So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. -Matthew 7:12  

Hello world!! That's right!! I'm back after a prolonged "vacation" from writing! Let's just say that it has been one loooonnnnggg semester and I am looking forward to the Christmas vacation that is just days away. Today's blog isn't going to be about me. However, it is going to be about someone who is near and dear to my heart. One might call her my flesh and blood. It's going to be about my mom! (She doesn't know I'm writing this!!)

My mom is my hero. She is someone who I look up to everyday and I strive my hardest to be just like her. She is selfless. She is caring. She is loving. She is the best. My mom has worked hard her entire life to get to be the successful woman that she is today and she teaches me important lessons on how to be successful just like her.

There is one particular story about my mom that I want to tell the world. On Thanksgiving Day, my mom was the hands and feet of Jesus. We have a neighbor who, during the week, fell and had to go to the hospital to surgery the day before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving morning, my mom saw my neighbor's wife who had told her about the injury. Immediately my mom told my neighbor not to worry about Thanksgiving dinner, that we had enough food and would bring them over some after her husband got discharged.

I have to admit, the thought to bring them food would not have crossed my mind. I crossed my mom's mind immediately. Right then and there my mom became the hands and feet of Jesus. She went to the Dollar Store and got containers for the food. She made sure that the food was warm as soon as they came home so they could eat it. She walked the food over to our neighbors and made sure that they were alright. That is exactly what Jesus wants us to do.

She could have hogged the turkey, dressing, and delicious coconut cake. Instead she made sure that they enjoyed the holiday as much as we did. Jesus tells us in Mark 12, that we should first love God with all of our being, and we should secondly love our neighbors as we love ourselves. He also says in John 15 that we should love others as He loved us.

I am so proud to be my mother's daughter. There may be sometimes when I take her for granted or talk back, but to be able to see her be the salt and light of the earth. Thank you Mom for being you. I love you most!!

The Pressure to be Perfect

"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48

As I spend my last night in my childhood home for a while, I am reflecting on the past three months of summer and also looking forward at what the first semester of my sophomore year will bring. This summer brought along stress and times when I wanted to pull my hair out and I'm sure that this new semester will bring the same. The girls who worked for me would tell you that I strive for perfection  and when I don't get it I get angry. That is what this long, overdue blog post will be about.

I am the perfect candidate for a study on people who have Type A personalities. I am constantly stressed and am looking for ways to push myself to work harder. When I don't reach a goal in a set amount of time, I become angry and disappointed with myself. I strive to lead others around me in anything that I do. This isn't something new for me. Ever since I was young, I have always worked my hardest to get good grades and stay involved in various things, be it sports or extracurricular clubs. In high school I was involved in sports, BETA club, National Honors Society, HOSA, student government, and sports medicine.

I am not one to ask for help. I am the one who seeks out people who need help and proceed to give it to them. In first grade there was a boy who suffered from autism. Our class went on a field trip and I was right there next to him the entire time to help him and hold his hand. Getting tutoring my first semester of freshman year was a huge blow to my ego and pride. More recently I got the hotel wrong that I was supposed to go to and ended up blowing up at my mom because I wanted to cover my own mistake.

I am learning that I am not perfect and that it is ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. There was only one perfect person to walk the earth, and there is no way that I could ever reach that level of perfectness. God's love is unconditional. It knows no boundaries and breaks down walls that people have built up. I can mess up directions or make a bad grade, but God will still love me. He doesn't care that I'm not perfect because I was made like him.

So, in reflection of this summer, I am going to learn from my mistakes of blowing up on people when things weren't perfect or if I didn't do something right. And in contemplation of the upcoming school year, I am not going to be so hard on myself. That doesn't mean that I am not going to work hard at what I am doing to be the best, it just means that if things don't work out 100% like I want them to, I'm not going to tear myself down. 

Forever to Thee

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

As I walk through campus today everything and everyone seems to be dealing with yesterday's tragedy.  People are talking about the calls and the text messages that were recieved. They are talking about the random numbers that called their parents to make sure that they were ok. People were talking about the shock of receiving a text message that declared there was a shooting on campus. It was said a lot yesterday that someone never expects something like this to happen to them or to happen on their campus. It wasn't something that I imagined. I've dealt with many bomb threats and with many shootings but nothing scared me quite like this did. It wasn't that I was afraid for my life, it was being afraid for the lives of my fellow Gamecocks. I was very fortunate that I was on the other side of campus but it was still equally as scary. We received multiple reports/rumors of various things that were going on. 

People's lives will forever be affected by what went on Thursday. We will forever remember where we were or the multiple text messages we received. We will remember hugging our friends when we finally returned home and hugging our friends who were in the building when it happened. We will remember calling our parents to tell them we were alive and well. We will remember the comfort of hearing a familiar voice telling us that we were loved. We will remember the legacy that one of our professors left behind and we will remember how we came together. The student body became a family last night and so did the state. Clemson students were willing to wear their rival's colors to support the Gamecocks. 

God doesn't allow something horrible to happen withhold something good to come from it. God is our shield who will protect us and He protected us yesterday. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." God was with us yesterday and continues to be with us as we deal with the aftermath. God is an all powerful God that will restore us and strengthen us and help us become whole again. I truly and firmly believe that. 

I have never been more proud to call myself a Gamecock and a South Carolinian. It is such a great honor to be able to call this place my home. With that being said, please continue prayers for everyone on campus and the families of those who are deceased. This will be a long healing process but we will overcome and be stronger because of it. 

Here's a health, Carolina. FOREVER TO THEE! 

