Only a few more days until turkey-day!

Tired and Brain-dead students going home for a time of blessing with family and friends before the deadly finals hit.
Students like me!



A time to relax, unwind, and laugh...


Delicious food....


Winter Beauty setting in...


Time to see family members that really never grow up...


Fellowship with loved ones and reaching out to those less fortunate...


One of my favorite times of the year- and I have SO much to be thankful for!!!

Quotes to ponder...

Well, I decided for some strange reason to get sick on my birthday.
I just took some cold medicine, but before I get to bed, I thought I would put up a couple quotes from a book I have been reading. I can't get these words out of my head!

"The danger of good works, spiritual investments, and all the rest of it is that we can construct a picture of ourselves in which we situate our self-worth. Complacency then replaces sheer delight in God's unconditional love. Our doing becomes the very undoing of the gospel."

"We miss Jesus' point entirely when we use His words a sweapons against others... hypocrisy is the natural expression of what is meanest in us all."

"If we maintain the open- mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established sturctures, including our own... we become fully aware that God's truth cannot be imprisioned in a small definition... (this) does not absorb all propositions equally like a sponge, nor is it soft. But the open mind realizes that reality, truth, and Jesus Christ are incredibly open-ended."

November 15th

is my birthday. Stayed tuned. Life is changing!

At the Crossroads

A Choice...


A New Life...


Challenges, Patience, Courage...


I must choose

I got tagged! :)

Where is your mobile phone? Beside me

Your hair colour? Reddish Brown

Your mother? Miss her

Your father? Miss Him

Your favourite thing? Life


Your dream last night? Not good

Your dream goal? Peace

The room you're in? Cozy

Your hobby (hobbies)? Music

Your fear? Uncertainty

Where do you want to be in 6 years? Travelling

Where were you last night? Boise

What you're not? Mature

One of your wish-list items? A Kitchen-Aid and Dishwasher

Where you grew up? Small town USA

The last thing you did? Ate corn

What are you wearing? Exercise clothes

Your TV? On

Your pet? Miss her


Your computer? My lifesaver

Can't live without? Sleep

Your mood? Frustrated


Missing someone? My Family

Your car? A MESS

Something you're not wearing? Shoes

Favourite shop? The Flying M


Your summer? Hard

Love someone? My family and roomies

Love/Hate Relationship? Music

Current addiction? Sleep

Your favourite colour? Black

When is the last time you laughed? Tonight

When is the last time you cried? A few weeks ago

Me and the Flying M

sO eASiLy DiStrActEd!!!

Update

I'm finally updating... and praying about my purpose for this blog... My camera is still broken from sitting too long in Moroccan sand on a windy day. Consequently, I feel like I'm losing a piece of my life, an important part, because I have failed to take pictures since I got back from my summer travels in July. So, just as little kids ask you to pray for their puppy dogs, I am asking you to pray for my camera- it is the means in which I link my life at home with my life at school. It is the way that I try to make sense of the whirlwind of different worlds I find myself in. I have always had a fear of forgetting things someday, and taking pictures is my sense of security and comfort. :)

Pictures from the summer

Girls and Their Hearts...

This is a GREAT article from boundless.org... feed on it; think on it!

Not Your Buddy

by Suzanne Hadley

It's been 10 years since Boundless was birthed. As part of our celebration of a decade of ministry, we're re-publishing a popular article that, though nearly three years old, still resonates with a lot of our readers.

We're publishing another notable article tomorrow, and then rounding out the week with retrospectives from former Boundless editors Candice Watters and Matt Kaufman.

* * *

The other day I was having lunch with a friend and she began to pour out an all-too-familiar story. The guy she'd been hanging out with four nights a week, the one who'd made her a jazz mix CD and asked her to be his date to his office Christmas party, the one who'd gone to late-night movies with her and made her pasta — that guy — had crushed her hopes (again) with a single, nonchalant statement: "I don't see myself in a relationship anytime soon."

I tried to reassure my friend that the guy probably thought she was beautiful and fabulous and smart but had just made a choice to be single for now.

"But we have such a great connection," she moaned. "We're such good friends!"

I felt anger well up. This was not the first time I'd heard this story. I could count nearly half a dozen friends who found themselves in this same frustrating situation. After investing months in late night talks, meals together and flirty e-mails, each woman faced the sad reality that the guy actually wasn't planning to upgrade their friendship to, well, marriage.

It's Not Our Fault!

I decided to discuss this trend with a few of my guy friends. I specifically targeted Brad, whose boyish good looks and abundance of charm had lured in more than one hopeful woman and gained him a reputation as a heartbreaker.

"Do you think it's wrong for a guy to initiate one-on-one time with a woman when he has no intentions with her?" I asked.

My friend paused, savoring the question. "I think," he said, "if a woman wants something to be there, she's going to see something there."

His buddies smirked knowingly.

"But don't you think seeking her out and spending time with her encourages it?" I prodded.

"She's the one who's choosing to view that as special treatment," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's her interpretation."

"Can you tell when a girl's interested in you?"

"Usually."

"Then why would you lead her on like that?"

"She's free to say no anytime. Until then, I'll assume she's OK with it."

By "OK," I guessed he meant the girl could handle it emotionally.

His buddies slapped him on the back.

"That's right," one of them piped up. "Women are always going to read into something. If you catered to it, you'd have to give up female friends completely."

Mutually Exclusive

The most helpful book I never read was a little relationship book called He's Just Not That Into You. The title alone provided the answer to a decade's old inner struggle I've had. You know, the one that causes a single female to hope a relationship will develop out of a friendship despite a complete absence of evidence of the fact.

In her book Relationships, former college professor Dr. Pamela Reeve discusses three levels of friendships: acquaintances, companions and intimate friends. Dr. Reeve observes that men and women cannot sustain an intimate friendship without one or the other harboring romantic expectations. She recommends that men and women avoid being intimate friends outside of courtship and marriage.

Companions, she says, generally spend less than two hours together a week. When a man indicates he would like to see the woman more than that, but claims they are "just friends," he sends a mixed message.

Dr. Reeve writes: "One party can selfishly enjoy all the benefits of a relationship, the warmth and relief from loneliness, the satisfaction of the attention that feeds the ego — all without the accompanying commitment. One party luxuriates, while the other party feels cheated and is left with deep unsatisfied longings."

I've recently observed several non-dating relationships that seem to fall into the "intimate friends" category. In every case, it is the woman who is paying the price emotionally. Why? When a guy starts investing his heart, he can do something about it by making a move. And if the girl rejects him, the friendship ends or changes significantly. A woman, however, can hang on in this kind of relationship indefinitely, hoping the guy will eventually share her feelings. She makes herself available to him as a "friend," all the while hoping the friendship will blossom into something more.

Unfortunately, even if the guy senses the woman's interest, like my friend Brad, he has not made a direct offer to her and therefore feels no obligation to clear up the matter. Maybe we could chalk that up to communication differences between men and women: a man may be oblivious to unspoken signs that he has been placed in the "future husband" category. What he may be viewing as an innocent dinner, she sees as an indication that the friendship is developing into more. But men should assume that if a woman is spending a lot of time with him, she is interested and she is investing her emotions. (I suspect men realize this more often than they'll admit, but hold onto these ego-boosting relationships anyway.)

Women, on the other hand, need to assume less. A woman should not assume that a guy friend she's spending time with is: a) just too shy to make a move; b) thinking she's the woman of his dreams but the timing isn't right; c) in denial of God's will that they be together.

We get it. A woman loves to read into a guy's every action. That's her relational crime. But the guy does her a disservice by allowing her to be his "buddy girl" — a female friend who provides the relational benefits without the commitment.

In his article Physical Intimacy and the Single Man, Matt Schmucker points out that men defraud their sisters when they indulge in this type of relationship. "Simply put," he writes, "a man defrauds a woman when, by his words or actions, he promises the benefits of marriage to a woman he either has no intention of marrying or if he does, has no way of finally knowing that he will."

