"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 

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.