Goings on

School: Two classes, plus 5 hours at the clinic on Tuesdays. My classes haven't been bad at all this semester. Just a ton of reading. I'm more motivated to read than I've ever been because I am in need of more therapy skills. Or my client's are in need of me having more therapy skills. Or something like that.
Externship site: I'm meeting with 10-15 different kids throughout the week at different Monroe city schools and some of their families. Also, I'm facilitating 6 groups every week where we talk about anger management, social skills, etc. Love, love, love it! My favorite school is probably the alternative school. It's kind of a school/jail, so the kids there love coming to group, I think partly because we don't treat them like criminals. New words I've learned by working with kids here: Skreets (streets), Her (hair), compruter (computer), and clique (sp?) (gang).
Assistantship: Staying busy doing office work. Mainly working with the dual enrollment program -- high school kids being able to take classes at their schools for college credit. It is a blessing to work with flexible, super fun ladies.
The Center: I've been working there maybe 2 hours a week on Friday afternoon, just keeping things going. Don't plan to work there next year, but still need to talk to them about that...It's been a good job, but I don't have time for it anymore.
Free time: What's that?
Next year: Will be doubly busy. Taking 15 hours instead of 9, plus a heavier homework/assignment load, plus comps in March. Really really excited about that craziness coming up. (To be read with a very sarcastic tone.)
Escape: Going to Austin this weekend to visit Rachel at her new place! I'll drive to Nacogdoches, meet Heather, and then we'll head on to Austin. Then, for Thanksgiving going to Grammy and Papaw's!!! Christmas break, going home (just in time to see Mom graduate), then going to Grand Junction for Andrea's wedding, and back to Boise. Hopefully we'll get some skiing in. My friend Gina in Boise is having twins right around that time, or maybe before, so looking forward to holding some babies and hanging out with her. :)
Church: Love White's Ferry Road. Heading out to "peak of the week" in a few minutes. I've always loved Wednesday night church, except maybe in Logan :) , but here it is especially encouraging. It's always worth it to go even when I'm drained. Fellowship with other Christians is one of the things helping me make it through this program.
Weather: Absolutely gorgeous here. The cypress trees are changing to a burnt orange color. They weather has been great. Haven't had anymore rain, thankfully. During September and October we got triple or quadruple the average amount. The river has just crested recently or is about to soon. It is very high. I don't think there's any flood worry for the area where I live, even though I live about 8 blocks from the Ouachita river. So, I'm fine with no more clouds and rain. Would be nice to get a freeze to get rid of some mosquitos.
And that's my life right now and in the near fruture (how my kids in group would say it), Lord willing.

Rain and humidity

I stole these pictures from a couple of girls on facebook, so they are small. I forgot to bring my camera on our trip north.

Once again I'm slow about posting something. I don't really have any excuse except laziness. I've become a Louisianian. Temporarily anyway. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? It's been raining here on an off this weekend which means one thing -- big hair. It's amazing how fast my hair gets frizzy and big when I step outside my house in the morning. From what I've heard, the summer has been exceptionally dry, so I haven't had to deal with this kind of mugginess until recently. We're talking over 100% humidity. :) And a lot of clouds. This weather also means that I have to turn every light on in the apartment to make it feel like I'm getting a little sunshine.

Nothing too too exciting has been happening. School started a couple of weeks ago. What a blast. It really hasn't been bad so far, acutally. I have two classes and supervision/clinic/internship which is 5-8 hours a week for me. Then I have an externship which is the same as internship except it's off campus. Mine is with Safe Schools so I'm meeting with kids who have been referred by their teachers or parents to get counseling. With some kids I'll be meeting with their families also, which is very exciting since I am in school to be a family therapist. Besides working at the clinic and Safe Schools (which is paying by the way!), I'm also working 20 hours a week for my GA, and a few hours a week doing data entry at the Center. My GA is great this fall. It started in July and is with the Dept. of Continuing Education which offers classes like floral arranging, culinary classes, beginning guitar, etc. and a lot of certification kinds of classes.

