Wednesday, The Day Of Due Dates & A Brand New Crayon

So it is true, I had tons of stuff due today and not a whole lot of time to do it. I had to do 15 problems for Mechanics of Materials, which I finished about 30 minutes ago. I also had to write a huge MATLAB program which would open a file, organize the data, and then write a new one containing the organized data. That took me at least 5 hours total. It works like a champ though. I am really exhausted. Work has really been taking it out of me. Tonight when I go to work I’m going to be finishing up a project that I started like a month ago. It has been really stressful and tiring. From lifting heavy boxes, to precisely cutting 42 labels and their 42 pieces of tape, to formatting a Publisher document exactly the way the director wanted. I almost went crazy. But I am realizing that “in this world we will have troubles…” then I have to realize the following line in that song, “…but You have overcome them all.” That is a stone cold fact. God has overcome all the troubles of this world and all we need to do is lift our lives and problems up to Him and He will help us to overcome them.

I do also realize though how much God has blessed me. He has given me a loving girlfriend, a loving family, a place to live, a job to work at, food to eat, friends to hang out with, a church family, an education, and the list could go on forever. And I mean it. God really has blessed my life. I am so thankful for Emily. She is a gift that God has given to me. Someone that, by God’s will, will never go away. Love is a tricky thing. Whenever the love is your agenda it won’t succeed and is most likely ungodly, however when God brings two people together that bond is so strong. Most people give the analogy of marriage being like tying two strings together. Alright now bear with me but imagine people are like crayons. I believe that when God brings two people together it’s like He is taking those two crayons, melting them down, mixing them, and reforming them to become a completely new color. That is what a Godly relationship looks like.

Later Everyone

Excellent Day

Today was much better than yesterday. Someone must have been praying because I finally understood my pre-lab by Lab today. And it actually made sense, not just fake made sense. That is definitely the power of God because I had no idea what I was doing. After Lab I went to my meeting with Shirley at 1:00. That my friends, was a little scary. Of course I was expecting her to tell me everything I did wrong and of course she did, but I am actually feeling better about my presidency. I was able to stand up to all her negative comments and take them at face-value without letting her get to me.

I did work again today. I worked from 3-6 today. Wow, I thought yesterday was boring. Today I did 2 hours worth of discarding books and about 40 minutes of shelf reading. I did absolutely no shelving today. Books books everywhere and not a page to shelve.

Tonight I had life group from 8 until about 9:30. Kyle came for the first time tonight and I think he really enjoyed it. He was able to connect with Zach and he had a lot of good points during our discussion. But the best part about tonight was the 10 minutes I spent with her. Alright now before I tell you who she is I must clarify our relationship for you all. Gossip and rumors can tear a relationship apart (I despise gossip, a story for another day). I do not want that to happen. We have entered into what I believe is a courting relationship. For those of you who don’t know what that is, I will clarify. A courting relationship involves 2 people who like each other. Courting involves getting to know each other better, and finding out if your feelings are just temporal or lasting. We are going extremely slow, don’t worry. I have enough sources of advice for this relationship that I do not need anymore. I appreciate it but no thank you. Alright, her name is Emily Masi. Later Everyone. =)

Crazy Times in the Life of a God Follower

Wow it has been so crazy since I last wrote an entry, sorry about that. Well to summarize really quick, we went camping, I told someone how much I like them and it turns out they really like me to, I’ve hung out with her a lot, school has been crazy, and there is probably more I’m forgetting to mention.

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I think that was as long as I had expected it to be, sorry if you didn’t want to read that, but you just did. Lol. So that weekend the family, the Rices (minus Joel and Abby), and Amy and Marianne went camping down to Letchworth State Park. I can’t even begin to describe to you how cold it was. I think the entire time I was down there I wore at least 2 layers. It was a lot of fun though. I was even able to teach some statics to Kyle. I think he enjoyed it. Now, you may be asking yourself, “did he take homework?’ well the answer is yes. The funniest part about it though is the fact that my calculator took twice as long to respond to every calculation I entered because it was so cold. Lol.

Everything has been going pretty well. Later Everyone.

