I’m just going to warn you guys ahead of time, I probably said “um” about fifteen hundred times…the joys of improv, lol! 😂
If you can think of any other good vlog topics, I’d love to hear them in the comments section!
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”-C. S. Lewis
The first week of school is always an interesting time. With this season comes new teachers, new classmates, and at times—a new school. College, I’ve found, contains all of this and more.
As I walked through the glass doors of college last Tuesday, the realization came in full force that this was my first time in a secular environment. I had a Christian education all the way through school, so most of my interactions up until now have been with fellow believers. And, as much as I’ve joked about some of the interesting customs of Christian subculture (e.g. “testamints” are actually a thing), I’ve come to find that there really is something special about being surrounded by other believers.
Thankfully, no one has been hostile about my faith (I honestly thought they were going to confiscate my cross earrings on the first day), but it’s also common knowledge that faith is not a normal conversation topic. Knowing about all of the hip Christian singers and bands gets you virtually no brownie points from fellow classmates in college. For the first time, I’m faced with the challenge of being “In the world, but not of it”.
I’m still trying to figure out what this looks like in real life.
Nonetheless, I believe everything happens for a reason. I’ve learned a lot over the course of high school and I believe that now God wants to teach me something new. He has each one of us in our current life situations for a reason. Even Jesus couldn’t stay in His hometown forever if He wanted to make an impact—He had to venture out in to the world around Him. In the words of an old Kelly Clarkson song “I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly. I’ll do what it takes until I touch the sky.” In order to fly, I must first jump, using my faith as wings to guide me through new and unfamiliar territory.
If you’re at a new school, a new work place, or like me, starting college for the first time, I want to encourage you to cling tightly to God and step into His will with courage and bravery. He has us where we are for a reason. If we had stayed in elementary school our whole lives, imagine how much we would have missed out on! We grow through new experiences, new people, and new places.
I don’t know how God’s going to use me in college or what this season will look like, but I trust that He’ll guide me through this process. I have officially decided to make Joshua 1:9 my “verse-of-the-year“.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
I may be in a new stage of life, but I know that I’m not alone in it. Just because my school isn’t ‘Christian‘ doesn’t mean that God isn’t there. He’s with me in those very hallways, within the walls of each one of my classes. God may push us out of our comfort zone, but He will never leave us alone. He is our strength and our shield, making us warriors ready for anything that comes our way.
If God brings you to it, He’ll give you the strength to get through it—and thrive in the midst of it. If we take one day at a time, and trust God with every moment, we can rise to any occasion and grow in our faith.
“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6:13-18.
Hey everyone, I have some big news concerning my blog! The first announcement is that I have just been contacted by My Trending Stories and they want me to write for their website!
I was beyond excited when I saw this in my Instagram DM this morning. I have never done any type of official journalism before, and being asked to write for such a prominent website is an incredible opportunity! I guess you can say that I had a “walking-on-sunshine-moment” when I opened this message.
Second, 1timothy412girl.wordpress.com is now 1timothy412girl.com, since I just got my own URL. Thus, my website title is now a little shorter and a little more accessible. 😄
The last announcement is that I’m planning to have some awesome fellow bloggers contribute to this site. I’ve already started contacting people and with any luck, you should begin to see some guest posts soon! I’m looking forward to seeing what God has planned for this blog in this upcoming school year and I know that the guest-submissions are going to be awesome!
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”-Jeremiah 29:11
I made it everyone, today is the last day of the challenge!
I actually posted about the last topic in a previous entry. You can find the answer to today’s question here.
As crazy as this blog challenge has been, it has also been a major blessing. Through this challenge, I have gotten a lot of great new followers, I’ve received awesome feedback, and I’ve grown as a writer. I’ve honestly been surprised at some of the posts that drew the most attention. I thought for sure the refrigerator post would be a flop but I ended up being one of my most popular ‘challenge blogs’. Who knew?
