Christmas Break! (so far)

I cannot believe that we are two weeks into Christmas break! It is so crazy to think about. It has been a restful, busy and fruitful break thus far, I am thankful for all that has happened this break, and am hopeful that it can continue until I am back at school for what Lord willing should be my final semester as an undergraduate!

Here some of the highlights so far:

1. My Church family: Oh my goodness what a blessing it has been to be back and worship once again with them. Sunday mornings, young adult group on sunday night, evening prayer/Bible study on that first wednesday, and a special Christmas Eve service, have all been wonderful. After the bible study on the first wednesday, I had the opportunity to go out to dinner with one of the most influential families on my life that I know, and to be able to fellowship with them once more was so great, and very much needed. At our Christmas Eve service we had a technical mishap and the organ wasn't working, which forced us to do our lessons and carols acappella. It was definitely a blessing in disguise as it ended up being one of the most beautiful services I have ever been a part of, and you were really forced to focus your heart and mind on the words of the hymns being sung.

2. Seeing old friends: I have to admit, it was definitely weird coming back and realizing that most of my friends were not also returning home for Christmas, but have been in the midst of what some would call "real life." As you see, most of the friends that I still have from High School graduated college this past may and are either working full time, or in the midst of the job hunt. But that being said, it was really awesome to see that they all work really hard to keep in touch! On the first monday night of break and the following saturday (because of Christmas) I was able to join a group of them for a weekly dinner that they had been doing. It was really awesome just to catch up with them, and see how they were doing. Hearing them talk about work and life after college, makes me excited to graduate and get out there (though don't get me wrong, I am going to miss school DEARLY). Some of the guys also have a monthly book club that I can't wait to join once I get back out here. Other then that I have been able to grab lunch with a few people, get the inside scoop of what's happening in their life etc, oh and I went to a shooting range with some guys and shot a shotgun for the first time! And of course, I've had plenty of long drives, and deep talks with the good ole Brent, the guy who will forever be a part of my life as we have just gone through too much together for him not to be.

3. Being around family: Moving into my new room because we rented out the basement has proved to be both a challenge and blessing, mostly the latter. The challenge for me has been that because of it, I am around my parents ten times more than I have ever been, which has provided plenty of opportunities to practice (and fail at) patience, on both sides I'm sure! The blessing is very much the same thing as the challenge, I am around them ten times more than I have ever been. It has been wonderful to just be able to hang out with both of them. For example: one of the days leading up to Christmas, my mom and I baked some pies, went shopping, and had dinner together. My dad and I have been able to get some good quality time together as well, hanging out, watching football and we also went to a college basketball game! One special time we all had together happened a few days after Christmas, when my parents and I went down to a theme park called Busch Gardens and visited their ChristmasTown, which was a part of the park that was specifically opened up for this holiday season, and decorated as such.

On Christmas, My dad, mom, uncle and I opened presents in the morning, and then one of my uncles from dad's side and his family all came over for a late lunch early dinner, and then in the afternoon we all went an watched The Hobbit together. Currently my brother and his family are in town celebrating the new year together and it has been such a blessing to have the newly adopted 4 year old nephew in town!!! A bunch of family came over sunday night to watch the Cowboy/Redskin game, which was crazy because my entire family are Cowboy fans except me (since my dad and his brother were born and raised in Texas), and so it was sweet to see the skins take it to them!

4. Reading: So far this break I have been able to complete three books, and would like to try and get to three more! The books I have completed have been Are You Really Listening? Keys to Successful Communication, The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung (highly recommended), and When God Writes Your Love Story by Eric and Leslie Ludy (don't agree with absolutely everything, but the basic principle was fantastic and there was a lot to learn). I'm hoping to complete Holiness by J.C Ryle, (which is one of the best books I have ever read and so I'd like to get through it a second time), John Owen's The Mortification of Sin, and this last one was a change due to a bunch of people recommending it, A serve Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken, which based off reading the description on the back I CANNOT wait to get to it.

This break has been wonderful so far and I only hope that the sweetness can continue. God has blessed me with the will power to be productive and make things happen instead of sleeping in till 2 each day and not really make anything of them, which has sadly happened in the past many times before. He also has given me the grace to be in His word almost every day this break, since really starting again on the 17th and that has been really helpful. I cannot stress enough how important it is for His children to be in His word as often as they can, it is where we learn about our heavenly Father, our Lord, His Spirit, our sin and how to live for Him!

