On Faith Alone I Stand. 

It sounds pretty simple but the complexities of life increasingly impact us as we age causing innumerable factors that affect our spirituality and the relationship we have with God. 

Ultimately, I believe that by embracing James 1:12-15, those 94 words can change your life. 

The only way we can stand the testing and tribulations of life are by putting our faith in God to deliver us. 

For me, it was dealing with the transition of college, heartbreak, being away from family and my comfort zone. But for others, it could be a plethora of factors like addiction or being in prison that drove them away from all and any faith based relationships with the Lord. 

This isn't my way of starting a movement or connecting with my generation, this is simply my resource to firmly plant my feet in God and allow others to use my experiences and learned outcomes as a way to help them through hard times. 

Below, I listed some of my favorite quotes with coinciding pictures I took this past summer. 

The first quote is anonymous and says the following: "People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude." For me, if you take a look at the picture behind the quote, you see a blossoming and beautiful butterfly, colored like a rainbow. Now, butterflies don't speak but they communicate to us as humans in many different ways, first being their ability to gracefully exist in any environment and remain uniquely themselves each and every time. Our society has gotten caught up in looking, dressing, talking and consuming the same things. There lies the issue. I believe that God molded us each as different creations and by doing so made His master plan with hopes that we would remain this way in search of greater service to His kingdom. Our uniqueness is our ability to allow others to feel our attitudes. Just like the butterfly we must embrace our beauty and show our true colors, redefining the meaning as God's living creation. 

The second quote is one that I found through a summer internship with JBS, the world's largest protein provider. The founder of a company they acquired in 2007, Swift Beef and Co. said the following: "Don't let the best you have done so far be the standard for the rest of your life."

Those words by Gustafson F. Swift have led me on a challenging journey to always do my best in life for God's glory. I've failed plenty of times but the fascinating thing about this quote is that you know the best you are able to give and use that as a way to break the mold through what is accepted as normal or standard in the year 2015. 

Use my life as an example, I have no idea when I will actually graduate, no true thoughts on the career I would like to have but what I do know is that God is calling, knocking, beating on the doors of my heart to serve His purpose through my life. 

For those reasons above, that is why I do what I do. I constantly challenge myself through scripture, quality friends and family to make me grow ad adapt into the man God needs me to be. 

I hope you find the faith to do the same.