Camp :)

I met most of these girls at Camp Adventure this summer, it was the best camp experience of my life (okay, so I say that every year! but no, this year really was!) These girls were AMAZING..i love every single one of them to death!!

Today, we all went to Martins and grabbed doughnuts and drinks, and sat down and just talked about everything from 4:30 until 5:45. It was awesome! We talked about school, camp, church stuff, boys, etc. I think we all collectively agreed (I asked all of them) that high ropes was our favorite event, and commitment night was our favorite night. This was a great time to catch up, and laugh about things we went through together, and just enjoy each other's company. I'm so glad I got the chance to be these girls' counselor!!

My Prayer

Dear God,

In this final year and a half that I have left of high school, help me to find joy in being single, be the joy in my life that no boy could ever bring. Help me to want You like I've never wanted anyone or anything before, help me to love You more than I've ever loved anyone, help me to crave time spent with You. Teach me that You are the only One I need. I want to become Your bride before I become anyone else's bride. Take my life and let it be Yours, I want You to have all of me!

In Your name I pray,

Amen

Courtship Slips --November 14/15 2009

Notes from this weekends service on 'Courtship slips'

"The most important commitment you're ever going to make is with Jesus Christ, but the second most important commitment you will ever make is who you're going to spend your life with" -Rob Wegner

Slip #1: Being married is normal.

--1 Corinthians 7:32-35--Why is Paul saying that it is good for a man to stay single?

-->> Paul wanted so badly to be exactly like Jesus.

-->> The New Testament is about two main people. Paul and Jesus. What do they have in common? They were both single!

**What does humanity look like at it's very best? Jesus.

Slip #2: Accept the SOP (standard operating procedure) in the ADS (american dating system)

Love:

--Eros = Attractiom

--Storge = Affection

--Phileo = Friendship

--Agape = Commitment (Agape is the unconditional love of God)

-1 John 3:16-17

1 John 4:10

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13

Worlds Dating Order (SOP)

-Attraction

-Flirting

-'Sexual activities'

-Start dating

-Friendship

How to have a great, Christ centered relationship:

-Phileo

-Storge

-Agape

-Eros

-->Marriage is a TLC (Total Life Commitment)

--> If you're not best friends with your spouse, something is wrong!

When you go into a room full of guys/girls, the right question to ask isn't, "Is he/she hott?" The right question to ask is: "Does he/she have the potential to be my best friend for the rest of my life?"

"When you get married and you live to be 50 years with that person, you're not going to be a hottie anymore. You're gonna look like a prune!" -Rob Wegner

Slip #3: Marriage will be my ultimate fulfillment

--WRONG! Jesus is our ultimate fulfillment!

"You hear people say all the time that if you're not happy, you MUST be with the wrong person! It couldn't POSSIBLY be ME could it?" -Rob Wegner

--Finding the right person is important, but BECOMING the right person is even more important

--2 Corinthians 5:17

--Salvation is Transformation

Huntington University College Visit

So, myself, Lindsey Allie, Cassie Hallam, Paige Scott and Mccormick Dunfee went on a college visit to huntington university this weekend! It was a lot of fun, I'm glad we got to see what the college was like, and look into what they have to offer. After visiting, I don't think this college is for me, but I had SO much fun with my small group either way! We may have had a LITTLE too much fun...:)

From the journal of Kristina Galat :)

My best friend Kristina wrote this, and I really liked it..so she gave me permission to post it on my blog :)

ENJOY!!

I can't really say that i've ever liked swimming competitively. I think i remember one month in my life when i was eight where i liked going to swim practice, but that ended. And i think i liked it one other time when i first joined the south bend swim club. But for most of my eight years swimming, i never enjoyed it. I just dont like feeling so dry after practices. I dont like the way my hair felt like hay during season. I dont like watching the black line pass beneath me time and time again. I dont like the way my hands felt after holding them in the same postition for three hours. I dont like feeling my swim cap, tight on my head. I dont like the smell of warm chlorine. I dont like that i could only talk to my friends in between sets or during stretching. I just cant really pinpoint anything that i actually like about that sport. For the most part, i only swam because two of my best friends were on the team and swimming was basically had become my life, i knew no other life. Although i knew that i wouldn't be able to see the friends i had grown up with very often, I finally worked up the courage to quit my freshman year of high school, and started running cross country. My very first day of cross country at high school i realized how much i loved running. There is so much more to it than swimming. I love being able to go wherever and whenever you want, having 'adventures' and still getting in a good work out. I love being able to talk to my friends as i run, thats when our most thoughtful conversations come out. I love feeling the heart beat in my head as i run. I love how my senses seem to maximize as i run. I love laying on the track after i run, being able to feel the warm sun beat down on my face, and into the soreness of my body. I love when people call me crazy for running. But most of all i love the people. From my experience, runners are the nicest, most fun loving group of people i've met. I'm quite happy to say that cross country is my life. And i dont think any swimmer could truly say that about swimming.

The Concept of Love

Everyone's gotten mad at their parents at one time or another...it's inevitable...especially in your teen years (or maybe that's just me..?).

Something I've never spent much time thinking about is that my parents don't love me because I'm a good runner, because I'm a camp counselor in the summer, or because I drive my sister to school in the morning. And they don't NOT love me because I pick on my little brother, I talk back to them, or I am not home by curfew. They love me for me, because I'm theirs.

Mom and Dad: I'm sorry if sometimes it doesn't seem like you're appreciated...I love you (:

Jesus died on the cross because He loves us. Why on earth would He love US? Not because we pack boxes at Feed the Children, give the homeless man on the corner of main and douglas a sandwich, or bring the granger stranger a box of cookies. He doesn't NOT love us because we accidentally cuss, forget to read our bible, or tell a lie. He loves for who we are, because we are His. He created us, and for that, He loves us SO MUCH! Without us even doing anything!

It does not matter what you do or don't do, there will always be people who will love you. respect you. care for/about you.

I'm not really sure what I'm getting at..this is just something that I had never thought about before, it seems like the concept of love, coming from God or from your parents, has just kind of been one of those things like eating and breathing. It just kind of happens..and no one really thinks about it. But do me a favor, and think about it..just for a second. It's kind of amazing, huh?

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for lovecomes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." -1 John 4:7

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender

shoot,and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we

should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with

suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their

faces

he was despised, and we esteemed

him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed

-Isaiah 53:1-5

When I read this passage, I thought..WOW. I even wrote that in my bible. Wow. Jesus came to the earth as a normal man, (well..as normal as you can be when you're the Son of God..) with no distinct physical attractiveness, but nothing to make people cringe when they saw Him either. He was just the average guy. Yet he was hurt and rejected and hated by many. Jesus went through more pain, hurt, betrayal, rejection, and broken heartedness then anything ANYONE can imagine. He loved deeper then anything we know, and so He was cut the deepest.

I read this last night, and I thought wow. thank you God so much for always promising to be there for me, thank you for promising to be my Strength

If He is for us...who can be against us?

Fall Break :)

I just had the best fall break ever.

go ahead and try to beat mine:)

that's all!

--Heather--