A Little Advice

Advice? What am I talking about? Who am I to give advice? Just someone who has gone through this situation and has been disappointed quite a few times.

Wait, what situation?
Let me explain.
But in order to do that, we need to go back about 5 years.

So picture this...I'm 13 years old. I'm in my room. And I have a CD on; bobbing my head and screaming at the top of my lungs.

Any guesses on who I'm listening to? If you know me even a little bit, you'd probably guess The Jonas Brothers.
And you'd be right.

I was 13 when I first heard about the Jonas Brothers. It didn't take me very long to really get into their music and to want to know more about them. When I found out they were Christians, I was ECSTATIC! I can't even explain.

I think the reason I liked that so much was because, since they believed like I did, I thought maybe - oh, just maybe - I could end up marrying one of them. Mostly because I knew there weren't a lot of Christian girls in Hollywood, and they'd probably have to go outside of Hollywood to find a girl.
And I was outside of Hollywood. And a Christian.

I L.O.V.E.D. the Jonas Brothers. Too much, really.

I idolized them. I had hundreds of pictures of them on my computer. I had posters on my wall. All their CDs on my iPod.

So now that you know all of that about me....I'm going to say something about what I've learned from this experience.

First off, you can't expect the people in Hollywood to be perfect. They are going to make mistakes. They are going to get ripped apart because they're in the spotlight 24/7. They aren't perfect, therefore, we have no reason to idolize them.

They are normal people just like you and me. Well, maybe not normal, but you get the point.

I'm not going to lie. I have been disappointed by the three guys that I looked up to more than anyone in the world. I'm only going to touch on why, because being judgmental is something that I need to work on, and I don't want anyone to think I am that way.

One thing that I will touch on, because it REALLY made me disappointed, was Joe's explicit song on his album, Fastlife. I'm still trying to understand this one. How can a professing Christian have an EXPLICIT song on his album? I really don't understand this, and truthfully, I don't think I want to.

Call idolizing what you want: obsession, love. But I think it's just that: idolizing. I used to say I had OJD : Obsessive Jonas Disorder. What the heck was I thinking? Looking back, I realize I was stupid.

As Christians, we need to realize that obsessing over anything but the Lord, and his plan for our lives, is dumb. Plus, we're just going to watch the people that we idolize fall and that will only cause disappointment and anger for the person.

So I don't know. Maybe it's a lesson that every teenager has to learn - to hold someone up on a pedestal and slowly watch them fall. Maybe it's God's way of showing us that they're human and they're going to make mistakes.

My advice to you is: if you're a Christian, prove it. Don't just say it, because talk is cheap. Show people through you ACTIONS that you're a Christian. It's the only way for them to truly know that you are.

Like Blimey cow has said, "If I spend a whole day with you, and I don't know that you're a Christian, you're doing it wrong."

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In God We Still Trust

This song is where I got the idea for my blog name. It's a great song.
And should make all of us think!

Growing up . . . and Learning to Be Okay With It

So as of the last few months, I have felt myself growing and turning into someone new. Not the same ol' Ashley that I used to be. I miss her sometimes - the girl who could sit around and do nothing and wished that she had something to do. Wished that she could have a good story plot. A girl who could listen to music all day --- oh wait, I can still do that. False alarm.

But the thing I've been noticing most of all is that THINGS are changing. My brain doesn't work like it used to. With my busy schedule and all that's going on, I don't have time for things that I used to have time for. I don't have time to be on the computer as much, nor do I have time to sit and read a book (unless it's in the evening before bed).

With a few random jobs here and there, and finishing up school, my life is in crazy mode right now. Some days I wish that it would slow down and let me catch up. The end of February is drawing near, and I'm pretty sure that my 18th birthday in November was just here.

Now, unlike before I don't have a lot of time to be on the computer - unless it's for work. I usually get some pleasure computer time sometime during the day but sometimes I just don't feel like being on the computer anymore.

And as for never having story plot ideas when I was younger? Man. Now they come at me like a freight train, one after another. I barely have time to write out the ideas for one before another one comes sauntering into my brain saying, 'hello, please write me down so that someday when you have time maybe you'll think of me and write me'. Too many plot ideas, too little time.

And I've been learning that growing up can also mean growing apart. As I'm learning who I am as a Christian and as a person in the world, I'm also starting to understand that as we grow older we start to lose things that we had when we were children. i.e., favorite people in our lives (people who looked awesome when we were kids, but as we get older we realize how different we truly are. I had this happen with a person that I am related to. She was my role model growing up. Now as I'm a Christian teenager and she's a bit older and not a Christian, I realize that we are completely different) We can also grow apart from friends.


I think growing apart from friends has got to be the hardest thing that can ever happen. Friends are people that we know that we can go to when we're having problems and they'll be on our side, no matter what. Sometimes there's one thing that happens that causes people not to be friends anymore. But sometimes it's gradual and there's no way to stop it. And that just has to be okay.

I'm trying to figure out where I'm going in my life and where God wants me to be. I've been writing a story called A World Without Sound about a girl whose deaf and is trying to find her place in the world. She's been living in the same town, in the same house for all her life - just like me. Truthfully, we are very similar. Of course, there are things about her that are different but I couldn't make my character just like me, could I?

So if you are my friend, please excuse me as I'm still growing. As that one saying goes - I'm still under construction, God isn't finished with me yet. Well, that might not be it word for word but that's the gist of it.

I'm going to try my hardest to let God work in my life the way he sees fit. Even when I don't feel like my life is going the way that I had planned. 'Cause he's got a plan greater than anything that I can even imagine. Wow, I just can't wait to see what it is.

In closing to this blog post, I'm going to post a Brandon Heath song that talks about growing up - and how God is always working in our lives.




~Ashley

#thatawkwardmomentwhen . . .

. . . editing becomes more fun than the actual writing of a story.

Sometimes I hate when my writing process goes this way instead of the other way. Should I try to get more writing done, in place of editing/making a cover for a story that is yet to be finished? Um, yes. I should.

But most of the time, I have a better chance of writing a good story when I already have a good cover. Somehow it helps me put the story into perspective when I see the cover.

For example, when I'm looking for a book to read, I have to like the cover of the book before I pick it up and start reading. I don't know why but covers are important to me.

So making a cover for a World Without Sound will hopefully make it easier for me to have a better story now that I can see what the cover will look like.

I . . . hope.

~Ashley

A World Without Sound cover is copyrighted by AshleyStrawser & HannahLyter.