January 1, 2018

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to The L.I.F.E. Blog! I don’t know about you, but I get so excited about this time of year. For me, it’s a time to recap, a time to refresh, a restart, a time to look ahead, a time to set goals, and a boost of adrenaline. At the end of each year I do a lot of journaling to help me recap and learn from the past year, each year I am blown away by what God teaches me through this and how He reveals to me the goals He wants me to set. This year I have felt God tugging on my heart to start this blog. In fact, I felt God leading me to start this blog last New Year. However, I saw myself as too unqualified. I mean, who am I, a 17-year-old, to write advice about “life”! (More about that later). Hence, I wrote it off as a dream to start later, much later, I thought. If there’s one thing I learned this year it’s that I will never be qualified enough, I will never be ready enough, and I will never have it figured out enough. Now that sounds a bit depressing so let me complete my thought. Even though I’ll never have enough to accomplish the big dreams in front of me, God gave me enough to start. It’s true that getting started is the hardest part but it is also the most important. In reality, I probably will never have enough to finish many of my dreams, but I’ve learned that God blesses those who work hard. On that account, when I am run dry, God will see His Will brought to completion; and if I’m following His voice, my dreams will be matched with His will.

At this point, you are probably asking yourself, “Who is this kid and what is the point of this?” Sorry for the lack of introducing myself earlier, I hope I didn’t get on too much of a rant. Anyways, I am Caden Arendt and I am 17 years old. I live in Pennsylvania, right outside of Scranton, and yes, that is the home of the office (or at least the pictures they took to film it in Los Angeles are). I belong to the greatest family ever to exist with two amazing, hardworking parents; my 19-year-old brother whom I consider my best friend and biggest mentor; my 13-year-old sister, who is the best encourager you’ll ever meet; and my crazy, goofy 9-year-old brother who never fails to make me laugh (I sure am blessed). I am a homeschooled and dual-enrolled senior in high school and I attend Regent University (online). I plan to attend Regent University (on campus) next fall. If there is anything more you wish to know about me please do not hesitate to ask in the comments below, I look forward to getting know all of you! So, what is my blog about? Obviously, “life” is a big topic for a 17-year-old, or anyone for that matter, to write about. Allow me to narrow the topic slightly. L.I.F.E. is an acronym for “Live Intently For Eternity”, the focus is to challenge us not to live for ourselves, but rather live earnestly in light of what God did for us through His Son Jesus. There is so much packed into this and I cannot wait to discover it with you all. In the meantime, to demonstrate what that means for us, lets look at 2 Peter 3:13,14: “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” Peter Challenges us to keep our eyes set on the future promise. It is so easy to look around and think life is impossible, but when we look up we remember where our strength comes from and that we were made to live for so much more than what is found on this earth. Although our life is short, through Christ, we can make an impact for Eternity.

What is your life? Simply put, it is your time on this earth. Your life is but a mist on the timeline of eternity. We need to make the most of our time and strive in each bit of it we get. So, what are you striving for? This New Year think about where you want to be one week from now, a month from now, a year from now. Think about what is worth striving for in life. Embrace who and what will help you with that and leave behind what won’t. Do not let anything stand in your way and remember if it looks too big, God gave you enough to start. You never know what He will do from there!

I would like to leave you with a few words from someone who kept his focus on eternity with not only his life, but also his camera:

“This is a picture of the future. Unknown and a little scary. We can see what our life looks like at the moment and maybe the next week but no farther. God calls us to dive into the future without looking back. We must trust that God has ahold of us and is guiding us to a place greater than where we are now.

–          Evan Kongvold

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Feel free to introduce yourself below and share any thoughts or questions on this. If you have any advice related to the formatting of the blog, please message me privately, I’m open for suggestions! I will be posting bi-weekly and, on occasion, more often. I look forward to discovering this topic with you further!

Comment below:

Share a New Year’s Resolution (or if you don’t like calling it that, a New Year’s goal:))

Do you have a story of when you thought you did not have enough but God pulled through?

Are you facing a challenge or dream that just seems too big to accomplish?

L.I.F.E. – – – Live Intently For Eternity

Life is not about living for ourselves, it is about living, earnestly, in light of what He did for us.