NOW!!!

I don't know if anybody has been reading this blog since the start, but if you have you may remember my first couple of posts, recapping the Dallas Catholic Youth Conference. If not, please have mercy when you read them - they are not the most well written posts I have. It was actually the thing that made me decide to start blogging. ANYWAYS.......

I never really finished my recaps, I don't plan on giving a full play by play now, but rather explain WHY it was such an amazing weekend.

First off, I got much closer to one of my best friends, Kassidy. We go waaayyyyy back to the VBS days and have danced together for a while but after we shared a bed and stayed up watching Miranda Sings videos all night at DCYC we now have a pretty unbreakable bond. I got to serve as her confirmation sponsor this year, which was an honor and an incredible journey in my own faith as well as hers. If we had never gone to DCYC, who knows if we would be the Miranda Sings loving-dumb roller coaster picture taking - church boy stalking girls we are today?
DCYC pretty much confirmed my dream of becoming an evangelist/ youth minister when I grow up. I was so touched by the stories the speakers shared. I still hold the words "His will and my will are the same" close every day of my life. I will always remember that it was Mike Hoffman who spoke those words, and Naomi Lehew's talk on Blessed Chiara Badano that made them true to me. I probably say this in every single post but... I want to be somebody who can do that for other people - give them truths, help them understand God just a little bit more.
Lastly, and most importantly, I'm gonna be cliche and say that it was an inspiring weekend. The whole conference emphasized how you don't have to be an adult to make a difference. Blessed Chiara was only 18 years old when she died, and that was only 23 years ago, and she was beatified in 2010. The time is now! Now is the time to be holy, not tomorrow not in 30 years - Jesus doesn't care if you're 13 or 83, you are part of His family and it is your responsibility to be active in it. So pray! Volunteer! Go to church! There's no point in waiting on something that is available to you this instant. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I have big dreams and DCYC made me believe that they are achievable, not in ten years but in the near future. Now here I am, almost a year later, a part of the first ever Epi-Pro dance company, being blessed with the incredible opportunity to give Him glory and to bring people from all over the country closer to Him through dance! And I know that this is only the beginning of what God has in store for me!

Dallas Catholic Youth Conference gave me a retreat high that I don't ever plan on getting off of but now I bear bad news.........
This past week I recieved an e-mail from my youth minister saying that we had to cancel our DCYC trip this summer because of low registration. First of all, I think it is ridiculous that one of the largest Catholic youth groups in the nation had to pull out because not enough people signed up, and it saddens me that so many teens from my parish don't know what they're missing out on. Seeing as Kassidy and I have been counting down the days until DCYC all summer, devastated is an understatement. PLEASE pray that we can work out a way to still get to go!!!

Sorry for being a downer in the last paragraph but it is what it is. You might be thinking, "Didn't you say 'His will and my will are the same?'" Well yes, but I highly doubt that God's will is to keep a group of teens away from a place where they can grow deeper in their faith with Him. I'm praying for the best but unfortunately, preparing for the worst.

                                                                      In His Name, 

Meredith 

questions, comments or prayer requests? Feel free to email me: meredithmunro@icloud.com 

 

**PRAYER REQUESTS** 

The kids at SAY Summer, VBS & all of the volunteers this coming week @ St. Ann

My friend, Evana and her mom that got in a car accident the other day

Here's the DCYC promo... I make an appearance around 50 seconds :-)


DCYC Promo from Dallas DCYC on Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/77081896

"The decisions we make, and how we respond to The Lord's invitation, can affect the entire direction of our future, can affect people we do not yet know, can affect entire generations after us" - Naomi Lehew

"The future of the Church depends on you, well let me tell you all - that future is here now and you're required, not in a couple years' time but right now, you must be filled with The Holy Spirit" - Bishop Kevin Ferrell.

"Live in a way that those who know you but don't know God, will come to know God because they know you" - wooden plaque thingy in my house

wacky week

I feel like I start every single post with an apology for not posting in a while... Sooooo um sorry I haven't posted in a while, I guess I just haven't done anything interesting enough to talk about BUT this week I did!!!

