How great is our God

The past few weeks have definitely been better for my stress levels which is wonderful. I finally got my student loan money which has taken so much stress off. I hate worrying about money and now I do not have to! I also booked my flights home for Christmas and I am so excited to see my family. I am hoping to make all the money that it cost me to buy my flights back over the holiday by working and I have that all set up as well.

I have just a few more papers to write and then 3 finals and that will end this semester! It is so crazy how fast the time flies by. Next semester seems like it will be a tough one though. I do not have any easy classes to allow me to focus more on the harder ones because they are all going to be hard. AND I have to have a Friday morning class which sucks so much :( I am really not pleased with this. At all.

We got this weekend off of volleyball which has been fantastic. It gives everyone a chance to recover from being tired and sore and injured etc. It also gave me the chance to watch the basketball teams play and that was enjoyable. I had a physio appointment yesterday morning and it went good for the most part. He was able to fix the issue with my foot. The bones in my foot were all stiff and not moving around and he did something magical and it moves now so it feels way better now. He also did some work for my shoulder. The reason that my shoulder got injured on the first place is because my hips and back and shoulders and collar bones and neck were all out of line. It was seriously messed up. He fixed it pretty good last time but was just checking it this time and was making sure it was all still in line. He cracked my back which felt so good and did some rehab work on my shoulder. Then he was doing something with my neck and all of a sudden out of nowhere, he cracked my neck. The kind of cracking that you see in movies and never want anyone to do to you for fear of dying! He just did it! He did not warn me or anything, just cracked it. It felt kinda weird but I thought to myself, "he knows what he is doing and I'm still alive, so I guess it worked!" However, today my neck is sore incredibly sore. Maybe this is supposed to happen, but its so sore that it is giving me a headache and it hurts to hold my head up and it just feels really stiff. I am going to see how it feels by Monday and if it is still sore, I will call physio and tell them about it and hopefully get it fixed or something. Other than my neck, everything else is feeling pretty good from being able to rest up a bit. My shoulder is getting some much needed rest and my muscles are able to get better from feeling so sore.

Today my Mom called me to tell me that my Pake is in the hospital again with pneumonia. It's good that the doctors know exactly what is wrong so that they can treat him, but it is not good obviously and it scares me. I am so afraid of what will come and when it will come. I do not know what I will do when it happens, besides cry. A verse comes to mind from Revelation. I am in Revelation class at school and it has been so amazing to learn what it all means. Anywyas, the verse is:

"Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Revelation 7:16-17

This passage is comforting because I know that when we die, we will go to be with God and there will be no suffering and there will be no sadness. God himself will wipe away the tears of His people. The incredible, unending amounts of love and grace that comes from God never ceases to amaze me! How great is our God!

God is Good!

So this weekend was definitely better. I was feeling surprisingly unstressed and I was able to get a lot of my paper done on friday which was swell. We had more games this weekend, and we played Camosun. We never beat them last year, but we won on Friday!! It was so great to win and we played so amazing. Check out the CBC website, under athletics and click on the story about "WVB 3-1 over visiting chargers", there you will see a video of me talking about the game! It's a little embarassing because I was put on the spot, but whatever, its cool I guess. Anyways, so we played Camosun again on sat at 1pm and we played pretty bad in the first two sets and ended up losing the game. It sucked a lot but I was not as mad as I usually get when we lose. I had a lot of ancouragement from the other cpatain on the team whaich was wonderful and I also had a lot of encouragement from my coach. I had a pretty relaxing rest of the day on Saturday and I even made myself a real dinner! It was actually pretty tasty :) Today I woke up confused because of daylight savings time and I did not know if my phone reset itself automatically but I ended up figuring it out. I went to church and was really confused by the sermon and did not get what he was trying to say at all. Then I went for lunch with one of my best friends, Kari!! We had a great time chatting and spending some time together. Then I came home and called my mommy. We had a good chat, as always, and it made me feel so happy because my Mom always has the best things to say to me :) Then I worked on my paper and finished it (with a short nap in between). The cool thing was, I felt absolutely no stresss while doing it which was unusual for me so everyone who has been praying for me for less stress had helped! Because God answered and made me less stressed! God is so good! My roomie and best friend came home tonight (after going home to her family for the weekend) and it was great because I missed her and we always have so much to talk about and we have so much fun together. FFL!!!!!

Here's a verse that really speaks to me lately:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7

This is so true, because through prayer this past week, I was able to receive peace from God!!

On my mind....

