10 Years!

After enjoying a wonderful fall break at home, I came back to school thinking I would have an easy, relaxing short week. It turned into one of the craziest weeks I've had in a while!

First off, I woke up on Thursday morning ready to start a day that I knew would be very busy. I had two midterms the next day that I had to study for (one being all short answer, which is just wrong, might I add),  and I walk outside to have my car vandalized. It wasn't any major vandalism, but still, someone had the nerve to disrespect property that was not theirs. Thankfully, it only left some scratches on my car that I am hoping will buff out. I guess I will find out over Thanksgiving break! It didn't particularly bother me at first, because stuff like that happens in a college town all the time, but the more I thought about it, the more worked up I got. I just couldn't believe that someone would do that, especially to someone they did not know (I'm assuming the individual does not know me, but if I find out they do, they will be detailing my car...for free.) Then I went to class and came back home for lunch, as I was walking out the door I hit my foot up against my couch and break my pinky toe. I would have laughed at my luck, but was in too much pain to do that. After my last class of the day, I came home to study for my mid-term exams that I had the next day. My campus ministry was meeting that night and I help set up, so I left early to go do that and decided to leave after praise and worship was over since I had so much studying to do.
As I was leaving the meeting, I felt so discouraged about how my day had gone and was really believing that God would make good come from all of it, despite how awful I felt. Right as I was about to walk out of the building, my friend Kathleen stopped me. She said that she had something really important to tell me. She looked like she was tearing up. She said that she was standing behind me in praise and worship and she saw me raise my hands (sometimes I raise my hands despite if I'm feeling anything... Jesus still deserves praise even when I don't feel like doing it). She told me that she felt the Holy Spirit come upon her and speak to her about me. He told her that I was going to be a strong woman, taking a stand for what is right and challenging people on their beliefs of what they think christianity should be. She also saw me as a great mother. I always find it funny when people tell me that I am going to be a good mother, because quite frankly, I'm probably the worst baby-sitter on the face of the planet. No lie, I really just don't like it. Love kids, but I hate babysitting. It was nice to think about all that I have to look forward too in my life.

 I now believe that I have finally learned what it's like to "laugh at my future." The Bible refers to the Proverbs 31 woman as a woman who can "smile/laugh at her future" because she knows who holds it.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was driving down the road with my roommate, Brittany, to go meet our other roommate, Lauren and her fiance, Kris, to go to the state fair. As I was riding along talking to Brittany, the thought hit me. Thursday, the day where all that stuff happened, was my 10 year anniversary of saying yes to Jesus. No wonder my day went bad, the enemy did not want me to remember to celebrate all of the wonderful things that had happened in the last 10 years.
October 13, 2001 was the day I officially surrendered my life to Christ and have never looked back. I had said a prayer to be saved before that date, but I feel like that night I truly understood what it was like to follow after Christ and serve Him whole heartedly. The last 10 years have been the craziest, but the best years of my life. I have experienced overwhelming blessings and heavy growing pains, but I would not trade one minute of one day for the entire world. My life has been radically changed by Christ's love. He gave it all for me, He made the ultimate sacrifice by dying for me when I did not deserve anything but death and to be eternally separated from Him and His love.

10 years ago my life changed forever. I will NEVER forget that day. It's the most important day of my life, it will always be the most important day of my life. More important than my wedding or the birth of my children. I am looking forward to the next 10 years, I believe God has some amazing things in store for me. He will continue to teach me and mold me into the woman He wants me to be.

I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. :)

When roomies have a bad day...

I'll update again tomorrow, but tonight there's something important I need to talk about!!

My roommate, Brittany, updated her blog and is feeling kind of down about nursing school. She has worked extremely hard and isn't feeling that great about herself. Therefore, here goes 10 reasons why I think Brittany is awesome!

1. She is WAY smarter than she thinks!

2. She has a beautiful smile!

3. Her laugh is contagious and filled with joy!

4. She always has the prettiest outfits!

5. She has a huge heart for helping people!

6. She is going to be a wonderful nurse and will succeed in her profession!

7. She is beautiful inside and out!

8. She can cook a mean meatloaf!

9. She is fun to be around! I love being around her!

10. I believe, whole heartedly, that once she realizes how wonderful, smart and beautiful she really is, she will be unstoppable! She is a child of the King of Kings- a true princess! I am proud to call her my sister.

There ya go, 10 things about Brittany. She's freakin' awesome. End of story!

These are the verses that I am claiming over her life right now :)

An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.
She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
She dresses herself with strength
and makes her arms strong.
She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.
                                   -Proverbs 31


Now my other 2 roomies need to get a blog so I can brag about them too!

