Best. Sunday. Yet.

Tags

awesome, Bible, church, kids, praise, school

Oh my goodness.

Today was such a good day.

So, they split our group in half at church today.

My group got to leave the sanctuary partway through the service to go see the teenagers’ Sunday school stuff.

It was so neat, and honestly more … fulfilling? than the upstairs sermon.

Easier to follow.

So… yeah.

Today was a good day.

I let go in church today.

Last week I was pretty reserved, only really tapping my foot. Until we were required to join the dancing procession toward the end. But that’s only like once a month or something.

Anyway, this morning I kept getting this … urge, I guess, to raise my arms.

I resisted it for the first song or so, but eventually I just did it.

And a few moments later, through closed eyes, I saw a camera flash, and somehow knew it was on me.

And that’s totally fine.

So there was that, and then there was teenager Sunday school, which was neat.

It was entertaining, as well as educational.

The teacher spoke on Ecclesiastes 12, connecting it to Solomon and David, 1 Samuel 17, and foundations.

It was really interesting, and the kids were pretty great.

Some of them have interesting names, and some have “normal” names. It was neat hearing some of the different ones. 🙂

And then we met with the families we’ve been assigned to interview, some only briefly. My group’s was very short, setting up another time to meet with our person.

And then I went to find the people I was riding back to school with. Two were just about finished with their meeting, and then we went to find the girl driving.

She was still in her meeting, so the other two and I just hung out in the hallway, which happened to be outside the Sunday school classrooms. Lots of little kids running around. It was cute. We made a friend!

And then we came back to campus and I ate lunch and have been on the internet since.

I’m waiting for my prof to email us the study guide for Tuesday’s test…

And listening to sermons and stuff. Quite interesting.

Sounds like at least a couple of people are coming over for a while tonight to play games or something. If I get my study guide tonight, I might go study instead of hanging out in the room. But we’ll see.

It always gets ridiculously warm in our apartment, and it’s really annoying. 😦 But the study room is warm, too, because it’s near the boiler room. So. Eh. =\

But hopefully we’ll get the study guide tonight, because I’m sure some of my classmates have to work pretty much all day tomorrow and can’t really study…

So, so far today has been great! I’m looking forward to some chill time tomorrow.

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Whoops.

Tags

cute, family, happy, kids, life, school, stress, work

I haven’t posted much this week, have I?

Sorry!

I’ve been busy stressing over scheduling.

And I started stressing a little more tonight when my mom called me with a question about one of my classes at the community college that we thought would have fulfilled a requirement here that apparently didn’t, and…

It’s just stressful.

I emailed the transfer counselor and hopefully I’ll get a response back tomorrow.

This class is a prerequisite for one or two of the classes I’m hoping to take this spring, and my advisor said nothing about it yesterday. So I’m confused.

Oh, let’s start at the beginning of yesterday, shall we?

I slept in, because I didn’t have class or chapel.

I spent some time looking over classes again, and called my mom.

Then I went to my meeting.

I ended up waiting an extra half hour after my scheduled meeting time, because the Comm profs were in a meeting that went 30-45 minutes late. (“They are communicators…”)

So I had my meeting, and found out that contrary to what my roommate and I had believed, we are not allowed to take more than one course during Interim. Unless they add up to 5 credits.

We thought you could take two or three, provided you paid per extra credit.

But no.

You can’t.

Which is stupid, and stressed my roommate out because she was planning on taking two classes that she kind of needs to graduate over interim. And now she can’t.

So anyway, I got interim figured out, and sort of got Spring figured out.

But I came back to the apartment to map stuff out and talked to my mom for an hour (an hour) about scheduling. Two of the classes I was hoping to take overlap with another class that I have to take for my major.

So it’s stressful.

But I think that after my meeting with another advisor on Tuesday, things should be better.

But tonight at work was good. Sort of. I worked with a girl I haven’t worked with much before, and we had some good conversations.

We also watched two little kids push the door-open buttons so that they could better get their strollers inside the building. So cute.

And then we saw them a bit later when I was mopping an entryway. They thought that my mop bucket was cool, and then they kept asking their mom questions about me and mopping. It was adorable. 😀

Then a little while after I finished worked, my mom called.

So I’m still a little stressed, but I’m trying to let God handle it. Hopefully after Tuesday it will all be taken care of.

I have a test on Tuesday. Ugh. But I’m thankful it wasn’t today, because I wasn’t ready at all. Now I have more time to study.

