I'm a nurse!

thanks for your prayer friends! i awoke this morning to Maria screaming and knew the results were posted. we both passed :) 

treat :) i feel very thankful that I don't have to take it again. or have to start working as a tech. all good things. 

coming up: my very first DIY project! it might be awhile, but get excited. 

a little prayer

hello friends in blogland! 

i'm taking my NCLEX tomorrow morning at 8, so if you would like to say a little prayer that i get 75 questions and that there aren't many med questions i would appreciate it! :)

i feel pretty at peace about it. the Lord definitely has me, but i figure a little conversation with him never hurt anyone :) 

i think you're all great. 

in Him, 
Jenna

until Christ is formed in you

at leadership on Friday, we had a guest speaker who came to talk on the subject of spiritual maturity (which has been the subject all semester...just in different contexts/ different viewpoints).

called out.

absolutely.

he talked a lot about spending time in the word and knowing it, not just to know it, but know it because you know Christ. he talked about waking up in the morning hungering for the word. also about spending more time during the day with Christ than you do entering the world of students. 

I think that in the past 5 years of leading, I have learned that the only good I can offer these students  comes directly from my time with the Lord. I definitely used to just be all about going out and being around the school without worrying whether or not I had spent time with the Lord that day. this has definitely been a lesson learned through experience, so what he was saying I knew, I had learned these past 5 years. 


but. 

it is good to be reminded of the urgency. it is good to be called out about only spending 15-30 minutes with the Lord in the morning and spending a couple hours that night at a game or at club. 

but more so than all of this is how far I am from Christ being formed in me. so much of my day to day life is me. It is me going about a day planned by me. when paul said in Galatians, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me", I can't say that I no longer live. 

i hate that. 

the picture above is of a gift from a good friend that I have hanging on the door to my room. it is the fruits of the spirit. 

that is what I want to see more of in my day to day life. I want to embody those things. I want Christ to live through me, and He embodies those things. I certainly do not on my own. 

so, until He is formed in me, this is my prayer. I want more of Him and less of me. 

I also want to keep getting called out. I don't want to be as comfortable as I generally am. 

leadership was good on Friday :) 

cupcakes and a song :)

what happens when there is a house of 3 girls that don't go to school and don't work? well. a whole lot of fun...but, with the new opening of Gigi's Cupcakes down the street from us, a lot of deliciousness too :) 
on thursday holly, maria and I decided we may as well go see what it was like, so maria and I set out and came home with these [literal] treats:

we really like it there. :) the second picture is extra icing that holly and I gave Maria. she likes the icing, while I could categorize myself as someone who would more likely scrape off all the icing on the cupcake to eat it...not because it's bad for you (i am one of the unhealthiest people i know..) but because its SO sweet.

So, we recommend it! You can find a store by you here ! :)

i will leave you with a wonderful song that is sure to have you dancing around your house in no time :) or singing loudly in your car. its pretty great. thanks go to katie lindeman for pointing it out!

train- hey soul sister


<3 jenna

tamar & judah

no pictures today, just words :)

Today I finished reading Unveiled by Francine Rivers. It is from her Lineage of Grace series, which is about the 5 women named in the genealogy of Christ. Unveiled is the story of Tamar and Judah's family. This is the first in the series, but I put off reading it because it was not as drawing as Ruth, Bathsheba, or Mary's stories. 

I decided to read it yesterday(maybe because I ran out of Francine Rivers books...), and was really surprised at all that was going on there. 

I have read this account in Genesis probably around 5 or 6 times before and left it thinking it resolved really awkwardly and never really understood why it was awesome. I know that what I read today was only someone's perception of what may have happened, but it really gave the story meaning and life and context for me. 


Ok, so the things I loved:


1) Judah. I would have never pulled this out of the story, but it was really cool to see someone running from God for something he'd done turn around and find restoration the way he did. It just highlights that if we don't own up and be truthful with our shortcomings, but keep running and pursuing life apart from God, everything will fall apart, but if we are faithful to His heart, He will bless us more than we would expect. Sometimes it takes a mound of our sin to show us how far we are and how desperately we need God to fix things. Francine Rivers pointed out in the study part at the end that Jesus is referred to as the "lion of Judah". That is restoration. 


2) Tamar. She was a Canaanite but held onto hope in the God of Judah because Judah's family was her family. Tamar felt strongly that Judah's God was God, and desired to serve Him despite the lack of example from the family. Anyway... Er (the oldest son) died leaving her to marry the second oldest son, who also died because they were disobedient. Judah sent Tamar away instead of giving her to the youngest son, which would be custom. Tamar waited over six years for Judah to send for her to come back for the youngest son. He never did, so she took things into her own hands, which was weird... but through it, God opened Judah's eyes to his sin and blessed both of them with twin sons to carry on the line of Judah. I love this because even though her situation was horrible, she held onto hope when it was impossible to see any. 


I just feel encouraged by this because the Lord really is sovereign. Even when we don't understand his moving, He knows what he is doing, and if we would just be open and obedient to the Lord moving in our lives, He will be with us. If we don't, things tend to fall apart under our own striving. 


Sorry, just felt like this was really cool stuff, so I thought I'd share it out there with you all in blog land :) 

Makes me wonder what else I am breezing past in the Old Testament that holds a lot more truth than I can see there.


 

80's club

oh. gosh.
so first i would like to say, i am very diappointed with the graniness of these pictures, but that is ok.

80's club. awesome.

one of my favorite things about Young Life is being able to have fun that students won't regret the next day. i love being able to offer them something that isn't the "norm" for high school fun.

that being said, here are some of the pictures :)

holly did my makeup. it was great. i felt like jenna rink.

totally found these pink leg warmers for $3 today. perfect. when i was getting ready, i kept thinking how sad it was that i was only alive for 3ish years of the 80's. not long enough to thoroughly enjoy the greatness.

here is my girl team planning for the night. they are all wonderful. i really feel so thankful for each of them. i love to see Christ working in their daily lives :) i hope i always live by each of them.

i just like this. a lot. not really of me, i look ridiculous. but i love jaime and china. its precious.

precious. what is really crazy is that the girls in high school weren't even alive in the 80's! can you believe that? crazy. it makes you feel old. i am pretty sure that next year (or this year?) the freshmen in high school will be (or are) 10 years younger than me.

oh megan. what in the world is going on with my hair? i mean, really.

can you believe people used to dress like this seriously? i wish i could for the day without getting judged.

i really like cassie. she is so awesome and funny. i would want to be friends with her if i was in high school. i like girls like that a lot.

really no words for the next.... but its just great. :) i LOVE randi.

hahahaha.... oh man. one of the games we played tonight was the boys trying to make the girls hair the tallest with combs and hair spray... these are the results... the girls were champs :)

...and our new leader! what a treat! Rouse is our new guy leader! he is FUNNY. a great addition :)

well, i hope you enjoyed the pictures. next club is "old people" club. i am thinking powder for my hair and hair curlers and maybe a robe? we'll see  :)

i hope you all are having a wonderful week! if you think about it, pray that the students will think about steve's talk throughout the week, and maybe want to talk with us about it :)

lunch with jenna & eden

This post really doesn't need words, so I'll keep it short. I went to eat lunch with Jenna today & it turned into an Eden photoshoot. She is just too cute... Here are my favorites! Enjoy :)