My week (so far) in review:

Man. I'm tired. I sat down. haha

Here's a quick review of my week:
Sunday afternoon/evening: Nazarite DNA with BK&Erin. Youth Group with Soul Candy (Andrew C) and the crew.  Home. Printed homework. Went to bed.

Monday: School. Classes. Who knows what else. Babysat. Came home. Ate dinner. Worked on SAT stuff with Mom&Dad. Watched Letters to Juliet. Which was a FANTASTIC movie. Katie and Hannah for sure need to see it when they come home. It has NYC and Italy in it. Just the locations make it a "must see" =P And the plot is good. Semi-predictable, but good! Then I went to bed.

Tuesday: Got up. Did school. Went to Urban Vision (History, Gym, Dinner, Reading, Homework). Taught ballet. Went to dance. Danced for a longgg time. Came home. Chillaxed a bit. Went to sleep.

Wednesday: Got up. Got ready. Went to school. Spanish class was good. Sat in study hall and did school stuff. Ate lunch. Did school in Mom's class. Packed up. Dropped a movie off at the library and picked up a book. Went to the bank and did all my banking. Went to the grocery store and whatnot. Came home. Relaxed and caught up on blogs. Went to Target with Dad to get a refrigerator thermometer because our fridge is not working right. NOOOOO. Third... time's... the charm? Or three strikes and you're out?
Yeah. Bummer.
Thenn I came home and did some dishes. Read Little Women a little bit. I LOVE that book. It's so awesome.
At 6 I had bible study. Which was fun :) I love my group. They're so sweet. Dinner was delish too. We had meatloaf and mashed potatoes with corn. SO good.

Came home at 7:30 (instead of 8) because today is Ash Wednesday and they had a service. I didn't stay because I was tired and wanted to come home.
So I came home and put my PJs on and read more of Little Women and watched American Idol while reading during the commercials. Then we had pudding (because of the fridge not working... gotta use that milk!) which was delish. I drank a whole lot more milk along with it because it's SO SWEET.
And now I'm watching the end of American Idol and blogging!

It's been a good half a week.
Hope yours has been going well too. Maybe I'll post something other than what I've been up to. Any ideas?

On, pressing on,

Now I have to think of blog titles...

because I'm not "doing" NIPTO any more. After a while it was just me. Like, really. JUST me.
But yes.

Today was a good day. I SLEPT IN. And it was delicious. If sleep can be delicious.
Got ready for the day and such. Did school. Ate lunch and watched the end of The Biggest Loser from Tuesday night. Did some more school. Caught up on physics, especially. I was like, 3 days behind. But I got caught up.

Got the mail. It was ALL for me. All both pieces of mail. One of them was my "official" ACT scores. So that was nice. Now I need to apply to Akron U. (I just started looking at that stuff and I think I'll start applying!)

Then I babysat and such. We started (emphasis on the word STARTED) reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Like, the first 3 pages. But I think we'll get through it. :)

Came home and started this blog post. Started my Akron U application. Ate dinner. Worked on SAT Math with Dad. And I really NEED to start READING the questions carefully. Because there were probably 6 questions that I got wrong because of dumb mistakes. Therefore, I should get over 600. But who knows. We'll find out in about a month. haha.

Now we're watching American Idol. It's the results show. The top 24 performed over the past 2 nights and they're cutting TWELVE (12) people tonight. CRAZY, right? I was asking Mom&Dad why they were cutting it so short this year, and Dad said something to the effect of "because they never know what Steven Tyler is going to say" haha. His speech is rather volatile. It's scary.

But I think that's all for tonight. Three of my favorites are through so far! But there are 7 to go... and then 2 wild cards that the judges will pick. And they're dragging it out over 2 hours.
SO we will see.

I'm out for tonight!

NIPTO, Day 229

Today... I slept in. It was glorious.
I did school. Meme&Pops are here (YAY!)
Ate lunch, took my physics test (did well! :).
Babysat. Read. Played guitar for a while. (I'm trying to learn this song)
Dad got home. The rest of the clan got home. We got ready to go. We went to the place where we're "eatin' good" in the neighborhood =P annnnnd came home... went for a walk. Annnnd I looked at Jupiter again through the telescope. Jupiter&4 of its moons. Soooo cool.
Came in... chatted for a bit. Watched the premier of Chuck again (GOOD STUFF!) And now I'mma blogging. =)

Tomorrow is Kick for the Cure... I think I'm going to the varsity girls game... Should be a good time! Planning on wearing pink! Or my "I ♥ the Keeper. She's a keeper!" shirt.

And I think we're having a family night tomorrow night. Should be a gooooood time. I love my fam[ily]. =D

NIPTO!
Joshua 8:30-35
³⁰ Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, ³¹ as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the LORD burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 


Joshua built an alter on Mount Ebal. To God. Of course. And he built it according to all the rules/laws-out of uncut stones. And they offered sacrifices to God. As was the custom. That would be really strange now, but it was completely normal then.




 ³²There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written. ³³ All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD, facing those who carried it—the priests, who were Levites. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.


Joshua wrote out all of the words that Moses wrote on stone. The laws that Moses had established. All of Israel, citizens and non-citizens alike, stood facing the ark of God, listening.




 ³⁴ Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law.³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them.

Joshua read allll of the word of the law. Blessings and curses. Just like they were written. He read every single word to them. Annnnnd that's about it.


Short tonight, I know. I wasn't really feeling ambitious. 
Here's something funny. :) I like funny things, and I'm guessing you do too.
Telling you about DVS. Very important =P

Goodnight!

NIPTO, Day 113

Gooood evening/morning.

I've had hiccups 3 times today. *sigh*  Having hiccups is tiring. And hurts sometimes. Maybe my diaphragm should stop spazzing. That would really be great.

We went to the Memorial Day Parade today. It ended at our section right before it started to storm. It was crazy. I'm guessing that a lot of people in the parade got wet. I feel bad for the Green Valley bunch. They got rained on for sure. Crazy.

On the way home, while it's pouring rain, Mom realized that the windows were open. AHHH. We started freaking out a little bit. We were stuck in traffic. We got home, and ran upstairs where the windows were open... and everything was dry. As Mom put it, it was a Memorial Day Miracle!

