So long

I’m switching to a blogger account: lostlosingloved.blogspot.com

November 27, 2009. Lessons from God. Leave a comment.

Dawn of New Opportunities

Being an ‘official adult’. It’s so wierd. Planning my life for this next fall is proving more difficult than I thought it would. For instance, finding a job.

I work 2 jobs during the summer. One is choreographing/assistant directing musical theater camps for 3-6th graders. My year-round job has been working at Cold Stone Creamery (an ice cream store). I feel like I need to move on but I’m also going to be taking a lot of credits this fall at college. SO do I work, to save $$ for next year’s school fees? The other option is to take a break from work (or work a shift or two at Cold Stone) and get non-paid experience in the professional field I want to go into.

Add to that yet ANOTHER opportunity. This morning at church, our campus pastor mentioned that he volunteers as a mentor at the local juvenille rehab facility. He aslo talked about how it’s an amazing way to reach out to the teens who need help in our community. I’ve always felt that God has been calling me to work with teens. Yes, I’m one of them, being 18 myself, but for 2 years I’ve been a student leader in my youth group, and there’s nothing quite like introducing other teens to Jesus.

So I e-mailed my cp to see if I’m old enough to volunteer as a mentor. I know they have kids there as young as 12, so there’s a possibility I could be old enough for the younger kids. Plus, I’ve grown up with two parents and two great brothers, but I have had somewhat broken relationships within my family. So although both my parents have still been physically here, maybe God has been using my broken-ness to prepare me to work with kids who have no dad or have been abused?

That’s what I’m facing right now. So many opportunities. My parents said maybe I should wait to mentor until I’m older and in a different “season” of my life. But I’m thinking why wait? I just finished high school, I’ve just come out of the thick of all this, maybe I’d be just as good of a mentor as someone who’s been out of the teenage years for a while. Why should I have to wait just because I’m 18? “Let no one look down on you BECAUSE YOU ARE YOUNG” (I Timothy 4:12a)

Pray for me, if you would. That’s what I’m doing. Begging God to help me see what I should be doing this upcoming year.

July 5, 2009. Lessons from God. Leave a comment.

Out with the old, and in with the new

Well since I’m graduating, I’ve decided to re-evaluate some things in my life. One of those things is this blog. I do keep up on my other one, but sometimes I feel like I’m just so restricted on this blog. Until now it’s been a place where I write epiphanies God has given me. Usually the posts took a little while to write, and I just didn’t keep up on it (obviously). So while I will still write the brilliant epiphanies I’ve been having, I’m also just going to keep up on the day to day more boring, more ordinary part of life and what I see God doing in the little things.

Which is also why I’m changing my blog title. Lost, Losing, Loved has both spiritual and “normal” meaning to it. I first thought of it as how without Christ’s love, we are lost–losing that daily battle of life. But being loved by Jesus totally changes life. Now there’s purpose and meaning. Now I can fight that daily battle with strength and endurance.

But it also means just what it says. A lot of times I get lost. Not directionally, but I’m the one whose face glazes over half way through the story and says “wait, I’m lost”. Losing–I……generally like to think I’m a whole lot better/cooler/gooder than I am. I’m hoping I’ll be able to record some of the parts of life when I’m a loser or DON’T win everything. And finally, loved. I have the BEST support group of people in my life. My youth group has been instrumental in who I am today. My home school buddies are also the best. I love the tight-knit community we make.

So that’s the new direction this blog is taking. It will still be from a Jesus-focused point of view, but not all about God and revelations. If that means you want to take me off your blog list, feel free–I w0n’t be offended. This is just where God wants me to go.

Cheers!

Anna

June 8, 2009. Lessons from God. Leave a comment.

My Issue with “Modesty”

Okay, most of us agree that modesty is not only good, it is essential. Especially Christian guys agree with this. Here’s my beef with the whole topic. We were talking about honoring people of the opposite sex, at our youth group’s grad retreat this past weekend. The issue of modesty came up and my youth pastor made some interesting comments which led me to think that life’s really not fair. ( 😉 )

Why is it that girls have to be so careful about dressing modestly? Because guys’ minds work differently than girls’ minds, and it helps them to be pure for us to be careful how we dress. Got it. BUT why don’t girls like to dress modestly? Because the girls who get any/all attention from guys are the ones who don’t dress modestly. The flirts. So most girls want that attention–part of the way God wired us.

I know that most of the guys who read this are Christian guys and will say “of course I don’t do that” etc. But really stop and think about it. Unless you live in a place where everyone dresses super modestly, who do you pay the most attention to? Not necesarially who you talk to but who do you watch? Who do you look at? Who do you try to sit near? We girls notice these things. So my issue is, why do girls get the sermon over and over about how WE need to dress modestly, and guys never get the sermon about honoring the girls who try?

I’d love your thoughts on this. I know my readership has gone down since I haven’t been posting but I do moniter comments, so please leave me a note.

May 27, 2009. Lessons from God. 2 comments.

Even in the hard things

So I’m sure no one reads this anymore, since I’ve been SUCH a slacker and never posting. But I just thought I’d vent anyway.

So this morning I was reading my Bible in the car at school. I get there fifteen minutes early, so I thought I’d make good use of my time. I was reading about Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, and the last supper, and I prayed that no matter what happened today, God would be glorified.

As a high school senior, I have been asked “the question” (where are you going to college?) a bazillion times. As a high school senior who is waiting for God’s plan to perhaps be shown through a certain financial aid letter, this question really gets on my nerves. I have to go into the ten-minute long explanation, “I’m not sure where I’m going to college, yet. I’ve been accepted to all three schools, but I’m really just waiting for my financial aid package from my top school. That’s what will decide if I can go there or not.”

Eagerly anticipating my awards package, I waited. And waited. And Waited for it to come. Eventually I e-mailed my admissions counselor to see exactly when it should be here (because we had problems with one of our forms) and she said it would come on Monday the 16th.

I was fine with waiting till Monday. At least I had a date. And then…today….I got the e-mail saying I could login!!!!! I was sooooo excited!!! but soooo scared!!! So much rests on this silly awards package.

But when I tried to login, it wouldn’t work. A call to my counselor and e-mail to the tech guy later, turns out there’s a glitch in the program, and I’m going to have to wait till tomorrow to find out. Patience is the hardest thing ever.

But I will wait patiently….even in the hard things.

March 12, 2009. Lessons from God. 1 comment.

Acceptance

Well, I have been accepted into California Baptist University! I’m very excited. Unexpectedly, I was told I’ve been accepted with honors which means I’ll be automatically recieving a $3,200 scholarship for grades!!! I’m very excited and look forward to seeing where God will put me next fall!!!

December 17, 2008. Lessons from God. Leave a comment.

Be Thankful

We have oh so much to be thankful for!! Here’s my list of things off the top of my head, and I’ll add to it this holiday weekend as I think of things.

• A savior who loves me unconditionally
• Freedom
• America
• Friends
• Family
• A warm house in a safe neighborhood
• the great city of Seattle
• Mark Driscoll
• my youth pastor
• service/missions trips which teach me so much more about Jesus
• CBU
• my guide dog puppies
• puppy-sitting
• music
• my laptop
• electricity
• joy

November 26, 2008. Lessons from God. 1 comment.