I read The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks this semester. It said that this novel he wrote is based on his wife’s grandparents. The story is about Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton and how they meet each other over one summer and fall in love. Because of their differences in class it is very hard for them to continue their relationship. Allie’s mother despises the fact of Allie loving someone who works in the lumberyard. They are split apart. Still in love Noah sends 365 letters to her for one year, but Mrs. Hamilton intercepts them so her daughter would never read them. Allie gives up hope on Noah and moves on to fall in love with another high society figure. Right before the wedding Noah is brought back into her life by an article in the newspaper. She feels the need to go visit Noah to see how he is. What started out as a friendly visit turned out to be a trip of rekindling a lost love. Allie and Noah fall back in love again, now Allie must choose between Noah and her new fiancee. In the novel, this love story is being told by an elderly man in a nursing home to a patient suffering from alzheimers. This man does everything he kind to try and trigger some memory into the mind of his dear friend as he reads their love story to her over and over again.

I wanted to read it since the movie was so good. I was expecting the novel to be somewhat different from the movie, because of all the Hollywood spins that were added. While I was reading it was very interesting to compare and contrast the differences between the movie and the novel. There were parts that I would read and I would think its better the way the author wrote it and then there were parts I’d get to that I definately liked better in the movie. Having watched the movie really made it easier to understand what was going on in the story. It was also cool when I was reading and I could picture the exact same thing that happened in the movie. Even though I  have seen the movie, Nicholas Sparks did a great job with imagery and vivid descriptions throughout the novel. This novel was really well written and is very captivating.

I was so excited for thanksgiving this year. I was so ready for the deliciouos food that I only get to eat two times a year (We get to eat it on Christmas too!). This thanksgiving we were headed to my grandparents house to spend the day with them and then stay the night. Well we woke up early thursday morning and the first thing we turn on tv is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. That has always been one of my most favorite things to do on thanaksgiving. Anyway we left around ten and got to my grandparents house just in time to watch the rest of the parade. When the parade was over it was finally time to eat. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, collards, cranberry sauce, and tons of desserts. When we all got our food we sat down and ate together having a good time talking to one another and just goofing off. Then we got a suprise visit from my cousin and his daughter that we haven’t seen in a really long time. They were a lot of fun to hang out with and we got to catch up a lot with them. After we had all gone back for seconds, we turned the tv on so we could watch football. As always football can’t keep my attention for very long, especially professional, so i ended up taking a really long nap that afternoon. When it was dinnertime we just got new plates and then kept eating the food going back for seconds and even thirds. My cousin eventually left and then soon enough it was time to go to bed. We spent the night, but had to leave early the next morning. It was a lot of fun and I’m still a little stuffed. We stayed home on black friday, because shopping on that particular day is rather dangerous. The saturday came and we put up our christmas tree and set up our outside lights.  Even though it doesn’t seem like we did much, I really did have a terrific thanksgiving break.

I am now officially a licensed driver! I am so excited. It seems like I’ve been waiting forever for this moment since I didn’t take drivers ed until after I had already turned fifteen. I always felt so left out, because as of now pretty much all of my friends have their licenses. I was always embarrassed when my parents would have to drive me somewhere just so I could go hang out with friends. But now its all good! I got my license yesterday afternoon and not too long after that I was already driving myself places. I was afraid I was going to be really nervous driving by myself, but it turns out it’s more fun to drive by yourself.

I was really nervous Tuesday night because that was the night before my trip to the dmv. I was so scared something would go completely wrong while I was driving. Nothing really bad has ever happened to me while I was driving, but for some reason I knew something out of the blue would happen during my driving test. I went to my parents for reassurance and they said i would do fine. I also talked to my best friend morgan who of course already has her license. She said the test was really easy and that thery hardly make you do anything. Having been in the passengers seat while she was driving I finally got some confidence. If she was able to pass the test by the way she drives, I think I’ll be okay.

We got to the dmv early the next morning so that there would not be too long of a wait. We ended up having to come back later because we forgot to do something before I would be able to drive. We came back right after lunch that day. We got there and got settled by one o’clock. Five minutes later they called me back to take the drivers test. The instructor and I left to take a ten minute test driving test. My dad and I left the dmv by 1:25 with a drivers license in my hand. I am finally a licensed driver!!

I know it’s not necessary to know exactly what you want to be when you get older at such a young age, but I have always worried about what I want to do with my life. I’ve gone from wanting to be a teacher to wanting to be the next big star on Broadway. I’ve always been scared that I would never figure out what I wanted to be before I went to college, because I was afraid it would mess up my college career. Well, just last night it occurred to me exactly what I wanted to be and pretty much one-hundred percent sure that I’ll follow through with it.

Well, it started with writing our paper for class. I was talking about what I wanted to major in when I got into college. I basically just made up something saying that I was going to be a pedriatic nurse, so I could just continue with my paper. I’ve pretty much have just gone with that when people ask me what I want to do when I get older, because it sounds like a good ambition and a high goal to set for myself. I was never truly passionate about it though. Well, also in my life I have felt like I haven’t been sharing my faith and Christ’s love as much as I should. It was really bugging me, because I just couldn’t find a comfortable place to start.

