Setting Aside

Wow! Has it really been 10 days since I posted anything? I have to be honest . . . I have really become relaxed lately. Maybe too relaxed. After 5 years I quit publishing Looking Heavenward, a magazine for young Christian girls. That has really taken a load off of my mind and has freed me up to look unto other things God may want me to focus on.


Another posotive in my life is how well college is going. (Did I mention that I went back to online college for Medical Billing?) It is going a lot better then it did at first! I am starting to understand it more so I don't dread studying so much and now I can actually see myself getting somewhere.


So what have I been doing while I wasn't blogging? I've actually been doing a lot of reading, something I haven't done faithfully in a long time. Heaven Without Her by Kitty Forth-Regner is about a women who, after her mothers death, is trying to discover what was so wonderful about her mother's faith in God. The first 5 chapters have been very interesting and insightful!


For the past few weeks I have been weighed down with worrying about something that is not in my controll and may not even be in my near future. When I put it that way it sounds really silly, but at the time I thought this was something that I really needed to figure out. I didn't realize how much this was weighing me down until last night when I finally layed it at Jesus' feet and decided not to worry about it. Today I have had a surprizingly good day which caused me to look back and wish I had done this sooner! I often wonder if I will ever come to a point in my life that I will always cast my burdens on Christ because of past experiances. As for right now, I know that God can take care of everything (like He's done before) but I still want to hold onto things that are precious to me. I don't completley trust Him. Right now I feel vicotrious for giving up those things that did not belong to me, but I know that I will fall again and take hold of things that will only weigh me down. But for now I am going to try to run the race with all diligence!


"Wherefor seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin wich doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the reace that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosss, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand ofthe throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2

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This weekend I bought the Pride and Prejudice piano book, with music written from the 2005 edition of P & P : )

Life After College

Now that I am done with college I once again have leisurely days. I don't mind going to work now that I know that I will still have several hours at home to do things I want or need to do. You would think that I would post more often, but somehow I haven't gotten around to that yet. (I know, it's bad.) But I did work on an article today that is almost finished unless the Lord leads me in another direction.

I am enjoying myself in these days. My brother and I went bowling one day, me and my sisters went shopping a couple of times, I've taken many walks, I've worked on crafts for the Wednesday night children's program at church, I'm working on a rag doll, and today I baked and decorated a cake. I am trying to be more diligent and not spend so much time doing the things I want to do, I just haven't quite gotten there yet.

So please don't stop visiting my blog just yet! I am going to try to blog more often. Until the next post . . . have a great day!

Yes, I am Finally a Graduate

Friday I took my last few tests and said goodbye to the college world with rejoicing and gladness. Now everyone wont have to hear me go on and on about my shoolwork. : )

Saturday we invited some friends over for a cookout and Christian fun. We played "corn hole", lasso golf, volley ball, and shot water baloons down our long drive way with our 3-man sling shot. The whole day was a lot of fun!

Ryan had been planning a scheme against me for the past two weeks and has finally got to pull it off. He, along with some help, soaked me with a whole bucket of water and then dumped a whole bowl of flour on me! I was one stickey mess! If I knew he wouldn't get me back again, I would do something in return to him . . . but I don't think it's worth it. The older ones always come out on top! (Ryan, my brother, is the one in the ball cap.)

Below is a picture of the 3-man sling shot in action.

First the water . . .

. . . then the flour!

Despite being caked with flour, I did have a great party!

YIPEE!!!

I only have ONE more week of college!!!!!

Transactions

I can't believe I'm almost done with college. The past year and a half has flew by like I couldn't imagine. First Grandpa gave me his old car, I got a job, then my GED. Once I started college things really started to speed up. Now I find myself reaching the end of the tunnel with mixed emotions. I will be glad to be done with all the bookwork and long hours of studying which only keep me from spending more time with my family or reading books I want to read. Yet at the same time, it's kind of cool being a college student! : ) I feel very grown-up to say the least.

