Don't celebrate mediocrity - celebrate Greatness!

In this day and age, people are being asked to give and give. People are stretched to their breaking points and to the limit. I know, for I have been there, and it's not a pleasant place. I became irritable, grouchy, and wasn't focusing on God. I forgot about the most important thing - loving God. So, when I had someone challenge me to be more generous, I was somewhat baffled. More generous? How could I give more? I already had too much to do, but then she told me what to be generous with:
*More generous with my time with God.
*More generous with my faith. Share Christ!
*More generous with my Life!
I thought about these and tried to figure out how I could do this. I realized that I must do this, I must apply this to my life. I have since then talked to many of my friends, both here at back home, about God and faith, as well as my mom, and my roommate, who doesn't believe in Him. I thought that I would just listen to music as I walk to class, but I find that praying is even better when I am outside, looking at the beauty He created. I have also figured out which service activities are the most interesting to me. Big Brothers Big Sisters seems to be the one which I am most passionate about right now, so I have to figure out how to fit that into my schedule. I want, no, I need to make my life a service. I want to live for others. Since I have been applying these things to my life, things seem to look brighter. My faith has grown and I'm truly happy! It's so nice to know that God's always there, wanting me, and so many others, to pursue and love Him whole heartedly.

It is amazing how kindness can be such a wonderful thing, and how rarely it is used these days. People forget to be kind. We all are guilty of getting caught up in our own lives, that we forget those around us. But we must try to remember all of them, for we have good news! God's love is good news, that will never grow old. We can be supernaturally kind through the measure of the fruitfulness of our prayer. Obligingness, doing things without being asked; we must try to out do one another in generosity. Remembering names, favorite things, situations, etc. are all ways in which we can make people feel important, through our sincere words. Try not to get into trouble with our words, for we can get in trouble with saying both true and false things. We must learn where that fine line is drawn.

Thank you for reading my thoughts : )

ode on a wonderful sister

Twenty-two years ago today, my wonderful sister Kristen was born. Now, I wasn't there to witness the event, being as she's basically three years older than I, but I'm sure she was a beautiful baby (I've seen pictures, she was). I remember a things from our younger years. I remember hosting our own "T.V. shows" and running races around the house during rainstorms. I remember the cardboard boxes we turned into cars and "fishing" for leaves and the chipmunks! Oz Oz Oz... Eyeballs! I remember sharing a bedroom and waking her up in the middle of the night just to say, "Kristen, are you awake?" because I was scared of the dark. I also remember that annoying her! I remember getting into fights about dumb things that we thought were justified, but they weren't. I remember Dad making us count up the days until she left for college so we'd realize that things were about to change for ever. I remember her leaving for school and then leaving the country to share Christ's love in a dramatic way. I remember going to visit her while she was in Ukraine and being amazed at the work Christ was doing there through her. I remember being very proud of her -- I still am.

My sister turned twenty-two today. Even though she's only two hours away I miss her! I miss having her on my side of the phone and being able to give her a hug... yes, to give her a hug... or sit on top of her! Soon she's getting married to a guy that comes as close to being perfect for her as any man could be, and then after awhile he's going to whisk her away out of the country again. I'll miss her then, too. It makes me wish I would have listened to my dad more when he told us to pay attention to the great thing we had right there in front of us. He's a smart guy. Most of all, though, through all the great memories and the bad memories and the sad memories, there's been love. I've loved her while we were chasing pigs, and while I was about to pull my hair out because she wouldn't just let me borrow a shirt, and I love her now when I miss her a lot. My sister's great, and I'm glad she was born.

so what now?

Paige I’ve about decided that we may be talking to ourselves, so I’m going to address this to you and not the rest of the cyber world. If others are in fact seeing this then I would be very honored if you would read this post and comment if you want… Pretend you’re Paige!

I was just wondering mostly what your views on absolute truth are, in light of your views on relativism. I know you said some things about it, but I was wondering if you would care to expand. You said God’s love is the truth, and I agree whole-heartedly. I want to know how you find yourself putting this into practice. If God’s love is truth and we have that then we should be doing something about it, no? So what now? I’m not accusing you of anything, by the way, just simply wondering the ways that you do this. We should be love to everyone else around us just like God is love to us. I get frustrated sometimes because it seems like a lot of people just say this and then don’t live it out! Even though none of us are perfect, the fact still remains that a lot of us do this on a regular basis. We don't notice people. We aren't God's love to them. Does that bother you? Are we to love only those we want to love? Are we just to love on their own terms? How can that be right? Is it our fault if we don't see people in need? It’s certainly not what Jesus did on a day to day basis. His love was radical. Just thinking of the social implications of what Jesus did so many times astounds me. Eating with sinners and touching leprous people were a way of life for him. And that wasn’t because that’s where he belonged! Humility! I think the truth of God’s love is seen most when we notice and love people, not just so we reach our quota of love for the day, but because we are becoming like God. Just some things I’ve been thinking about. I’d like to hear what more you have to say on the matter. : )

I'm a sell out...a sell out for God!

