Hope Esther

This is such a good video, its so worth the time.

Fireflies, warm summer breezes, shooting stars, long car trips, siblings, old friends, new friends, first job, texting, staying up late, praying, trusting, vacation, laughing, watching movies, fireworks, long talks on the phone, in person, and over chat, making plans that never work out, softball games, spinning around on the merry go round, long walks in the park, giving up what you want the most. This summer has been crazy. I can’t even begin to explain to explain it all. All I can say is that God has taught me so many things about Himself. But the one thing that sticks out the most is that, He doesn’t give up. It doesn’t matter what you do, to try to cover or hide anything from God, He knows about it and so do you, so give up. Seriously. Take it from someone whose been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. :D

This Fall I am going to be a Senior in high-school. Kind of overwhelming, not gonna lie. But I am definitely ready for high-school to be over. :p When I first entered high-school I was so excited. I was expecting to be all grown up and by the time I was 16 I would have my license and a job and a computer and my own room and the list goes on and on. The truth is, nothing happened like I wanted it to or thought it would, because God doesn’t think like I do. He has the big picture, and all I can do, is wait patiently for Him to tell me what to do next. Oh, if i could only go back, and work harder, worry less, waste less time, and love more. I would do it in a heart beat. The good thing is, my life isn’t over, at least not that I can tell, so Lord willing, when I am older I won’t have regrets about my senior year in High-school. :)

If you think about it, pray for me, that I would be diligent, faithful, honest, hardworking, loving, that I would have plenty of time to keep up in school, do speech and debate, keep my job and my sanity.

Thanks for reading, and y’all have a great week!!! :) :) :) I’ll try to keep you updated. :)

-Hopie

oh my goodness, what a whirlwind May has been, I can hardly believe  we are already halfway through May! I don’t know what has happened to time, but it has started speeding up. I would like to go point by point and tell you all the recent happenings, but #1. Some of you probably wouldn’t care, and #2. I only have 30 more minutes before I have to go shopping with my mom and then to work. So yeah. I won’t. But I would like to share a few things with you. I have started doing some new things in my life, and one of them is every week [every Saturday] I have a verse of the week for myself, and within this week, I learn the verse and actually apply it to my life with words, actions, thoughts, whatever it takes. So without further ado the verse of the week is, Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ ” God has blessed us with so much. This verse applies to me in so many different ways it makes my head just swim. =) So next Saturday, Lord willing, I will have this verse memorized and will have applied it directly to my life.  If you think of it please pray for me. I am sure I will need it. :)

The other thing is, I recently started exploring some different types of music and I found a really awesome song that I couldn’t wait to share.  Have a great week everyone. Go Serve Your King. :)

If you read my previous blog post you know that I just recently starting working for Target. It has probably been the most growing experience I have ever had, God has used little things a co-worker, manager or in this case a young child has said to teach me big lessons.

In this case it was this young mother and her 4 year old. The little was whining that her mother was spending too much time in one section. Begging for the attention from her Mother, the girl starting screaming, and flailing her arms in desperation she starting to attempt to pull the cart in one direction, then pushed it in the other.  Finally giving up, the girl gave found a comfortable spot on the floor and sad and waited patiently for her Mother to finish.

Not thinking another thing of it I continued my work. Well the passed couple of days, God has been working on something in my life, I keep trying to drag the cart in the direction I want to go. I push one way and pull another, well, today, I have find the comfortable spot and I am sitting down. :D I have given up. Not on life, but on trying to force God to go one direction or not  or to speed up or slow down. I think God can use little things like that to encourage you to do what He needs you to do before He can use you. Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God….” I love that verse. It means so much to me, I am the kind of person who likes to go, go, go. But for God to command me to be still. It is so meaningful.

You know, it is really hard to give up what I feel like you need/want. But in the end I know it will be worth it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Hope

Be sure to tell me if you have further insight! I would appreciate all kinds of comments!

