Getting to know me part 2: College Edition

• What are your favorite things about Walla Walla University?

First of all, I definitely love the relationships I have built. I have made friends from California, Montana, Washington, and other places. We grew up in different places with different experiences, but we are all friends and that is so beautiful. After college is over, after we have all taken our last tests, our relationships are the only thing left and so it is so important to build good friendships. 

I love how friendly the campus is in general.

I love that the weather is fairly temperate.

I love the spiritual atmosphere here. 

Those are probably my most favorite things, but there may be more.

• How many more quarters do you have of college?

At this point, I am not completely sure. If I get good enough grades in all my classes from now on, it should be about 11 or 12. 

• What do you hope to do after college? Where do you want to live?

I want to be an author, small business owner and a mom. I would like to live in Alaska or the PNW.

• Where and what do you see yourself doing:

       in five years?

By that time, I should be settling into life after college. Definitely a huge transition point.

       in fifteen years?

Hopefully I'm in heaven by then, enjoying the most beautiful place I have never seen. 

       in twenty years?

Enjoying finally being home, the truest and best home that I have longed for 

since I met my Best Friend in the whole universe.

• Who or what inspired you to make this blog?

I would say that was probably my mom, since she had her own blog and encouraged me to start one.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post and be sure to come back next time for part 3!

Happy Sabbath!

Sara

Winter Traditions

I asked several of you on my social media platforms what some of your favorite winter traditions are. Since it just snowed yesterday and is still falling, we might actually have winter now, so it seemed appropriate to write this post. Growing up, I enjoyed building snow caves, making snow men, sledding and having snowball fights, and so much more. Most of these things are hard to do with little snow here at college, and so maybe it is time to develop a few new traditions. Without further ado, here are some of your favorite traditions-- maybe it is time for you to add some new activities to your winter list too! Enjoy reading--and winter!!!

• "Making snow ice cream"
• "Hot tea. Board games."
• "Visiting the light covered botanical garden in Boise, Idaho."
• "We don't always get snow where I live in Oregon. My two most favorite things about snow are that it is a reminder of how clean the blood of Jesus makes me. And when the snow is on the ground everything seems so quiet and peaceful. This year I went snow tubing for the first time, I loved it and would love to make it a snow tradition."
• "Going for walks in the snow."
• "Skiing!"
• "Snowmobiling is one of my favorite snow activities."
• "Snow camping!"
• "Favorite traditions is watching movies, curled up in blankets, and spending lots of time with friends and family. Night sledding. Sledding just in general."
• "I like to make snow angels."
• "My all-time favorite winter tradition is sledding when there's snow and ice fishing as well."
• "I love snow days because I get extra time to work."
• "When we visit my grandma at Christmas at Andrews, we sometimes go sledding on a hill on trays borrowed from the Andrews cafeteria!"
• "Building snowmen, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing."
• "I love looking at the stars and Northern lights. They are quite beautiful."
• "I like going sledding on hills at home, or riding on the back of my brother's four-wheeler through the snow."
• "Cross-country skiing and snowboarding, just chilling in the mountains and having snowball fights."
• "Collecting fresh snow in a bowl and adding tang for our own snow cones."
• "Sledding. Skiing. Ice skating."
• "I love downhill skiing, snowmobiling with my family, and winter hikes. Snow is my favorite and I really treasure whenever it's around."
• "Winter Traditions: well I remember I spent four weeks in Idaho surrounded by snow. I forgot what color looked like while I knocked on all those doors. So for me, my favorite winter tradition is to complain about the snow haha."
• "My birthday falls in winter so I always get super excited about that time. I love to go snowboarding it's super fun. I don't have any traditions in particular but I love the idea of sitting in a warm Jacuzzi up at a log cabin in the snowy mountains. That would be a fun tradition to visit a log cabin each year."

Well folks, that was your favorite winter traditions. I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe have some ideas for new traditions. Catch you next time!!!

Sara

 

Preparing for heaven

This is material from one of my favorite inspirational authors, and I hope you will enjoy. Heaven is a wonderful place that I cannot even imagine fully on this broken world, but I know it far surpasses any beauty I can ever find here. Will you meet me there? I hope so!!!

Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them. Revelation 21:3, RSV.