This past week I had the privilege of dancing in Gateway Church's "Wacky Week", which can be best described as vacation bible school on crack. It's insane, in the best way possible and I am so incredibly thankful to have been a part of it. I danced in the opener, day 1 & day 2 closers and got to be a dance-worship leader. (Seeing as I often feel my calling in life is to be a worship hand motion choreographer, the last one was especially fun) Today I want to share a couple of things that made this week so special to me...

I'm not a member at Gateway so I was pretty nervous that Olivia & I would be excluded because we were outsiders. But everybody there was SOOOO nice, it wasn't hard at all to see Jesus in each and every person I met. I made tons of new friends and was welcomed by everybody, by the end of the week I felt like part of their huge family. What I admire the most is that status didn't matter. The dancers shared a dressing room with the actors and singers and nobody was more important than another. The people who on a TV show would be portrayed as the diva or the condescending genius, were the sweetest of them all. The female lead singer, Anna, especially warmed my heart. She is an amazing singer, yet she is incredibly humble and is a ton of fun to hang around with. She constantly praised us dancers and was enthusiastic about taking weird pictures of Olivia and me backstage. It was also surreal getting to hang out with/dance with so many members of Ingredients dance company, which I wrote about in a previous post (read it here). It was crazy getting to dance alongside so many people that I look up to. 

I'm gonna try not to get too sappy here but a month ago today, my dance teacher, Connie, had a preventative double mastectomy (meaning she had it to lower her once very high chances of getting cancer - NOT because she had it!). On the way to our first Wacky Week rehearsal, Olivia and I went and visited her in the hospital and yesterday I was dancing with her onstage! God does amazing things for amazing people! One of my new friends said the other day, "Connie, you are literally my inspiration" She laughed off the comment but its so true, and if you know her I think you'd agree. She's inspiring in the simplest ways, and in big ones too. For me, she inspired me to want more from my dancing, showing me that there is more to dance than just steps. Throughout this week Connie has thanked  us immensely for helping her out and I always feel like I'm the one that owes her thanks. Most of the other dancers come from Christian studios and companies, so it may not have been that big of a deal to them  but this was the first time I had gotten to do dances created specifically to glorify Our Lord! IT WAS AMAZING!!! And now that I know how it feels, I never want to go back! So Connie, if you're reading this I love you, thank you so much for allowing me to dance & worship this week, you're seriously the coolest person I have ever met. 

During sound-check one day, Pastor Ken, told us about how every generation seems to say that the generation below them is the "generation that turned their backs on God". He said that it's people like us, people who use their talents to glorify Our Creator, not worldly things and imitation love, who can change that and I truly believe he's right. I wish you all could have seen the kids  attending Wacky Week when we danced and led worship - even the boys in the back row were jumping around and lifting their hands in praise. Knowing that I contributed to kids encountering Christ is the most gratifying thing in the world. This week, though for the children, was a retreat for me as well. 

When I was little and went to VBS, I always had a "favorite" big kid. There was always one person I watched and looked up to and wanted to be just like. They never knew how much of an impact they made on me and now that I'm a big kid and there's probably a little girl who looks up to me. It sounds so silly, but what made this week so special to me is that idea. I'll never know her name, but I have touched her heart and that fills me with enough joy to last a lifetime. 

Once again I'm really thankful for this week, making new friends, growing closer to my already friends and growing closer to God! I'm also excited because I get to do it all again in July!!!

In His Name, 

Meredith 

questions, comments or prayer requests? Feel free to email me: meredithmunro@icloud.com 

**PRAYER REQUESTS** 

All of the kids who went to Wacky Week

Connie in her recovery, her caretakers and doctors

Here are links to some short videos from WW...

Opener: http://instagram.com/p/ppWXq0rE3W/

Alive (my arm is on the big screen haha!): http://instagram.com/p/ppWvu9rE3z/

I'm the one in the center-ish, wearing pink pants and a blue jacket.

we waited all week to take a picture smashing our faces against the glass of the drum cage haha

okay this is in SL town square but I've always wanted to open a dance studio in this building and the store is closing so my chance is now (lol I'm not opening a studio any time soon though)

this fantastic portrait of a horse is in the green room, so I had to do some snap chat story-ing with it...

in a box

pretending i'm in the noize

these guys & girls were amazing in the skits all week

Olivia, Connie & me - purple version

Rudy & me trying to be hardcore... except I did the "I love you" sign instead of "rock on" oops

most of the dancers

Me, Tressa & Olivia

"Hop on my back!"