Last night, it all became perfectly clear. It even solves both of my problems! My mom mentioned to me that there was a program at moses cone hospital where students can go and learn how to be a nurse and interact with the patients who are children. It sounded like fun and I got to thinking. What if I went in to the hospital to take care of the kids, but also shared with them how the God who created this universe loves them so much? I think I will be fulfilling my life’s purpose by sharing my faith with these sick chidren. Telling them that Jesus loves them and wants to have a relationship with them. I want to make an impression on these kids’ lives. Even though I’ve never met them and have no idea what’s making them sick, I can already tell I love every one of them, just like Jesus does.

I love being homeschooled! If I wasn’t homeschooled I wouldn’t have been able to go somewhere for fall break. On Sunday night after church, my family and I jetted out as fast as we could to go to Myrtle Beach! We got down to our family’s beach house around twelve o’clock in the morning, and we were all exhausted. My grandparents were already down there so we stayed up and talked to them for another hour. I was ready to drop! When we had finally settled in and had a midnight snack, I curled up on one of the beds and fell asleep as my little sisters were ready to party all night long. The next morning while my family went to the beach, I decided to sleep in and catch up on some sleep. After lunch, my mom, my sister, and I went shopping at the Tanger outlets. All my shopping was done in a matter of 25 minutes, but when it came time to shop for my mom and my sister, we ended up staying for two and a half hours! I was so ready to get out of there! When we got back to the house, my grandmother had made a delicious dinner for us to eat. She had cooked juicy pieces of beef taht had been simmered for hours, hot and creamy mashed potatoes, and some of her home-grown green beans. It was so good that I was full for the rest of the night.

The next day I got up and went to the beach with my family. The weather felt so nice! It wasn’t hot, the breeze would blow just right, and the water was nice and cool. I did a couple of flips in the sand and our family ended up taking a few pictures for Christmas cards! After we got back from the beach, just my parents and I went to a Jimmy Buffet restaurant called Cheeseburger in Paradise. I got their cheddar bacon cheeseburger and it was the best tasting burger I have ever had. The cheese was melted just right, the bacon was crisp, and the juice poured out of the burger every time you bit into it.

Wednesday morning it was time to go back home to pick up where we left off with our normal lives. I had so much fun and I can’t wait to go back. It’s funny how all your problems melt away as soon as you step onto cool, soft sand.

Stress. I hate to say it, but stress has just become a part of daily life for me, as I’m sure it is for everyone else in the world. Day by day, it just seems like life increases its complexity in every aspect of our lives. We have too much work to get done, school work just seems like a total waste of time, busy schedules of extra activities like sports and church-life, and the list goes on and on and on. It just seems nearly impossible to catch a break in this hectic universe. Times like these just make you wish you could just zap yourself back into an old black and white sitcom. Life seemed so simple, carefree, and perfect. You would get home from school everyday and there would just be a glass of cold milk and a plate of freshly-baked cookies awaiting your arrival. No one ever got upset with each other and the families never had to deal with harsh issues like we have to do today. Times seemed so much simpler. There were no huge financial struggles, no questionable elections, and not a lot of animosity between countries or even neighbors.

I know life can’t be perfect and everything that went on in those shows was complete fiction, but it’s still nice to think that life could simpler. When stress comes into my life, I think of one song that explains exactly how I feel. The song is by Miley Cyrus, laugh at me if you will, but it actually portrays how we all feel sometimes when there never seems to be a break.

“Midday sun beating on the concrete
Burning up my feet, too many cars on the street
The noise, the red, the green, it makes me wanna scream
5 o’clock now it’s bumper on, bumper on, bumper horns honking
Nobody’s looking but everybody’s talking
It’s another day on this highway

I swear sometimes I can’t tell
Which way’s up, which way’s down
It’s all up in my face, need to push it away
Somebody push it away
‘Cause all I wanna hear is a simple song”

I think this song is really truthful, especially when it says that we just wish somebody could just take all our stress and worries away so that all we can just enjoy the little, simple moments in life. We can get so caught up in what we do that we get so stressed that it feels like we can’t breathe, but if we just take the time to slow down and lean on God it might be a little easier than we think to hear that simple song.

Last night at youth group, my youth pastor’s message really spoke to me. He was talking about the importance of being a devoted Christian and not settling back to the previous lifestyles we had before Christ saved us. Living in today’s society, it is very easy to callyourself a Christian but not live up to the standards that have been set before us by God Himself. This happens because the bar has been set incredibly low for Christian teenagers to live up to godly expectations. It’s easy for us to slip up and get away with something because we have become so engulfed in worrying about what the world thinks of us rather than what the ultimate Creator of our existence thinks of us. If you are a Christian you are expected to do what God has commanded us, not what the world has commanded us.