"Between the school established in Eden at the beginning and the school of the hereafter there lies the whole compass of this world's history--the history of human transgression and suffering, of divine sacrifice, and of victory over death and sin. Not all the conditions of that first school of Eden will be found in the school of the future life. No tree of knowledge of good and evil will afford opportunity for temptation. No tempter is there, no possibility of wrong. Every character has withstood the testing of evil, and none are longer susceptible to its power... Restored to His presence, man will again, as at the beginning, be taught of God."

"Our lifework here is a preparation for the life eternal. The education begun here will not be completed in this life; it will be going forward through all eternity--ever progressing, never completed."

"Every right principle, every truth learned in an earthly school, will advance us just that much in the heavenly school. As Christ walked and talked with his disciples during His ministry on this earth, so will He teach us in the school above, leading us by the river of living waters and revealing to us truths that in this life must remain hidden mysteries because of the limitations of the human mind, so marred by sin."

"The history of the inception of sin; of fatal falsehood in its crooked working; of truth that ... has met and conquered error--all will be made manifest. The veil that interposes between the visible and the invisible world will be drawn aside, and wonderful things will be revealed."

"Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new objects to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body."

Your thoughts on Reading and Writing Part 1

• "I once was able to create a world in a sentence. Now I stare at an empty page in wonder, pondering what life could come out of it."
• "I like creative writing, research writing...not so much."
• "I write more tactfully than I speak. So when I need to deal with a delicate subject, I type it out!"
• "Reading is extremely hard for me -- I am dyslexic so things move and filter into my brain backwards. My mind also moves words in the sentence and then the sentence doesn't make sense. When I create sentences people do not understand them because they are constructed oddly. They make perfect sense to me!!!"
• "I am eminently cognizant of the grammatical parameters."
• "I love writing. Ty Gibson has inspired me with the passion to express my thoughts and feelings about Jesus on paper."
• "I have a love-hate relationship with writing papers. I like doing research and finding a thesis: you notice that something’s afoot, you hunt for clues, and then comes the “aha moment” whenyou finally solve your mystery and discover your thesis. The process of writing can be quite rewarding, too. Often you discover new questions and answers about your subject as you write. But I often get frustrated with the process of writing. I write very slowly, because I’m a bit of a perfectionist and have a hard time putting words on the page before my thoughts are perfectly formed—even if I know I’ll come back and revise them later. I often feel that I don’t have the time I need to really write well. I stress out worrying that I’m not going to finish my paper by the deadline, and to escape my anxiety, I sometimes procrastinate. Of course, that only makes it all the more likely that my paper will be late. I imagine, however, that when I know I’m writing for an audience, not just a teacher, but a bigger audience, who will be affected by what I write, my anxiety about writing will be overcome by a sense of purpose."
• "I used to write, a long time ago, not sure why I stopped. But I do want to get back into it someday."
• "I like reading, especially books that can help me to be more useful in this life and the life to come."
• "I write short stories, poetry, song lyrics, plays, and musicals. Really, I write almost anything. (Except science and math stuff --that I will never write.)"
• "I love both, my love of stories has led me to start writing."

So there you are everyone, this was installment 1 of your thoughts on reading and writing. I hope you were able to feel a connection to your fellow humans and writers. Keep on the lookout for part 2!!!

Sara

Getting to know me part 1

So I have been asking questions and trying to find out more about my readers, and in this process, I discovered that a lot of you don't know me well, or you would like to know me better. So I decided to answer your questions in a few posts so you can know more about me and feel engaged with me and with your fellow readers. So here are the questions...and the answers!!!

1) What is your favorite food and why?
This is kind of a tough question...and the answer is kind of long. But also short!!! I basically like everything--at least, I like a lot of foods. If you want, I could send you the list of all my favorite foods...oh wait never mind, that would take too long. If you want to know everything I like to eat, you will have to live with me and everything. But what I can tell you is what I don't like!!! I don't eat meat or fish, and some vegetables I like prepared one way but not another. I am also not a particular fan of barley or peanut butter, or American cheese, and I only really like eggs deviled or hard boiled. AND I don't eat any food that is moldy...like blue cheese.
Why do I like so many foods? WELL, I grew up in a home that was very culturally diverse in the avenue of food and cooking. It turns out you can get very creative with Vegetarian cooking!!!

2) What's your favorite season?
To be honest, I like all the seasons in their own ways. Right now, I am very happy that it is winter!!!