Some of the topics were hard (Not to mention personal), but they forced me to be more open and have ended up being quite enjoyable to write! I think that the best part of this challenge has been reading the comments and interacting with all of you guys. It was hard coming up with new content everyday, but it was also pretty exciting! I can see why they call this thirty-day-thing a “challenge”.
To close up this challenge, I’d like to post some celebration music!
Through Your Eyes by Britt Nicole (She just released this song!!!)
Love With Your Life by Hollyn
What You Want by Tenth Avenue North
Eye On It by TobyMac
That’s How You Change The World by The Newsboys
Thank you so much for following this challenge! I promise to keep this blog going into the school year! I’m sure I’ll have plenty of topics to blog about with college on the horizon! 🏃
Day 29…A confession.
I am a nerd.
If you’ve known me for a while, you’ve probably figured this out. Even if you haven’t, you may have pieced this together somewhere along the way.
Though I’m not a fan of labels, many of my interests fall into the “nerd category”. I enjoy subjects like history, literature, psychology/sociology, and theology, and could honestly ramble on about any one of these subjects and the intersections between them (e.g. the sociology and history of Christian thought process…nerd alert!). I even enjoy the occasional discussion about politics, so long as it doesn’t turn heated and crazy.
Paired with the vice of being an overachiever, you can pretty much get the picture of what I was like in middle and high school.
I even went through a phase where I wanted glasses (before I knew that I needed them) because I thought that glasses made you look smarter. My mom didn’t quite believe me at first when I told her I thought I needed glasses, as I always talked about how cool I thought they looked. Initially, she thought I just wanted them for appearance-sake. Nonetheless, she took me to see an eye doctor and soon found that I actually did need them to see. I still wear the same frames today, as I can’t seem to get contacts in to save my life and have no interest in getting a new pair.
I think we all have our quirks; and nerdy-ness is just one of many for me. If you also have nerdy tendencies, I urge you not to be ashamed of it. Some of our greatest world changers would be considered “nerdy” by the world’s standards. Imagine where we’d be today if Einstein or Edison had suppressed their interests to fit in with the world!
God made each one of us different and unique; the world would be boring if we all looked, talked, acted, and thought alike. The people who I enjoy hanging out with the most are the ones who are fearlessly and unabashedly themselves. Never change just to try to fit in with the crowd. When you’re authentic, it inspires authenticity in others and helps us all to be a little more honest and transparent.
As an old song by Jonny Diaz says “You were made to fill a purpose that only you can do, so there could never be a more beautiful you.”
Day 28…My most embarrassing moment
I think that nearly every teenager/young adult has a couple of these in their rearview mirror. I could honestly think of a few situations just off the top of my head. Nonetheless, for the sake of this post, I’ve narrowed it down to a situation that happened to me during sophomore year.
During my 10th grade year, I joined the yearbook staff. Thankfully, I soon found that most of the other students were really nice and I began talking with one of the guys in the group. We became friends pretty quickly, and talked about everything from movies to school. Nonetheless, we eventually got to a point where we were running out of topics
If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you may remember that I’m horrible at small talk. I was grasping for literally anything to talk about, so I asked the lamest question in the book: “What’s you’re favorite color?”
I knew the question was pathetic, but I didn’t think there was anything problematic about the question.
I was dead wrong. To this day, I still remember his reply.
“I’m colorblind.”
I had just asked a person who was colorblind their favorite color.
I’m pretty sure I apologized about twenty times after that.
To make matters worse, I remembered after the fact that he had already told me about that a couple of days ago, but in that moment, it had completely slipped my mind.
Thankfully, he was cool about it, and we’re still friends to this day. But, at the time, it was pretty awkward.
I suppose it’s moments like this that serve as a good reminder of our humanness. It’s amazing how many awkward situations we can manage to find (or put) ourselves in. I know I’ve had my fair share of “awkward moments”
How about you? Have you ever found yourself in an awkward/embarrassing situation? If so, how did you react? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section below.
Day 27…what’s in my closet?