I guess I haven't written on here since going to CO and then to MI and Canada. Wow, it has been awhile. All of that seems like a long time ago. Here are a couple of pictures from Canada. Heather, Rachel, and I went to MI for a friend's wedding and then we went on to the Toronto area from Detroit to see 3 girls we met in Korea. It was such a good trip. Niagra Falls was more incredible than I had imagined. I haven't seen it from the States, but the Canada side is supposedly better. It would be hard to beat what we saw. We got to go ride on the Maid of the Mist, which is a boat that goes very close to the bottom of the falls. The rest of the time we were there we went to a little town called Niagra-on-the-Lake, toured a winery that is known for its ice wine, went to Toronto and visited the Royal Ontario Museum, went through the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit that was there (amazing!), went to harbor of Lake Ontario, ate at a Korean restaurant, then went to a Noraebang (singing/karoke room) like we used to do in Daegu all the time. I know I'm missing some things we did, but it was such a great trip. Oh yeah, and we had to stay in Detroit for an extra day because I left my passport in Monroe. Thankfully I had a friend who was able to Fedex it! That little experience of leaving my passport was enough to give me an ulcer, but it ended up being good. Heather and Rachel were very gracious about it and we had a chace to look around Detroit. We made it home without getting shot, so I guess the trip was a success. I hear a lot about Detroit being dangerous, but I felt much safer there than I do in Monroe. ha Don't be alarmed. I feel fairly safe here, especially after moving to my new place and of couse I have my trusty pepper spray.

Time for me to quit delaying the inevitable. The books are calling...

Due to a recent move, being super busy, and being super lazy when I have had free time, and my internet being messed up since I moved a month and half ago, I haven't posted in a long time. So here's an update on the big stuff that's been going on. (I know no one cares, but I'm ending this sentence with a preposition purposefully, since it's not a paper.)
I just got back from Holly and Aaron's and Maddy's on Sunday. :) I went to spend the 4th weekend with them and it was a blast. So relaxing and Maddy is a doll! I really enjoyed getting to see them. We went to Ft. Worth to the Kimbell Art Museum, the Water Gardens and this yummy BBQ restaurant. Also I got to see DBU, which is a really nice campus. Then on the 4th they cooked out (the beef was excellent! from their cow) and in the evening we went and watched the fireworks in Lewisville. It was way hot that night, but the fireworks were good. It was sad to come back to the grind in Monroe after such a fun weekend.
I've probably said it before, but I'm officially burned out on school. If you don't like boring details, skip this paragraph. The spring semester ended well. Definitely a hard semester. The number of hours and the amount of work I was doing was more than I've ever done in my life, hence the lack of blogs. :) Right after the spring semester ended, I did a Psychopharmacology short course online. After that, I took a Cultural Diversity course for two weeks. I then had a week off in which I worked a lot and did my externship (what they call an internship in my program) with a Jr. High here. My externship site for that month was leading a group (class) about conflict resolution/anger management. That was really fun. I learned a ton more than the kids did, for sure. They were a lot of fun and hopefully they got something out of the class. Also, during all this time, I've been seeing clients one or two nights a week and on Thursday evenings I'm up there for 4 hours for supervision/meeting with clients. Now I've just started two classes Assessment and Theories of Counseling, along with supervision of course. I have a break from my externship briefly before school starts back, but then I'll be going to schools and meeting with kids individually, leading a group or two a week, and hopefully meeting with their families as well. This week as school has started, I've also started a new GA. It is in the Dept. of Continuing Education, which covers a lot of things, but it mainly runs classes and programs that are for people interested in classes for fun -- line dancing, learning to play the piano, or for people to become certified in something like taking a class to become a notary (?). I'll be doing adminstrative stuff for the most part. Really, really enjoy it so far. The people are great in this office. That will be a 20 hr. a week position. The summer II classes I'm in right now will be done at the beginning of Aug.
Which leads me to what I'm really excited about...the family reunion!!!! I've gotten the ok from my teachers to miss a little of class, so I should be able to be there for most of it. I'll get to Denver on Fri. and fly out on Tues. Yay!!!!! I cannot wait!
The next week after I get back, I'm going with Heather and Rachel to our friend Liz's wedding in Detroit (super excited about this too!!) and then we are going to Canada to see 3 or 4 friends we met in Korea. They are all back from teaching also. Hopefully we'll get to go to Niagra Falls.
The other thing that has happened recently was that I moved to a great place that is light and quiet and more expensive, but well worth the money. I'll have to write about that soon. But for now time for me to head home -- using the internet at work; it's DIDS day and the Dr. Pepper is calling.

Spring

This picture is of azaleas in Korea, but they have been just as bright and in bloom here. The Spring has been so beautiful!

This semester has really flown by. I didn't feel that way a few weeks ago, but now I've got one week fo classes and then finals, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure the fact that I got my two papers turned in the past week helps me see the end also. Last week was one of the busiest of my life. If I wasn't so overly perfectionistic about dumb little things, the time it took me to write them probably could have been cut in two, but speediness is not my talent. I just registered today for summer school. It looks like I'll be taking 12 or 15 hours this summer, which spread out the way they are, hopefully won't be too bad.

