Beautiful innocence.

^"2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. ³ And he said:“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

    ⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." 

{Matthew 18:2-6}

^”15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 

{Mark 10:15}

As I was watching "Lost" (the kid's choir production) tonight, I couldn't help but smile at the beautiful faith of these children. Here they are singing, dancing, rapping, signing, and acting to share the gospel, and they are so full of joy! Every single one of them is a little light, burning brightly for our Father. Sometimes it's easy to listen to children's songs and simply say, "Awww. They're so cute." But if you take a moment to actually listen to what they're saying, the message is so important, no matter how simple it may be... "Everything's okay and everything's alright, 'cause I got Jesus in my life!" How often could we use that reminder? For me, it's often, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Probably one of the most impacting songs to hear them sing, though, was Amazing Grace. These kids are just so young and innocent, and to hear them sing "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me" really struck me. I could never look at a child and consider him or her a wretch. That's not the point of the song, I realize, but these kids have an understanding (or are learning) that we are born with sin, that Jesus died for us because of our sin, and that His grace is a precious gift. I can't think of another word to describe that other than beautiful. The show was beautiful, the kids were beautiful, and their worship was beautiful. Twas a lovely thing indeed :)

^"6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, 
   each of us has turned to our own way; 
and the LORD has laid on him 
   the iniquity of us all."

{Isaiah 53:6}

Goodnight my precious loves; sleep well :)

Proverbs 29

I'm going to try to pinpoint verses whose topics I haven't already discussed in previous posts...

^"10 The bloodthirsty hate a person of integrity 
   and seek to kill the upright."

Our life is one constant spiritual battle. The wicked are constantly and unceasingly striving to make us give in to sin, to surrender our lives. True life lies in God and God alone. Satan and those he has enticed wish for us to stray from that truth. They want us to venture down the path of darkness straight to our death! The wicked hate to see us thrive in the light of the Lord, so take up the armor of God, for this battle is raging continuously. Stand firm in our Father, and you shall win this war.

^"19 Servants cannot be corrected by mere words; 
   though they understand, they will not respond."

Though we may constantly read scripture, and although we may often hear God speaking into our hearts, that often is not enough to fix ourselves or our problems. We have this awful tendency of hearing things and just letting them go in one ear and out the other (sorry for the cliche). To understand a concept and to actively respond to it are two very different things. And although it can be hard to accept rebuke and actually want to implement change, it must be done in accordance with what God asks of us. Therefore, do not simply hear what He is saying to you and take it at face value. Act on it. Alter yourself as needed! If you need to, ask someone to hold you accountable, and seek guidance from a spiritual leader or wise friend. We are servants of our Father; we must heed His word.

^"26 Many seek an audience with a ruler, 
   but it is from the LORD that one gets justice."

No one on this earth can give you aid, guidance, or advice that measures up to that of God. He is our protector; He stands in our defense. The Lord knows our path and will not allow the faithful to stumble. God works for the good of those who love and praise Him {Romans 8:28}, and there is no greater provider or miracle-worker than our Father. Seek His wisdom and guidance! No earthly knowledge can begin to compare!

That crocodile just pulled a Shamoo...

I didn't wake up today until 12:30. It was absolutely glorious. After some conversating with my mom, Johnny, and Jenn, I went to sweet frog with Heather and Nikki :) It was delicious, and those two just make my heart really happy in general :) From there, I went to pick up quite a few job applications. Some of them I can't actually apply for, but at least I put in an application to Starbucks at 4 different locations. I really hope one of them gets back to me, even though I was informed that it often taken multiple tries :/ I went to get an application from Sweet Frog, but they told me to come back once I was out of school. Really? I just wanted to fill it out now so that I would know whether or not they were interested in hiring me before I came home for break. I NEED MONEY! But anyways, I went to dinner at Chipotle with Kathryn, Kim, Elizabeth, Elsbeth, Colin, Matt and Rachel, and that was a lovely time. We followed that up with some Starbucks, where I ran into someone I haven't seen or talked to in a while. It surprisingly wasn't that awkward though, so that's good. The rest of the evening was spent just being ridiculous and cramming more people in one car than any person should, haha. Tweet! Oh, and we watched this really intriguing movie on FEARnet called Black Water... Long story short, a crocodile kills everyone except this one girl who really shouldn't have survived in the first place. Yeah, it was a pretty awful horror movie, but at least is kept us amused! Haha. Goodnight loves :)

Om-nom-a-gon!

Oh hey there! Guess what..... IT'S SPRING BREAK! Woop woop! It's off to a great start! But first...

