passioniate.

In open fields of wild flowers,

she breathes the air and flies away

She thanks her Jesus for the daises and the roses

in no simple language

Someday she'll understand the meaning of it all

He's more than the laughter or the stars in the heavens

As close a heartbeat or a song on her lips

Someday she'll trust Him and learn how to see Him

Someday He'll call her and she will come running

and fall in His arms and the tears will fall down and she'll pray,

"I want to fall in love with You"

This song is a beautiful illustration of why I feel called to go into the ministry and why I want to work with kids. The way that they view the world is so innocent. The way that they can look at the simplest things breaks my heart for Jesus. I love the way that their little minds work and I love hearing what they have to say. I love that they are willing to question everything and I love how they rejoice in the little things. Yet, I long for the way that their spiritual lives mature and they fall completely and utterly in love with God. When I hear this song by Jars of Clay, I get chill bumps down my arms and I get a little emotional. I cannot wait for the day when the kids that I work with "get it". I can't wait for the day when He calls them and they hear Him. I can't wait for the day when they give up the fight and run towards him. I want them so badly to fall into His arms and tell him that they want to fall in love with Him. I can't wait for they day when they really get it- not just they day that they "say a prayer" or even get baptized. But the day when they experience that longing for God and they realize their complete inadequacy- that's the day I'm longing for. That's why I'm so passionate about educating our children. That's why I'm so passionate about NOT watering the gospel down. These kids can handle it- they are so smart. I want them to be completely in love with Jesus. 

Miscellany Monday

It's been forever since I've done one of these, but I think it's time to pick it up again!

{one} Can I just say that I am suddenly awful at taking pictures? I'm supposed to be a blogger and a scrapbooker! Since August, I've taken pictures of my Sunday School class, one of Desmond's football games, and of my "new" room- FAIL. I mean, I've taken a few "twitter pictures" with my phone, but Girl has got to get better with this. Project Life went down hill by March, so I've got to find some way to document my life. Any ideas?

Picture that my MOM took the other night during Family Movie Night!

{two} I'm SO ready for this semester to be over. I really don't want to write all of these term papers. Today, I'm attempting to tackle Biblical Womanhood for my C.S. Lewis class. I think I've reached the conclusion that it's not all about the womanhood- it's about being the person that God created us to be. "Biblical Personhood" as my dear friend Annie put it in a comment on the blog a little while back. Each of us have different roles for the kingdom- it's how we were created- but in the end, it's about both of us sacrificing our wants for another person's needs. John Piper puts it like so:

Biblical headship for the husband is the divine calling to take primary responsibility for Christlike, servant-leadership, protection and provision in the home. Biblical submission for the wife is the divine calling to honor and affirm her husband’s leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts. (Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood)

That's deep. Chew on it for a bit and get back to me.

{three} I've still got to work on the final draft of my exegesis paper (it's on fear and the like) and write a term paper on hell. (Okay, so it's more on how an all loving, all powerful God could send people to Hell). It's based kind of as a response to Rob Bell and the like, but more just as a response to my theology teacher. I'm building upon a paper that I posted here called "Love Wins...or Not?" and if you wanted to look over that and tell me what's confusing/what you love/what you hate...you can email me (address on the sidebar). Or you can just read it and gain some wisdom from my vast theological knowledge (haha. very funny Lauren).

{four} I wanted to end on an even number since I like those better (other than the number seven. I know, I'm weird). I don't really have another point, but since this is miscellany monday, I figured that I can be miscellaneous and do that. Off to work on that paper now. After I get a diet coke and a study snack, of course. Procrastination at its finest.

dorm decorating

It's no secret that I love color. I cannot stand living in a room with all-white walls. Which makes a dorm room pretty difficult to live in. But, I've figured it out as I've went along and made do with what I had. After all, I'm grateful that I get to go to college and live on campus. It sure makes getting to my 8am a lot easier! With the invention of Pinterest, I've gotten all sorts of inspiration on how to decorate this thing. I'm still not done hanging everything up, but I thought I'd post where I'm at right now. Keep in mind, I moved in this room six days ago (from down the hall, but I still had to pack everything up and take everything down and then put it all up). Sorry for the terrible pictures, I just had my phone (which doesn't have a great camera) but I wanted to get this blogged.

On the left, you can see my "desk" area. It also has my TV and printer and all that jazz. I got the "bunting" idea from Pinteres and made the triangles out of scrapbook paper that I already had. I didn't use a pattern or anything, I just drew 2 triangles on a 12x12 sheet and cut them out using scissors. Then, I taped them together and used sticky tack to put them on the wall.
On the right is the "hallway" from my "room" to my door. It's also where my "kitchen" is (by kitchen I mean my microwave and fridge...haha).

 Here's my bathroom. I know that's an odd thing to post on your blog, but I think my bathroom is pretty cute. It's all polkadotted!