Fall Retreat

Every fall, Every Nation Campus Ministries has a regional retreat for the colleges in North Carolina. It's always a fun time to come together and meet new people from different schools while encountering Jesus together! I always look forward to getting away for a while, getting rid of the distractions, no computer, no cell phone service and just enjoying my Savior and the wonderful people that I am with!
We had a variety of speakers and we focused on the kingdom of God. The verse that the weekend was based on was out of Matthew.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." -Matthew 6:33

Something that struck me most this weekend was the concept of righteousness... being in right standing with God.

"Pursuing righteousness is more valuable than sacrifice." Jesus wants us to be in right standing with Him. We can sacrifice things and perform a lot of works in His name, but ultimately He just wants a relationship with us. He wants to know us intimately and spend time with us all of the time!

"Jesus wants all of your junk. He gave His love freely, take it! He wants to see you enjoy it, not stress out about how to repay it."
This quote probably spoke to me most all weekend. Jesus gave His love as a gift and He wants us to take it and find joy in it. He doesn't want to see us stressing out performing work after work to attempt to repay Him for something that is priceless. He wants us to enjoy the freedom that He gave us and to be in relationship with Him.

"Don't ignore the stuff in your heart, He wants that too."
Sometimes we try to hide what's really in our heart by staying busy with schedules and doing things to try to earn Christ's love. The thing is, He couldn't possibly love us anymore than He does now. He wants to know the things we keep deep inside of our hearts, even the nasty junk that we are ashamed of. He wants to know everything about us and help us work through things. :)

Those were just a few of many things that were talked about this weekend.
Something I am going to focus more on doing is walking by the Spirit. I have come so far in this area of my walk with the Lord, but I have so much more to learn! God has my future laid out perfectly, just for me. Nothing that happens is a surprise to Him. I am looking forward to growing deeper in His love and learning to trust Him more and more each day! The Holy Spirit is powerful! I am anxious to see how I will continue to learn to walk by the Spirit each day. It will take time and discipline. My heart is to rid me of myself each day... humbling myself before the Lord and let Him take complete and total control of every aspect of my life!

I got to hang out with some amazing brothers and sisters in Christ! Here are a few pictures from our weekend adventure together!

There was a beautiful sunset at Camp Dixie as we arrived on Friday evening!

Two of my new friends admiring the sunset. haha!

Some of the most beautiful ladies I know! I have the joy of going to school with them and calling them my sisters in Christ!

They were all into "artistic poses" and interpretive dancing

The infamous "blob!" Too bad it was too cold to see anyone get launched off of it!

While waiting to go into our evening session, these lovely ladies decided to sing! I wish I would've gotten the entire thing on video. It was great!

The whole ECU gang! I love each of these people dearly! They are my brothers and sisters in Christ! 

For me, the best part of this weekend was getting away and resting in God's presence. I don't believe that you always have to have a huge revelation from God when you're at a big conference like this. I just enjoyed being in His presence and around people that I love!

 

I don't think I've ever had such an eventful week...

A little over a week ago, I suffered from a slightly bulged disc in my lower back. I woke up and had not been in so much pain since I initially hurt it in high school, 4 years ago. I wish I could put into words the pain I was feeling, but I can't. Needless to say, IT HURT! I called my mom and asked her to ask my chiropractor back at home for a recommendation of another doctor in my area. His college roommate in chiropractic school ends up having a practice 20 minutes down the road! Is God not awesome?! My roommates rushed home after clinicals and drove me to the chiropractor. As I was meeting with him, he looked at my x-rays and explained that I had a slight bulge in one of the discs in my lower back. He said that I would need treatments three times a week for the next month and I was banned from any physical activity (which is kinda inconvenient, considering I'm a fitness major and all...). After explaining all of this mess to my professors (who gladly cooperated with the doctor), I went into treatments believing that the Lord was going to give me a miracle. After 2 visits, the doctor was surprised with how quickly I was recovering. He said that he had never seen anyone bounce back so quickly. I found that extremely encouraging!
I had a meeting I needed to attend for my campus ministry on the power of the Holy Spirit 4 days after my injury. After the meeting was over, my friend Kalyne prayed over me and was believing in complete healing of my back. I went back for another set of week long treatments. Friday rolled around (which was a week and 2 days after my injury) and my doctor completely cleared me from all treatments and I was completely cleared to work out. The doctor told me that it was going to take a month to get back into the swing of things, but God had something much better in mind! I am going back to the gym tomorrow and am looking forward to being with my friends and being active again! I'm also looking forward to being able to participate in labs during class again! God is good! I encourage you to have faith and believe God really can do anything, even if other people think you are crazy!