Integral Parts Of My Life: Family (Part 2)

YAY, I have time tonight to get to the second most integral part of my life. Well first let me introduce you to my family. I live with them all, there’s my dad and mom and then there’s my little brother and my little sister. I know I couldn’t live without them. Like most families, my dad fills those head of the household shoes. Although, in my opinion, he fills them better than anyone else’s dad. He is a strong leader, a devoted husband and an awesome father. He taught me how to do a lot of the cool things I know how to do today. He got me into photography, engineering. He taught me how to shoot a pellet gun, and even more important, how to shoot a pellet gun safely. My dad also taught me how to be faithful to God. Every child goes through this stage where they love getting up early. And every morning when I would wake up, like clockwork, my dad would be down sitting in his spot on the couch reading his devotional booklet or his bible getting his daily bread from God. Otherwise he would be on his knees before God, setting his day to do God’s will. Like I said, my dad was the one who first asked me if I wanted to ask God into my heart. He set an example for his children, an example on how to stay in touch with God. And I thank him more than he’ll ever know for that (both him and Him).

And my momma, the first thing that came to my mind when I thought about what to write was the song lyric, “Can’t touch dis’.” My mom rocks out loud. And she always was and always is there to comfort me when someone cares to be a jerk to me. I really admire the fact that she has the boldness to be who she is and say what she says. I think way to much about what I say and worry that I’m going to offend someone. When I was little I never really liked riding the bus. But when I would there was this one girl who was always a real snot to me. I told my mom about her and the next day I got on the bus, my mom stared this girl straight in the face and mouthed, “I’m watchin’ you” to her. I had no idea what was going on but obviously the girl did. I never had any problems with her again. No one, and I mean no one touches her children. Both my parents also taught me an important lesson, consequences to actions. When I did something wrong and they warned me that next time I did it I’d get punished, I did get punished. And it was always exactly what they said. They always said it hurt them as much as it hurt me, I didn’t get it then but I understand perfectly now. They didn’t punish me because they liked to they punished me to teach me the hard lesson that there will be consequences in life if I do something wrong, and nobody is going to take it easy on me.

My two wonderful siblings, Gabriel and Lydia. Gabe is and always will be my little brother. Well maybe only in my mind he’ll be my little brother. He is already as tall as I am and he is just finishing his freshman year in high school. He is so going to be 6 feet tall, he’s got my grandpa’s genes. Gabe has always been there to pal around with to go on adventures with. And to play video games with. And I have so many things to thank him for. Like being there when I need to talk to someone, or even just not beating me up, that I’m thankful for. He can also be a goofball too. My brother is so awesome Lydia my beautiful little sister. Lydia is so cute. Her hair is dirty blond and she is 12, but she says some of the cutest things I’ve ever heard someone say. One of my favorites happened a couple of weeks ago. She meant it in the right way it just sounded funny. It was the day of Brockport College’s graduation ceremony and tons of cars were on route 31. We were passing them all going the opposite direction and she says to me, “I wonder where all these cars with Ohio license plates came from?” as sincere as could be. Me being dumb I burst our laughing and I received a nice slap on my chest for my outburst. She meant she wanted to know why they had all shown up all of a sudden and where they all had been until now. I completely understood her question but it was so cute and innocent. I have to be nice though, she is president. She is the president of the student body at the Christ Community Church private school and she is a smart cookie.

My family is so awesome. They’ve shaped and molded me into who I am now and what I will become. Thanks guys. And of course I have to thank God every day for giving me such a cool family. Later everyone.

Integral Parts Of My Life: God (Part 1)

I’ll talk about how my day was at the end of this post. So there will be multiple parts to this “series” if you want to call it that. And tonight I’m talking about my testimony, how God completely changed my life around. And it didn’t happen all at once.