We came home and ate lunch and recorded a video for Kate. We cleaned up from lunch and then went downstairs and started The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg. It's probably on my favorite books list. I think I might read it "by myself" because I can't wait to see how it turns out! Because I love it =P

The girls left. Hannah vaccuumed ants up. She's a beast. I watched this awesome video over and over. We watched it at Encounter last night. It's SWEET. You should definitely watch it!

Cute. Sad. But it's only love.

Then Mom&Dad came home. Mom pointed out the fact that my free Starbucks drink coupon from my birthday expires today. So we went to Target. But they don't accept that coupon. So we went to the Starbucks down the road. And I got THIS. 

Venti

Nonfat Java Chip Frappuccino

With whip.

Uhm. YUM. Free, by the way. No way I would've gotten a venti if it hadn't been free. I'm not paying like, $4.50 for coffee. Sorry. But once a year when it's free, SURE.
So I split it with my fam. It was DELISH.

While we were finishing that up, we watched The Princess and the Frog. It was good. The voodoo stuff was weird and creepy and could potentially give kids (/me) nightmares. (Not really me, but ya know =P)

Then Dad asked if I wanted to return those to the RedBox. If you want to read more about that adventure, you can go here.

We got home. Ate dinner. Went out again to put the neighbors trash out. Came home. Blogged about driving. Watched something on PBS about Europe. Really wanted to go to Europe... missed the mountains of Colorado. (Or anywhere that isn't Ohio...)
Had my computer NOT FREEZE! I think we've figured out what the problem is. It's a hardware problem that requires my computer to be taken completely apart. Good thing I have a dad who knows what he's doing. Most of the time =P But the power supply needs to be sodered (sp?) to the motherboard. YAY. Heh. But if I charge my computer, unplug it, then don't move it, it works! YAY! So yeah. That's exciting.

Now I'm nipto-ing. Or being distracted by MckMama's blog. She just put up some pictures from a wedding she shot this weekend. Gorgeous. Can't wait for more from her :) She takes amazing pictures!

Okie-dokie!
Romans 15:1-6
 ¹We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Interesting. We bear with the failings of others. And we don't do that to please ourselves. Kinda like "oh. That person's going through a hard time/can't do something very well. YAY me! I can do that!" That's not what we're supposed to do. Instead...


²Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

We need to build each other up. Tearing people down does nothing good in the long run. It might feel good to rip someone apart at the time, but later, you'll probably not feel so good about that. 


³For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me."

Jesus didn't please himself. He took the insults of people who insult US. Wow. 


⁴For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

History is here to teach us... so that we don't make the same mistakes. So that we can build up endurance. So that we can be encouraged. So that we can have hope.



 ⁵May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, ⁶so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The same God that gives endurance and encouragement gives unity. As a whole, the church is so divided these days. All different denominations with different beliefs. Serving the same God, but not in unity. It says that God will give a spirit of unity so that we can praise&glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one heart and one mouth. 
Join together with other Christians that you know. You might not all have the exact same views, but you can still worship God with one heart and one mouth. 
Kind of incredible, no?




Weeel. It's late. I should sleep now. We have rehearsal for our dance show tomorrow. I ♥ rehearsals. A lot. It's so much fun to see everybody's dances. I will put up videos of our dances after the show on Sunday. But for now, sleep. (sleep, sleeeeeep that's the only thing for me/Cause when I sleep, sleeeep/God's preparing one for me) Barlow Girl shout out! =P
Goodnight. (And White Rabbit, Katie... and/or Caleb. ;) ... and/or anyone else who plays who sees this! (I lose)) (That was written after midnight (even though my post time is 11:30), just so you know. In case you would doubt me. :P)
Much love,

NIPTO, Day 108

Good morning (or afternoon/evening to my German reader)
I'm tired and a little sad this morning.
I need to get more sleep. But staying up late last night was my own fault. Well, actually it was Nicholas Sparks's fault because he writes such stinkin' good books! But I could've put it down. But I just wanted to finish it! (Dear John, if you were wondering what book it was.) I ended up putting it down with about 30 pages left because I had already read about 50 pages more than I had told myself I would. And it was late. And I was starting to blink  r e a l l y   s l o w l y,  if you know what I mean.

Hannah and I are babysitting for Z&D today because the girls have a Dr's appointment. I like playing with those little boys! They're cute. And soo funny. I'll have to try to remember anything funny that Z says because he sometimes says the cutest/funniest/most outrageous things.

We (Mom, Hannah, and I) went to Berean yesterday to get Bibles for me&Hannah. They didn't have what either of us were looking for. But a very nice lady found the NIV/NASB parallel bible that I was looking for at another store and is having it shipped to their store for me :)
I really want an NIV/NASB side-by-side because I like the "word for word" of the NASB, but I also really like the "thought for thought" of the NIV. And I like comparing key words that they use. And it's just a lot easier to do with a parallel bible! If you're looking for a parallel bible online, this was a really good one that I found :)


100 Days of Holiness. Day 24. Good thoughts... good thoughts. Good encouragement too!


NIPTO. νίπτω. Washed. 
I stopped for a second after I wrote those words. (Or copied&pasted the Greek.) And I stopped and I thought for a second. Why am I doing this? Really. Why? 
I decided to go back to the EncounterBlog and see what the description of NIPTO was. And it totally encouraged&challenged me to be more crazy about this than I already am! If you want to see it, click here. Now I'm all excited to look at Romans. 




Romans 13:11-14
 ¹¹And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

Do this [love your neighbor as yourself] because of what's happening right now. The present time. It's time to wake up. There's no more time for us to sleep in our faith. Our salvation is coming nearer every second (which sound soooo cliche and corny!)


¹²The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

I love this picture of the night being almost over and the day being almost here. It makes me think of Relay For Life. I stay up all night at Relay because what else is there to do?! But it's always the coldest right before the sun rises. But the sky is getting lighter, and you know it's coming, and it's SO exciting because you'll see the sun soon. And when this figurative picture happens, we'll see the son. Boo yah for bad plays on words. 
I also like the "armor of light." It's so... warrior-y. Like. Barbarian Warrior Princess warrior-y. :D
But in order to put on the armor of light, we have to get rid of those "deeds of darkness" so that we can be a total light.  


