AO Teens

Hello! I am going to apologize for the pretty much nonexistent posts of late, I will personally try to make sure that I post more often, but I make no promises for my life tends to be busy and overwhelming as you will see in this post. A QUICK DISCLAMER- this post is not intended to be a pity party for me. I just wanted to share my feelings in a way that may help others so please understand that and don’t think I’m doing this for attention. -Kessa            I wanted to make this post because I feel that I cannot be the only one who is feeling this way. I am a planner, organizer, cleaner, leader, extrovert, etc. Mess stresses me out, disorganization stresses me out, spontaneousness is not my thing, and I always have to be busy. In case you can’t tell already, I get stressed out really easily. My planning, organizing, cleaning, extroverted, leading nature can be good, but it is often very bad. I tend to forget to go to God with all my troubles, I am stub...

  Hello, Alayna here! First of all, I’d like to apologize on the behalf of my friends and myself for the blog being so slow lately. Everyone’s schedules are picking back up again and it’s hard to find time to write together! We’re working on a new scheduling system though so there should be more activity now. This testimony is particularly tardy- I’ve been (sort of) working on it for months, but I just couldn’t seem to get it right for so long! But ahem. This isn’t supposed to be an excuse post. I’d better quit the apologies for right now. The world is a pretty depressing place. Everywhere I look I see darkness. The word “2020” is even starting to become a joke! People are scared, lonely, and depressed. They’re finding their identity in how many social media followers they have or how perfect their lives seem on the outside. It’s so easy to get swept away in the tension and petty bickering and to not fight to keep your head above water and your eyes on Jesus. Why waste time and get...

Hello, friends! Like Lily said a while back, a few of us decided to share our testimonies, and how COVID-19 has impacted them. One thing that I love about hearing other people’s testimonies is that God’s handiwork is laid out in front of you. You can clearly see his sovereignty, and his control. Sanctification is a powerful tool, friends! So my hope is that when you read this, you won’t just see an average story of a girl who follows Jesus, but that you will see my Creator, and the work that He has done in my life. I grew up in a Christian home, going to church every Sunday. During my early years, I didn’t really have an interest or desire for the Bible. I’m sure my parents realized this, but they continued to present it to me anyways. Around the time I turned six, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the truth. Suddenly, I wanted to do what God said was right. I wanted to know Him. And even though I was young, even though I was incapable of so much, I was saved. I distinctly remember a...

Hello, reader! Before I get started, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this blog and especially my post. I hope I can encourage you and make this worth your time.  Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is hugely affected by this pandemic, in the sense that their daily routine is thrown completely off. My daily life didn’t change much, other than many things getting canceled. The only major difference right now is that my dad is working from home, which is a blessing.  But daily routines aren’t the only things that can be affected, especially by something as huge as this pandemic. During this time, I’ve seen friends much less than I would like to have done. I had a weekend retreat and a camp canceled, both of which I wish I’d been able to attend.  My youth group stopped meeting in person. My church stopped meeting in person. My friends and I would likely have gotten together multiple times during the months of quarantine.  And I hated it. And I do hat...

Hello everyone! So, with the COVID-19 pandemic calming down for now, some of us bloggers decided to share a little bit about our lives and how they were affected during these crazy and unexpected times. But, more importantly, we wanted to share about how God has changed us during this time, because this is HIS plan, not ours. He is in control! Therefore, without further ado, I will share about my life, and hope that you can see God behind it all. I am not the center of this story. God is!  This is me with a sweet little one that we welcomed into our home at the end of February 2020. His name is K (well, not really, but for privacy reasons his real name will not be included). K was our second foster care placement. He was 8 months old when he came into our home because of physical abuse. Sadly, we were not even the first home he was removed to; he had lived with two other temporary placements before he came to live with us.  In case you aren’t familiar with foster care, our...