Who Says You Can't Win?

So Amazon has a thing now called Givaways.   I've been entering these givaways over and over again.  Some don't require you to do any to enter, others require you to post something or follow them on Twitter (which I opened an empty account just for this), yet others ask that you take a 1-question poll or watch a 30 second video to enter.   Anyways the odds for each "prize" ranges depending on what the giver has set it too.  I've seen as low as a few hundred to one and as high as nearly 8,000 to one.   After many entries I finally won something (below).   I don't know what I'm going to do with them, maybe gift them or something.    A week or two ago I gave up on the Giveaways as I found that I wasted way too many hours entering literally thousands of them without winning a thing.  Yesterday I decided that I had some extra time so I entered some more and won these gloves (below) - they were a 1 in 800 chance of winning.  I then proceded to waste too much time again trying to win something I could use or something else to give.   I wouldn't say that it's necessarily worth it, as the result hasn't come out greater than the cost, for me at least.  

Another Flat

On my way to get an allergy shot yesterday I found myself just minutes away from home with a flat tire.   The funny thing is, I strangely wasn't stressed or worried or even upset.  I had an un-natural amount of peace and was free to laugh with joy about what happened.  I was quite thankful that I knew how to change a tire on my car as I've had to do it before.  I'm also thankful that my care has a pre-labeled area where to put the jack in and that I didn't have any trouble with the jack - last time it was quite a hassle and a real struggle.   It took no more than 10 minutes to change the tire with the "spare" that was in the trunk.   The spare wasn't a donut tire, it actually was a full size tire, just an older quite worn tire.   I had a good laugh that the quite worn spare that I put on has more tread than the tire that I took off (and more than my other tires).   haha.  

After I put the spare on, I noticed it looked just a little low on air.  So I drove to a nearby gas station that I knew had fee air (Casey's) to fill it up.  I didn't have a tire pressure gauge, so I went inside and bought on (only $2-3).  As I checked my tire pressures, I found that all my tires were low on air.  Thank you God for allowing a flat tire to get me to notice that I need to fill them up!   The spare that I put on (to one of the back tires) was suppose to be 44psi, however it was less than 10psi - the gauge didn't even go that low, haha.   I loved it.  

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about tires yet.  I'm praying that God will continue to provide, not just finances, resources and things, but also wisdom, discernment and guidance.  

Tires, Joy & Proverbs 3:5-6

Also, an update on my car.  So my dad told me the little trick on how to check to see if your tires need to be replaced.  You stick a quarter upside down in the tread.  if the whole head can be seen, then you need to replace the tire, if part of the head is covered, then you don't need to replace your tire.

So I did this on my tires.   On most if not all of my tires, not only can you see Washington's full head, but you can also see and read most of the "LIBERTY" that is above his head.   Thus, my tires are mostly bald.   

Philippians 4:6-7 says "Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

However, at this point I am not planning to replace my tires.   Whenever I pray about it, I feel like I am hearing to not replace them.   So I am not going to worry about it.   Worry will get me no where.  If God doesn't want me to do it, then He's got a better plan, even if it means that a tire will blow and cause an accident.   I'm not worried one bit.    God's got it.  I keep praying about it and keep praying that God will let them not ware out.  I don't know what His plan is, but I know it's good.    

I write this post not to stir up worry in others, in fact I want to use it to encourage you to not worry.   God asks us to trust and obey.    Do I trust?  If God says (in Philippians 4:6-7) not to worry, then I wont.   If He says to pray about everything, then I will, and while and after I pray about it, I will give it to Him, it's not my concern.    Worry about nothing.    If God says to bring my requests to him, I will do so.  And if He says to give Him thanks, I will do so for all that He has done.   I will give Him thanks that my tires are bald.   

Why all of this?  Because God is a good God in all that He dose (Romans 8:28).  It's not my job to worry, it's my job to talk to Him, trust Him and thank Him in all things (Philippians 4:6-7).  He gives me many options to ask, (just a few of the dozens are Matthew 7:7-11, Matthew 21:22, John 14:13-14, Samuel 1:20) and He delights in fellowship with me (2 Corinthians 6:16).  Worry not, but trust and rejoice (Romans 15:13), for God is in control, He has all things in His hands.   