So another day has come and gone. With the craziness of school and volleyball right now, time seems to fly by so quickly. One moment it's Monday and I have a whole week to look forward to and the next moment it seems like it's Thursday (almost) and the weekend is upon me. Within all this craziness I have so many different thoughts running through my head. I have quite a few big papers coming up really fast and I need to get working on them ASAP. I have a group project that's due on Tuesday and I have to meet with my group soon. I have extra meetings here and there for various things, like coaching club volleyball next semester and team time for volleyabll. I have to prepare my testimony to share with my team tomorrow night and we have two games this weekend that I am thinking about as well that would be really nice to win. I hurt my shoulder a couple weeks ago and I went to physio on Monday for it and that went really well but my shoulder is still sore a lot and I cannot use it 100% yet so that is very frustrating and I really just want it to feel better. On Saturday we will be missing two of our key players and we are already missing one of our vets so that one should be interesting. I am still waiting on student loans to come through so I am pretty stressed about that because I need the money desperately and if I do not get it, I do not know what will happen. I am also still thinking a lot about my Pake (Grandpa) because he was in the hospital for a number of weeks and is finally out now but he is still in need of prayer for strength and healing. I am always thinking anout my Mom and sisters and Dad and how I miss them. I miss my family a lot more than I did last year. I think this is because last year everything was still so new and exciting whereas this year, as it is still fun, it is not new and I am definitely used to my schedules and such and I find myself missing my family more than before. Of course, boys add stress to the situation. All the 'does he like me,' 'should I talk to him first or not', 'what is he thinking' type of questions are there all the time. As far as volleyball goes, this week has been probably the best week for practices thus far, however I find myself getting frustrated more than I ever have with different things which does not make sense. The team has been working so hard, yet I am seeing only the parts that are not quite there yet. Maybe it's good to know what we still need to work on, but I think it's important to acknowledge the things that have improved greatly. As one of the captains on the team, I am finding that there are certain things that I have to deal with that I would not have had to deal with if I were not a captain. I am happy to be in a leadership position, and I am loving is so far, but some of the things that need to be addressed are not the easiest so I am having to look for the confidence, strength, understanding and care of a good leader. I am also finding that I am very emotional at the end of each day, more so than I usually am. I am pretty sure that part of this has to do with the fact that I have a lot of things on my mind so that makes me stressed out. And I am a week late for my period (sorry for the bluntness) and I think that is because I have been stressing which can make it fluctuate and now I'm stressing about why I'm not getting it so that's making it delay even more. Also, due to my business and stress, all my back muscles are super tight and my shoulders and neck and that is causing my whole back to be more sore than usual and I really just want a two-hour massage cause that would be wonderful. I also am trying to figure out when and if I am going home before or after Christmas. This depends on the student loans coming in and if I can get some cheap flights. I find that I am starting to forget things here and there that I usually do not forget. Like sending birthday cards on time, I forgot to bring my travel mug home from service practicum, I forget about meetings until the last minute, I forget to keep in touch with certain people that I really need to make an effort to talk to regularly. Even just writing this blog, which is helpful because it allows me to get everything on my mind out of my mind, but it also just piles all my stresses in a big tower that looks so tall right now that I cannot see the top and it is so overwhelming, I just want to cry. I know that crying will make me feel better, but at the same time, I do not want to cry becasue I want to be superwoman; I want to be able to handle it all. I think I have taken on this "superwoman" mindset this year and I am not sure yet if it is a good thing or not. It could be good because I am taking charge and becoming a leader, which includes more responsibilities, but on the other hand, I need to be careful not to take on more than I can handle.

Well, I think that is it for now. I have no idea if any of what I just wrote makes any sense, but I do not care enough to go over it and check. It is just my rant of what's on my mind. This may sound really depressing, but it really isn't. Yes, I am stressed out right now, but it is a part of life. I am very happy with my life and I do enjoy the things that I am doing (school, volleyball, being a leader, etc). I am admitting to having weaknesses. We all have them, and I know that it is ok. A verse that has stood out for me in the past few months is:

"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -2 Corinthians 12:10

Yes, I have weaknesses, I have felt insulted at times, I have dealt with hard situations, I have had difficulties and even persecutions (nto as much of these, especially at a Bible college, but we all experience it in some way or another, large or small). But despite these weaknesses, I KNOW that through Christ, I am strong. This is the title of my blog and it is so true. 

Another verse that has been important to me this year is:

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." -Matthew 6:33-34a

This one reminds me not to worry. Even though I have so much on my mind and so much to do, I am reminded to take everything one day at a time because it does no good to worry about what will happen tomorrow. All I have is right now, and right now, I have Christ!!!