What Girls Get Wrong

Let's talk about someone you've probably heard a lot about. Peter, the apostle, the guy who was ready to chop off an ear for Christ (sorry, van Gogh, guess you didn't think of it first), and then a few hours later was swearing he'd never heard of the Man. Pastors preach a lot about Peter. There's a lot of life lessons we all get to learn from Peter's failures. I feel like he has the greatest number of embarrassing stories told about him in the Bible. Then again, he didn't kill anyone or sleep with anybody who wasn't his wife, so maybe he doesn't quite have that position all by himself. But we hear a lot about him. We hear a lot about his lack of faith. Like that time Jesus walked on the water, and when He came aside their boat, the disciples were all afraid. Then Peter, gathering courage, asks to be allowed to come to Jesus on the water. Jesus lets him come, but Peter sees the waves... We know the rest of the story. His heart quakes wi...

Sometimes, you feel as if you've got nothing more to give. I stared at the screen for a good ten minutes, trying to figure out something, anything to write about. Sometimes it's easy to write something. Sometimes I get an idea that practically writes itself. And sometimes I have to drag the idea out, inch by painful inch. All-in-all, it's not easy a good chunk of the time. A lot of things aren't easy. Being a Christian isn't easy. Taking a stand for what God has taught you, taking a stand against what you know in your heart and from God's Holy Word is wrong, is not easy. Serving God with your all by completing your assignments or grading papers when you rather go eat chocolate chip cookies and watch reruns of Once Upon a Time is not easy. And sometimes (at least I do), we feel completely drained from it. Like we can't go on. Like we have no idea what comes next. What step we should take...what project needs to be finished...how to finish...

I spent much of this past weekend and yesterday flat on my back in agony. Okay, maybe not quite agony. But I was in a whole lot of pain. Somehow, I threw out my back and gave myself a mini bout of sciatica all rolled into one (I blame the little kid I had to lift onto the bus in the sleet and ice on Friday). Talk about perfect timing, when I start my internship tomorrow. Those of you who are health geeks like me, you know that sciatica is usually caused by stress. And I was under a lot of stress. I was (still am) nervous about going into a high school to try to help these kids who may have seen in their 14-18 years a lot more heartache and misery than I have. And I'm the adult, trying to help them, trying to guide them into good career paths and help them get through the daily grind and the breakups and the bad family situations, etc. etc. etc. How do I help kids going through things I’ve never faced? How can I show them I care, that God cares? I'm unsure how to help stu...