I believe this shall be the last entry posted on my blog. As of now, I have decided to close my blog for a number of reasons, some of them being personal, some I just don’t feel like mentioning. I must say that it has been an experience. It has given me a place to vent, discuss, and at times, just have fun … … but all things must come to an end.

So with that, I say “goodbye.”

Quote of the day:

"Sticking feathers in your butt does not make you a chicken.”

*PRAISE*

I finally have a roommate. WHOO HOO!!!

*PRAYER REQUEST*

Jeff Kerley's sanity. Haha.

That's it for now. No serious stuff, no words of wisdom, no controversy. So I'm sorry if I have disappointed anybody out there.

Quote of the day:

"When there are two roads on a road………no, wait a minute.”

– Nate “The Great” Delp. Lol.

For all the people who complain about talking too much about the dating thing (and the growing up thing for that matter), you need to wake up and realize that running/ignoring an issue does not make it just go away. I feel led of God to speak my mind and attempt to spark discussion on these topics, and will continue to do so until told otherwise by the man upstairs.

Ok, so it would seem that everyone hears the “wait” part of the dating sermons, but completely misses the “god leaves our switches on for a reason” part when they talk about how being single is not a bad thing,

I will agree with anyone who says looking for love is wrong, because I think when it is God’s timing, He will bring the right person into your life but that does NOT mean you shouldn’t be looking for the person God has for you. If you don’t have your eyes open, how will be able to see? Continuing on with that thought, I would like to pose a question to everyone reading this post. If forcing a relationship is bad/wrong, what about not being open minded to a relationship that God puts in your path. Is that wrong? If it is God’s will and you don’t do it, then isn’t it a sin?

I fully understand there is a time for waiting, but I think there are some people God may be trying to speak to, and they are cramming earplugs in as far as they can get them to go. (I’m sure I’ll get nastygrams for that one, but I felt it needed to be said). I would really like to know when people think is an appropriate age to start dating/looking for God to SEND their mate if not early to mid twenties. (Please make sure you read that correctly)

Think I’m done for the night? Well think again because I’m just getting started. FBC is starting to bother me as well as my parents. Not just the way they do some stuff around church, but contradictions between some of the departments and the pulpit, A pastor that brags (even in jest), the one-style music ministry, and the way it is becoming a stagnant church. Not dead, but stagnant and in part because they refuse to change the way the message is presented so it can reach more people (and the younger generations who are the new life in a church). I have really been talking to God a lot about this lately, so please keep me in your prayers. I love all the friends I have at FBC and the C&C department, but I don’t want to be at a church just for one little piece. We have been going to First Baptist since I was five, but I think that my parents and I may start looking at alternative churches once school starts back.

On a completely different note, the surprise partay for Justin and Bret was a TOTAL success! We all had a great time as we munched on a most excellent red velvet cake (my complements to the chef, Chrissy). Last night was a blast as well. As most of you have now heard, we had our first visit by the po-po. It was hilarious! The cop was looking around for alcohol and drugs while we all sat around calmly and set up the game “LIFE.” We also munched on a red velvet cake with accident coconut icing (courtesy of Chrissy).

I really care a lot about all of you guys (and gals), and I only say the things I do out of love. I am praying for the group as a whole, and for many of you by name for individual situations (you all know who you are). In that light, I would be very grateful for your prayers as I am not perfect, and my life is just as bumpy as that of most of you out there. Please don’t feel shy or mean spirited about telling me what you think about anything I say or do. I think that openness and honesty are the true signs of friendship, and a person can learn and grow much better when things are not just hidden down inside. True friends don’t always tell you what you want to hear, they tell you what you need to hear….because they care.

I’m finally done………….for the night. Lol.

G’night all.

Quote of the day:

"And now for some more intelligent conversation. Hello table."

–Mathieu

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.”

-God (Proverbs 3:5)

In recent days, I have had a few really refreshing talks with some of my friends. It feels good to know that I am no longer the only fish fighting my way upstream.

Something I want to clarify right off the bat in this post is that there is a “church society” as well as a worldly one. In my opinion, the church society can be just as, if not more, hazardous to a Christian’s faith. The church is made up of humans…….fallible humans. Even if something comes from a church, or another Christian source, it should still be carefully compared to the word of God. If there is a contradiction, God is right. Sometimes we as Christians are tempted to blindly accept something as “Godly” just because it comes from a Christian source, especially if we know the source personally.

I think that often we don’t see the full nature of the above verse. Does it say trust in the Lord with SOME of your heart? NO. It says trust God using ALL of your heart and don’t even think about relying on your own, pathetic, understanding. (That’s the AJE paraphrase. Lol). The next verse says that if we do that, he will direct our paths. We are not to let ourselves get in the way of God, and we should certainly not let other people determine our paths. In Psalms 118:8, it says “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” It can be helpful to ask other Christians for guidance, but we must remember that they are still just as human as we are. In the end, God must be the one doing the directing. As one person so eloquently put it Tuesday night at access, we must not simply give God the keys to our car, we need to get in the trunk so that he has complete control. I think that if we don’t watch out, we can allow ourselves, or other Christians with good intentions, to be “back seat drivers.”

I would like to give a simple word of encouragement to the people reading this that may have something in their life they are afraid of. Whether that fear is of dating, change, growing up, or something else entirely, just remember this verse.