God is faithful 

Isaiah 40:31   

Flashing Lights

Last night on my way home from class, I was in a peaceful mood of just cruising (not real cruising) but just about five miles an hour under the speed limit.  On the half hour dive home I have a great and peaceful time with God, just praying and talking with Him.  Several times I had people right on my bumper, but they would just pass me then.  Except as I was coming into town, I had a guy right on my bumper and he didn't pass me.  My initial reaction is to get upset, nervous, angry and frustrated why he has to ride on my bumper instead of passing me.  But I keep having to work on that and remind myself that I don't need to worry about that.  I've been there before and I know that there are lots of reasons that I'm not thinking of that he could be there.  I don't know what he's going through or if he's even paying attention.   He is not me.   So I went back to my talk with God.  I don't remember exactly what I was saying, but it was along the lines of, "God I give it all to you.  I'm not going to worry about anything, instead I will give it all to you.  I trust where you are leading me and I give that to you.  I give to you what you are doing in my life.  I trust you in whatever you bring."  (like I said I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was along those lines).  Anyways as soon as I said that last part, the exact moment that I said the last word, I immediately noticed in my rear view mirror, white, red and blue flashing lights.  The guy on my bumper was a cop.  Hahaha.  It just made me laugh at the timing of this.

The cop came up and asked me where I live and where I'm going.  I told him I live about a mile and a half up the road and I am coming from school.  He told me that I had a headlight out, to which I told him that I knew that and that is why I have my fog lights on, until I can get the light fixed.  He then asked for my license and insurance. As I handed him my license, I told him that the address on my license is not correct as I recently moved, but I did change my address online.   Then I handed him my insurance.  He asked if that was the latest insurance I had.  I said, I think so, to where he informed me that it was several months out of date.  I fumbled around with the envelope I keep it in and found the up to date one.    He asked me if I had any illegal items in the car, like guns or drugs.  I said no, as I handed him the up-to-date insurance, He asked me, "then why are your hands shaking?"   I intended to tell him that my hands always shake when I'm nervous.  However what came out was, "I always shake when I get pulled over."   He then questioned when I've been pulled over before.  I told him that when I had my permit I got pulled over because there is apparently a law in Illinois that you can drive too slow in the left hand lane, he understood that.  Then I told him that the other time I was pulled over was in Canada, he gave me a look.  I explained to him that I was visiting family and I thought I was in the turning lane but apparently I wasn't, and the a cop was.   He nodded and told me that he's not going to give me a ticket, but he's going to go and run my license through his system.  As I waited, I was just amazed at God.  The whole time, though I was nervous, I had amazing peace, and I didn't have to think about what to say, it was as if He just spoke for me.  I also had the random thought, watching the flashing lights in my rear view mirror, if the lights are randomized or if there is an order to them.  I was really tempted to ask the cop when he came back, but I heard clearly that still small voice of God tell me not to.  So I didn't.   When the cop came back, he gave me my license back along with a citation.  He told me to keep the citation with me in case in the next few days before I get the light fixed if I would get pulled over again, I can show the cop my citation and tell them I have already been pulled over.

I am so overjoyed by this, God is soo Good!  Yes I do have to now change my light, which I don't think I can do myself, as these German cars require to take off the whole bumper if not the whole front corner of the car to get to the light.    It's an expense I was not expecting, but I am thankful that it's nothing more, and that I didn't get a ticket for it!   God has surely blessed me.  I want to give a shout out to the cop who pulled me over - he did a wonderful job of doing his job and he was super friendly, polite and kind, I was honoured.  Thank you!  

I Must Not Be A US Citizen???

So I was going through the Amazon.com (Not amazon.ca) Giveaways, 

and I got this message on one of them . . . 

It made me laugh inside, and yet question where Amazon thinks

I am from???

I need your thoughts . . .

Today in my communications (speech) class we finished up our persuasive speeches.   Now, the next step is to do our final speech before wrapping up the semester.    However, normally this professor requires this final speech to be a group speech.  Instead she is trying something new and she is giving us the option of what kind of speech we want to do, calling it the "Speaker's Choice" speech.   I decided that I am not going to do a group project thus I will stick to the individual speech.   I have a number of options (which I have listed below) that interest me.  The speech needs to be 4-6 minutes long and references are Not required (unless I use sources that are not my own). My presentation will be the first week of December.

