being home is a huge challenge for me right now, at least when it comes to waking up early and reading my bible. i have been not doing it at all. it has been 3 or 4 days since i last got up and willingly read my bible. this is not a good excuse and it is supposed to be challenging, but i am really hoping when i get back to school and back into my regular routine i can do this more easily and then hopefully next time i am home it will already be a part of my routine so much i can't not do it.

i am failing at this. and it is sad.

Lent Days 5 & 6

Bible Reading: Epic Fail

No Make-Up: Going well, I still havent even worn cover-up which is the only thing I am allowing myself to wear.

I need to work on getting up earlier for reading my bible.

Lent Day 4

i woke up early and just about finished reading 1 Timothy today. I will finish it tomorrow then move onto 2 Timothy. I am pretty pumped about this. I think after all that I may go back and read Genesis. I have been listening to the Prince of Egypt Soundtrack a lot recently, then I watched it, and also Joseph King Of Dreams (or is it prince....hmmm?) but i was just so in love with it and i want to know more and actually understand who these awesome people were! so yeah this is a short and sweet post, because I am to lazy today haha. But yeah so far it is going well and i will continue to keep you updated.

Lent Day 3

so i woke up this morning....and i can't remember if i stayed in bed and read 1 Timothy or if I got up, got dressed and then read. But the point is that I did read today, unlike my major fail at reading yesterday. It is sad to report that I still feel like I have to force myself to remember to read my Bible, yet every other time I am reading a book I cannot even find time to put it down. I want the Bible to be the book I cannot put down, the book someone has to tear out of my hands in order to have a conversation with me. So I pray that I can just want to read it everyday and more than just once and not because I feel like I have to.

anyway I read 1 Timothy 1 (over again) through chapter 2. A lot of chapter one talks about Paul....he is the one writing the letter. It talks about how he was saved by God's grace. He was once a sinner but now he is a man of God who was saved by God. That just whispers such hope into my ears. Paul was a man who persecuted Christians and then through God became, I think, one of the greatest Christian leaders of all time. It is so amazing just to know that is true. The things I have done in my life, the amount of times I have turned to God is just.....horrible. Yet God still loves me and takes me back every single time. So I praise Him for that, and I thank Paul for writing those words to remind me just how amazing God's grace really is.

also....still doing good with wearing no make up. still a little weird but getting better, and I think it was a really good choice in the end.

just an update on the day in general: We drove home (MA to NJ) today, as it is spring break. Victoria is with me. We made amazing time and hit no traffic, and this was amazing because it still happened despite all the flooding that was happening in the area. God was with us and really got us through it all. And thanks to Becca for driving!

Lent Day 2

so i haven't read my bible yet today. i know i am ashamed to say it. i should have done it right when i woke up...but guess what? i snoozed once more. the stinkin snooze button is what always gets me. i wish it didn't exist...except for when i turn my alarm off then sleep through class or something.

anyway i am going to read some of 1 Timothy before I go to bed, so hopefully I will be able to post about that tom

orrow along with what I read tomorrow morning.

so the whole not wearing makeup thing

is going well, i love having more time in the morning (which i should be using to read the BIBLE) looking in the mirror is still a little intersting. yesterday i felt weird, i felt like everyone noticed something was different, today i still felt like that but i am getting used to myself more and more. i kind of like it. and another great thing about it is that i dont have to pack makeup in my bag for when i go home which saves more room then you think it would.

so yay for no makeup. i hope i can keep it up because that would be nice.

ps: i just realized that i only capatalized my "i's" in some of this...ah well.

Lent Day 1 Part 2

so today is the first day of lent. i started reading 1 Timothy today, but haven't gotten that far into it, I will read more later hopefully. I decided to start with Timothy becuase I used a verse from Timothy in my last post and it spoke to me, and I want to read more.

In Chapel today there was an Ash Wednesday service, and they did the whole thing where you put ash on your forehead. So...I was originally not going to do it for personal reasons, but the longer I sat there listening to the choir and watching others get up and doing it themselves....well I ended up doing it. I felt like I wasn't ready to do that and that I shouldn't have done it, so when I got back to my room I washed it off. I didn't want to have that symbol of complete repentance to God on me if it wasn't fully true.

I am going to pray about it. I love Ash Wednesday and what it means. I just want to be able to mean it when I do something as symbolic as putting ashes on my forehead.

So if I were to tell you anything about Ash Wednesday...Remember the meaning behind it, and believe it and honor it.

And remember confessing to others is a part of it as well. I know I haven't done that completely yet and it is so hard to do, I can't admit things and let them go. But it is so good after you do it, and you know that you are clean and forgiven before God.

And So Lent Begins (day 1 part 1)

So i am going to blog about lent =]

since it is 12:28am it is now ash wednesday, the beginning of lent.

i do believe i am going to add reading the bible EVERYDAY to my life during lent and hopefully after lent as well.

i am still torn between a few things to give up. however i think i am going to give up makeup and use the time of lent as a time to work on my self-esteem and try to begin to love myself for myself, and adding spending time with God into that i think will be an amazing expereince. there are also a few other personal things i am going to give up but they are personal haha.

so yeah this begins my lental (like the soup) postings. so hopefully i will post maybe once a day or at least once a week during lent.

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,”

- 2 Timothy 1:9