A list of things I want to do before I leave for college

I can't believe I did it again.
I had this great list made out with something witty to say after every point and I somehow deleted it all. Any normal person would have pressed undo. But no. Of course I hit the back button right after I watch the thing save over my last draft. Oh, blogger.com...why don't you understand my mind??
So, I'm about to try this again. If something happens I WILL press the undo button. Third time's a charm right?

A List of Things I Want to do Before I Leave for College:
1. Learn how to cook
I have terrible luck when it comes to using the oven.

2. READ
When I was younger I used to love to read....then I started high school. Now all I have time to read is what teachers put in front of me.

3. More art!
Less facebook time -- more drawing, painting, and dorm room decoration making time.

4. Brush up on my guitar skills
Because I never know when they might come in handy.

5. Spend more time outside
Unless it's unbearably hot or pouring down rain.

6. Get the brakes on my bike fixed
         a) So I can stop
         b) More practice--I want to be able to dodge people on the way to class at Auburn next
             year

7. Finish knitting my scarf
It's been about 4 months....by the time I finish it, it will probably be just about time to break out the swimsuits.

8. Get a summer job that I enjoy
I always overanalyze whether or not I want to work somewhere and end up just not turning in an application at all.

9. Buy more Auburn clothing
Shirt, sweatshirt, hat....ANYTHING! Because I was raised an Alabama fan, the only clothing I own that is orange and blue is my War Eagle Day shirt. That's just not going to cut it next year.

10. Start eating healthier and exercising
So the dreaded freshman 15 does not turn into an unfortunate freshman 50.

Blessed to be a Blessing

I've been bad. I haven't updated my blog in what? Like two weeks? The thing is, I have stuff to say. I just know it's going to take a while to type.

My Mission Trip Experience

By: Anna-Kate
(I thought this was appropriate since this post is like a mini novel)

This past week I went on a mission trip.

But wait! It's not what you think.

Instead of leaving the country or driving to another state, I went on a mission trip right here in Birmingham.  Trust me, it felt like I was not in Alabama. Having grown up right outside of the city, I never really thought much about downtown except it was where I occasionally took a trip to see a show, go to the Mcwane Center or something along those lines. Oh, and I hated going down there at night, the bars on all the store windows made me nervous and all the homeless people sort of freaked me out.

I am proud to say that my perspective has changed entirely.

I spent the night in not exactly the best part of town for half a week. The bars on the windows are to keep people from breaking in. People who have nothing and are desperate for something. Homeless people aren't scary, they're people. They have the same fears and dreams as me and you and are desperately in need of hope.

Every night during the trip we had the opportunity to share with the group things had taught us during the day. Here are some of the things I shared.

Story #1: Jackpot
On Saturday, we had the opportunity to be paired up with women from The Foundry, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, while they were working at the thrift store. A couple of my friends and I got paired up with a girl named Sarah and her job was to write sizes on clothes and throw them into the mens, womens, or childrens boxes. While Sarah was taking her break, we decided to continue sorting the clothing and I came upon this sort of silky shirt. While I was looking for the shirt's tag, I saw what looked like a piece of paper someone had rolled up and stitched inside the shirt. As I looked at it closer, I freaked out. There was money rolled up in it. A LOT of money. My friend Ashley took the shirt to one of our youth ministers and he starts pulling dollar bills out of it. HUNDRED dollar bills. FIFTEEN HUNDRED dollar bills to be exact. Needless to say, I was the trip celebrity for the rest of the day. People from all over the store were coming up to our table and I'm pretty sure I had some variation of this conversation with the same guy about three times.

"Who found the money??????"
"I did."
"You turned that in???"
"Yep."
"Well, next time you find it, you should divvy it out to us! We work for free you know."
"Ha....yeah."
"So, you really turned all of it in??"
"Yeeeeeep."
"Well.....thats good.......I might have done that too."

The thing is, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have. Sadly enough, most of them wouldn't have. That's why it was such a God thing. The temptation of money is a big one and $1500 could have easily sent someone at The Foundry back to their old lifestyle once they got a weekend pass. Not only am I glad it was in the right hands when we left but it was also a great witnessing opportunity. Most of the workers there were shocked that I had chosen to turn it in. Hopefully by hearing about us turning it in, it made some of the people rethink what they would have done in the situation.

