My Thoughts Right Now (that don't really matter...)

• I realized tonight that I have readings in 6 books due on Thursday. Plus other homework. 
• My roomie's desperately trying to get to sleep despite some unintentional caffeine and a cold. I hope she succeeds, poor Beck.
• Exciting to think it might be possible to finish school next year after all. Just went to the Registrar's yesterday, and made myself a pretty crazy strict plan of action. Can't wait to see if it'll work. Being at IBEX in the Fall will be totally worth the nutty Summer schedule. 
• It's cold back home. Colder than here. And while I hate the chill in the air (I get wimpier with every semester I live in SoCal), it sounds good to be home and give em all a hug. Not really homesick, I just love them.
• I like the challenges and blessings involved in homework. Sometimes it forces you to slow down, and sometimes it forces you to get up and do something productive. Interesting how that works.
• I'm working on my thesis this semester. Not really joking. I'll actually have my undergraduate thesis completed by the end of this semester, Lord willing. At first, I was scared out of my mind. But through Tat's workshop on the topic of Adoption, and the suggestion of a friend, I'm really stoked about this class, because it will provide me with a forum to research something I want to learn about anyway: Adoption & Foster Care. 
• There have been so many good things spoken into my life lately. College students are selfish. We really are--all our lives are so centered around ourselves (sometimes by necessity, often by choice). We have people cleaning our bathrooms, people cooking our food, and people consistently pouring into our lives. We're crazy blessed, but we can easily think it's all about us and that we deserve it. Not so, little 21 year old... not so. Interesting to see I've bought into the lie. This whole post is kind of. basically. pretty much. completely. all about me. Oh grow up, Kate.
• God is enormous. But I was just challenged at dinner (by someone pretty wonderful) that we often don't believe what we believe. We don't take our beliefs and realize that they're true. So is God enormous? Is He big enough that I don't have to worry about financial aid? Is He big enough that I can trust even through the late nights, that He's working it all out to somehow glorify Him and bring me good (whatever that looks like)? Is He enormous enough to deserve our uncomplaining, humble, patiently faithful service? Yeah. Though, I must say, often I really don't dish that out. Sometimes it looks like a whiny, thinly veiled false humility that really just wants her own way. right now. But God is really working. I'm confident of that. He's too gracious to forget about completing His work here in me.
• I'm excited to be seeing Him work in this campus too. Sure, there are sad things you hear. And the more time you spend with people, the more you see their sin. But it's good to see sin so you can all work on it together. Up close and a little too personal for comfort sometimes. I'm blessed and encouraged and also a little wary and fearful at the progress and lack of progress I see in others. But hey, that's where my walk is too at times. "And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all."--1 Thessalonians 5:14 I'm glad Scripture directs us.
• I don't want to stop writing. It's in my system and I can't stop. But I need to. I have a lot of reading to do. So for now, thanks for reading. goodnight...

Designed for Glory

Tonight I have about 40 years of homework to complete, but this little paragraph in my Interior Environments textbook made me so excited, I have to share it.

"The following guidelines can help the beginning designer develop a discriminating eye for quality design ... Objects in nature should be carefully observed. Their play of light and shadow, their shape, texture, pattern, and color are fine examples of design."

That made me stop and take a double take. Really? A secular textbook recognizes that:
1) Nature reflects design.
2) Natural design is excellent.
3) Natural design is so excellent, in fact, that we should go to it to learn excellence in all design.

Wow. And how often do I gloss over the fact that the natural world, designed and created by my supernatural God, is there to proclaim His name? As I whine about the heat or the cold, as I tread over fallen leaves, smell the fragrance of the roses, am I deeply and utterly aware of the decibel at which these things shout the glory of their Maker?

Also, another thought: even an unbelieving textbook writer can recognize that we must turn to God to do things excellently. We are dependent on Him for anything good we wish to do. How then, do we learn from Him? By patiently sitting under His lessons. By studying His revelation of Himself. By learning from His beauty about His greatness, and trusting Him for every area of life.

We can--and should--endeavor to seek these things. However, we will never be perfect in them as our Heavenly Father is. How beautiful glory will be when we stand before Him and realize that all we've studied, all we've imagined about Him, is a faint and distant--almost laughable--representation of this intensely magnificent Creator.

So these, dear friends, are the things I'm considering as I go about my homework. No wonder it's taking me so long. But why would I want to speed it up? I mean, really. :)

Books I Recommend!

Some books I'll be reading this semester for classes--you may want to check them out!

Shepherding a Child's Heart, by Tedd Tripp
The Way They Learn, by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias
Practicing hospitality: The joy of serving others, by Pat Ennis & Lisa Tatlock
The hospitality commands, by Alexander Strauch

A few I've read for other classes and highly recommend:
Debt-Proof Living, by Mary Hunt
Shopping for Time, by Carolyn Mahaney (and daughters)
Becoming a Titus 2 Woman, by Martha Peace
Disciplines of a Godly Woman, by Barbara Hughes
Lies Women Believe, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss