Assorted life news

     This week I have been on a "media fast" at the request of Dr. Jones. He asked the student body to stay off facebook, blogs, movies, news, and any other media sources for one week to sort of refocus on the right things. So I tried it. I've found that I can get a lot more homework done without facebook around :) And my room is cleaner than normal also. Lesson learned: I spend too much time online when I really could be making my life easier by getting homework and cleaning done. I might start limiting my time on there a bit. It's all part of that "being a good steward" thing that I'm working on in my life.

     On Friday I went to see my Bible professor - the one who told our class "You can't just go by what it says in English." I asked him a bunch of questions, since we've been learning all about how we have a sinful nature in class. You know why we have one? Because God imputes Adam's sin to us. Yes, that's right, a just God is holding me accountable for a sin I didn't commit. How that jives with Him being just I do not know. *eyeroll* Anyway, my professor explained how he thinks we got that sinful nature, and I did a lot of listening. I'm more convinced now than ever that there is no such thing as a sin nature, or inherited sin, or any of that nonsense. One thing I will say for my prof is that he was consistent - he did admit that you can't say babies who die go to heaven if we really do have a sin nature.

     

     Next weekend is the music educator's conference, which I'm sure will be an absolute ball:) And then the Tuesday after that is the first Artist Series of the semester - the Philharmonic of Poland. They're really good and I'm pretty pumped for that.

 

     In other news, First Daughter is about the cutest movie since You've Got Mail. You've Got Mail MIGHT be my favorite movie ever. But First Daughter is up there. Katie Holmes was actually pretty natural in that one. Even if she was way too old to be playing an 18-year-old. What's your favorite movie? 

 

 

Leah

 

Happenings in a coffee shop, or, how to ask a girl out, from my perspective

*Disclaimer: the views represented herein are my own personal views and may or may not reflect the views of other women. :D *

     Ok. Today I was out downtown hanging out in a very cool coffee shop and doing some homework. I was sitting on a small couch, in front of me was a coffee table, and there were two chairs on the other side. As I was sitting there diligently studying my Stravinsky notes (don't ask), a gentleman appearing to be about the age of 29 or 30 walked up and asked if it would be ok if he and his little boy sat in the two chairs. "Of course, please do," I said. After not-so-subtly watching me for a few minutes, he remarked that I looked very absorbed in what I was reading. Now I love talking to people, which may get me in trouble someday. So I put down my book and explained that it was Igor Stravinsky (not expecting him to know who in the world THAT is) and he nodded and said, "I never liked his music." Well! Interesting! A guy who actually knows classical music! So we talked for a couple minutes about music and then he said, "Oh by the way, I'm Sam. And this is Isaac." Points to his son. Who says he's eight. Lovely. At this point I noticed that Sam isn't wearing a wedding ring. Not that big of a deal - a lot of married guys don't wear rings, not the least of which is my dad. Then he mentioned "Isaac's mother" offhandedly. Not "my wife." Hm. The thought that he was talking to me "for a reason" honestly never occurred to me the whole time. Continue making small talk. Before I knew it, 20 minutes had gone by. Like I said, I like to talk to people. :) And he was really nice. Anyway, Isaac asked if they could go home because he was tired. Sam says, "Sure buddy." Getting up to leave, he hands me his "business card" that just happens to have his cell number on it, smiles and says, "Call me sometime if you want. I'd really like to get lunch or dinner with you and talk some more." *walks away*

     Now let me just say that getting asked out, even if it's casual like that, is definitely a compliment (unless the guy's a total freak. Unwashed hippies abound in this city, so it's possible). But the divorcee/widower type just isn't for me. Sorry, Sam. It occurred to me that getting asked out in a coffee shop probably isn't weird at all though. There are worse places. And worse ways.

     But for the record, that was the most mature/least weird way I've ever been asked out. I've had facebook twice and a text message once. And over the phone once. And once the guy's mom asked me for him. *awkward turtle hands* Maybe I've just had bad experiences, haha!

     Honestly though, if you're going to ask a girl out, do it like Sam did it. Just spit it out and don't beat around the bush. Yeah I know it can be a little scary to put yourself out there, but I think girls appreciate honesty. I definitely do. That said, don't ask a girl out if you aren't ready for a relationship to go somewhere serious. That's just selfish and immature. And totally inconsiderate of her. Know what you're looking for and don't fool around with the ones who don't fit the bill. Again, the whole selfish-immature-inconsiderate thing comes to mind.