Story #2: Blessed
On Saturday and Sunday, we were able to serve the homeless downtown through a ministry called Urban Purpose. As I normally do on these types of trips, I worked with the food. It was such a blessing though! It was unbelievable how cheerful most of the people were. People who have hardly anything at all! One instance that really touched my heart was a short conversation we had with a man after we gave him lunch. It went something like this:

Homeless man: "So it's pretty bad what happened in Japan isn't it?"
Us: "Yeah, it is."
Homeless man: "Yeah...we are just so blessed."

Woah woah woah. Stop it right there. A homeless man just said he was blessed....whaaaaat?

Ok, this proved to me right then and there that we have absolutely nothing to complain about. Here is a man who is probably going to sleep in the woods or under a bridge tonight and doesn't know where he's going to get his next meal and is thankful for what he has. Wow. I think all of that just speaks for itself.

Story #3: Not just for now.
Again on Saturday while I was serving food, I was able to talk to one of the main leaders of the ministry's wife. She asked about where I was going to go to school and what I was going to major in and after I told her graphic design she said "Ok, cool.....you should come back and work with Urban Purpose!" WOAH! Ok no matter how much I love that idea, I know I shouldn't get my hopes up because that job will most likely be filled by the time I get out of school. Anyways, whether I can ever work for them or not, I began thinking. What we have going here downtown is not just for now. After we graduate, we have our whole lives ahead of us! No matter where we end up, we need to constantly be looking for ways to use our talents or really anything we have to offer to help serve others and help shine the light of Christ.

Behind the Name of the Blog

Something I get a lot is this: "You are always smiling!" or "Every time I see you, you are always in a good mood!" Well, these things are pretty much always true. The only time I'm usually never smiling is if I'm frustrated, seriously annoyed, or in trouble. Since these things don't happen all the time, I normally have a constant smile on my face. It's like the corners of my mouth are just naturally turned upward (except not in a creepy way like The Joker). I don't even realize that I smile so much all the time which is kind of nerve wracking because after getting out of a serious conversation with someone it always hits me, "Oh man I hope I wasn't smiling that entire time." (If one of you is reading this right now and I was smiling during one of those conversations, I'm sorry and it wasn't intended). So as you can see, this strange phenomena is both a curse and a gift. I'm not complaining though! I am a huge fan of seeing other people smile and maybe that's one of the reasons why I smile so much -- because I enjoy making other people smile. I like telling jokes, even though they aren't funny half the time and I ruin them because I start laughing halfway through them as I think about the upcoming punch line. No matter, it normally never spoils my mood and if it does, whoever I was trying to make laugh in the first place will laugh at me for getting frustrated at them for not thinking the joke was funny. So in conclusion, the smile you always see is not fake or forced but in fact just the way it always is. God has blessed me with being a very joyful person and I am very thankful for that.



P.S. Why do cows wear bells?







Because their horns don't work

Love comes for free

Having no homework this weekend has done wonders for the sake of my blog. I have made one post everyday for the past three days which is a huge improvement from the one post a week trend I was beginning. Unfortunately, writing a post everyday for a few days means that I have less things to write about. Because of this, I will be writing about my day with extra emphasis on the sermon this morning (I meant to write about my entire day but got a little carried away so it is actually ending after the sermon part).

To start things off, I think I am getting sick. My throat is all scratchy and I have swallowed a gazillion times today but it isn't helping at all. I went to church this morning and listened to Pastor Danny preach an awesome sermon on faith from the book of James. One of the main verses he hit on was this:

Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 

James 2:17

I just finished reading a blog post written by my cousin and she mentioned how the sermon today at her church went along exactly with her week. Well, it just so happens that if you scroll down to the blog post under the one I wrote yesterday, you will see that the same thing happened to me! I wrote about how it's not enough to say you're a Christian but that you have to actually live it out. That's exactly what James is saying here. When you first read this verse it might come across as your actions determine whether or not you can be saved and in Romans 3:28 Paul writes that "a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." When Pastor Danny brought this up today my first reaction was hey, isn't that a little contradictory? Luckily, he must have known that a lot of people were probably wondering the same thing because then he said this:

Paul addresses works for salvation while James addresses works after salvation.

