Hearts & Rockets: Loving Hard and Shooting for the Stars a Devotional for Teens & Young Adults Because Growing up Is Hard and God Is Good

By Ainsley B.

Have you ever felt lonely? Fearful? Excited? Joyful? When found on an emotional roller coaster in life, what do you do? During Ainsley's journey from Louisiana to Nashville, she was presented with a new experience that place her on quite a roller coaster. Chronicling life's ups and downs as it relates to walking with Jesus, blogging became an outlet and thus, this book. Take it with you on your next adventure for strength, encouragement and someone to relate to. Don't be afraid to adventure with Jesus!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512743517

Ainsley B.

Ainsley B. is passionate about teens and young adults knowing their worth and achieving their dreams. As an adventure addict, she's lived in Louisiana, Nashville and currently, New York City. She travels around the country, advocating for youth and speaking about the lies we believe about ourselves and how to recognize, remove and replace them with truth. Find out more at AinsleyBritain.com

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Ainsley B.

Interior images by Rodney Ray

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations in this publications are from The Message. Copyright (c) by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4352-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4353-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4351-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016908208

WestBow Press rev. date: 6/7/2016

Contents

You & God

Uncomfortable

Change

Isaiah 41:10

Alone

Galatians 1:4

Ask. Seek. Knock.

Thoughts, Thoughts & More Thoughts.

Slumps & Salvation

One Hour Can Change Everything

12 Mosquito Bites Later

Get It

Simon Says

We Were Lost & I Was Frustrated

Puppies & Grace

Don’t Listen To Your Heart

Romans 8

Community Groupin’

Blinking Lines & A Dirty Sponge

Word

No Grudge To Hold

Wrestling—& Losing

Confession

Maybeit’sjustmebut Maybeit’syoutoo

A Few Things

Thankful

Love/Fear

Jeremiah 29:11-12

My Chains Are Gone, I’ve Been Set Free!

Rambling

In The Wilderness

Running With Jesus

I Still Don’t Like Chick Flicks But Sometimes I’m Weak

Missin Ya

You & Others

A Lesson From Conner

Dating

Dad Vs God

Listen!!

Obedient Thoughts

Hypocrisy

Um … That’s Personal!

Don’t Hate Me Cuz I’m Beautiful ;)

Eye Of The Tiger!

Jesus & John Hughes

Reminder For My Girls

Rolling Stones Were Right …

Arms Wide Open!!

Boys Will Be Girls, Unless …

Lesson Learned

Just Thinking

My Golden Rule

Self Respect

Love

Rollercoaster

You & Self

Some Days Are Easier Than Others, Let’s Just Be Real About That

You Are Beautiful

To: Princesses Everywhere!

I Am Not Naked!

Lawd Have Mercy!

Sometimes I Like My Forgetfulness …

Girly Girrrrrrl!

Running My Race

Angry Bird, Saving Grace

I Love Myself!

People Can’t Heal You

Struggles

Write It

You’re Beautiful

Why I Love Selfies

Chin Up, Soldier

One Thing Remains

Why Adults Don’t Understand

To: You

This Morning

Adventures With Jesus

Adventures With Jesus Ii

Fear On The Floor

Testimony

Dedication

Dedicated to my little sisters, Eva and Gracie.

And to all of my sisters reading this. AKA: YOU.

Also dedicated to Poppa, who always encouraged me to work hard and do what makes me happy.

Rest in peace, Hurricane.

You’ll always be The Standard of a man.

Acknowledgements

Thank you:

Mom and Grandmother: Thank you all for believing in me, inspiring me, and loving me through every trial, goal, and accomplishment. You’ve taught me to believe in my dreams, pray always, and achieve my goals and purpose.

Dad: Thanks for sharing adventures and laughter with me as well. I can count on you for a realistic point of view and a diet peach Snapple!

Charlie: Thank you for always stepping up and stepping in with a heart made of pure gold.

INTRODUCTION

There was nothing wrong with my life when I decided to move to Nashville. I had an amazing place to live in Baton Rouge and while I was in school there for one year, I found myself with a phenomenal group of friends. Overall, I was excited to be free from home and a freshman in college!

In my pursuit of a career in acting, I registered in an expo for acting, singing, and dancing. Dancing I don’t do, but I was interested in the acting portion of the expo and had been songwriting with a friend so I figured it’d be good experience to be on stage. My mom, grandmother, and I found ourselves in Dallas, Texas, as I prepared for various events, classes, and workshops. I also began praying about whether or not I should move to Los Angeles or stay in Baton Rouge to pursue acting. Note that only two cities were in my prayer. I prayed with expectation and asked that the Lord reveal to me that week where I would need to move. I’d been dreaming of moving to Los Angeles since I was fifteen, maybe younger. If I had control over my life, I would’ve left during my junior year of high school and finished high school with a TV set teacher. Thank goodness I don’t control my life!

After I performed a monologue I had written called Dreamer and after singing some Christian hymn I can’t even remember because I was so nervous, as well as an original titled I Will, I deserved an ice cream break. My friend, Bo, lived in Dallas and offered to pick me up for an ice cream run. But, right before that, we had gotten a notification that our call-backs were posted. So, this means that if any scout that was at expo wanted to give us an offer, speak with us, or just ask more questions, we were about to find out. Remember how I went for acting? HA. I got ONE acting call back and FOUR singing call backs! Three of the four were from Nashville and though I never thought singing would be in my future, I did think acting and singing often went hand in hand, so I needed to be skilled at both. I had been to Nashville two weeks prior to the expo because one my friends lived there and I went to visit and finish up writing I Will for expo. So back to Bo picking me up to get ice cream. As we sat down at Sonic (where their Blasts will always be a guilty pleasure of mine), I was explaining to Bo my confusion concerning the callbacks, cities, and prayer when over the loud speakers I heard a song, It’s like I know where I need to be, but I can’t figure out, I can’t figure out. Hey now this is my desire, consume me like a fire ‘cuz I just want something beautiful … (NeedToBreathe incase you live under a rock) It hit me like a lightning bolt. I’m moving to Nashville.

After discussing, planning, and the approval of my family, I set out for Music City. For the next five years, I blogged, journaled, grew, and went through a ton of changes and lessons. I mean, a ton. Here is where you’ll read about them and some of what I learned. My first year in Nashville was the hardest and most rewarding year of my life to date. I was lonely and spent a lot of time with Jesus. I had to sift through my insecurities and completely rely on the Lord. It was brutal and beautiful.

As I reflect on my time in Nashville, as I gear up for my next move, New York City, I can’t help but be so humbled and thankful that the Lord has done so much work in my life. I’ve made lifelong friends, learned more lessons than I can even count, and every now and then, opened my heart and life up to girls who may be going through similar situations or just may need a word of encouragement. I hope that’s what this is for you. I pray you will read exactly what the Lord has for you every time you open this book, and I pray your heart is ever strengthened with His love and joy. You are so loved and so worthy and so wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to curl up with part of