What I Learned This Weekend

**In the interest of full disclosure, I'm having a rock out Jesus music jam sesh while writing this, so there is NO telling when it will actually get published :) haha.

Gotta be honest, now that I've actually gotten this blogging thing started, I'm a little bit stuck. Where do I go from here? The last post was totally inspired by the events surrounding it, but now that I'm in routine, daily life, what is there?

The past couple of weekends have been odd, they have been relaxing and refreshing. Meaning that instead of being swamped with that application or this interview or that essay, I was able to actually hang out with friends (hello social life! wait, what?). My school experience has been pretty intense, and my tendency to do everything I can and fill every moment of every day with SOMETHING has been a big struggle that I am and have been dealing with for a while. So I'm not kidding when I say that free, or even light-commitment weekends, have been somewhat foreign to me. The growth that I have seen in this area of my life has been immense already, and I'm so glad that He's not finished with me yet as I still have a ways to go. But anyways, (cue "Mystery" by Charlie Hall) this weekend was pretty chill, and it taught me so much about the importance of chill time. There are so many things that I want to do, but (mostly because of my mom) I'm learning to say "no, not this time" and its doing so much for my emotional health. I'm recognizing more and more where my breaking point is and what pushes me towards it, and because of this I am doing a MUCH better job of avoiding it! (thank You Jesus!)

One of my (many) "commitments" is church. I taught myself how to play guitar a few years ago, and have been leading worship at church since our music minister left last year. Since this is something that I LOVE so much, and count as such a blessing it almost pains me to call it a "commitment," but there are always those times when the sacrificial service aspect of it overpowers the joyful servant's heart, and getting out of bed 2 hours earlier to make an 8am sound check, is definitely one of those times. Don't get me wrong, once I'm there playing and worshiping my heart out, I'm totally in my element, but getting there is a little rough sometimes. This week was definitely one of those times made all the worse by springing forward (*sigh*) but hey, as usual God showed up, and the time spent in His presence is SO worth it. (Up next, for King & Country)

Funny story about this weekend in particular though. I painted my nails for the first time in a long time because it was like 70 outside (for the first time in a long time) and I wanted to wear my chacos, and I prefer the look of painted toenails (and you can't just paint your toenails a bold color without it getting all over your hands and its just easier to paint the fingers too).

This is from last summer, and ironically enough my toes are not painted. Blech!
But YAY for chaco weather!

 So after I spent all this time painting my nails (they even looked good), I went to lead worship and in between 2 songs I dropped my pick inside my guitar, and a back up I did not have. So I had to use my FRESHLY PAINTED NAIL. Grr. Oh well. I'm not really the put-together, nicely manicured type anyways. But I found the irony rather striking. :) And here's a picture so that you can properly commiserate with me.

 Now on to bigger and better things. Like calculus. Or maybe not. ("Forever Reign" One Sonic Society version anyone?)