Some Contemplations

Lately I've been wondering if I’m missing something. Is college all about classes and work and getting to meals before they close and turning in assignments so your teachers know that you learned something? Is there anything beyond the hustle and bustle, the stress and the lack of sleep?

I hope that relationships, true friendships, come out of enduring these seemingly-endless times together. Back home, I realized during my 5th quarter why my parents still send Christmas cards to the people they “went to college with.” It’s because there is a relationship forged in college that isn't really found anywhere else. I know that “the real world” is full of pressures, and I definitely am not undermining those stressors. But in college, you’re really learning what it means to be an adult, and for some of us {hello, firstborns!} it’s also learning with your parents how to be treated as an adult while still respecting and obeying “house rules.”

Personally, my parents have done and are doing an AMAZING job in encouraging me to grow up and to press into God, while still making sure I've thought of all possible outcomes and/or consequences of my decisions. I love you, Mom and Dad!

This hasn't gone where I thought it would go… I was going to share how grateful I am for the friends I've made here, and how I wish all friendships were still intact. But gratefulness for my parents is even better, because even though friends stay for a very long time, my parents have loved me even longer. God, thank You for my amazing parents. Thanks that I get to give my heart to them on this lovely, chilly Valentine’s Day.

Just Something…

Lately I've been feeling that I’m lacking something, whether it’s an internal something or an external something, I don’t know. I think it’s because Jesus and I had a good, refreshing, challenging, and painful conversation the other day, but I didn't follow up with it, and I’m kinda hanging.

Also, I miss my family and friends, and I wish I could get to know more people, or people more, but I don’t want to look like a stalker or a tag-along or a boy-chaser. {I’m referring to both male and female friends, but obviously the boy-chaser thing is only applicable to guys.}

Blogs that I’m following have been updated a lot this weekend, and I figured I should do the same. So here’s what’s on my mind:

“The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.” – John Lubbock

Reading The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction is annoying, because author Luke Timothy Johnson is so obnoxiously anti-Christian. You would think that a) someone with THAT biblical of a name would be more polite, b) if you were going to hire someone to write a book about a religion, you would hire someone who practices it and BELIEVES in it, and c) a very short introduction would actually have short chapters. Unfortunately, these statements are not true.

We are supposed to get a couple inches of snow today… apparently this region actually has a winter season, and it actually lasts the 3 months that seasons are supposed to last. Who would have thought!?

I’m going to be working on a little surprise for my friends and family back home. It’s exciting, and I am looking forward to it not just because they’re going to be happy, but because working on it will be a break from school. Ahh!

Well, readers, I would appreciate your prayers today, and I will pray for you. Be blessed today!