Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to take a few minutes and wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. I have much to be thankful for in my life! God has been so good to me this past year. Just remember what today is all about. While the Ham is heavenly and the the turkey quite tasty remember to stop and give thanks to the one who blesses us continually.

Enjoy your day and for once EAT TOO MUCH!!!!!


Happy Thanksgiving

Love y'all
Yvonne

Almost time!!!

I'm so excited!!! I get to see my family in less than 24 hours!!! I get to eat Turkey in 2 days YAY!!!! I love the holiday season!!!

I hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving!!

Love you all
Yvonne

Bored at Work Blues

It's 2:00 on a wednesday afternoon and I am feeling slightly trapped behind this desk at work. I am so ready for thanksgiving break it's not funny! It doesn't matter that I have to finish writing a 20-25 page research paper over the course of this break. All that matters is I get to see my family and give them hugs and kisses. Then in just a couple ofweeks I will get to see my mom again! She is coming for an early Christmas celebration the first couple of weeks of December. I'm pretty stoked about that. But today I sit here rather sad because I want to be outside in the fresh air. It's chilly but the sun is shining so bright and pretty. I spent part of my morning painting a window for Christmas. I'll post a picture later after the crew finishes it later today. I then went to a student Senate meeting. You remember a few posts ago I talked about how full my plate is. Well it got fuller!!! I am a Senator for Student Government and some of my friends are pushing for me to run for SGA president next semester. I would enjoy it but we'll see how things work out. I was going to do a double major but I think I've decided to do a double minor instead. I want some speech communications classes so I think I'll add that as a minor. It won't change my projected graduation date any but it will give me a few much needed skills. Anyway thanks for reading my ramblings I'm very bored right now but I am looking forward to RA interviews in a couple hours!!!!! We are hiring 4 new RA's for next semester. New RA's are so much fun because you get to scare the crap out of them at RA training! I had the distinct pleasure of being hired in the middle of a semester and skipping the initial RA training session so I wasn't easy to scare when I finally did do the RA training thing. It's great fun to tell new RA's horror stories about the awful things residents do even though it's really not that bad! Anyway I'm done rambling for now hope you are having an eventful afternoon!

Love y'all

Yvonne

My take on Music

Two posts in one day! Not normal for me I know but I had a thought that I wanted to write down. It's nothing profound I was just thinking on the drive home from church. I had K-LOVE playing and the song 'Who Am I" by Casting Crowns was playing. I then thought about something I recently heard someone say. They said that K-LOVE music just doesn't belong in the church. I understand where they are coming from but would like to share my own opinion on this. First of all I will quote my sister and say this I don't believe there is such a thing as bad music there are only bad lyrics. Second I will admit I hate it when I go to church and all that is sang is K-Love Music but I have never gone so far as to say that it doesn't belong in church becuase I have listened to some of those lyrics and felt God. I always hear people say they can't worship to k-love music and my response to that is maybe you just don't know how to worship. Ok perhaps that sounds a bit harsh but I'm reminded of a Matt Redman song that says "I'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what you have required"

It then goes on to talk about the heart of worship. It's all about him it's not about how groovy the music sounds or how "easy" it is for us to worship to. In my opinion I shouldn't have to have a song to be able to lift my hands and tell God how incredibly awesome he is. But I digress. . . .