Well friends, we're approaching the busy season. Banquets, recital, tryouts - oh my! For me, there are a lot of "lasts" and I'm only a sophomore. A lost of it has to to with growing up, which is both scary and exciting. In this past year alone my responsibilities have doubled, driving, choreographing solos, and as of yesterday, becoming an EMHC (Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion). Being able to do all of those things and be trusted to carry them out properly is awesome but I think we all  miss the days where we had no responsibilities. When we're little kids we don't have any responsibilities, we don't have high expectations from anybody nor ourselves, we haven't been exposed to the struggles this earth holds for us. So in the wake of some ridiculous drama/ stress at my dance competition this past weekend, it was great to be able to hang out with a four year old girl to take my mind off of all of the worldly troubles. 

This particular four year old is one of the dance teacher's daughters, Tatum. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of kids but I cannot get enough of Tatum. She's got an infectious spirit, one of those laughs that instantly makes you happy. At the beginning of the weekend I was deemed her friend and by the last day, she told me that she loves me. Aside from funny selfies and vines, the most important thing I got from my weekend with Tatum is a reminder on how we're all made in God's image. Four year olds don't have tunnel vision like we teens do, if you come talk to to Tatum, she declares you  her friend. She's accepting, we all should be too. The second thing I learned is that we all need to laugh more. Olivia and I rode back to the hotel with Miss Jessica (Tatum's mom) on Saturday night, Tatum in tow. Most fun car ride of my life. Tatum would say something random then start cracking up, causing us all to do the same. She told us all about her fish named Bunny and her three brothers (Barrett, Landon and Daddy. Landon is her favorite.) Eventually she ran out of real words and started making up her own which was even funnier. When we got back to the hotel and had to split up in the elevator, Tatum was devastated. 

As I said, the weekend was full of ridiculous drama and stress, which all dance competitions are, but hanging around with my favorite four year old took my mind off of all of that stuff and definitely made it a trip to remember. 

So, that was my short, sweet and happy post to make up for my previous one. I hope you have a great day/night. Here are some pictures and vines taken with Tatum this weekend, enjoy...

Stretching with the big girls!

Selfiie ft. Olivia 

Sisters???

She did not enjoy being onstage for the award ceremony...

Dancin' 

breakfast "it's too early to be awake!"

pic ft. her new pink elephant

And of course, here're the vine that the title of this post came from...

https://vine.co/v/MiD9O9iEe0j

"He called a little child and had him stand among them.  And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

Matthew 18:2-6

In His Name, 

Meredith 

questions, comments or prayer requests? Feel free to email me: meredithmunro@icloud.com 

**PRAYER REQUESTS** 

Tatum and all of the other little kids with such pure hearts, that they stay pure. 

New EMHCs (Including me) 

The Giver

Hey friends, if you came here looking for a happy post about how great everything is going you might want to turn around (please don't) because that's not what is in store for you today. These past couple of weeks have been rough - full of highs and lows and lots of emotions. I just realized that I haven't posted an actual blog post since last month oops. I have a lot of drafts but they are either a) finished and no longer completely relevant or b) stories that haven't been completed yet. So even though I've been writing, I haven't been posting and if you enjoy my blog, I apologize for that. Anywayyyy....

