Sunday Best

The best advice I ever heard was: "You cannot catch up on sleep."  Life goes on and the days pass by- time moves on.  If you don't get eight full hours of sleep each night and then you decide to add it on to the next night it probably won't happen.  And so you resume your sleeping schedule, getting by with just enough sleep to function.  All that lost sleep cannot be replaced.  I'm not sure if I explained this right, but once I wrapped my mind around the idea it kind of makes sense.


I was thinking the other day about how I cannot catch up on my sleep- the thought really bothered me.  I decided to get lots of sleep Saturday night.  I went to bed at 11pm (which is very early for a college student ;-) and slept in till 9am Sunday morning.  I felt so refreshed when I woke up!  The second reason that I decided to get lots of sleep on Saturday night was because the following day was Sunday, church day.  I have also been very bothered by the fact I cannot stay awake in church.  It doesn't make sense to me why I can stay awake and pay attention to my professors in class but on Sunday mornings I am so sleepy I can't focus on the pastor's sermon.  If anyone deserves our undivided attention it's God.  What's more important, classes or God?  God should be #1 in our life.  God calls us to worship him with the community of believers on Sunday mornings.  Psalm 95:6, "Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker." From now on I'm going to try to sleep more on Saturday nights so that I can be awake and alert in church.

Read this description from Isaiah 40 of the awesome God we were made to worship:
¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
       or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
       Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
       or weighed the mountains on the scales
       and the hills in a balance?
 ¹³ Who has understood the mind of the LORD,
       or instructed him as his counselor?
 ¹⁴ Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,
       and who taught him the right way?
       Who was it that taught him knowledge
       or showed him the path of understanding?
 ¹⁵ Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
       they are regarded as dust on the scales;
       he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
 ¹⁶ Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
       nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
 ¹⁷ Before him all the nations are as nothing;
       they are regarded by him as worthless
       and less than nothing.

²⁵ "To whom will you compare me?
       Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
 ²⁶ Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
       Who created all these?
       He who brings out the starry host one by one,
       and calls them each by name.
       Because of his great power and mighty strength,
       not one of them is missing.
 ²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
       and complain, O Israel,
       "My way is hidden from the LORD;
       my cause is disregarded by my God"?
 ²⁸ Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
       He will not grow tired or weary,
       and his understanding no one can fathom.
 ²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
       and increases the power of the weak.
 ³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
       and young men stumble and fall;
 ³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.

Let the Good Times Roll...

What: Trollerskating
When: October 29
Dress: 80s


I went to Trollerskating with Lette, Lisa, Anna and Megan.  Jenna went home for the weekend; I missed her a lot. Thank goodness she came back tonight! Things are back to normal again! 

"God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."

I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior 


I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me; this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my savior
~My Savior My God, Aaron Shust


God promises to supply our every need; God promises that we will never be overtaken with temptation; God promises that all things will work together for good for those who love and serve him faithfully; God promises eternal life....


It may be difficult at times for us to see and understand how God's promises are  carried out in our life, but God fulfills his promises 100% of the time.


Because "we are not skilled to understand what God has willed, what God has planned" all we can do is trust him and just enjoy the ride.

So just laugh.......

.....it's all we can do!

You BETTER Believe It!

Yesterday night we avoided our homework by DYING OUR HAIR! Danielle and Jenna had come up with the idea to dye their hair a few days earlier. When they told me about their grand idea of course I was in! I had joked around with my guy friends this summer, before we left for college saying, "When I get to college I'm going to dye my hair purple!" We all laughed because it sounded like a crazy idea. But I didn't even have to think twice to know that I wanted purple hair! 


We went to Meijer's at 10pm and bought cookie dough and semi-permanent purple hair dye. Before you freak out (like Tori did last night when I told her), keep in mind that this dye will wash out in 6-10 weeks and we only dyed a tiny section of hair! No problem. We brought the dye back to our room and Jenna had decided that she would go first. None of us had ever dyed hair before, so we read the directions a few times and went for it. I dyed Jenna's hair for her.

Jenna, "I think we are at this point in our friendship where I trust you!"

I was very excited to go next! Needless to say, I trusted Jenna with my hair. 

Jenna had a purple finger when she finished because the glove broke...oops.

Danielle invited a whole bunch of people to come and dye their hair with us....so the word spread and more people showed up!  This is me dying Megan's hair.  I had never met Megan before last night- good thing we all trusted each other :-)

Tyler, Danielle, Megan, Me, and Jenna

Danielle

Holly

We had so much fun; it's amazing how hair dye can bring people together!  

 The end result!

MARCEL THE SHELL

I thought I would share my favorite youtube video with you today! If you have a dry sense of humor you will probably laugh....and the more people you watch this video with the funnier it is. Enjoy!

Two Are Better Than One

Yesterday night I ate a fortune cookie, which was decent. However, when I read the fortune I wasn't sure what to think...so I just laughed:


"Enjoy your own company. If you don't, who will?"


Well, seeing as how I love being around people and I can't stand being alone, I decided that this fortune doesn't really apply to me.  I also have lots of wonderful friends who are always there for me- I don't have to worry about being my own company!  




The Bible also mentions (quite a few times) how important good friends are.