My point is stop and listen to the lyrics of some of these "k-love" songs. Listen as Matt Redman praises God because he "never lets go" of us. Think about the words of Third Day that encourage us to "Cry Out to Jesus" Or Aaron Shusts song that says My savior loves, my savior lives, my saviors ALWAYS there for me. To me these are some amazing lyrics that simply speak of how incredible God is. Again I don't think everything k-love plays should come into the church but I wish we could get past the I need something to make me feel like worshiping attitude. I love the fast loud apostolic music that I grew up around and yes I agree it's fun to praise God to but when I can open my mouth and sing a song about how great our God is I don't think it should matter what "style" it is. We shouldn't have to have black Gosple or southern gosple or songs from the song book just to have church. Our music shouldn't dictate our worship. I often find myself singing Holy is the Lord and I'll suddenly feel the Holy Ghost because God responds to honest praise. I've said it once or twice already but it shouldn't matter the style. It doesn't matter if I'm singing "My God is More than Enough" or "How Great is our God" or "How Great Thou Art" they all have the same theme. God is Great!!! God is amazing God is awesome! That is the whole point of praise and worship. He is everything to me. He's been my best friend and then some. He's provided me with everything I've ever needed!! I need to worship him in anyway possible it doesn't matter if it's running the asiles as I'm singing about the Joy of the Lord or weeping before God as I sing "Here I am to worship" Just because a song is contemporary doesn't mean I should throw it out and not give it a chance. Again it is my opinion that there are only bad lyrics not bad music. Stop and listen to the words you are singing and ask yourself if they really bring God praise. Honestly some of our "apostolic" songs are rather pointless but so are some of the "contemporary" songs that are out there. We sing a song called "why don't you come on in this house" and I still haven't figured out the point. The point one last time is IT"S ALL ABOUT THE LYRICS!


Ok I'm done!

Love you guys

Yvonne

It's beginning to look a lot like. . . .

First of all I must recognize a few new bloggers that I have found. They are all family to me. First of all my brother-in-law Tim! I use to tease him horribly about being technologically impaired because he couldn't figure out how to use Yahoo messenger and now he is blogging! Second is Tim's brother, Don Doran. I love Bro. Doran he is pretty awesome and he has some great thoughts. Finally is my step nephew in law! Ok he's actually Bro. Dorans son Jared but he's family to me so we had to come up with a title for him! Jared's a crazy guy that is again awesome. I think it has something to do with their last name because the whole Doran clan is pretty stinkin awesome!

So anyway welcome to the blogosphere!

I'll be adding them to my blog roll so check them out!

Now the reason for this blog?

I JUST BOUGHT MY FIRST CANDY CANE OF THE SEASON! CHRISTMAS IS AWESOME!

Here are some pictures. YES I took pictures!

Love you guys!!!

Constructive Criticism

I have discovered that I do my best thinking when I am suffering from insomnia. Or perhaps that is when God talks to me the most.

I was sitting in my room unable to sleep and I picked up a paper that had just been handed back to me. I flipped through the pages that I had poured my heart and soul into only to find that it had been bloodied by the red ink of my professor. When you first see that you want to cry. You think to yourself I'm doing all of this hard work and it's still not good enough! Then I look at my grade and I see that I have an A. It's a 90 barely an A but an A all the same. So why all the red marks and comments? I wonder this as I begin to read my professors notes. I see that all of them say things like "change the wording here it will sound more professional" or "remove this paragraph it's just clutter". All through my paper are these helpful suggestions that will "get me closer to my goal" What is that goal? Well according to my professor my goal is to make her not pick up her pen while reading my paper. She told me that she wanted to read it and be able to pick up her pen at the very end and simply write excellent.

I think you all know where I am going with this. Sitting here at 4:00 am I started thinking about how our walk with God is kind of like that. God is our professor so to speak. Sometimes we feel like we are doing everything right and we're working so hard to live right and do his will. Then we go to church and the preacher steps on our toes or maybe reads our mail. At first you want to cry and you feel like nothing you do is good enough but then you really start to listen and all God is really saying is "if you'll just make this small adjustment you'll be a little closer" or "get that out of your life it's just getting in the way of our relationship" Never does God look at our lives and tell us how awful we are, instead he looks at our lives and he tries to tell us how to get closer to our goal. What is our goal? To hear God say well done at the very end!

I want to learn to take the constructive criticism that God gives me with a good attitude. The kind of attitude that says I'm going to take your suggestions and make a few changes because I don't just want to make it by the skin of my teeth. Just like I'll take this paper and make the suggested changes and hand in a fresh clean copy that she can just write excellent across the top of. I want God to be able to write excellent across my life when it reaches the end.