Single men and women are failing each other. Uncommitted intimate friendships may satiate immediate needs, but they lead to frustration and heartache. Not to mention, for singles ready for marriage, these "friendships" waste time and energy.

Stepping Back

Men and women who find themselves in a dead-end friendship, should take responsibility. A woman is responsible to be wise with her heart. Solomon said, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" (Prov. 4:23). If a woman feels her heart longing for a man who's not pursuing her, indulging those feelings is unwise.

Song of Songs puts it this way, "Do not awaken love before it so desires." As a generation of women drunk on chick flicks, we want romance to happen so badly we allow ourselves to fantasize about relationships that have no founding.

About a year ago, my sister, a college junior, was receiving regular phone calls from Nick, a guy friend who had transferred to another school. During their conversations he would shower her with compliments, ask her what she was looking for in a guy and talk about taking her out to dinner at a fancy restaurant when he visited. At the same time, he congratulated her for being the only girl he could really talk to who wouldn't "get the wrong idea."

Despite her desire to be that exception, Sarah found herself increasingly confused by Nick's attention. She realized she was beginning to entertain romantic thoughts. After seeking counsel, Sarah decided she needed to cut back on her interactions with Nick to protect her heart.

During their next phone conversation, she explained how she felt. Nick admitted he wasn't interested in her as more than a friend, but he seemed shocked and offended that Sarah wanted to back off.

Just as a woman should take measures to guard her heart in relationships, a guy should seek to protect the emotions of his female friends. Paul instructed Timothy to treat young women "as sisters with absolute purity." I can say this from experience — you never have to wonder if your brother is romantically interested in you.

I have interacted with guys who are genuine and friendly without making me wonder if they want me to have their children. Like a good dance partner, the guy gently eases me to a place where I understand he considers me a friend only. We may engage in a meaningful friendship, but he does not give false signals by inviting me to dinner, e-mailing me daily or initiating extended time together. While these actions are fine if the guy is interested, they are misleading if he's not.

Make Room for Romance

Ecclesiastes croons, "There is a time for love." If, as a woman, you are indulging in an intimate friendship with a man who is not pursuing you, you are accepting a cheap imitation of love. And by spending all your time with a guy who will never put a ring on your finger, you may miss a potential suitor.

If, as a man, you are spending large quantities of time with a woman, you may want to consider if perhaps the relationship is deserving of an upgrade to an intentional relationship that explores the possibility of matrimony. If not, do your sister the courtesy of making your stance clear, freeing her to be pursued by another man.

Above all, if you find yourself in an intimate friendship with someone of the opposite sex, ask the Lord for wisdom and discernment. Describing the complexity of relationships, Dr. Reeve uses the words of a poster she once read:

Involvement with people is always a very delicate thing....
It requires real maturity to get involved and not get all messed up.

"Never," she concludes, "is this more true than in relationships between men and women."

I couldn't agree more with the good doctor. When it comes to male-female relationships, lacking intent, the buddy system is a bad idea.

New Beginnings

Life changes as our perceptions become more focused.... things happen that are unexpected, yet not unwelcome, because they bring freedom, renewal, peace...
Change is so hard, but so good- it allows us to go beyond our expectations, to look out beyond the present and see that God may have more for us. We are led up to the edge of the overwhelmingly high cliff, surrounded by trees, rivers, green pastures...
And we are told to jump...

Conformed.... or Transformed...

It is so easy to blend in, to change who you are so others will like you... to do anything to fit in takes no courage. To do everything you can to fight your will to blend in... to truly stand out takes courage.

If we go through life changing to our surroundings, our companions, and to the situations life is constantly throwing at us, no one will know who we really are including ourselves.

It is time to stand up for who you are, the person that you were meant to be, not the person that creeps up when you are at your weakest, the easy personality of complacency to the world's expectations.

Different is beautiful.

I'm back!

Stories to come!

Last Post...

Hey all,

This is my last post before I leave for Morraco...

My bag will be here tonight at 9!!! (1 pm back home) Thank you so much for all your prayers!!! I have blisters from two days in uncomfy flip flops so I'm so relieved to be getting my bag!

Another praise! There are more celiacs here in Spain than there are at home. The super markets are full of gluten-free crackers, bread, meat, and yummmmy chocolate chip cookies! My leaders are SO nice, and they have made sure that I have a bag full of crackers, dried fruit, nuts, soy milk, and cookies to take with me tomorrow. They also said (and this surprises me because I did so much research!) that in Morroco there are many diabetics, and so alot of people cannot eat sugar. They said that when we visit homes where I cannot eat the food, they will explain that I'm unable, like a diabetic, to eat certain foods, and because of this the Morrocans will not take offense! They aim to keep me as gluten-free (and well) as possible! Praise the Lord!

The beach here is beautiful, and today we had a picnic and laid in the sun. The orientation officially begins tonight and then we finish training in Morocco. The difference in cultures is absolutely crazy, and I can hardly take it all in!

I will be back in Spain on the 28th... Blessings and Thank you for praying!!!

Love Kate

Algeciras, Spain

Hi all!

I'm here in Spain, and it is beautiful! Very tired, but loving it here! We are staying in a small 5th floor apartment on a little street in the middle of town, and from our balcony we can see the city as well as the coast. We are only a short drive away from the Strait of Gilbraltar, where we will be ferrying across to Morocco in a couple days. Orientation will be in Morocco, and we will then be spending a couple weeks putting to good use what we learn.

Please pray... my bag did not arrive with me, and it only has a couple days to get here! If it does not come in time, one of the ladies who lives here in Spain has offered to let me borrow some of her clothes as she lived in Tunisia for two years and has often been to Morroco. But I also had my sandals and some other important things in my other bag... obviously if it doesn't come that means God will provide for me without it... but nonetheless it would be so nice!!!

Please continue to pray for the things below... I will update again probably tomorrow before I head across the strait...

I will give your life to you as a prize... [Jeremiah 45:5]

This past couple weeks have been so hard for me. I have so many pent up feelings of inadequacy and failure, and as hard as I have tried, I have been so frustrated with myself for not being "enough." Who am I not enough for though? The more that I have thought and prayed about this, I am finding that the only one I am inadequate for is... myself. God loved me so much in my sin and imperfection that He died for me, yet I continually go to Him apologizing that I just can't make myself worthy enough for Him, when all He really wants is... me... just the way I am. If I could only remember this truth and shut out all the lies that I am continually tempted to believe about who I am. The root of such lies is pride; I am unable to relinquish my grasp on the fact that I cannot make myself what I was not made to be. How freeing to finally realize that all of Him is MORE than enough for all of me... and that I must look to Him to fulfill and decide who I am to be, not who I think I should be for Him.

I read something today that really confirmed this. Oswald Chambers says in "My Utmost For His Highest": Are you prepared to let God take you into total oneness with Himself, paying no more attention to what you call the great things in life? Are you prepared to surrender totally and let go?... Once you do surrender, you will no longer think about what God is going to do. Abandonment means to refuse yourself the luxury of asking any questions. If you totally abandon yourself for God, He immediately says to you, "I will give your life to you as a prize...." The reason people are tired of life is that God has not given them anything-- they have not been given their life "as a prize". The way to get out of that condition is to abandon yourself to God. And once you do get to the point of total surrender to Him, you will be the most surprised and delighted person on earth, God will have you absolutely without any limitations, and He will have given you our life. If you are not there, it is either because of disobedience in your life or your refusal to be simple enough."

Am I not only willing to give Jesus my best, but my worst? Am I willing to offer Him my discrepancies, weaknesses, imperfections, and failures along with the things that I think He may want from me, things that seem of use and importance?

sick...

Well sometimes my body has to yell to get my attention; why do I tend to learn lessons the hard way? :/
It's so annoying when my health can't keep up with my agenda... when my body says to SLOW DOWN...

God's sovereignity is written all over my life, like a beautiful tapestry. Everything that happens both significant and small screams of His presence in every part of my being. Even the things that seem never to be reached; the hurdles that have not yet been overcome, the insurmountable barriers- all are overshadowed by His powerful words, "I am with you... My presence will go with You, and I will give you rest."

As I sit in the quiet of my room, I am filled with a sense of calm, of simple trust, like a child. I sit filled with a hope of new mercies, never-ending faithfulness, and unabounding love.

Holiness or Hardness to God?

3/30 My Utmost for His Highest

The reason many of us stop praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer. It sounds good to say that we pray, and we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial— that our minds are quieted and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implied in this verse that God is amazed at such thoughts about prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying (see Philippians 2:5 ). Instead of worshiping God, we recite speeches to God about how prayer is supposed to work. Are we worshiping God or disputing Him when we say, "But God, I just don’t see how you are going to do this"? This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic. We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do. We don’t worship God, nor do we seek to conform our minds to the mind of Christ. And if we are hard toward God, we will become hard toward other people.

Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship with God, or have we become hard and dogmatic?

Do you find yourself thinking that there is no one interceding properly? Then be that person yourself. Be a person who worships God and lives in a holy relationship with Him. Get involved in the real work of intercession, remembering that it truly is work-work that demands all your energy, but work which has no hidden pitfalls. Preaching the gospel has its share of pitfalls, but intercessory prayer has none whatsoever.

Hanon hurts my hands, and self-pity my heart...

I never know what to post when I'm at school as opposed to being home. All I can say is I'm doing school. And more school.

Last night was opening night of pride and prejudice. It went pretty well! It was funny though... I'm supposed to have a bonnet for the first scene but we couldn't find one, so I am supposed to change my line from, "how do you like my new bonnet?" to "how do you like my new jacket?"... I practiced the first one too much... so in other words Lizzie said that my non-existent bonnet was, "sweetly pretty"... whoops... :p

My heart right now is really in the article below. It is an excerpt from one of my favorite books, a book that really changed my life. My feelings want to deny that suffering is anything to be considered good, but it is yet another aspect of our lives to glorify God with, and if we do, He will strengthen and shape us into well equipped and persevering Christians. In fact, I think God is glorified most in our suffering and difficult days, because when we are at our weakest, we allow Him to come into our lives and be our strength! If only we could have that attitude at all times. So, read and ponder. It really will change your outlook on pain, frustration, and suffering.

SHOULD CHRISTIANS HAVE TO SUFFER?

Many modern- day evangelistic efforts have promised sinners unending peace, joy, a home in heaven, and a prosperous life between here and there, if they will simply come to Jesus. That kind of preaching, stripped of the call to discipleship and cross bearing, has produced a generation of soft, flabby "disciples" who have no stomach for the battles of the Christian life. When their hopes are dashed by the inevitable trials and tribulations, they whimper and whine and make a dash for the quickest escape route.

By convincing us that our suffering is undeserved or unnecessary, the Enemy succeeds in getting us to resent and resist the will and purposes of God.

The message that was preached by the Lord Jesus Himself and by the apostles who followed Him was a call to take up the cross; it was a call to sign up for battle; it was a call to suffer.

The apostle Paul taught that suffering is an essential course in God's curriculum for all believers: "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

Arthur Mathews served as a missionary in China from 1938-49, when the Communists took control. He was one of the last China Inland Mission missionaries to leave China in 1953, after being held under house arrest for four years with his wife and daughter. His writings relfect a commitment to self-denial and a willingness to embrace the plan and purposes of God in suffering:

"We tend to look at the circumstances of life in terms of what they may do to our cherished hopes and convenience, and we shape our decisions and reactions accordingly. When a problem threatens, we rush to God, not to seek his perspective, but to ask him to deflect the trouble. Our self- concern takes priority over whatever it is that God might be trying to do thorugh the trouble....

