With heartfelt prayer

So often when talking with other believers about difficulties in our lives or decisions we face, they ask us if we have prayed about it. If you are like me, you say, "Yes, of course I've prayed about it... but I haven't gotten an answer."
So often we pray to God for direction or answers or consolation... anything...but we feel our attempts are futile. Some lose hope, re-evaluate, and begin to turn to others for direction, but that is not at all what we need. In our re-evaluation, we should see that our attempts are in fact, futile...but futile in a different definition.

The first futile that I referenced is by the definition: trifling, frivolous, unimportant. The second, is every different....but also the definition of futile: ineffective, useless.

Amazing how one goes from placing the blame on God... the one who hears our prayers, to placing it on us... the one throwing the prayers out to God.
This verse from Hosea has come up multiple times this week... this week in which I have been in a lot of prayer about decisions that need to be made.
They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. Hosea 7:14-NLT
This verse let me know that in conversation with God, I need to honestly let Him into my heart in order for His will in my life to be done. Let me be done with wailing on my couch...my couch of comfort and security...and open up my heart to him, so that all my prayers will be the laying out of my soul to the creator of all.

Challenge those around you to do the same. Challenge them to be heartfelt and sincere, for OUR God knows the difference, and he doesn't put up with futile calls for help.

Lake

I thought I just heard a jet ski go by. But since I am in my apartment in Greenville, I really find that highly unlikely.

But I think that means I'm very much ready to be on my dock at my lake house.

Spring Break

So my plans still aren't set for spring break... and it begins tomorrow. Now that's what I call procrastination. Or lack of interesting things to do.

I was hoping to take part in Extreme Makeover Home Edition out in eastern NC..but apparently its too late to sign up or something... that baffles me because I feel like they need just about as many people as they could ever ask for. Oh well. If I get to help, I will.

If this falls through though, you better believe I'm not staying in Greenville for long. The mountains are calling me home. I haven't been home since Jan 4th or something like that.... so its due time. But honestly-one of the things I miss the most about home is the beauty all around me. I miss seeing elevation changes for goodness sakes!!

Flatness is not that intriguing. Show me some hillsides and valleys... let me see towering mountains in the distance...as I'm driving down the road, let me get lost in what lies ahead.

Anyone up for a hike next week?

This was taken in Haywood County, NC. So yes. I love the NC mountains. :)

Free time

I tend to make to-do lists while not listening in my classes. I always seem to have about 386 things on each list. Some little, some normal, some major. I try to refer back to it throughout my day and try to get as many things checked off during free time as possible. Unfortunately I often don't have much free time, so the things that don't happen every day don't get done for a long time. Today I was making a list in 3290 and really didn't see much time in my day to get these things done.
But amazingly everything else for the rest of my day disappeared!
-My group project meeting got moved
-Normal babysitting was canceled
-Babysitting for ECU Coach's Wives' Night Out was canceled
-I was reminded we didn't have bible study this week

Wow! So I was able to fit in some important things!
-Got ice cream with 2 girls from SCHS--one of which I just met then and there. (She came with a girl I already knew)
-Went and visited my previous campus minister, Kerri, and held her little 1 month old baby
-Chatted with the lovely Sara Jennings at her apt
-Got dinner and caught up on life with CJ
-Cleaned my room

And now I am about to do my summer staff application.
Ah, its SO nice, and SO rare for me to have free time. I need to cherish it. And I do love updating a blog. :)

Out of the mouths of babes

I love hearing the comments that come out of the mouths of kids! They can be soo funny and a wonderful source of continuous entertainment. This week I got a few good doses of laughter from the boys I babysit. Here are a few that truly made my days:

I called Jennie, an amazing woman on my YL team, to wish her a happy birthday. I ended up leaving a message on her voicemail, and in the midst of it said that I had tried to get Flo-Rida to come perform for her, but he was all booked. (She loves some Flo-Rida). After I hung up, Mac (9 years old) says, "How did you get Flo-Rida's phone number? I laughed and said that I was just joking when I said that. He said, "Oh (pause.....) Will SHE know that its a joke?"

The next day (when the dictionary incident occured--see previous entry) Mac was asking me if I could help him on his homework once we got home. This is normal since I help him most days, but the way he asked me wasn't..."Miss Baird, are you like a dicitionary?" "Umm..what do you mean like a dictionary." "You know, are you like a dictionary, do you know a lot of stuff?"

Precious precious.

Seriously Pitt County??

So maybe I was just spoiled with what I felt like was a very solid preparation for college...
Sure I will be partial to my alma mater of good old Shelby High (especially compared to nasty Crest... :0) Love you roomie) but I legitimately feel like I got a solid education through what was the Shelby City School system and later joined to become the Cleveland County School system. I always enjoyed school; and felt that it was preparing me well for later ventures in education (minus calculus and AP chem which I knew wouldn't help with anything).
But thinking back to elementary school, I really enjoyed learning and enjoyed my teachers. Now that I am babysitting a boy in 4th grade, I can't help but compare our educations at that age...and there seems to be little to compare, but A LOT to contrast. Granted its a different time and his days would focus on xbox and killing people on call of duty, when you take that out of the picture, his schooling is very much subpar. He's a bright kid when you sit and talk with him, but when he does his homework, he knows nothing. He can't read a passage and then tell me what its about. He can't think of creative sentences for his spelling words. It scares me on how little he is being challenged. I feel that if his teacher wants him to write a sentence with the word revive, she needs to take off points if he writes: My friend was revived. That doesn't show any thought or effort!! But he gets away with it. My reason for writing an entire blog post on this subject is because of what happened yesterday. He didn't know the meaning of a word, so I suggested that he looked it up in the dictionary. He got the dictionary and then came back to me 5 minutes later saying he couldn't find the word. In fact, he wasn't able to find any of his 6 spelling words in the dictionary. THE KID IS IN 4th GRADE AND HASN'T BEEN TAUGHT HOW TO USE A DICTIONARY!!! Heaven forbid! He said that he has yet to learn how to do that in school.. but later said, actually, they taught him 2 years ago, but he hasn't used one since.
Come on Pitt County. Please prepare your kids to make it through the school system without using their parents as crutches. College is going to crush them.

Katie started it.

The lovely Katie Smith has tagged me in a blog ordeal dealio thing where you post the fourth picture in your fourth album and say something about it. I have done so because she tagged me. (Which I feel very honored for because she could only choose 2 people and I know she's a popular gal.)
Sorry its not more exciting... its just my face... but its my face surrounded by LONG curly hair. This was during the year that I was growing my hair out for locks of love and I would take pictures to document the process.... not for anyone else to see... but oh well, guess that's changing now. This was taken August 31st, 2007. I straightened it this day to also see how long it was straight. I got it all chopped off in late November.
I guess I can tie this into my weekend plans... I am getting a hair cut on Saturday. Happy Valentine's Day Aaron! You get my short hair back. :)


And I tag Kristen and Blair.