It's Official. . . .

It's Official folks! Unless something drastic happens in the Financial Aid Department I am going to go to

Washington D.C.

AND

London

this spring!!!! I'm so excited!

I leave for DC in the middle of March and will be gone for our whole Spring Break.

I head to London two days after the May Graduation Ceremony!!! We'll be gone for 10 days WOOT!!!

I can't wait until Spring!!!

Just prior to my DC trip I will be taking the GRE so wish me luck!!

Why I don't advocate sorority's

I'm a senior here at UAM and my college career has been so exciting! I've joined a lot of groups, been involved in a lot of things and still kept my grades up. I've made a lot of really awesome friends along the way too. One thing I have never done is join a sorority. It's not because I have something against them in general I just don't think it is something an apostolic young lady should do. Plus I don't think I should have to pay to have friends. I always here stories of apostolics that go off to college and backslide. I'll be honest I was always afraid that I would somehow get sucked into college life and quit living for God but I told God about my fears and he has kept me all this time! I am so happy about that! I'm not perfect by any means I have made MANY mistakes during my college career however one thing I have never done is backed down from what I believe in. I have never questioned whether or not the way I dress is important and I've never questioned the plan of salvation. Because of this I have the respect of many of my non-apostolic friends. They often call me the "cool pentecostal" I'm not bragging at all I'm trying to prove the point that you can live for God and have fun doing it!!!!! So what is it that sparked this blog? I was over the the cafeteria talegating table when I saw a young pentecostal lady sitting with her sorority sisters. The only problem is you could no longer tell that this girl was apostolic. She looked just like her sisters. It broke my heart. You see when you join an organazition such as student goverment or the Residence Hall Association there is not pressure to conform to everyone else in the group instead you are encouraged to be yourself and be differrent. When you join a sorority you become a "pledge" and for 4-6 weeks you are doing everything that your "big sisters" are telling you to do. You have to go through a process to pledge and that process turns you into the type of girl that sorority's are looking for. This is not to say that they are looking for "bad" people to be in their groups but there is a pressure to be "cool" and according to that group cool only looks a certain way. They tell you upfront that their group doesn't discriminate on the basis of race or religion but when you join they pressure you to be just like everyone else. "Come on" they say "all your sisters have their hair cut that way" Or "all of us are going to a party do you want to come?" Or my personal favorite "I have a pair of jeans you can borrow" you spend a full semester trying to make the members of the group accept you and then you come out looking and acting just like them and your faith is left laying somewhere and we can only pray and hope that you find it again.

I can honestly say I do not know one apostolic girl that has joined a sorority and left college still living for God. Now if you were able to be in a sorority and keep living for God I commend you! This means you are not a conformer and should be applauded! I for one haven't seen it happen here. Every semester I get excited because some apostolic girl will move on campus and I think I'm not going to be the only one but then the sorority life sucks them in and I can't relate to them anymore.

I am so thankful for my dear friend Ashley. This girl has taken a stand and she has never backed down. She is in the band. She even let's her faith show through that by refusing to wear pants when she marches. I love that girl!!!

That's all for now.

I guess my whole point is this: You CAN go to college and still live for God! You just have to guard yourself and not take part in certain things that are associated with college life.

Hello again!

Sorry I've been away for a little while. I've been a busy busy person! Obviously I have much to blog about but first let me say this. I desperately want to blog about the election and it's outcome but it will make my head hurt tonight so I'll save it for a few days down the road when I've had time to sort through my feelings on it. I know for most of you it's not the complicated but I'm having some issues and it's not because Obama won. I obviously am dissapointed that McCain lost but I will still support the choice America made. I may be skeptical about his ability to do the job but I will give him a chance before speaking ill of his presidency. Ok that is all I'll say about that but a long blog on the issue is soon to come!

Second I'm excited!!! It seems that it may actually be possible for me to take BOTH of the field study trips!! I'm so excited :) I can't wait until next semester.

Third. I"M READY FOR THANKSGIVING!!!!!!