Dang, it's been a long time since I've written anything here. 

Well, since January, I finished college, moved out on my own, and I'm now looking for a teaching job for the fall.  I've learned so much in the past few months.  The Lord has really blessed me with some amazing friends, a place to live, and the promise that He holds the future. 

My life has been filled with serious doubts about that last one throughout the past month as my loan bills are looming in the near future and I haven't yet found a job.  I was home this past weekend for my sister's high school graduation, though, and my father has this tradition.  He always prays with me before I drive anywhere, and so right before I left that home to come back to this one, he prayed a prayer that seemed to answer each of the doubts I had not yet voiced.  I was reminded of God's promises to always guide me and never forsake me.  It's extremely easy for me, it seems, to constantly forget the past fulfilled promises that I have seen in my own life.  I feel just like the Israelites and the disciples who saw so much and still faced the future with unbelief. 

I'd like to say that I won't ever be in a position of not trusting the Lord for the future, but I know I'll be right back to the same old doubts sometime in the future.  Whether it's next month, next year, or in 5 or 10 years, I know I am too human and too arrogantly independent to always lean on the Lord in the tough times.  I really want to try, though.  I want the Lord to be my ever-present help in trouble, and not just a God that I pay lip service to and praise when I get my way. 

"A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Going home!

Today would have been my grandpa's birthday.  I miss him.

And I don't know what I would do without my parents.

And yet another tribute to Israel because I miss it so very much...