A Taste of Relief

I don’t know why but I seem to always have a point in the semester when everything gets a little overwhelming. Between classes, work (two jobs), service, step team, side dance projects, and practicing for an upcoming production of rocky horror I am close to losing it.

It was about this time last year when I felt equally stressed. And I happened to go to church, which in my mind is always a good thing and the youth pastor was talking about the Rhythms of Grace and how God actually wants us to fall into a rhythm of trusting him and thus being in a way set free from the stresses of daily life.
After I heard that saying I looked up the scripture that its based off and it really helped me. It’s Matthew 11:28 and here’s the message version ” “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

It’s such a beautiful thought and last year when I discovered this scripture I wrote rhythms of grace on my arm for a week, it was so engrained in my skin that a few people thought I had gotten a tattoo. Hillsong United agree with me in how wonderful this thought is, so much so they wrote a song about it.

 

The point of this post is simple really.  Are you tired? Are you worn down? Is life just that little bit too overwhelming? Well take a moment and take a rest. For me that rest and relief comes in the realization that I can trust my God to have my best interests at heart and trust him to guide me towards the plans he has for me.

For you it might be something different, but either way take a moment and listen to the rhythm of the world. Listen to the breeze rustling through the trees. Listen to the distinct melody of your friends life. Look at the perfect joy captured in past photos. Feel the sun soaking through every pore in your skin. Take it all in and focus on that.

Focus on the life in the world not the distractions and pressures we make for ourselves. At the end of the day this world has a beautiful spirit, a spirit I believe to be created by my God, but when you notice that spirit and the way it ebbs through the seemingly unimportant moments of the day, that’s when you learn to fall into the rhythm and all of a sudden that mysterious thing called relief washes over you.

I hope that encouraged you. Until next time,

Be blessed, stay strong and never give up,

God Bless,

Grace Hatton

Seriously, Love is All You Need

Hey Everyone

So last week I went on a little movie trip, on the Tuesday I watched a new movie called ‘To Save a Life’ and the day after I watched Hillsong’s United new movie ‘We’re All in This Together‘ (the one I told you about in my last post)

 

First off both movies made me cry and secondly both of their messages we’re beyond meaningful. The first movie ‘To Save a Life’ is all about teen suicide and how suicide is now the second leading cause of death for teens. The second movie “We’re all in this together” is all about the global issues such as poverty that we face every day yet most of the time we choose to look away.  Both of these issues are big deals and too often get overlooked but do you know what the answer is to all these problems? The answer is simple, LOVE.

 

I know we all know the Beatles song ‘All You Need is Love’ but seriously all you need is love. What if we stopped being so focused on our every day and just for a little while choose to look up and see other people’s needs. If we showed love in a practical way not because we had to or we wanted to do our part but because it was part of our character.

 

 

What if showing love was as natural as looking out for ourselves. What if instead of walking past the homeless guy on the street corner we took a minute to talk to him and learn his story. What if instead of excluding the weirdo who sits by himself at lunch we expanded our circle of friends to let him in.

 

Would this world be a better place if we focused on showing love in a practical way every chance we got? I believe if people especially teens could show true love this world would be a better place and I am not the only one who believes in love. Both of the movies I saw are powerful and show you how to show love in a practical way. Check them out at http://www.tosavealifemovie.com/  and http://www.theiheartfilm.com/

 

So I challenge you to go out into your everyday life and look for opportunities to show love even if it’s only what you would consider a small thing. You never know a small act of love can make a big difference in someone’s life.

 

Until next time, be blessed, stay strong and remember all you need is love,

God Bless,

Grace Hatton – Best Selling Teen Author
http://www.gracehatton.com/

SUPRISE: Sometimes The Word Isn’t Fair

Okay now I am not trying to have a bleak outlook here but today I had one of those moments, a moment when you suddenly realise how blessed we are to live in this country and how so many are not quite so blessed.

So I love the band Hillsong United and I was wandering their website when I saw the link for their new film I Heart: We’re All in This Together. Curiosity got the better of me and I just had to click the link to the trailers. When I arrived on the trailers page, I clicked one called Moment and I was crying within seconds. I can’t explain how powerful this trailer is so I wanted to show you

Did you cry? I sure did, as you know I went to South Africa on a mission trip in 2008  and this four minute video brought me back to exactly where I was in those squatter camps in Joberg, South Africa. I remembered thinking as I held African orphans how unfair it was that those children that had done nothing to deserve being in that situation where they were fighting to survive everyday and then you come to the West and kids are complaining about their computer dying or being unpopular in school!

I know its hard to look up from our own lives but when you look at the children all around the world who have nothing, how can we say this world is fair? Now here’s the surprise, sometimes the world isn’t fair! We cannot take those children in Africa and simply move them to the suburbs of America but what we can do is refuse to let them go unnoticed.

We can do our part here in the West to let it be now that there is more to life then TV, FaceBook, Cell Phones and Having the Most Friends. This world is at the end of the day all about showing Love and I think its about time we starting showing some love for those who are all too easily forgotten.

The We’re All in This Together documentary comes out for ONE night only on November 4th you can check out http://theiheartfilm.com/ for showtimes etc but I encourage you to look up from your own life, watch this movie and be inspired to shout this message from the rooftops for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Until Next Time,

God Bless,

Grace Hatton – Best Selling Teen Author and A Firm Believer in Changing the World One Day at a Time