Hello September

Well friends we made it to September! I'm pretty sure August didn't even happen because it went by so fast. But I am SO ready for the fall season, the leaves to change colors and "warm" scents from Yankee Candle. I am WAY more of a fall/winter person than I am summer so I have no problem with putting away the heat and tank tops...bring on the scarves and gloves :)

So this is my first entry on my new MacBook! I must say that this was not an expected purchase nor was it the most ideal way to get a new computer. I somehow managed to completely kill my Dell (involuntary manslaughter as I like to call it). Long story short, I bought shelves to go on my wall, super cute. I managed to hammer 25 holes in the wall and probably lose half of my deposit money so my handy-dandy roommate Kaitlyn came to the rescue and assisted me in hanging the shelves. Well, I was convinced that if ANYTHING was going to fall from the wall it would be the shelves...nope. The extremely heavy picture frame that was sitting on the shelf nose dived first. Thus resulting in a nice chunk taken out of the top of my laptop and the screen to be a beautiful array of colors. My bad. Soooo here I am a week later with this handy thing that I have no idea how to work. Now, I did need to get a Mac for student teaching in the spring so if it wasn't too early to joke about it yet with my parents (which it probably is) I would say well shoot this was good timing for me to break something!

My good friend stress showed up at the doorstep this week. He wasn't invited but he tends to show up unannounced sometimes. I have politely asked him to leave several times but he likes the new house and he LOVES the start of new semesters. So that is what I have been dealing with this week, a house guest. I don't know if any of ya'll are having the same issue as me BUT along with stress two other words have appeared which I am working on using them to push out the stress.

1.) Faith. Our lovely president of Phi Lamb gave a devo Monday on our vision for the year, faith and vulnerability. We all know I'm working on vulnerability and slowly but surely that is paying off. BUT about faith I have always assumed I have had good faith in the Lord, that He will provide for me and that He will equip me with what I need at the right time. Well, I was just a tad bit convicted on Monday night as Kayla gave the example of studying vs God. I say I have faith in God but yet there are mornings when I know by having my quite time first thing will be what gets me through the day, yet I still choose to finish my reading or study just a few more flashcards. Shouldn't I have faith that God is going to provide when I take the 30 minutes to spend it with Him in His word? Ummmm YES! Now, this is where the second word comes into play. In order to be able to have the time everyday to spend with the Lord and also have the faith that He will provide I need to have...

2.) Balance! God wants us to have balance in our lives because without balance we tend to focus so much on other things besides God. School, work and social events start to creep into the majority of our thoughts and when we don't take the time to balance out our spiritual life, physical life and mental life than we lose sight of what's important. We don't even have the mindset in the mornings to debate between school and quite time because it HAS to be school because the night before you didn't get anything done because you were out. If we learn to have a stable balance of God, school and social as well as taking care of our bodies physically than we have no reason to not have faith that He will provide us with all the blessings we need. Yes, when we are whacked out and off balance He will still provide for us but the faith we need to have will be a little harder to find. We all get off the paved road every once in a while, it happens and that is okay. This is why we have support teams, scripture and a God who loves us no matter how far off the balance ball we are.

So dear friends next week stress will probably still be here BUT balance and faith should be arriving soon as well ;) I pray that you all find a perfect balance in your life as well. Can't find it? Well then stop what you are doing, sit back, close your eyes and breath. In and out until you have a quite mind and a peaceful heart and that is where you will slowly start making your way back towards balance and a loving God who will put His hand out to guide you back to the paved road.