Leaps of Faith

To Allie, Eli, Bella and Norah, Let me start off with the fact that you four have changed my life and I love you more than you will ever know. God loves you the most, your parents may love you the second most, but I love you the third most. Throughout the past three years of babysitting you four, I've learned so much about each one of you, but also so much about myself. Allie, I love hearing your stories. Eli, I love watching all of the adventures you want to go on and hearing all of your witty comments. Bella, I love your sweet voice and your innocent soul that sometimes wants nothing more than to just sit on my lap and Norah, I love your little scooting moves and watching all of your firsts. Babysitting for you four has easily been one of the highlights of my high school career and you have only cemented my dream of working with kids for the rest of my life. Although I babysit for several families, there is something special about yours. ...

As some of you know, this fall I plan to attend Indiana Wesleyan University which a Christian, private college. I've gotten a lot of questions and comments from a variety of people on this decision of mine, so I thought I would share a little bit about them and my thoughts.. 1. "Do boys even go there?" or "Is it an all girls school?" Actually yes, boys do go there and actually no, it is not an all girls school. I don't know why the concept of a Christian co-ed school is a weird concept to people, but I've gotten these questions more times than I ever thought I would. 2. "That's too churchy for me." First of all, I really despise this term. There are so many more words to describe the church or my college than churchy, such as amazing, beautiful, Christ centered.. Next, the term churchy is defined as "adhering strictly to the prescribed form in ecclesiastical matters." I don't like this term because of it's definition...

To my future self, There are a multitude of hopes and prayers I have for you, however here's a few. 1. I hope you have chased your wildest hopes and dreams. Although you plan on pursuing psychology and youth ministries right now, I hope that wherever God has led you that you are content and have chased after that calling. Hebrews 13:5 2. I hope you aren't such a worrier; I hope you're more of a warrior. I hope that you have learned to give your cares to God and to fully rely on Him to take care of you. 1 Peter 5:7 3. I hope you are still blogging or even writing on a higher level. Don't ever give up your hobbies. 4. I hope you have new friends who maybe share your same love for coffee, kids, and Jesus, but I hope you've held your old friends closely, too. 5. I hope you aren't materialistic and are more interested in the more important aspects of life. Rather than what car you have and how much money you make, I hope you are more focused on serving Him...

There are so many weird and different things about our school and as my time in high school winds down, I can't help but to be so excited to be out of high school, however I think I may miss this place just a little more than I would like to admit. 1. Old school vs. new school There are an endless amount of differences between the smelly old high school and the brand new prairie side high school. There are things that I miss about the old school, one of them not being the fifty million stairs (maybe slightly exaggerated) you had to venture through to get all the way from Mrs. Seaton's room to Mrs. Phegley's room in just four minutes; however I'm not sure it's any easier to go to Mr. Bennett's room all the way from Mr. Lynch's room now, either. Rules were different at the old school and everyone was a little more relaxed, however the new school brings abundant opportunities, if they can get the internet to work properly. 2. Parking violations How dare y...

Sharing is caring. You are probably thinking how cliche this sounds because we hear this phrase from the time we can even begin to comprehend what sharing actually is. Although I've experienced sharing in so many ways throughout life, there's one way of sharing that has truly impacted me in the most indescribable way. Last night, we started a new series at my youth group. Recently, we've been doing a lot of video series which are awesome and can teach a lot of different lessons, however I personally like listening to people live more. I feel like the emotion that fills them when they are with you and passionately teaching you about something that we all love so much is just something amazing. We started this series of sharing our stories or testimonies in order to better connect with each other, as connected is our annual theme for this year. This is honestly probably already my favorite series we've ever done so far and it just started. Last night our youth pastor shar...