Madison Victoria

sorry i’m so crazy

i switched over to blogger for the time being!
feel free to follow me there!:)

http://madisonvcallaway.blogspot.com/

Away for awhile!

Hello everyone!
In case you follow this blog of mine, I thought i’d let you know that i’m not going to be updating on it for awhile b/c I am in Switzerland! I am blogging for my mission team and the address is teamswiss10.wordpress.com! So I hope you enjoy it and I will be back at the end of June!

I don’t want to go through the motions

Goodness Gracious!

Time has not been my friend lately.  What I should be doing instead of writing this blog entry is writing a 10 page paper that is due on monday. I’m just not motivated tonight.  But, the purpose of this entry is something that has been on my heart lately.  I feel like these past few weeks, I have merely been going through the motions of life and forgetting to actually live.  I’ve been focusing on all of the things that I have to do and not all of the things that I get to do.  The things that, because God has given me this life and this heart, I get to experience in the short time I’m here on earth.

I hate how at the end of every semester or year I look back on it and it’s like my life was on fast forward and I’ve reached the end of this stretch of time and start to search for a rewind button.  I’ve come to the sad realization that there is no rewind button and there never will be.  It says in the bible that our lives are a puff of smoke that is here for a while and then disappears.  That could not be more true, and I’m beginning to realize that.  I want to be able to enjoy each day and spend time with my friends and in God’s word and living life to the fullest!  I am so blessed to have the friends I have and things that God has given me.

That leads me to another story.  This past weekend I went to go see the new Nicholas Sparks movie “The Last Song”.  I’ll be honest, I’m not his biggest fan nor am I a fan of Miley Cyrus.  But this movie is really good.  Anyway, I went with my friends Laura, Keely and Tessa for a girls night and I had no real sense of the plot line (nor did they) except for what you see in the preview. (SPOILER!) In the movie, the dad is sick with cancer and doesn’t tell his kids because he wants to spend one last summer with them and he wants it to be normal.  You see a struggle for him and his kids once they find out and a beautiful relationship blossoms between him and his daughter before he passes away.  As some of you know, I lost my father my sophomore year of high school, so this part of the plot took me completely off guard and affected me much more than I would have anticipated.  These girls who were with me just quietly reached over and put hand on my knee or around my shoulder and just let me be as emotional as I needed to be while I sort of relived the death of my dad through this movie.  I didn’t have to say anything to them, I didn’t have to pretend that I wasn’t upset by it, I could just be me…exactly the way I am.  It should not take me going through situations like this to realize what a beautiful and perfect group of friends God has blessed me with.  He has blessed me far more than I could imagine and I pray that he NEVER let’s me forget it.

Another way God has blessed me is…I’M ALL DONE FUNDRAISING FOR SWITZERLAND! I am so abundantly blessed! I have the most wonderful people in my life who want to see me do God’s work in the world and that is just amazing to me.

Well, I have been challenged by my future employer Jeff McMillion to go through the gospels and write down everyone one of Jesus’ teachings that I find difficult.  So that is the goal for this week!  I am praying that this is going to be an eye-opening experience for me!

I guess I should start on this paper I’ve put off to blog!  I can thank Eric for my…new found motivation;)

Have a blessed Easter and remember why we are here:)

Why am I so bad at this?

I am probably the worst blogger on the face of the earth!  I should really learn to update this thing more often!  Since pictures are worth 1,000 words, i’ll catch you up on my life with some photos!

First on January 8th we celebrated my precious mommy’s birthday!

Then there was a wicked snow weekend…

And then there is this big deal at OC called Spring Sing that sucked up the next month and a half of all of our lives:)

So after a month or so of craziness, life calmed down just a little and along came spring break and my birthday!

My precious friends took me out to eat the night before my birthday to my favorite restaurant, Macaroni Grill!

And on my birthday, we headed off to Colorado on Chorale Tour 2010!!

I hope that this has caught you up on my life!  I will earnestly try to blog more frequently:)

I will praise you in this storm

Hello lovely readers!

I had a wonderful experience that I need to share with you.  I go to Memorial Road Church and on Wednesday night it was storming and lightening outside.  It was a stunning lightning storm and it was absolutely mesmerizing to watch.  We went inside “The Summit” building which is big and hollow (perfect for listening to the rain) and began our praise time.  As we started singing and it started to rain really hard and continued to thunder.  It was THE most wonderful praise I had experienced in a long, long time.  It was like the whole Earth was praising God with us.  They turned the lights down and we were all singing at the top of our lungs.  People were letting go of inhibitions and raising their hands and praising along with the rain and it was absolutely breath taking.  I felt so refreshed after church that night and I couldn’t help but share it with all of you:)

That’s all!

If any of you have a great praise or encouraging story I would love to hear it!

Dear Christian Family

Hello Friends!

