Positivity Project

So as the year progresses on I began to realize that I may have overlooked something...
With all the stress on applications and scholarships and spending time with my friends who I probably won't see a whole lot of after this year and visiting colleges and working on my resume... all this stuff, I have forgotten something, or rather someone... my brothers.
I have two of the coolest little brothers ever, and Im not always the greatest big brother ever... sure, I may have taken a different approach to "showing them the ropes", but is their really anything that they have every actually learned from me??
So, even though this is supposed to be a weekend project, I am making it my goal to continue this throughout the year. I don't want to go off to college next year knowing that I may not have made as positive of an impact in my brothers lives as I could have. And really, its just about the little things: helping them with their homework, hanging out and doing fun things with them, setting an example... i.e. watch the way I talk around them and how I act around them.
I plan on doing this this weekend. Not exactly sure what the straight forward plan is, but we'll see where it goes. Payton loves to play outside and eat ice cream so we might do something along those lines. Cody is a big Harry Potter nerd like me :), so we might have movie marathon night and get pizza or something.
So thats the deal.

Beowulf Prompt Answer

I feel as though this is rather the opposite of how I view the world. I believe that God works through all things according to his will. You know, sometimes I feel as though not everything is strictly concrete. As for what my "gray areas" may be, I know that when I write, I think about the endless possibilities that exist between the lines. And oddly enough, this doesn't create tension, it relaxes me. Sure sometimes I have to focus on one thing, the black and the white, bu that gray area is where I really find myself. My ability to write and be free when I write opens new doors and closes other.

Granted, there are certain "gray areas" that add a bit of stress to my life, i.e. where am I going to college or what the heck I am going to do for the rest of my life... and how will that help me in later life?? Acting. That's not very concrete. If I go and get a degree in acting, I'm not automatically offered a job... If I decide to get a degree in screenwriting, I'm not going to be approached by some big time director asking me to write a film for him. The movie industry is one of the most unstable areas in the job market... BUT, is it what I love? Yes. Is it what I am passionate about? Absolutely. But is it what God wants for me? How am I supposed to know what God wants me to do??

I've been struggling with this "area" and question for sometime now. How do I know that my wanting to go to Biola and study film and media and act and become a screenwriter isn't just what I want but what God wants too? I recently had a conversation with Mrs. Fiechtner and after asking her this question, she responded "If you have faith that God created the entire universe, that he sent his Son to earth, who accomplished amazing feats, who died on the cross and rose again 3 days later, and that he will come again someday to welcome you into his kingdom along with every other person on this earth who believes in Him, why can't you have faith that His will for your life can and will be done and that the faith that He has put in you will guide you to those great things he has in store for you??"

It was very interesting to here this. Here I am, one person, out of the millions of people who have ever walked the earth, and God knows exactly what he has in store for me. And yes, this also some "gray area"; but I have faith that God loves me and knows who I am,
And where I am going to college...
And what I am going to major in...
And what kind of career I will have...
And who I am going to marry...
And how many kids I am going to have...
And what their names are going to be...
And where we are going to live...
And what school I will send my kids to...
And how much money I will make through my job...
And if I will win an Academy Award...
And what kind of car I will have...
And what nursing home my kids will put me in...
...And finally, what glorious day I will return home to be with my Father in Heaven; he knows.

And while I may not be able to see the full picture now, God is piecing together the puzzle that is my life... and any gray area that might be on certain pieces of my puzzle, God will put them together in such a way that those gray areas become something great in the picture; part of His masterpiece and in the end will bring glory and honor to Him. :)

Myers-Briggs Personality Test Results

So...
For my personality test, my type was ENFP which means:
I am Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Percieving
I am strongly extroverted (67%), strongly intuitive (62%), moderately feeling (25%) and moderately perciving (34%)

After reading the description of what and ENFP is like, I realized that it mirrored my life pretty well. ENFPs are enthusiastic people, can become very excited and passionate about tasks, can make errors in judgement, and work best in flexible situations. They have downfalls when it comes staying with something, due to the fact that they live in a world of possibility, always looking at what they "could be". I am not always the most consistent person. I like a little spice in my life, something different, something that gets me out of "the norm".

Also, I happen to take a look at the "ideal career choices" for my personality type. The three career fields that it gave for the ENFP are business, arts, social services. Many of the jobs I saw sounded very appealing to me!

I thought that my personality test was quite accurate. It gave detail information about what my life is like. I enjoyed it and thought it was very beneficial. :)

Is There a Hell?

Most of us have more than likely seen the cartoon episodes, like Tom and Jerry for example, where one of the main characters, in this case Tom, die and you see them ascending up a golden escalator up to the golden pearly gates of “heaven”. Standing at the gate is an angel who is holding a book. As Tom approaches the gate, the angel opens the book and begins reading from it like this: “Tom Cat. Yes, yes, you have been quite good… BUT…!” The angel begins to shake his head. Tom cowers in fear as a gust of wind begins carrying him back down the stairs to the ground level. The ground opens up as fire and ash burst through the hole that is now in the ground. The last thing you see is Tom falling into “hell”, screaming, with a loud menacing laugh is hear the shadow of a dog like creature with horns.  

            Now, that may seem a bit ridiculous and extreme to you, but there are those who do not believe in such a travesty. Surely no person could be sent to a place of eternal burning by a gracious God who loves all his creatures! Surely God would not have created such a destructive character that inhabited such a place! There is no way God would do this! Earlier this year, Ask.com compiled a list of the “Top 10 Unanswerable Questions”, some of which included: “Did Tony Soprano die?”, “Do blondes have more fun?” and “What is the best diet?”. While looking through the list, the question that is most intriguing is “What happens when you die?”. This question can be interpreted several different ways, but for many Christians as well as non believers, this subject can be narrowed down to a single inquiry: is there a hell?