And finally, this is my "bed area". Yes, my bed is outrageously high. Yes, I have to jump to get in it or I use a chair (Just not the spinny kind. That tends to make you slip and fall. Trust me.) But, it gives me lots of storage space, which I like. :)
Then, we have my dresser. Currently it has some things that I haven't hung on my wall yet (ran out of command strips) and my creativity print from elisejoy.

 And that's a tour of my dorm room. Kind of tiny, but it's cozy and I don't have to share it with anyone- which is really nice. Yay! Not that I don't hanging out with someone, but it's nice to have my own space. Now that I'm done with some decorating tonight, I'm working on a paper for my C.S. Lewis class on biblical womanhood and marriage and watching Matilda. Because it's kind of a favorite. :)

Be Grateful.

This month at church, we're working on teaching the kids about gratitude. I mean, it IS Novemeber (which means THANKSGIVING) and all. So, I thought it'd be neat to talk about gratitude a bit this week. I was so convicted this morning when I was teaching. I mean, it's easy to get in front of the kids and tell them what they need to do. But, it is so much harder to actually live it out. Face it, it is HARD to be grateful when things aren't going my way.

Isaiah 25:1 says, "LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago." God has an amazing plan for each one of is. We have plenty of reasons to be thankful. But, have you ever noticed that this is a little easier said than done? It's easy to be thankful when things are going good. But, it's easier to have a bad attitude when things aren't going our way. What kinds of things give you a bad attitude? Maybe it's fighting with a best friend or maybe it's the neighbor down the hall that likes to blast loud music late at night. Maybe it's when a friend betrays your trust or when a boy breaks your heart. It's hard to embrace the good in these things and give thanks to God for them. But, we are called to fight against the negativity. We are called to have an attitude of gratitude and find a reason to be grateful in every situation. I was talking about this with my kids this morning and one of the girls in the class shared something that her dad had challenged her to, and I extended the challenge to the rest of the class. She told us about how her dad challenged her and her brothers on the way to school to find a way to be grateful in a situation that day that they normally wouldn't be grateful in. Then, she told us about how she had done this. I want to challenge you to do this week. Find one thing each day to be grateful about, even when gratefulness isn't easy. I mean, we have plenty of reasons to be grateful this week. Maybe you're upset that you have ten million papers due this week, but you can be grateful that you have the opportunity to attend school. Write these down as we go so that we can share them and encourage each other! :)

eleven-eleven-eleven

Hey, I know I'm a day late on this. But, seeing as #33 on my 101 in 1001 list is to write down everything that happens on 10/10/10, 11/11/11, and 12/12/12..I wanted to make sure I didn't completely forget. You can see last years post here and probably tell that I put way more effort in to that one. But, that's okay, because we're making memories! We're going to do bullet points this year, because that's how I roll! :)

• 9 am-ish: Wake up and get ready to run errands in town with Mom and the boys. Yay for an Inservice Friday!
• 9:55 am: Actually leave the house.
• 10am: Max goes to guitar lessons, while Mom, Desi, and I make a Goodwill run. No really good deals for me, but Mom and Des find some things.
• 11am: Lunch and Bowl! Daddy left work to come meet us for lunch at the bowling alley while we did a little bowling. Not the greatest game on my part...I think I got around 45 points. After bowling, we ran by Krispy Kreme and got some doughnuts...yum. 
• 2:30pm: Max had some friends over to the house for a "jam session". Which really just means it was really loud. 
• 3:00pm: Mom and I decide to escape the madness and run up to WalMart. Always a fun experience.
• The kids were picked up around 4:30, so we finally got a bit of a breather.
• Then, we ate dinner. I had a panini. It was yummy. :)
• That night, we had a lazy at-home night and watched some Disney Channel. Then, I went to bed around 9:00-9:30...because I like my sleep and we had a busy day planned for 11/12! 

And that was my 11/11/11. Yay! :)

Christmastime is Coming!

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. There are so many fun traditions that we do as a family and I just love everything to do with the season. Confession: I've already started listening to Christmas music. So, when I realized that Christmas was right around the corner, I realized that I needed to start working on Christmas cards. I mean, getting Christmas cards from friends and family is always fun! So, I started looking online and I came across a company called TinyPrints. They have super cute cards for all occasions on their site. But, I like their Christmas cards the best!

TinyPrints has all sorts of cards in their collection. They have photo cards and non-photo cards. They have 5x7 ones and ones that fold out. (Now, if I could find enough "Christmas Card worthy" pictures from the next year to do this one, we'd be great!)

If you go to http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm, you can find some cute Christmas Cards for you and your family too! There are several filters on the left hand side that make it easy to narrow down the selection. Personally, I really like the whimsy and the vintage style cards. They also have a wide selection of religious cards- which this non "Happy Holidays" girl kind of likes. If you know me by now, you should know that I'm cheap. So, I'm getting my cards from TinyPrints this year through their blogger program. TinyPrints still has their blogger campaign going on (until November 11th at midnight at least!), and you can go here for more information on how you can sign up and get 50 free Christmas cards for your family! Merry Christmas! :)

learning to love is hard.