I just thought I would let everyone know what I’m going to be up to this coming summer. My friend Holly and I have signed up to travel by ourselves to the lovely country of Switzerland for 6 weeks with a group called Let’s Start Talking! It is an organization started by Christians who wanted to get the word of God out all over the world. To do this they advertise in foreign countries that some native English speaking Americans have volunteered to come and give free English lessons for a designated period of time. Then, once people sign up, they are paired with a reader and our text we read out of is the Bible! This year we are using the gospel of Luke! Many people who have gone on these trips before have shared great testimonies about people coming to Christ after reading through the bible and it has changed their lives!

I will be flying out of DFW on May 10th and I will be staying in either Lausanne (which is near the French border) or Schaffhausen (which is close to the German border). I will be there for 6 weeks (traveling on the weekends!!!) and I will return home on June 22nd. All that I am asking from you is for your prayers. I would love some encouragement and to know that some of the most important people in my life are lifting me and my team up to God. I need to raise $3,500 to go and the first half of that is due by February 1, 2010. All of you should know me well enough to know that I like being in control:) and so for now my specific prayer requests for you is that you pray for the fundraising efforts and for me to completely surrender my life and my plans to God. So far I have raised $500 thanks to the generosity of my home congregation! If you want to check my progress, I will put the website link below!

I am personally so, so, SO excited to see where God is going to lead me and how he is going to change my life this summer! I love each and every one of you and I thank God for you every day:)

If you aren’t tagged it’s not because I don’t love you, it’s just because I couldn’t tag you all!

Thanks Guys!
Madison

http://www.lst.org/2010projects/madisonvictoria
Here’s the link!

“Avatar was the best movie I’ve seen in a long time…i MUST blog about this.”

Those were the exact words that I uttered to my best friend Tayloir as we were leaving the theatre.  As of late, the movies that are being previewed in theatres seem…less than conversation worthy not to mention less than blog worthy.  Most are fluffy romantic comedies [not that we can't enjoy those;)] or some rated R gore fest…sick.  Anyway…this movie…it was phenomenal.  It just makes me wonder why more movies can’t be like this. If you have seen it please tell me what you think and if you haven’t then don’t read past here:)

This movie has obvious undertones that can be applied to our political/military situations.  It’s themes could also apply to wildlife and ecological conservation.  But for me, the theme that was SCREAMING my name through this whole movie was it’s spiritual theme!

The alien race that the main character Jake Sulley encounters is called the Na’vi.  They are all about being one with the earth and all the animals and bonding together as one.  The humans find out later that there is a literal link between every tree and every living thing just like there are links between the synapses in our brains. The Na’vi can “plug in” to the trees to combine everyone together for certain tasks such as saving a life, as you will experience in the movie.

The Na’vi’s central deity is called Ewya.  She is, in a sense, mother Earth.  At several points in the movie, you see a Tree of Souls that the natives believe hold the souls of their ancestors and everyone that has gone before them. The people gather around it and, with the help of their spiritual leader, connect together as a community or tribe of one.  Is anyone else seeing this connection?!

Ok…for those of you that are not getting it, let me explain:) To me, it was evident that the Tree of Souls/Ewya could be God, the spiritual leader would be Christ and the Na’vi would be the group of believers coming together.  I absolutely loved the way  that the Na’vi regarded every living thing with such value and honor.  In today’s society we rarely give God the credit he deserves for creating such a vast and incredible world for us to live on and such spectacular creatures to share our planet with.  Second, the relationship that they have with Ewya is a great example of how our relationship with God should be.  At one point in the movie Jake’s avatar is praying to Ewya, physically CONNECTED to the tree, and conversing with it.  To them, their god is in everything they touch, everything they see and everything they do.  Why are we not like this!?  We should have that connection with our father!  Why do we not speak to him in such a personal way? We are CALLED to give God our everything.  To become one with Christ and have a relationship with him on a personal level.  This should be our overall goal!  To become one with Christ and to teach others about him just like Neytiri teaches Jake about their God.  She doesn’t preach at him and tell him he’s wrong.  Instead she leads by example, and shows him the wonders provided and the way that they are called to live.

Maybe no on else can see this connection, but to me it was SO evident.  Please let me know your thoughts!

A beautiful day in the neighborhood…

Yes. my break has been exactly that.  A beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Well…maybe not beautiful weather or beautiful scenery the whole time…mostly cloudy and really cold…but the beautiful people who I’ve gotten to see and spend time with has made my break beautiful:)

I guess this is the season of new goals/resolutions/changes or whatever you choose to call them…but no matter what you call them (and let’s be honest about this) the ones you make for the new year, seldom last bast January 31st. Of course I too have fallen victim to those sneaky promises I make to myself.  The ones that go skipping away hand in hand with my willpower. So I’ve told myself that I’m not making any resolutions this year.  I’ve decided to fake myself out of (or fake myself into) making changes in my life that are going to really make a difference in the long run.  For example, some friends of mine and I have decided to train to run the half-marathon in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.  Now a few years ago, this task would have seemed like my own personal version of hell.  But, since recently I have become more of a fan of running, I look at this as a challenge…and I’m a girl who LOVES a good challenge.  Tell me I can’t do something and you can bet I’ll prove to you I can do it and do it well:) So there’s the first thing.  The second is raising money for myself to travel to Switzerland this summer and be a missionary.  The down payment is done, the financial backing is in the works as well as a passport and the letters are getting ready to be shipped out!  This is a big leap of faith for me because A) I hate to ask for money and B) I’m putting more faith in God than myself which is obviously a good thing but I’m a big fan of being in control.  Maybe that is a lesson God is going to teach me through all of this? An overall “lifestyle choice” (just one of the many creative names I am coming up with to fool myself into following through with a resolution) I would like to see happen this year, is a firmer and more confident relationship with God.  I want him to speak to me in ways that will thrill me and captivate me.  I know that he has a lot to say to me if I will just listen.

