Readers :)

My best friend, knowing how much I adore books, shared this with me the other day. Take a few minutes out of your very busy day and read it. It is most certainly worth your time.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1h4nfq/themonicabird.com/post/3273155431/date-a-girl-who-reads-date-a-girl-who-spends-her

Perks

So, I'm a member of the Honor's Program at my school and it's wonderful. It's a very small group and everyone gets along really well. Aside from the joy of getting to know everyone, there are also several other perks, one of them being the adorable netbook that I recieved today! Every new member of the Honors Program recieves one and I must say I am thoroughly enjoying mine. It is much easier to transport and it just adorable :) I haven't quite picked a name for it yet, but I will have one before too long!
Days like today just solidify for me that I made the right choice in choosing this school. Not just because I get cool toys, but because of the family atmosphere that is EVERYWHERE here on campus. Not many other schools can furnish brand new netbooks for their Honors Programs. Not many schools have professors that know you by name and say hello whenever they see you around campus. Not many schools have professors that are genuinely interested in what you're doing in life right now and how you're coping with things. There is such a welcoming air at my school. I love it a little bit more every day, and I have this sneaking suspicion that it only gets better from here

oh, Praise the One who paid my debt....

First and foremost, I pinky promise I didn't die! I'm still alive and well and VERY VERY busy! Such is the life of a college student, and I love every single minute of it!
Now, onto what I REALLY wanted to write about. I don't remember if I mentioned this yet or not, but my roommate and I have been looking for a church to start attending while at school and we think we may have found one. The man who has been speaking at Blueprint for the last month or so, Jason Garris, is wonderful. He really knows how to reach college students on their level and I always enjoy hearing him speak. Within the last few weeks Christine and I have been visiting Highland Christian Church, where Jason is one of the Pastors and we love it! It is very contemporary and casual and everyone feels welcome, regardless of how they look or how much money they have. It's just a group of people who get together and worship God and it's amazing. There is something new every week, whether it's an extended worship time or a different praise band. I look forward to it every week and find myself the tiniest bit disappointed whenever I have to miss it. It is just a wonderful place to be and worship.
Not only have I found a church, but I am also beginning to get more involved with the campus ministries, Blueprint, in particular. I recently got the assigment of my D-Group, or Discipleship Group, that will meet once a week, do a bible study and just spend time together. I was put into the group with Sarai Gilbert, who is the lovely wife of Marty Gilbert, the faculty advisor. She is very sweet and gentle and I am thrilled to be in her group and get closer to her and the other amazing girls in my group!
I'll try my best to keep everyone updated with everything, what with my insane schedule. Wish me luck!

Shouldn't this get EASIER the second time around?

This weekend I packed up my little car, made sure we had everything we needed, got in the car with my roommate and headed down the mountain to spend the weekend at home with my amazing family and it was just that, AMAZING! We went to the fair, we read all day, we went out to dinner with everyone, we watched Star Wars with my mom and I got to introduce Christine to SunDrop for the first time. Hands down, best weekend I've had in a long time. I surprised all my amazing friends at church and just showed up sunday  morning without warning anyone I was coming. It was wonderful. Just being at home and surrounded by the people that love me no matter what was the best feeling. Then the weekend ended and I cried like a baby when Christine and I had to leave again. Most people might not be surprised by this, but I was. The day that I moved in I didn't cry very much. I had an orientation session to get to and my wonderful parents had to get home, so we said goodbye outside my dorm and I cried a little, but it didn't last very long because I knew that I had to be somewhere and ready for class. Maybe the fact that I didn't cry very much the first day was a large contributing factor and maybe I was just due for a good cry, but Sunday afternoon was one of the hardest things I've done. Maybe it will get easier, I certainly hope so, but I have no doubt that it will always hurt when I have to leave my family. I just have to know that I will see them again and remember that, no matter how far away we are, we have each other in our hearts <3

