not all who wander are lost…

  “You need only do three things in this country to avoid poverty - finish high school, marry before having a child, and marry after the age of 20. Only 8 percent of the families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor.”  
                                                                                        - William Galston

well I’ve finished high school, I’m already over 20, and the plan has always been to wait until after marriage to have a baby (or even sex for that matter).  So far, so good!  It is sad to think of how many people make their life harder by not doing these 3 simple things. 

mmm….hot tea…English style - with lots of cream (actually skim milk) and sugar (which probably negates the skim milk, but oh well).  A good relaxing end to the day. 

I’m thankful for tea - in general.  Love good sweet iced tea all year long and hot tea in the winter time.  Grew up on both. 

No, it’s not decaf, but caffeine doesn’t really affect me, so I’ll still probably sleep fine.  Long. random day - first of all, I was back to work….and my mind had a hard time switching gears from the “do absolutely nothing” mode I had been in.  But I got it somewhat in gear and tried to be productive.   Boyfriend has been having some serious church/denominational issues in his ministry right now and messaged and said that he had just found out that he had a meeting with his supervisor’s supervisor at the office right next door to where I work and wanted to know if I wanted to have dinner afterwards.  I knew this was going to be a stressful meeting for him and he would likely want to debrief and relax a little afterwards, so I was happy to be able to meet him.  But then I realized I had accidentally left my cell phone at home that morning and that morning and he wouldn’t be able to call and let me know when he was done….so I had to run home and get it during my lunch break. 

I’m thankful for the fact that I get an hour long lunch break everyday!  (this is the first job that I’ve ever been given more than an hour for lunch)  I’m thankful for the job too!

So after all that, we did go out for dinner, things still need a lot of prayer for boyfriend and the future of his career as a pastor in this district, but he’s doing ok and we’re just praying that God’s will would be done.   After dinner, since I missed my workout class to meet him, I did over an hour on the elliptical trainer at the gym and my body is exhausted.  But…I haven’t been to the gym in way too long, so that’s not all that great.  But I know it’s just because I need to get back into a better workout habit than I have been lately. 

I am thankful that I can go and workout and am healthy - I feel really energized and more self-confident after working out. 

And I’m thankful for a great boyfriend, an incredible family, and awesome friends. 

I had a great Thanksgiving!  It was just an incredibly nice and relaxing time with family and the boyfriend.  He and I dropped off my car to the shop on Wed. to fix the driver side window that had come off its track (it was really weird and oddly angled when I rolled it down and made a crunching sound when I tried to get it back up…) and then we went over to meet up with Patrick and Katie to head downtown for our weekly pub gathering.  Fun times - a little crazier than normal, because apparently there are a lot of people who like to get drunk on the night before a holiday.  Then we all crashed at my parents (nope, we weren’t at all drunk, just for the record - just didn’t feel like driving there the next morning).  My brother and Dad got up and ran a 5K with my sister Emily who has taken up running recently.  Even though he hadn’t been training or even running much at all, Dad still managed to finish before Emily and Patrick.  Emily wasn’t at all happy about that, but she still beat Patrick so that helped a little.  I stayed home to help mom bake and even got up early (8am) to make breakfast and all.  Just a nice relaxing day….good food, fun time playing board games, and watching a random family-values, movie that my mom got called “No more baths”.  Katie’s boyfriend came over and watched that with us - which was pretty funny b/c he is a huge movie buff and of course this was one he’d never even heard of.  But they still both stayed and seemed to be enjoying it.  The rest of the weekend was spent sleeping in, starting a painting (a commissioned piece for a friend of mine to give to someone for Christmas).  Fun, fun, fun.  Oh and I almost had to preach on Sunday!  Our pastor was on vacation and had gotten another minister to cover for him….but that minister didn’t show up.  The elders at my church had tried calling and everything, and they were getting pretty panicked.  So they came over and asked me if I felt like preaching!  I was pretty shocked to say the least, and asked if they were serious. They said they didn’t know what else to do and I said if they really needed me to, I supposed I could come up with something….but that I was supposed to be teaching a room full of middle schoolers that morning (I was filling in for their Sunday school teacher who was on vacation too).  I also just said maybe they could do something interactive, like ask members to share how God had blessed them and what they were thankful for this year.  They liked that idea and said they could do that and I could go teach the middle schoolers.  : ) 

I’m so thankful that God has allowed me to be a part of that church and feel honored to serve the youth and their families.  Who knows?  Maybe I will preach there some Sunday morning…..