In middle school we read The Giver by Lois Lowry. If you say you enjoyed that book, you are lying. I always try to find the best in everything, but I really struggled with that one. However, if you have never read The Giver, which I doubt anybody hasn't, all you really need to know for now is that it's set in a dystopian society (wow so original) and this kid gets picked to be "the Giver", which is the person that basically takes on all of the physical emotional pain of everybody in the whole society. The book made it seem like being the Giver would be pretty terrible, eventually causing the main character to run away from society altogether. But right now, I would kill to be able to feel other people's pain, because until we can do that we'll never be able to truly understand their struggles. I like haveing a lot on my plate (metaphorically) most of the time. I try not to put myself into situations where I can help and choose not to. This brings me a lot of internal conflict because there's a fine line between "your problem/ responsibility" & "not your problem/ responsibility". Few things make me more frustrated than when I can't help somebody I really want to. We all have that friend who we've know since birth, and even if you maybe aren't as close to them now as you've been in the past, you'd still drop anything to go to their aid. Things were getting better, we talked things out and then I found out I was lied to and I just don't know what to think. To attempt to accurately describe how I feel: picture this- you're working on a video project for school and iMovie/Final Cut/ Premier Pro is working well, which is weird because it is always janky. You feel that you are making a lot of progress and this project is going to turn out to be spectacular. Then your computer shuts down unexpectedly. It's okay though because your project saved automatically right? Nope. You log back on and all of your progress has been lost and now you have to start at square one. Except now not only are you exasperated because your project got deleted, but you're running out of time and have to slap something together really quickly. You're less focused on getting a good result and more focused on just finishing the project. We've all been, there. It's where I am right now, except I'm not dealing with a computer. There's the side of me that wants to give up, I'm done being sympathetic and since I never know what to believe, I can't really be empathetic. But then there's the loyal side, knowing it isn't my responsibility, but still wanting to fix her problems. I'm torn, I really am and at this moment I can't tell y'all what I'm going to do about it because I honestly have no idea. But what I do know is that even though I may not be able to help, God can and if we ask for His guidance, we're going to get it. It won't come in words most likely. You've got to keep both of your eyes and ears open for a sign and you've got to be patient. One of my favorite bible verses, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says, "For this momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are unseen at eternal" When you're unsure of something, it helps to try to look at the big picture. However a lot of the time God is the only one who can actually see the big picture. We need to trust His plan and take whatever he puts in our path with gratitude, knowing that out struggles are only making us stronger. 

fun stuff. 

These past couple of weeks have been a bit too emotional for me to handle, truth be told. See, I'm a big believer in the fact that nothing is really a big deal in the grand scheme of things because God is bigger than everything around us. He has a plan and if something happens it's because God intended for it to. However in the past two weeks I have gone through a lot from officially deciding not to do Lariettes again to this whole friend debacle I talked about about. On top of that I gave up sweets & junk food (so my entire diet) for lent and have a hard time replacing the stuff I gave up with healthy stuff, instead I just don't eat that much (oops). So if you'd pray for me, that'd be greatly appreciated. Oh and also my friend, who I will not name, Jesus knows who you're talking about. 

I wouldn't dare leave a post on a negative note because that's just not my style. So here are some awesome things that have happened...

• There's a new girl in my grade and she seems super cool, I mean we have the same watch so basically we were made to be best friends. Some of my friends wanted to meet her yesterday at lunch so I took them to say hi and later she told me it made her day, which made mine. 
• My mom's birthday was yesterday and she spent a couple hours of it listening to me cry over dance stuff. She rocks if you don't talk to your mom, you really should. Moms are awesome. 
• I went to my dance teacher's wedding and OMG it was beautiful! Here's the video of their first dance to Mirrors by JT, go watch it: https://vimeo.com/90272683
• As I mentioned, I am not continuing with Lariettes and this week is tryout week. I thought I'd be kind of sad but I'm not at all, which can only mean God has some great stuff in store for me instead of drill team. When people tell me they miss me or it's weird without me it feels good in the sense that I have made enough of an impact on them for them to notice my absence. 
• Sarah is great and she can sense when I'm strugglin', so I talked to her and I feel much better. Go friends! 

Okay y'all if you have gotten this far, thanks for sticking out my less than cheery post. Have a beautiful day :) 

In His Name, 
Meredith 

questions, comments or prayer requests? Feel free to email me: meredithmunro@icloud.com 

**PRAYER REQUESTS** 
My dance company as we travel and compete in Houston this weekend & all of the girls trying out for Lariettes/ Silver Stars tonight! 