1) Informative Speech: Communicate information about a concept, process, object or event using the guidelines from the first informative speech.

2) Persuasive Speech: Using the guidelines from your persuasive speech, present a topic in a way that will entice your audience to think a certain way, behave a certain way, or take some sort of action.

3) Reflection Speech: Reflect on a special event or time in your life.  The speech should tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.  (Serious or not serious)

4) Demonstration Speech: Using appropriate props and visual aids, demonstrate to your audience how to do something.

5) Advertisement Speech: Speak on a product, service or action (or thought).  This can be a 4-6 minute infomercial.

6) anything else you can think of. . .


Here is where you come in.  I am seeking your thoughts on which one (or more) of the above you think I should do and what topic I should talk about.  I am open to just about anything.  The floor is yours . . .

Cookies

This weekend I spent a day or so at Grandma Baurer's house.  While I was there I was thinking of making some cookies for my History class (for fun).  However grandma offered to let me take some extra cookies she had in the freezer, so I took those instead - it actually worked out really well this time, as I would not of had time to make them anyways as I ended up doing some other things.   

Anyways I took her cookies to my History class today and they were LOVED!    A number of students approached me and asked me to thank her for the cookies.  A friend told me that they were some of the best cookies he has had.   Another girl who sits behind me was just awestruck with how she makes them so soft, they were perfect.  After class my History professor had one, and after one bite (and about 15 minutes of talking), he said he believes these are the best peanut butter (& chocolate chip) cookies he has ever had!   They were a huge hit.   However, there were some left over (I think some students were trying to be polite and not take too many) so I gave them to some other people I met in the halls, and they were again loved!   

Many people were quite blessed by them today!  

Thank you Grandma!!!

Genius & So Adorably Cute

Well, I suddenly have a lot more time to blog.   When I wrote my last blog about not having a computer to blog on I did not take into account that during that time I boosted ahead on homework.  Now I have a lot more time to blog since I am more caught up, homework wise.  Now that doesn't mean that I don't have homework I could be doing.  I do have the first and second stages of a speech that I have to conduct and bring in all the materials for that by Monday, plus a test next Thursday, oh and a test online this weekend, along with several other things.    But I have more of a freedom to blog in those moments that I just need a break from homework.

So today in my Early Childhood Growth & Development class we learned a variety of things.  We are now up to the preschool stage. We talked about initiative versus guilt, self esteem and much more.  One thing was a preschooler's self-concept.   What a, say, 4 year old sees, thinks, and talks about generally falls in three categories:

1. Appearance 

2. Possessions 

3. Behavior     

These three things is all they ever seem to talk about, and that is because that's all their cognitively (learning, thinking, problem-solving) developed to be able to do.   When we look at how this changes, we see quite a difference.  Take a 12-15 year old for example.   Because their brains have developed to think, learn and problem-solve more, instead of the above three things, they will more likely talk about:

1. Physical         

2. Relationships 

3. Academics /   

Occupation 

Another topic we talked on was self-esteem.   If you look at a preschooler, their self-esteem is normally quite high, they think they can conquer the world if they wanted to.  But as kindergarten through grade three kicks in, their self-esteem starts to drop. Why?  As they get into more complex grades, works, and problems, they start to be able to think more critically and think in many other ways - this is natural due to the natural cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving) development. This curve of self-esteem slowly gets lower and lower, but at some point in either middle or high school it starts to curve back up again.  It usually doesn't reach a high again, until college.    Where then, after college, it takes a dip once again.

Also another topic was Common Fears of Early Childhood.  We were asked the question, "What childhood fears, that are irrational, do I still have now?" After a short discussion we watched this video (below).   (NOTE I don't necessarily care for everything in this video, but it shares the point well.  The primary note that resonated with me was the first two (up until 1:36 in)).