¹³Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

Just... don't do those things. I mean, it's daytime here... sunlight. No one wants to see anyone like that. 'Kay? Kay. I'm glad that's settled.
 

¹⁴Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Put Jesus on. And keep him on. He doesn't go in the dirty clothes pile. He's always clean. And always available for wear. 
Do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Don't even think about it. How adamant. Think about God instead. Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)




All good reminders for me. 

I was clicking around this morning, and I accidentally clicked on one of my bookmarks in my toolbar. It is a fantastic video. I mean, it's obviously fantastic because, well, I have it bookmarked! I don't know if I've shared this before, but oh well. It's good and definitely worth watching twice! (It's gotten over 13.6 million views on YouTube!)



Now, I think it's time for some breakfast and then some chemistry&algebra. YAY. heh. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!

NIPTO, Day 103

I'm not sure how to start this post. So I guess I'm starting with uncertainty. In my writing... not as a general topic. Even though that would make a fantastic blog post the more I think about it.

To be honest, this is the third time I have sat down today to write this post. I just haven't been able to get past the introduction part. Sure, this morning I got some videos and stuff. But nothing really meaningful. I'm kind of realizing that writing every day can get kind of draining.
It's a fantastic thing to do, but it gets tiring. Sure, I'll still write every day. I'll try to make what I write good quality. But I can't guarantee anything.
I'm only me. And I can only do so much. I can only handle so much.

Today has been a little bit of a whirlwind. Of activity and emotion. Activity being that Hannah's graduation party is tomorrow! So most of today was spent cooking and setting up for that.
Emotion being, I basically got stood up. Which disappointed me. It was something I was looking forward to, and I was let down. I got upset. And then I remembered that, even though I can't control what happened, I can still control how I respond to what happened. I had angry thoughts going through my head at a rapid clip. Then I reminded myself that there was no place in my mind for spiteful thoughts. Jesus wasn't spiteful. He might have been angry, but he was righteously angry. I was not righteously angry. I was just regularly, worldly angry. So I decided that it needed to change. I prayed for a little bit, and I felt much better. I was definitely still upset. I still am kind of upset. But I don't think those things will fade until I've had a chance to talk with the person involved. But God helped me through it so far. He'll help me the rest of the way through it.


I'm listening to music right now. It is amazing. It's seriously some of the best music I've heard in a while. Go here to check out Ian McIntosh.  I bookmarked this page a while ago while I was reading a blog. I don't remember which one. But he's good. And so is his music. Such Beauty is an amazing song. I might have to go back and listen to it again. So good.
This has some of his more recent stuff. Along with the older stuff. I haven't listened to any of the recent stuff yet. I just haven't had the time in the half hour that I've been listening! haha (Yeah. I get passionate about things in half an hour!)


It's YouTube time!
This was a song that I learned one Sunday afternoon a while ago so I could play it at Encounter that night. It was a good time learning it. (Bands are great... sometimes.) Tenth Avenue North is an awesome christian rock band. This is a song about never being alone, really. It's fantastic. Listen to it. (Listen to Ian's music too! Listen to all of it! It's all good stuff!)


Barlow Girl's song "Enough" goes perfectly with the Day 19 devotional for 100 Days of Holiness.
Sorry. That was kind of a lot of links for 1 sentence. But hey, they all go together!


Booooooo. I'm hungry. And once again, it's late at night and I don't want to eat anything. Plus I've already brushed my teeth&everything. Way to be lame, stomach. Way to be lame.
*sigh* I'll just eat a lot in the morning... oh. And there's going to be fantastic food at Hannah's party too. Forgot about that. ;)


Methinks it's N'O time! 


Romans 12:1-8

 ¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Ahhhh. The classic "living sacrifice" verse. I feel like this verse has been picked apart so much, that I don't really have anything to say about it. Except for the fact that if I think about it a little bit longer, you'll have a freakishly long paragraph. 
I guess my main thought about this is that we have to submit everything we do to God. As a sacrifice, we aren't entitled to keep anything back. And letting it all go to God is worship. Mmmmhm. 


²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is another almost-over-picked verse. It's very popular among youth groups. Especially since the world has slipped into a pretty ugly pattern. 
As Christians, we are called to break free from this pattern. By praying and constantly renewing our minds, we are able to "test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." 
It's pretty spectacular to think about. We are capable of doing this with God's help. And that's exciting. 


³For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

My first thought was "underestimate yourself." Then I thought, "No. That's not what we're supposed to do. Don't think too highly of yourself in the first place. Don't underestimate your abilities. Maybe underestimate how important you are. But not your abilities"


⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

It's laughable to think that an eye could do what an ear can. Or that a leg could take the place of an internal organ. (Yeah. I'm going a little extreme. Just for dramatic effect!)
We are all part of a larger body. The body of Christ. We're separate entities, but we all still work together. We don't all have the same function either. That would kind of defeat the purpose of "separate entities" right? Yeah. It would. :P


⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. ⁷If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Basically: don't stop people from doing what they're good at!!! Let them use their gifts to their full potential! That's all.


I feel like I wrote that quickly. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. (I spelled necessarily right the first time. I am a happy camper right now! haha)
Because I finished this post (mostly), I get to finish A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. If you haven't put it on hold yet, GO DO IT! It's a fantastic book. I'm excited to finish it and see what other little gems are hidden and how I can apply them to my life. It's a great book. Go read it! (Yes. I am plugging for a lot of things in this post... sorry!)

Okie-doky! It's getting later and later, so I guess I'll wrap this post up and call it a night. I'll try to take a ton of pictures tomorrow at the partayyy and post some of them. If I don't post them here, I'll at least post a link to them on facebook.
Goodnight all!

NIPTO, Day 102

Good morning lovely blog readers! (Good afternoon to my sister :P)


On the way home from dance last night, my sister and I were singing this song. And so I thought it would make a good blog video. (Not me and my sister singing it! haha)

 
Its a good song. I really like to sing it. Their costumes in this movie are ridiculous. Especially when you take them out of context.