Some relevant songs: Make Me Whole by Ayleron & Worn by Tenth Avenue North 

St. Anthony Appreciation Post

If you do not know of Saint Anthony you are missing out. He is the saint of lost items/people. My entire life my mom and grandma have been telling me to "say a prayer to St. Anthony" whenever I lose something. When I was little I thought his voice would boom in my head telling me where my lost item was and it never did so I sort of resented him for not helping me. However as I've gotten older I've discovered how he actually works and I probably have to pray to him at least once a week. I have a St. Anthony key chain on my key ring so I don't lose it. (it's worked so far *knock on wood*) 

Saint Anthony was especially awesome last night. The weather in DFW is similar to that of Antarctica at the moment, or at least that's what it feels like to a Texan. Temperatures below 20 and ice on the roads, it was a perfect night for my dog to run away. He does it all the time, but my dad can always catch him before he gets too far from home. But my dad is out of town right now and like I said, the weather was horrible which makes for a perfect storm. On top of that, my sister freaks out whenever he gets out, screaming and crying that she's scared blah blah blah. Well as you can probably imagine, she was ballistic last night, especially because she though he was dead. 

I am a pretty calm person because I have accepted that everything's a part of God's greater plan. Plus, my dog always comes back. Even though I too, was a little scared that Zack (my dog) might not return considering the harsh weather and that fact that it was 10 at night, I wouldn't dare let it show. I just prayed to good ol' St. Anthony and sent out some prayer requests. After about an hour of unsuccessful searching I sort of accepted that Zack wasn't coming back. I had a weird lack of sadness about it which is odd because I've had this dog since I was four years old. Around 11:30 or so, my sister broke her sobbing with a shriek, "ZACK!" she yelled, pointing at the window. He was home! I dropped to my knees and thanked St. Anthony. 

So, needless to say, St. Anthony is pretty great. Here is the St. Anthony prayer:

"Dear St. Anthony, look around, I've lost (insert lost item here) and it can't be found." 

I have added my own verse, so you won't find this part online or in a book but: "With your love and with your grace please return it to its place" Click here to read more about St. Anthony!

That's all for now. I have another post coming tomorrow so stay tuned! 

In His Name, 
Meredith 

questions? comments? prayer requests? Feel free to email me: meredithmunro@icloud.com 

Dancing with Jesus

I'm supposed to be packing and I leave for Houston at 6 am tomorrow morning so what better to be doing right now than writing a blog post?! But I just have to because God has been so incredibly awesome this week I need to share.
One of my greatest strengths and weaknesses is that I don't get stressed. It really is a great quality to have until you're a week away from competition and you haven't finished choreographing your solo. Yes, you guessed it -  my inability to get stressed out leads to massive procrastination. I made a promise to myself at the beginning of this year that I was going to practice my solo at least once a day so that it could be perfect by the time competition rolled around. Well, needless to say I broke that promise so this week I tried to cram in as much rehearsal time in as possible, which is difficult when you're leaving on Thursday morning. Here's my original plan...
Saturday: rehearsal with Miss Rachel
Sunday: go to open studio and run solo
Monday: use other room while Connie works with another girl on her solo
Tuesday: leave ballet early (boo hoo) and use other room to work
Wednesday: use other room instead of going to jazz

But of course, my plan didn't go as I had hoped. Here's how it actually turned out...
Saturday: got strep throat, had to cancel rehearsal
Sunday: still sick, can't be around other people nor could I actually dance
Monday: Connie's student forgot she was supposed to stay and I can't be at the studio alone at night
Tuesday: left ballet early as planned but had a mental breakdown because it was a bad turning day and I couldn't do anything right
Wednesday: Taught my turn & leap class part of my solo.Used other room instead of going to jazz - got solo worked out and now feel a lot better about it (yay!)

This whole week I have been asking God for help; Lord, please grant me the focus and perseverance to finish and feel comfortable with my solo. Finally, today, something clicked. I had the focus and I got major work done. There was a point when I stopped dancing and realized how close He was, like Jesus was in the studio with me choreographing and cleaning my dance. At that, I was overwhelmed with joy and had to pause, turn off the lights and have a mini-worship sesh by myself (to Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher of course!) because I was (am) so grateful! THANK YOU JESUS YOU ARE THE BEST!!!

