I missed his arms around me and the feel of him by my side.

It was only after I left my seat to cry in the bathroom did I finally cry out to God and did my strength return to me. Tonight God showed me that it was Him that I should've cried out to first! It was tonight He told me that He wants to be the one that my heart thinks of when I'm feeling this way and He wants to fill the gap that has been left in my life. During my engagement I had become too dependant on my fiance, I had come to accept him as my cure for the loneliness that I felt. I had grabbed onto something of this earth and believed it would save me. But God being the gracious and loving Father that He is saw that I had latched onto this man in my desperation for fullness. So God gently pried my fingers away, all the while whispering in my ear, "Let go my child, it is only I who can satisfy you, who can heal you, who will save you. Hold on to me, my child. I will never leave you nor forsake you."

I sat here trying to motivate myself and to "consider it pure joy" that another trial lay before me. I sat here thinking of this trial that I must face and longing for the day when I have come through it, wondering what God has planned for me that He so wants me to learn this lesson. God, He is so good, and he knows my heart. He showed me Japan and the mission field that I want to go in and He whispered to me, "Do you think you will not be alone if you stand for me? Do you not know that the mission field is a lonely place?" Praise God that He loves us, that He knows everything we will face in our futures, and that He loves us enough to prepare us for the work He has planned for us.

I honestly do not know what the future holds for me, whether or not Japan is what God has willed for me. But I do know that when I go, wherever I go I will have learned to cling to God. I will have learned to cry out to Him first and to walk with Him as my companion.

Footprints

One night I had a dream--
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord
and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints,
one belonged to me and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in my life.
This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you would walk with me all the way,
but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints.
"I don't understand why in times when I needed you most,
you should leave me."
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never, never leave you
during your times of trial and suffering.
"When you saw only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

...Mary Stevenson

I also wanted to thank my friend Nicole who when I was sitting alone in the movie theater recognized something was wrong and gave me her seat next to another friend of mine and she sat alone. Also to all my other friends and church family that are doing their best to help me through this tough time I just want to say thank you with all my heart. I love you guys and you are truly a blessing from God!

Eclipse

Twilight fever has once again descended into our city. Am I opposed to it, umm no not really. The books that I have read of the Twilight series were very good. Good story, good plot, and good characters. The movies on the other hand are a little bit different. There are highlights to the movies like Alice, Jasper and the man who plays Mr. Cullen, who are fantastic and I think well worth the ticket price.

I dropped my friends and Twilight fanatics off at the movie theater. The time 7:30pm 4 1/2 hours before the movie started. Now, I'm a fan of Twilight and I'm all for getting good seats but there is no way I was about to spend the equivalent of half a work day in line for said seats.

Waiting for the first movie was awesome, we arrived at 11pm and still got good seats. The wait time for the 2nd movie was pushing it when we arrived at 9pm got just as good of seats for the first movie but waited twice as long. So this year when my friends said be in line by 7pm my first thought was "This is crazy!"

Anyway, I dropped my psychotic friends off at 7:30pm so they could wait in line and then went home to wait it out in comfort. I tried to take a nap so I could be awake for this one but alas it just wasn't going to happen. I actually ended up leaving at 8:45pm so not much was gained by my rebellion.

When I got to the movie theater I stopped by the Taco Bell that was next door, got a crunchwrap supreme and a soda then parked. A couple spaces away from me I noticed a PT Cruiser with a sticker in the window that read "I drive like a Cullen" and they parked like one too. Oh and just a side note, never eat a crunchwrap supreme from the bottom up! It doesn't work and you get melted cheese, meat and sourcream all over your shirt. That being said when I finally left the car to join the others I looked like a Taco Bell bum.

Girls, girls, girls and the occasional but rare male or reluctant boyfriend. That is what filled both lines around the movie theater. It was craziness but I eventually found my friends near the front of the line playing a game of Bullcrud.

After waiting an hour or so in line the one of the ticket takers came and asked what show time we were waiting for. We had 12:05am but they were letting 12:06am into the theater. So we waited anxiously for them to come back and call our time and we waited and waited and still nothing. Finally we sent Nicole to check on our tickets only to be informed that our time had already gone into the theater and apparently we, and when I say we I mean they, had camped out in the wrong line. Hours of waiting for nothing lol

We get into the theater and of course there are no good seats left. The only ones available are in the very front or the sides. The sides win but there are so many of us (6) that we ended up splitting into groups to get better seats.

The movie starts and may I just say that it was AWESOME! The best out of the three by far, tons of humor, action, and character development. I am so glad that the angst and Edward + Bella took a backseat. Disclaimer *I am definitely more of a Bella + Edward fan than a Bella + Jacob fan. Though Jacob did have alot of the best lines in the movie.

Jacob to Charlie: I kissed Bella...and she broke her hand...punching my face...it's just a misunderstanding.