I can't remember if I've ever written anything about my externship (fancy name for internship)? Several cool things have happened there. I had my heart set on working for the church I'm part of at their counseling center, but several things happened over time which made it seem like it wasn't a good fit. One of those things that I became aware of as I've started seeing clients at the clinic and working with Kevin and Lindsey at the church a little is that for now I'm not super interested in marital therapy. I am being trained to be a marriage and family therapist, so, I will be qualified to do it when the chance occurs, but it's not what I primarily want to do. Anyway, trying to figure out what I would do besides that caused me some major anxiety since we have to complete a specific number of internship hours to be able to graduate, but of course to do that I had to have an internship! Well, as usual, God has been beyond faithful to me. The opportunity came for me to work with Monroe City Schools which is unpaid, but a really great opportunity. The guy in charge of the program is great and the other two girls I'll be working with are good friends from class. So, I accepted the offer to work there, still feeling pretty anxious about finances for next year. Paid internships are nice because you spend so many hours there during the week, it's often hard to work a different job. Regardless, I was so happy to have an internship that I think will be a really good fit for me. Haven't started yet, so I don't know for sure, but I feel better about it.

In addition to that, came the news that my GA will not be available next year, so I needed to start looking for one, and even then, major cuts are going on at ULM, so it's up in the air whether they will be available period. I don't know how it is in other states, but this is what I found out yesterday about Louisiana (may or may not be completely accurate because I may not have understood correctly). By law, Louisiana has to have a balanced budget. By law also, there are only two areas where spending can be cut -- education and healthcare. As a result, major cuts are being made at ULM and other universities. They are not only letting go professors, but they are also completely cutting some programs. The MFT program is on the table to be cut, but I don't imagine it will be since is one of the best programs at ULM. The present students shouldn't be affected, but our entire MFT campus which is on the other side of the bayou from the university may be forced to move. :( It baffles me that any state would want to cut spending in education right now. I know there may be bigger things at stake, but as tons of people are losing their jobs, getting more education is something that I think a lot of people will do. I heard the other day that 60% of college students across the nation are "non-traditional" students, and I think that number is going to go up. I may not have any idea what I'm talking about, but these are just my thoughts on the matter based on what I've heard. Enough on that. :)

So, back to my internship story. I just got a call yesterday from Scott, my internship boss, and he asked if I'd be interested in doing extra internship hours this summer and getting paid for them. Also in the fall I have the potential of getting paid a monthly stipend amount for working for them. Amazing!! I've been worrying about how I will be making ends meet besides taking out big loans, and here's what happens. Even when I am not fully trusting, God is gracious and faithful.

At the beginning of spring break getting to see Tricia run her marathon was a blast. I was inspired. The inspiration hasn't lasted, but when school slows down more, hopefully it will come back. You guys who are running this weekend have my ultimate respect and I'll be cheering you on from here! I wish I could have seen Maddy, Holly, Aaron, and Estelle for longer, but the short visit was nice. Maddy is super cute. Going to Boise was delightful. I didn't do the work I needed to, but it was a much needed break. Did a lot of talking, playing scrabble, walking (even a little jogging!), eating, and more talking. I love my parents.

On a possibly, possibly not, more profound note, here's what I've been thinking about recently. Living here has not been the funnest (is that a word?) thing in my life, but I've been thinking a lot recently about refinement and how God never promises us that life will be fun or enjoyable all the time. So when I've had a complaining spirit recently, I've been trying to reframe the situation and see it as a chance for refinement. Often we don't know why things happen, but everything that happens is an opportunity for growth or destruction. Thankfully, once I've responded poorly to life doesn't mean that I have to respond poorly in the future. Discomfort, sadness, frustration, disappointment, pain, fill in the blank are a chance for us to allow ourselves to be refined by God into someone who does not have to be controlled or defined by those experiences and emotions. And at some point spring comes.

In the meantime, here's a little two-liner.

This week is busy, busy, like the whole semester has been, but the end is in sight!! 2 weeks of classes and then finals. I have 2 papers due this week and then I'll try to write a blog covering what's happened since February 24th. (I thought I'd posted something since then, but apparently it's only been thoughts!) Spring break was so good, but now it's back to the grindstone and I've felt more burned out than ever. Prayer needed - mucho. God supplies my power. He supplies your's too. I know a lot of you are feeling the burn as much and more than I am. Oh the fun of refinement.

