January 6th

Oh boy am I tired. I'm gunna make this one short.

A chuckle. Not quite as loud or brash as a laugh but still there, gently helping to ease or bring out even the quietest of smiles. I think God chuckles predominently, it seems fitting.

January 5th

Oh it started out all wrong. Lying in bed this morning after my alarm went off, I fell into the awful practice of telling ones self, "just a little longer, I'll lay my head back down while I collect my thoughts." Dangerous! Before ya know it your shower time eats into your breakfast time which spills into getting dressed time which spills into driving time and it just gets worse from there. On top of that a sad fact hit me while driving, the snow is almost gone! We didn't have a white Christmas and it hasn't stuck around since so it is hard to accept that it is winter. When looking outside I just get this dismal feeling that makes me upset. What comfort is there for a cold or runny nose when there wasn't even a great day of sledding or playing in the snow to blame it on?

But on this gray down-trodden looking world today it rained, and that is the blessing that caught my eye today. It wasn't a spirit dampenning rain that takes the clouds out of the sky and puts them in your heart and mind. It wasn't the terenchal downpour that is excitingly powerful yet destructive. Instead it was the happy light hearted pitter-patter, hardly discernable at a glance but when I did take notice a slight smile played across my face. Unfortunety there was not enough to mke puddles to jump in, but I did allow myself some few moments of foolish dancing in the parking lot during 8th period. But who could resist that cold rejuvinateing sprinkle that that makes the world seem big and open and full of happyness.

Though others may not have got the same feeling from the rain that I did, I thank God for the joyeness that He showed me in such a darn awful winter.

January 4th

Time. Ya can't fabricate it. Ya can't really save it. ya can't touch, buy, or hold back time. It is subject to no one but God and only He can maniplulate it or transend it. It goes on no matter what and is always constant but how is it that it can be so hard to find time? Well maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, in fact I know that I often am. But even with my foolish searching God saw fit to grant me with plenty of it today. I didn't have to rush anywhere, hurry, or cut corners. It all just fell into place and made for a very stress free day.

It feels good to slow down in lifenot only stopping to smell the roses but to contemplate their creation and almighty creator. 55 mph seemed plenty fast enough (sorry to those who might have got stuck behind me) and didn't make to much of a difference. Now all thats left is to have enough sleep time :)

January 3rd

Blessing: 1. a favor or gift bestowed by God. This this is the key of my writings on this blog. To explore, seek out, dissern, and realize the blessing given to me by God, and to rejoice, exault, and praise Him for them. But by blessing I do not just mean such things as "thank you that I lived through today", though it is only by Gods good grace and mercy that any of us survive at all. No, I want to really search each day to find something that God has place for me, a spectacular sunset, certaim words of encouragement, an unexpected gift of whatever be it hug or a tangeble thing, and even the trials and tribulations by which I learn the lessons of life.

Now I am a 18 year old boy, not a great theologian, not an amazing writer of the blog world, and not someone who can be called an athority on any subject. Young and imature, willing to learn, capable of mistakes, and a blessed person is wqhat I am. So do not be suprised if some of my posts contain something odd, question me about it if you like and forgive my awful spelling.

I would like to begin with something that I have noticed before and showed up again today on a long bus ride home from a bball game. The blessing of a good book with a message that reached me on several levels. It is called "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung, and deals with the will of God. I opened it several weeks ago and reached the end of chapter two, and it was off to an inauspicious start for me. Just seeming like more of the same that I had heard most of my life. But after this book was rerecommended to me I took it on the trip to get it over with. Right from the start of chartper three it gripped me and changed my view. A truely great book for those who are "unsure" like myself. Thank you God fro the book and wisdom that it carries.