An escapist generation reads security, prosperity, and physical well- being as evidences of God's blessing. Thus when he puts suffering and afflictions into our hands, we misread his signals and misinterpret his intentions."

If we do not trust the heart and intentions of God, we will naturally resist suffering. But, as seventeenth- century Puritan author William Law exhorts us, we must learn to welcome and embrace suffering as a pathway to sanctification and a doorway into greater intimacy with God:

"Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self- denying, suffering Saviour."

The Truth is, God is far more interested in our holiness than in our immediate, temporal happiness-- He knows that apart from being holy, we can never be truly happy.

The Truth is, it is impossible to be holy apart from suffering. Even Jesus Himself, during His years here on earth, was in some unexplainable way made "perfect through suffering" (Hebrews 2:10); and "although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). We say we want to be like Jesus, and then we resist the very instrument God chooses to fulfill that desire.

All the New Testament authors recognized that there is a redemptive, sanctifying fruit that cannot be produced in our lives apart from suffering. In fact, Peter goes as far as to insist that suffering is our calling-- not just for some select group of Christian leaders or martyrs but for every child of God: "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21).

True joy is not the absence of pain but the sanctifying, sustaining presence of the Lord Jesus in the midst of the pain. Through the whole process, whether it be a matter of days, weeks, months, or years, we have His promise:

"The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."
1 Peter 5:10

-Nancy Leigh Demoss

Spring Break...

Here are pictures of the craft room... I took them tonight and there was no natural light to work with, so they are not THE BEST, but they will work for now!!!


































In other news, I have so much homework to finish that I'm really fighting against being completely overwhelmed...

None of that! Tomorrow is a great reminder about ALL the things we have to be thankful for!!!

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
Romans 5:6-11

HAPPY EASTER!!!

In other news... Katie is a music major again!

four days and counting...

SPRING!

It is screaming spring outside! And I am... inside! Friday is screaming, "let me out of class"! Friday does not know of my three remaning classes or the fact that I have a 10 page paper to write before tonight... or the large amount of music theory I have to catch up on. Friday knows nothing!!!
In other news, yesterday we began putting the set together for our play, Pride and Prejudice. Most of the girls are having their dresses made in period style- mine is gray!
At the moment we are watching The Barber of Seville in class. Wednesday we watched The Pirates of Penzance. I think Pirates is one of the only operas I can say I really like!
NNU is in the process of picking a new president, and the Board of Trustees should have made a decision by tonight. There is quite the air of excitement over here, between the presidential search, the South Pacific performances, and Spring's grand enterance; which brings me back to my original dilemma- I'M INSIDE!!!

Atheists and Snow

It is snowing outside, and that officially makes me a sad person... I woke up this morning and was so excited to look out the window and see the beautiful sun, the grass, and the people bustling about trying to get to class, and all I saw was a much unwanted winter wonderland.

In my research writing/critical thinking class, we have been reading various articles and discussing them, and one of the articles we read last week was an excerpt from Christopher Hitchens book, "God is Not Great- How Religion Poisions Everything." Consequently, it was extremely interesting to find this email from Stand to Reason in my inbox this morning."

The "New" Atheists
There has been an attack on religion.

Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great--How Religion Poisons
Everything
Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell--Religion as Natural
Phenomenon
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Sam Harris, The End of Faith--Religion, Terror, and the Future of
Reason and Letter to a Christian Nation

These guys are really angry.

There's really nothing new about the "new" atheism,
except the attitude. The new twist: Theists are dangerous.

"Faith is one of the world's great evils, comparable to
the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate," writes Richard
Dawkins, author of The God Delusion. "Religion is capable of
driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to
qualify as a kind of mental illness."

According to Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith, religion is so
bad it should be eradicated just like slavery was eradicated: "I
would be the first to admit that the prospects for eradicating
religion in our time do not seem good. Still the same could have been
said about efforts to abolish slavery at the end of the eighteenth
century."

These writers have tremendous emotional appeal.

