Summer Thoughts

       Do you ever hear a song that is so relevant to your current circumstances, which makes you think about how amazing God's timing is? Maybe it's a worship song that comes on many times on the radio during a stressful week, reminding you to praise him in the middle of the struggle. Maybe it's a song that you hear for the first time that uplifts you after hearing some discouraging news. This has happened to me many times, and it never ceases to amaze me.      Well, this time God used a whole album to encourage me! My brother, Luke, decided to experiment with Spotify's new feature of creating a playlist based on multiple friends' favorite songs. We ended up with a really interesting playlist... it is a little weird and random. But one of the songs I found from my mama's musical taste is called "Find You" by Jervis Campbell. "Teach Me to Dance" is a song that I have loved that is also by him, so I was intrigued to listen to this one. Th...

  My run this morning was a lot harder than my run on Monday. It's a little surprising because Monday morning was my first time running in months, whereas this morning was my first time running in four days. I was just hot and pushing through to make it to the end. My playlist made it so much more doable. It always does.      As I sat on the driveway, stretching and breathing in and out, I remembered why I actually love going for runs in the mornings during my summer breaks. Maybe I am too introspective and I think too deep about things... but I think that going for a run is a beautiful metaphor of life and faith in Jesus.           My running playlist is called "Runnin' for Jesus" because they are all fun songs that encourage me in the run and give me a way to praise the Lord as I put one foot in front of the other. Singing praises to the Lord in the midst of the current struggle puts things in perspective for me. It reminds me whe...

    Yesterday was a wonderful, adventure-filled day! My boyfriend, Josiah, and I spent the day together in Birmingham before he left for his study abroad trip in Mexico. We like to call it our daylong date. I would say that some of the highlights of the trip were the views of the city. I've realized that is one of my favorite things to see and do... experience a beautiful view of a city high above and away from the busyness and chaos of being in the midst of it. One of my favorite things about Toledo was the view of the city from La Piedra del Rey Moro. I could go there every day and sit in silence and admire the view of the city. I just love it.      The first thing we did on our daylong date was go hiking at Red Mountain State Park. That was a lot of fun! I think the coolest part was seeing a snake. It was not a venomous snake. It was just crossing the trail. And we stood on the side of the trail, watching it make its way to the trees. It was really ...

 " There's a hundred and four days of summer vacation  'til school comes along just to end it,  so the annual problem for our generation  is finding a good way to spend it." ♩ 🎵 ♪     If you recognize this lyric, you know that Phineas and Ferb don't struggle too much with this annual problem, because the song lists some of the many amazing things that Phineas and Ferb do during their extraordinarily long summer.      I just discovered something cool! I actually have  a hundred and four days of summer vacation! I am counting today, the first day after I turned in my final assignments, until the day before the official first day of classes for the fall semester at UA. Wow, that is cool that it is the same as the song! I always thought that they had a really long summer, but maybe it was just because I had never taken the time to count the days in my own summer. Or my summers are longer now that I am in college.      An...