Leaps of Faith

As I sat in my dorm room early this morning as the bright sun came through the antique blinds, I found myself reflecting on my past year at Indiana Wesleyan University. It is here that I have found myself in the utmost state of joy, yet somehow I've also experienced some of the hardest, most trying times of my life. I sat in wonder at how that could be. How in just eight months could I experience such an array of emotions, experiences, friendships, and moments? IWU has enabled me to really search myself and deal with some of the things I've pushed down throughout my life. This sacred place has given me some of the most pure, true friendships I've ever had in my life. This atmosphere has brought me joy, abundant joy and has shown me what it means to live life in full motion. However, when I reflect what this place has offered me the most, one word seems to come to mind: contentment. Throughout the end of high school, I found myself in a battle with comparison: spiritual comp...

Well, today I sat down at a coffee shop and realized I have done a terrible job at keeping my blog up to date, especially now that we are over four months in to 2018. This semester has been filled with a whirlwind of emotions, new journeys, lots of learning, and much more. However, I thought I would give a brief update about some of my personal goals for 2018, as well as where I am with those and what I am expecting to come for this year. Here are some of the goals I wrote for myself at the beginning of this year: Goals 1. Read the Bible everyday. 2. Exercise 3 times a week. 3. Find a mentor or two. 4. Get more experiences in ministry. 5. Lose weight, attain a healthier lifestyle plan. 6. Save at least $1,000. 7. Consume no pop (soda, whatever you want to call it). 8. Learn to live minimally. 9. Spend more time in prayer. 10. Continue to work on my habit of biting my nails. Wow, I remember sitting in my room that day and thinking where to even start and if I was getting i...

It's been almost two months since I've updated my blog, but this break was much needed and will probably continue for awhile longer as I continue to gather my thoughts on certain topics that I plan to write about in the future and as I continue to seek more of God's plans for the next few months of life. However, until then I wanted to give you an overview of my life lately, a few things I've been learning, answering some questions you may be wondering about, and updating you on some important people in my life! First of all, these past few months have been filled with so many different events, activities, and so on; however overall these past few months have been a growing season. I have been learning so much about so many different things that I didn't even know I needed to learn (isn't that the best though?!). At the beginning of the year I challenged myself to go a whole year of no pop, soda, whatever you prefer to call it. Although this was a choice tha...

Have you ever been going through a season of life where instead of you doing life, you feel like life is taking you for a spin? If not, you should be extremely thankful, but if you have, you know the very feeling I've felt during this past month. Although these past five months at college have been full of learning experiences and spiritual growth, so much has changed in my life this past month making it definitely a time for even more learning experiences and dependence on the Lord. I have been thinking these past few days about how quickly but also slowly this month has went by.. I feel as if I live this routine life.. I get up an hour and a half before my class, get ready and sometimes grab a yogurt for breakfast (I'm not sure where this terrible habit of not eating breakfast has come from), go to my classes, grab lunch or coffee with some friends or a professor, get some of my homework done before I go back to my dorm to drop my backpack and throw my hair into a bun before ...

I haven't posted on here in over two months, but honestly life has been so busy and I've been learning so much about myself, other people, and about all of the things college brings this past semester. Ever since I've been home from the busyness of college, I've been focusing on spending time with my family and friends and resting. (Rest is such an underrated gift from God. Take time to appreciate it. There may be a blog post coming about this soon.) However, one of the most important things I've been learning these past few months is the importance of being present. This is something our society has such a hard time with. We have so many distractions around us, whether that be our phones, our unstoppable thoughts of what we need to do later, people in need of our attention, or the demands of life in general, we are distracted beyond belief. About two months ago, I took a much needed social media break for just a few weeks and I quickly began to realize the amount o...

It's been a little over two months since I've been at Indiana Wesleyan and I have so many words to describe these past two months, but the first one that comes to mind is sustained. College is so rewarding in the many friends I've been able to make, in the people I've been able to pour into, in the relationships with new mentors that I have who are pouring into me, in the good way it has changed my relationship with my parents, in being able to learn more about what I have been called to do for the rest of my life. However, in the same moment, college is demanding, so demanding. It's demanding in the way that you have to be so intentional with the people you make relationships with, in the workload from classes, in managing your time, in the constant opportunities to get involved, in the way that you alone are responsible for how much sleep you get (still desperately trying to figure this one out). I've learned an incredible amount already from the rewards and d...

Am I the only one that is ready for Friday to be here already when it's only Tuesday? I certainly hope not. Don't get me wrong, college has been amazing so far and I absolutely love it here at Indiana Wesleyan, however this week has been so overwhelming and exhausting and it's only Tuesday. After being asked several times "how are you?," this morning and wanting to be pretty direct and honest, I had to take a step back and remind myself of how many things I have to be thankful for, in order to relieve some of the anxiety I was having. Of course I'm overwhelmed and exhausted because it's midterm week this week and next, so that means plenty of exams to study for and even more papers to write. However, I took a moment to catch my breath and think about just how many things I have to be thankful for and here is the list I came up with.. I am thankful for coffee dates with friends who remind me of why I'm here. I am thankful for little buttons on my backpa...