Uhg. I'm sore from dance last night. I don't think we really did anything out of the ordinary, but I think I pushed myself harder. So I'm sore. My back is especially sore... huh.

It's kind of funny. Because 100 Days of Holiness could be over if I had started with NIPTO. Wow. Starting NIPTO seems like forever ago. It was 3 months ago. Which is kind of a long time. That seems not so long ago, but it was. Weird. Today is Day 18 of 100DOH. Which is over 2 weeks. Time goes by so fast. Adults always tell me that time goes by even faster when you're older. But I'm not sure if that's completely true. That devotional reminds me of the NewsBoys song "I Am Free"
I miss Peter Furler as the front man of NB. Michael Tate just isn't quite the same.

I'm still reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It's still really good. It's all about stories. And how we're living and stuff. It's good stuff. I was reading last night before I went to bed and there was a paragraph that was fantastic. Let me see if I can find it. Found it:

"The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is 'Do not fear.' It's in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we  shouldn't let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I thought of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconscious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves that purpose. But fear isn't only a guide to keep us save; it's also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life." - Donald Miller

It's just stuff like that. It's a really good book. Go put it on hold at the library. It's a good book. READ IT! 'Kay? 'Kay.

You know how sometimes they say "It's go time"? Well. I'm going to start using the abbreviation for NIPTO and start saying "It's N'O time"! hahah I'm so funny. I know. =P

So this is only 4 verses. But I think there's something powerful to be said in them. These four verses are a doxology. A doxology, by definition, is and expression of praise to God. So here I gooo

Romans 11:33-36
 ³³Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
      How unsearchable his judgments,
      and his paths beyond tracing out!

God's wisdom goes beyond anything we can discern. We aren't at all able to find out on our own why he does things. His paths are our paths, but sometimes we don't know where they're going. But God knows. 


 ³⁴"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
      Or who has been his counselor?"

The answer is no one. No one knows the mind of God. No one can tell God what to do. It's just how it is. He's that amazing. 


 ³⁵"Who has ever given to God,
      that God should repay him?"

You might be tempted to say, "I've given to God. He should repay me!" But in reality, anything that we've given to God, he's given to us first. Any praise we give to God is us giving him no less than he deserves. 
This makes me think a little bit more. Do we give God enough? I think the answer is no, we can never give God enough. Well. Maybe that's not true. If you fully, and I mean fully, give your life to God, that's enough. But I'm talking everything. Every thought, every action, every emotion. It all has to belong to God. 
Are we capable of that? I don't know. What do you think? 


³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things.
      To him be the glory forever! Amen.


From him. Through him. To him. All things are. 
See? We can't give him any less than everything we are because he gave everything to us. Crazy, isn't it?
To God be the glory forever and ever. 
Amen. 


My dad is on the phone with people from LT (Life Training) right now. They're discussing LT stuff. It's exciting!
I've been thinking about how I'm going to blog while I'm at LT... I'll probably have internet access. But will I have my computer? No idea. Will I have free time every day? Probably not. I'd have to get up early to do this... or stay up even later. (I'd probably opt to get up early!)
It'll be a challenge... but I think it'll be good.
I think I'm going to eat breakfast and read more of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years... And then do school stuff. And then graduation party stuff. Yup yup!

I'll be back tomorrow!

NIPTO, Day 101

*yawn* Good morning. I'm tired this morning. But I'm up, and that's all that really matters, right? Well. I guess being focused matters. And I feel focused. (Kind of.)

I have something to say about  A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. It has short chapters. Does that make it a terrible reason to like it? (It's not the only reason I like it, but it's definitely a contributing factor.)
When books have short chapters, I feel accomplished when I read them. When books have long chapters, I feel like I read a lot, but I'm only on chapter 3. Like the book I'm reading for school. I just got to chapter 3 and I'm already at page 37. That's basically 20 pages per chapter. I would much rather you break things into smaller chunks because I feel more accomplished when I read.

Speaking of feeling accomplished when one reads because of breaking things into small chunks, I'm trying to do that here. I do it sometimes, but I don't do it sometimes.
But I try. =P

I would definitely click on this link for Day 17 of 100 Days of Holiness. Because it's a good one... Now I'm going to leave you hanging so you have to click on it....
(You don't have to be participating in 100DOH to read the devotionals! And they're good little, takes less than a minute to read, devotionals.)

Mmmmmm... I feel an ADD moment coming on!
So my grandma made coffee this mornign. Because that's what she does pretty much every morning. And I love the smell of coffee. It reminds me of Oreos. Because sometimes on Saturday mornings, my mom will make coffee, and we'll sit at the kitchen table and drink coffee/dunk Oreos in coffee and eat them. It's wunderbar. Oh yeah. I'm breaking out the English/German translator! haha I'm a beast. I know. Actually I don't. =P




Okay. You ready for NIPTO? Cuz I am. 


Romans 11:25-32
 ²⁵I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
   "The deliverer will come from Zion;
      he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
 ²⁷And this is my covenant with them
      when I take away their sins."

Paul's good about not letting people be ignorant. He usually tells them what's going on up front...but sometimes not. But usually. 
Israel has been hardened so that we can be saved. It's so much related to yesterday's post. Then Israel will go back to God. The deliverer is going to come from Zion (Jerusalem) to return the Israelites to God. That was the covenant that God made with them. God doesn't break promises he makes.  



 ²⁸As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.

I guess the Isralites weren't great carriers of the gospel. But they voted how other people wanted them to! I don't get verse 29 in its context. It's a great stand-alone verse. We can't give our gifts or our calling back to God. That's what makes the question "Do I really want to know God's will for my life?" soooo important. Once you find that out, there's no turning back. You can pretend you don't know what it is, but that's going to get you in the end. God will get you. (He will get you like you got me. That is a promise. BOOOOYAH Matilda quote! haha) 


³⁰Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you.

We're all disobedient, right? (Don't lie. You know we all are.) We do the exact opposite of what we're told sometimes. We do that to God sometimes. Sometimes a lot. It doesn't get us anywhere. (Look at Jonah as an example!) But we receive mercy from God. Jonah did too. When other people are disobedient, they're still able to receive God's mercy. (I'm thinking of Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie when they're talking about mercy and compassion! (I ♥ Veggie Tales))
It even says that they're able to receive God's mercy as a result of God's mercy to us. Interesting...