And my friend is coming to visit on Saturday!! 🙂

1 & 2 Kings

Tags

1 Kings, 2 Kings, Bible, church, encouragement, excited, family, home, kids, love, school, sick, stress

For Thursday, I have to read parts of First and Second Kings and also Amos and Hosea. Here’s what it looks like:

1 Kings 1, 2, 3, 8, & 9
2 Kings 18, 19, & 20
Hosea (14 chapters)
Amos (9 chapters)
And also about 25 pages in the Old Testament book.

So this should be fun.

I guess I’ll just go in order and read the Kings passages tonight and the others tomorrow, since I have more time tomorrow…

I’m also doing laundry and the rest of my homework tomorrow.

I have a test on Thursday (yuck), and I have to decide on a topic for my media project. I think I’m going to do the documentary instead of the news story. I just have to decide what/when I’m working on it. My mom said there’s a thing raising awareness for cancer in my hometown on Saturday; I might do that. I was also thinking about doing one about the after-football-party on Friday night at church. Not totally sure yet.

Anyway, so my thoughts on First and Second Kings!

1 Kings

1:2 – What? Why?
1:4 – Oh. That makes me feel a little better.
1:17-21 – Um.
1:28-29 – Okay, then. He’s declaring what he wants. And he’s king, anything he says goes.
1:40-53 – That’s what you get for trying to force your way onto the throne, I guess, pal.
2:13-21 – Well, it seems reasonable to me…
2:23 – Why is Solomon so ticked?
3:7-14 – So he asks for a discerning heart and gets it? Because he’s been faithful? Awesome.
3:16 – Prostitutes? I only ever heard “women.” Since when were they prostitutes????
But most of us know this story.
Wisdom in these terms was slightly different/more complex than what we think of it now. It dealt with a lot of things: justice, law, right & wrong…
Chapter 8 is kind of just Solomon talking to God about fulfilling promises God made to David and stuff. Kind of interesting, but other than that I don’t have much to say.
9:4-5 – Saul was the bad one. David and Solomon were pretty awesome. David sinned, yeah, but he was also called a “man after God’s own heart.” Solomon gained wisdom and riches. Saul wasn’t so lucky. Kind of interesting to think about.

2 Kings

18:3 – So Hezekiah was a good guy, too. Cool.
18:5 – Nobody else was like him? So he was awesome like his father, yet even more special?
I don’t have much on chapter 19…
So in chapter 20, Hezekiah is supposed to die, and yet he prays and weeps, and God decides to heal him? (4-11)

That’s about it for that, I think.

I feel better today than I did yesterday! Still kind of congested and coughing quite a bit, but I went to all three classes and work today! That’s improvement!

Also, I found an envelope from someone not-school-related in my mailbox today!!

I posted on Facebook last week that I was sad to have a constantly empty mailbox, and my favorite cousin (yes, I have a favorite…) responded that maybe I should give people my address. My parents have it, but apparently they didn’t give it to anybody in their emails about my leaving for school in August. Awesome.

So it was nice to find an envelope containing two painted pictures (done by my cousin’s two youngest daughters) and a card from the family letting me know they’re thinking of and praying for me.

That is why they are my favorites.

I posted a photo of the pictures to Facebook and my cousin said the oldest of the two little girls was happy to hear that I liked them. 😀 I wish I could hug them, but I don’t know the next time I’ll see them because we’re so far apart. 😦

Anyway, it brightened my day considerably and I’ll be keeping those pictures for quite a while.

I’m SO EXCITED for Thursday.

Literally, the other night I cried myself to sleep because I was so stressed out over school and needing a break.

I called my mom today and cried (again) at the end of the conversation.

I need to be home now, please.

I don’t want to be sick on my weekend at home, but I’ll deal with it if I am I guess. At least I finally get to hold the chinchilla and hug my family and see all my awesome church friends. Also my favorite work friend hopefully. I have to see what she’s doing this weekend. We have to find a little time to get together!

So I’m super-excited for Thursday.

Sure, I’ll have a little homework over the weekend. But I get to go HOME.

G-Rated: Final Four

Tags

Bible, blessings, church, confusion, faith, Ginny Owens, God, God's will, Jonah, kids, Moses, Raising G-rated Kids in an X-rated world, sermon, trust

Today was the third and final part of our Raising G-rated Kids in an X-rated World sermon series.

Quick review of the last two weeks:

Week 1, kids need belief, presence, and memories.

Week 2, kids need encouragement, role models, and discipline.

Week 3:

7. Kids need affection.
1 John 3:18
Romans 12:10
Don’t just say you love your kids. Show them.

Pastor brought up the idea of healthy touch, and certain roadblocks such as unloving or absent parents.