I found this fascinating for several reasons.  One, most of us don't always recognize that we have these fears or that they were rooted from out childhood (My heart was racing just watching the basement on). Not only that, it makes us aware that not only is this 'fear' irrational, but it's quite silly.  It took me a long time to be able to convince myself to walk on the deep drains or grates on sidewalks or parking lots.  Even though I know that they are made to hold thousands of pounds and I am just as likely to fall into them as I am to fall into a pit while walking down the sidewalk on concrete.  So the question comes up, what caused these fears?   While I cannot say for sure, and the teacher didn't tell a answer that with a fit-for-everyone answer, there are several general guidelines.   First, if you fear is of an inanimate object or something that is not alive, like a sidewalk grate or drain for example, or an animated figure such as ghosts or vampires, the fear likely came from childhood cartoons, tv, or movies.  On the other hand if the fear is of animate objects/things such as animals or people, the fear was likely rooted from (bad) experiences.   Now that your heart is racing and you don't know if you really want to read any further, the last thing I want to share in this post is just the opposite of fears.  

Now, what actually got me to write this post, is this next part.   In class, right after learning it, I texted myself a note to remind myself to blog about it.  Why?  Because it is genius, and so adorably cute.   

This topic was understanding Empathy and Sympathy.  A good chunk of it was on the Empathy part.   For example, watch this ad (below). 

The company that created this ad had a genius behind it all.  They used three key tactics to get us to love this and want more of it.    

FIRST they used the Visuals to catch our attention and capture out hearts.  Visuals such as the puppies, the kids, the grandparents and people of all ages.

SECOND they used wonderful Music that kept the mood smooth and gave us a desire to want more of it.   Plus it went along wonderfully with the visuals. 

THIRD They used Emotions to capture our hearts.  They used situations that we can connect with.  Watch through it again and notice the emotions prior to the puppies.   People are tired, sad, bored, depressed, stressed, just really feeling down.  We have all been there before and the makers of this ad know that, thus they use clear emotions that will instantly connect with us. But when the puppies come in what are the emotions? They are happy, cheerful, delighted, over joyed, released, smiles all around.  This is something we want to feel in our daily lives instead of the doubt, tiredness and boredom. This ad is a work of cute genius.  Because when we finish watching it, we want to watch it again and feel the joy of supporting it. 

A Valley Has 2 Mountains

Yesterday was a really had day for me.   I was feeling really discouraged and really challenged.   I kind of just felt Blah. I actually just became quite frustrated both with myself and with God.  While at school in the afternoon, before my evening class, I listened to a message online from Koinonia called "House Keys - Worship" (https://www.kcf.org/message/2017/11/7/house-keys-worship) and then as the message was wrapping up Pastor Bryan mentioned that the worship team was going to play a song, (which wasn't recorded) so I headed over to YouTube and listened to the song there.  While I was listening to it, I felt God saying to me to write down all my questions I have right now.   I didn't want to do it.  I had a quite a handful of questions I thought, and I feel like I'm being overwhelmed by them.  I told God that I know myself and if I write them all out in a list as He was asking me to do, I will just become even more overwhelmed by the list.   But He insisted.  So I opened up a word document and started typing out my questions.  At first they started with each new topic of questions was on a new line, but my thoughts then turned to a rant journal full of questions in long paragraph form.  I had no idea all this was inside me.  But it kept coming out.  By the end with over 2,000 words, I was amazed at all the thoughts and questions that cam out.  In the mean time I had let YouTube just do it's cycle of playing the next worship song on the list in the background.   Some of the songs were very timely to where I was at in my timing.   Writing everything out took at least half an hour, likely more.   I was questioning what I was praying and believing for; I was questioning myself; I was questioning God; I was questioning life; I was questioning my thoughts and my purpose; I was questioning past, present and future.  I questioned just about every topic it seemed.   I just was down in the pits as it felt like.   I didn't know; I didn't understand; I didn't see; I didn't feel; I didn't comprehend.  I felt lost, confused and down.  

After class as I was in my car, I stayed quite a bit later in the parking lot as I was downloading some music.  I started with adding to my music some of the powerful songs that I had been listening to earlier, as I was writing out the questions and thoughts on my heart.  That lead into some more worship songs downloading.   Anyways as I was doing this God reminded me that I hadn't spent time in His word yet today, so I opened up the bible and asked Him where to read.  I felt I heard Him direct me to Job 4.   So I opened up to Job 4 (in my NIV Bible) and read:

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: 

"If someone ventures a word with you,

will you be impatient?

But who can keep from speaking?

Think how you have instructed many,

how you have strengthened feeble hands.

