Day 9

Despite an all too early start to the day (8:00 am class), today held very few surprises for me. Maybe that's okay, maybe I needed a break from writing so much. Class in the morning, another class after that, Remicaid over the lunch hours (including a short but very rejuvenating nap), and in the afternoon I finally started my renewal FAFSA. Yay.

Dinner was infinitely more exciting, since I got to eat with Nicole and Annie. Have I mentioned I love eating meals with friends? I love eating meals with friends, it's so much better than my first year when I ate almost every single meal alone. I love my friends.

I started out this entry writing about a lack of surprises. I think that was premature; it seems God saved the day's "surprises" for the very end, almost as a dessert, if you will (since they came after dinner, the analogy made sense to me :).

For the second week I was privileged to use my Windows (*shudder*) partition and EasyWorship on my laptop to show the Thursday Night lyrics, and, though I was still counting mistakes throughout, both Dave and Adam reassured me it went fine. I'm almost always a harsher critic of myself than anyone else is, have been for many years, but I think Adam and Dave helped me realize something else important that I know I need to deal with: I suspect I judge myself more harshly than God does. Even though it's such a huge deal to me, I'm not sure if God really cares whether every slide is shown absolutely perfectly; maybe it's time for me to accept that, as long as I tried me best, that's what God truly looks for.

Adam really encouraged me tonight, and I'm not sure if he even fully understands just how meaningful his words were and are to me. Coming from someone who I truly admire, respect, and look up to as a role model, his encouragement to me during our small group prayer time before the Bible Study, and again afterward, was indescribably special to me.

After Thursday Night is when God gave me the real surprises of my day. Well, maybe not a "surprise", but a "gift": the chance to go out for late night pizza at the Pause with Adam, Dave, and two of the other leaders from Thursday Night. Yes, I suppose I was sort of hungry, but moreso I cherished the time of fun and fellowship, and the chance to hang out with some really good people.

I went back to Ytterboe with Adam to pick up my briefcase, and then, on the way out of the dorm, came across a penny. For anyone who is familiar with the "Pennies from Heaven" story, you'll understand why finding a penny "from Grandma" is so heartwarming to me. For those not familiar with the story, I'll explain it another time when my eyes aren't threatening to close and my head fall flat on my keyboard.