Summer Reading

We'll see how many I get through while I am in Korea.

Soul Searching- Mindy Caliguire
Evangelism in the Early Church- Michael Green
As I Lay Dying- William Faulkner
How to Lead a Seeker Bible Discussion- Rebecca Manley Pippert
The Cost of Commitment- John White
The Master Plan of Evangelism- Robert E. Coleman
I Once Was Lost- Don Everts and Doug Schaupp
Friend Raising- Betty Barnett
Picturing the Gosple- Neil Liningstone
Coconut Generation- Sam George
Colossians Remixed- Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat
Courageous Leadership- Bill Hybels
Called to Care- Judith Allen Shelly and Arlene B. Miller

Summertime (and the living is easy.)

It is summertime. So I guess that means I am going to start to blog. Whoot.

Frankly, its creepy.

I guess since it is break, and I don't get to talk to people who aren't Charis or my immediate family, I will start blogging again.

So I just finished New Moon. For those of you not in the know, this is the second of four books in the Twilight saga, a series about a teenage girl, Bella, who falls in love with a vampire, Edward. Edward is beautiful, his body is chiseled, he has super human speed and strength (meaning that he can carry Bella around and give great piggy-backs) he is an amazing musician (composing songs for Bella), and he is oober smart. He protects Bella from harm, he watches her in her sleep (a little staulkerish but whatever) and most of all he is devastatingly in love with Bella. And if I were Bella, I'm not sure I would want to date him. Or at least, theirs isn't exactly a relationship I am going to spend much time fantasizing being in one day. Frankly, its creepy.

Its not the fact he is a vampire, but the intensity of the relationship that is unsettling. All the diologue is like *read to self in annoyed and sarcastic tone* ""oooo I love you." "No! I love you more." "Don't kid your self, I totally love you more." "Why would you ever love me?!" "How could you ever love me?!" "I can't live with out you" "wahhhhhhhn!!! im so in love it hurts!"" They almost NEVER talk about anyone other then themselves, and when they do, its only to be concerned with immediate family. Even when they talk about them selves, the dialog is heavy on how much they love each other and light on anything else about them. It seems so substantialness. So shallow. So inwardly focused and self obsessed. Obviously there are still elements of their relationship and the plot of the book that will keep me reading to the end of the series, but it super reinforcing the idea that a relationship should be a blessing to more then just the two people that are involved. By all means, be in love- enjoy each other! But when thats all you do, all you think about and talk about, gag me with a spoon. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion this is why God made children come from sex. Its like God saying, don't stop loving each other, but don't forget to love other people too!!

Just thought I would share my thoughts and calm any worries y'all might have (knowing my propensity to get lost in love stories) hearing that I'm reading some of the sappiest teen fiction ever put into print.

Control

I might have a really hard time with the fact that e-boards blog isn't my blog. Carrie just wrote the first non-Katy entry, and she only capitalized one word in the title- the second word, and it was all in CAPS.

*Deep breath*

Perhaps this will be a good exercise in not having to control everything.

(You can check out e-board's blog at binghamtonivcf.blogspot.com.)

All about the sabbath (mostly cause I'll copy paste this to use for my healthy habits journal)

So I am interrupting my quite time to write this, because something occurred to me this Sabbath. I think I am trying to be a weekend rest warrior, and trying to get all my rest into one day. And this means that I am not focusing on resting in God, but more on catching up on sleep and play that I don’t get to enjoy during most of the week. I’d like for my Sabbath to be lots of quite time (in the literal and Christianese sense), reading, time in nature, and fellowship. But yesterday, I was so physically tired by Sabbath, that all I did was lie on the floor of Steve and Tom’s place and watch tv and movies.

I think if I want to rest, and not just veg, I am going to have to be better at giving myself breaks through out the week. I'm getting better at setting aside chunks of time for home work, fellowship work, and Korean language development, so now I think I want to put aside some rest time during my days. If I actively rest as opposed to trying to doing hours upon hours of highly distracted work, I'll probably be able to get more done.

My stupid freaking healthy habit journal, Sabbath, and tooth pick crosses

So I'm supposed to take up a healthy habit and keep a daily journal of it for NURS 222. Yeah freaking right. Like I'm going to journal EVERY DAY about some thing. I think I really resent that the nursing program is taking the liberty to make me change how I live AND being so invasive as to make me write about it EVERY day. Screw that.

This entire entry is going into the journal, including what I just said. If they want to know about how I feel about adopting a healthy habit and then writing about it all the time, then they can know how irate I am that they are trying to get so much into my life. For a program that places such an emphases on professionalism and separating your private life from your work, you'd think that they'd let us be good nursing students in class and clinical but who ever we want to be outside.

So my healthy habit is going to be keeping the rest work cycle as laid out in Genesis 1, aka Sabbath keeping. But a part of resting one day is working the other six, so I think that that is what I'll be journaling about for the most part.

Sabbath Update: Last Sunday, my room was spick and span by the time Saturday 7 rolled around, and I didn't do homework or fellowship work till Sunday 6:30ish. Next week I want to do the same things, but add both a quite time (at least 1/2 hour) on Saturday night and on Sunday (again, at least 1/2 hour) before sabbath ends, and I want to subtract spending money. So no shopping on Sabbath. I've decided that that doesn't apply to dinning halls, but no Walmart or online stuff on Sabbath. A part of not working I think should also be not acquiring.

Work Update: So as today isn't sabbath, I should have don't lots of work. But I didn't. I got up later then usual cause I was tired. And after eight and a half hours of classes, I just went over to Sunroot's for dinner and we talked till 11. (God, I love talking with that kid...) Now I'm just trying to get some fellowship stuff done before bed.

I'm okay with not getting lots of work done on Tuesdays. If I can get through all my classes, that seems like work enough. I just wish I didn't have to organize this freaking tabling thing for IV. I love God, but not some of ways I find my self serving Him. I guess its just a toothpick cross I'll have to put in my pocket and let poke me sometimes. (aka 'bearing my cross' on a much, much smaller scale.)

Cognitive activation theory of stress

The theory that instability and stress occur whenever there is a discrepancy between what the person perceives the situation should be and what it is.

(aka- my life)