Goodbye Monday :)

I have a lot of homework to do... as you can see, since I am blogging, after spending the better part of an hour giving my blog a makeover. Anyways, today is Monday and let me tell you, it has been Monday all day. Now, I have never been one of those people to "hate" Mondays. But when I think about it, they really are pretty bad. The badness this time, however, started last night. Here's how it all went down: (the following is a just a bunch of venting, feel free to skip down to more important parts)

My truck has to be taken to the shop because the speedometer is broken, so I am driving my granddad's truck this week (this is not bad haha). Well, I got all the way to Bowling Green when Granddad called to tell me that I had left my parking tag at home. I didn't think anything of it at the moment, I just figured I would park in "Egypt" and everything would be okay. So I went on and stopped at the Hudson's for the end of their service and to go get Dairy Queen, as is our Sunday night tradition. While we were at Dairy Queen I realized that I would not be able to park in Egypt without a permit. This was a problem. I didn't want to park on some shady street and have to walk a million miles. Not at all. Well, blessed as I am, Chaley offered to let me park my truck at their house and she and Lisa brought Beka and I back to school. Unfortunately, we didn't get back to school until 10:00. I had an assignment due at midnight, a test the next morning, and I HAD to do laundry because I had no clean clothes. When Bek and I went to do the laundry, the change machine was broken: go figure. So Beka graciously walked to another dorm to get change and I finally got the laundry going. Then I did all my homework and didn't study for my test, which turned out to be okay because the test isn't until Wednesday, which I didn't know. Then I didn't sleep well. I couldn't turn my mind off, which is the worst... and which also leads me to my next point.

About a month ago, I decided to give up facebook for a little while. My motive behind doing so was that I wanted to see new families in our church and I fasted from facebook until we got them. So, a few weeks later, we had three new families at church, one of them has stuck around since then, and I got facebook back. The thing is, when I didn't have facebook, I noticed a change in my life, emotionally and spiritually. Every time that I would have gotten on facebook, I prayed and read my Bible. It was awesome. I guess I could've stayed off, but honestly, I do a lot of ministry on facebook and it is one of the ways the kids from youth group and people from other churches keep up with me. So, I have been thinking over the past week or so about what else I could put aside in my life to get closer to the Lord. I have come up with a couple of things.

The first, I stole from a fellow blogger, Just Me, and I think is a really good idea. One of the issues I struggle with sometimes is self-esteem. It's not horrible, I'm not attempting an eating disorder or standing for hours analyzing what I don't like about myself (at least not all the time) but I am willing to admit to you that this is something the devil uses against me quite often. So for this week (at least) I am giving up wearing make-up. I just going with the face God gave me. Not only is this going to help me in my battle against low self-esteem, but it is also going to give me more time in the morning to spend with the Lord.

Secondly, I'm giving up country music. My parents raised me to never listen to anything but Christian music. If it didn't glorify the Lord, it wasn't allowed in our house. As I have gotten older, I have gained quite the appreciation for country music. Honestly, there are some really great songs and singers out there, and I love country music... but it does nothing for my relationship with the Lord. There's just something about a worship melody that lifts my spirit in a way that country music can't. Actually, country music really only makes me think of two things: the break-up and my future husband. And since those are two things I don't really need to be thinking about all the time, I'm giving it up.

I'm just really ready to move on and move up with the Lord. No more holding back. I want to go all the way with Jesus.