Your words have supported those who stumbled;

you have strengthened faltering knees.

But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;

it strikes you, and you are dismayed.

Should not your piety be on your confidence

and your blameless ways your hope?

I was just like, Whoa God!   Then I heard the still small voice say "John 14:1", so I headed there.  John 14:1 says:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. 

You believe in God; believe also in me."

Again I was like, Whoa God!  

From there I kept hearing "John 13:2"  which says:

The evening meal was in progress, and 

the devil had already prompted Judas, the 

son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 

I would read it then look else where as I didn't see any revelations or other meanings in it.  I assumed that I was hearing the wrong voice.  But it kept coming back.  Finally I thought, "maybe there is a word in there that I should look up; a word that may mean something different than what it appears."  So I read through it again, slowly, emphasizing every word.  Nothing stood out to me that I should look up, that is until I got to "...Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot,...".  I suddenly questioned, "I wonder what Iscariot means?"   And that lead into a mini study that took some time and also took me thorough out the Bible in several different chapters in the Old Testament.   - For reference and study I use an app (and website) called "The Blue Letter Bible".  I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to study the Bible.  It offers tons of versions of the bible, along with abilities to highlight and make notes.  Plus for each verse there are tons of verbal and written commentaries, Plus verse-by-verse study, explanations, meanings and commentaries for each book.  On top of that it offers Cross references, Translation comparisons, dictionaries, and (my favourite) and Interlinear / Concordance.  This concordance includes the original Greek text, and a word-by-word list of whatever verse you are on that tells the English word, the root from Greek word, the audio pronunciation, the Strong's concordance number, TYheayer's Creek Lexicon, Strong's Definitions, Transliteration, part of speech, root words, outline of Biblical usage, KJV Translation count,   where that word appears in that same form elsewhere in the Bible and so much more!  Plus it will read it to you.   And even better, it's all free and the app has no ads.   Now after that little ad, :) , on with where I was going.

After a long while I headed home with some worship music playing in the background.  On my way home I asked God, "If this is you, if I need to crumble (as I felt that I could do on the inside) then let me crumble hard and all the way that I may come out of it stronger.  But if this is not you, if you are not wanting me to crumble, then help me be encouraged so that I may come out of this."   

As I was approaching the stop sign that is at the corner of the Schlipf's house (where I am living) I stopped and put the car in neutral.   And in a breeze of fresh boldness and encouragement, I let Satan have it.  I gave him a whole speech. I told him where I stand, and that I stand with God and God is with me, no matter if I can feel it, see it, understand it or know it, He is with me.  I rattled on and on to Satan declaring that I am God's.  I started naming off scripture of what God says of who I am.   I founded myself on God, and made that clear to Satan.  I made it loud (literally) and clear that I will not heed to Satan's schemes and attacks.  My allegiance is to God alone.  This went on for quite a long time.   It seemed that with every word that came out I was more confident, more bold and more encouraged.  So I kept on talking and letting it all out.    Even when I do not understand; even when I don't like it; even when I do not feel God; even when I do not feel loved; even when I feel lost; even when I feel confused; even when I want to collapse inside; even when I am discouraged; even when I am weak, God is with me, God is for me, He only has good thoughts about me, He is on my side, He dwells in me, His spirit is in me, He has given me authority and power to do what He did on earth and even more, He works all things together for good in my life because I love Him, He has not left me nor forgotten me!   I can rest in Him.  

Then I burst out praising Him and singing with joy and laughter.  Just then I got a text from Renee (my aunt) asking if I was alright.   'Oh yeah, I hadn't really noticed that it was nearing 11pm and I am normally home between 8-9:30pm.'  I texted back my exact thoughts: "Haha, I am doing Wonderful!!! 😜  Praise God!!!"  After I sent it I was amazed that I sent that after the depressing day I had had earlier on.   Praise and Glory be to God alone!   He is so Amazing!!!!

Israel School

Continuing on with my search into the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies I had a call from one of their academic advisers over in Israel today.  He had a very thick Israeli accent and gave me lots of valuable information regarding the course.   So it's a 9 month course, 2 hours per week (1 hour of class and 1 hour of practice (at least)).  It's all online.   The course will start out learning the Biblical Hebrew language, starting with the alphabet, then nouns, verbs and so forth.  Then it will start in Genesis and go from there, along with learning Jewish holidays, ceremonies, and festivals.  The desire in this is to know and understand a bit more of the original texts of the bible.