Chosen Generation

Apparently God has been trying to get my attention for some time now and I'm just now picking up on it, but the theme of the campus ministries that I've gotten involved in during the last several weeks has been 'Chosen'. The wonderful speakers that visited for CSM the last two weeks have both spoken on finding our identity in God and no one else. The theme verse for this month is 1 Peter 2:9 'But God chose you to be his people. You are royal priests. You are a holy nation. You are a people who belong to God. All of this is so that you can sing his praises. He brought you out of darkness into his wonderful light.' He brought us out of darkness. He chose us specifically for the purpose that he has set before us. When these messages were first given I didn't think much of it except that they were both wonderful messages given from the hearts of two beloved men of God. Then, tonight as I was sitting in Blueprint listening to Jason Garris speak on the story of Zacchaeus and how we are all chosen and would be nowhere without God it hit me. GOD STOP TIME! This is exactly what He's been wanting me to realize! Jason mentioned one verse tonight that really stuck with me. It was John 15:16 'You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.' We did NOT choose God. That's a phrase that is commonly used when someone is rescued by Christ, but it is so untrue! We have no power to find God. He chooses us specifically. He knows exactly what kind of fruit we are going to bear. He sets the fire in our heart to begin pursuing him, but He has been after us much longer than we can even imagine. Take the story of Zacchaeus as an example. The day that Zacchaeus met Christ, literally, he woke up with one thing A lot of money. His one goal for the day was to get as much money as he could for himself.  Nothing else mattered. Then he heard someone mention that Jesus was coming through town and all of a sudden he HAD TO SEE JESUS. He ran through the street to find a perch high enough to just catch a small glimpse of this man they called 'Friend of Sinners'. He RAN. He did whatever had to be done to satisfy this deep spiritual hunger that suddenly consumed him. He didn't need to meet Jesus. He didn't need to touch Him or be his best friend or strongest follower. He would have been satisied to merely see Him. Lucky for him, Christ had a different plan for him. As Jesus approached the tree that Zacchaeus was in He stopped, looked up, and said 'Zacchaeus come quickly! I MUST be a guest in your house tonight!' He didn't say 'I'd really enjoy coming to your house.' He didn't say 'It would be really nice if I could stop by for a few minutes.' NO! Jesus said 'I MUST be a guest in your house today.' He knew exactly who is small man was. He knew exactly what Zacchaeus had done and the reputation that he had, but He also knew that finally his pursuit of Zacchaeus' heart was beginning to 'bear fruit that will last'. Jesus had found his lost treasure and Zacchaeus knew just how important this was. He not only gave his wealth away, he gladly offered up four times the amount that he had cheated people in his time as a tax collector. Zacchaeus was thrilled to give up everything he had for something that, the day before, had meant nothing to him, but in the short time that he had know about Jesus, changed his life forever. We should strive to live a life similar to that. We should be thrilled to give up everything for our Heavenly Father. WE ARE CHOSEN! God knows exactly what He wants to do with each and every one of us. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we think is the right thing and just doing so many THINGS that we forget to simply spend time with The One who chose us, who wrote our life story for the glory of His name. We have to take the time to explore the story that God set before us. We need to live our lives as God's chosen few. We didn't earn it. God didn't need us, He wanted us. HE CHOSE US. Let's live that way <3

Practice Makes Perfect

I have never really been one of those people who can spend hours on end practicing one or two songs. Of course, who really is at my age, right? It just never could hold my attention for long extended amounts of time. I guess I just got too distracted much too easily, as do many teenagers, but I just started college. I'm a big kid now, right? Right. So, tonight I went over to my home-away-from-dorm, Moore Auditorium ( <3), and sat myself down in a little tiny practice room. It was just me and that upright piano. I had no idea what to expect, honesty. I didn't know if I would be able to just sit there and do work. I was never THAT kid. None the less, I sat down at that little piano and pulled out my Alfred's Group Piano for Adults(adults? right.) and set to work. I was surprised at just how easy it was to buckle down and do the work that I needed to get done. I thoroughly enjoyed sitting all by my lonesome in that tiny room playing through my piano assignment and choosing a song that I'm going to perform for my voice studio later this week. I loved working through the things that gave me problems. I loved the struggles that I ran into. I loved realizing what songs needed more work than I thought. I'm looking forward to putting in the hours to get where I want to be on my songs. Is it possible to be addicted to working this hard? Does that make me crazy? If so, then I claim that particular brand of insanity. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that there were so many other music students in the practice rooms around me ranging from drummers to tuba players. Maybe hearing them all work so hard and just having the sense of everyone working toward the same goal, even though we may not be working on exactly the same thing, had an impact. Whatever it was, I loved it. Every moment of the two hours I spent in that precious room was filled with hard work. I absolutely cannnot wait to do it again!

Unbreakable

We've all had those days, those classes, those relationships, those friendships, that we feel like nothing can touch. There is no way that anything could mess up the progress or the closeness or just the general feeling of peace that seems to engulf us at every moment. Every one of us has been there. We love it. We thrive on it. We honestly believe that whatever it is, it's going so well that it will NEVER go wrong....but then it does. What then? What do we do when our perfect day gets ruined with horrible news? What do we do when we fail the big test in that class? What do we do when we lose that person that was 'The One' for so long? What do we do when we lose our very best friend? Do you want the truth? We hurt. We lose our confidence. We reevaluate. We grieve. We run from the pain. We repress it. We don't face it because we don't know if we're strong enough to handle it. We break down when it all comes out and we're forced to deal with it. Then, just when we think there is no possiblity of things ever improving at all.....we start to move on. It gets a little bit easier. It doesn't hurt quite as much as it did the day before. We learn to deal. We work harder in the class. We learn to be on our own and not depend on someone else to make us happy. We build ourselves up for the next time we break because we all know it's going to happen. We go on with our lives. We find new loves. We make new friends. We fix the cracks. We begin to realize that we aren't unbreakable. We start to accept the fact that we're human and it's expected for us to break every now and then. No one is invincible. Even Superman has a weakness. We have to learn what our Kryptonite is and find ways to avoid it. We have to know our weakness and know how to deal with it. We have to realize that we're going to break. We simply have to learn how to just be HUMAN.