Thoughts? Ladies? Gents?


Leah

This coming Saturday matters quite a lot.

Saturday is the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

 

Over 53 million children have died by abortion.

 

 

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

Think about it.

 

 

 

 

Leah

I am not dying yet.

     This semester, I have 4 classes MW, none Tuesday, two Thursday, and two Friday. It's rather strange. My music ed class is going to be a BEAST. I'm trying to beat down the worst of it early so I don't have to kill myself the rest of the semester. I can see my prayer life is going to get a lot of attention this semester :D Other than that I don't think any of my classes will be too terribly hard, just busy as always. But! Serious consolation is that next year will be much easier! I'll try to keep remembering that when I'm really sleep-deprived near the middle/end of the semester.
     In other news, I tried doing beans in my crock pot in my room and they turned out rather well! And then today I found out that I'm not allowed to have a crock pot! Too bad! I'm keeping it!
     And! I went out this weekend and met my friend Mac (and by accident, his brother Riley) for coffee at this very cool coffee shop downtown. I mentioned it to a friend today, who looked at me and in a horrified tone said, "That place is banned! You're not allowed to go there!" Apparently they think it has a "bar-like" atmosphere, which is ridiculous because it doesn't. I have to say it honestly never occurred to me that I wouldn't be allowed to go someplace. I ALWAYS go wherever I want, basically all the time. And it's not like I go clubbing. It just struck me as funny, because I had no idea I was breaking the rules so badly. Oh well. AND! It's not like they told us! It's not in the student handbook OR the GA handbook! How in the world are you supposed to know? I don't think Chili's has a "bar-like" atmosphere, but apparently we're not allowed to go there either. Sheesh! How's a girl supposed to get her queso fix? :D

So those are the exciting (and not-so-exciting) things in my life right now. I am such a thrilling person.




Leah

I'm a One-Cow Wife

Another Story about Nelson Chimbila, my Zambian friend. :)

 

     I met Nelson, as I said in the last post, at Teen Missions bootcamp last summer. I was leading the Hong Kong team and he was leading the Zambia Drill team. Nelson is a Zambian native, but speaks English quite well. However, he still thinks like an African.

     Once, before a leaders' meeting, I asked Nelson if he was married - he doesn't wear a wedding ring (maybe that's a Western thing?). "Oh yes!" he exclaimed, "Let me show you a picture of my wife!" He pulled out a picture of him, his wife, and their little girl. His wife is significantly taller than him - a good thing, I'm told. Nelson's wife is a very beautiful and when I said so, he beamed and said, "Oh yes, very, very beautiful! She's very fat, isn't she?" smiling the whole time. I guess my face showed how surprised I was that he said that! I mean, I guess she would have been considered overweight by American standards, but I really thought she was beautiful anyway. He laughed at me and said, "Oh, you Americans, you think skinny is beautiful! Ha! Not in Africa! In Africa we like our women very fat!" Then he proceeded to explain to me how his wife was quite expensive and he had to pay FIVE COWS for her, "because she's very fat and beautiful." Yes, he bought his wife. With cows. Apparently five cows is a lot for a wife. Nelson then looked at me in a sort of pitying way and announced,

 

 

"You're a one cow wife. Too skinny."

 

 

And I couldn't help it - I laughed. So now you know . . . I'm a one-cow wife. Cheap, in Africa:)

 

 

 

Leah

Living in the NOW now

     My friend Nelson is from Zambia. He's a native. We met at Teen Missions bootcamp this past summer, when I was a leader for the Hong Kong team and he was a leader for the Zambia drill team. Our not-so-inside joke is "NOW now!" Because Africans don't operate on time like Americans do. We're always on a schedule. Africans just do things until they feel like doing the next thing. So if I had to tell Nelson to be somewhere, I would tell him, "No, they want you there NOW now!" Because "now" doesn't really mean NOW to an African. It means when you're done with what you're doing. So "NOW now" means really, right this second. I was thinking about that last night (I have so many more funny stories about Nelson . . . they'll get blogged at some point) and the thought occurred to me that I should be living in the NOW now. I tend to live in the future - and I don't mean that in a Star Trek kind of way. I mean I'm always looking forward to something and sometimes I can be a little impatient to be done with what I'm doing now (like grad school). But I might miss all the great things God is doing if I'm focused on the future so much. Not that it's wrong to look forward to things, I just need to keep myself in line here:) So I need to live in the NOW now.