Lent Police + Louisiana = A taller soapbox

I've really been loving these passages recently. I just copied them over from BibleGateway.com.
2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2
11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you."[a] I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.
Psalm 138:3
3 When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted. :)

Pretty much unrelated to the above passages, the holiday (yes, I really do view it as a holiday) of Lent starts tomorrow. You giving anything up? I really, really recommend it. You may say, as do half the people I try to convince: "I'm not Catholic." Who cares? I know I don't and God doesn't either! ha So here's my soapbox. It's a good opportunity to build self-discipline as well as more reliance on the Holy Spirit to fill the void that you normally try to fill with something else. I don't know, maybe you are naturally one of those people who doesn't try to fill yourself with things or relationships, or situations and are always completely reliant on God. Just like the saying, "You cannot not communicate.", I believe you cannot not fill yourself. Whether you realize it or not, you are putting in or allowing things in which fill you and shape you to be the person you are. Jesus was intentional about what he filled himself with - the power of God's spirit - and part of his intentionality involved going without. (Example: fasting from food for 40 days - same length of time as Lent!) So my (and make no mistake, I may seem like a brilliant intellectual, :) but I'm not claiming to have the inside view on this anymore than any of you would) take on lent, is not so much about the giving up and emptying and beating yourself into the ground. It's more about giving up and emptying in order to be more intentional about being filled with the power of God. I'm not judging if you don't do lent, but it's been beneficial to me every year I've done it, so I like to share the love.
Have any of you guys tried the flavored folgers coffee? I'm drinking the chocolate silk blend right now and it is yummy.

The Season of Mardi Gras

Craziness is consuming my life right now, so haven't had much chance to stay up with anyone. I feel very out of the loop (my own doing). Here's an update on me. :)

School is going well. After we come back from the break next week, I'll be starting co-therapy. Kind of scary, but everything is so busy I haven't had time to get truly nervous about it yet. Schools in LA are off from Mon.-Wed. of next week for Mardi Gras. Then Thurs.-Sat. is the Louisiana MFT conference in Baton Rouge and I'll be going to that. Should be great. Several MFT big names will be there presenting, so I'm looking forward to it.

My job at the center is going well. The people there are great. Every Wed. are small group meetings called Huddle. (This place is like no other place I've worked before.) My group is called Catfish and Grits and is all about learning about the Mississippi Delta. I could devote several blogs to talking about that. The culture here is very different and so we've talked about that and had a chance to take some field trips. Yesterday we went to the Tensas Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately we got lost so didn't see too much wildlife. Mainly deer and a few birds. There are alligators and Louisiana black bears (estimated count on the refuge is between 400 and 650) and tons of other wildlife. Really wanted to see a bear, but of course, didn't happen. I could have settled for an alligator, too. Instead just got to see cypress trees and cypress knees. Very interesting. Loved the trip. It was so nice to be outdoors and I heard it was 85 degrees yesterday, so it was a pleasant day for a trip like that. Not too humid either. :)

A couple weeks ago I went to a local Mardi Gras parade. It's a big deal here, of course, and hearing what I've heard about New Orleans, I didn't know how much I wanted to go to this one, but I was assured it was family friendly and pretty harmless. The parade was at night, so taht was different. I still need to look this up, but the theme or name of the parade or something was the Crewe of Janis. Not sure what that is all about, something French maybe? Lots of people were wearing masks. I saw some crazy hats and a lot of green, purple, and gold. The other big thing was all of the beads. People on every float were throwing the beads and the idea was to get as many as possible. It's different than New Orleans, because here, all you have to do is yell and scream and they throw them at you. Like I said, it's the family friendly version. I've never seen so many beads in my life. Side note, today a guy I know had beads that he had gotten from the Catholic student center at lunch, so there are different meanings for them depending on where you are. There were the normal bands that came through, which is always my favorite part. One of the most interesting parts was the sons of the confederacy. According to my friends there were many more participants this year than there have been in the past; they believed it was due to Obama becoming president. All I know is that there were a lot of rebel flags and there were definitely no black people in the group. They didn't reenact anything, but they did shoot a few times. So that was my Mardi Gras experience. Also, a girl brought a King Cake to class this morning. It was pretty good -- more like sweet bread with gold, purple, and green sprinkles on top. This one didn't have a baby in it. Supposedly the baby represents baby Jesus. I asked what you get if you find the baby in your piece and they said that you get to bring the next King cake. After being here and seeing all the fun traditions, I have a new take on Mardi Gras. Don't really care to experience the New Orleans version after what I've heard about it, but the Monroe version has been a blast! Which brings me to the all-important question that must be asked at this time of year. What are you giving up for Lent? It's a great chance to put a little discipline into your life. I recommend it. I believe this is year number 8 for me, and each year it gets a little sweeter. That is, if I don't give up sweets.