Here are a few pics from my birthday partying and Thanksgiving…

my friends threw me a fun party and my good friend Erin made an incredible Oreo cake! 

me and my sisters (Katie got me that necklace as a gift - it’s from Ten Thousand Villages)

my little brother took this one - which is why it’s tilted - he likes doing things a little differently…

here’s the one I took of everyone else after Thanksgiving dinner

and after dinner mom and us girls “attempted” to make Origami cranes….some of them turned out better than others….it was partly b/c Emily had recently read “1000 Paper Cranes” with her 6th grade class…and partly b/c Katie had been trying to UTube teach herself how to do it and mom and I thought we could remember how on our own….fun times….

Today is my birthday - I am now 28 and getting closer and closer to 30. But I’m not too upset about it…it’s been a good year and I am happy with where I am in life for the most part. Today my mom and little brother are going to come and have lunch with me. Tonight I’ve got my Bible study and will have a good time with the girls there. I already had the big friends party last Saturday night and it was great to be able to catch up with a lot of friends there. I am truly blessed to have so many awesome friends who are there for me.

Today I’m not only celebrating my birthday, but I’m also celebrating the birthday of my sponsored child, Alejandra, who lives in Honduras. She is turning 4 years old today. My family had always sponsored children while I was growing up and I had wanted to for a while - but with college and being a broke student for so long, I wanted to wait until I could really afford to sponsor a kid on a consistent basis. This summer a blog that I read regularly reminded me of that desire to sponsor a child and I realized that I am definately in a more stable place and can and should be giving more to people in need.  Immediately after reading Carolyn’s blogpost, I went over to Compassion International’s website to check into it more….and Alejandra was the girl who first popped up in the “sponsor me” section.  She was absolutely adorable and when I saw that she and I shared a birthday, I knew it was a God-thing and I signed up to sponsor her.  I just got my first letter from her yesterday.  It was actually her mom, Jenny, writing to me about Alejandra and Alejandra drew a picture on the back.  It totally made my day to think that I could impact a family in such a huge way - when I’m really only sacrificing a very small amount of money each month.   If anyone out there is thinking about sponsoring a child - I would definately encourage you to do it today or as soon as you are able. 

Happy Birthday Alejandra!

Yesterday night was our once a month “Sunday Night Live” which is a bigger event night, combining middle and high school students.  It is also more outreach focused and I encourage students to bring friends who don’t normally come to church.  Unfortunately, since I had been sick, I hadn’t planned as much or as well as I usually do…but it went pretty well anyway.  God is good.  We did a “Choose your own adventure” themed night, talking about how to make wise choices.  I had a series of choices where they could pick the games, activity, and how they wanted to help with worship.  It was slightly chaotic, but fun, and I enjoyed hearing their thoughts and discussion.  I’m just always amazed at how God can use us even when we’re weak and unprepared.

Oh and the one student whose mother recently died is doing pretty well - we talk regularly and she’s trying to figure out what a new “normal” is for her and her family now.  But her faith is strong and she’s still really wanting to come and be involved as a student leader.  I gave her a blank sketchbook and crayons after the funeral and instructions on praying in color (see earlier post) as something she could use as an outlet to pray, get out what she’s feeling, or whatever.  She has been telling me that she’s really liked it and she brought in the book by Sybil MacBeth that she just found at her local library to show me.   I thought that was pretty cool and am glad that its helping her out.

yay!  It’s Friday!  I’m finally feeling a little better.  My throat was kind of sore on Monday, really sore on Tues., and finally on Wednesday I went to a minute clinic at the drugstore to make sure I didn’t have strep throat (thanks to the childhood radio drama Adventures in Odyssey episode about one of the characters dying from untreated strep, I will forever be scared into going to the doctor for sore throats).  I found out that not only did I have strep, I also had an ear infection.  So onto antibiotics I went….but still was at work, because I’d probably already made anyone sick that I was going to at that point.  Also it felt kind of silly to go home just because I found out that I was really sick.  That night my ear did start to really hurt, so I was glad I had already been to the doctor and had started meds.  I went into work around 11:30am yesterday - mostly because I hadn’t gotten much sleep and felt horrible when I woke up.  Several hours later and with a lot of drugs in me, I figured I was ok enough to go into work.  Still didn’t feel great though.  Still don’t feel amazing today, but everything is hurting a little less, and now I’m just feeling kind of drained and dazed.  I think I can rest up a little this weekend, so that should help. 