³²For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

This is basically what I get from this: God made us all disobedient. (He gave us free will.) So that he could have mercy on everyone. It's kinda fantastic, isn't it?!


I'm going to eat breakfast. I'm hungry. Then I'm going to do chemistry and algebra... and read Alas, Babylon (a strange "apocalyptic" type novel that has to do with Russia bombing the US... nuclear style... yay... not.)  and do Spanish and practice piano! And then go to my sister's piano lesson... and then dance :)
It should be a good day. And I should get a lot done if I stay on task... Heh. That's always the hard thing! Hope you have a good day!

NIPTO, Day 100

Morning: I feel like today should be  a really special day. It isn't. It's just a regular Tuesday. I mean, sure I have a lot less school to do, and it is the last day of Urban Vision for us... but we're still doing the "normal" things. It's not quite summer. Just still school.

Evening: 
BOO YAH for a dream-sequence dance for Artie! Yeah, I watch Glee. Don't hate me... &Awesome-sauce for the phrase "punch your face" in anything. Glee had one tonight. It was awesome. Haha

Today was a normal day. School. Urban Vision. Bible Study with the teens at Urban Vision. Came home... Watched American Idol. Watching Glee right now. I did my nails during AI. They're pretty sweet. If I do say so myself. Black with silver bursts on them. I'll probably take pictures at some point. I tend to do that... take pictures. hah. Now I'm blogging... and voting for Lee Dewyze at the same time. He better not go home after singing Hallelujah... that was amazing.

Books. You like books, right? Yeah. I thought so. Here are a couple good ones that I've read/am reading at the moment:

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. It is fantabulous. I'm about 1/5th of the way through it. But I love it and can't wait to keep reading it. I somehow feel like I'll have a tad bit more time in the coming weeks... huh. I wonder why that is...
Donald Miller is an awesome author! He wrote Blue Like Jazz. If you haven't read that one, GO READ IT. It's funny and insightful and very interesting. I started re-reading that a while ago... haven't gotten back to it... my sister hijacked it, so I'll just have to wait a little longer to finish that one. I read it while I was in Colorado... (I should do a post dedicated to my love for Colorado. Look for that one coming soon! haha)

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn was, last summer, one of the best books I'd read in a long time. I also read this one in CO... more specifically on the way home from CO. But anyways. It was good. It was a good book to take my mind off of the 25 hour drive... haha. It's a fantastic book. It's about the persecution of the Chinese churches. It's a fantabulous insight into that! Go check it out. It's worth whatever money it is to buy it. Or you can borrow it... after I've re-read it! haha



Today is Day 16 of 100 Days of Holiness. Day 100 of NIPTO. Crazy.
Let me tell you this: It's hard to focus on serious stuff after thinking about Colorado... and while voting. Hah. oops. My own fault there for the second one...

Romans 11:11-24
 ¹¹Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

We can't stumble as to fall beyond the point of recovery. We are accepted by God as we are. But the Gentiles were made free and that made the Israelites, who had worked so hard for salvation, mad. Just plain mad. 

¹²But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

But hey! If the Israelites suffering and sinning means the world gains, the world's gonna gain a whole lot. But the Gentiles are going to gain more from their fullness? Either that or the riches that the Israelites are bringing to us are a lot different than we think.



 ¹³I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry ¹⁴in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.

Paul's like "Yeah, I'm talking to you guys. You're where my ministry is focused. But I kinda wish that my own people would wake up and realize what they're missing... realize what they're missing so much to the point that they're envious.
I think that a lot of times our "ministry" is focused so much on the "nonbelievers" that we forget that there are people in the church who aren't getting it.


¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

So if they reject the church, but the result is saving a bunch of people (which kind of makes no sense), aren't they kind of exchanging life for death with people who are exchanging death for life? They're reversing roles... 
I could be completely off on this. I have no idea. It's just what I'm getting. 


¹⁶If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Basically when they harvested food of any kind really they would offer the first batch to God. Because that made him happy. It's what he asked them to do. And when they did that, they made their whole harvest holy. 
If the root of something is holy, the rest of it is going to be holy too. 
It's a kind of cool, simple, probably under-appreciated concept.  



 ¹⁷If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Sometimes bad branches are broken/cut off so new, healthy branches can be grafted in. We're grafted into God's family. It kind of goes with the adoption thing. We're chosen to be integrated into this tree of life. We all get the same kind of nourishment. But sometimes we like to think we're better than the other "branches." We're not. We don't support God. He supports us. 


¹⁹You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." ²⁰Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.

Don't boast about being grafted in. You should be afraid. Because:


²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

erm... EEK? Thankfully God is merciful. Most of the time. ;)


 ²²Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

God is kind. God is also stern. He doesn't mess around. He's stern to those who are cut off. He's kind to those grafted in. As long as you "stay grafted in." If you don't, you'll be cut off. No one wants to be cut off. 


²³And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

If someone who has been cut off returns, they will be gladly grafted back in because God is kind. Remember? :)


²⁴After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

We're cut out of this wild, untamed tree. God's tree is carefully cultivated&trimmed. But he chooses to make us wild "branches" part of his tree. It's contrary to nature for us to be grafted in. But God controls that, so, it's not really contrary to nature =P
Natural branches graft back much more easily than wild ones that have been grafted then cut off then grafted again. Just a guess from this verse.


Today/tomorrow is a "Blog, sleep, blog" day. An evening/morning where I blog, go straight to bed, get up and blog right away. *sigh* oh my. (starry eyed surprise) To quote my sister's blog today. :)
Goodnight beautiful world!

NIPTO, Day 89

Good morning.
I'm tired this morning.
And a little sore.
Mulching will do that to you.
The awesome thing is that we have more to do! Isn't that great?

Could you hear the sarcasm dripping from that last sentence. Yeah. Me Neither.