I'm serious. Sometimes I feel like I never get a break. I get so frustrated with people because they blow things out of proportion and they act like we're still in middle school. Um, sorry. We're in college now. I feel like God is really trying to prove to me that he is the center of my life. He is the one thing that I can build my foundation upon. Laura Story sings in "Faithful God" (one of my favorite songs) about how God is "For You are the love that never leaves, the friend that won't deceive, You're the one sure thing". I'm trying so hard to lean on this, but I've felt like I keep getting the short end of the stick. If you notice, I don't have twitter on my sidebar any more. I like having it there so that people don't have to follow me to see what I'm up to. It's like a mini-blog. I like having  my twitter not private. But, because of an unfortunate set of events, I've been forced to make that private. If you want to follow me, just request it and I'll approve it. I'm really not that picky. I feel like losing my roommate last week and now a run in with another suite-mate this week is about to drive me up a wall. It is really hard to love someone when they are screaming in your face and when they talk about how horrible a person you are. But, as I wrote about last week, we must love like Jesus even when it's hard. In the end, God will work it all out. It is not my duty to make sure that "justice is served" in every situation. It may seem really difficult because things don't seem fair. 


And in my situation, I finally caught a break. Another room has become available and I'm moving into it ASAP. I'm hoping and praying that all the little details will work out, but I know that a miracle happened tonight. I know that God is watching over me and meeting my every need. Even though it's frustrating to have to pack everything up and take down everything that you just put up- I know it will be worth it. It is hard to get along with people you love- it is harder to get along with people you don't like. It's hard to get along with people you are similar with- it is hard to get along with people that are your polar opposite. But. God had a plan for this situation. As he wrote in Jeremiah 29:11, he has a plan for this semester. Even when things look rough. Even when we're in "exile" and we can't see the way out, he has a plan for us to prosper and to give us a future.

It's FRIDAY!

Honestly...I'm pretty much the clumsiest person on the face of the planet. In the last 24 hours, I've hit my head on my bed twice and I just stubbed my toe. And I've caught myself countless times when I was about to trip. Stupid sidewalks.

Honestly...I'm pretty excited abut Secret Church tonight! My family is going over to a friend's house to watch it. I'm pretty excited to hear what David Platt has to say tonight.

Honestly...I have Rebecca Black's song "Friday" stuck in my head. Possibly because I was "7 am wakin' up in the morning". Friday, Friday.

Honestly...That last factoid was more than a little embarrassing. Forget that one.

Honestly...I'm more confused than ever about what I want to do with my life. So, I've decided to only take 12 hours next semester and stick around until next Fall. It's not the end of the world to graduate one semester late- especially being on my third college, fifth major, and taking a semester off!

Honestly...I'm pretty excited that we are watching Chronicles of Narnia in my C.S. Lewis class. I needed this break so badly in there!

Honestly...I'm so glad to be done with my exegesis paper for my Prophet's class. It's one of the hardest papers I've written. This was just the first draft though...so still more work to do (eventually) on this one. But, I'm done with it for a week!

Honestly...I'm feeling SO much better thanks to some of my amazing blog and real-life friends. I'm so glad that I have this kind of support system to help me through tough times!

Honestly...I watched Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie last night on Hulu while doing Christian Theology homework. Religion nerd, I know. But, this is why I love my life. :)

this week.

This past week has honestly been one of the hardest I've gone through in a long time. It's amazing how fast things can go from bad to worse and how much it can hurt to be betrayed by someone that you thought was your friend. I've learned a lot this week. But, I think the one thing I've learned is that we must love like Jesus even when it's hard. It's so easy for us to forget that it's not always easy to love like Jesus. We forget that he we completely betrayed by some of his best friends. We forget that this betrayal cost him his life. It's easy to hate people when they do bad things. It's easy to want to talk about them and ruin their life and hurt them like they hurt you. But, we (as Christians) are called to a higher purpose. We are called to love. And not just love when it's easy- but love even when it's hard. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that we must love strong enough not to hate. He says to turn the other cheek when we are hurt by someone. In a sermon titled "Loving Your Enemies", he says

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.  

1 John 4:20 says, "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." We must love even when it's hard. We must love even when others don't love us back. Our love can overcome their hatred. Even when people are spreading lies about you and saying mean things- we are called to love them. Even when someone disappoints us, we are called to love them. Even when someone does the opposite of what we think Christ would want them to do and we think we are the one that is right, we are called to love them. We are called to love them in every circumstance. We are called to love them because Christ Jesus first loved us. We let God down all the time. We sin and we disappoint Jesus. We treat his sacrificial death on the cross as meaningless all the time- yet he still loves us. Since Christ loves us, we must love our enemies. Since Christ loves us even when it doesn't make sense, we are called to love others even when it doesn't make sense.