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” II Timothy 1:7

Quote of the day:

"My dad jumped in, grabbed an oar, fished the cage from the water, hunched over the soggy hamster and began to administer CPR"

–Alexandra Kerry (daughter of Sen. John Kerry)

Well, as the title already said, I am now back from my weekend trip to visit my relatives down in St. Petersburg, FL (FYI, it’s part of the Tampa Bay area). I felt real bad for my cousin because it was his 19^th and my aunt’s 50^th, so of course hers took precedence over his. The only problem was she insisted he stay at HER party instead of just letting him go to the putt-putt place or see a movie (his two choices for a b-day adventure). Needless to say, he was p-i-s-s-e-d off. Next year will be his 20^th, so I told him we’re gonna throw him a blowout. Whoo hoo!!!

So anywho, on the controversy. Lol.

 I have been praying a lot lately trying to find the will of God. Not as easy as it would seem, seeing the will of God is usually not revealed to us (POI, Lauren was just talking about this on her blog, click the link). Something that came to me though, was all the people I know that I hear saying they are waiting to date/get married because <insert reason here> hasn’t happened yet or isn’t they way they want it to be. That may be all fine and good, but many of the reasons I have heard are based purely off what society tells us “has to be.” For example, “I can’t date because I might find someone I want to marry and I’m not finished with school yet.” Or, “I can’t get married yet because I am not financially ready to support a family.” It hit me like a ton of bricks that saying that kind of stuff is limiting God by way of what society is feeding us as “the ideal.” I am firmly convinced that if you find the right person, and decide to go for it, that God will work out all the details in ways totally unimaginable. Yes, I know it is sometimes God's will for people to wait, my point is that often people wait because of societies timing instead of trusting on God's timing.

I am now ready for the onslaught of feedback. BRING IT ON! No, really. I want to hear what you people out there think.

Quote of the day:

“The mind is a terrible thing to use.”

1) My day sucked. I was productive and got stuff done, but my leg felt like it was about to fall off. Grrrrr. I think I’m gonna go back to the cane for awhile, because it’s either do that or drug myself to the point that I can no longer function normally. This is what is known as a lose/lose situation. Friggin-A!!!

2) I had a good convo with a friend the other night. In the course of talking about another persons struggle, I found the answer to something I had been questioning myself about. A perfect example of how you help yourself by helping others. Classic.

3) My spiders unleashed the fury today as I dumped crickets into their cages. They are at happy with me again.

Quote of the day:

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” –Abraham Lincoln

Well, the first all-male Bible study tonight was a total success. I, of course, was incredibly unprepared, but thank the Lord above it went as smoothly as could be expected. For all you guys reading this who didn’t (or couldn’t) make it, I would really encourage you to come to the next one which will be held here at “The Pad” two weeks from now on August 4.

And please keep me in your prayers. I have been dealing with a lot of discomfort in my leg recently, which coupled with the meds I’m taking for it, has contributed to some of my “moodiness” as of late. In addition, an issue I thought I had already dealt with has now reappeared. It’s not necessarily a bad issue; I just thought I was past the point of debating the matter with myself…………surprise, I guess not.

That’s all I‘ve got for now. Goodnight everybody.

Quote of the day:

“Well that’s great guys, we got through 2 verses tonight………… chapters, I mean chapters. We got through 2 chapters tonight.”

-Myself

Bonus quote of the day:

“Hey, it’s been a long week. Ok?”

-Myself again (Uttered on a Tuesday)

Let’s play a little Jeopardy:

No, I will not. This is partially due to the fact that I am busy with a work project, and partially because I just didn’t feel like it.

Alex, what is “Aaron, will you be gracing us with your presence?”

No, there is not. I have actually enjoyed spending some time apart from the group. I do not feel that I always have to be connected with an IV tube.

Alex, what is “Aaron, is there something wrong?”

That concludes this episode of Jeopardy. Thanks for playing, see you again next time.

Quote of the day:

OK, so I know I haven’t posted in awhile, but I’ve most of what I’ve been going through lately I just didn’t feel like putting on my blog. Some of it was personal, and some, I knew would just elicit another slew of negative responses which I really don’t feel like having to go through…………………..again. Yeah, I know I can be opinionated at times (a lot of times it seems), oh well. I don’t care what people think of me, I speak the truth in love. And as a side note on that subject, if any brothers or sisters find fault with ME, please don’t hesitate to bring it to my attention so I may try to fix it and improve myself. I’m a work in progress just like everybody else. I don’t think I’m better than everybody else, I’m just not afraid to talk about issues and deal with them without getting all defensive.

In other news, I officially hate my head. This week has been really tough as I have been struggling with another stretch of unprovoked depression. Yeah, it sucks. I don’t know why my mind thinks I need to get depressed, it just does. At least now I recognize it as it’s coming on so I can brace for impact so to speak (instead of going all suicidal or getting in a self-destructive cycle). My leg of course doesn’t help the matter at all. I’m back on Motrin again (lots of Motrin), and I had to use my cane for the first time in like a month, which did NOT help my mood in the least. I try to hide the pain in public, but lately I am finding that extremely hard to do as it requires a great deal of energy that I don’t have to begin with.

Between juggling a job, dealing with my parents, my new HDD for my computer still not working, wondering what’s going on with my new school, the Motrin slowing down my synaptic senses, my body attempting to redirect all energy to my leg (leaving none to do daily activities), and fighting feelings I may (or may not) have for a certain someone, my brain is as if it’s trying to run 64-bit programs on a 32-bit processor notwithstanding the fact that there are holes and syntax errors in the data code. @&$%^(*#!!!!!!!!

Anywho, that’s the end of my novel. I’m going to bed now.

Saying of the day:

                “Don’t annoy the crazy person.”

I’ve had it with all the crap. I’m sick of the masquerades, sick of the word games, sick of the childishness, sick of the power struggles, sick of the feigned ignorance. College & Career has become High School for adults.

If you don’t see it, you are blind and part of the problem.