I will post more about the movie when I see it again and hopefully am awake enough to remember most of it.

Trials

As I sit here on a comfy couch eating Korean food, tea brewing, and Ponyo playing in the background life seems peaceful and easy. Yet all I have to do is let my mind wonder in almost any direction and the cares of life, with all its worries and heartaches, come rushing in. Trials I thought I would never have to face I find myself in the midst of, but through these trials God has shown himself mightly.

As many of you now know, I am no longer engaged. The events and details of the break up is not going to be put on this blog but if you are interested you may ask me in person. It is a sad thing for me and something that I will be grieving for fiercely. But with that grief has come a peace that I cannot fully understand and I have come, at last, to rest in my Father's arms.

I hope in this post to encourage you that there are reasons for the trials that God sends your way. Remember that no trial can reach you before it first has gone through Jesus. "There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all it has gone past Christ and if it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose."

Reasons For Trials

1. To test/reveal the strength of our Faith. 2 Chronicles 32:31 says "God left him to test him that he might know all that was in his heart." The first thing that sturck me about this verse was that God does not need to test us to know what is in our hearts. He already knows and knows better than we do. So God tested him and tests us not so He, God, can know all that is in our hearts but so that we might come to know what is in our own hearts. How many movies have you seen or Bible stories have you read where the main character started out wimpy or normal (Gideon, Moses) or thinking that they could never do the task that was set before them (Frodo) only to come to find their true strength in the trials and tribulations that they faced. Like in Alice in Wonderland where Alice found the "impossible" task set before her of slaying the Jabberwalkee. How many men in the armed forces have gone in thinking themselves weak only to prove to themselves their strength for their country and families. The same goes for us when we face trials. Sometimes God sends us trials so that we may take a "spiritual inventory" as it were, to see how we have grown in Christ, and to reveal the strength of our faith.

Until the very moment I told my fiance I couldn't marry him I did not think I had the strength to do so. I looked into his tear filled eyes and thought "I cant tell him, I just can't. I can't hurt him like this." But I had faith that God would see me through this situation and I had faith in His perfect plan. It was only by this faith and His strength that I was able to say goodbye. This trial has helped me realize the strength of my faith and my love for God, I only hope that with enough practice I can confidently say that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

2. To humble us 2 Corinthians 12:7 "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." This one is a hard one to swallow but I think it goes hand in hand with the first purpose. Not only do you find out your strengths when you go through trials but you also find out your weaknesses. From this trial I know that I am far from being where I need to be with Christ. I see more clearly now my shortcomings and feel more certainly the chinks in my armour.

3. To wean us away from worldly things Can you think of a better way to wean a child of God off of the things of this world than by trials? When trials come and we try desperately to cling to the things of this world we can only be dissapointed in them. We find out that nothing in this world works at lessening our despair or curing our discomfort. We are like a child who crys heartily for a toy but when we are hurt we learn all to quickly that the toy cannot comfort us and instead we reach for our Father.

4. Call us to an eternal hope, makes you want to go to heaven. Again, God shows His eternal wisdom and understanding of the human heart. If we find ourselves in a place that brings us nothing but pain and persecutuion why would we want to stay in that place? Trials bring about a new disinterest in the passing world. For those who are in pain they can look forward to a place with no pain. For those who have lost someone dear to the they can look forward to seeing them again in heaven. As you get older and closer to Christ, more and more things are being stored up for you and the more and more people will be waiting to see you again in heaven. "For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. Romans 8:22 -23

5. Reveal what we really love. This one kinda hits me right in the gut. I mean how often do we say that we love God above all things and then live our lives with ourselves first or our spouse or our children. If you claim that you love God first and foremost in your life you better be ready to prove it. Like Abraham was tested to see if he loved his son Isaac more than he loved God, so will you be tested. I remember telling my fiance that God would always be first in my life. I told him that but I wasn't really sure I believed it myself. When God asked me to choose I struggled harder than I ever have with a decision in my life. God knew who I loved more but now He wanted me to find out who I loved more. I once told my youth group that God is a jealous God and that if there is something in your life that you love more than Him He will remove it. He has to be first and I have found that trials are most often in the form of letting go of something you hold very dear or God taking away something very dear. Deuteronomy 13:3 "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul." Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not [a]hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple." If you do not love God to the degree that you are willing, if necessary, to obey God despite the opinion or petitions of your mother, father, spouse, children, and your own feelings then you do not love God supremely and are not worthy to be the disciple of God. Ouch!

To be continued...

Hot Air

When I was young and still living in Tehachapi one of the things I remember was the hot air balloons that used to fill the sky once a year. It was so beautiful to see the huge flying contraptions lifting and setting down like feathers caught in the slight morning breeze. I used to watch them longingly from my bedroom window as they floated above the lakes and hills, houses and trees.