So, even though I'm supposed to be packing right now, I wanted to share this with y'all. Always know that it might take a few days for God to answer your prayers, but He will, it's all part of His greater plan. Aside from dance this has been a rough week for me, I made a huge decision regarding the future that would be quite scary if I didn't know God is on my side. I've leaned on Him and asked for His guidance a lot more than usual this week and He has really come through. 

**Quick prayer requests: 1) My drill team as we travel and compete this weekend. 2) Please continually keep Tommy Gantt in your prayers, he is battling cancer. 3) Please pray for me and my solo on Saturday**

In His Name, 
Meredith 

questions, comments or prayer requests? Feel free to email me: meredithmunro@icloud.com 

This song came on while I was driving home and it was really speaking to me tonight so I thought I'd share it with y'all. It's called: End of Days by Hillsong Young & Free 

I'm Back/ Planning Ahead

Hey y'all. I'M BACK!!! (Well at least I hope so) 
The other day I was reading a girl's blog and I thought to myself, "Remember when you had a blog for like a week then school started and you forgot about it?" So I logged on to Blogger and saw that I hadn't posted since August... that's almost six months ago but it feels like a week! Which got me thinking about how darn fast this year has gone by. Then I asked myself why this year has gone by so quickly. And I have come to the conclusion that we are always so busy looking forward to things, we forget to enjoy in the moments we're in. I feel that trying to blog more, will help me cherish these moments so that in two years when graduation comes, I can say that I have chronicled my best (and worst) memories. 
So much has happened since I wrote on here last. Football season, wisdom teeth surgery (and complications), dance conventions, birthday parties, church retreats, semester exams, driver's license tests and much, much more. Today I was going through my iPhoto library, looking for a picture to post for my friend, Kassidy's birthday and all of these memories came flooding back. Another thing that I started after taking a blogging hiatus was the daily devotional, Jesus Calling. I was a bit hesitant to start it because it's so popular and I didn't know if it was just a book people take pictures of to make themselves look all Christian-y. But I am glad to say that I read it every night and it is AMAZING, definitely worthy of all the hype! If you don't have a copy, get one, I have given it to multiple people as a gift and they all love it as well. One topic that has come up a lot lately in JC is living for this moment and not fearing the future. To be completely honest, those pages scare me. We live in a society where you have to plan ahead, you're trained to fear the future. If I don't take the right classes in high school, I won't get into a good college. If I don't get ahead on studying, I'm gonna fail this test. So on and so forth. I miss the days when you didn't have to plan things out, they days when you could just walk up to your friends door and run around outside with them for hours on end. The days when you were worrying about having enough clothes for all of your barbies and not who you're going to ask to a banquet that is four months away. I wish we could be elementary schoolers again, when grades didn't matter and your mom made all of your plans for you. But the harsh reality is that we can't go back to those days. I will be the first one to admit that I spend more time in the future than I should. As I said before, we are all so busy. In the next four months alone I have six dance competitions, four dance recitals, drill team tryouts, at least two banquets, I'm a confirmation sponsor and then there's also school mixed in there. WOW. Of course one of my dance studio competition conflicts with drill team tryouts. The drill team banquet conflicts with a dance studio competition. And the dance studio banquet conflicts with the Confirmation Mass. I have to plan ahead to make sure I can work all of these things out because they're all priorities. Knowing that I'm not able to be in multiple places at once causes stress. Now on top of that I'm reading that you shouldn't think about the future? It often feels impossible to find peace. 
But I finally figured out that God isn't saying not to to look into the future, He is saying not to fear it because He is leading us down the path we're on, there is no need to fear! God has you right where you need to be at this very moment, though you might not believe it, this is all part of His greater plan. Here is the passage from Jesus Calling that once frightened me, it now gives me peace. 

