"Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, 'Lord, there is no one lke you to help the powerless against the mighty.  Help us, O lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army.  O Lord, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you.'"

2 Chronicles 14:11

I know it's taking me a long time to get the pictures on here, but it's the week before finals.  Give me a break!  :o)  I found out today that I don't have to take my psychology final, and my written comp final is turning in our last paper, so that already takes 2 finals out of the picture!  Yes!  :o) 

I'm still in desperate need of a job over the Christmas/January holidays.  Has anyone thought of anything?

Tonight is Big/lil Christmas at the lodge.  We are giving our bigs their christmas gifts, and I can't wait!  :o)  The new members decorated the lodge last night, and it looks good in my opinion.  We also had to get "Santa's little helpers" to set up our present to the chapter.  None of us knew how to do it.  :o)  Well, anyway... that's about it for me.  Everyone have a marvelous day!

In Christ,
Ashley

I'm learning sign language, and it's so much fun!!  Kind of frusterating when I can't remember what signs are what, but it's still cool. 

I said the Creed tonight, so I'm one step closer to being initiated into Zeta!!  yay!!

Church was soooo good tonight!  Ben (the college minister) spoke on a pretty controversial topic in 1 Timothy, but he actually cleared it up for me. 

Well, it's 12:15 so I should probably go to bed...

Earlier today I was going to write on here, and when I did, my computer didn't submit it, so I gave up.  But I'm going to try again right now.  :o)

Can you believe I'm almost done with my first semester of college?  I have 5 more monday/wednesday/friday classes and 3 more tuesday/thursday classes.  I can't believe it!  It's insane that it's gone by this fast! 

I've already got my schedule for next semester, and I think it will be harder than this semester.  But I also know I can do it!  :o)  I'm taking 16 hours of all academic classes which is about 5 more academic hours than I have this semester.  It will be alright, though.  I'm taking 2 professors that I have already, so I won't have to get used to new teachers.  

Other news around campus:  the freshman council is having a worship service for all freshman tonight, so I'm pretty excited about that.  One of my friends Stephen is leading the worship tonight, so I'm pretty pumped about that.

Also, I got one of the most amazing compliments yesterday!  Chris, a senior I think, told Carly, one of my sisters, that he really appreciates the fact that I always have a smile on my face.  He said that every time he sees me, I am always so full of joy.  I love it!  It really made me feel good.  But I must say that it's not me that's shining, it's Christ shining through me.  I'm so thankful to be alive and in His hand that I guess I have a lot of joy.  :o)  

Well that's about all for me...  

I just got done shopping on the craziest shopping day of the year!  I went to look for a black dress for semi-formal next weekend (so, no, I wasn't doing any Christmas shopping), and what do I come home with?  2 new pairs of shoes and 2 books to complete a trilogy I have!  I didn't get what I went to get, and what I got wasn't even for other people!  It was all for me!  I feel like a failure.. :o)  Ok, maybe not a failure, but kind of selfish...  Well, that's all I have to say about that...

I am so excited about Thanksgiving break!!  I get to spend time with my family, eat my mom's home cooking, and shop!  I need a break!  Classes aren't hard, but they are a lot of work.  This will be a much deserved break.  I love this time of the year!  The cold weather is my absolute favorite!  Especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas time!  It's so exciting!  When you start to hear "Jingle Bells" and "White Christmas" playing in the stores...  When you begin to drive down your street and see houses in their Christmas decor.  It's so beautiful!  :o)  And to know that I get to celebrate my Savior's birth... great times!!

"Why did the suffering and execution of a man who was convicted and condemned as a pretender to the throne of Rome unleash, in the next three centuries, a power to suffer and to love that transformed the Roman Empire, and to this day is shaping the world." 

"This is what sin is - dishonoring God by preferring other things over him, and acting on those preferences...Therefore, failure to love him is not trivial - it is treason."

"For our sake God did the impossible: He poured out his wrath on this own Son - the one whose submission made him infinately unworthy to receive it."

~John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ

Someone please tell me what I should major in!!  :o)  I have no idea what to do with my life.  I need to be praying about this, but will anyone who reads this please pray for me as well?  Thanks!