However, after last year my dreams of flying were laid to rest. I became scared of heights for fear that I would jump. If I were placed on anything but the 1st floor of a hotel I squeezed myself against the wall as I rushed to the elevator. I refused to open the window and felt my heart in my throat everytime I stepped out.

So back in April when my boyfriend got me up at an unholy hour and suprised me with a hotairballoon ride, I was more than a little nervous and even a little thankful when it was called off due to wind.

I thought I was off the hook until my boyfriend now my fiance told me that the hot airballoon company called him up and rescheduled the flight. Again my fears came back, resurrected with the hot air balloon ride.

After awhile my fiance and I broke up but because he had already paid for it and because neither of us had any hard feelings for eachother we decided to meet again for the scheduled ride. Well, Saturday June 26th came and again I found myself awake before the sun. I tried to be in bed by 8:30pm and I was but ended up laying there untired and most awake until 11:30pm. 4:00am came way too early but suprisingly I wasn't all that tired.

We drove an hour to Tracy and were 10 minutes late but they waited for us and we finally arrived. We got out of the car, met the two other people we would be flying with, an elderly couple whos daughters had given them the flight as a Father's day gift.


As they turned the gondola(the basket part of the balloon) and used a big fan to fill the baloon with air my nervousness started again. Would I be ok? Would I be able to be at such heights and not have the thoughts of self-harm. What was worse is that they made us sign a waiver that warned that such a flight was "perilous" and "could result in death". The waiver released them from any liability.

The balloon filled and fire spouted from nozzel. After saying a short prayer I got in into the gondolla and we took our positions. The captain told us to hold on tight and then he fired the torch for some long moments. The closeness of the flame I felt upon my head and it smelled as if I were blowdrying my hair. We lifted off the ground and though it was as smooth as silk my stomache turned.

As we rose higher and higher I grabbed tight to the ropes and looked down. I prayed and wrapped my other arm around Rossam's. The flight was wonderful and I had lots of fun. The best parts were the landings in which the captain would shout "hold tight" and the balloon would touch down giving us a little jolt only to rise up again and skip across the ground like a stone skipping across the water.

The Captain radio his ground crew to come pick us up in a field and low and behold the truck they were using got stuck in the mud on a small dirt road a few hundred feet from where we landed. I thought it quit hilarious but kept my giggles to myself.

While waiting for the captain to return from his ranch, which was a couple miles down the road, to get his other truck, the crew worked hurriedly to get the balloon in its carrying case. They then recruited Rossam to help them carry the gondola to the nearby road. He aggreed and the four of the carried the huge basket through the field... only to have Rossam fall into a ditch. lol


Once the other truck arrived and we made it back to the airport the captain poured us a small glass of champagne, pinned a balloon pin onto our shirts, and handed us a flight completed certificate. It was a great time and a wonderful experience thanks to a little prayer, a little healing, and a great God.

Japan

Almost since I can remember I have had a dream and a passion to go to Japan and preach God’s word its people. A dream because I have fallen in love with the culture, the language and the people and a passion because of the call I have received from Jesus Christ. I truly believe God has tailored my life to the missions’ field in Japan and here are a couple reasons why:

Japan has one of the highest if not the highest suicide rate in the world. The people have no hope and nothing to live for when all external comforts are lost. Back in 2004 I was diagnosed with chronic depression and an anxiety disorder. My brain doesn’t produce enough seritonin, or the “happy” chemical on its own and so I was prescribed medicine that I would have to take everyday to substitute for the shortage. Since then I have gone through 2 other serious cases of depression. The last one was in April of 2009 when my mom and step dad left to go to the Ukraine to do missions work and one of my best friends told me that he loved me, but he wasn’t a Christian so I had to tell him I couldn’t love him back and he left.

I felt all alone. To me it felt like everything had been lost. It was then that I started having thoughts like, “I wonder if anyone would notice if I was gone?” and “I’m so alone. I don’t want to be here anymore.” Things got worse and worse and eventually I couldn’t guarantee that I could keep myself safe. I soon found myself in a hospital for the suicidal and the mentally disturbed. I went in under a 72 hour watch. The whole time I was there I kept thinking that I didn’t belong and I would sit on my bed crying out to God asking why, if I was his child, was I going through this. Why hadn’t He cured me long ago and even now because I knew and I believed it was in His power to do so. It was then that my mind flashed back to that March day when I had just been accepted by JEMS to go on a mission trip to Japan. That day I had gotten on my knees before the Lord and asked that God give me a message to take to the people of Japan, a message that was powerful and that they desperately needed to hear. A message that was my own and that would reach their hearts. It was then that the lightbulb clicked on in my brain and God showed me that this, this was the message that He wanted me to bring to the people of Japan. He was grieved at the situation in Japan and He wanted to tell them that there is indeed hope when all things seem lost. There is someone to turn to when all others have left you and that he yearns to comfort your fears and your anxieties, he longs to mend your broken hearts.