He also brought up his own family, how he grew up in a Norweigan, not-huggy family. He decided that he was going to hug his kids.

He brought up Ole and Lena in connection to heritage. Ole and Lena were talking one day, and Lena said, “Ole, we’ve been married 35 years, and you never tell me you love me anymore. Do you still love me?” And Ole thought for a moment before replying, “Lena, I said I loved you on our wedding day. If I change my mind, I’ll let you know.”

Um. All right, Ole. Strike for you…

It’s important to not only tell people you love them, but also show them.

Each of us has a different love language. These are the ways we show love and prefer to be shown love.

Physical touch, quality time, gifts, words of affirmation, and acts of service.

I took the test and discovered that I am almost a tie between three. I think they were time, words, and touch. One was more prominent, but the numbers were quite close.

Anyway. Kids need affection—proper, healthy affection.

8. Kids need responsibility.
Prov 27:12

Pastor brought up a bunch of points with this thought.

There are three problems that come with responsibility. Parents are either apathetic (meaning they solve all their kids’ problems for them), place blame (“It’s not your fault you’re failing, the teacher just doesn’t know your learning style.”), or allow their kids to have a care-for-me attitude (don’t let the kid carry their own weight).

He talked about how as parents you are to ALLOW CONSEQUENCES, and not be too nice.

He brought up his family again, this time dealing with text messaging. When their family got cell phones, Pastor and his wife gave their son a 750/month plan, assuming it would be enough.

When they got the bill, they were very surprised.

They upped the number to 1500/month.

Another bill. Not happy again.

After that, they cancelled texting and came up with a plan to have their son pay off the bill, and only AFTER the large bill was paid was he allowed to start texting again.

They didn’t want to be Mr. & Mrs. Atilla the Hun, but something had to be done about the excessive bill. I guess they figured since their son was the one texting and going over his limit, he should pay the bill?

Then he brought up butterflies.

Have you ever watched a butterfly to break free of its chrysallis?

They squirm and wiggle and basically fight their way out of that thing.

You may want to help, and you may have very good intentions, but you DO NOT cut open a chrysallis. If you do, you ruin the butterfly’s wings and they are grounded for life.

The same is true for kids: you can’t always bail them out of every mistake they make, every trial they have to endure. You might want to, and you might think it’s helping, but it’s not to help as much as you think.

9. Kids need FUN!
Prov 17:22
Prov 15:13
Eccl 3:4

The few things that I wrote down here were:

BUSY.
pressure to succeed
packing up
lighten up and schedule fun
Jesus laughed
humans laugh

Packing up—was about his son moving to Colorado this week (Air Force academy), and how Pastor’s wife had every intention of packing up his bedroom and throwing out things he didn’t need, etc. Except their son was not thrilled, and finally Mom realized why: it wasn’t fun. They needed time this past week to just be together and have fun.

Jesus laughed.

Pastor’s pretty certain of it.

It might not be in the Bible (like Jesus wept), but Jesus was 100% God AND 100% human, and humans laugh!

Take time out to have fun.

10. Kids need a peaceful home.
Coloss 1:20
Romans 8:6
Romans 5:1

The word for “peace” translates as “absence of war.”

We are in a battle 24/7. There is a battle for our souls.

We need to be a peace-filled people.

Kids need a place where they can hang out and be themselves, without worrying about pretending to be someone they’re not.

The atmosphere in your house should be one where kids feel safe to be themselves, a place where they can retreat when the pressures of life get to them.

~*~

And that was about it.

We had a baby dedication today. Super sweet.

The “Luxury Box Upgrade” thing was cool. (No, I didn’t nominate my dad. But I did give him a card with a very heart-felt note inside.)

We saw a preview of the musical that’s happening at church this coming weekend. That was neat.

I ran screen both services, so I got to hear the sermon twice.

I went to dinner with a coworker/friend last night, and then we went to see Pirates 4. I enjoyed it. The food was okay (this new place opened recently), but I don’t know that it would be first choice of place to go to again.

I have had this song stuck in my head the last couple of days, mostly because I’ve had it on Repeat on YouTube…

(PS. Guys. Frankenstein was the scientist, not the monster. He was known as Frankenstein’s Monster or something.) 

I gave one of the guys from the media crew a hug after service and told him Happy Father’s Day. Because he’s kind of a grandfather to me. 🙂

Burgers for lunch.

Time to relax. Maybe take a nap.

The last few nights I haven’t been falling asleep until at least 1AM, which is really annoying.

Last night I spent part of my sleeplessness searching this encyclopedia thing that my parents bought me several years ago that I haven’t really used yet.

I looked up “God’s will.”

