some soft rock and triscuits

so I wrote a whole post and then it got deleted. slight frustration.

Highlights - church on Sunday was fantastic. I was reading Hebrews 11 beforehand (because my friend who I got a ride from was working with the kids) and came across this wonderful passage: "They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance" (Heb. 11:13) This was just one of those great reminders about not having expectations of God. He has a plan and we might not see a reward for our actions in this life, but we still need to live by faith. Chapter 11 is an entitled "by Faith" and is just a recounting of all the people who lived by faith and did not necessarily see the direct results of their faith. Also, it gives a definition of faith in the first verse: "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". That is food for thought.

Also from church - we're going through Genesis at Branches, a new church in north Spokane that i now go to. Pretty much, the gist of the sermon was to remember the beginning. The first command from mankind was "you are free to eat from any tree in the garden" (Gen. 2:16), we have free reign to eat from any tree, but instead we try and satisfy ourselves with one tree, one thing that the little sadistic voice in our head says can complete us instead of turning to God. Tagline: "it's easy to have sex, but hard to be naked" Meaning that we try and satisfy ourselves in human things rather than in being sure that we are accepted, loved, and can be comfortable in Christ - we have nothing to be ashamed of, but we still try and hide our nakedness, our faults, from others rather than put them out for everyone to see.


OK! Onward to now. I just feel like saying, I absolutely love my hall this year. All of the girls are making such an effort to hang out and do things with each other. For instance, Megan was in the hallway and said "Nanda. I want to have a scavenger hunt. Can we have a scavenger hunt?" So she and Olivia sat in the hallway and had a discussion about things to find for the scavenger hunt (two samples: jump picture with touchdown Jesus and a picture with five men not from our dorm). They are amazing.

Classes have been challenging and somehow I've been clinging to not being burned out. It's a good feeling, especially since in previous years I've been pretty well exhausted by now. Now that my schedule is all worked out and solid, I'm pretty excited about this year, not just the RAing part. I'm really letting myself be challenged by a couple classes and am excited for the outcome.

Prayer requests - to keep feeling well rested, to 'fill in the gaps with good' when making judgements or assumptions, and to be intentional about my friendships. Also for me not to feel too bad when people don't come by to visit terribly frequently.