Goodmorning

Each Day, by Max Lucado

It's quiet. It's early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming.

In a few moments, the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of the day. The calm of solitude will be replaced by the pounding of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met. For the next twelve hours I will be exposed to the day's demands. It is now I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I'm free to choose. And so I choose….

I CHOOSE LOVE…
No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.

I CHOOSE JOY…
I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical…the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.

I CHOOSE PEACE…
I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.

I CHOOSE PATIENCE…
I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I'll invite him to do so. Rather than complain that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clenching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.

I CHOOSE KINDNESS…
I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. I will be kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.

I CHOOSE GOODNESS…
I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness.

I CHOOSE FAITHFULNESS…
Today I will keep my promises.
My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates will not question my word. My spouse will not question my love.

I CHOOSE GENTLENESS…
Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice, may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it only be in prayer. If I make a demand, may it only be of myself.

I CHOOSE SELF CONTROL…
I am a spiritual being… After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what will rot rule the eternal. I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy. I will be impassioned only by my faith. I will be influenced only by God. I will be taught only by Christ. I choose self-control.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek His grace. And then, when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest.

heck yes.

I finally caved in and bought some at CVS today.

it's really happening

Love Me Some Love Songs

As I mentioned in my previous post, my roommate is getting married. So with a bridal shower, bridal magazines floating through the house, and talks of invitations and dresses and every other detail, it's safe to say that my apartment has been enamored with weddings for the past year few months.

I love love love music and know that picking out the complete soundtrack to my future wedding will be one of my favorite parts, but not everyone shares this feeling -- so, Janelle asked the roommates to help her find her first dance song. We gathered on our couches, with laptops in hand and played our favorites for her as she either rejected them or put them on a "potential" list.

It was so much fun to brainstorm with her and yell "awwww" in unison when one of the roommates picked a really sweet song. We played a lot of old ones, a few new ones and countless in-betweens. For the rest of the day and for the past few days, I can't get some of my favorite ones out of my head, so enjoy them below [please extend me grace for extremely cheesy youtube videos].

And yes, they did decide on a great song, but I'll let that be their secret.

What songs make you swoon?

Bridal Bliss

 

My dear friend and roommate, Janelle, and another good friend, Brett, are engaged. They tie the knot in exactly two months! Yesterday, our apartment held her beautiful beautiful bridal shower, thrown by her lovely maid-of-honor, who is also one of our roommates, Lauren. 

Almost everything has a touch of purple, and the food spread was to die  for. Another roommate (can you tell I just love my roommates?), Kendall, is amazing at baking and decorating cakes and cupcakes. Look at these beautiful little cakes, and yes, she made that white chocolate "B" (Janelle's future last name intial!) herself. She is just so talented I can't even handle it.

 

 

The decorations were simple and elegant - candles tied with purple ribbons and small and simple purple touches everywhere. 

 It was a lovely shower for our lovely bride to be. After all the guests left we finished the day watching a marathon of chick flicks including Bride Wars, Sex and the City 2, and Life as We know it. 

The perfect decorations, the perfect food, the perfect occasion, 

the perfect people, the perfect day.

I'll leave you with a song. I love this classic love song, it makes me tear-up almost every time I hear it. Half because it's sweet as can be, and half because it reminds me of the Notebook. Either way, you can bet it made an appearance on yesterday's bridal shower playlist.

living without, pt. 2

Okay, as promised an explanation for my extended absence. However first, some background. My laptop is my life. No, I'm not kidding, my life. It has tens of thousands photos going back to high school, countless articles needed for my professional portfolio from all four years as an undergrad, all my personal spread sheets, THON documents, receipts, passwords, everything! Not to mention, the real heart-wrenching part, all my beloved music. All of it.

And no, none of it has ever been backed up, as common sense would advise one to do so.

A few weeks ago, my computer started acting up - blue screening and all of that yucky stuff. It would randomly shut down and would take about 45 minutes of boot up time and 3 no-warning shut offs to even access the internet. I was lucky, if I could check my email before I left for the day [let alone try to blog... cue the two-and-a-half-week absence]. I knew my computer was on its final days and I knew that I had nothing backed up.

I called my wonderful and always supportive parents and explained my dilemma, they told me to not hesitate and to buy an external hard drive asap. But I did delay, I waited a few days. And I waited too long.

As you can gather, it crashed, I lost everything and have been completely heartbroken for the past week about it.

My parents were great, encouraging me that they know a computer guy who might be able to recover my stuff and I had a nice, shiny new computer in less than 24 hours after my old one crashed.

Again, I find myself in this place. The same place I was when I blogged two and a half months ago when my car died on me, hence the 'pt. 2,' part one. Living without, living where I've had great things and have had them taken from me. It's pretty dramatic to say about a computer, but looking past the material things like my pictures and music, I feel hopeless for finding a job. I don't have any work to prove that I know how to write. If finding a job was tough before, it just got 10 times tougher. Fantastic.

But, like last time, something has brought my perspective back to where it needs to be, and made me realize that a computer crash doesn't leave me living without. Not even a little bit. Last time this came in the form of watching the riots begin in Egypt. This time, it was going to a THON recognition reception for the year and hearing a Four Diamonds Family speak about their beautiful 5-year-old daughter who has lukemia.

Suddenly, a computer crash didn't matter so much. Suddenly, I found myself praying that my computer would continually crash if it meant never having a child who has cancer. A computer, a car, a ____ whatever of mine will break soon, is made by the world. It's from the world and for the world, and worldly things have no value. They have use, but not value. They have purpose for phases of our lives, but don't matter in the grand picture of our lives.

And through these lessons I am continually learning about the process of letting go of things of the world, the have no meaningful worth in my life. My faith, my family, my friends... now those are things worth fighting for, those are the things worth valuing.

"The world and its desires will pass away, 

but those that do the will of God will live forever." 1 Jn. 2:17

So I'm slowly learning. I'm not there and probably won't be soon. But through these small but important life lessons I am trying to be a person who values the things in life that really matter, not laughable things like a hard drive, and itunes filled with music.

And so, dear friends, that is the story of why I haven't been blogging and the story of the last days of my precious computer. It's also the story of the birth of my new laptop [which is actually pretty amazing], a new iTunes filled with music, and a renewed perspective of what's important.

Please learn from my lessons, particularly from my mistakes in valuing material things more than I ought. If you can get it right, let me know how you did, and if you struggle like me, let's walk through this together.

On another note, it's APRIL. How on earth did that happen?! I have exactly one month and one week until I graduate! Ah!

Go out and enjoy the spring, and here's a little love. From me, to you.

i'm back! well, tomorrow

I am so so terribly sorry for my lack of posting for the last couple of weeks. I'm prepared to write, in full, about life, love and the loss of my computer [and all of its thousands of contents] tomorrow. 

But for the night I'll leave you with:

1. This dreamy song to lull you to sleep

2. A photo of my biodegradable graduation cap and gown (minus me) that I finally bought. 

(yes, I could theoretically be buried in it) 

3. and this photo, to make you feel my love