Everything is better with God

Welp, It's almost that time again. Time to go back to school.

I'm sort of dreading it, as usual.

I LOVE it when I'm there, but I just love home so much, I get so attached to being here after four weeks. I know I'll be homesick at first and I'm not looking forward to it.:(

Plus, it's my LAST semester as an UNDERGRAD!! That's CRAZY!

I'm sort of really nervous to go back. =/ Because of what happened a week or so ago when I was there..(the meds) I'm much more afraid to leave home. What if something happens..?

I'm learning in this time more than ever that I NEED to lean on God. I sort of feel like I'm at the end of my rope, and it's all I can do.
I'm so scared.
There is so much stuff I'm going to be responsible for with student teaching, and I just want to feel OKAY, and like my happy, normal, self.
I NEED to find my strength in God, and not myself. I know He is trying to teach me that I will be okay if I seek Him out when I'm scared or feeling sick from the medicine. When I call out to Him to comfort me, He will give me the peace I need to get through. I'm fully trusting God for what will happen in these next few weeks. It's all I can do really.

I would really appreciate prayers as I go back to school and get back into "the swing of things"! That I will lean on God, and call out to Him rather than worrying about panic attacks.


Yesterday and today I read Luke 2.
Jesus is born, and then He is a boy around the age of 12.

I really liked the verse in the first half about the shepherds:

8And in that vicinity there were shepherds living [out under the open sky] in the field, watching [in shifts] over their flock by night

I like it a lot because God is OUR shepherd, and we are His sheep. The shepherds watched over their flocks by night, it says. It just reminded me that God is always, always watching out for us. Even by night. =)

The second half of Luke talks about a story of Jesus I don't think I've ever heard before, which I thought was odd.
Jesus and his parents go to Jerusalem and then his parents go back but He remains behind. His parents though didn't know. It says they were worried sick, they didn't know where He was. Finally they went back to Jerusalem and found Him with the teachers asking questions, and it says people were astonished by His intelligence.
They ask Jesus how He could treat them that way.. and He replies with:

"How is it that you had to look for me? Did you not see and know that it is necessary for me to be in My Father's house?"
but they didn't understand Him.

I thought it was cool that that sort of thing was already happening at the age of 12!
:)

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend!

Luke 1 con.. and grown up talk.

Today I read the last half of Luke chapter 1.(v. 56-80) I'm kind of ashamed of how long it took me to finish chapter 1, but I have definitely been side tracked.

I got a lot out of the reading.
In the beginning part of what I read, John was born and the people (neighbors and relatives) thought Elizabeth would name the baby Zachariah after his father. She told them she would name him John. (bc that is what God told them to do) but the people seemed so confused and just didn't understand.
This reminded me of how sometimes things God calls us to seem out of the ordinary, or not what we are used to. People might look at us, or question us, but we need to follow through with what we hear God calling us to, regardless. This is what Elizabeth and Zachariah did and Zachariah's mouth was opened again as a result!!

I really especially loved the last few verses.

78Because of and through the heart of tender mercy and loving-kindness of our God, a Light from on high will dawn upon us and visit [us](D)

79To shine upon and give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to direct and guide our feet in a straight line into the way of peace.(E)

=)

Other than that I wrote up my "letter of interest" today!

I've been wanting to get everything set to go on PA-educator (an online application for teachers) before student teaching starts up, that way I won't have to worry about it later.

So..letter of interest, check. It was very difficult to know what to write! It's one thing to just write it, but I want to impress them so they want to interview me. I also want to be myself, so I tried to do both.

I still need to write up my essay. That will hopefully happen later this week.

It's an exciting time but also scary, and I'm having a hard time believing I'm old enough to be at this place right now..! It's crazy, I tell you.

Bring on the SNOW!!!

=)

Beginning of Luke

So in my last post I wrote a few "resolution" type goals for myself for this new year (2011!!!). They all look really good in writing, and they are all things I desire to do/grow in SO very much. but I was thinking about them more on Sunday morning and I realized those are things that will take effort and some change on my part. I can say those things and it's all well and good, but I can't just keep living the same way and expect those things to change on their own. What's the point of writing them down just to forget them? So I'm going to try to be really conscious of them. Some of them are also things I need God's help with. They also go hand in hand, for example by staying in God's word and praying often, I will be able to love on people more naturally. That seems to be how it works out. Find yourself in God, and everything else clicks in place.

SO anyway, that said, I decided that I should pick a book of the Bible to start reading in. I have a daily devotional, which I LOVE, but I feel the need for something else to go with it. I decided to start in Luke. I read part of chapter 1 today (1-55). I was really interested in the fact that the gospel, Luke is sort of connected with the book of Acts! My Bible has notes in the beginning of the chapters and it also said that Luke is "noted for his interest in various classes of people"...I thought that was cool. Apparently in his account there are details about women and children that aren't in the other gospels simply because he noticed them. I like that.

In the verses that I just read Luke is writing about Zachariah, Elizabeth, and Mary.
Zachariah and Elizabeth couldn't have children for years and years. An angel comes to Zechariah and tells him that Elizabeth will have a child. The verses that stuck out to me from this part were 11-13.

11And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

12And when Zachariah saw him, he was troubled, and fear took possession of him.

13But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zachariah, because your petition [k]was heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you must call his name John [God is favorable].


Zachariah saw the angel and was afraid. The angel tells him about his son to be named John and Zachariah doubts him, as a result of this his voice is taken away.
A similar thing happens to Mary when angel Gabriel came to her. She was also afraid...

28And he came to her and said, Hail, O favored one [[w]endued with grace]! The Lord is with you! [x]Blessed (favored of God) are you before all other women!

29But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled and disturbed and confused at what he said and kept revolving in her mind what such a greeting might mean.

The angel said to Mary "the Lord is with you" "Blessed are you!" and still she became afraid at what he was saying. She was "greatly troubled" and it says that she kept turning over in her mind what the angel might be telling her.

I was thinking about how often this happens in my own mind..and how much I can relate to those statements. There are so many times when I've gotten unnecessarily afraid or stuck with fear, or had doubts...
At first I thought it was ironic that Zachariah and Mary become afraid because it's an angel that confronts them...it seems like it would be a comfort, but after thinking about it more, I understand why they might be struck with fear upon seeing an angel.

After Mary becomes afraid, her attitude does a 180 and she begins to rejoice God. I liked this a lot too. :)

46And Mary said, My soul magnifies and extols the Lord,

47And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48For He has looked upon the low station and humiliation of His handmaiden. For behold, from now on all generations [of all ages] will call me blessed and declare me happy and [aa]to be envied!

49For He Who is almighty has done great things for me--and holy is His name [to be venerated in His purity, majesty and glory]!



Happy Monday!