I didn't have my 9:05 this morning, which was super legit. After my other 2 classes, I had a meeting with a social work advisor to basically plan out my course schedule for the next 3 years. I was informed that I was going to have A LOT of room for electives in my schedule, so she suggested that I pick up a minor (specifically a humanitarian affairs minor). It sounds pretty interesting, so I may just do that!

But yeah! Tonight I went to the CFA Dance Showcase at Henrico! I loved it! Not only did I enjoy receiving amazing attack hugs from Rave' and Sarah, but the dancing was just so incredibly beautiful. Seriously, I had goosebumps on more than one occasion watching those pieces. I don't know how else to say it, it was just beautiful! (I also felt super loved/VIP because they let me in for free :) Hooray for being a CFA alum!)

After the show, I drove over to Elizabeth's, where I hung out with her, Kathryn, Elsbeth, Kim, and Eric. Twas a lovely time :) Not only do I love serious talks and crazy awkward moments, but I also love Elsbeth's Norwegian hands :) Bahahaha! Maybe you had to be there.... At any rate, a group of us went to Waffle House around 12, and that was great fun. We laughed, ate lots of food, took crazy pictures, made videos, and sang really loudly to the point where the new waitress threatened to kick us out. Hahaha! Oh yeah! We also had these really drunk guys come up to us with a video recorder asking us questions and whatnot. He was really funny, haha. Good times, Waffle House! I'm also really happy that we got to see Maegan! We all got amazing attack hugs from her, and that made me smile :) I got home around 2, the usual :)

I love you all! Goodnight :)

Twas Thursday today.

This morning went a little something like this: wake up at 8:45, bathroom, review psyc chapters until 10, get dressed and ready, catch the bus, study my notebook in the hallway until test time. My exam score: 96! Woop Woop!

Following the test, I: sat in the sunny window-paned hallway filling out health stuff, got lunch, completed a discussion board, caught a bus, health, Kline's ice cream with Justice Team, JT hang out in TDU. We played the If/Then game; it was quite funny. Yes, my eyeballs did leak, haha. (They also leaked when I watched this video that Jenny told me about, haha! But listen, there is profanity and other animals being eaten. So if that's not your kind of video, don't click the link. Haha.)

The remainder of my evening has been spent packing, listening to music, and talking to the beautiful Stephanie and Hannah on facebook chat :) They make me happy, always :)

Well loves, I am quite tired. And even though I get to sleep in until 9 tomorrow, that's technically only like 6 hours away. After 2:15 tomorrow I will be on my way home for spring break! So exciting. However, I am really going to miss some of my friends from here. As unfortunate as that will be, I'm so happy that I can say that now! I haven't really been able to until very recently. I've made good friendships and have deep connections here! This is a good thing, a very good thing. So between that and the excitement of getting a week off at home with so many of my loves, I feel pretty great right now! Goodnight my loves! Pleasant dreams :)

P.S.- I will be catching up with/completing Proverbs Project!

Psyc test tomorrow.

So I'll keep it short. Today was the worst "bad day" I've had in a while. I had to leave/cancel my lunch date with Arijana to go sleep in the airport lounge. I was almost worried I wasn't going to make it up there without passing out, but I did. I slept there for almost 2 hours. I felt better then, and was able to eat some lunch. I spent some good quality time in the library with Hannah and Talita. No, it wasn't super productive, but that's okay. I got dinner with Hannah and Brandi, which made me very happy :) Worldbeat with Steph, Courtney, and Brandi was lovely as well (even if tonight's instructors weren't as fun as Amanda). Stephanie kindly gave me a ride to Carrier and I've been here ever since. I don't want to take this test! Ugh. Goodnight loves.

"I think I'll tryyyyy defyyyyyyying GRAVITY!"

Someone PLEASE take me to see Wicked! Make my life complete! One day I'll see it :) And it will be GLORIOUS friends! Ahh!

This song makes me want to dance around Carrier! Haha :D

At any rate, today has been pretty good. I got 9 1/2 hours of sleep last night! So that was good. I got out of psyc early, and I had a lovely lunch date with Stephanie :) From there, I came back to the room for a but before going to core training at UREC. I better have sore abs tomorrow..... Health was whatevs. I got to have dinner with Stina, which was really nice! It's always nice to just kind of let off what's on your chest, you know? My next and final appoint was/has been with Carrier. I've been studying for my literature and philosophy quizzes tomorrow, but as you may have noticed from the way this post started off, I've gotten a little distracted. Haha. Oh well, everything will be alright; of this I am certain :) I think tomorrow might actually turn out being pretty splendid, actually!

I'm feeling very content right now :) It's kind of a nice feeling. I'm neither stressed or anxious. I just kind of am. I think my prayer for peace through this week is being answered :) Thank you, Lord. You're awesome!

Goodnight lovelies!