We just read Animal Farm by George Orwell for school. I didn't like it. It creeped me out. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a book that's basically about communist (Stalinist) Russia. And it just creeped me out. I mean, there are animals talking and talking to humans. And then there's the manipulation. I do not like manipulation. And so that bothered me. And I know this all actually happened, but when it happens to animals, I don't know. I just didn't like it. Just so you know =P

Day 5 of 100 Days Of Holiness. Let's just say it was nice to have Jesus mulching next to me yesterday... and he'll be next to me today! (I do not care if my blue cloth gets filthy, I am wearing it to mulch! I need Jesus with me!)

Now NIPTO. I really like NIPTO. I'm pretty sure that I've said that before. It's challenging. But I'm learning a lot. About God and about myself. I like getting together with someone who knows more than me and talking about what we've read. It's encouraging.
They're starting another round of NIPTO in June for anyone who wants to start for the first time or start over. I think I get to be a mentor kind of. Which is exciting. I really hope a lot of people start NIPTO and keep going with NIPTO.
I can already tell that this year is going to change my life. And I want this for others. Maybe more on this later. We'll see. (See the *** near the bottom of the Romans stuff)

Romans 8:18-27
¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Wow. Not even worth comparing. That's how awesome the glory stuff will be. Whatever we're suffering now, not worth comparing it to the glory that will be revealed in us. It's going to be that amazing.


¹⁹The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

 The world is waiting for us. Sounds kinda fancy, doesn't it? It makes me think of the theater... they're waiting for you! haha
But really: it waits for us. It waits in eager expectation. It's excited about us. The world is excited about you and me. The sons (*cough*daughters) of God.


 ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Hm. Creation is frustrated. Is that creation us? I'm pretty sure it's not. I'm pretty sure it's just everything else God made. But it's frustrated because of us. oops. But someday there will be a new earth. I think that's kind of what this is talking about. The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage... and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. It makes me think of Revelation 21. The New Jerusalem. That's what the chapter is headed in my Bible.
Hm. My writing/editing skills were just used while reading that. I noticed that there were commas from "not by its own choice" to "subjected it." When you take that part of the sentence out, "the creation was subjected to frustration, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated... etc."
Interesting. Any thoughts on that? (I'm hungry. Just thought you should know that. Maybe I'll eat and blog at the same time. Can you say "multitasker"?



 ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Wow. I didn't know we were causing the world so much pain... 


²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Groaning inwardly? I'm groaning inwardly... aka my stomach's groaning because it wants food or something crazy like that. I mean. I fed it about 14 hours ago. Shouldn't it be good? noooooo. It wants more food. =P
Seriousness now... We're waiting [waiting...] waiting on the [world to change] adoption and redemption. Sorry for the random John Mayer. Heh. SERIOUSLY. I just can't get serious this morning! Must be the lack of food or something =P
We're waiting for our adoption. I've never been adopted (some would argue the point) but I can imagine the eagerness of a child who is told that a family wants them. They want to be with that family. We're waiting for our adoption to be complete. We should have the eagerness of a child who has never had a family, or maybe has had a family but lost them, to be taken into someones home and to be loved. I think that's a good picture of how we should be waiting for heaven.


²⁴For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently

I really like this. It's very true. (I just used 2 banned words (in my writing class last year we weren't allowed to use "really" or "very" in any papers that we wrote) OOOoo haha my writing teacher would have a fit. But not really. AH. there that word is again...) 
When we're hoping for something, if you see it, you're not going to hope for it anymore because you know it happened/you have it. We don't have this new life yet, so we're going to have to keep hoping. We're going to have to keep waiting. We're going to have to be patient. I don't like being patient... most of the time. There are certain things I can be patient about. :P 



 ²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

 God will help us. We don't have to do this on our own. When we don't know what to pray for, the spirit will help us. And that is pretty fantastic.
***(I think that something that I like about NIPTO is that you aren't doing it on your own. It's a community. Even if it's a very small community. I want this community of longing for God to grow. NIPTO is hard. But it's very rewarding. [for Katie: Sometimes LT is hard!] I like it. I hope more people do it. It would be awesome)


²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

We don't even have to tell God anything. He knows. But he still likes to hear it from us. 
He's kind of like a parent who knows you did something wrong, but would still like you to tell them yourself. Except God knows the good things too. I'm not sure if that's even a good example. I'm getting tired of my writing. haha. 90-something blog posts in... we're in for a ride people!!


It's time to eat something.
And to prepare myself mentally for mulching more... (fyi... my fingernails still smell like mulch. GROSS. hah)

This is one of the most win videos I have ever seen! Gotta love OSU!



It's gonna be a fun day folks. I'll let you know if I die... Actually. Someone else would have to let you know.
Hope you have a good day... mine's going to be... interesting. (I'm not really going to die. My day isn't really going to be that interesting. I'm just being dramatic! haha)

Oreos. Thunder. Lightning. Books.

Mmmmm. Oreos are good. I like thunder. And lightning. I'm considering not listening to anything tonight when I fall asleep. (I usually listen to Harry Potter or some kind of worship music) But only if it starts raining. Rain is the best sound to fall asleep to.

Tomorrow's Thursday... I think I might be going to Panera tomorrow night while Hannah works. And my parents go to ChipOtle. (intenTional.) Without me.

LIGHTNING! THUNDER! Lovely. I used to hate thunder and lightning. But now I love them. This is going to sound UUBER cheese-y, but I love thunder and lightning because they remind me how small I am. How powerless I am. God is so much bigger than me. Sweet, huh?

Oh. Yeah. So I just read A Walk To Remember. (I read The Last Song last week and started The Notebook this afternoon) I'm on a Nicholas Sparks kick. But I've realized that I can't read his books without waiting for something bad to happen. Because something bad always happens.

Okay. I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

NIPTO, Day 80

Day 80. It always amazes me that I'm still doing this. That I'm consistent. I tend to have trouble being consistent. But this I've managed to do. I've even managed to stay somewhat consistent in that I do this in the morning. So I'm happy. 80 days. WOW. 10 more days and it'll be 90 days... 3 months... 1/4th of a year.

I slept in this morning... so I'm running a little late. But I'm going to still try to take my time on this and not rush through it.
Alrighty. Here we go:
Romans 5:12-17
¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— ¹³for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 

 Does this mean that their sins don't "apply" because there was no law? I'll have to get an answer about this one. Because I don't know.


¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

It says that everyone still died. Which is the punishment for sin. 
I like the part that says "who was a pattern of the one to come." Adam was made in God's image. So God is the initial pattern, but Adam was the first human human and was kind of the pattern for Jesus. Cool, eh? 


 ¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

 Cool. Lots and lots of people died because of Adam's sin. MORE people were saved by God's grace. More people received the gift of life. Coolieooo.


¹⁶Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

 God's gift isn't like the result of sin. God's gift removes our sin. He justifies us. He clears all charges against us. God's grace is ridiculous. I'm never going to be able to fully comprehend it. It's crazy. 


¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

So it's saying that if death through Adam was in control that life through Jesus will be even more in control because of God's grace and gift of righteousness. 

Cool stuff.

Today I have a piano lesson... that I actually feel somewhat prepared for. I don't feel like I'm going to kill Prokofiev. Which is a good thing. I might kill C.P.E. Bach though... Eek.
Then we have dance. And then I go home and don't do anything productive.
It's kind of a bummer. Because Encounter62Remix is from 7-8:02. And Dance is from 6-7:30. And I don't get home till 8. So E62R is over. But I'll be able to go in a monthish when dance is over. So that's exciting.
Well. I should eat breakfast and get started on school so I actually finish everything before I have to leave today...
BY the way: The Last Song is a pretty fantastic book. I'm over half way through it. (p. 404 out of 644 pages)(Large Print version. It's not really this long.) It's a really easy book to read. I like it. It's cute.

No YouTube video today. I'm too lazy to go find one =P
So I'll just have to leave you with a "Have a great day!" and be done.
Have a great day!

NIPTO, Day 79/Post 100

This is my 100th post. YAY Blogger for putting up with me! hahaha

Yesterday I started reading The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. It's pretty good so far. I'm about a 1/6th of the way through it... Still getting through back story and stuff. But it's good. (P.S. I'm reading the large print version. Why? Because there were 20 holds on the large print version as opposed to 200 on the regular one. Easy to see which one I chose! (No pun really intended...)

We had dance class last night. Which was kind of strange. Dance is usually on Wednesdays but we had a makeup class. It was a good class. I'm sore. I have been sore for the past week... WOOOO. I need to stretch more.

 The sunset was pretty last night

 It was pretty on the way home from dance, but *gasp* I didn't have my camera

But here are two of the pictures I took when I got home.

It was a pretty sunset.

It was nice to see the sun after it had rained all day!

All the rain yesterday got me to thinking. (And somebody's post on twitter that I'm not going to post here. Too much of a hassle.) It got me to thinking this: What if each person had their own little weather bubble? And what if, when you sinned, your weather bubble rained. And it was cloudy. And just plain icky. And what if, when you were following God, it was sunny? Wouldn't that make people more apt to look at Christianity and say "I want that"? 

I think that a lot of people look at Christianity and think that their weather bubble is going to get rained on when they follow God. And if sinning makes them happy, it might seem like it. But who wants to live in rain all the time. NOT ME. I got a taste of 2 days of rain and decided that I really don't like it. Forks, WA, here I don't come! I couldn't stand it being rainy all the time! Thank you God for the sun. And for the sun that's coming up RIGHT NOW. It's nice to see the sun :D

NIPTO NIPTO NIPTO Day 79. 
Romans 5:6-11
 ⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  

<sup>God died for us while we were powerless. Helpless. Ungodly. Sinful. Undeserving.



7</sup>Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Thiiis is fantastic. And I think these 2 verses might've made my list of favorite verses. I don't really remember reading verse 8 in context. Which is horrible. But it's part of the "Romans Road" and I've never really read it in context. Horrible. But now I've read it in context and I love it that much more. Because: Someone might die for someone good... maybe. But to die for bad people? Unheard of. But that's what Jesus did for us. While we were still sinners. He didn't require anything from us. He died. And that saved us. crazy crazy crazy.



 ⁹Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!  

 <sup>We're saved from God's wrath through Jesus. I don't know about you, but after reading through Revelation, I'd rather be spared from God's wrath. It's as ugly as God gets!


10</sup>For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  

Get that? We were God's enemies. But we reestablished (or established in the first place) a relationship with God that gives us LIFE! When Jesus died, he settled that score. When he was raised to life, we were able to be closer to God. SWEEEET.


¹¹Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We should rejoice in God. Jesus saved us. We're not God's enemies anymore. We're his children. So that's a reason to rejoice! =D


Okay. So I saw the high school/middle school and the elementary school buses both come today. The School bus system is kind of funny to me. Kids line up and get picked up in a big, yellow (orange?) bus. (We've had discussions about what color that really is. It's something you probably don't want to bring up unless you have the answer. hahaha) It's just weird to me. I don't know. I've never ridden on a school bus. (I take that back. I rode on a school bus style bus for a church event once. But it wasn't a bus that belonged to a school.)

Anyways. I have a fun YouTube video for you today! My friend Anna posted this on her blog a while ago and I loved it. (I love UP too... it's probably one of my favorite movies. haha) It's funny. Cute. Made me laugh. I love it.


Hope you have a great day!

Train of thought-aka whatever pops into my head in a post!

Erwin McManus writes fantastic books. I would recommend them. Especially The Barbarian Way and Chasing Daylight. Seeing as those are the only two books I've read... and I haven't even finished Chasing Daylight. But I really like it. It's a great reminder that we encounter moments every day that could be life changing... depending on whether we take the moment and use it for all it's worth or whether we let it go by.

At the moment I'm listening to Walt Disney (Children's) Radio (http://bit.ly/cE3xOY) and it is FANTASTIC. Listening music from the Princess and the Frog right now. I haven't seen it, but I like the music already. Hakuna Matata (Original Broadway Cast) now... LOVE LOVE LOVE Pandora... *sigh*
Oh. Yeah. I'm sitting in Panera mouthing the words to the songs I know. hahaha.
This station basically plays music from every classic Disney movie EVER. Plus some! WOOT. Love love. (Somewhere Over the Rainbow Ukulele version? YEAH)
Sorry. I'm getting a little carried away. I just LOVE Disney. I did restrain myself from bringing crayons and one of my coloring books to Panera... I am trying to get a job here... so it might be good if I maintained a "professional" look. Hah. Me. Professional. I guess I'll just have to fake it until it's real. Hm. Do you think that can happen? Can you fake something so much that it actually become who you are?? That's almost frightening if it can happen. Hm. What do you think?