I just have to come up with something to do for youth group this Sunday evening….I haven’t had a chance to think about it much at all….which is really unlike me.  Usually I at least know what theme/scripture we’re going to be focusing on a few weeks in advance and may still have to come up with games/details the weekend of….but this weekend I’m going to have to come up with everything…fast…..oh well - it will be interesting.  Thankfully, I work best under pressure.  Not that that is something to be proud of - I’m really kind of upset with myself that I haven’t thought about it more….but I know that God will help me come up with something and it will get done. 

Sorry about this long, disjointed post…this is unfortunately how my brain is working right now.  I did want to mention this article that I recently read that was interesting…..

Getting a Life: The Challenge of Emerging Adulthood

In this article, the author talks about emerging adulthood and how it has changed in the last few decades to look very different than previous generations experiences of becoming an adult.  Not a ton of new information - but well written and makes good points on how society and the church should be rethinking some of their views.  Here are a few paragraphs from the article:

There is a new and important stage in life in American culture, and it is not entirely clear that the Christian church understands or particularly knows what to do with it. I am talking about what scholars call “emerging adulthood.” This is the time of life between ages 18 and 30, roughly, a phase which in recent decades has morphed into quite a new experience for many.

What has emerged from this new situation has been variously labeled “extended adolescence,” “youthhood,” “adultolescence,” “young adulthood,” the “twenty-somethings,” and “emerging adulthood.” I find persuasive Jeffrey Arnett’s argument that, of all of these labels, “emerging adulthood” is the most appropriate—because rather than viewing these years as simply the last hurrah of adolescence or an early stage of real adulthood, it recognizes the unique characteristics of this phase of life. These, according to Arnett in Emerging Adulthood, mark this stage as one of intense (1) identity exploration, (2) instability, (3) focus on self, (4) feeling in limbo, in transition, in-between, and (5) sense of possibilities, opportunities, and unparalleled hope. These, of course, are also often accompanied by big doses of transience, confusion, anxiety, self-obsession, melodrama, conflict, and disappointment. Many popular television shows of the last two decades—Beverly Hills 90210, Dawson’s Creek, Seinfeld, and Friends, for example—have taken as their point of departure the character and challenges of this new, in-between stage of life. I think it all signifies something big and serious.

Stepping back for a final view, then, how might we summarize the general situation? For most American youth, there extends between high school graduation day and the eventual settling down with spouse, career, kids, and house a very long stretch of time in which to have to figure out life. For many, it is marked by immense autonomy, freedom of choice, lack of obligations, and focus on the self. It is also normally marked by high instability, experimentation, and uncertainty. For many, emotions run high and low, as hopes and exhilaration recurrently run up against confusion and frustration. It is not clear how much emerging adults rely in this life stage on the religious faith and beliefs with which they were raised. In any case, this socially structured and culturally defined phase of life seems itself to foster an intense concern with what is new, different, exciting, alternative, possible, and hopeful. Commitments that would curtail the exploration of options are often avoided. Ties to the social institutions of civil society, including church, are often weak.

How does or should American Christianity speak to emerging adults as people and emerging adulthood as a cultural fact? How can the church faithfully speak the gospel to 18- to 30-year-olds? The answer is surely not for the church to fall all over itself to quickly reconstruct its message and practices to somehow become more “relevant” to emerging adults. But oblivious disregard for emerging adulthood and the larger meanings and challenges it raises for church and culture surely won’t do either. For starters, American Christians—parents, pastors, seminary professors, counselors, educators, and more—can simply become better informed about the emerging adulthood phenomenon. Most people probably have at least a vague sense that something has changed on the road to full adulthood. But more clearly grasping the social forces generating emerging adulthood, its typical characteristics and concerns, and their implications for a faithful church will require sustained effort. Recently published good scholarship, in particular the books discussed here, provides a very helpful start in that direction. Having engaged and digested their findings, we will be better positioned to carry on the important discussions that emerging adulthood should provoke.