Two aspects of dealing with these new aggressive atheists (both are
hard):

1. The argument
2. The interplay, the gamesmanship, the footwork

Regarding number two: I can dispatch a good portion of Christopher
Hitchens's analysis of religion with one statement:
Ridicule (or sneering, or swearing) is not an argument. Hitchens
regularly employs ad hominems, red herrings, hasty generalizations,
ridicule, and fallacies of all sorts.

The argument is a little different. The details and claims are
important. You have probably heard this statement thrown around
pretty regularly today: More wars have been fought and more
blood as been shed in the name of religion than anything else. It is
the greatest cause of evil in the world.

Here are four quick points to correct the record.
http://www.str.org/site/R?i=qYTe6NSYQH5s3fxkwPQF5w..

First, the crimes themselves have often been misconstrued or
exaggerated.

Second, the greatest evil in the world has actually come from those
who deny God's existence.

Third, Christianity cannot be held responsible when Christians do
un-Christian things.

Finally, Christianity's real record of good is without peer in
world history.

Christianity, properly understood, is a cause for good and not evil in
the world. The problem isn't religion; it's religious
error: either false religion, or true religion improperly or
inconsistently applied.

This evidence gets to one of the standard argument that these new
atheists put forward. But to stand against them you need the skill of
an ambassador to see through the smokescreen of their attitude.
Employ the tactic "Just the Facts, Ma'am" when the critic makes
factual claims. Often, it's easy to correct these with a little
research.

I recently spoke about the "new atheists" at The Masters Series in
Christian Thought and offered an approach and rebuttal to both their
attitudes and arguments.

Don't be "steamrolled" by the aggressive attitude and overstated
claims. Focus on the argument and claims they offer. I'm
confident if you practice the skills of a good ambassador, you can
show that Christianity is rational and good.

Greg Koukl

Music History Class Makes Me Hungry

I feel bad when I get excited class is getting out early or is canceled... when a professor is sick. But really, I have to admit it makes my school day so much easier!!! I have had two classes end 45 minutes early and another canceled due to two different professors feeling ill/ lacking a voice. In a very unselfish way, I am happy for me. :) And sad for them. :(

Tomorrow morning I have a HUGE pyschology test, one that I'm going to be studying for every spare minute of my day today! I really need to do well on this test, there is just so much information!

Gracy is going to come spend the night with me tonight, and I'm only sad that I have to do homework instead of doing fun things with her... not that homework isn't my favorite thing to do!!!

Things continue to be overwhelming without constantly dwelling on God's grace and how thankful I am for the things He has put in my life (for a reason!!!). I was reminded yet again of Romans 8 yesterday and I know that 1. I love God with ALL my heart, and 2. He HAS CALLED ME according to His purpose... Therefore: All things WILL WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD!!! What a great promise to stand on!!!

Speaking of overwhelming, our production of Pride and Prejudice at the end of March is looming up before all cast members and director, and we are staring at it thinking, "HOW IN THE WORLD are we going to get this ready by then?!?!" We still have sets to make, costumes to design, parts to memorize, the WHOLE thing!!! I have a feeling that we will be putting in MANY extra hours!!!

Here are a couple pictures that highlight my first couple months of second semester... (they all have to do with cold/snow... PLEASE COME SPRING!!! :P)

Back to School

Well, I'm back at school and all I can think about is how much fun I had with my family over break- I miss them so much! Classes are going really well, even though my days are very long and my homework load is way bigger than last semester, but I like it that way! :)
I will post more in detail tomorrow!

Happy New Year

Another year, and yet another blog for the girl who has 100 different passwords and 6 different blogs she can't access. It seems that I have already destroyed one of my non- existent New Year's Resolutions (#221- no more blogging and I mean it!)

The purpose of this blog is to update those who love me, and yes even those who don't, about my goings on in life, and at college more specifically. It is so hard to keep in contact, but I hope this is a reasonable and creative way that I can keep things up. Even better, after reading my posts, if you think you might just want to talk to me instead of my picture, we can get together!

With that said, enjoy my random stories, updates, quotes, and pictures. And- let the joy of the Lord be your strength!!!