Now here was the thing.   As we were doing it they guy told me it was going to be $1,199 USD for the course and if I paid it all up front they will give me a $200 discount.    I told them that I don't have the money right now, so the guy told me that I could just pay $100 or $200 right now and when I get the money pay all the rest of it and still get the discount, as he said he didn't wan't me to lose my spot in the class.   I wanted to wait, but in the moment I didn't know what to say, so I said sure, I'll pay the $100.   Instead he wanted to charge me $200.   I had given him all my debit card info and address and all that and he had put me on hold while they charged my account.   I didn't know what I was getting into, and I was getting a bit anxious about it.  He came back and said that the card declined and he reconfirmed all my info and put me on hold again so he could try again.    All this time I was becoming even more anxious, and it worried me a bit.   When he came back again he told me what happened.   Praise God, as my bank declines all international payments without my informing them!     He told me how to contact my bank and said he would call back in 10 minutes.   I didn't call the bank however.   I called a trusted friend instead (his name quickly came to mind as the guy hung up on me).   My friend talked me through what he thought about it and he said he didn't think this was God leading me to sign up now.  As he was talking I gained a lot of peace and a lot of my anxiousness left.    I then decided and I felt peace about it, that I would wait.  The guy had called back twice while I was talking to my friend.  So afterwards I emailed him, as I found they don't answer when I call.    I told him I am interested, but I am going to wait for now and think and pray about it some more.

I also then did a bit of research on them and it looked like the institute had a lot of good reviews.  Now, just right before typing this up, I am at school and did a bit more thorough search into it.  I found that the main site for reviews on the institute does have 443 reviews with 83% 5-star feedback.   However, in those reviews there are 6 1-star reviews, all in English (many reviews were in other languages - the institute offers a handful of languages for this course) and all in 2017.   They all, along with some 2, 3 and 4-star reviews told of how awful costumer service is and that they try to charge you without you knowing $100-200 right off the bat.   They don't pick up and they will hold my credit card info for years in case I come back - then they will charge me then.  The reviews also told how the refund policy isn't true and stuff like that.  I was pretty sketched out about it.  Yes these reviews were only a small percentage of all the reviews, but I was surprised about something else as well. I was surprised that I couldn't find more reviews on the institute.  Why, well because I had also read a number of articles about when they started back in the early 2000's and had over 5,000 students then, and now in 2017 they have nearly 116,000 students, so it surprises me and makes me question when I can only find 443 reviews on the school.

Anyways with all that said, I and going to take some time to pray about this more and seek God's direction in this.  I would love to do a study like this, however I do not want to be a fool in it.   Prayer is the best aid.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Prayer request:  while looking into a personal biblical study I came across a website that offered some intriguing information.   I came across the Israel Insitute of Biblical Studies. I requested more information and through the email they sent me I was brought to their main website.   I dug around a bit and discovered that this is an online institution that offers "academically accredited courses certified by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem". To me, this sounds very interesting and exciting.  I plan to talk to one of their academic advisors later this week.  In seeking guidance, wisdom, and direction on this I am taking the next day or so to fast and pray.  As I go into this time of fasting and prayer, I could use prayer for direction and wisdom; also for peace and a open heart.  Though I would love to do this, I do want to yield to God's will for my life.

Church, Bowling and Billiards

This weekend I headed to Tremont, Illinois with plans of going to Northfield Christian Fellowship for church (as I did last week), however on the way God stirred in me to go to Harvest Bible Chapel Peoria instead.  So I did.   And I loved it.  they had a powerful time of worship, followed by communion.  Then they started their series called Generous and ended with a time of corporate and individual prayer for the persecuted church, in sections by specific countries from Africa to China to Mexico (and many others) as it was the National Day of Prayer of the Persecuted Church.  And finally ending it off with a great time of worship.   I was quite blessed.  

After I got home, my cousins, Bethany, Jesse, and Cristian, headed to Illinois State University (ISU).  ISU was hosting a family night of bowling, billiards, buffet and prizes, all for just $2.  However they never charged us, so we got it all for free.  