Ah ha! That's better. Salvation comes for free to us since Jesus paid the price for us. After we are saved, our actions justify our faith. If our lives are truly changed by Jesus, what we do should prove it. Because of faith, we should be willing to hand over our lives to God, who is more than big enough to handle them.

I love how in James 4:13 it is written how our lives are "a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." Our lives are just so crazy insignificant compared to such a huge, perfect God. In the big scheme of things, we are here one minute and gone the next. It amazes me that no matter how important God is, He still chooses to love us and care about us and know everything about us. And not only that, He knows every single detail about the past, present, and future! Still despite all of that, we all seem to somehow find reasons not to trust Him. What would faith look like if the church learned to completely trust God? How awesome would it be if every decision made in our lives was determined by what He wanted to happen? I'm talking to myself as much as anyone else out there but if we give over every aspect of our lives to God, I think he could do the extraordinary things so many of us have been asking for. He's just waiting for us to trust Him.

Too many choices

Oh, hey there. You didn't recognize me? Well, I decided to switch things up a little. I was starting to get tired of the color coral so I decided to go with something more neutral. This layout is a little bit easier on the eyes, don't you think?

So at some point this weekend, I will be getting a pair of the best sandals ever (or so I've heard). They are a must-have for any sort of camp/outdoor activity which may include rafting, zip-lining, hiking, and riding a bike around campus next year. If you guessed that I was talking about Chacos, you are correct. I have spent way too much time the past couple of days trying to decide which pair is my favorite. There are like, 923234090480 choices. I am seriously analyzing every little detail about them and making a mental list of pros and cons for each type. I mean, I'm probably going to wear these nearly everyday over the summer and most likely other seasons too so I need to make sure I really like them. I think I've probably looked at every single color and pattern the straps come in but will probably end up just getting plain black. I really like colors but my toenails are always painted a bright color anyways so I'm thinking maybe that will just make up for it. We'll see.

      

Instead of a Show

I hate all your show and pretense

the hypocrisy of your praise

the hypocrisy of your festivals

I hate all your show

Away with your noisy worship

Away with your noisy hymns

I stop up my ears when your 

singing ‘em

I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood

of justice

An endless procession of righteous

living, living

Instead let there be a flood 

of justice

Instead of a show

your eyes are closed when you’re praying

you sing right along with the band

you shine up your shoes for services

but there’s blood on your hands

you turned your back on the homeless

and the ones that don’t fit in your plans

quit playing religion games

there’s blood on your hands

Ah! let’s argue this out

if your sins are blood red

let’s argue this out

you’ll be white as the clouds

let’s argue this out

quit fooling around

give love to the ones who can’t love at all

give hope to the ones who got no hope at all

stand up for the ones who can’t stand up at all

instead of a show

I hate all your show

Ok this song is awesome. Jon Foreman is awesome. Everything he sings is either practically from scripture or just plain amazing. This song really, really describes how I feel a lot of the time. Maybe it's because we live in the South but I feel like a lot of people have no problem with saying they are Christians, going to church, posting Bible verses all over their facebooks and and then going on living their lives like they can do whatever they want. Ok, when Jesus truly changes your life, it shows. Going on and saying you're a Christian but living a lifestyle that is completely opposite to the one Jesus taught is like spitting in His face. I'm not saying that Christians are supposed to live perfect lives but the least we can do is try to follow as closely after Jesus as we can because He just...I don't know....took on the weight of all of our sin and died for us!? I mean come on people! When we know the reality of His love, we shouldn't be able to hold ourselves back from loving Him! And not to mention, when we try to live our lives as He did, we are able to show people just a glimpse of the love he has for us and that is a beautiful thing.




Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
John 14:23


This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:16


This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
1 John 4:9

I Remember Your Faithfulness to Me

I don't have much to say but I do have a good song to share....more like three songs combined into one long awesome song. Who said blogs were strictly for writing, right?

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7