My youth pastor read us this passage to explain how we should live our lives and how we shouldn’t. Galatians 5:19-23 says: ‘Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law.’ This explains to us that as Christians we should practice the fruits of the Spirit rather than lessening ourselves to the worldly sins exposed in verses 19 through 21. We need not to do both though. We can’t practice kindness and self-control and then go out and get drunk or show contemptment towards our fellow man.

This brings me to a sermon that was brought in a youth camp I went to. The speaker used three chairs as symbols to three general lifestyles among everyone today. The first chair represented a non-believer, someone who didn’t really get following God, and someone who pretty much lived for the world. The second chair represented a Christian, but one who acted one way in church and the acted the total when faced with worldly temptations. Finally, the third chair represented a sold-out believer in Christ and always tried their hardest to follow Him. He asked us which chair best symbolized our lives, and to think about how it relates to what Christ expects of us. It says in the Bible that God would rather have you cold or hot, but never lukewarm. It says He hates those who choose to live both lives rather than to be for Him or against Him.

With all of that said, it really made me think of how important it is to be fully devoted to God, and not try to please both the world and God. In the long-run, living for Jesus is definately more beneficial than trying to get the world’s seal of approval.

Money. This day in time it seems like it is one of the rarest things you could ever get, even though thousands of dollars are printed every day. I know now its tough times with money with the economy and gas prices, but I hate to see it when it comes down to not tithing in church. I don’t think it’s right that some people don’t give back to God what he gave them in the first place.

Well what brought this up is my church is going through a very hard time now, because the members are not tithing as they should. It’s gotten so bad that we’ve had to make cuts in salaries for the staff, that work so hard everyday to make all the different ministries come together. We’ve also had to just not do some of the big outreach activites that we do every year to invite the community to. For example, we do a fall festival every year on Halloween where community kids can come to eat hotdogs, play games, and get loads of candy. Big things like that we have to give up. What breaks my heart most of all though is that not one time this year has our church taken a group on a mission trip. To be honest, mission trips are one the most fun and one of the best things to ever do in your life. They’re not only life changing for those you’ve reached, but it also changes you’re spiritual walk with Christ. Knowing you did what he commanded us to do in The Great Commission.

I think that there should be no question on whether to give to the church or not. I mean God has blessed our lives and given us so much, that we surely owe it to him to give what we have back to him as an offering. In the Bible we’re even told to do so. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.” See if we give everything we havea back to God he will bless us more than we can ever imagine. I know no one from my church will probably read this, but I just pray that you guys would just hear me out on this. If you’re not tithing regularly with the money you have, just think about how much God has done for you, and how little of a favor He is asking of you right now.

Earlier today I was watching an episode of 7th Heaven. It was about how one of the Ruthie’s friend was getting getting made fun of just because she was a Muslim. The boys teasing her were making rude comments and jokes and even throwing dirt clots at her. Ruthie brought her home and explained to her parents that her friend was being tormented. The reverend called the girl’s mother to make she knew about what her daughter was experiencing on the walk home from school. She said she was aware and said that it had been going on for a while. She was used to people staring at her and showing suspicion just because she was Muslim and wearing the standard dress of Muslim women. As the episode continued, it really concerned me of how prejudice people were about the situation. They tried to get the girl switched to a private school, but the board would not allow it because of the current event of terrorist attacks and her religion.

It really made me think of how ridiculous it is that just because of your religion or ethniticity, that you are excluded from every other American’s rights. Since the war in Iraq, many muslims living in the United States have been frowned upon, as it was for the Japanese in World War ll, and even the African Americans during the Civil War. I hate to see those being persecuted for what they believe or for what happened because of some incident between two nations. How would you like it if you were not allowed certain rights just because you are a Christian. Yes, all the wars that have involved the United States has been horrible, but it’s not right to blame those who had no control over these unfortunate events. I just wish that some people would realize that we have come so far from discrimination as a nation, and it’s not right to make fun of those just because they are different.

Have you ever just had the one friend that used to be close, but then over the years it has just turned into one big competition? Well I have a friend like that, and she’s about to just drive me crazy! So the story begins in youth group about five years ago. We were good friends then, but as soon as the middle school years took of things went downhill. I was homeschooled then and she just kind of rubbed it in my face that I didn’t go to public school. I kind of let that one go since not many people at my church understood the whole concept of homeschooling. She was also very protective. She was one of those friends that think she can be my only best friend and that I should have no other close friends. She expects to be my only best friend but then when her other friends came around, I had to step aside so they could have their fun times that I was left out of. That’s pretty much how it went through middle school.

The high school came and I started hanging around with other people in our youth group and outside of church. So I’ve drifted from being such good friends with her to just being friends. Now since I have closer friends it’s just a contest to see who has the better life. She always tries to be the one with the most friends, the one with the most stuff to do, who has a boyfriend and who doesn’t. The list goes on and on. We used to take dance together, and went to Ragsdale together, and went to the same church. Now since I’m homeschooled again and not doing as much with dance, she’s trying to wedge herself into my personal life to make sure she knows exactly what is going on. She’s been known to be someone who can’t stand to be out of the picture, and it’s starting to make me mad. What should I do?