So, have you ever been ice fishing??? I have actually never been, but it looks like fun. The process is simple, dig a hole in the ice in the middle of a frozen pond or lake and stick a string with bait deep into the lake and pull up a fish, that is if you get any bites… If there is one thing I know about ice fishing its this, you have got to be patient, the fish may come or they may not, all depends on whether the fish are hungry or not…anyways, the point is patience…and boy have I ever learned about that…

It all started when I wanted to visit a far away friend, I didn’t have any money and my Dad told me I had to get a job before I could go see her, and that’s what got me moving. After applying at like 7 places, I began to get discouraged and started to make plans to maybe work where my older brother Ben does, the problem with that is that Ben works at Mcdonalds and he really didn’t want me to work there…but he told me if  I applied at 10 places he would get me a job. I have to say that the whole job searching process was driving me insane I knew God wanted me to get a job, because everywhere I looked it was like God reminded me. I was under severe conviction about not having a job. Hoping someone would call back was stressing me completely out,  and then dealing with disappointment as each time the phone rang it was my sister or my dad. Well…last Monday morning the phone rang and I was in my room, I was determined to not hope it was Target so my hopes wouldn’t be dashed to pieces when it wasn’t them…and all the sudden I heard my mom say “Oh, yes, just one moment, may I ask who is calling?”. And at that moment I ran out of my room and my mom was in the hallway and said “Hope. It’s Target.” I was thrilled when I found out they wanted me to go in for a third interview. I was so excited, but I still found myself doubting that they would think of hiring me. I still doubted what God could do. I remember thinking, God you own cattle on a thousand hills….but there is no way you can get me a job.  Well, Wednesday rolled around and they offered me a position and i was thrilled beyond words. I could barely speak. Like really I couldn’t. They told me it would most likely be 5 days before I could start, and to this day I still find myself doubting its true. Until Target called today and told me that all my tests cleared and told me I could start tomorrow morning at 9am. God is so good, His timing is really perfect. I can write like 5 more paragraphs about how God has worked all this out, but suffice it to say, I am really blessed. And its easy to be cheerful now, I feel like I am finally where I am supposed to be. And let me tell you, there is an overwhelming peace when you are where you are supposed to be. So, Thank to all those that prayed, and if you want to you can continue to pray that I will be a great employee for Target, but mainly that I will be a great witness for Jesus Christ. Let me know if there is anything I can pray for you about  by sending me a private message or commenting!  

To God be the glory,

H.C.

When I grow up I want to: keep my room neat, have an awesome planner and keep dates of everything in my purse, get a cell phone, have a job, be fit, keep a good schedule, get a nice camera.

This list was written when I was about 11. I am now almost 17 do you know how much of that I actually have or do? None. And do you know why? Because I have said the same thing every year, “when I grow up…” as an excuse to not do this or that. So I guess the question is

When Do you Grow up?

From what I have gathered, you “grow-up” right now. Today. Yesterday. Your growing up as we speak, so I have learned that you shouldn’t put off stuff saying “Well, I will do that when I grow up.” Instead I have made the conscious decision to grow up right now. So, what is the first step? I am gonna go clean my room. =)

~HC

P.S If you want to pray for me, pray that I find a job, I applied some places today, and would really appreciate your prayers. :-)

So, What are your thoughts? When did you “grow-up”? Let me know what you think!

Oh, what a day last Saturday was, I can’t tell you how many times, I melted down, God spoke through me to the point when I felt like I wasn’t talking anymore, or how much I learned about the Nature of God. Before we get started I just want to say, that God is Amazing and not because Ben and I won the tournament, but because the incredible strength my God has, was shown through my total weakness. Before I left for the tournament, I was reading about weakness, I read 1 Cr. 1:25 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” I read 1Cr. 2:3 “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.”

Praying before our Quarter Final Round.

I had no idea what I was about to experience. I had a cold a few days before the tournament but felt like I was ready to go by Wednesday, well had the first two days of a tournament and little sleep to the mix and its like a breeding ground for a Cold,  the Flu and any other unappetizing virus. Well, long story short by Saturday, I knew it was gonna be rough, the first debate round went well, totally convinced I wasn’t moving on in the tournament Ben and I got out our changes of clothes. But right before they announced breaks, God told me in a surreal way that I [Hope Chambers] was gonna break and to go get my bible and read in it. I happened to  read 2 Cr. 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strengthis made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” After a while wrestling withChrist and desperately pleading with Him to take away my groggy voice, breaks were announced and I heard “Chambers, Ben/Chambers, Hope” I think I almost fainted. I was totally not expecting it, and I felt like God told me to be confident and to trust in Him for words to say. Ben and I went Negative in that round and felt pretty good about it walking out, but it was in that Semifinal debate round I realized I could not hear out of my left ear. Besides the throbbing pain I was experiencing in that ear and the signinficant amount of congestion in my nose, I was pretty well, I had experienced Christ’ direction in that debate round and it was exhilarating. I felt comfort in thinking there was no way we were breaking to Finals, because the way I saw it, “there was no way it was happening”. I bet you could just see my face when they announced finals for team policy debate. :-o

The Cell Phone says "GO BEN AND HOPE!!!"

