End of First Semester Holiday Party!

This was a nice way to celebrate the end of a long semester. We all dressed up and had a nice potluck dinner! It was fabulous!

I am Giving Up SODA!

Before I was accepted in to DH school, I did not drink soda! In my first semester of DH I became addicted! Dr. P always seemed disappointed in me when I would come into her office slurping up Dr. Pepper! :/ I did learn that it was better for your teeth to use a straw, but needless to say. . .I must confess this horrible habit since I plan on being a dental hygienist. I am facing my addiction and giving it up for the new year! 2011. NO MORE soda! : )

-Soda rots your teeth! The phosphoric acid dissolves the calcium out of your teeth's enamel and causes cavities. : (

-When it comes to your teeth, the worst thing you can do is to sip soda throughout the day. If you're not ready to give soda up completely, try and drink it at one sitting with a meal, and when you're done, immediately rinse with water.

Ruin Is The Road To Transformation

I have decided that I will from now on always turn what we automatically think is negative and turn it into positive. I feel like I usually have done that throughout my life but when things get hard it is easy to focus on the negative. This year I think must have been the hardest year to get through. or at least the most challenging so far. I feel like each year as I get older I continue to say this. But recently I watched Eat Pray Love where Julia Robert's has a beautiful line. . "ruin is the road to transformation" so my perspective now is that rather than each year ruining me and each little negative thing destroying me, I am merely being transformed into the person who God wants me to be. Ruin meaning destroyed? no. . . no it means being renewed over and over. Which is what the Lord does for us constantly is to take us and renew us. I feel ruined right now in a way, but I know that God is trying to open my eyes to something much greater and beautiful that I can ever imagine! I dream of the day that I can be on the mission field helping people who are sick and need help. I tell myself that God is trying to teach me patience. I feel like I've been waiting forever! I dream of the day when i can get married and have a family like every single one of my friends. But I know that is far off in my story. My friends ask me if I'm sad, and yes sometimes, but I can't be for so long because I am overtaken by how blessed I am! I want my story to be different. I don't want to be like everyone else. So every day I will continue to eat pray and love and let this life constantly ruin me so that I can be transformed into the person God made me to be.

He gives and takes away

It's amazing how you can feel like your fate is in the hands of human. But then I remember Christ. And how I am defined in Him. I am written in a much greater plan than anyone on this earth could ever decide for me. The decisions made have already been written. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord". Therefore I rejoice. I will rejoice when I am sad and I will rejoice when I am happy. I will not let the things of this world tear me down. If I did anything, I hope I was able to in some way share my faith and my passion for missions. And my passion to serve people, my passion to love my passion to make people to laugh. If you were never broken, if nothing bad ever happened, if you were never weak, then you would never need healing, you would never need hope, you would never need to cry out, you would never need to be carried. I am constantly in the arms of the Lord. He gives me strength. He gives me hope. He gives me healing. He takes my brokenness. He carries me. He gives and takes away.