This semester is going to be a great one.  I can feel it! I will blog more,  exercise more, read more, pray more, love more, give more, create more, learn more and BE more this year.  2010 is the year of adventure. Until tomorrow!

Au revoir!

Happy Christmas Eve!

I cannot believe that it is actually here! We wait and wait and wait for today and tomorrow and it is just gone so fast!  Let’s enjoy it!  I’m sitting in my house, in front of my Christmas tree looking outside and waiting for it to snow.  yes. SNOW.  There is a possibility of it and it’s making me way to excited!!! I have never had a white Christmas before!!! But, i’ll try not to get my hopes up too much…ok that’s a lie…they are already way way up:)

This time of year is just my favorite because I get to see my family and my friends and there is just a spirit of joy and happiness in the world that can only be found during this time.  It’s sad to me that people aren’t as friendly all year around.  What makes this time of year so special?  To me it’s family, friends, and celebrating Christ’s birth together. The presents are nice too:) I want to have the Christmas Spirit all year around!  I know that sounds cliché but can you imagine if every person had this special sprit in them all the time?  How much happier would the world be!?  Just a thought…

So i finally finished all of my Christmas shopping…YESTERDAY.  I have never waited this long to finish before!  I blame college.  It was a mad house of people rushing to find that last perfect gift and i’m sad to have to associate myself with the crazies that are out shopping on Christmas Eve;)  Although, if it helps, I knew what I was getting.  I wasn’t just searching aimlessly.

Dad’s side of the family comes over tonight for Callaway Christmas and I’m so excited!  I need to start cooking and finish cleaning!  I am very excited to see my cousins open their presents from us.  I think that is my biggest joy on Christmas…watching people open their presents:)

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! May God bless you and your families and let’s all try to remember the real reason that we celebrate this time of year:)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving, Christmas Decorating and Psalms 1!

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving/Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a glorious holiday!  I had a wonderful time with my family!  It was a well needed distraction from SCHOOL. haha:)

I love Thanksgiving because it brings everyone together and reminds us to be thankful for the things we have…also the food…DUH.  And now the Callaways have begun decorating for Christmas!  Partly b/c I have to go back to school on Sunday, but mostly we are just real enthusiastic about Holidays of any kind.  Especially Christmas.:)  It is hard this time of year because celebrating a holiday is a constant reminder of what we lost when my dad passed away.  But I like to believe that he is still with us and celebrating with us in our hearts.  I’m sitting in my living room listening to Christmas music and taking in all the sights and smells of this wonderful season…i’m already just so excited!

Since yesterday was Thanksgiving I would like to thank God for several things.

~ my wonderful family who without I would be lost
~ my OC family of friends b/c I have never known true friendship like theirs and they teach me SO much.
~ my friends from high school because they continue to bless my life at times when I least expect it.|
~ the food that is always on our table (or in the OC caf…if you can call that food jkjk)
~ my two precious puppies that are truly a gift from God
~ Oklahoma Christian University for being my perfect fit
~ my God because no matter what happens, i know he has a plan for me and my life and everyone in it.  And even when i don’t understand it, everything turns out ok

I’m positive that there are more but those are some big ones!

Ok now for Psalms 1!

(thank you biblegateway.com!)

Psalm 1

¹ Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
² But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.
³ They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.

⁴ But not the wicked!
They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
⁵ They will be condemned at the time of judgment.
Sinners will have no place among the godly.
⁶ For the Lord watches over the path of the godly,
but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

 

I chose the New Living Translation because it simplifies things a little bit, at least to me!

I feel like this Psalm has a very straight-forward message.  Applying it to me in this day and age, it says that good things come to those who don’t follow the crowd and it’s ways of the world!  It’s so easy to “join in with the mockers” or “stand around with sinners” but if we delight in God and meditate on his word (which is something i NEED to work on) than we are fruitful and will prosper in everything we do.  It then goes on to describe what will happen to the wicked.  A group that I definitely do not want to cast my lot with.  This message gives me hope in that even in bible times people faced the same challenges!  There is nothing new under the sun!  I find great comfort in this:)

Well for those of you who have read this far, Bravo! haha thanks for putting up with this!  If you read this please please leave me a comment! even if it’s just really short!  I would love to know what your take on things are or what you are thankful for or prayer requests you have!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!