From Sea to Shining Sea

Well, it's been forever since I've been on here. At least it feels like it. The semester has gotten off to a hectic, but good start. I'm trying to become more disciplined and better with time management, but it seems like there are not enough hours. I'm going to my GA every morning at 7:30. I scan in kids ID cards who come to Math class in the math resource room aka MRC aka math lab (sorry I've been so slow in getting back to you about that, Nan!). The math lab is the new way they are teaching math these days which is on the computer. It is a complicated mess sometimes as you can imagine when technology is involved. They go to math lecture 2 days a week and then they come to the lab 2 days a week. I also check attendence and recheck attendence and check again. Then I email students who were absent to tell them that we know they were absent and if they miss 25% of class they will fail blah blah blah. It's a lot of mind numbing busy work that I really don't enjoy, but the people who work in there are pleasant and I get a kick out of watching freshman stagger into their 8:00 classes. Kind of weird, but it's my morning entertainment. At that point in the morning I've got enough coffee in me that I'm beyond the staggering myself. By the way, I've decided I'm a big fan of cinnamon, gingercookie kind of flavored coffees. Flavored coffees in general -- Delicious!

Then at 8:45 I take off from the math lab and go to class on M, T, Th, and Fri. On Wed. I don't have class, so I work longer in the lab. My classes are definitely more interesting and relevant this semester. Not as many tests, but more reaction papers and research papers and lit reviews. Aaargh!!! When class gets out at 11:45, I go to my new job at the Center for Children and Families and am there till 4:30 or 5. This job has been great so far. Secretarial work, mainly filing and data entry kind of like what I did at Herald of Truth. It's kind of nice because this work is mindless -- not mind numbing -- but it's a nice break from thinking about school stuff. As you know I king of enjoy having things organized and that's what this is about. There are tons of Marriage and Family therapy people who work there who have been through ULM or are there presently, and somehow, mainly from them I've been given the nickname Skidmo. Another nickname several people at school call me is potato/potatoes/taters and most recently sweet potato. ha Kind of weird. As long as I like the people, I don't mind nicknames and I like these people so it's all good. They aren't calling me Jessie and that's what counts. :) Back to the schedule. On Mon. nights I have class from 5-8. On Tuesday nights I'm in supervision (right now observing 2nd year MFT students do therapy at the clinic) from 5-8. Then on Wed. nights is church. Last semester I wasn't really disciplined about going, but I'm so encouraged and energized after going that I'm building it in to my week this semester. Right now they've just started a study through Colossians that's going to be good, plus the music is always great. So that's my week presently. I'm going to start meeting with the main counselor at White's Ferry Road for supervision each week (therapist mentoring?) and hopefully I will be doing co-therapy with his wife later in the spring and then eventually taking over her clients. Soooo, that's my life in a nutshell. Kind of detailed and probably more than you wanted to know.

Thinking about the potato nicknames has brought to mind something I've wondered about a lot since I've been here. What kind of stereotypes or things do you connect with certain states? With Idaho, people always say potatoes or the Boise State blue field, but many people don't know that Idaho is the home of fry sauce and many Idahoans don't know that other states don't have it. I'd say that Arkansas and West Virginia have definite hillbilly reputations across the country. I think sometimes the things that people associate with certain states are not so much what the residents of that state might say. And then again they might. So, I'm curious which states you have automatic thoughts or stereotypes that come to mind. For example with Montana, I think milita, unibomber, and the quote, "Montana: where the men are men and the women are too." When I think South Dakota, I just think Mount Rushmore and the reptile gardens. When I think California, I think San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, and liberal. I'm especially curious about the reputation Louisiana has to you and things people think about this state in general. The more I'm here, the more interesting this state gets. It gets lumped into "the South", but the Southern states all have their differences. I'm hoping to do an EET article soon about the culture here. I love that each state has its own laws and culture and reputation and I love being in states where people have a lot of state pride. Some states definitely don't have as much pride as others, which I think is a shame. If I was a long-term native of one state, you can bet I would have some state pride. As it is, I'm just proud of all the states and their own unique characteristics. I could go on all night, but I'll stop now. :)

