Oh How He Loves Us

"Oh God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands." (Psalm 63:1-4, ESV)

Have you ever been running on a really hot dry day and not carried your water with you? Your throat and mouth become so dry and your strength begins to drain as dehydration sets in; all you can think about is getting to water before you pass out. 

I rediscovered this underlined passage in my Bible last night, and it really hit me in the face.  It's just so beautiful to me, and a powerful wake up call. 

Think about it, this passage is basically telling us as Christians we need to seek God as if we are thirsting to death.  He is our water; He is our strength.  We need to constantly be striving for God.  We must continuously work to become closer and closer to Him.

In this passage, David writes that God's love is greater than life.  How completely and breathtakingly beautiful is that?  God's love is greater than the mountains; than the sunset on the beach; it's greater than this whole earth. It's greater than life.  I don't know about you, but that just makes me smile.  

God's love is greater than life, and we have His love.  He loves us!

God's love is kinda like that glass of ice cold water you finally get to on the hot day after running.  It pierces your dry throat and revives the strength you didn't have before.  When you are weak and straining to remain standing, God's love saves.

What really hit me in the face about this passage was that I really haven't been working hard to become closer to God.  I kinda put God on the back burner last semester, and it showed.  I was miserable.  (Now, not to say you can't go through hard times as a Christian and while seeking God. But Philippians 4:11-13, Paul tells that in whatever situation we face, no matter despondency or prosper, we can get through it with God.  We can find contentment in God; He is our strength.)

So yeah, I'm not perfect. Totes obvi. I constantly forget to put God first in every situation.  But I'm working on it.  I'm just so grateful for his unconditional love.

I hope that this passage makes you as happy as it made me.  :) 

I Will Survive

Post number 6!!!

This topic isssss.......

How To......

...Survive Your First Week of College

Okay, I'm just going to be honest.  This first week, I don't think there was a point at all where I had a firm grasp on knowing what the heck I was doing.  Yeah, there were times that I was that freshman with the campus map. (But it's a map on my iPhone, so it was a bit more discreet than a huge piece of paper.)

Needless to say, I am absolutely no expert at this college stuff yet.

But I am going to tell you just a few things that I found handy to have or do (or not to have or do) that made this week a little more optimistic.

- Eat. There is a lot of walking and you're going to need energy for that.  If you stay up late watching New Girl and decide to sleep in and skip breakfast before your morning class, you will regret it. Not that I know from experience or anything.... 

- Have snacks for in between classes.

- Take the dang stairs.  Not the elevator.  Why?  You need to work off all the food. No one wants the Freshman 15.  Gross.

- Listen to music or remember to do something that is calming.  It's a stressful week and you'll need something to keep the nerves down.

- If you decide to put a white board outside your dorm door for people to leave messages to you, remember that there is a high chance that not all those messages are going to be sweet and nice.  Especially if you live on a coed floor.  Just saying..

- Talk to people. It's nice to hear from other freshman that you aren't the only one freaking out about something or not having a clue as to what's up.  And talk to upperclassmen too, if you can, because they've already been through what you're going through and can offer some pretty good advice.. (usually).

- Leave for class about 30 minutes (or a different time depending on where your dorm is) before class is supposed to start.  Sometimes the class buildings can be super confusing to navigate and you don't wanna be late for class.

- Sit on the front row in your class. Yes, you will probably look like an overachiever, but I've found that it is so much easier to pay attention and stay awake if you sit in the front.  You can also hear the professor better and I think it shows the them that you actually care about the class. 

- Be sure to see things and be able to give them your own opinion, especially in you live on campus.  What I mean by this: there are going to be certain groups (*cough* frats) that many different people have VERY different opinions about.  And some people will say one thing, while another will say the opposite.  Get opinions from several people, not just one person, and pay attention to what's going on around you and how certain people are acting.  You don't wanna end up at a party that you find out is not somewhere you really wanna be.  I do NOT know this from any personal experience, but from listening to people and hearing VERY different things about different groups, I could see how it would be easy for this to happen.

- Do your homework, and have your books on the first day of class because YOU WILL HAVE HOMEWORK ASSIGNED. Sad, I know.

I'm done. This week has been insane, but I've loved it :)

Go see how Victoria survived her 1st week of college!