Life as of Lately | Honest to Blog

Hello Blogging World!

It seems that I've been gone for far too long again, so I suppose we much catch up a bit. So much has happened, especially in this past week. I do not know even where to begin to start. I suppose a review of this week would be quite an interesting story.

Just over a week ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to a church lock-in. I didn't really know what to expect, considering I had never been to one at my new church. Luckily, my friend said that she'd go along with me, so we both experienced it firsthand, together. :) It was my first all-nighter. We played countless rounds of Sardines. Let me just tell you, I know my church way better than I did before! People hid in storage closets, furnace rooms, and everywhere in-between. Even though it was below freezing and windy, we managed to make a camp fire, burning approximately 40 pizza boxes from pizza we have every week.

Huddling around the camp fire

On Monday and Tuesday, I was a nervous wreck. I had two really big tests this week, that I felt like I had to pass. On Tuesday, I took my permit test, and successfully passed. I told one of my friends how nervous I was, and as we were passing a few notes in class :P, she wrote this to me.

"You are going to be fine!"

Has someone ever written something like that to you? I can't recall anyone ever telling me something like that, and I was just so encouraged. This whole week, I was praying my heart out. I was praying about passing my tests, my great, amazing friends, a safe delivery for my neighbor's twins, and other random things. On that Tuesday, when I found out that God answered my prayer, I was just in awe. I cannot describe how excited I was, but not as excited as I was on Thursday.

On Wednesday after school, I took a 95 point, multiple choice pretest. If I scored with an 80% or more, I didn't have to take one of our school's required classes, opening up my schedule for more college classes. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out my score right away, so during lunch the next day, I started walking toward the teacher, and she gave me a thumbs up, meaning that I passed. Yet again, God provided for me. He was with me the whole time. I remember telling myself that if I didn't pass, I wouldn't be sad. Why? Because of this: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). I knew that if God didn't want me to pass, and had better plans for me in high school, that I would have to trust him. That verse, along with this next one, helped me overcome my common nervousness. 

Each day this week has a different story, but one thing about myself didn't change: my smile. When you start looking at the positive things in your life, you realize how fortunate you really are. One of my friends, Megan, and I both said that we just couldn't wipe a smile off our face this past week. We were constantly happy. Despite all of my nervousness, that smile, that positive thing in my life, kept me going. One last thing for you today: It may not seem like God is listening and answering your prayers, but He is. 

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