Good thing I never promised to blog very often because I clearly haven't. We stay pretty busy around here so even keeping up with homework and different assignments can become a challenge. So I apologize, but keep your expectations for the frequency of future posts very low :)

Life out here has been great.  I love it far more than I ever expected that I would.  And I am definitely learning far more than I even have time to process.  Because I never really explained what it is I am doing with my time, I will try my best to get you up to speed.

I have five classes...

Christian Identity and Leadership Studies: Taught by an awesome couple with 3 adorable little children, we cover a wide spectrum of topics: leadership (obviously), homosexuality, eating disorders, pornography, women in the church, and anything else that has to do with our identity (that is a lot).

Marriage and Family Studies: This class is taught by Steve and Twyla Lee (they are from Minnesota and Twyla taught at Taylor for 17 years so I am a biiiigggg fan of them).  The title speaks for itself.  But I can tell you that if you put 45 students between the ages of 19-25 in a room and talk about marriage and dating, you will generate some very interesting conversations.  I love this class

Christian Worldview Studies: Going to Taylor, I thought I knew everything about worldview. However, our teacher has a way of making us leaving that class with more questions than I ever thought possible.  I'm not kidding when I say that it will take me a lifetime to process everything that I learned about in this class.  Extremely challenging and very interesting.

Family, Church and Society: This is taught by Dr. Del Tackett who is a pretty well-known speaker so he teaches the 1st week and the last week of the semester.  The first week of the semester feels like forever ago, but he basically lays the foundation for God's design of social order.  I had never thought about this before. Never even crossed my mind.  I can't wait for him to come back to teach again.

Practicum: I don't remember how much I have explained about my practicum, but I am working with the Counseling Department at Focus on the Family.  Of the different internship sites, this one has been around the longest and has the most students.  I shadow a counselor once a week, have weekly seminars on the field of counseling and take various field trips.  I could never put a price on this experience.  I have learned so much and have gained experience that you could never find outside of graduate school.  I could talk about this one forever.

So that is what I am learning about in the classroom.  And even though I am experiencing information overload, God has not slowed down teaching me either.  I can't even begin explaining how much I have learned this semester.  But one thing that God has continual taught me is John 10:10

"The thief comes only to steal and destroy.  I came that you may have life and have it abundantly."

How awesome is that?  I forget about it all the time though.  Whenever I think about the cross and what Jesus did, I only think about it in terms of the bad things that it took away. Don't get me wrong, this is a big part of it.  I am so thankful that I don't have to carry the burdens of my sin.  However, Jesus also died so that I could have a rich and joyful life on this earth.  This seems so obvious given all of the worries that He has taken away, but I don't think we dwell on this enough and remember that God wants us to have full lives.

Speaking of full lives, here are just a few of the things that I have blessed my life lately

Snowboarding in the beautiful beautiful mountains

lots and lots of laughter

New Adventures

(if you think the entrance was small, you should have seen the rest of the holes we wiggled through)

Close friends that I cherish and will have for a lifetime

I will do my best to update every once and awhile.  But for now, go out and enjoy the abundant life that God has given you