Unique

Tonight was the last night of Illuminate for the school year. Eight seniors savored every moment of their very last evening at illuminate. One by one the seniors got up to give advice to the rest of us youngins. The amount of truth and wisdom that was shared by each senior was so powerful. Scripture was read and stories were told and each senior had something unique to say. One girl advised us to come to God with everything. With our joy, happiness, our heart ache , and pain. Another senior told us to do everything as if doing it for the Lord. ( This included school....not easy to hear) Seniors continued to share the wisdom they had learned over their four years of high school and every bit of it was beautiful. After each one shared we had the chance to lay hands on them and send them out in prayer. We celebrated a successful year of illuminate with foamy root beer floats and spent the rest of the evening laughing lots (which is normal for Tuesday nights). As I was driving home in the rain I was blown away by how unique and completely different every person and every situation is. I know its been said a million times and I've heard people give long talks about how God created each of us differently and how unique we are but its true were all so...different. Anyway, while I was on my way home I saw these two girls from Illuminate who I dont know at all walking home in the cold rain. I offered them a ride and they politely said "We're alright" but after finding out how far away they lived, I insisted. They got in and introduced them selves to me and were extremely polite. One was a freshman and the other a junior. I wasn't planning on having anything in common with either of them but it turned out we were all terrible with directions and love bunnies. Our mutual sympathy for bunnies was quickly discovered right after I nearly plastered a bunny. We all screamed and talked about how dreadful it would have been to actually crush the poor animal. We found their bright blue trailer home and as they got out I was again reminded at the beauty and creativity of my majestic God. I am blessed to know so many completely different and beautiful people. God is good.

Saturday Night with Nick

Got to spend my Saturday night with this sweet guy.

We started off by playing one on one basketball at my house and of course, I won. Okay that is kind of a lie. The boy has got a solid seven inches on me. How can I  dominate that? After losing terribly, we hopped into his jeep and listened to happy and summery songs as we drove out to his house for dinner. Before dinner we went to his neighborhood pond to take a ride in the paddle boat. We floated around the pond and talked for a long time about lots of good stuff. We walked back to his house with sandy feet to eat tacos with his wonderful parents. We drank ice cold lemonade that was perfectly sweet and had the most soft and delectable brownies for dessert. His sweet mother makes dessert every night and it is always delicious. After dinner we went outside to jump on the trampoline I never knew he had. After jumping we went on a walk up a little hill behind his house to watch the sunset. We watched the city as the sky turned vibrant pinks and oranges and laughed a lot because I would speak to him and Spanish and he would speak to me in German. Neither of us had any idea what the other was saying which lead to lots and lots of laughing. He told me my smile was sweet in German. I suggested we go to the supermarket and told him he had nice legs in Spanish. Seven years of Spanish has gotten me far. We walked back to his house with numb feet and put wool socks on the moment we stepped into his house. As our feet began to defrost we played Halo. For those of you who don't know, its a game where you kill bad guys and use big guns and swords to do so. I died about fifteen times but I was a first timer so it was acceptable. The night was perfect and we laughed so much. I love laughing.