This past weekend, for those of you who didn't know, I attended a Catholic Youth Conference in Chicago. I wasn't sure what to expect at first, but I knew that I was looking forward to it. Throughout my three days there I got the opportunity to listen to many well known speakers who spoke on topics such as heroic generosity, feminism in the church, kindness, how to date well, and relativism. While all of them were very informing, some more than others seemed to speak to me, especially the relativism topic.
I had heard this term tossed around before, but I wasn't sure exactly what people meant by it. For those of you who aren't sure what relativisim means, it is believing that there is no truth, no standards...pretty much no God. It is amazing how our society and media have made the youth believe that "our lives" are our own and that we should live them that way; that we have no committments and that our decisions don't matter. But for those of us who fully believe and trust in God we know that God's love is the truth and that we must live for others. Our life is a story, connecting to many others through our families and friends, and the decisions that we make not only affect our own lives but the lives of those around us. We must also follow God's law for us and use it as our instruction manual for life. Many relativists think that Christians are not free and when we believe and follow our faith that we don't have that freedom any more, but alas, we are totally free. Free to love, free to live life with excellence, but we need virtues and skills in order to succeed. The relativistic view of life is a selfish concept and we need to realize that. We must not be controlled by fear. Have the courage to standout!

What voice are you listening to? What life are you going to live? Learn to trust completely.
When we live in Christ, our purpose changes. No more excuses, we must face the problem at hand. The Kingdom is my pearl of price...at which I would do anything for.
We must decide what our 5 loaves and 2 fish are; what we are going to give to Jesus? What is your calling? Again, we must learn to trust completely...and GET OUT OF THE BOAT!
"It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives through me."

I had a very enjoyable time at this conference, and I also got to see Gretchen. If you would like to hear more, I have lots of notes. I would also love to hear what you all have to say about relativism or any other topic for that matter. Hope you all have a very good week. Remember to pray big!
xoxo

i have seen a marvelous thing under the sun

Has anyone ever heard of a jump roping team? I know I hadn’t, but I saw one perform today at an ACU basketball game. I mean, I know Texas certainly has its own color, *cough cough* - don’t hate me Katie! - but I thought they just roped cows and horse thieves. So I was kind of ready for something dull or a little obtuse when the Sweetwater Jump Roping Team was announced at halftime. Maybe a little double-dutch or that thing you do when you cross your arms (I’m sure there’s a technical word for it) and jump were the kind of things I was expecting. These kids, though, walked into Moody Coliseum and started counting off a whole routine. They jumped rope while standing and turning around and sitting on the ground. They even did bell hops while jumping rope! Bell hops! I have a hard time doing those without a jump rope. I was thoroughly amazed. I sometimes think standing ovations are handed out too readily nowadays, but I definitely thought this merited the energy it took me to stand. In the words of my wonderful roommate, “They just rocked my world. I’ll never be the same again.”

No one knows why...

I’ve decided blogging is weird. I mean, what is it for? You start a blog (or have Paige do it for you), and basically you’re assuming a lot. You’re assuming that you have something worthwhile to put into the cyber world. You’re assuming you will be able to convey that thought in an engaging manner. You’re assuming, after all of that, people will want to read it, and you’re also assuming you can deal with the critics that will obviously look down on your effort. Sad. So blogging is weird and scary, but alas, blogging it is. I'm happy about it. Thanks, Paige.

wakka wakka

Yippidy Doo Da Day!! It's Alive!! Muaahhahahaha. Watch out world.

prepare yourselves

Welcome to the combined mind of Laura Brokaw and Paige Halpin. With tons of others starting their own blogs, we decided that it would be interesting if we both blogged together (sort of how Derrick is running his fantastic blog). This will also be a great way for both of us to keep up with each other, considering we are both very busy and have completely different schedules. If someday in the future Gretchen were to get a computer, then this blog would officially be a LPG conspiracy. HAHA!
We hope that other people will comment and read this, and we hope that it will be outrageously entertaining, informative, and helpful...if that's possible?

Happy blogging, Laura!

To the rest of you- Happy reading!

*Paige