Alright, so here's the pictures with some explanations... but these aren't all of them, so check them out in my photo box!  :o)

This is before we started paintball... that's Josh, Emily, me, and Trey (my date).

here's me and Emily trying to look intimidating... Did it work? (i'm trying not to laugh..)

This is us on the cotton ride.  Ok, this is a novel idea!  It's 100xs more comfortable, and it feels a whole lot better!

This is Ashley Harrington and I.  We just got off the cotton ride.

This is the some of the boys acting goofy...

My new member class!  Look how beautiful!

The Lambda Chis that were there.  Look at how many there were!  There are more of them than there is my new member class!  Crazy!

this is me and John Arnold.  He's a cool guy...

and finally some of the girls with our crowns!  (one of Zeta's symbols)

We all had a GREAT time!  I'm looking forward to semi-formal!  It's going to be so much fun... Anyway, make sure you check out the other pictures I didn't put in this blog! 

~Ashley

i just got home from playing paintball... there's still some more to the party, so i'll put pictures on here after that...

So, God is just doing some major things in my life.  First, it was last night's humbling lesson at church (read the previous entry).  Now it's the fact that I'm running too far ahead of God.  I'm jumping the gun, and what I'm planning may or may not be a part of God's plan for me, but I know for sure I shouldn't be planning it myself. 

That's about all for now...

Ok, so I had a humbling experience tonight at church.  Eric (the guy giving the message) was preaching on Revelation 2:18-29.  It's one of the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor - more specifically the letter to the church in Thyatira.  Well, in the passage, it talks about Jezebel (which was cool in and of itself because we just discussed her story in Old Testament today... but anyway...).  In case you don't know, Jezebel was an evil woman married to King Ahab, the king of Israel (1 Kings 16).  Ok, there were a lot of bad kings that reigned over Israel, but King Ahab was one of the worst.  He and Jezebel were responsible for some of the corruption in Israel because of their Baal worship.  Well, because of all this corruption, hardly anyone in Israel was following God.  And so, the same way that this was happening in Israel during the time of Ahab and Jezebel (which is why she is mentioned), the same sort of practices were occuring in this little city of Thyatira.  In order for a person to be successful in Thyatira, they had to be a member of a trade guild, but the catch to these trade guilds was that once a month the members had to make sacrifices to idols.  Therefore, if you wanted to be obedient to God, you basically wouldn't be successful.  So, my thought was, "If the people knew what God could do to protect them from death and occupation by other cultures (both in the time of Jezebel and the time John wrote Revelation), why didn't they just trust Him to do what they already knew he could do?"  Then comes my humbling moment... I thought, "Well darn...if I know what God can do, and how he'll provide for me, why can't I just trust him to keep me from the enemy?"  Wow, talk about humbling.  Here I am chastising the Israelites for not trusting God, and I fail time and again at that very thing. 

Anyway... that's all for now..

I think being a Christian is a brave committment.  Think about it.  We go from trusting ourselves, our parents, or the people around us (tangible trust) to trusting something that can't be seen or even audibly heard (intangible trust).  I still struggle with completely putting my trust in Him, but I'm slowly learning what that means.  But in return for this commitment, you receive a kind of life and depth that gives you purpose in place of potluck, passion instead of party games, and more opportunities to dish our Christian service than the lady who pours the punch.   

Just a thought...

So, it's Sunday night, and I'm back in Jackson getting ready to start another week of class.  I'm really excited about being back, but it was sooo good to be home for those few days I was there.  I've really missed my family, but I also think I've grown up a lot being away from home.  I feel much more independent (although I still like having my mommy do things for me). 

I have decided that the drive from Nashville to Jackson is beautiful!  Today I had the pleasure of driving as the sun was setting, and it was gorgeous!  The sky was a rolling sea of pink and orange.  I don't know how anyone can look at that kind of beauty and deny the evidence of the Creator.  It gave me comfort to know that the God who created tonight's picturesque sunset is in control of my life and nothing can separate us from His love.  Wow...

I found this quote on one of my friend's facebook.  I thought it was really good...

"Find a guy that is a spirtual leader and isn't ashamed of God ever...A guy that knows how to be romantic, but doesn't smother you with always wanting to be with you.. A guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will stay awake just to watch you sleep... Wait for the guy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you' re just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you... The one who turns to his friends and says, "That's her.'