Undeserving

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.- John 3:16

So, I have had the worst two weeks. I wrote last week about how I got into an accident and also fell in the mud while exploring nature. This week I hit my best friend in the face with a racquetball and forgot my favorite water bottle in my English class which made me late for my Care and Prevention of Injuries class. I've cried a lot these past weeks and my stress levels have far exceeded any possible limit I thought they could. I'm sure that I will be prematurely gray and will have wrinkles in my twenties. There were so many times where I just wanted to crawl up into a ball and not leave my dorm room.

I've sat here the last two weeks and felt sorry about myself, wondering why something like this would happen to me. I didn't deserve getting into a wreck. I didn't deserve falling in the mud. Erin didn't deserve me hitting her in the face with a high speed racquetball. I might not have deserved all of that but I didn't deserve the love I got either. I didn't deserve the texts from ladies from church telling me that they were thinking about me. I didn't deserve my parents love, encouragement, and wisdom when I thought the world around me was burning. I didn't deserve the message from my uncle telling me that my little cousin was bragging about me to one of her friends tonight.

How does someone like me deserve the love and support of all of these people when I sat here and only felt sorry for myself? How do I deserve the love of God when I struggled to believe that He loved me the past two weeks? There is a saying that goes, "I can't brag about my love for God because I fail Him daily, but I can brag about His love for me because it never fails." How do I forget about His amazing grace and mercy in everyone's lives? God is an amazing God who continues to baffle me because of His unfailing love for everyone and for me. I think that we all forget sometimes how much God loves us. I mean, He sent His only Son for our sins. 

If you are ever down and out (kind of like I was and a tiny bit still am) remember God's love for you. Remember the lives you've touched and all of the people who love you and look up to you. I couldn't have made it through these two weeks without the love and support of everyone. 

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I thank you for the continued support and prayers. I was able to drive my car home today and am at home relaxing. 

Wrecked

 He said: "In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help and You listened to my cry." Jonah 2:2

Lets recap the "wonderful" (sarcasm) week I've had this past week. I came back to Columbia and started my classes. Not too bad other than an 8:05 (which has been moved to a place closer to my dorm). On Thursday, I decided to head out to the area shopping center to see if they had some items that I needed. Upon returning, I hit 5 o'clock traffic and ultimately another car. Her car had minor damage and mine seems to be all cosmetic (PTL!!). However, it was one of the most stressful, scariest things that I have ever been apart of. Luckily, I have amazing sorority sisters and amazing best friends who came running to my rescue. My dad also has amazing friends who came to the wreck site and to look after the wreck at my car to see if I can make it down to the beach next weekend. 

On a happy note, the weather this weekend has been amazing. So, my friends and I decided that we needed to at least enjoy the wonderful weather. For me, this would have been done playing tennis, for them it was a walk down near the river. Today, we went to the river. We walked down the paths and even took some unbeaten paths. We walk down near the river and I slip and go into a split. I was wearing jeans and white Converses. Needless to say I was not a happy Campman (haha, get it? Campman, camper? Ok, its lame). 

I think that God will wreck our lives so we realize that we can't do anything ourselves. God is an almighty god who has a plan in our lives. I think it took not only me getting into a wreck, but also falling in the mud to see that. He lets us get dirty and then He cleans us off. Kind of like what Erin and Morgan did for me (after they stopped laughing). 

Singing in the Rain

May He give you the desires of your heart and make all of your plans succeed. Psalm 20:4

I write this as I am sitting at my happy place. The beach was never something that I thought that I would miss once I went off to college. I spent all summer on the beach and maybe only went once or twice for my own enjoyment. I, however, have found myself missing the aroma of the salt air and the way the waves endlessly kiss the shore. I miss this place and it makes me happy to be here. (Which is why I walked on the beach in the rain yesterday.)

While I have a great life with family and friends that support me, I don't feel like I am appreciative of what God has blessed me with. This is why my New Years resolution isn't to lose weight or eat healthier. It is to be happier. This world is full of trials and burdens that weigh us down, but it is also full of great and wonderful this that have been take for granted.I know what you are thinking. "Katy, are you my happy with the life you have now?" My answer to that would be: yes I am happy but not in the way that I want to be happy. I'm not as happy as I could be.

I am reading a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. In the book she chronicles her journey to be happier and the different aspects of her life she works on to make herself happier. While some of her subjects, such as marriage and parenthood, don't apply to me, I will still be using her happiness project as a frame and stepping stone for my own project. There is a saying that goes something like, "Everyday isn't always a good day, but there is always good in everyday." I'm hoping that I will start to realize this and ultimately live a happier life. Also, from a happier life comes a healthier life.

Along with this, I am hoping that 2015 is the year that I become a better woman of God. I also am currently reading a book called Dirty God by Johnnie Moore. The book talks about the grace of God in our lives and how Jesus came from the gold paved streets of Heaven to the trenches of the earth. Along with this, I also recently purchased a book of sorts from She Reads Truth and I am hoping that it will help me better understand the gospel of John and Jesus' life.

I think that God is using this new year and new stage of my life to become a better daughter, sister, friend and follower of Christ. Be looking for updates on the books I'm reading and the progress of my happiness project in the "Happiness Project" tab on the above tab. Don't hesitate to ask questions either! There is a place for questions and comments on the side tabs.

I am so excited to see where 2015 will take me and I am so glad to have your love and support along the way. I hope that you all had a fabulous and blessed holiday seasons and that your upcoming year will be blessed! 

Peace and blessings!