The break was so great! Really loved it. Had a blast in Oklahoma with Dad, Mom, Tricia, David , Matt, Brittany, and Nat, in David's apt. in Edmond for Christmas. It was one of the best Christmases ever! Christmas Eve we ate breakfast burritos and played games. That might have been my favorite evening. The night before we ate out and went to see this great Christmas light display in Chickashaw(sp?). I really, really enjoyed David's graduation -- more the party afterward than the food. He has some great friends. It was fun watching them together.
Then Lubbock was super fun as well. I told G and G this, but I always enjoy being at their house. Ever since I was little, I love going to see them or have them come see us. As with many things in life, I appreciate them more, the older I get. Also Nan and Billy came over. Got to see more of Nat, Chrissy and her sweet kids, Ethan, Uncle David and Janet, and Uncle John. I'm so thankful for lovely family. Oh yeah, I can't forget one of the highlights on the way back to Lubbock: getting to drive Nat's truck. That thing is great!
On the 31st I drove over to spend New Year's with Heather. We went to singing night at church with her family. Gotta love the old hymns, especially when they're led by 3 year olds. Possibly every male of every age in the church led a song. Then she and I went to the Cheescake Factory for dinner. I got an "Incredible Grilled Eggplant Sandwhich" or something like that. Yes, sounds weird, but it's something I would never fix for myself at home. It was pretty good, but I probably wouldn't order it again. We got back to the house just in time to see the ball drop and then we dropped into bed for a few hours of sleep. Then, she so kindly took me to the airport early the next morning so I could fly to Boise.
Ahhh, Boise how I love thee. It would be nice to somehow transplant that city right here for the rest of the time I'm in school. Mom, and Dad, and I played several good games of scrabble, walked, shopped, and drank coffee, and... not sure what else, but it was relaxing. They've just started small groups at church and the first one was excellent. Very challenging. I got to hang out with my friend Gina a lot. It was good to catch up with her. We went night skiing one night. So, so fun. And I didn't fall a single time! Also we went and ate dinner with her and her husband one night. Saw several other friends also and enjoyed seeing people at church. Man, I'm overusing the word "enjoy", but no other words are coming to mind right now.
So, here I am, back in Monroe. My flight back was very enjoyable (can't stop using it). The first flight I sat next to a girl who's in grad school in Omaha, same age as me, very similar family background, and altogether a delightful person. My dad told me when he dropped me off at the airport that he prayed I would have good conversations on the plane. I kind of thought with dread, "Oh great." When I pray or others do when I fly, pretty much always, I will talk the entire flight and often talk with people about God. Should be a good thing, right? I pray; God answers. Should be good, but I had a bad attitude and was tired and didn't want to have that kind of in-depth conversation. The first person who struck up conversation was a somewhat creepy middle aged man, and I thought to myself, "Well, this is the guy Dad prayed about. Here we go." In a few minutes though, he fell asleep and the girl next to me started talking. Have you ever talked with someone and walked away feeling refreshed and enthusiastic about life? This was that kind of situation. I am fired up about the semester after talking with her. It is still amazing to me how faithful and generous God is to me even when I have the opposite of an attitude of worship and love for him. I did not want to listen to someone's life story or talk to them about the Lord. In my selfishness, God was gracious to me and gave me encouragement. I didn't see myself in need of encouragement at the time, but wow, was I refreshed afterwards! God knew what I needed, when I needed it better than I did. I'm thankful for my dad praying. I'm thankful for Bekah who was very obviously intentional about sharing what's important. A couple of things God showed me through our conversation was how I need to love my classmates and coworkers. Sounds simple, but is not so simple to live out. One of the ways I can do that is to speak positive encouraging words to them and about them to others rather than being part of negative gossip. Last semester I saw and was part of in some ways, I think, some very destructive gossip. In a class with 15 females and 2 males of first year mft students who love to talk and analyze people, you can imagine that gossip is rampant. I've been wondering recently, what is it about me that will make me stand out to others as being a follower of Christ? More than that, am I the kind of person who is expressing God's love in the true and healing way his love is expressed to me? Being committed to God is a radical way of living life (see Nat's blog. it's good.). This means a little self-sacrifice, and probably a lot. For me, it means not taking sides or participating in the drama and divisiveness that goes on. I get sucked in all too easily. It's always easier to get wrapped up in the content rather than the person. The content is often a distraction from what's real and what's important in life -- loving people and dishing out as much hope as possible.
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24