Conviction

Whoa. The Holy Spirit has been at work in my spirit this weekend. On Friday night, I went to Navs and the topic was Loving God and Loving Others. At first, I was like, oh, well what new can be said? This subject is taught again and again in the church (and for good reason). But then the speaker said something that convicted me. He was talking about how important it was to listen to others and ask them genuine questions. I consider myself a good listener but often I don't follow up with any questions. And oftentimes I find myself checking out when someone starts telling me a long story. So that is definitely something I will be working on.

Conviction number 2 came during Campus House today. The pastor was talking about fear and how it can control our lives. If we constantly let fear rule our thoughts then it paralyzes us from doing anything. I know personally that fear is something that affects me. I get scared when I think about the future. I worry about what people will think of me if I say something that they think is out of line. It's definitely not something that I want to be true about my life. I want the peace of Christ to rule my life and write my story. That's the next area of my life that I will be working on.

Thanksgiving break starts tomorrow afternoon, I can't wait to go home! I miss my family and my friends back home. It will be nice to get away for a while.

Long time, no see

Whoops. It has again being a long time since I have blogged. No excuses this time...

This past weekend I finally broke down and went home. I say broke down because I have been wanting to go home for the past month but just kept finding excuses to not go home. It was wonderful to be home! I spent lots of time with my family doing normal things. And I loved being back in my bed! Hallelujah for a dark room, cold environment and fluffy blankets. On Sunday we took a family drive and we brought along the cat. It just made me laugh. This is what makes my family who they are. Little snapshots of life as I know it.

Walking

Today I realized that I spend a large proportion of my day walking. I calculate that I spend at least an hour if not more each day just walking places. That's pretty impressive. And then that got me thinking about walking. Of course, this involves my feet and my legs cooperating with me. What if one day my legs just decided to not work. That they wanted a day off? That would be pretty devastating for me. I mean, my legs almost never get a break. Even when I am sitting I still am fidgeting my feet. So all of this to say, take some time to appreciate what you have!

November is here

Today is the first day of November. This of course means that the retailers are going to try even harder to convince us that we need to prepare for Christmas. And this really makes me mad. At Starbucks they have already replaced the fall flavors menu with holiday drinks. Excuse me. When did pumpkin spice fail to be a Thanksgiving staple?!? (granted, I don't even like pumpkin but it is quintessential Americana)

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas in MODERATION. And by that I mean that Christmas music shouldn't start until after Thanksgiving. And Christmas decorations shouldn't start appearing as soon as Halloween gets cleared out of the store. What ever happened to Thanksgiving? I love that holiday but the retailers have relegated it to a blip. 

For my family, Thanksgiving is as big as if not BIGGER than Christmas. It's the time of the year when I get to see all my aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc etc. I eat way more than I think is possible and all of my female cousins get excited about Black Friday. Christmas has its time, let's give Thanksgiving a chance.