Just something I've been thinking about.




Leah

Making Time

     My excuse for not doing the things I want to do is always the same: I don't have time. I'm not talking about huge things, just the little things I would like to do, like read a nutrition book or go to the park. But I've always told people (mostly when they tell me they don't have time to read the Bible every day. Bull.) that you make time for the things you want to make time for. So! I have decided that I am going to make time for these things. Because I keep saying, "Oh, I'll make time for that when I'm done for the semester." Or, I'll have time for that when I'm done with grad school."

HA.

     Like I will ever allow myself to not be ridiculously busy. And what good is life if you're not really living? Not that reading nutrition books and going to the park every once in a while constitutes really living for every single person on this planet. But currently those are the two things I wish I had time for, so that's what I'm starting with. Starting today, I am (still) going to work on finishing Seeds of Deception, by Jeffrey M. Smith (it's about genetically modified food). And I'll go to the park when it's not dark outside because this city is pretty sketchy at night. Ahem.

Oh! I know! I'll make it a New Year's resolution! Because I always make the same one (to read through my Bible) so I can have a new one this year! I'm reading through my Bible anyway:) Done and done. So here are officially my New Year's resolutions:

1. Read through the Bible in chronological order (first time I've done it like this)
2. Only buy food with fewer than 10 ingredients (so hard!)
3. Make time for the things I want to do:)

Did you make any? What were they?



Leah

What's Next?

     A couple years ago I heard a girl say, "I guess I'll just go to grad school after graduation. It seems like it's the next thing to do." Kind of a silly reason to spend $60,000, but I hope it worked out for her. The thing I thought was, "What's 'next' after grad school?" 

     After I'm done with grad school I hope the economy will be better than it was in 2009 when I graduated with my bachelor's degree. Padre says it will because our buddy Barack will be running for reelection and things are always better in election years. Except for 2008, so I don't really know if this will work out or not.

     So what IS after grad school? Joining the rat race, I s'pose. It's a little weird for me, because I was home schooled, I want to home school my kids someday, but I'm going to go teach in public schools. And it's my conviction that I should be a stay-at-home mom with my kids, should I ever be blessed in that way, but I'm going to go to work outside the home. Funny how things turn out.

     You know though, I think a girl who goes out and gets a job before getting married is far better prepared to be a wife and mom than a girl who just sits around her house waiting for Prince Charming to come along. Here's why. When you go get a job and live on your own, your laundry doesn't magically get done for you. Dinner doesn't cook itself (unless you have a crock-pot haha), and nobody cleans the bathroom for you. You have to do all that yourself. I know a young lady who is doing the bum-around-the-house-till-prince-charming-comes-along kind of thing, and she doesn't ever do laundry, never thinks about how she's going to get dinner, etc. because it all gets done for her. That is just not reality.

    

*steps off soapbox*

 

     So for me, I'm planning on going out and getting to work. I'm hoping to move to Texas, mostly because teacher pay is high, cost of living is low, and it's really warm:) Plus everyone carries a gun there, so it's pretty safe in most areas. (Funny how more guns = safer) Pretty please pray that I can get a job in the area I want! Georgia would be ok too, but I like Texas better, minus the fact that there are a lot of illegal immigrants running around and not very many trees.

     I know it sounds a little premature to be talking about what's after grad school when I'm not even half done, but you have to start looking for a job so early it's crazy. So all next year I'm going to go to job fairs and stalk the school district websites to try to score a good job. But we all know that prayer does more than anything:) I mean, last year I applied for a job I didn't know existed - I just applied because the county was near my house. And I got the job. Good job, God. Give yourself a pat on the back. I know he'll do it again.

     Ok, enough rambling. Packing my little bags to go to a wedding! I love weddings! Drinks all around! (Name that movie.) (I don't really drink.) (I'm actually getting tired of weddings.) (I go to them a lot.) (I'm done now.)