I think it is safe to say that this weekend was filled with enough excitement to last me through the rest of my college career. First off, it was family weekend! This means my wonderful parents were able to come down and spend the weekend with me! Which means... they feed me, payed to park at football games AND took me grocery shopping... needless to say, I enjoyed being spoiled (maybe a little too much)! :) My roommate, Brittany, joined us at the football game and we had a lot of fun! It was The Pirates first conference game and our first win of the season! We started the season against two tough teams and played well during the first half, then fell a part during the second half. Needless to say, we really needed a win. We kicked off our conference play against UAB and played sloppy, but pulled off a win! Here are some pictures from this weekend:

These two girls are my best friends! 

My parents are my best friends and role models. I would not be the person I am today without them! 

My friend, Tyler, who is wearing the black jacket has been my study partner since sophomore year of college. I remember almost 3 years ago when he started volunteering with Pirate strength and conditioning and finally, after many hours of hard work, he made it onto the field with the strength staff! I'm so happy for him!

A view of half of The Boneyard at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. One of the craziest environments to be in!

Brittany and I braving the rain at the game!

It's crazy thinking that this weekend was my last family weekend as a college student. This time next year I will be living in a new place, working a real job and building a new life. I am excited to see where the Lord will lead me. I know that He has the perfect job in the perfect place picked out for me already! As I continue to pray for guidance on where I should go, I try to remember to thank Him for the job He already has for me. 

One of the things I am trying to stay focused on is the importance of this last year in school. I believe there is a lot that God wants me to accomplish and there are many girls that He wants me to reach out too and share His love with. My heart is that ladies would come to truly know their value and find their entire identity in Christ! 

I've typed a lot, but I've saved the most interesting and eventful story for last. Take a breather and keep reading.... alright, here we go! 

This morning at about 3:30 AM, my roommates dog woke up and started barking. Brittany woke up and heard something beating against our door. She looked through the peep hole and saw a guy coming at our door, trying to kick it in. She came into my room and woke me up and said, "uhh, I think someone is trying to kick our door in." I turned over and got out of bed to go see what was going on. Then I heard a "BANG," up against the door. Surprisingly, my roommate and I were extremely calm. I looked out the peep hole and saw this guy, who was obviously intoxicated, kicking our door and then turning around and doing the same thing to our neighbor's. Then he starts banging on our neighbor's door with his fist screaming, "It's not the same guy, it's someone different...you can open the door now!" Then I begin to start laughing because I have never experienced anything like this before and was having trouble believing it was actually happening. My roommate turns to be and asks if she should open the door and tell him to stop, I looked at her and said "no! He's insane!" He walks back upstairs and so what do I do? I do the exact thing I tell my roommate not to do and open the door. The guy comes running back down the stairs and looks at me, I told him, "dude, please stop." He said "I'm sorry." So I shut the door and he continues to kick our door. 

I attempt to go back to bed because I was fed up with all of this stupidity, but then I hear my neighbors come out of their apartment.

I couldn't believe what happened next...

A guy comes down the stairs with blood running down his face. He got punched in the eye by the out of control dude at a party going on upstairs. Ends up, the guy who was punched was the cousin of one of my neighbors. Two of our neighbors were sitting on the stairs, taking a smoke break and the guy runs down the stairs and proceeds to sucker-punch them both in the face. One guy broke his nose and had blood gushing down his face and the other one suffered a few scratches and bruises on his cheek. Minutes later, 4 police cars and 6 officers show up to handle the situation. I step outside, tell them who to look for and they bust the party upstairs, check on our neighbors and finally get things calmed down. I open our door back up to check on our neighbors, they were shaken up, but seemed okay. One of them had not been drinking and took their cousin (the guy who was punched in the eye) to the hospital. (I just saw him in the breezeway this afternoon, he seems to be alright). We stand their talking to them, getting the facts straight and making sure they are okay.

One of the police officers came down and talked to us... I'm pretty sure it is safe to say that she did not suspect anything out of me and my roommates because we had no make-up on, our hair was a mess and we were in our pajamas :) 

I talked to one of our neighbors this afternoon and he seems to be much better. Nothing like this has ever happened here before, according to my neighbors who have lived here for three years. I really do live in a safe area!

Some people don't party folks... and I can assure you, after witnessing this event, I don't plan on starting to party.

So, yes, this was quite an eventful week! I'm grateful for God healing my back, letting me spend time with my family AND for protecting me and my home! 

Cleansing is good.

Since I own a nutritional cleansing company, every six weeks or so I go through a two day deep nutritional cleanse. Last night I finished up day two. Those two days can sometimes be very challenging. It's funny (okay, not really) how irritable I can get because I am uncomfortable (usually due do to fighting my own will power), out of routine, and experiencing change. After those two days are finished, ultimately my body is a lot healthier! It has gotten rid of many harmful toxins and now my body can function the way it is supposed too.

It is interesting how familiar that scenario I just talked about can relate to my daily walk with Christ.  