February 1st:

Follow Me one step at a time.  That is all I require of you.  In fact, that is the only way to move through this space/time world.  You see huge mountains looming, and you start wondering how you’re going to scale those heights.  Meanwhile, because you’re not looking where you’re going, you stumble on the easy path where I am leading you now.  As I help you get back on your feet, you tell Me how worried you are about the cliffs up ahead.  But you don’t know what will happen today, much less tomorrow.  Our path may take an abrupt turn, leading you away from those mountains.  There may be an easier way up the mountains than is visible from this distance.  If I do lead you up the cliffs, I will equip you thoroughly for the strenuous climb.  I will even give My angels charge over you, to preserver you in all your ways. Keep your mind on the present journey, enjoying My Presence.  Walk by faith, not by sight, trusting Me to open up the way before you.

"With your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall." Psalm 16:29

"For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].  They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone." Psalm 91:11-12 (AMP)

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV)

(Jesus Calling, Sarah Young) 

I know y'all are probably equally as busy as I am so I hope that this passage helps you find peace. Know that you are always in my prayers and as Father Henry would say, JESUS LOVES YOU! That's all for now! 

- Meredith

Questions? Comments? Prayer requests? Leave them below or email me: meredithmunro@icloud.com 

Wondering what I was doing instead of blogging for the past six-ish months? Here are some highlights (not in chronological order!) 

My Church was on Say Yes to the Dress! 

Sweet Sixteen party! 

New Year's Eve! 

Got to watch Sarah in her percussion concert! 

I finally got a Pope Francis calendar.

Winter HSM retreat! 

I went to the Notre Dame Shamrock Series at AT&T Stadium and took some terrible panos. 

I dressed up like Miranda Sings a couple of times...

Then I met her! 

One of my favorites, when I was in kindergarten I got to go write a letter to Santa at CHS and this year I got to help my kindergarten teacher's son write his!  

I got my make-up done by a six year old boy. 

Home coming pep ralley! 

Home coming dance! 

I took a picture with Pope Francis!!! 

My dad as a "Larry" for the homecoming football game.

A life long dream, Sarah and I have always wanted to switch hats.

DCYC Saturday Part 3 - His will and my will are the same explained

I'm not sure if I have mentioned the headlining band, Ayleron, but 1. they are awesome! and 2. they had a concert on Saturday night. Everybody from St. Ann's ate dinner super fast and rushed to the front right when the doors opened so we could have the best spots at the concert. During the concert the band played one of their original songs entitled, "Make Me Whole" I bought it right when I got back to our room that night and have had it on replay non-stop and it has already become one of my favorite songs. Click here to listen! I plan on eventually writing about my favorite Christian artists/ songs and this will definitely be there! 

After the concert, one of my youth ministers, Naomi Lehew, gave a talk. She told personal stories that the kids from my church had heard a million times, but getting to see her reach teens outside of our high school ministry was amazing. Then, she told us about Blessed Chiara Luce Badano. To make a long story short, Blessed Chiara was a girl from Italy who was beatified by Pope Bendict XVI in 2010. When she was diagnosed with a rare and painful form of bone cancer that ended her tennis career, she said, "If He wants it, then so do I" When Naomi said this, it clicked with me "His will and my will are the same" Which, like many things in the Catholic Church, is easier to say then do. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we want, that when God hands us something different, we deny it. But we need to realize that God puts obstacles in our path so He can help us overcome them. Once we learn to accept this, our lives become much more enjoyable. If it's what He wants, it is what we NEED! 

Above is the documentary made about Blessed Chiara Luce Badano. 

Along with the realization of the meaning of "His will and my will are the same." I was enthralled by Blessed Chiara's story. She was a beautiful, athletic teenage girl, she had so much going for her and she had to give it all up when she got cancer. And she did so willingly. Most people would not have the same attitude when being diagnosed with a life threatening disease. But what really got me was the fact that she is on the road to sainthood. When I think of Saints, I think of people from ancient times, but Blessed Chiara passed away in 1990! I feel that Blessed Chiara is the embodiment of what Pope Francis says in this quote, and WE can be too! 

So those were my Saturday highlights! I am soooooo sorry it took so long. I will post Sunday sometime this week!

In His Name,
Meredith
If you have questions, prayer requests or just wanna say hi please leave a comment! And remember if you need somebody to talk to feel free to email me meredithmunro@icloud.com twitter: meredith_munro
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