Ecclesiastes 9-10
"Two are better than one,
       because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
       his friend can help him up.
       But pity the man who falls
       and has no one to help him up!"


Thought for the day: "If we are not willing to wake up in the morning and die to ourselves, perhaps we should ask ourselves whether or not we are really following Jesus." ~Don Miller, Blue Like Jazz

Weekend!

A lot has happened since I last updated the blog, so I'll try to fill you in with everything I remember. 


Thursday night I got my Theology test back; I got ONE question (out of 50) wrong:


The seventh day of creation featured
a. no creative activity      c. no light.
b. no sun or moon          d. no rest.         e. none of the above.


For some reason I chose e. instead of the correct answer a.  Hmmm...not sure what I was thinking on that one!


Friday my family came for family weekend and my brothers spent the night here.  Friday night I attended the scholarship dinner with my parents.  The college has a dinner every year where the scholarship donors come and meet the students who received their scholarships.  The scholarship I received was in honor of a kid who had died after graduating from our school and he went to my high school, too.  We ate dinner with his parents and got to know a little bit about them and their son.  


Saturday morning I played Powder Puff Football!  It was very cold and rainy and miserable- but the games went on.  The freshman girls were on a team together, playing two games against upper class-man.  We lost the first game because we were still getting used to how things worked.  We also lost the second game, but we put up a good fight and looked much better!  Maybe next year we will win. 


Saturday night I attended our school's talent show with my friends.  There was an interesting mix of singers, dancers, and musicians.  The performers did an excellent job!  I was kind of in awe of their performances, seeing as how I cannot dance or sing. :-) 

Caroline, Melissa, Jenna, and I

Currently I am watching the Bears game on TV.  I can't believe all the turnovers.  Come on Bears!  It's been a long time since I've watched a show on television- I had forgotten how funny some commercials are and how stupid others are.

With ALL of Your Heart

Whenever I'm working on homework I'm often tempted to do a half job.  Homework is very boring and repetitive and sometimes I don't see the point (well, most of the time).  Lately I've been reminded of the verse from Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."  God is the boss and he gave me the talents that I have; I am to use them to the best of my ability for HIS glory.


This next piece is taken from "Taming a Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons From Napoleon Dynamite"


"King David was Israel's greatest king, but he was on his deathbed. For the longest time, he had wanted to build a temple, a permanent home for God, but because of war and unrest in the kingdom, he was never able to achieve this goal. Instead, the task fell to David's son, Solomon. 


Once Solomon's throne was established, he set about making his father's dream come true; he started to build a temple. Here's a sampling of what he did:

• He contacted a neighboring king to ask for the best in materials and labor that the king had to offer.
• He conscripted tens of thousands of people from Israel, the best craftsmen in the land.
• He covered the interior of the temple with cedar and overlaid it with gold.
• He commissioned intricate carvings to decorate the temple inside and out.

Are you starting to get the picture? He was dedicated to making this temple the be-all/end-all of houses for God (1 Kings 5:1-6:38).

Oh, by the way, he spent seven year on it.

Seven years. 

And in that entire time, Solomon never wavered (that we know of) from the goal of building the temple. He was focused, and nothing was going to stand in his way. He and his people just went about doing the task, and when things got rough (and you know they did), they just kept on doing their task.

Dedication.

What do you do when you're, say, painting a room? Do you tape everything off to make sure the paint doesn't get everywhere? Do you properly prepare the surface? Do you apply the paint with nice, even strokes to make sure you get even coverage? Do you allow the paint time to cure?

What about when you talk to a person about something important? Do you really make a point to listen to what they're saying? Do you think about the problems they're telling you? Do you put your own life on hold so you can offer some assistance to this person in need?

God wants you to give life your best, and if that mean taking the time that something- or someone- needs, then take it."

Update on "the man"...apparently he has scared quite a few people since I moved him to the fridge!

Hanging out with the milk ;-)

Happy Halloween!

Late last night I went out into the hallway to fill up my water bottle....

 ...and was greeted by this!  In a matter of seconds two thoughts went through my head: I was a) scared and then b) wondered why in the world there was a guy on our floor (seeing as how guys aren't allowed on the the floor on Mondays).  This sign was attached to him!

The girls on our floor have been setting this guy in the hallway, lounge, and other girl's rooms to scare each other.  I moved him into the fridge, in the lounge, after taking out all the shelves and rearranging the food!

Fall Familyness

I came home Friday at noon and ate lunch at work with all my summer co-workers turned friends.  It was great to catch up with everyone again!  Then I went to our high school football game Friday night!

Saturday I went to my little cousins soccer game, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, to see the winning Art Prize piece, and then out for dinner with my family.  After dinner Codi, Collin, and I attempted to carve pumpkins.  The pumpkins were so thick that we could not get through them with a knife.  So, my dad got out his electric SAW and cut through the pumpkins!  Yes, a saw!

Dad keeps things interesting at our house!

Because we could not physically carve the pumpkins, I decided to paint mine.

The end result!

Sunday afternoon we ate lunch with 40+ relatives on my mom's side of the family.  After lunch we played spoons and whiffle-ball with our cousins/second cousins.  It was nice to see everyone again that I hadn't seen in a few years.

BOYS vs...

...GIRLS.  And the girls clearly won!