Go Tigers!!!!

I had such an amazing weekend! First of all, THE TIGERS WON!! I was beginning to think we would have one of those football seasons that forces everyone to transfer to a different school in shame, but after the way we played on Saturday I suppose I'll stick it out here.

Saturday night I was supposed to go on my Stag Saturday date with myself, but I had a change of plans. KD and I both really wanted to see "Life As We Know It", so I invited her along as a third wheel. It was such a good movie, and we definitely had a good time! We were analyzing everything in terms of what we've learned in nursing school (ex. "He has really good veins"). I have the most awesome friends.

Church was amazing, as usual. We just started the marriage series, so I'm pretty excited about it. Surprisingly, every time we've had a marriage series Jesus finds a way to speak volumes to me. I figure it's never too early to prepare for an amazing marriage, even when you're destined to be a cat lady by the age of 23! Most importantly, these sermons remind me not to settle for anything less than what God has planned for me. There's an amazing man out there for me, and I just need to be patient!

After church Jonathan and I went to McDonald's as a result of being poor college students. This was the highlight of my day. Why? Because I got a MIGHTY KIDS MEAL!! Yea...be jealous. It came complete with a trick-or-treat bucket that I could decorate myself with STICKERS!!!! How awesome? I don't know why they don't give those out with every meal, kid or not.

 

Anyway, y'all have a great Monday! As for me, I have a psychosocial test today. My Monday will depend on the way I feel after the test is over. 

Jesus is always the answer!

Ok, so I'm horrible. I haven't been updating this thing as frequently as I should. I've been pretty busy, though, and I'm in the process of sorting some things out. Give me a break!

Anyway, so I had an epiphany last night (I seem to have a lot of those). Jesus set it up for me last week at the service when B. Coop told us to wear a red string around our fingers to remind us of the gospel throughout the week. I didn't realize that I NEEDED to be reminded until Monday. I was telling my therapist about my trust issues (blah, blah...) and he asked me who I CAN trust. I thought about it for a while before saying "just myself, I guess." Umm, wrong answer. You know what the right answer should have been? JESUS!!! As Perry says, Jesus is always the answer.

Anyway, this was when I realized I need to work on trusting God with everything. I always say "Jesus, I surrender all" but in reality, I don't. It's more like "I surrender everything I can't control and then I'll try to control everything else myself." It doesn't work that way, though. He is in control of EVERYTHING. Even the things we think we have control over, we really don't. How many times have you thought you were handling a situation before the crap hit the fan?

Last night I confessed to my small group some of the issues I've been having. Simone made me realize that not only have I been through this before, but JESUS has GOTTEN me through this before. How can I not trust that He'll do the same thing again? And you know what else I realized? He ALWAYS provides me with the resources I need whenever I need them. It's no coincidence that He has surrounded me with so many new friends and support groups right around the time that He knew I would need them. I've never been so blessed than I am right now and I was blind to that until last night.

So what does this have to do with you? Everything! Take a step back and look at your life. What are you going through right now, and what resources has God provided you to help you get through it? Think about where you were a year ago and where you are now. Think about everything you've taken for granted and take the time to thank God for blessing you.

So that's my epiphany. I'm about to go watch the Tigers play! Hopefully they can actually win this one, because they're starting to remind me of the gamecocks. It's also time for me to do another STAG SATURDAY! I'm pretty excited. I'm taking myself somewhere for dinner (haven't decided where yet) and then I'm going to see "Life As We Know It".

Have a great Saturday, y'all!! GO TIGERS!! 

I suppose I should get fitted for dentures...

Have any of you ever had that dream where your jaw gets locked in an awkward position and your teeth start crumbling and falling out? Well, I used to have that dream quite frequently and now it seems to be making another nightly appearance! I can't stand this dream.

First of all, I think the worst possible condition would be to have lock-jaw, because that is NOT a fun feeling. In the dream, I'm always panicking and trying to get someone to help me but no one can understand me because I can't move my jaw to speak! In the dream I had last night, I tried to hard so shut my jaw that all my teeth started getting loose. I had to run to the bathroom sink and scoop them all out of my mouth.

Weird, right??

Well I looked it up to see if google had some insight into my subconscious. Most sources claim that this dream stems from anxiety about your physical appearance or about others' perceptions of you. It could also mean you are doubting your abilities or feeling unprepared for whatever task is about to be performed. I suppose I can go with that. I also discovered that the Greeks have a different interpretation of this dream- apparently this means a close relative is very sick or close to death. I think I'll go with the first interpretation, please!

Anyway, I hope this dream is not going to be a recurring one like it has been in the past. If so, I would really appreciate it if I could dream up a dentist as well.

I would also like to add that as I was about to submit this entry, I glanced over to my right just in time to notice that my sharks tooth had fallen out of my wallet and is lying on my desk. Coincidence?

Increasing the intensity: God created you for more than this!

I just got back from the gym, and I'm super pumped because I have just increased my weight on the pec/deltoid/bicep machine to 60 lb. That's right- you may now call me "The Hulk". I'll still answer to Morgan, though. In addition, I am now officially able to run at 5 mph for 15 minutes! Kayla and I have decided we are going to do the Cooper River Bridge Run in the spring.

 I'm raising the intensity.

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last few weeks, and I've come to the conclusion that if we want to achieve greatness, we have to perform with greatness. It sounds simple, I know. It's probably even a quote somewhere and I completely just plagiarized, but whatever.

Basically, God wants us to do in life exactly what I'm doing at the gym. He wants us to increase the intensity.

