I had to change my interim class because the one I was signed up for is one that I no longer need. So that’s changed, and I’ll have class in the morning instead of the afternoon, which is fine. I’ll have to get up by 7 or so, but that’s not that big of a deal.
Spring is going to be interesting. I’m trying to fit one more class into my schedule.
**
I’m super-excited to be home next week.
Can it just be Wednesday now?
**
I like this song. A lot.
**
I’ve been failing at posting chapel stuff lately, haven’t I? Oops.
I have notes from a lot of them. Maybe I’ll do a post of multiple lessons over the weekend or Thanksgiving break.
**
I also like this song:
And this one:
And, for my HP-fan friends (there are a couple of not-so-great words):
AND this one:
**
So that’s about it for me right now.
I have a two-hour break between classes tomorrow, which is nice. More time to do homework. I did almost nothing today, sadly. I read Galatians and 1&2 Thessalonians tonight. I need to read a chapter in the boring book. We’ll likely have a quiz tomorrow, since we didn’t have one yesterday…
It’s after 9:00 Friday night, and I’m watching YouTube videos.
Have been almost all afternoon.
I did a little homework—the stuff that’s due at midnight tonight, at least. I have to turn one thing in yet. I can’t find the one bit of information in the book, and Google wasn’t helping, so I might skip that one. And I can’t come up with a good answer for one of the others, so I’ll probably leave it the way it is, about half-way finished.
I’m not super excited for much of it, other than Wednesday’s chapel. I guess a group from Kenya is coming to sing for us or something. They’ve been here before, but I’ve never seen them obviously. That one I’m quite excited about.
I have no idea what Homecoming Chapel entails, but… I’m not a Homecoming person so I don’t know if I’m going to go to that one.
Today’s lesson was really short–we were out 10–15 minutes earlier than usual!
Our speaker, A (who is apparently an author!!) spoke about Dora.
His daughter, who is like 4, loves two things: pink (not the popstar) … and Dora.
Anyway, he drew a parallel between Dora and our lives.
I know, weird, right?
But it made sense. I hadn’t thought of it before.
He talked about how Jesus was on a mission (still keeping with our Matthew verses, and a few from Luke — check out what Jesus calls Herod!).
And Dora and Boots are always on missions, and they sometimes almost thwarted by Swiper, that sneaky fox you loves to swipe their stuff. (Klepto, anyone?)
And to get Swiper to not swipe their stuff, this happens:
Three times they tell him to stop, and he does. Jesus works in 3s!
A talked about how we all know Swiper. We all have things in our lives that thwart our plans and make our lives more difficult.
I didn’t take too many notes this time, but the last three things I wrote were these:
Even if … Jesus there.
Death, ultimate Swiper, overcome.
No fear — Jesus here.
So that was cool.
My one roommate is gone for the weekend, and the other one is watching movies with her boyfriend.
I feel like it’s later than 9, almost. It’s weird.
Tomorrow I might be doing homework. I’ll be studying for my Monday test (blech), and probably reading for Bible class.
This week during chapel, the theme has been Transformations.
The main text is from Romans 12:1-2 (which, thanks to a wonderful youth pastor, I still have memorized after like four years).
On Monday, the first day of classes, we got out of classes early because the professors and faculty had to change for chapel.
They walked into chapel wearing their robes, most of them slightly different colors depending on their areas of study.
There were a few speakers, but one in particular stood out to me.
I never did get her name (no one introduced themselves or the people speaking before or after them), but her story was incredible.
She started out talking about how after graduating from high school she boarded a Greyhound bus to another state to attend a college she’d never even visited before. Her trip was a bit disconcerting because of one of the other passengers, but she made it out fine. After that “sour” comment, she said that she trusted that our journeys here weren’t quite so nerve-wracking.
A bit later she talked about how, after segregation had officially been outlawed, two young black (African-American, whatever) men walked into a restaurant whose owner/manager had told all of his staff that they would be fired if they served anyone “colored.” Our faculty member followed the men out of the restaurant on the hunt for a new job.
At this point in her speech, we as a student body began to applaud and cheer. But she held up her hand and told us to stop. As a young white woman, it was easy for her to find work elsewhere. Those two young men had been more courageous than she.
That blew me away.
I forget what the point of her speech was, but it dealt with transforming.
On Wednesday, another faculty member spoke about marks.
She showed us a picture of Harry Potter, and a picture of Zorro’s mark, and then brought up her friend K and how her father used to tell his children to remember their last names and to remember to Whom they belonged.
Then she shared a video of what students and faculty are saying about our school, and about what marks it is leaving in our lives.
She went on to talk about two of our seven core values and beliefs as a school.
1. Learning –> excellence
The Liberal Arts should really be called the Liberating Arts, because this school is helping to free us to do what we were created to do. We are to be citizen as well as leaders here and in Heaven. Phil Vischer (the creator of Veggie Tales) was once quoted (apparently, though I can’t find the quote) as saying something about how we are obsessed with fame. or Hollywood is. Something like that. I didn’t write the whole thing down. 😦 Anyhow, our speaker said something about God-sized dreams, and then she brought up a few Olympic athletes she knows. These athletes don’t come into training going, “Go easy on me today, Coach.” Instead, they push themselves, in order to maximize their gifts.
2. Our relationships are to reflect Christ, and our connection as the body of Christ.
She spoke about how community can be good and bad, and how we should have courageous conversations, and gave three examples.
The first story she shared was about how she had an assistant who would always finish her sentences or interrupt her, and she didn’t appreciate it. She had to do the hard thing and let him know that she felt undervalued or something. He understood and apologized and they worked out a system that would let him know when he was doing it again.
The second story was about confronting someone about stealing.
The third was about her own personal struggle and leaning on a close friend who eventually had to do the hard thing and say “I can’t do this anymore. I have my own life and a child to care for and I can’t counsel you for hours every night on top of that.” or something.
She spoke about the parable of the 99 sheep and mentioned that our generations have strikes against us (I don’t remember the significance) and then shared seven phrases to employ when doing the hard things:
I pray
I care about
I see
I feel
I listen
I will
She went on to talk about how people also need affirmation and encouragement—if you see someone doing something your appreciate, TELL THEM!
She said that we are to be marked by love, and to change the world. The final thing I wrote down was a quote from a priest: “May you be ruined for anything less than the glory of God.”
Today’s speaker was I believe one of the pastors on-campus.
She spoke about how she now owns an NLT Bible titled “The Transformation Bible.” Perfect for this series, huh?
I’m going to type what I wrote down and expand on just a few parts of it. Okay?
2 Tim 2:15 – study to be approved
standard of truth w/out God?
knowledge of =/= heart for God
begins w/ what we think –> believe –> do
Saul –> Paul begs the Gentiles
provoked to holy jealousy (the world)
“living sacrifice” = oxymoron
system–animals ; didn’t change people’s behaviors, but became ritual. Hence the Cross. Hebrews 9:11-14 John 15:12-14 – you can’t/won’t obey a God you don’t know
live and die unto God, not ourselves — be God’s
obit for a class project –> thinking about whether she was truly the person she had written in that obit
We may only have today.
Not sacrifices: church, chapel, tithing, forgiving, loving others (Going to church/chapel is a privilege, and the other three should be things we do because we love God, not because we’re sacrificing. Although tithing can be a sacrifice, depending on your situation, possibly?)
Gal 2:20 “Christ lives IN ME!!”
2 Tim. 3:15
Our degrees will not be worth it if we do not spend time with and know the One our university (and our degree) represents.
She ended with this:
God said: Let us FORM man in our image.
Satan says: I will DEFORM man with sin.
The world Says: We will CONFORM them in our image.
Education says: We will INFORM man by (I forgot this one, sorry!)
Society says: We will REFORM man by culture.
Christ says: I will TRANSFORM man by grace.
This year is going to be filled with change and transformation. I can already tell. Going to chapel three times a week, and possibly worship on Sunday mornings at a church nearby, and maybe worship on-campus on Sunday nights, is going to challenge and change me, and I’m excited.
I have a three-day weekend now, thanks to Labor (or Labour if you’re from parts of Europe or Canada!) Day. I’m planning on spending it sleeping in, doing some homework, chatting with one roomie (one’s leaving tonight for a music festival thing), and probably watching TV or movies or something. I might go to a campus worship event on Sunday night. It happens just about every Sunday night for at least an hour. It’s mostly music I think. I’ve heard good things about it. Might check it out. Considering I can’t get to a church just yet… Haven’t found anyone with whom to carpool. 😦 We’ll get there someday.
I could also go to the State Fair, but I don’t know anyone else who’s going and I don’t really want to wander by myself.
So I’m probably going to stay here. But that’ll be okay. Free-time! 😀
I also plan on listening to this as much as possible. It is currently on repeat on YouTube. I have to memorize the books of the Bible for my Intro to Bible class, and I figure song format will work best. I used to have the order memorized, but I forget half the song we used in 1st-2nd grade… so I’m using a newer song. Because we tend to remember things better if they’re in song form rather than just saying them over and over. 🙂
So those are my plans for the weekend. What’re yours? 🙂
My coworker told me to go someplace and get a cream/lotion to help with the burn and the peeling.
I’m probably going to do that tomorrow.
And also make a hair appointment, because I need to get my hair cut before I go to school.
And also maybe buy a skirt.
I own one skirt, and two dresses.
I rarely wear them.
But for this wedding, I don’t want to wear pants or heavy fabrics because… it’s August. In Minnesota.
Although, check out this forecast:
RAIN.
It’s supposed to rain up north on Saturday.
Maybe I will wear pants…
But I’m still going out to check out this new-ish place that my friend E manages. Because everything is CHEAP. Literally, stuff starts at a dollar. A DOLLAR. It’s like the clothing version of the Dollar Store.
Soyeah. I’m going out for a couple of hours at least tomorrow.
And then again with my mom tomorrow night, possibly. For some school stuff.
At this point, I might just stick with the skirt or dresses that I do have. I don’t think I want to try stuff on when I’ve got skin peeling off of my shoulders. =\
But I’m at least going to look.
Only problem is that I hate shopping, at least by myself, because I kind of need opinions from other people before I buy new clothing. I have this thing where I think almost nothing looks “good” on me, which is probably ridiculous.
So anyway. I’m going to try to find something to wear to this wedding that won’t hurt my shoulders much…
Wish me luck…? 🙂
Also, my mom told me I could bring my laptop on the ride to the wedding. Because it is a five-hour drive. So if anybody wants to send me anything entertaining, feel free to comment or email or whatever! 🙂
Oh, and do you want to know something? I’ve debated sharing this, but I’ve decided I might as well.
I’ve been thinking about combining them, but… I don’t know. I think I’ll keep them separate, at least for a while. Some of the stuff doesn’t really connect very well, you know? But you can check it all out anyway. Get a better glimpse into my life. Because I update my Tumblr a lot. A lot, a lot. Like… yeah, you don’t even know. You will.
It’s not that much different from blogging—I’m meeting new people on Tumblr too! It’s fun. If you’ve got a Tumblr or a Twitter, feel free to add/follow me!
Although I follow some of the same people on both Twitters… But yeah. I’ve been thinking about sharing that for a while, and decided I might as well. I’ve shared photos of myself and some of my interests and things like that on the blog, so I figured it wouldn’t really matter. But I do post and reblog and like a lot of stuff on Tumblr. Today I realized that I have over 100 pages of stuff on my personal Tumblr. Um.
I’ve also been thinking about being a bit more specific about school stuff now. Not names and stuff (I’ll still use initials, or maybe nicknames), but at least where I’m going and some of the stuff I’m doing and stuff like that. Because by now I know all handful of my regular readers and commenters and that they are not scary stalkers who will reveal my location to other creepy people.
…Right?
Hahahaha.
And also, I might be starting to “vlog” after I settle in at school. I’ll have to do one-takes with my little camera or my webcam, but I’m told it works. That account is the same as my Tumblr and Twitters, just without the hyphen because that’s apparently not allowed in YT handles. So, youtube.com/blynninja.
I’ll share the story behind the name eventually. For now, I need to end this because it’s a jumble of stuff and I’m tired and should probably head for bed soon.
I thought I heard part of this song during the commercial, and now that I’ve listened to it, I can say that I’m pretty sure it was this song, just different parts cut together. And after I Googled it (kari jobe scheels), I think it must be. Which is pretty awesome.
So, uh, Kari and Scheels both just got some free marketing from me. 😛
Anyway, I was confused, and I looked it up, and I figured it out.
And I was pleasantly surprised.
Why, exactly, would a sporting goods store use a worship leader’s song (originally about Jesus) in their commecial??
I’m not complaining, I’m just curious.
Any ideas?
Erm, I guess that’s all I’ve got today.
Tonight.
It’s basically Wednesday now.
Which means I should go to bed.
I probably will not wake up until like 10AM because that’s how I’ve been lately, but I should sleep.
I need to write a paper tomorrow today.
Really.
Because it’s due Thursday.
I meant to start it today Tuesday, but I didn’t.
I read and wrote and ran errands instead.
I will do it today, because I do not have anything else to do until the evening when I’ll help with dishes and go to church.
Because I don’t have to go to work study. Which is cool.
Ummmm… Yeah. I think I’m going to shut up and go to bed now. 🙂
Okay, so the last two are more about God’s love. But really, God is love, right?
In fact, almost all of these songs will be played on my wedding day, if I have my way. 😉 The only exceptions are probably ZoeGirl and David Crowder Band.
I don’t think I’ve ever “been in love.”
I’ve had crushes, but crushes are crushes. They’re not necessarily equal to love.
Love is a choice you make, not just an emotion you feel.
I have to choose each and every day whether to love or hate people, and it is reflected in my actions.
This month’s topic at church has been love—hence the post.
I’ve been reading The O’Malley Chronicles lately, a series about seven people who became family in an orphanage when they were young. They each have jobs that revolve around helping others: a hostage negotiator, a US Marshal, a medical examiner/forensic pathologist, a firefighter, a Red Cross counselor, and an EMT are the main focus of the six books. The series revolves around them dealing with the youngest of the group, a pediatrician, giving them not-so-happy news. But through this bad news, and help from significant others (an FBI agent, a woman involved in politics, another Marshal, another firefighter, another firefighter, and nurse, respectively, plus another doctor for the pediatrician).
The reason I bring it up in connection to love is because of the significant others, and the faith journeys, kind of. The significant others begin as friends, are all believers, and help the O’Malleys through both the family and work-related stuff while answering questions about faith and such. Somewhere along the way, they fall in love, and by the end of the series, each O’Malley is either engaged or married.
The love stories are intriguing to me. They don’t take very long to develop. They fall in love within weeks or months of first encounters, with the exception of the ME and the Marshal. It takes her a little longer to come around. I think that might be my favorite of the stories.
Kate & Dave’s story starts during a hostage situation; Marcus & Shari’s at an event that puts her in danger; Lisa & Quinn’s in intertwining work issues; Jack & Cassie’s when she comes back to work in the middle of a dangerous case; Rachel & Cole’s around a case and faith; and Stephen & Meghan’s when he goes off to “find himself.”
I’ve read the series several times (three, at least, probably), have finished it again.
There’s something I’ve been pondering this latest read-through: the pace.
They “fall in love” within months.
To me, it seems way too fast.
But then, they’re spending practically all day every day together because of circumstances.
I love reading through conversations between Kate & Dave, Marcus & Shari, Lisa & Quinn, because they are the couples who spend a lot of time together because of protection issues. They spend a lot of time talking about faith, and about life in general.
That’s what I want.
I want that person with whom I can talk about anything, any time. The big stuff, and the little stuff.
I had that in a good friend from high school, the one guy I had a crush on.
But he’s practically engaged, and was always more of a brother, so I guess I’m on the lookout for someone else. 😛
If you want to go back to my letter to my prince entry, you’ll find that I said “I want to meet you NOW (soon), and spend the rest of my college years (and life in general) getting to know you.”
This is true.
I want to meet my future husband now, spend time together and with friends, get to know him.
I want it to be a process, to take my time and not rush into anything; I don’t want to feel pressured to be more than just friends at first.
I found out recently that my cousin is getting married this summer.
I’m so. Excited. I met her fiancé at Christmas, and I liked him quite a bit; he’s a nice guy.
This’ll be the first wedding I’ve been to in probably five years. I’m excited to get to go to a wedding (granted, it’s a four-hour drive to get there, but…).
I’m excited for my cousin.
She’s the last one on Mom’s side… until my sister or I get married. Which is a ways off.
So. That’ll be a fun weekend. 🙂
Love is something that stands the test of time.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. ~1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love! ~Moulin Rouge
Yesterday was my mommy’s birthday. She got to stay home most of the day because school was cancelled and since she works for the schools, when school is cancelled, she doesn’t have to work much. (Summer is different.)
I told her happy birthday when I got home from school yesterday, and then bought her a present at work, which I presented (haha) to her after work, while she was watching NCIS and ironing. I wasn’t sure she would like it, but she loved it! (I gave her a new coffee ‘tumbler’ thing with her first initial and some flowers on it. And a chocolate/caramel heart. And a card.)
Yesterday my Interpers Speech prof’s classes were cancelled. I thought nothing of it. Then when I got to school today, I found out today’s classes had been cancelled, too.
Really?
You couldn’t have found two minutes (or not even) to email your students to let them know you weren’t teaching for whatever reason?
Ugh.
Well, at least I have more time before work study. Where I may get paid to do my homework. Which is cool.
I still don’t know what to do about this I-pers assignment. Blah.
Maybe I’ll take a nap this afternoon. I’m super-sleepy lately, even though I’ve been getting around 8 hours of sleep each night. Weird.
Then tonight at church starts “The L Word” series (love, relationships, etc) at church! (Because it’s February, and Valentine’s Day and stuff.) The JH kids have a mentor night tonight, which means that their mentors (the same adult for both years of JH) come hang out with them and play games and YP does a little lesson. The 9-12 graders get to hang out with the homeless teens group and do stuff. I’m not sure if JH is going to do anything with that tonight or not, but we’ll see.
In other news, this has been on repeat on my laptop basically since Monday night.
And I found out yesterday that if you add “repeat” between “youtube” and “.com”, you can listen to the song on repeat automatically, instead of having to push the replay button. So that’s what I did. 🙂