Yes, I know, it needs to be organized. 😂
What do you guys think? Time to clean out the closet? 😂
To those of you still following this challenge, we’re almost there! Twenty seven posts down, three to go! 🏃
Day 26…Your hidden talent
If you’ve been hanging around this blog long enough, you probably know some of my talents already. I have talked about some of my favorite hobbies, including writing and singing. Nonetheless, I do have a hobby that most people don’t know about and that may even surprise some.
Public speaking.
Now, even though I’m an extravert, I don’t necessarily come across super talkative offline. For the longest time, I thought that I was an introvert, until I took the Myers Briggs Personality Test, which confirmed otherwise (The test is here if you want to take it). I love being around people, but I hate having to be the one to carry the conversation. If I’m in a large group of people I don’t know well, my instincts tell me to stand in a corner and pretend to be busy on my phone. Plus, I’d often choose to read a good book over engaging in small talk with people who I’m not well acquainted with. Basically, I’m an extravert with introvert tendencies.
Which is why it is quite weird that I’m fairly comfortable giving a speech. Granted, I did take speech and debate classes during 8th and 9th grade, so perhaps that has something to do with it, but I honestly don’t know.
I suspect the reason public speaking comes more naturally than engaging in small talk is because I know what I’m going to say. I love being able to plan my words before I say them. With both writing and public speaking, I can plan my words and make sure everything sounds just right before presenting the material to an audience. When I’m speaking in conversation, it’s all left to improv.
Furthermore, I love the feeling of speaking about something that I believe will resonate with others. I have a deep seated desire to leave a mark in this world, and I want to say something that will remain after the speech has ended and the last words have been typed. It’s quite possible that I enjoy public speaking not so much for the event itself, but for the impact that I pray it makes. Whenever I speak about a topic I try to bring everything back to my faith and core values. Thus, public speaking has given numerous opportunity to share my faith and beliefs with my peers.
I’d love to hear about your secret talent and/or Meyers Briggs results if you decide to share! Always feel free to post your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below!
P.S. I recently had an awesome opportunity to guest blog for The Recovering Legalist. The post is here if you want to check it out! 😊
Day 25…Your biggest regret.
Truth be told, I don’t really have a lot of huge regrets. Perhaps it’s because of the fact that I’m still fairly young, or perhaps it’s because I don’t really take a lot of risks without calculating the consequences. Still, I have made mistakes and for this post, I have decided to write about my “moment of rebellion” in middle school.
I was playing manhunt with my youth group and one of my friends and I hid in a small opening under a bridge that led to one of the buildings. It was dark, dirty, and fairly uncomfortable under the bridge, but it was a good place to hide, so we both stayed still and silent. Even when two boys began jumping on top of the bridge, we managed to stay (somewhat) silent.
Eventually, the game ended and we heard one of the leaders announce that it was time to go back outside.
“Are you coming?” I remember asking my friend, ready to get up from dirt covered ground.
She then noted that it would be a good idea to stay hidden. Otherwise, no one would know that we had won the game. Since I’ve always been very adherent to rules, I was reluctant, but ended up staying.
I was going through a bit of a rough patch during this time, dealing with the typical trials of growing up. I think a big reason I went through with the plan was because I wanted to know that someone would notice if I was gone. In retrospect, it was dumb and juvenile, but I think everyone has something in their past that makes them wonder, “What was I thinking?”
Obviously, when one of the leaders found us, they were upset, and the following day, I had to send an apology letter to the leaders for not following the rules. I was pretty embarrassed long after that, worried that the people there were angry with me for what I did. After a while, the waters calmed and things went back to normal; but I still regret acting so foolishly.
I’d like to include a note in this post if you’re thinking of your own regrets: You’re never too far away from God’s grace. There is no mistake too big to be forgiven.
Romans 3:20-24 says “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
And, Romans 5:1-2 says “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
We serve a God that loves, forgives, and saves, and you’re never too far out of His reach.
In the words of Jeremy Camp, “He’ll take you back”!
Day 24…What attracts you (In love)
How about you? What do you believe are important qualities in a person? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions!
1 Timothy 4:12 Girl 