I posted a couple quotes from Chasing Daylight a couple days ago here (it's near the end of the post... I think). I'm going to continue this a little bit here.


The odds are irrelevant to God. 
BOOYAH! God doesn't care bout odds. He's got it all figured out anyways. Comforting innit?


If everything else remains uncertain, be clear on this point: there is a calling on your life. 
Again BOOYAH! You can be unsure about everything. But there's a calling on your life. There always has been. There always will be.


WOW. Just got super sidetracked. Decided to check twitter... saw that my friend had posted a link to StuffChristiansLike.net. Decided to check it out. I just spent the last hour or so reading this website. SO FUNNY. So true... unfortunately =P
You should check it out. Funny funny site. Here. I'll make it easy for you. CLICK HERE!

My mocha is really good. If I had my camera cable, I'd take a picture of my cup and put it up... but I don't have my camera cable. (Lucky you!)

Oooo I can stalk my sister in the door. I can see her reflection when she's in a certain spot... ooo. =P Imma creep. (I really am. My friends have conversations about how I'm a stalker. I just listen and agree. HAHA)

Man. I should've brought my camera cable... cuz then I could put up pictures from Enter Laughing last night. Bummah. I guess I'll have to do that tomorrow if we watch a movie or something.

I might go driving tomorrow! Scary thought, eh? So get in your houses and maybe go to the basement. It would probably be wise. Actually, don't drive around in the parkinglot behind Target. HAH. HTat's where I'll probalby be driving. YAY. (yeah. I'm still not confident enough to actually drive on a road. I mean that would involve other cars on the road... EEK. Going the speed limit? SCARY SCARY!)


There is a cute family sitting in my field of vision... there was a Dad and a Daughter sitting there earlier... they were cute too. :)

I wanna be a girl worth fighting for... (Mulan... :D YAY!)

I feel very enthusiastic tonight... Lots of YAY's and HAH's and CAPS in general...

Just spent about 3 more hours on stuffchristianslike.net annnnd I'm home now. So I think I'm going to go to bed. I get to sleep in in the morning..... AHHHHHHHHHH. Exciting man.
Yeah. I'm going to bed.
Hope you aren't exhausted by my rambling thoughts!

NIPTO, Day 73

Wednesday 

Wednesdays are usually school, piano, and dance.

This Wednesday is just school and dance. Yesterday was Tuesday and we had SOS (Set on Success) and Teen Club at Urban Vision (SOS is an after school program and Teen Club is a bible study that we do with some of the teenagers from the area.) You can click on the link to go to Urban Vision's website and find out more about them. They're a fantastic ministry that helps a lot of kids in the North Hill community.

I feel like I have a busy day ahead of me, but I don't really. I don't have to leave at 4... I have a couple extra hours to get stuff done. So I don't know why I feel like I have a busy day ahead of me. Maybe God's remembering something that I'm forgetting and is preparing me for that... hm..

Romans 3:9-20

⁹What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? (than the people that say "Let us do evil so good may result) Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 

^{Basically, he's saying that there's no difference in sin. We're all sinners and fail when it comes to meeting God's standards.} 

¹⁰As it is written:
   "There is no one righteous, not even one;
    ¹¹there is no one who understands,
      no one who seeks God.
 ¹²All have turned away,
      they have together become worthless;
   there is no one who does good,
      not even one." (Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccles. 7:20)
 ¹³"Their throats are open graves;
      their tongues practice deceit." (Psalm 5:9) 

   "The poison of vipers is on their lips." (Psalm 140:3)
    ¹⁴"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 
 ¹⁵"Their feet are swift to shed blood; (Psalm 10:7)
    ¹⁶ruin and misery mark their ways,
 ¹⁷and the way of peace they do not know." (Isaiah 59:7,8)
    ¹⁸"There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Psalm 36:1)

These 8 verses are thoroughly depressing. And it's sad to say, but this describes the general population. (This is the depressing section of Romans 3. It goes "God's Faithfulness, No one is righteous, then Faith Through Righteousness... this just happens to be the "No one is righteous" section)

 ¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.


<sup>This is a bit confusing. Sooo.... The whatever the law says, it says what it says to those under the law so that everyone will be held accountable. That's what I got out of that! If you see something completely different, leave a comment&let me know :) I love other people's opinions... most of the time!


20</sup>Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

Love this. You can't be righteous by observing the law. One of the biggest things that the law does is this: it makes you conscious of your sins! That's huge.




I'm reading another book by Erwin McManus. I was reading The Barbarian Way a little while ago and did a post on the first chapter. I've been meaning to do a series of posts on all of the chapters, but I haven't gotten around to it. But I'm reading another McManus book. It's called Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment. I like it so far... I started reading it last fall but I never got around to finishing it. But I'm determined to finish it this time around.

While I've been reading it, the only thing I have to write stuff down on is my cellphone, so I dedicated a draft to quotes that I like. Here are a few from the first 2 chapters of the book:

"The most important moments rarely come at a convenient time." 
True, id'nit? Important moments seem to come when you can't focus on them...

"You cannot follow God in neutral"
I'm learning how to drive. You can't drive a car in neutral. You can't follow God in neutral. You have to be in drive or reverse... hopefully you're in drive when you follow God.... but, I mean, if God wants you to follow him in reverse, by all means, do it. But you have to be in gear to follow God. Idling isn't going to get you anywhere... and it wastes gas. OOOOO good analogy. =P

"When you are passionate about God you can trust your passions"
I thought this was a good point. If you're truly passionate about God, he'll direct your passions so they please him. I found this encouraging :)

YouTube video of the day! (Hah! My computer didn't recognize "youtube" but when I capitalized it so it was YouTube, it did... Oh silly spell checker)

Beautiful-Jeremy Riddle


Have a faaaantastic day!