Open my eyes to the things unseen.

Yesterday I was burden to skip my western civilization class and had no idea why. 20 minutes before class I prayed about going since the hot topic of the last few weeks has been religion I felt like maybe God was leading me towards staying home and reading instead. At the last minute I put everything aside and decided to go [you know since my mom is paying a ridiculous amount of money for me to go to that very class] and what I learned was priceless. The discussion started and my heart was racing, the teacher decided today's topic was Moses and the exodus of Egypt. He claimed that historically there is no proof that Moses ever existed, and there was no 600,000 person exodus out of Egypt. Now, I knew what he was saying was false because I've heard endless sermons and younglife talks about the accuracy of the Bible, plus done a small amount of research on my own. Anyways, I was so concerned about the 299 other students in my class that could have been struggling in their faith. I wanted more than anything to speak up but I knew I didn't know enough about this subject to argue so I shot a text message to Spencer, AmyKitchel and Robyn. Spencer provided me with prayer, Robyn provided me with future date to discuss notes from an old younglife talk and AmyKitchel said she'd find out more information and call me later. About 15 minutes after my class got out AmyKitchel called me and told me an incredible story. She is going through Jesus school at the moment and during class their phones must be turned off, somehow her phone got turned on while in her bag and was on loud so when I sent her that text her phone rang causing the professor to draw his attention towards the noise. He made an announcement to the class asking who it was and just to admit it so of course Amy raised her hand. The professor then told her it was okay, as long as she read the text message out loud to the class. It read "Right now my western civ teacher is saying Moses didn't exist and there was no exodus from Egypt. He is saying there is no evidence other than the bible?" She read my text causing pretty much all of her classmates to run up to her after class and let her know what to tell me resulting in her calling me and telling me this story. God is so good. After I took a step back and looked at all the events that occurred I realized that it wasn't God burdening me to skip class, it was definitely the devil. If I didn't go to class I wouldn't have thought about researching more about the history of the bible and because I did go to class I am being shown ways to speak up next time I am put in this situation. Plus 1,000,000

Classes are okay. I miss Texas. Minus 2

Last weekend I was able to go home for my dad's birthday. It was so good and he loved his birthday present (tickets to the Arkansas/A&M football game at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium). Spencer came with me and it was a lot of fun. I loved spending time with my family and am learning more and more this year how much I love them and miss them. I am so blessed to have them. My sister's house looks awesome and I'm so happy she finally has that. I also was able to spend a lot of time with Caitlin and Kathryn (I love them), two of the girls I (and Holley! love her.) took to camp. I go home on October 2nd and am excited to see everyone again. Plus 6

On Monday I was eating brunch with Caitlin and got a message on my phone saying that it couldn't make or receive calls and I had to plug it into my computer (which was 30 minutes away). I was so stressed out because I was leaving at 3 and already on a tight schedule. I went on about my day without it and once I got home I plugged it in. Nothing happened. I called apple care, they were off for labor day. I called all the apple stores, they were completely full. There are no apple stores in Arkansas so I had no choice, I had to stay another night (oh darn.) I was able to make an appointment for Monday night (through the grace of God) I had a new baby iPhone (Chuy Jr.) by 6:15 pm. Since I wasn't going home anymore I decided to go to the Frisco Young Life Sonic Pre-Club hang out! It was awesome and I'm glad I was able to see everyone again before I left. All in all it was good. Plus 5

My roommates are great. Plus 3

Some friends of mine are starting Fantasy Football and we are picking our draft tonight! Wish me luck! Plus 3

Well, that looks like a pretty full update on my life. A few more important details will be filled in at some point. If you guys could be praying for unity at the University of Arkansas with all the religious organizations that'd be awesome! They are trying to start up an all campus worship and it looks to have some real potential!

Total Points: 1,000,015

Pictures!

This is my seat at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium for the Arkansas/A&M first rivalry game. After camping out for 15 hours I have a seat at row 8, seat 1!




My fish Cairns!












My dorm room!!







My roommates & our living room!

Tonight! Yes, TONIGHT!