What I found was this definition:

God’s desire and wish for His people. The Father’s will is that those who believe on the Son will have eternal life and that none will be lost (John 6:39-40). The disciples of Jesus were taught to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it in in heaven (Matt. 6:10). Paul urged the Christians at Rome to allow God to transform their minds to know the perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).

Mark 3:35
1 Thess. 4:3
1 Thess. 5:18
1 John 2:17

What throws me off about this is that God’s will is obviously salvation. Duh. He wants us to believe and be saved. But Mark says that by doing the will of God, we are Christ’s brothers and sisters; 1 Thess 4 that God’s will is for us to be sanctified and pure; 1 Thess 5 to give thanks in all circumstances for it is God’s will for our lives; and 1 John 2 that those who do God’s will will live forever.

Now, here’s my issue.

That second verse from 1 Thess. Is it saying that being thankful always (in essence) is God’s will for us? Or are the circumstances God’s will? Or is it something else entirely? My Bible and this encyclopedia thing don’t say.

I’m confused.

Is God’s will that we are saved? That we are continuously thankful? That we are sanctified and pure? That we do what he commands? Or are all of those somehow interconnected?

I can see how He can work in all things to make good.

I can see how He can work through me in whatever college or career I choose.

What I can’t see is the bigger picture.

Will this particular college be a better fit for me than another? (Maybe.) Will it help me better understand my strengths and talents? (Hopefully.) Will it help me decide on a career that will fit me and help me do what I love while allowing me to share Jesus? (Hoping so.) Would a different college be a better fit? (Guess I’ll find out after my first semester or so.)

So I suppose I can’t know for sure. But I do know that there are ceratin gifts and abilities than God has given me, and that I can most definitely find a way to use them for Him. And one day I’ll look Him in the eye and get “Well done, good and faithful one.”

Sometimes I’d love for God to pop up in front of me and say “This is what you’re going to do with your life.” But I guess that doesn’t give me free will, does it? …Well, actually, it could. I could still choose a different path, or attitude. Jonah ran away from God even after he’d been told what to do, and eventually went back and did it the right way.

Even if God were to give me some sort of concrete sign, it might not be something I’d WANT to do, and I’d run. “No way, God, you’ve got the wrong girl.” And He would persist, like He did with Jonah or Moses.

I guess what it comes down to is trust.

Trusting that God knows what He’s doing with certain every circumstance.

Trusting that He is going to work through whatever I choose to do with my life.

Trusting that I can do anything I put my mind to, as long as I remember to rely on Him.

30 Days of Truth: Days Five and Six

Tags

30 days of Truth, death, kids, marriage

Day 01 → Something you hate about yourself.
Day 02 → Something you love about yourself.
Day 03 → Something you have to forgive yourself for.
Day 04 → Something you have to forgive someone for.
Day 05 → Something you hope to do in your life.
Day 06 → Something you hope you never have to do.
Day 07 → Someone who has made your life worth living for.
Day 08 → Someone who made your life hell, or treated you like shit.
Day 09 → Someone you didn’t want to let go, but just drifted.
Day 10 → Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know.
Day 11 → Something people seem to compliment you the most on.
Day 12 → Something you never get compliments on.
Day 13 → A band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days. (write a letter.)
Day 14 → A hero that has let you down. (letter)
Day 15 → Something or someone you couldn’t live without, because you’ve tried living without it.
Day 16 → Someone or something you definitely could live without.
Day 17 → A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.
Day 18 → Your views on gay marriage.
Day 19 → What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?
Day 20 → Your views on drugs and alcohol.
Day 21 → (scenario) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do?
Day 22 → Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life.
Day 23 → Something you wish you had done in your life.
Day 24 → Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs. (Just post the titles and artists and letter)
Day 25 → The reason you believe you’re still alive today.
Day 26 → Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?
Day 27 → What’s the best thing going for you right now?
Day 28 → What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do?
Day 29 → Something you hope to change about yourself. And why.
Day 30 → A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself.

Do you know what I realized today? I MISSED FRIDAY’S 30 Days POST.

So I’m doing days 5 & 6 today. Because I can.

Something I hope to do? Get married.

Click for source.

I would love to get married someday.

That’s all there is to that.

Quick and to-the-point.

Something I hope I never have to do?

Bury a child.

I’ve seen too many people bury their children.

I know that they’re trusting God to get through it, and I know that it’s always a possibility, but I’m not sure I would bounce back the way my friends (& role models) have.

I don’t want my kids to die before I do—provided I end up having kids. I might not. I know that’s a possibility too.

But if I do get married and have kids, I would really like to die BEFORE my children and not after…