Encouragement In A Confetti Gun

I saw a quote on a board at school last week that said, "Throw around kindness as you would confetti."  I love that idea.  The past couple weeks I have felt lead (I do believe I was hearing God correctly these times) to stop what I was doing (homework, driving, and other daily tasks) and text/message encouragements to people.  Some people were very specific, others where not.   Some things that I sent were prayers and some were just compliments or words of encouragement.   Encouragement goes a long way.   What we say impacts more than we will ever find out.   That is why the Bible so clearly states to watch what we say (Prov. 10:19, Prov. 12:18, Prov. 13:3, Prov. 15:1, Prov. 15:2, Prov. 15:4, Prov. 16:24, Prov. 18:20, Prov.18:21, Prov. 19:14, Prov. 21:23,  Prov. 25:11, Prov. 29:20, Eph. 4:29, Matt. 12:26, Matt. 12:34, Matt. 12:37,  Matt. 15:18, Luke. 6:45, James 1:26, James 3:1-12, Col. 3:8, Col. 4:6, John 7:38, And so many others) and to encourage others (1 Thes. 5:11, Eph. 4:29, Heb. 10:24-25, and others too - just look at the many numerous areas God, the prophets, the disciples and apostles, and many others encouraged one another).   

Something to Smile About

Just a random thing that made me smile yesterday:  I had the thought (and experienced it), "you know when your done with the old and ready for new when...." in one bowl of cereal I used up a bag of granola, 3 different boxes of cereal, and a gallon jug of milk.  Had I had orange juice, I would of used that up too - I had apple cider instead and it looked like I used the 2nd-to-last glass of cider.  

No Computer -> No Blog

So, again, I haven't written in a while.   There is a little story behind that.   For those of you who don't know, in the process of getting rid of everything I felt God leading me to get rid of my laptop.   That was a biggie since just moments before I felt Him ask me to get rid of it, I had concluded that I could not get rid of it even if I had to.  Well I did.   I sold it and the money from it was an answer to prayer as it can help cover the cost of the repairs I had done on my car.   But since not having a laptop, all my homework that needs a computer, is done at school.  This, though it has a temporary inconvenience, is a wonderful blessing.  Now I have been forced to work on my time management, and in the last week and a half alone, I've got more homework done than I would of every hoped to get done in that time period.  Not only that, but having all of a sudden a ton of extra time at home, I have started using some of that time with God; digging more into His word and just spending time with Him.   And through that I have noticed a clear growth in my spiritual growth with God.  This comes at great timing as well.   For the past few weeks I have been really struggling with how I hear God's voice.  I know well that I can hear God's voice as I've heard it so clearly so many times.  However the challenge I've been facing is this question: "is the voice I am hearing actually God?"  What brought me here was a lot of the things that I was hearing (and following) did not line up with what I knew was right, not that what I know is always right, but also some things that did not line up with the Bible.  Thus I took a big step back and have been fighting quite a battle inside me the past number of weeks.   I have been deliberately not obeying some things that the voice in me, that I had labeled as "God", just to test it.   Upon continuing my own path or taking a opposite turn contrary to this voice, I noticed a lot of time, I did not lose peace.    From my experience, when God tells/asks me to do something, go somewhere, say something, or anything really, and I do not do it, or I test to see if it was His voice by doing something different, I will lose peace.   Lately, I haven't been losing peace which is telling me, I think, that the voice I have been hearing and labeling as "God" is not God.   So, in that sense, I feel like I'm back to square one, except I know that I've heard Him many times before.   Thus with all of this, I have been questioning a number of the things that I have 'heard' over the past number of weeks asking if that voice was really God too.    So, I am still in this state, though I think (I hope) that I am climbing out of it.  Having the suddenly available time to spend with Him (where I would of lounged or wasted time) has really helped, but I am still really struggling to know what voice is His and which voices are not.  

Back to the point I was intending to write about, I haven't blogged much in the last few weeks since I don't have a computer to blog on.  Well, yes I have the school computers (that I am using now) but almost every time I am using a computer at school, I don't even think to update the blog as I am doing homework.  I had gotten too much in the habit of only updating the blog when I had extra time at home and when I really felt like it.  I am hoping and will be trying to break that habit.  You are all welcome to remind me if you want too - I would appreciate that.