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summeralwaysends
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Name: Ashton Marie
Country: United States
State: Michigan
Metro: midland
Gender: Female
Interests: Jesus, my savior. The love of my life: Erick. Playing music. The guitar. Writing music. Listening to music. The Phantom of the Opera...musicals in general. church. missions. Psychlogy. Oreo Cookies. Diet Pepsie. Watching people. Mint chocolate chip ice cream. Odd clothing. The Springs camp. The eclipse. being loved. loving someone else. Marriage...;) Worship. nose piercings. my family. my friends. My kitty cat. sleep. Caffine. prayer. Coldplay.chai tee. fires. Christmas time! snow. Having cake and eating it to. fuzzy blankets. fall leaves. sunsets. sunrises.
Expertise: I have nothing without Christ.
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  heysmashton
MSN: ashton153@hotmail.com
Member Since:
8/18/2005
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| This entry represents the real life happenings of myself, and acts as a plea. There comes a time in every young life where the important things must be evaluated. Now, mind you, there are things we all must do regardless of their importance level on our internal scale. Yes, there is an internal scale. Mostly, this consists of things like: going to work. writing last minute papers. pumping gas in michigan winters. picking chili beans out of one's chili, and my personal favorite: trying to find enough money for the daily diet peps fix. Simple things. Not the most thrilling. Well, this brings me to the issue of working and more importantly, my work. We do it because we must pay bills and all that fun stuff. I tan people. Make them juice. With a few pushes of a button, you too, could be receiving insane amounts of vitamin D...or a smoothie. The store, simply put, is more aimed towards the "upper class". We all must find out what that is someday. So, the lady (and her man) walk into "my store" on a perfectly smooth day. Wealthy? Well, you know, the mercedes and design of clothing gave this away. I go on blindly, smiling and greeting the two well off benefactors to society. They order. I repeat the order. Nasty looks are received by me from lady. As if to say my repetition of their order is a reflection on my IQ. Who knows...maybe it is? Yes, the series of events that followed were anything but pleasant. The chicken salad order would soon turn painful. The credit card would not go through. Not at all. And I apologized for this, suggested that if they were in a hurry that maybe this was not the best place to eat....seeing as it was going to take some time for me to get this credit-taking-machine working. Well, my friends, this appealed to crazy lady as me insulting her intelligence and honesty. The man with her tried to explain my point (he got it) but, she mowed him and me over simultaneously. Yelling. Yelling. Words of insult. These are the things I took upon myself in a matter of minutes over chicken salad and trying to save the wealthy time...so they can spend more money. Just trying to help... What is the point of this? Honestly, I shall not generalize, but apparently this women thought that she was a finer breed of human than I. Me: lowly servant of tanninghood. What does money possess that makes a grown woman act like a child? And why do people that possess more of it think they hold a divine word to speak to whomever they please? Overall, I think it must be pointed out that those of us that work in the service industry are there to do just that. But, we are human. We deserve a little more respect than the toy poodles these people carry around in designer bags. Get over yourself. Get over your money. You know some people have to work through college. It is this thing we do called: responsibility. Cool, huh'? Anyway. If you so happen to be rich, take no offense to this unless you were out on Wednesday slandering a 5'1 girl that was about to make you chicken salad. Money....money...it brings out the best in people. Truly. Chicken salad has now become a massive thing of importance. More important, than say....manners? Yes, of course! It's frickin' chicken salad! | | |
| Its time to rant
Somethings just boil up inside of us until we can not take it anymore. I try to think about things before I go off on a rant, but some things I think about for too long and too much. So, now it is time for me to rant. As a follower of Christ we are all given different gifts, abilities, talents....to be used for GOD. Ok, everyone with me on that? I would like to think that one of my gifts is in music. More so worship. I feel very complete (as cheesy as this sounds) when I’m singing and playing music with other believers. Leading others in worship. Just being the tool that God uses in that area. It is my passion. And I do beleive that God has given me this passion for a reason: to use it. What I am seeing more and more though the furthor involved I get into music and leading is the way we have currupted even worship. I’m so frusterated with debates over instruments and what style of music we are playing. I’m so frusterated with generations being torn in two because music...worship divides us. I’m very frusterated with church politics and how this always leads to some musical debate. What is going on here? What is going on with the church? The one thing that we can come together and do: worship. We can worship God together. WE can bring Him praise. WE can offer our lives to Him through song. WE can take back music for our generation for Christ. So what are we wating for? Oh wait...we are too busy fighting over it that we forget to actually worship. I grew up in a church that sang only hymns. My whole life. And i loved it. And then I went to camp. And we sang praise songs....with clapping....and shouting....and it changed my perspective on music forever. I learned something from that experience: to worship deeper. To experience a new and different side to worship. I’m not saying that one is better then the other. I’m saying: are we taking our worship to the next level or are we so stuck in "tradition" that we forgot who we are worshipping? News flash: our traditions don’t bond God. They are not His....we made them. To reach a generation you have to speak their language. Simple and clear. Jesus did this. Christ came to earth as one of us....looked like one of us....and spoke our language. He made himself nothing for us. How as a body can we reach our generation for Christ if we can’t speak their language? I’m not talking about watering down the truth. Never change that. I’m not talking about acting like the world. I’m talking about setting an example. God can use music for HIS glory. Regardless of the style. What is the message? What is the heart of the song? I’m tired of seeing my generation’s mind being filled with crap. There are so many negative messages out there in music today. It is a battle ground...and we are losing it because we are not breaking down every stronghold and taking back what belongs to Christ. We lack unity in a lot of areas....music is a big one. Of course, worship is only part of Sunday morning. It is only a part of our walk. But, it’s key. It allows for physical and emotional expression. It allows an open door to reach into people’s lives and change them by Christ’s power. If something holds that much power shouldn’t we be using it? Regardless if you enjoy the drums (or any other instrument/style) or not.....is it speaking to a generation? Is Christ using this regardless of how you feel? This can be applied to every aspect of worship. And it needs to. We are setting the tone for generations to come. We are the example. We need to stop being divided over petty differences and realize that worship is for Christ, and Him alone. Not for us. Not for our traditions. Not for our needs. Not for what we prefer. Not for our tastes. It’s for Jesus.
