"Have you ever?" 's

Yes, I know - the title to the post ... has ... certain ... grammatical ... errors ... that I don't know how to fix :P ...

Anyways - here are a fun list of Have you ever? 's that popped into my mind recently:

1. Have you ever been allergic to your own hair? Like where your forehead and ears get red and itchy when your hair is touching them?

2. Have you ever received 2 huge college application packets, each with a letter that said they wanted you to apply to their music school?? And felt, "Um... why me? I didn't even ask for this information!!"??

3. Have you ever thought you had developed finger tip callouses for violin playing, whenanother piece of skin peels off?

4. Have you ever sledded on ice using a surfboard down your driveway?

5. Have you ever had a sister "make your hair into a rope" and then your other sister comes along and pulls it because, "it looked like it wanted to be pulled" ??

6. Have you ever gotten a letter of qualification for the student president at a college - just because of your semester GPA... and you didn't know what was going on?

7. Have you ever been stuck reading the first 6 chapters of Hunchback of Notre Dame for 2 years?!?

8. Have you ever left sourdough to rise over night and to find the next morning that it had exploded?

9. Have you ever celebrated your mom's birthday from 10:30 to 11:00 pm and had to get up at 6am the next day?

10. Have you ever had ~6.00 vision and completed an organic lab without glasses? You can't find anything!!

11. Have you ever pulled 2 trashcans up a driveway?

12. Have you ever washed dishes for 3 hrs because of a huge party at your house? And you had even used many disposable utensils!!

13. Have you ever wondered how ADHD and OCD came about?

14. Have you ever read a "How to do photography" book without reading any of the instructions, but instead only stared at every single picture for 2 minutes?

I have done (or done to me) all the above! ^^^ :D

I have been ...

ACCEPTED TO THOMAS EDISON STATE COLLEGE!!! WHOOPEE!!!

Ok - totally random... but hey, I'm super happy. I'm just wondering why whoever got the mail didn't tell me I got something from TESC :-\ ... Anyways - I'm off to bed! Life, school, and music are crazy... I can't wait to be done with my degree! :mrgreen:

~Victoria

There IS a difference...

There IS a difference between just knowing in your head a biblical truth than actually believing it and taking it to heart.

I've been praying for the past 2 days to ask God to show me if I should go to Medical School or not.

So the truths that I only knew??

1) I need to have total surrender,

2) I must have submission of my will to God's will and making them one,

3) God's will is always the best.

I wasn't exactly scared about what I was going to do after my degree (I have several backup plans). But then, I was kinda worried, I had wasted all my time in getting a degree at all, since my backup plans don't really need a degree! I did feel like I could be really upset, if God told me I wasn't to go to Medical school. I've been wanting to go to Med School for SO LONG!! And it's not like I want to go for the money, status, the "Dr." title before my name. I wanted to serve God with this degree and get an entrance into China. This is one of my biggest dreams!!

BUT ... do you see where I'm wrong? It's only what "I WANT." I'm not saying that dreams like that are bad... just they need to go where God puts them. If the dream fits in His plan, then great. If it doesn't, then still great. I needed to surrender up that dream of mine. It was a good dream, in and of itself. But do I want to try and build my dream without God's will in my life? NO - I'd rather all my dreams be dashed to smithereens, than live outside of the will of my Holy Father!! But how was I to know what His will was?

John 15:4a

Abide in Me, and I in you.

When I abide in my Father and He abides in me, our wills become one. For how can I abide in Him and still have my own will? I need His Holy Spirit to come down to me and lead me moment by moment. What He tells me to do, I do.

So this is what I told God last night,

"Abba - I'm stuck and You know where I'm at. I've sinned and not completely given my life up to you. I now surrender my future up into your hands, whether you have placed Medical School in it or not. If my life is to just work at home, do menial tasks, and fight your battles on the sidelines, I am willing to live fully whatever you have in store for me. Make my will concurrent with Yours, that I might see exactly what you want me to do. Let me truly realize what You plan is best, and that I would be satisfied with it."

AND afterwards - I felt this peace that everything was going to be alright... even though I still didn't know whether I was to go to Medical school or not. I wasn't terribly restless - wanting to get some huge sign from God that I was to attend Med School. No, God's answer was to wait. He gave me assurance that He would show me what to do when the time came... for now - I go on, striving in all I do to please Him.

WORRY Worry worry...

I read this from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. I have no idea of his spiritual background, but I read the devotional for January 2nd with an open heart as to what God wanted to show me. Here's a little excerpt:

"He went out, not knowing where he was going." ~Hebrews 11:8

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell. God doesn't tell you what He is going to do -- He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you "go out" in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?

Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to "go out" in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to "go out" through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point where there is nothing between yourself and God.

Worry IS disrespectful to God, in fact! Ah - how I am so guilty of that sin. But each time I give it all up to Him, He IS faithful, beyond what words can describe. Especially in the little things... how much more so with the complete direction of our lives!

Help my unbelief!!

One pastor said, "The greatest sin of the American church is unbelief."

Do you really and truly believe that God can do anything? Do you ask and plead to the Father for everything until He gives you a flat denial? For until then, you do not know if it is God's will to fulfill your request or not. And - if you fail to continue to ask of God, you display disbelief toward the "capability" of your God. In that case, why would God answer your request, if He knows you do not believe He can fulfill your request?

He never did ...

Something popped into my mind just now - and I must type it out...

I remember Elisabeth Elliot once told a story about her baby Valerie and her husband, Jim Elliot... Mr. Elliot had rocked Valerie to sleep and the 2 were very quiet. Suddenly, Valerie woke up very scared, almost frantic, waving her arms around for her father. Mr. Elliot just put his arms about her to reassure her of his presence and Valerie fell back to sleep.

Touching story, but with an encouraging reminder, as well - Mrs. Elliot said that we are very much like Valerie. We go along in life - everything couldn't go better - and then, something doesn't go according to plans. We lose it or we realize we have no control or we have a great loss, or anything we wonder at why God would let such a thing happen. Where did God go? Why all the pain and fear? Did our Heavenly Father just abandon us?

No, he didn't. In fact, He never did ... He was there, He IS there, and He ALWAYS WILL BE!! And when we call out to Him, our Daddy will never fail to comfort us and hold us in His loving and caring arms.

My first short post! :)

Cause for celebration!!

I PASSED PRINCIPLES OF FINANCE AND PRINCIPLES OF STATISTICS!!!!

And absolutely 1 google and 1 percent ( ;) ) of all the praise goes to my Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ! Without Him, I would not have gotten even 1 question correct!

Now here are the few things that are resolved -

1. I have 91 credits, which also means I'm officially a senior in college - Whoot number one!!
2. I don't have to take Principles of Finance or Statistics ever again - which also means I don't have to take any tests during Christmas break - which also means I actually have a chance of going to the NC get-together this Christmas - Whoot number two!!
3. I don't have to keep calling Bluefield State College or Dsst headquarters to see if they got my scores, yet. Agh - you don't know how much time I wasted on that!! So - Whoot number three!!

There - I'm so happy I don't know how to express my bliss and ecstasy... all I know is - God is good (and the adjective is quite sufficient ;) )!!

TTFN *sighs as she has to go back and study for her Systems Analysis and Design midterm tomorrow*