There in that hospital, a peace filled my heart and mind. I knew it would be difficult, I knew I would struggle but I knew that God, my Father, would be there through it all. I left that hospital with a purpose. With the help of God, my friends and my church family I made it through to stand before you today. I won’t tell you that I don’t struggle anymore or that sometimes Satan’s thoughts don’t creep back into my mind but through His blood and with His power I am saved.

I am now finally planning to go on my first mission trip to Japan for 2 weeks late this year or early next. Please be in prayer for my health, both physical and mental. I know that God is going to do great things!

Down The Rabbit Hole

A friend of mine threw an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party yesterday. It was alot of fun and I will post more on it later but first I wanted to post on the actual movie itself.

The movie itself only ranks a 6 on my movie scale having little to no plot to raise its ratings. It starts with a young Alice interupting her father's business meeting due to a nightmare. She continually has nightmares about falling down a huge hole, seeing a white rabbit, meeting strange creatures, and talking to a blue catapiller. The father listens attentively and then comforts her in very cute display of their loving and understanding father/daughter relationship.

I often find my mind wandering during such scenes, not out of boredom or lack of interest mind you. My mind wanders during these kinds of scenes because of the rarety of finding them in real life. In my mind there is almost nothing in the world as important or as special as a bond between father and daughter. It is from the dad that a girl recieves her strength and the picture of what she wants from a future husband. Yet these bonds grow looser and looser each generation and rarer and rarer to find. So my mind wanders to girls I know or even myself to some degree who would love to have what is playing on the screen infront of me.

After this we see Alice, now 19 years old, driving in a coach with her mother to a party that she apparently doesn't want to go to. The mother scorns her for not wearing a corsett or stockings and we find out that her father has since died and is very much missed by Alice.



Alice eventually ends up going down the rabbit hole and finds herself once again in Wonderland. There she finds the White Rabbit, the Doormouse and Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum awaiting her. They take her to Absolum (the Blue Catapiller) to ask him if she is indeed the "real Alice". They need the Alice who came to their world before because it was predicted in their calander that she would return once again to slay The Jabberwalkee and free the inhabitants from the Red Queen's tyranicle reign. When asked if she is the "real Alice" Absolum answers "Not hardly" and then vanishes.

To make a long story short Alice goes through many trials in order to rescue the Mad Hatter from the Red Queen, which she fails, and then make her way to the White Queen's castle. Once there she is again told that she must fight The Jabberwocky with the legendary Vorpal Sword which she retrieved from the Red Queen's castle.


Alice again meets Absolum who tells her that she is indeed the "real Alice" and that when asked about him denying she was the real Alice in the beginning he says, "I never said you were not Alice, I said you were harldy Alice. But you're much more Alice now."

Alice decides to be the White Queen's "Champion" and fight the Jabberwocky. She puts on the armour, takes up the Vorpal sword and goes to the battlefield. On the battlefield the Red Queen calls forth her champion, the Jabberwocky, and the White Queen calls forth hers, Alice.

Jabberwocky: So my old foe, we meet on the battlefield once again.
Alice Kingsley: We have never met.
Jabberwocky: Not you, insignificant bearer. My ancient enemy, the Vorpal one.

In the end Alice slays the Jabberwocky and returns to her own world where she finally stands up for herself and begins to make her own way in life.

Like I said, I only like this movie about a 6 but when I saw it for the second time a couple things stood out. 1. Alice tries the whole movie to live up to her name. She tries to live up to the name of Alice and prove that she is the real Alice. We as Christians do the same thing. As Christians we go through our whole lives trying to live up to a name as well. That name is Jesus Christ. As we start out we start as Alice did "not hardly" being like Christ. Then as time goes on and we go through trials, we gain back our "muchness" and grow closer to becoming like the one whose name we bare.

2. We also have a dragon to slay, or a job that only we can perform. When God made you he made you perfectly for the task he has assigned to you. No one else can do your job, you are God's champion. We all need to suit up in the Armour of God and slay the dragons in our own spiritual war. Like how only Alice could kill the Jabberwocky, there are dragons in your life that only you can slay.

3. The Vorpal Sword. In the movie the White Queen tells Alice that the Vorpal Sword knows what it wants to do and she need only to hold on to it. When I saw this I was reminded of the sword that we as Christians carry. The Word of God is our sword. The quote from the Jabberwocky is much like how I picture Satan talking to us when we go up to face him. The only difference is that he cannot call us insignificant ones. He might try, just to make us feel less worthy and to discourage us but in reality we are wholely and completely significant as the bearers of God's Word and just like the White Queen told Alice, we must simply hold fast to the Word of God and He will handle the rest.