In the image of God, He created him.

I'm a horrible blogger. For real.

I have good reason for not blogging more recently though.

You ready for it?

I'm a student.

Yes, it's that time of year, when people are double-fisting Red Bulls and spending their nights cooped up in the library, pulling their hair out and wondering WHY in the WORLD they waited this long to get started on that research proposal or group project.

In all fairness though, I do not have any real final exams.  The only exam I had was for my online Research Methods class, and I was able to take that whenever I wanted.  It was also super easy.

I do, however, have research papers due, which have been beasts in themselves.  I turned in my 25 page research paper on Australia in World War II last week (made an A, woot woot!), and tonight I will turn in and present my paper on sex education in public schools.  Sounds like an interesting topic? Not exactly.

I do have many things to look forward to in the coming weeks though.  First of all, at 7:00pm tonight I will be finished with my first semester of grad school.  Needless to say, I have mixed feelings about that. I'm happy to be done with one semester, but it just serves to remind me that grad school is going to go as fast as undergrad did, and I enjoy being in school.  BUT, I'm not really focusing too much on that; I'll enjoy the time I have and hope that when I get out I am able to find a job.

Also, CHRISTMAS is in 10 days! Actually, Christmas is in about three days for our family; we're going to be opening the gifts and celebrating this weekend sometime since my dad isn't ever home for the holidays.  But still, for the rest of you, Christmas is in less than two weeks!

And finally, AL!VE Conference is coming up rather quickly, something I know everyone at CO_UNCC has been really pumped for!  I remember doing New Year's conferences in high school as a student but I haven't been on one in years, and I simply cannot wait!  Last week, my friend Briannah from ASU signed up to go (with a minute to spare until the deadline), and I'm so unbelieveably excited to have her experience the fellowship that I have found at UNCC with such great people.

All in all, a lot of things have been happening lately, I just haven't had the time to sit down and keep up with this.  I kind of need to pick back up on my journaling as well; I enjoyed it so much more when I sat down and journalled after my devotionals, but that was lost throughout this semester.

Something I thought I would share that I found interesting.  My devotional had me reflect on the story of creation, and through it I felt encouragement that I hadn't experienced from reading it before!

Genesis 1
v1 And God said "Let there be light," and there was light.
v6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse beween the waters to separate water from water.
v9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear."
v11 And God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.
v14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.
v20 And God said, "Let the water tee with living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.
v24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according  to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.

Notice something repetitive about these verses?  God spoke everything into existence.
But what did He do to create man?

v26 Then God said, "Let us mae man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
v27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.


To me, the image of God creating something seems much more personal to me than the way he brought everything else into existence.  Creating implies a work of art; time is invested into a creation.  When it says that God CREATED man, I read somewhere that this translated into "shaped" or "formed"; God personally made man, rather than speaking him into existence as He did for all the rest of creation.  I feel like this little difference alone signifies how important we are to God.  He loves us because he is our creator; he fashioned us in His image and took the time to work on us.  And he was pleased with His creation.  How wonderful to know that the Lord delights in us and loves us in such an intimate way.




On a related note, I found this funny.