Songs I Play on Repeat 2012

1. You Got It Bad/Because of You - Justin Bieber
2. Payphone - Maroon 5
3. Come Wake Me Up - Rascal Flatts
4. We Are Young - Boyce Avenue
5. Wanted You More - Lady Antebellum
6. If I Die Young - Justin Robinett and Michael Henry
7. Never Gonna Leave This Bed - Justin Robinett and Michael Henry
8. Drunk - Ed Sheeran
9. Be Alright - Justin Bieber
10. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye - Luke Bryan
11. Drunk on You - Luke Bryan
12. All Too Well - Taylor Swift
13. Lego House - Ed Sheeran
14. Because of You - Ne-yo
15. Don't Wake Me Up - Chris Brown
16. Let Me Love You - Ne-yo
17. Your Hand in Mine - Explosions in the Sky
18. Angel with a Shotgun - The Cab
19. Pour Me Out - He is We
20. Thunder - Katy McAllister
21. Holocene - Bon Iver
22. Holocene - Kate McGill 
23. Small Bump - Ed Sheeran
24. Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran
25. Come Wake Me Up - Ed Sheeran
26. Shadows - David Crowder Band feat. Lecrae
27. American Secrets - Parachute
28. Here With You - Asher Monroe
29. Catch My Breath - Kelly Clarkson
30. 
    

Then and Now: Across the Years

Then...

Now...

Winter Break Bucket List

1. Go to the Festival of Lights and ride the Ferris wheel
2. Practice portion control and healthy eating
3. Have a quiet time everyday
4. Go to Davis's basketball games
5. Play basketball at Nottaway
6. Cook something for Christmas dinner
7. Go to the Eastern Market
8. See Skyfall
9. See Rise of the Guardians
10. Watch Batman Begins
11. Get new clothes
12. Go to Passion 2013
13. Go ice skating
14. Lose weight
15. See the lights at Meadowlark
16. Take a good picture of the four kids
17. Take lots of pictures
18. Apply to internships
19. Get my eyebrows waxed
20. Get a cute Christmas outfit
21. Get my hair cut
22. Enjoy everything that I eat
23. Love recklessly
24. Go to the chiropractor
25. Whiten my teeth
26. Call and write a letter to Grandma

Also from the past

Good Things:

1. Pink Starbursts
2. Shooting Stars
3. Twilight
4. Breezes that make long grasses ripple
5. Cornfields
6. Smores
7. Adrenaline rushes
8. Challenges
9. Balloons
10. Helium
11. Golden retriever or golden lab puppies
12. those moments when we’re singing in church and the instruments stop for a chorus and the congregation is singing acapella and it gives you just a taste of how great heaven is going to be
13. Sunsets
14. Lakes
15. Inside jokes
16. Vulnerability
17. Quoting movies
18. Driving with the music blaring and the windows down
19. The beach
20. Good novels
21. Red skittles
22. Looking through the church bulletin and seeing that there is good music in the service
23. Swimming at night
24. Honesty
25. City landscapes at night when they are lit up and you realize how much planning and effort it took to make the whole city
26. Bubble gum
27. Realizing your favorite TV either comes on tonight or that it came on last night and it’s waiting on tivo
28. Reading what people think about you
29. Turning in an assignment or exam that you feel really good about
30. Walking into the house and smelling that something delicious was made
31. The smell of freshly mowed grass
32. Hershey’s chocolate
33. The sound of frogs at night
34. Fireflies
35. Eating freshly picked berries
36. Coming home from a successful shopping trip
37. Finishing something that you have been dreading doing
38. The sound of a ball on a baseball bat
39. Ice cream cones
40. Handwritten letters
41. Getting a good grade back on a test or paper
42. Watching movies for the first time and not knowing what is going to happen
43. Modern Family
44. Acoustic music
45. The smell of a bookstore
46. Feeling good about your body and weight
47. Finishing a good book
48. Endorphins
49. Old pictures
50. Music

Wiser in the Past

Sometimes I think I was wiser in the past. I came across this list that I had written two years ago and am struck at how much I need to remind myself of these truths and encouragements daily:

Done

I’m done with viewing relationships in a selfish light.

I’m done with approaching relationships in a consumeristic manner - weighing the pros and cons as to what it will cost be in return for what I can gain.

I’m done with not loving because love is not always reciprocated.

I’m done with thinking about what I deserve and how I should be treated.

I’m done dwelling on the past. It is a part of who I am. It will shape who I am today. The past is in the past. It is over and unchangeable. I will no longer allow it to have that power over me of controlling my actions in the present.

I’m done holding onto the idol of what my relationship with a boy was. That was a relationship - there will never be a relationship like that again, but there doesn’t need to be one like that again. Each relationship takes a different form.

I will:

Love recklessly because Jesus’ love is sufficient.

Invest in people because Jesus has saved me.

View relationships in light of how I can serve and how I can be selfless.

Rest in the fact that I don’t really need others. Jesus is enough.