First week of school = over! My classes seem... ok. I thought they were going to be a lot easier because they are basic classes but I know it will be alright. My western civ 1 class is going to be my toughest class because all tests are accumulative and its over lecture and the book (they don't overlap) Sad day. I can't seem to pay attention in my classes so I'm going to look in to figuring something out to keep my focus! Minus 3

I don't think I really have a "favorite class" but there are pros and cons of each class. Art History: The teacher reads from a script. Word for word. pro- its hysterical when she loses her place and makes excuses so it doesn't look like she lost her place. con- she's reading from a script and its the most boring 50 minutes of my life. Psyc: My teacher is a TA. pro- it shouldn't be too hard con- at times I feel like I know more about a subject then he does. Communications: My teacher is an Honors teacher so she's teaching the course the exact same as an honors class even though its just a regular class. pro- she really knows what she's doing and it's a lot different from a regular boring class con- I'm not getting an honors credit for an honors class. Human Diversity & Social Work: This is my major class & I'm really interested in everything we talk about. pro- 90% of the class are social work majors and everyone seems to be a "people person". Also, the teacher doesn't pronounce the "th" infront of words like the, this, then she supplements it with a "d" da, dis, den. con-the lecture is so boring. Western Civ 1: This is a 300+ lecture class pro-none con- see paragraph 1. Paying for college and getting a great education/all A's Plus 2

YoungLife is going to be amazing. Period. The first YoungLife College club was on Wednesday and it was so fun! A lot of freshman showed up and I'm really excited to get to know all the new girls. We had a little bump in the road today with High School YoungLife but it was fixed before we even had time to worry about it. Good one God. I can't wait to hear all about the details on Sunday during the leader meeting! Plus 5

In about 30 minutes I am going to the ticket office so I can camp out and buy a Arkansas/A&M Football ticket. They go on sale at 8:30 am tomorrow and Sara, Gini (some of my roommates) and I are going to camp outside and get amazing tickets! Yayyaya. I surly hope my phone doesn't die or it starts raining! Great time bonding! Plus 4

Today I was reading the last chapter of Numbers (Yes! Yes! Yes) and as I was reading I was thinking about how everything in the bible really happened. It's history, whether people believe in God or not is the only questionable thing. But everything is history and really happened. So while I was reading it I pulled up a map of all these places Moses & the gang were going and thought it was kind of neat to follow them with my finger as I read. THEN in my art history class we just so happen to talk about all the places I had read about earlier. It was awesome that I got to see the bible brought to life! Plus 10!!

I promise to put up pictures asap! Now I'm on my way to camp out for football tickets! Yay! Can't wait!

Total points: 18
Plus Jon Jordan's comment puts this blog to 100,018 points.

If you're keeping up with the prayers all my prayer requests are the same! Yall are the greatest!

I wish it was Funday.

So I've been in Arkansas for a week! Everything has started to settle down here and my friends FINALLY started to move in! My roommate moved in on Tuesday and things have been really good! Tonight we are planning a girls night out and I'm pretty excited about it! Hopefully we'll start to get to know each other a lot better and decorate our living room at some point! Chloe and I had an awesome talk last night and we seem to be into a lot of the same stuff. Like for example God. He's pretty tight. Plus 5

The other day I got a fishy and named him Cairns (after Cairns, Australia) and painted Australia on his fish bowl so he feels at home. I really think its going to work out. He is a beautiful blue Crowntail Betta, pictures will be up soon! Plus 4 (originally it was just plus 3 but I figure since it's a living creature I'll give it plus 4)

YOUNGLIFE IS STARTING! I went to the first leadership meeting last night and it was incredible. As most of you (since my mother is the only one that reads this) know I am a High School leader now and we just got some incredible news! A club room has been donated to us kind of and we'll start up at some point having regular clubs there! We really want to build relationships first and have 25-30 committed kids for our first club. It's going to be off the charts. Plus 6 for new/awesome club room and YoungLife excitement

Tomorrow is the first day of classed. Let's just say I'm not exactly thrilled because it means no more summer and study study study. I'm in Arkansas for school so I'm going to do my best and work through it, go to classes and what not but I wish I could be a little closer to home. Maybe 2 hours? That'd be great. So tomorrow/Wednesday/Friday I have Psychology & Art Lecture and then Tuesday/Thursday I have Communications, Human Diversity & Western Civ 1. This will be interesting. Minus 1

Everything else in my life seems to be pretty good. I am happy, I just wish I could fast forward to graduation and start actually living my life. There are many reasons for this that I may express one day on here. I may have to put my study abroad trip on hold and attempt to graduate early and work/go to school full time next summer to do so. We'll see and I'll be praying about it. No points.