Reflections of a Crazy Semester

Well as I sat down to write out a blog for the first time in awhile and take a chance to reflect on my semester I noticed that my most recent blog was a list of goals that I had for the semester. I had forgotten that I even had a list, let alone posted it here on my blog! Which my initial thought after seeing them was that can’t be a good sign in terms of reaching them if I didn’t even remember the fact I had them (first lesson, not only should one make their goals known, but keep them on you at all times for reminder!). Though now that I know they were there at one point, my effort to reflect and filter my thoughts of such a long semester can be simplified as I can look at it in terms of the goals themselves. Here is a shortened version of the goals (see my last post) and my thoughts about how I did on each one:

1. Set aside time EVERY DAY for scripture reading and prayer.

Sadly I was unable to keep this goal. God was extremely gracious and from the start of the semester through the entire month of October, I only missed one day of devotions during that time. God had really set it on my heart to make this a priority in my life and He really shined through and gave me a love for Him and His word. But once the busyness of life hit, devotion time took a back seat; arguably during the time I needed it most. I was nowhere near the consistency I had those first two months. In fact, in my prayer journal from the time of November 1st to the end of the semester, I only count 3 entries. That’s not to say I only spent that time in prayer as there were definitely times where I just didn’t use the prayer journal, but that does show a lack of consistency, 3 entries in the last month in a half compared to the 79 entries or so of the first two and a half months, (from august 12th to October 31st).

2. Be more intentional about everything: relationships, church, schoolwork, and even rest.

This is a tough goal to evaluate, I definitely feel I did better in some areas, but still came up short a lot, though I would say my over all intentionality did increase. Though sometimes certain aspects of life came to a clash. For example, in my effort to maintain relationships and do well in school, I spent very little time sleeping this semester. Sleep is something I hope to get more of this coming semester, as I know it actually important, and being well rested allows me to make the most of the time I have for fellowship with friends and better conquer my schoolwork.

Relationally, this semester was yet another roller coaster. Which I think relationships are always going to be tough, why wouldn’t they be? Relationships are at very the center of our existence, starting with the relationship that existed in the Trinity from eternity past. “It is not good for man to be alone.” We were created to relate to our creator and to relate to those around us. The greatest commandments, Love God and Love people are relational in nature. That being said, we shouldn’t be shocked that because of our sin nature, they are difficult and take a lot of work. Learning how to relate to others and serve them best is one of the most difficult things we can ever attempt to do. One thing God was gracious enough to show me this year is I struggle with listening to people and learning to understand them. I am quick to relate their struggles to mine making myself the topic of conversation, interrupt and offer my 2 cents, and do various other things that makes it so I am no longer counting others as more important as myself. The funny thing about myself is, I love spending time with people, and I am very loyal to the friendships I do have, so this is clearly something I need to work on if I hope to be an encouragement to others and properly point them to Christ.

Academically this was simultaneously my hardest and best semester. Maybe not in terms of GPA, but in the effort and taking school seriously, by God’s grace I definitely made strives of improvement. I can say without a doubt, I worked my freaking butt off. God was once again gracious and gave me eyes to see getting an education as something we do so that we can be better tools for Gods purposes, either in helping out the church, or being a light to this dark world. I also was able to see the importance of working hard and being diligent about school so that I could make more of the relationships He brought into my life. Of course I had my missteps, see: Thanksgiving break, but this was easily an area that fruit flourished.

Church wise, it was not much different than last year. I love my church family here in Santa Clarita, and being able to worship with them on Sundays and bible study during the week (when I can make it) is always a blessing.

3. Memorize more scripture.

Completely whiffed on this one, definitely need to figure out something to memorize for next semester and maybe somebody to do it with.

4. Work out 3-5 times a week/Eat healthier.

Similar to the state of my devotions, the first 2 and a half months of school I was working out extremely consistently, and even found a new love in Ultimate Frisbee, but as the busyness picked up, taking time to take care of my body went down.

5. Have a senior year that I do not regret.

Though this semester was the toughest one I have gone through, both relationally and academically (18 units of 300 and 400 level classes), I would never change it for the world. God stretched me in almost every aspect of my life, and once again showed me the importance of relying on Him. Interestingly, in times where I wasn’t the most consistent about working on my relationship with the Lord and moved into a mindset where I took control, is where life was the hardest by far. But God has used it to show me how much more I do need Him, and how much more of my life needs to be surrendered to Him completely. It’s not that I have to give Him yet another part of my life and work Him into it, it’s that I need to work my life around Him and His purposes, forsaking myself and trusting that He is going to provide and has the best set out for me.

What a semester it was though... I cannot wait to see what God has in store for me during this break and then (Lord willing) MY FINAL SEMESTER OF MY UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE CAREER!!!