Sup Everybody!

How's everyone's first few days of break going?

Well, as most of you know, I got home on Wednesday; and I've been hanging out with friends and family for the past few days. It was kind of cool to see how I've changed in college after interacting with my old high school friends.

For example, on Thursday when I went to hang out with three of my Non-Christian friends, we all decided to go to Hollywood Videos and rent three movies. One of the movies happened to be Super Bad, which two of them had already seen and had told the two of us who hadn't seen it that it was extremely funny. However, after watching the first five vulgar (I can barely handle watching kissing scenes in movies... so Super Bad was pretty much K.O. for me) minutes, I asked them if we could watch one of the other DVDs we had rented. Before college I might've just cringed through the entire movie, tolerating the inappropriate jokes silently, so I was pleasantly surprised when my mouth moved on its own and was all like, "Whoa guys. This is too much for me. Can we please watch the other movie?" My friends noticed this and asked me about it, joking, "Ariel, you're not supposed to get MORE prude in college, you're supposed to get more CRUDE." I explained to them why I got "MORE prude" by telling them about GOC. Although I didn't get a chance to share the gospel, my talk about GOC prompted one of my friends to tell me about a few of the Christian fellowships on her own campus, and I encouraged her to check them out.

So... that was pretty cool. Yeup!

Let's see... my devotionals have been going well. I get my devos from http://www.intouch.org/, and the topic of the past week has been praising God. Psalm 150 was one of the Bible verses that was looked into on the topic of praise:

1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. 2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. 3 Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. 4 Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. 5Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!

And one of the interesting points that was mentioned in this particular devo was that praise is built on knowledge. The more we know about someone or something the more we CAN praise that person or thing. Therefore, the more we learn about God through his Word and personal experience, the more we can praise him. I just thought that was really cool.

As for prayer requests, I have two prayer requests that I feel will be constantly recycled through this winter break. First of all, my mother is still very frustrated with her health after the surgery. She is very upset, feeling that after the surgery she has become significantly dumber and incapable of taking care of the family. Although she tries to put up a happy front, I can tell that sometimes she wants to cry from frustration, but she covers it with a laugh. Secondly, I would like to pray for God's wisdom. I just really need His knowledge and His help right now to make a personal decision.

Thank you so much! I hope all of your breaks are starting off wonderfully! I miss you all and may God bless you whether it be in your pursuit after Him or whether it be when you're just chillaxing with friends and family. :-)