Sometimes the Lord has to take us through a "spiritual cleanse," making us a little (sometimes a lot) uncomfortable, but it is only for our benefit. He says He makes ALL things work together for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28). So next time you are going through something that is uncomfortable and you do not quite understand what God is doing- know that He is only developing you into a stronger, healthier person.

We Will Never Forget

One Tuesday morning...

10 years ago today, life in America was changed forever. I still do not understand how someone could have so much hate in their heart to kill thousands of innocent people, simply because of their country. Growing up in a firm foundational Christian family, it hurts my heart knowing that these terrorists do not know the Lord. My heart breaks for all of the husbands who lost their wives, and wives their husbands; for all of the parents who lost children and the children who lost parents. They had no idea that that one Tuesday morning would change the course of history.

Thankfully, I know the One who makes ALL things good, even if they were intended for evil. I know the One who gives strength to the weak. His heart breaks for this great nation. His heart yearns for this nation to turn back to Him, our first love.

Father, forgive the wickedness of this nation. Have mercy on us, Lord. Please, show this nation Your great love. You are the King of Kings, The Lord of Lords, the Beginning and the End. Thank you for Your ultimate sacrifice, so that we (followers of Christ) can live with the ultimate freedom: to be in relationship and spend eternity with You. I know I don't deserve any of it, but You gave it anyway.

Thank You for this country. You could've placed me anywhere in the world, but You put me here. I'm proud to be an American, and am so grateful for all of the men and women that fight so hard to protect this Great Nation.

Comfort each family who was impacted on that tragic Tuesday morning. Let them know that their loved ones died as heroes and will never be forgotten.

Amen.

Becoming Set-Apart

One of these days I'll get this whole "updating in a timely manner deal," but that day is not today... and tomorrow isn't looking good either. :D 

Senior year has begun, which mean I am busier than I have ever been! Thank goodness, I have mastered the art of "staying balanced." I've always dreaded having early morning classes. I had one last year and had a lot of trouble getting enough rest. This year I have been getting to bed early, going to class and then working out. It's been great!

One major thing I've done is vow not to eat out for the entire month of September. My roommate and her fiance came up with idea and I decided to join in. It's been a little difficult, because it is one of my favorite things to do. My mommy says I'm high maintenance when it comes to food and I completely agree. It has been so much fun cooking different meals, and I have completely control over what it going into my food... makes it nice and healthy! :)

On a serious note, I started reading a book (I know, shocking). This time it's not a crazy awesome Jesus fictional love story, instead it's a challenging book. 

Leslie Ludy is a christian author who writes books geared towards challenging girls and women to become the Godly women God has set them out to be. I started reading, "Set Apart Femininity" about 3-4 weeks ago. Sadly, I'm only in the middle of chapter 3. There is so much to chew on and think about. I don't think I've been challenged this much spiritually. After going to Harvest Institute, I realize that the calling on my life is high. The Lord has put a desire in my heart to show women what is means to be a true woman. There is so much more to being set-apart than I thought. The book started out talking about the Proverbs 31 woman... a woman that so many women today feel like is unachievable. I'll have to type the whole commentary on it soon, but today I don't have the time. Something that I had never really thought about before (it actually came up during Harvest Institute, but I didn't think about it until I started reading) is that the Proverbs 31 woman did not become that way overnight or when she got married. A Proverbs 31 woman develops throughout a lifetime. It's always a work in progress. I feel like so many girls today (I felt this way once) feel like that are inadequate or unimportant until they become married. Now that I think about it, that's so silly. God has so many things that He wants to do in your life as a single lady. Instead of praying for the right person, become the right person! Let God do what He wants to do in You. I promise, the life He has set out for you is better than anything you have planned or can imagine. Trust Him! He loves you and works everything out for good! 

On a different note... Football season has begun!!!!! 

Not just football... Pirate football! :)

We took on South Carolina last weekend in Bank of America Stadium (home of my favorite NFL team, The Carolina Panthers). It was an exciting game and I thought that we had them during the first half of the game. Unfortunately, we did not come out with a win, but it was a great game! My friend, Daniel Drake, got his first career start as a pirate. It was a very exciting day! He's a linebacker and his hits are almost as big as his love for Jesus (which is waaaayyy big). After a lot of prayer and hard work, it was great seeing him take the field... and because God is amazing, He threw in the honor of receiving scout.com's player of the game! Yay!

It was great to kick off football season with the people I love most! I have the best family, but I hate that my little sister couldn't join us! She's a little young for football games, but one day I will take her to a Pirate football game! 

A first career start deserves a bright neon yellow poster amongst all of the Gamecock fans. Good times!

I love my Pirates! :)

I'd have to say it's been a great start to what I know will be a wonderful school year! God has huge things in store and I am so excited to see all that He wants to teach me!