By this time, my nose was as drippy as a two-year-old with a bad cold, my voice sounded like an old frog and well, and I felt like I needed an hearing aid, not to mention the massive amounts of hacking and coughing that was heard by all. We walked into the autotorium and I felt like God was giving me insane amounts of peace about the whole thing. As God would have it, we went NEG in our final round versus a team we had gone AFF against in prelims. Speech after Speech I found myself trusting God completely in every way witheach word I said, I felt like it hadn’t come from me. In actuality, it felt like God was literally talking through me giving me words to speak. If you haven’t ever experienced it you don’t know what I am talking about but if you have, you know what exactly it means to be used by God. It so thrilling to think about the Creator of the world is the same God that is here with me talking through this with me. It was so special. After the round I didn’t feel confident about the round, I thought there was a possibility of a win, but I wasn’t  sure. So I was hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. If you saw or met me at the first of the tournament the first thing I would have told you was that I was in denial that the tournament was even happening, well, I was still in denial after that first round and all through awards. I have never gotten a speaker award or even anything close to a speaker award, and as they got to speaker awards for TP, I remember someone telling me to hand the camera to James, so I did, and just then I heard “14th place speaker award goes to Hope Chamber—” and all the sudden I was walking up the stage and had a medal around my neck, I couldn’t believe it somehow I had gotten up the steps to the stage I still don’t know how and before I knew it I was standing up holding a medal and a certificate, I remember looking at my certificate, because I didn’t know what I was getting an award for…if you can believe it, that’s how shocked I was. After Speaker Awards were TP awards it seemed that went through 14 teams really quickly and before I could remember to exhale it was time to make the announcement for who had won the Finals Round. I found myself not breathing as they announced the second place team…I was in shock, I remember banging my head on Ben and just wanting to faint. I am serious my thought was “ITS OVERRRRRR!!!!!” and again before I knew it Ben and I were walking up the stage for our first place award. There were SO many times where I felt like I was going to die or that I just wasn’t gonna do the next debate, but there I was standing in front of everyone with a bad cold and still my nose running like a two year old, and I was reminded of God’s faithfulness to me in my life. All the blessings He had given me not just winning but being able to have the honor of standing up there and debating in front of 7 judges. Can anyone say Praise God? His love endures forever and He has through-out my life showed me, His never-ending, perfect, just, merciful, unselfish, love.

Me shocked I had a speaker award...

 BTW, I am sorry for not posting on this blog more often I am ashamed, but spring is coming and hopefully some more pictures will follow. Have a Blessed Day everyone! and don’t forget to tell me what you think of the  adventure I had, and I would love to know about yours so please comment or send me an email!

Hey Guys!

Today finds me working on debate and freaking out about debate, but while I am working on debate I listen to music. This song is my new favorite (Hince, the title). Its called “Sunrise” by Brandon Heath.

-Hope

Ben and James (18 and 15) are some two of my favorite people to take pictures of…Besides being incredibly photogenic they are also a blast to take pictures with. I am such a lucky sister. :)

There are more in my Flickr side bar, feel free to comment and let me know what you think!

Quick note:

This weekend has been an eventful one, my sister Grace had to go to the hospital and get her appendix taken out. She was put in the hospital on Thursday night, and unfortunately it was 6pm Friday before I got to see her, but that night,I spent the night with my mom in the hospital room.  I was just staring at my sister breathing and thanking God for her. Thanking God for His grace and His Grace. Kind of confused? Let me see if I can help you.

This year has been a huge year for my family, in fact if I had known all of the things that were gonna happen to us I would have probably thrown a fit. :D But thats probably why God didn’t tell me. :) Anyway, we had two marriages, my two older brothers were married, we moved to Kansas, my Mom’s Dad passed away, and my sister left for college. I don’t know if I have ever had a busier year.  But yet, I never noticed God gave me and my family so much grace to deal with all of it. It came to my attention last night, that I serve such an incredible God. His grace was perfect. He cares for me and my sister. He watched over my sister in the surgery.

I also noticed how God was in complete and total control the whole way through, this year and this surgery. I was so worried and when I saw my sister hooked up to all the machinery and all the color out of her face. I wanted to cry, but then I remembered something my other sister had told me a long time ago. She said “Hope, you just have to remember the same God that is caring for you now, is the same God who will care for you when you think He can’t.” I have never forgotten that and I don’t think I ever will. And here my sister sits in our living room, weak in body, strong in soul. Alive and well. Once Again God gave me Grace. His grace is sufficent for all.  

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