 

 

 

Leah

 

The Upside of Loneliness

I've never found a lot of people who think like me. I mean things like being KJV only (and actually educated about the issue vs. just stubborn traditionalists), valuing homeschooling, believing in natural healing and not vaccinating, believing in spanking - that sort of thing. It's not really that big of a deal till you realize you'd really like to get married and raise a family. Then it starts to really stink.
     It would be really easy (and I've definitely given in to this in the past) to be discouraged about it and complain to God about why-didn't-you-straighten-people-out-so-this-isn't-so-difficult and things like that. Or what's more common, to focus on how lonely this can be sometimes. And it's worse now, because it's that point in my life where all my friends are getting married and starting families and I get asked 42 times at every wedding, "So, are you dating anyone?" And the answer is still "no." And then they start surveying the room for their sweet nephew to introduce you to, oh and that handsome groomsman, where did he go, and hey, I know the nicest boy . . .

Ahem.

Not that that's ever happened to me, you understand. It's a hypothetical situation. Yeah.

     But I've been reading Passion and Purity lately (it's by Elisabeth Elliot. Genius-woman), and she makes a great point about waiting. Sometimes God lets us wait because it's hard, so that we will have something to give Him. If it were easy the sacrifice wouldn't be worth anything. It's like getting a gift for the Queen of England from Dollar General. LAME. And big-time inappropriate. Something that matters more to us matters more to God. Because He's not just a King, he's our Father.
**Pause for slight rabbit-trail illustration**
     In this past election, this really great guy from Florida ran for Senate and won. His name is Marco Rubio. He's an awesome conservative. Early in his campaign, he and his wife were up late one night and he was extremely stressed out about paying for the campaign - they just didn't have enough money to run it. His wife was in the middle of trying to encourage him when their children, who should have been asleep, walked in the room. They had overheard their parents' conversation and collected all of their allowances they'd saved in a jar. They handed it to their father and said, "Here Daddy, now you can do it." He was incredibly touched. His kids had been saving for things they really wanted, but they gave everything to him instead.
     Now, obviously, God doesn't need anything from us. But that doesn't make him any less touched by the things we give him. And the more it matters to us, the more He loves it when we give it to him. Think about King David, when he wanted to give a sacrifice to the Lord, he bought the threshing floor and the sacrifice from Arunah. Arunah tried to just give it to King David, because, hey, it's the king. But David replied, "Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing." (2 Sam. 24)
     The point is, instead of moping around wishing things were different, or dramatically lamenting the point I'm at in life (hate girl drama. hate.), I want to offer it to the Lord. All of the wishes and hopes, and even the loneliness - just to offer them to the Lord. What's incredible about that is that as I do this in my life, I'm finding joy in these things. I'm even thankful that the Lord is letting me go through this (something I never thought I could be), so that I'm able to offer them to him as a sacrifice. So if you happen to be at the same point in your life as I'm at in mine (I call it the "hurry up and wait" phase), I invite you to join me in giving these things to the Lord. If you try it, let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear your stories :)



Leah

Blessings

I know everyone does that "this is going to be SUCH a great year!" kind of post, but I'm going to look back for just a minute or two. 2010 was hard, yeah, but so is every year, really. Life isn't supposed to be easy, I think. It would be boring that way. But if you focus on the hard part, it could get discouraging. Let's focus on the blessings instead:) In 2010:

- My orchestra kids received a Superior rating at District Festival
- I successfully finished my first year of teaching, and no one died:)
- My friend Janna married a great guy!
- I was incredibly privileged to take 9 amazing American and Canadian teens on a missions trip to Hong Kong. We had a tough summer but 9 people were saved, including a kid on our team! I miss my babies!
- I started grad school and my graduate assistantship - which completely pays for my degree!
- First semester of grad school GPA: 4.0. That is TOTALLY God because there's no way I could have done that on my own. Not even close. Thanks Lord!
- My sister (Punkin') announced that she's expecting another baby - another boy!
- I've made some new friends, and kept in touch with old friends
- My friend Andrew is getting married! To a real sweetheart of a girl too! I'm thrilled for him:)


What blessings do you remember from 2010?



Leah