Happy Halloween!

So I am going to be Pam for halloween, I am really excited. I will try and put a picture up to show you if I pulled it off or not :)

Faith...

During my Bible study this morning, the speaker spoke about faith.  He said, "Give God a chance to be God. Have faith in Him, God is good He keeps His promises and He will not let you down." 

Last night I was reading My Utmost For His Highest, and Oswald Chambers said this about faith:

Discernment Of Faith- "Faith as a grain of mustard seed..." Matthew 17:20

"Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust in God, but that God's character had to be cleared in our own minds.  Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation.  Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, much that we call the trial of faith in the inevitable result of being alive.  Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts Him-I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him"-this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible."

Do you ever have times where you know that God is obviously trying to tell you something? After the speaker spoke this morning, we got into our groups to discuss his main points. Our question to answer was "Which characteristics of God is the most difficult for you to grasp?" I said God's timing is difficult for me to grasp.  Everyone in the group agreed. It is so hard to just trust, and wait on God's timing.  Not being in control is so frustrating.  This morning I feel so excited to see what God is going to do.

Sunflowers, voting, and cooler weather :)

I bought Deanna ( my best friend) some sunflowers yesterday because she has had a hard couple of months.  While I was arranging them, which was quite difficult to do for some reason, the girls on my floor couldn't stop going on and on about how pretty they were.  I love sunflowers because they are so happy looking, you can't really look at them without smiling :) 

I voted yesterday! I felt so patriotic.  I have waited for my absentee ballet for about a month so when I finally got it I was really excited.  As I walked to the mail box to drop it off I felt as though I should document the moment, so I grabbed a friend and said," Look, I'm voting!" It was pretty funny because everyone was doing the same thing.  I am very interested to see what happens with this election.

Fall is officially here! Fall is my favorite time of the year. The weather here is starting to get a lot colder and it is days like today that remind me why I moved to California. School is getting quite busy, and blogging is my ultimate procrastinating activity lately :) So I need to get to some homework! I miss you mom, dad, the girls, pop and gram!

My Mom

My Mom has always been an amazing source of encouragement in my life.  I miss our lazy mornings where we would just grab our Bibles and some coffee and go sit on the back porch and talk. 

This is something that my Mom always says, "Pay careful attention to the details of your character and your life. Let it be a masterpiece of beautiful attention to the detail of lovely things. Define your life forward and live it backwards. It matters how you live your life. Live it as an inspiration to all."  She is always looking at the beauty in life, and inspires me to live my life out the best way that I can.

Paige and Maddy

I miss my sisters a lot.  They often times give me the perspective I need when I am happy, sad, or just confused.  They are always there for me.  Maddy is busy with school and friends.  Paige is busy with her job at starbucks.  I don't know how we all grew up so fast.  That is the one thing about college that I really dislike, not being able to be with my sisters all the time.

I Miss My Dad

I miss my Dad so much. Every Tuesday night we have what we call our "phone dates", just to catch up on life and stuff like that.  Before Dad hangs up the phone he always says, "I love you Tay," and every time it gets me all choked up. You think that I would be used to all of this by now but I guess I'm not.  I wonder if you ever really get over missing your Dad, I wonder if there will ever be a time when we talk, when I am away, where I don't start to get all teary eyed.  

My Family

I miss my family so much! I miss waking up and knowing that breakfast is only 20 yards away from my room.  I miss the sounds, the smells, the routine of just being at home.  Last year I didn't miss home very much.  I'm not sure if it was just the sudden freedom, or if it was just that I was too busy with my new life to feel or realize the homesickness.  I feel it now more than ever.  Everything about home  just made me feel so safe and free.  For some reason, being here at school this year just isn't the same.  I miss the security, I don't feel like I have a lot of that in my life right now.  This picture was taken at Disneyland in California Adventure right before I went to school last year.  

Matthew 7:13-14

I am starting this blog to keep my family and friends updated on my life.  After receiving my last phone bill, I believe that this is a better more efficient way of communication :) 

I always thought that blogging was a bit silly, never really believing that someone would want to read about all of my thoughts, feelings, and stories of life, however after reading some friend's blogs and really enjoying them, I decided to start one of my own.

I have entitled my blog, "Life At The Cross Roads", because that is the stage in life I am at.  This is my inspiration by William Barclay: 

Life at the crossroads...Matthew 7:13-14

"Go in the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the road which leads to ruin, and there are many who go through it. Narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to life, and those who find it are few"

Barclay commentary:

""There is always a certain dramatic quality about life, for it has been said that all life is focused on our position at the crossroads. In every action of life, we are confronted with a choice; and we can never evade the choice, because we can never stand still. we must always take one way or the other. Because of that, it has always been the supreme functions of the great men and women of history that they should confront people with that inevitable choice. That is the choice with which Jesus is confronting us in this passage. There is a broad easy way and there are many who take it; but the end of it is ruin. There is a narrow and hard way and there are few who take it; but the end of it leads to life. Cebes, the disciple of Socrates writes in tabula: "Dost thou see a little door, and a way in front of the door, which is not much crowded, but the travelers are few? That is the way that leadeth to true instruction" let us examine the difference between the two ways.

1. It is the difference between the hard and the easy way. There is never an easy way to greatness, greatness is always the product of toil. One brother deep in thought answered,” I have been wondering how it came about that Ned has contrived to monopolize all the talents of the family; but then again I remember that, when we were at play, he was always at work." even when a thing is done with an appearance of ease, that ease is a product of unremitting toil. The skill of the concert pianist or the champion golfer did not come without sweat. There has NEVER been any other way to greatness than the way of toil and anything else, which promises such a way is delusion.

2.it is the difference between the short and the long way. Very rarely, something may emerge complete and perfect in a flash, but far oftener is the result of long labor and constant attention to detail. In this world we are faced with the short way, which promises immediate results and the long way, of which the results are in the distance. But the LASTING things never come quickly; the long way is the BEST WAY in the end.

3. It is the difference between the disciplined and the undisciplined way. Nothing was ever achieved without discipline, and many an athletes and men and women in their fields have been ruined because they abandoned discipline and let themselves go. No one ever reached eminence, and no one having reached it ever maintained it without discipline.

4. It is the difference between the thoughtful and the thoughtless was. Here we come to the heart of the matter. None of us would ever take the easy way, the short and the undisciplined we if we only thought. Everything in this world has two aspects - how it looks NOW at this moment, and how it will look in time to come. The easy way may look very inviting at the moment and the hard way may look very daunting. The only way to get our values right is to see not the beginning but the end of the way, to see things not in the light of time but in the light of eternity."

These are the thoughts that my heart and head have been dwelling on, this is the way that I am seeking to live out my life.  

Okay, sorry for being too deep. I go to Biola University, I am in my second year here, and I am studying to become a elementary school teacher.  What grade yet, I am unsure of.  I am thinking possibly kindergarten or third grade.  I am also hoping to go to graduate school to possibly study  secondary education to maybe teach high school or even college level classes, probably in English.

So far school has kind of been a blur.  I was taking 19 units and after about a month in I had to drop a class, which was really hard to do, but now I feel like a can breathe again which is really nice.  Classes are still kind of difficult, be praying for me as I start a week of midterms!