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| The time on the clock slowly moved by. I waited for the minutes to clump together so I could be finally free from the bondage college was imposing onto my summer. Psychology class. Three hours of Psychology class. I listened aimlessly as theories and defintions were tossed around. We, the students, are asked to answer the question of some popular existing theories. Absent mindedly...I raise my hand...mention the "theory" of evolution. Which, in my mind, that it is all it is. The clock suddenly becomes not so important as I realized my teacher is now lecturing quite passionately on the issue of Creationism and Evolutionism. Lovely. The teacher boldly states that she rejects creationism as a possibility because it makes no sense, because science is not about truth. It is about facts. She also casually mentions that, "we don't have anything better [than evolution]". And lest I forget, the most scientific reason of them all: "because it works". Because it works? Did she just say that? Yes, oh yes....she did. In all of her scientific and doctoral glory...she reduced the meaning of living to a "because it works" existence. But, mind you, she made very clear that a theory can not be proven. Never that.
In my mind, I have grown tired of arguing the facts for Creationism: the substantial scientific evidence out there that really goes against evolutions solid "working" theory. I have a hard time believing in the relevance of many somethings coming from absolutely nothing. But, apparently, it is even more erroneous to think that all of this something came from a supreme, all knowing something. Of course, my mind shifted into debate mode. What about the credited scientists that reject evolution all together as a substantial reason for life? What about the intricacy of life? What about the fact that nature is screaming out the name of Jesus? What about all of that? Well, needless to say, those of higher learning have saturated themselves so much in the need to touch science that they have forgotten the things that can not be so readily explained. After all, theories can not be proven....and yet this one is shuved down my throat as the only reason to my living. Reduce me to nothing. A random mutation is what brought this mind, this heart, into being. If science is not about truth, than why is it worth believing? I have no use for something that "just works" but has no truth to it. The thought of debate disinagrated as I realized no debate will satisfy someone who is already satisfied with living a life based on questions and "good enoughs".
The whole circular reasoning aspect of the converstation gave me reason to scramble to connect the dots of thought. The sad thing: we do have something better. Maybe it is rejected because something that sounds so simple could not be possibly true. Looking at myself, I see anything but a simple mutation. A bundle of complexity. Science can be used to show the glory of the Most High. The beauty in living. And yet, we have reduced it to a meaningless topic unconcerned about truth...unconcerned with finding anything better unless it points to itself as the glorified. I refuse to submit to a "because it works" mentality. Because the truth is, it doesn't work. It isn't working. And how foolish to settle for nothing more than that because it comes in the name of science. The clock moved forward. The lecture continued. And just like that, the students forgot what was just said. I looked down at my hands...looked back up at the clock. "Because it works?" I thought. Truth is all that is there in the end. The only thing that completes the puzzle. I linger in the thought, pick up my books, and walk out. Time to go.
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| So it has been awhile since I have updated. I sometimes feel like I lose touch with the things that meant a lot to me...or that I simply enjoy. I am not going to lie, it has been a tough last couple months. Finances have been really tight. I think the whole "We are on our own thing" finally settles in after about 6 months of marriage. Regardless, our family has been great and has been there for us a lot in the last few months. But, there comes a time when you just got to struggle with money. I mean lets get real, money makes the world go round' (so it seems). We all know that is a lie. I feel like money problems are really heavy burdens. I live my months mapped out by bills. And sometimes it is hard to think of anything else except how you plan on getting ahead. Or: how am I going to pay all this stuff off? Yes, trusting God would be a start. Erick and I just bought a house. Yup. We are very excited, and yet nervous. At least right now we are nervous. We are just praying that God will provide for the major needs we have right now. I don't know why I have been thinking about money so much lately. I just heard a sermon on this to. Good ol' Solomen. Money changes people. It changes the way you live and that change how you then view comfort. I think the burden is on my heart to realize that I take a lot of the things I have for granted. More money to pay bills wouldn't necessarily be the answer. A heart change has to happen first. I don't want to become one of those people that is so obssessed with money that they worry about it constantly. I don't want to become one of those people that sees their job as the most important thing in their life. I don't want to start down a path of not trusting God to take care of all my needs. Bills are bills. Stuff is stuff. So it comes to swallowing pride. Yes, we are under the poverty level of income. Yes, I work in retail with people that walk all over me all day. Yes, my husband is one of those "working" types. Yes, I live in a apartment. Yes, we own a rusting truck. Yes, we run out of groceries. But I can accept all these things that society may see as "poor". Because I know we are working hard. And I know my God loves me, and has blessed us greatly. He has brought us so far......... | | |
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