Summer things

Breakfast smoothies

North face

Hammock

Boat exhaust

Tanning oil

Kid Rock

Pine Sol and Clorox

Sunsets

Pedicures

Kenny Chesney

Morning coffee breaks with my fav girls

Chai tea

6 AM Boot Camp! 

Softball

Ice cream!

This is God's Love

This is taken from The Magnificent Defeat written by Frederick Buechner.  Its the best description of Gods love! I love it!

The love for equals is a human thing--of friend for friend, brother for brother.  It is to love what is loving and lovely.  THe world smiles.  The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing--the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely.  This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.  The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing--to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man.  The world is always bewildered by its saints.  And then there is the love for the enemy--love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain.  The tortured's love for the torturer.  This is God's love.  It conquers the world.  

Changes

I'm getting ready for my junior year of college! I honestly can remember my first move in day as a freshman like it was yesterday.  I realize that I sound like the old "back in my day" people but it's so true.  I cannot believe how fast time goes by sometimes.  Similarly to my freshman year which was full of new beginnings and changes, this fall will also be bringing new things.  For one, I am no longer the underclassmen who has the upperclassmen to look up to.  Now the roles have changed and I am the one these new freshman will be looking up to.  It's all so scary and exciting at the same time.  Am I ready for such a challenge? I can say I am, but am I truly up for it? I guess I like to think of Paul or any of the disciples when I think about this.  Paul even writes himself that he is not a wise man or a knowledgeable man, but a simple man willing to do the work of the Lord.  I guess that is the kind of attitude I need to have.  Anyways I guess it's just another issue I need to give over to Him and stop worrying about.  

Here's my second issue: packing.  I dont know what it is about packing, but I just can't do it.  It's ridiculously time consuming, takes tons of organization and patience, and in the end you just unpack it anyways! If there was a way that I could just magically make it disappear and reappear that would be great.  So if anyone finds a way to do so, let me know.  I guess the great thing about this is that when I do unpack everything it will be in my new house with 4 of my greatest friends! What an adventure that will be!

Finally, saying goodbye.  I always seem to have a tough time leaving home after a great summer.  Its funny how you take things for granted until you have to leave them.  Like the stars.  Tonight they were beautiful! They took up the whole entire sky.  You don't have stars like that in the city.  Or sleeping in my own bed.  Or going to my home church.  Enjoying the sunset from my gazebo overlooking the lake.  Pontoon rides. Or just spending time with my family.  I hate the fact that only at the very end of the summer when I know time is running out, do I take the time and enjoy these things.  Makes me wonder how much of my time I waste on things that don't have any significance.  If I always lived as though I was running low on time...what that would be like and how different it would be?! Hmmm...well I guess I'll start by enjoying my iced chai latte with soy milk and an hour long pedicure tomorrow morning:) 

Tough decisions

They say that you make somewhat over 50,000 decisions a day...that's crazy!! But I wonder how many of those you do without even thinking twice, subconsciously.  It seems that more and more often I have to make more important, life-altering decisions.  The more I think about it the more I realize that these important decisions could effect the path of near future.  Lately these decisions for me have been related to following a life more pleasing to God.  This past December I went to a TCX conference in Minneapolis with Campus Crusade for Christ.  and one thing that I decided there was that I wanted to figure out who I was; who Stephanie Zillmer is!  It's like two different worlds I live in: the one at home, and the one at school.  At home, I sometimes slump back into the way I use to live before I left for school.  When I first started college my faith in God increased dramatically and my dependence on him was huge.  I surrounded myself with others who I knew would help me become a better Christian.  I love my new friends and I often find myself being built up by them.  Of course we are all still tempted, but together we can make the right decisions! However, when I come home I get back into this comfort zone where it doesnt seem as important to live completely for God.  I stop reading my Bible, my prayer life decreases dramatically, and I rarely have discussions centered around God.  So which person am I?  That is what I'm trying to figure out.  I want to pick the positives from both "worlds" and combine them into one person.  

I have a lot of reflecting to do.