Pictures of Jesus?

So once again I've decided to maybe try and start writing on this thing again... maybe. Isn't my commitment level awesome?

For those of you who don't know, I have the privilege of working with Middle School students at my church. They are an incredible bunch of kids and the other leaders as well as the Middle School pastor and his wife are some of my dearest friends. Jr. Highers are, well, Jr. Highers... So we're bound to have some drama and some frustrating moments. However, tonight Erin (the pastor) dealt with the issues in a way that I have never seen before.

Instead of laying on the guilt, which is so common a technique in youth groups, Erin asked them a question. He simply asked, What kind of legacy do you want to leave? When those kids that were in Jr. High with you look back at pictures in twenty years what will they say about you? This question hit me hard. What comes to people's minds when they see a picture of me?

It's something we should all think about. When people see our faces in a picture, what comes to mind? Do they think about how you showed them the love of Jesus, or do they think about how you never even said hi to them? I'm not intending to lay on the guilt here at all. In fact, I'm mostly asking myself this question.

I hope that people see Jesus when they see me, and I sincerely apologize to anyone who I have failed in this way.

I Thought My Blog Was Broken...

Turns out I was! For some reason I couldn't get my blog to sign in and then I yelled at it and it worked again.

I've been listening to Casey James' version of "Jealous Guy" over and over and over again. Man it's gorgeous. The song that is. Well, ok. So is the guy.

Well now that I can get into my blog I might just start writing again. Maybe.

Guilianna and Bill

I have a little confession to make. I'm secretly in love with the E! Reality show Guilianna and Bill. It's absolutely horrible and rediculous but I can't stop watching it. It's like a train-wreck. In so many ways.

Guilianna has absolutely no idea that even though they have signed their lives away to E! in order to make even more money than they already do (Guilianna is an E! "news" correspondent and Bill won the Apprentice at some point), she doesn't actually have to tell every gritty detail of their life and their marriage. This results in lots of eye rolling and uncomfortable squirming from the either incredibly weak or incredibly patient Bill. It is so awkward I just can't help but watch. One of my favorite moments was when the doctor told her she had to gain 5 pounds or she wouldn't be able to have a baby (because you know, baby's need nutrients and all. Also, her body would probably just eat the baby thinking she had finally fed it something). She freaked out and starting whining about how she can't gain weight because of her job and how her clothes won't fit and blah blah blah... Newsflash Guilianna darling: 5 pounds will still make you about 25 pounds underweight. I don't think they'll fire you, but it might make you look like a normal person instead of someone who needs about 15 sandwiches shoved down their throat stat. And if they do fire you, sue their pants off and go buy yourself a cheeseburger.

Now. On to Bill. I don't get him. He seems like a perfectly nice person and yet he married Ms. Anorexic big-head who publically declares that it's his fault they can't have children, drags him to "doctors" in order to figure out why their "energy" is all off, and who seriously considered not having children so that she wouldn't have to gain 5 pounds. Does she not know that pregnancy generally makes you rotund and volumptuous and that it's a wonderful excuse to not do crunches for 9 months? Seriously Bill. What's the deal here? Oh that's right... she bought you a harley.

Now I will go hang my head in shame for writing an entire post about something so wonderfully horrible.

A Beautiful Mark

People fascinate me. I love sitting in a crowded place and watching people walk by. Is that creepy? Sometimes I sit and make up stories in my head about the people walking by. I make up stories about couples as they walk by, and what caused that person to put on that particular outfit that morning and what they were thinking. I love hearing people's stories and learning what makes them who they are, and I love watching people's stories develop. 

I think that might be one of the reasons I love Jr. High ministry so much. I get to be part of their story for a brief time, but I also get to watch them grow up, move onto high school, and hopefully college and beyond. I know I won't stay in touch with all of them, but I love the relationships that I have kept with some of my former Jr. Highers. It's so much fun to see them become the people that God wants them to be and to begin to see the purpose for which God created them. I get to see their unique strengths develop and see how they choose to serve God within those strengths. Their stories are relatively short at this point but they're beautiful.

Everybody's story is important. Our story is part of who we are now even if it wasn't quite a fairytale.  Each one of them is different but each one has one particular thing in common- it began with the Creator of the universe putting it into motion. God has a unique purpose and reason for your story, it may not be what you think it should be or what you wish it was, but it's purposeful. Each of our stories bears the mark of it's author and what a beautiful mark that is. 

I Am Solar Powered

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to spend about a week in Washington to visit some friends. This was my first trip to the Pacific Northwest and it was wonderful. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous and it only rained 3 times throughout the whole week! However, despite the surprisingly nice weather (my friend's dad referred to it as "balmy" although I would hesitate to call 50 degrees "balmy"), it was still pretty gray most of the week. This is how I discovered that I am solar powered. I need the sun. I thrive with the sun. As soon as the weather turns gray all I want to do is curl up on the couch near a fire and watch movies or read all day. Needless to say I was sleepy the whole time. However, despite my extremely strong urges to hybernate I had a wonderful time with very dear friends. I'm glad to be back where the sun shines though. Flying into San Diego was marvelous. It was 75 degrees with perfectly clear blue skies and I couldn't help but smile.

Oh Traditions...

My whole family is very content with spending the day hanging around the house doing things like watching movies, knitting, surfing the internet, and reading. I, however, go crazy after a few hours of this. Every Christmas we spend the day in our pajamas watching movies that we got for Christmas and playing around with the things we got that day. I respect the tradition and try my best to be happy about it but usually by about 2pm I start getting a little jittery and bored and eventually lose my mind. The rest of my family however is still happily enjoying their hermit ways. This year was worse. I love and adore chocolate covered coffee beans. So, my mom decided to be wonderful and put a whole bag of them in my stocking. How do you think that turned out? Take a girl who is already almost incapable of sitting still for longer than 25 minutes, throw in some chocolate covered coffee beans and other various sugary treats, and force her to stay home all day. Thankfully I had a little project I had to finish which kept me busy for a bit, and then we went for a 3 or 4 mile walk which helped a lot. Let's just say that the day after Christmas they can no longer force me to stay home, and I no longer have to wander aimlessly around the house hoping i'll find something to do.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and a time to reflect on who Christ is.

I Heart the Old Testament

I'm done. Well, atleast until February. That feels good to say. No more homework, no more deadlines, no more giant projects and papers, and no more sitting in class for six weeks.

*insert happy dance*

Last night my sister Afton and I helped our sister Cate study for her Old Testament final which she was convinced she was going to fail. It was hilarious. Turns out Afton is really good at studying for tests, and I remember random things from my Old Testament survey class freshman year. Like the year that King Josiah died, and the three deportations of the Jews out of Jerusalem into exile. Useful information right? I also know both names for King Xerxes, the capital city of Persia during the time of Esther, and why Purim was started.

I think I remember all of these random facts because I loved my Old Testament class. Yes, it helps that I've also had other more specialized Old Testament classes and the Old Testament comes into play in pretty much all of my New Testament classes at some point as well, but I think it's mainly because of the love. The Old Testament is fascinating! Yes, some books are not so fascinating, but if you can get past Leviticus and Numbers you will get to the good stuff. The Old Testament is full of epic battle scenes, sojourners, love stories, good kings, bad kings, strong men and women who stand up for what Yahweh has told them is right, weak men and women, and women who use their tent pegs as weapons. It's also the story of redemption broken up into mini-redemptions. It is the story of the People of God, His gracious interaction with them, and His unrelenting desire for relationship with them. It is also the foundation of God's ultimate plan to reconcile all to Him. How could we not love it?