3) Do you like sushi?
I very much like sushi!!! I am very happy that my school cafeteria has a sushi line almost every day if I feel in the mood...and the main sushi chef makes very good quality sushi in my opinion. Sushi was one of my favorites growing up and still is.

4) What is your favorite novel?
Well, this answer is kind of like the food one...I have so many favorite books! But right now I'm kind of excited to get on a Jane Austen binge...I just got back from an event about Pride and Prejudice earlier this evening.

5) What's your favorite color?
Purple...I have a lot of purple items, but I also like all the other colors to a slightly lesser degree.

6) How is school? What have you been up to? Where do you live? How old are you? What are you studying? Where did you get your beautiful red hair?
School is going great!!! Shout-out to all my wonderful college friends who accept me just as I am, play games with me, eat with me, study with me, live with me, and everything else. They are the best friends in the world. I live at my dorm room at Walla Walla University. I am currently 20 years old. I am studying English, in hopes of being an author. I am planning to minor in Business to give me knowledge on how to run a business and other things. I got my red hair from my mother, who got it from her mother...etc.

7) What's your favorite time of day?
I really love afternoons and evenings...when I don't have classes and I can study and relax or take a nap. My absolute favorite time of day is probably at night when I finally fall into bed and think before I fall asleep. That's pretty awesome.

Well, I'm typed out, so keep an eye out for part 2 later.
Sara

What are YOU able to control?

Things you can control:

Life is crazy and there are a lot of things we have no control over, but there are things that we can control. This is a list of some of the things we can change in our lives. 

-Your beliefs

-Your attitude

-Your thoughts

-Your perspective

-How honest you are

-Who your friends are

-What books you read

-How often you exercise

-The type of food you eat

-How many risks you take

-How kind you are to others

-How you interpret situations

-How kind you are to yourself

-How often you say "I love you"

-How often you say "thank you"

-How you express your feelings

-Whether or not you ask for help

-How often you practice gratitude

-How many times you smile today

-The amount of effort you put forth

-How you spend/invest your money

-How much time you spend worrying

-How often you think about your past

-Whether or not you judge other people

-Whether you try again after a setback

-How much you appreciate the things you have.

Remember, you are always in charge of yourself, and you can make a difference in your life.

Seasons- Winter

What do you do when you are in a winter phase of your life? When everything is dark and lonely, when you feel despondent and think no one cares, or that things will never get better? A couple weeks ago was Week of Worship at my school, and all week we had fellow students speaking to us about seasons they were going through. The last day I wrote down some of the thoughts and I would like to share them with you, with my own personal twist of course. So here goes.

What is winter?

1) Winter is waiting.

"The real problem isn't the waiting -- it's what happens in our hearts while we wait."

What are we doing while we are waiting for this season to pass? Are we growing and learning and developing a better character, or are we mad because things aren't going our way? Don't let yourself be spoiled- you have to be willing to accept a little adversity, sometimes. 

2) Winter is windy.

Sometimes things are messy and windblown, but that's life. You pick up the pieces and build a stronger wall next time. Not to keep people out- to let them in, in spite of potential pain.

3)Winter is deadly.

"We are safe from death the whole time because of Christ's death for us on the cross." --Week of Worship speaker.

During the winter season it can be quite dangerous with icy roads and everything, but with the proper safety precautions you survive. It's the same in life, and with Jesus to guide you are safe from harm always. 

But how do we safely navigate winter? Here are a few ways:

1) "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit"--

We continue to worship and praise God in all seasons and give our lives to Him.

2) "Truly I say to you today, you will be with Me in paradise."

--We become heavenly minded.

3) "you will be with Me in Paradise." 

---We develop an Emmanuel --- God with US --- mentality. 

We wait in winter, but we learn to wait well. And we do this when we become closer to God.

Balance vs. Rhythm--- 

When we strive for rhythm, that is when we can move forward.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

What is Love?

LOVE IS:

Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet

understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and

forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad

times. It settles for less than perfection and

makes allowances for human weakness.

Love is content with the present, it hopes for the

future, and it doesn't brood over the past. It's

the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations,

problems, compromises, small disappointments,

big victories and working toward common goals.

If you have love in your life, it can make up for a

great many things that are missing. If you don't

have love in your life, no matter what else there

is, it's not enough.