I couldn’t sleep, so I decided instead of trying to shut up all the thoughts running through my mind, I would blog about them.

This past week has been absolutely wonderful. Among just spending great, quality time with some amazing friends, the Lord has been teaching me so much and through many different things.

One of the main things is through my classes. I am learning SO much about who Christ is, why I believe what I believe, what cultural things I have allowed to spill into my every day thoughts and choices, etc. I have been seriously blessed to have the professors that I have, specifically Dr. Lewis and Dr. Stokes. They have been so instrumental in everything I am learning. They have challenged me and reshaped what I thought Christianity was. They have not allowed me to be content with just “being” but have showed me the significance of reading/knowing scripture and interpreting it correctly, of looking at culture through the lens of scripture and determining if something is biblical or not, and of not looking to culture to shape my christianity and my life but to scripture to shape and inform my life and decisions.

Another thing that has made the last week so wonderful was a tool that my dear friend Jordan showed me. It is the Grant Horner Bible Reading System. Basically, you read 10 chapters of the Bible a day. He set it up strategically so that you read 10 chapters from the Old testament (Law, prophets, wisdom literature) and the New Testament (Gospels, Epistles, Early Church records[Acts]). It is also split up so that you read list 1-5 in the morning and list 6-10 in the evening [HA, well, usually the evening for me ends up being the early morning – 12:30AM or 1AM ;)]. This has been so beneficial and it honestly is so easy. It takes about 20-30 minutes max to read through the five chapters, but it is something that just honestly fills your cup (for lack of a better phrase). I was feeling so spiritually dry for about three months. I would sit down to read and my mind would automatically wander. I would be stressed out and rude to the people I loved around me. My mind was filled with crude jokes – and unfortunately they exited my mouth for the world to hear! I was honestly just in such a horrible place, living life to just graduate and move on from this place (my university). This week has been everything but those last few things that I have mentioned. I have clarity of my future, a mind filled with the Word rather than crude jokes, a desire for love and peace for the people around me, and so much more. I am so thankful for this tool.

One final thing I am thankful for are my dear friends – Alli, Tiffany, and Taylor. They have become some of my very best friends this year. They have seen some pretty nasty and ugly sides of me, but honestly, I think that is what has been so beautiful about our friendship. Our relationships are real. They get down to the nitty-gritty. There is an openness to our relationships. We can be honest; we can be vulnerable. Our friendships are a safe-zone. There is also critique and confrontation. There is an openness to share our frustrations and struggles. For so long after the events of the past year of my life, I struggled with how I was going to trust again, how I was going to open up. These friendships have taught me how to be vulnerable again, how to love, how to forgive, how to be honest and open. These girls are seriously AMAZING and so beautiful. And the men they are going to marry someday are honestly going to be the luckiest men on this planet. =)

Anyways, that is a little sneak peak into my life as of late. I have been overjoyed with the growth that has been opened up to me. I am thankful daily for the grace that the Lord has shown me over and over again in my life; I just hope I can show a fraction of that grace to those around me. Lord, help me to live to serve you and to show grace and mercy to those around me. Help me to exemplify you!

To Be Continued… =)