All my life I’ve grown up in a Christian home and my parents, siblings and I would attend church every week, and I even went to a private school from kindergarten to eighth grade. Needless to say God was EVERYWHERE in my life and I’m glad He was. Growing up in the church I just thought it was one of the motions to get saved, like to ask God to come into my heart. When I was eight, my Dad asked me if I wanted to ask God to come into my heart. I really didn’t know what I was doing but I gave an enthusiastic sure and we prayed and asked God to forgive my sins and to come live in my heart. Two years later when I was ten I began to realize the depth of what I had done only two years earlier. I realized that Christ had endured a painful death on the cross and because he was innocent he could bear the weight of my sin, giving me a free ticket into heaven. So at age ten I re-dedicated my life to God’s purposes and to having an eternal relationship with Him. I had always thought that when someone asked Jesus into their heart the change was instantaneous. I started to learn that change would come but not as quick as the snap of my fingers. One thing that God did change in me was one of my worst habits. As a kid I was a habitual liar, and it only caused me pain as I would get a spanking every time I lied to my parents. I would throw away homework assignments and say I had lost them and needed more time. It was bad. It isn’t like I don’t lie anymore. No one’s perfect. But after I rededicated my life to God, and really meant it, I didn’t have the urge to lie and cheat the way I had before. I was unnoticeable to me at the time. Looking back on it now, I see that there was a change in the way I acted.

At the age of thirteen I got water baptized and once again God changed my life ever so subtly. After I got water baptized I began to speak in tongues when I would pray. Again because I had grown up in the church I didn’t realize how unnatural this was until a couple of years ago. I believe that speaking in tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. I didn’t realize that God had blessed me with this gift until about 8 months ago when Chad asked me if I had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. I had no idea what he was talking about but after quite a bit of discussion I realized that I had been at the same time I was water baptized. So that was pretty cool. This time though it took me over five years to figure out what God had changed in me instead of two.

Then God did a huge amount of maintenance this spring. For most of my life I’ve had friends and I’m extremely thankful for them. I’ve never really had someone who was my SUPER BFF you know. I’ve been in and out of different groups of friends and no one really treated me like their best friend. It was really because I didn’t really mesh well with the group or occasionally I was the only male. It just wasn’t any fun. This had been growing on me for years and years and years. So this spring I went to an encounter retreat with the college group which is based in our church. That retreat changed my life. I believe it was Saturday, we watched part of the Passion and all the pain God went through to take our sins. Yeah, when I was ten I used the word “painful”. Until I saw the passion I didn’t know what painful was. It killed me inside to see that. After that portion we had a portion which dealt with the breaking of bondages and that is where God changed my life. I just thought that the fact I didn’t have a super best friend was life. It was the Devil lying to me. When one of the prayer team members started praying about rejection, I just began to weep. I didn’t even realize what was happening. I felt this feeling, I can’t even begin to describe but it was so wonderful. It was God reaching down and plucking that spirit of rejection right out of me. Ever since I just had this supernatural sense of joy that I knew cam e from God. I knew in my heart that I wasn’t placed on this earth to be a solitary Christian, there is a reason He wants us to go to church. For edification and encouragement and fellowship. He made me to be a friend to many and to be an encourager. Ever since that day God has brought strong Christians into my life who can challenge me and people who I can show God’s love to. After the retreat I became very, very close knit with the Campus Ambassadors group at MCC. Because the group is real small it isn’t hard to get personal and really get to know the members. Most importantly he showed me that having a best friend, is important, having a friend who can build you up in the spirit and challenge you in your daily walk. This Joy he has given me is so powerful, if I’ve talked to you I hope you’ve felt it in what I said or written because it isn’t just for me. He has filled me to overflowing so that I may pour out onto others.

God has had a profound effect on my life. A positive one. That is definitely why he is the most integral part of my life.

As for today’s activities…

Well I worked again. Thank goodness that the library has air conditioning. I can even begin to imagine shelving books in 92 degree weather. Today at work this cute little girl came up to the desk and asked Amy if anyone had returned a little keychain with her library card and a pendant which said Washington D.C. on it. When Amy told her that I would come out and help her look for it her face lit up like a light bulb. She was so ecstatic. So we searched for about ten minutes and we couldn’t find anything. So I told her that if I found it later or if anyone returned it at the desk we would give her house a call. And she was still smiling. I was very impressed and she even said thank you for helping her look. I thought that was really cute. So later while I was cleaning the children’s room I found it under a book on one of the tables. So I had Amy call the little girl’s house and they were very grateful. It just lifts my spirit to know that I helped out that little girl, even if it was something as small as finding her library card. It was too cool. I didn’t do much else today though. Wow long post much? I’ll talk at you folks tomorrow.