As you can see I've decided to give my blogs points now. I'm liking it so far.
Total points= 14

Please be praying about my study abroad trip, money for school, Fayetteville High School YoungLife, possibly moving back to Texas, Frisco YoungLife, relationships, my roommates, Kristin and my 40 days of believing God, school and health.



I've also decided how I feel about drinking/such. My position is much like my vegetarianism position, and putting it into that perspective I finally understand. Follow me for a second.

I am a vegetarian because I like it. I don't really enjoy putting bad things into my body like hormones and who knows what.
I don't drink because I don't really enjoy putting bad things into my body that will alter my morals.

I don't mind when others eat meat around me or eat meat in general. That's their choice. It just makes me sad because some people have no idea how bad meat can potentially be if you don't get the good stuff.
I don't mind when others drink around me or drink in general. That's their choice. It just makes me sad because some people really think they need alcohol or others that don't even think about it they've just been doing it for so long because of peer pressure that they don't know anything else -- some don't even know they started.

I am missing out on some protein but I can get it in SO many other places! [Beans, Soy yadda yadda yadda]
I am missing out on some "fun" but honestly have you met me? You think I need alcohol to have a better time than I'm already having? I don't need alcohol to help me have fun or relax because I can have a good time without it.

Again I'd like to stress that I have nothing against meat eaters, or people that drink all the time/casually/socially/whatever floats your boat. It's just something I choose not to do and I hope everyone respects that, just like I respect everyone that decided to drink. No judgment, just observation.

I guess to me, I just don't understand why?
To have a good time? What is keeping you from having a good time without it?
To relax? I guess I'm silly but can't you just take a nap or read a good book? How about getting a massage?
To have an excuse to act crazy? Why do you need an excuse? Are you scared to be yourself?

I guess I'm just a kid.

This is new.

Is this the start of something new? Let's hope I get good at blogging to keep my friends and family up to date. I'm shooting for everyday but let's be real, my practical goal is 2 times a week!

I moved into my dorm yesterday and so far so good! 2 out of 3 of my room mates have moved in and I really like them! They live across the living room from me and I hope I get to know them better this year. My actual roommate (that I share a bathroom with) is moving in tomorrow and I am pretty pumped about it to say the least. Last night at 10ish I finished setting up my room and am finally all moved in! I am so thankful that my parents made the 10 hour (round trip) drive just to help me move in, I was extremely stressed out and without them I would have had a heart attack. I am so lucky to have parents that would do this for me and hope they know how appreciative I am of them. One week from today I will have finished my first day of Sophomore year and so it begins...

This morning when I woke up I read a little bit of Numbers and a little bit of Romans. In Numbers I read a lot more about the people of Israel and they lashing about against God pretty bad. The thing is they really wanted to eat meat and were complaining to Moses that they were hungry for meat and it's not fair because they had so much meat before they started all this Godmumbojumbo. So God gets pretty upset because they can't seem to just follow Him without all these questions and without whining and He pulls Moses aside and He says "I'll have the meat, and I'll have so much of it that it will be coming out of your ears" Moses doesn't really believe Him but brings some people the next day, long story short all of a sudden there was quail overflowing out of the sea. Anyways, it got me thinking- Do I truly believe God is in control of my life? and when I complain that life's a drag, how does it sound to God? When has He given me what I begged for? Did I regret that He did? I do believe that God is in control of my life, and I so often without thinking about it complain that my life is boring or so "hard". I've never once thought how insulting that must sound to God. And He has given me what I've begged for a number of times but right away I turn around and forget who gave it to me. Then I read Romans 2 and thought it was so harsh but I needed it. I found that the devil had gotten to me and created a bitter tone while reading. Don't get me wrong Romans 2 is hard to read but it's needed and I can't forget that God wants me to succeed. He gets His heart broken when we fail and it does upset Him but He isn't going to shun me forever. I need hard evidence in my life to back up being a "real doer", just talking about religion isn't enough.


I have been praying about going to Australia for Study Abroad in Spring 2011 and if you'd like to pray for that as well that would be awesome. Also, I am doing 40 days of believing God [http://blog.greggstutts.com/] you should do that, or if not please pray for Kristin and I to finish strong! (we're on day 16).

So I guess that wraps up my first blog ever. Yay. Update soon, promise!

P.S. My sister just moved into her house and it's really neat! I am really excited for her!