The thing is, we get so caught up in routines. We go through grade school knowing that our next step is college. Most of us go through college knowing that our next step is marriage, a career, and children. We study all of these developmental stages that tell us exactly what will happen as we continue to age. You know what I say to that? It's boring. As long as we are working toward our "next step", we consider that a successful and fulfilling life. I don't think God would agree.

We were created by a God who wants us to achieve way more than that. He doesn't want us to just get married. He wants us to know a love that resembles His own, one that exceeds our wildest imagination. He doesn't want us to just have kids. He wants us to use our children to spread the news of His son's sacrifice. He doesn't want us to just have a successful career. He wants us to use that career to honor Him in everything that we accomplish.

Living at this type of intensity level is hard work, though. It doesn't just happen overnight, and it takes a lot of discipline to maintain. I'm not going to walk into the gym tomorrow and suddenly be able to bench press the treadmill, just like I'm not going to wake up next year and be the charge nurse at a big hospital. There are thousands of examples in the bible of ordinary people that God used to do extraordinary things, but none of them just 'happened'. God gave them a difficult task and they were obedient.

If we make a conscious effort every day to ask God what He wants us to do (and then actually do it), there is no predicting the level of greatness that we can achieve. You have to take charge first, though. You can't be passive, expecting life to just fall into place like we've been taught our entire lives. You are the one who dictates the next step- not the other way around.

So what are you waiting for? Raise the intensity level.

I'm not going to be that girl anymore.

I once heard that your personality is determined by the person you are on any given day. That doesn't mean your best day or your worst day. It doesn't include the person you wish you could be. On any given day, what kind of person are you?

I had to face this question myself last Friday. I was really down on myself and the last thing I wanted to do was go to my small group cookout surrounded by lots of people I barely knew. I tried to imagine the scenario if I were to turn on the light, roll out of bed, and drive myself to Anderson for this thing. I pictured myself sitting in a corner pouting, possibly munching down on way too many Doritos, expecting someone to come to my rescue. It was a scenario I'd lived out hundreds of times before, so why not do it again?

Then I started thinking further...These people don't know me yet. They don't know that I'm funny, smart, enthusiastic, or quirky. All they know is what I show them on the outside; the person I am on a day-to-day basis. It hit me that none of those good qualities mean anything if I'm not living them out. If I allow the above scenario to be played out over and over again, I will be "that girl who is always sad." Nobody wants to be friends with that girl. "That's not me," I thought...but if you think about it, that really IS me...that's the person I was throughout most of last week.

With my new revelation suddenly taking over my body, I hopped out of bed, flicked on the light, and I went to that cookout. Not as "that girl who is always sad", but as "that girl who's pretty funny." It ended up being an amazing night!

It's funny, because as Christians we make it a point to model Jesus' behavior to the world around us. We expect others to see our sparkling personalities and go after the relationship that we have with Him. If we aren't consistent with this behavior, though, how are we ever going to be good Christian role models? Therefore, as friends and/or readers of my blog, it is now your responsibility on days when I'm having a pity party to walk up to me, flick me on the back of the head, and say "Morgan, you are being that girl."

If I'm not portraying this level of happiness at all times, please let me know.

Looking for love happiness in all the wrong places

Have you ever been looking for something that you just can't find? You know you've seen it millions of times over the last few days, but you just can't seem to remember where? How can we open the same drawer 20 times and not recognize the objects that are inside? That's because you can't see something you're not looking for. We rummage through a pile of junk seeking out a particular object, and that's the only object we pull out. We do the same thing with our attitudes and the way we view the world.

I had one of the toughest days yesterday that I've had in a long time. I was anxious and depressed to the point of panic, and I allowed it to escalate all day simply because I kept dwelling on the fact that I was feeling that way. I let my thoughts take over my head until I wasn't even involved in the world around me anymore. It was then that I decided I was just going to take all the negative thoughts, accept them, and push them aside. If we are only looking for the negative, depressing aspects of our lives, of course that's wall we're going to see. On the other hand, if we train ourselves to seek out the positive, all the negative junk is going to get left behind in the drawer.

I know what you're thinking. It's a lot easier said than done. Well, I'm not saying it's easy at all. I'm just saying that of all the things in this world that we have absolutely NO control over, why not make an attempt to control the one thing over which we do have power? Our attitudes. It's ok to be sad. It's ok to be depressed. It's even ok to be angry. What's not ok is when you let that sadness, that depression, or that anger take hold of you and block out everything that's good. When you start to feel negative, tell yourself "ok, you're feeling ____, and that's ok." and let it go. Stop looking for the tape when what you really need is the scissors. Otherwise, you're going to miss them, and when you need them you won't remember where to find them.

Nothing a bottle of wine and a good friend can't fix.

I'm sitting here staring at the clock because I managed to be ready for church 25 minutes early. Therefore, I decided I am way overdue for a blog post.

Anyway, I've had quite a week. I had two tests, and I feel like my word of the week was stress! As if I hadn't had enough, I got a letter yesterday from my scholarship association telling me there was a mistake and I won't be getting my check...that's fantastic considering I have about $50 in my bank account and only get paid about $100 every two weeks from my job. Awesome. But you know what? It's going to be ok. I've been trusting God with my finances for the past couple of years now, and He hasn't led me to a soup kitchen yet. It will be ok!

On the bright side, my friend Amanda from Irmo came to see me this weekend! I think we both needed a weekend of tv, cookies, and wine! We also discovered a Chinese buffet that included sushi. Don't even get me started on the amazing apple pie. I may or may not have had two pieces.

Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot! I had my first small group meeting last Friday! I met some awesome people, and we all shared a little bit about what brought us to this point in our walks with Christ. I can't wait to see all the things that God does through this group. It's going to be great! I love my church family!

With that said, I hope y'all have a fabulous day! I'm heading to Newspring!