There is also the excitment of getting a real job. I suppose since I never intended on staying at the restaurant I am at right now for a long time, I never considered it a real job. Plus, the job I have right now doesn't have benefits. But my next job will hopefully be one that I can stay at for a while. It will be a job that I can be proud of.

But before I know it this transaction from college to the medical feild will be over. Truely, our life is "even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." So I am going to try to enjoy my last few weeks of college before they are gone. (But I will still celebrate with gladness when it is all over! : )

Good-bye Vacation

Monday I started my online college classes again. This will be my last quarter in Medical Coding so I really want to study hard so that I will be confident when I start a job as a Medical Coding Specialist (I guess that's what they are called!). I am excited about this quarter even though the teacher forewarned us that there will be a lot of work to do.

So for the next 10 weeks I will be pretty busy. I'm still planning on blogging (I can't give that up) but I wont be able to blog as often as I would like to. Hopefully I will be able to post something at least once a week.

So until my next post . . . have a great week!

Four Down, One To Go!

I am done with another quarter of college!!! At times it seemed like this quarter would never end, but actually it went by pretty fast. It has been a good quarter - I didn't get behind too bad, it wasn't too hard, and I had fun - but I am ready to take a break. Hopefully now I will be able to blog more durring the next two and a half weeks. But if you don't see me on here that often then you know I will probably be . . .


reading
studying my Bible
going for walks
cooking
cleaning my room (a must!)
spending quality time with my family
playing the piano for long periods of time (I get tired of only getting to play for 15 minutes a day)
singing with my sibling
and probably doing a little bit of shopping.


In between all these activities I will try to write some post for my "little spot on the web". But no matter what I do, I will just enjoy being free from all the worries of college! Ah, the joy that comes from having free time!


By the way, did I mention that I am so excited about being done with this quarter?!

A Lesson in Trust

In the spring of this year I started college course in the area of Medical Coding at a technical college near my home. After two quarters, the college stopped offering this course and I was left with no choice but to take online classes through another college. I had taken an online class before so I had no problem with this. I signed up for two classes (a computer class and keyboarding class) and continued in my next step toward earning my Technical Certificate. I had no idea what was in store for me.

From the very first week I had problems. I was mistakenly enrolled into two of the exact same classes but with different teachers, and was left wondering which class I was supose to use. In both my computer and keyboarding class I was presented with the wrong syllabus (course guideline) which means I had the wrong information. That was only the first week.

From there I had continuous problems from not being able to take my exams because of a computer problem, to waiting 3 weeks longer than normal for a CD that was suppose to help me, to loosing 4 page documents which took me an hour to type. I never knew a single college quarter could be filled with so many problems. I began to feel very small when I had to e-mail my instructors with excuses nearly every week. My greatest fear was that my next quarter would be the same. I was scared to death! At one point I even tried to find another technical college around that offered Medical Coding, but mama wisely talked me out of that.

The last unfortunate event really discouraged me. Again, I began complaining to myself of everything that went wrong. In tears I cried, “Lord, why haven’t you helped me with this? Why has it been so hard for me?” Then a verse came to my mind. “Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you.” (I Peter 5.7) This whole time I hadn’t really put all my burdens in God’s hand. I found out that there is a difference between casually praying for God to help me with my college classes and earnestly trusting God to help me. God just wanted me to hand it all over to Him with the faith of a child. But instead I chose to handle it myself and stress over my lack of my ability to do so. This quarter would have been so much easier if I had sought God’s help from the beginning because my Lord would have helped me with the burdens.

This quarter has definitely been a learning experience . . . the hard way! Because I was so stubborn, it took nine weeks for me to figure out what God was trying to teach me. By then my quarter was almost over! After that night more problems arose, but I didn’t get discouraged because I knew that God was going to make things work out. Now I am in the last week of college and I think I am going to pass. (Yippee!) And now I am not afraid of upcoming quarters. I am ready to face them with all of Gods strength . . . not my own!

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” II Corinthians 12.9