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Blogoversary Penned on Jan. 24, 2009
January 22 marked my two-year anniversary as a blogger on HSB (a little-known fact is that I actually did blog prior to HSB, at a nifty little Freewebs site which has since been deleted). The statistics are...
Entries written: 171
Comments written: 906
Comments received: 1114
Friends list: 156
Total visits: 7,651 (since June, 2007)
Average visits per day: 23
It's quite interesting compared to last year's stats--the number of entries has nearly tripled, comments written has quadrupled, and comments received has more then quadrupled. The average visits per day skyrocketed to around 30 a few months ago, but now it stays generally between 14 and 24. My first year blogging I had just over 1,000 individual visits (or maybe closer to 2,000, since the counter starts mid-year); this past year I had 6,000.
So...there you have it! |
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Give me your eyes... Penned on Jan. 19, 2009
Me and Christina
I think everything is moving faster now that we're on the last half of the conference. Some people might think that's bad news...I'm ready for it to be over, myself. Not that it hasn't been good (most the time). I miss my house and my little siblings and my regular life.
All the speakers have had great things to say--I don't think I've heard anything that didn't touch me somehow, or make me think. A recurring theme has been escaping from ourselves, and the pitfalls of being self-centered and prideful, and instead turning our focus outward to others. It's very applicable and real. We listened to the song "Give Me Your Eyes" tonight, which was beautiful. Very thought-provoking.
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken-hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see.
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Today Penned on Jan. 17, 2009
I think I exhausted all my profoundness yesterday. Too much deep thinking gives me a headache. And...my head hurts now. So I shall stick to the basics.
The speech portion of MASTERS is officially ended. Tomorrow, we'll visit our friends' church, head over to their house for lunch, and then off to audition for the conference's talent show which happens a few days from now. Monday kicks off the debate portion. Hopefully it won't involve any relapses into fits of crying and physical wrestling to avoid giving speeches.
Also, Hannah Farver is a young lady whom I've never met personally, but I know she would greatly appreciate your prayers for her brother, Tyler, and their family. Tyler was injured in a serious accident this morning, and is in critical condition. Please pray for the Farver family as they trust God in this situation--I can't even imagine how I would react. |
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My weakness, His strength Penned on Jan. 16, 2009
The first half of the conference is drawing to a close. The tournament is over, my speeches are finished, and I think it's been pretty cool.
I don't think much has changed on the outside. I'm still scared of giving speeches. I'm still really bad at giving speeches. Attending MASTERS just isn't my idea of fun-filled week and a half.
But I've been thinking about weaknesses, and God using them and turning them into strengths. Today, I performed what I consider my worst speech twice--an allegorical story, written by my mother around twenty years ago (the story itself is awesome, by the way). Twice, my judges had tears in their eyes at the end. Twice, they commented on what a beautiful story it was. One of the ladies asked if I'd be competing with it throughout the year, and when I told her I didn't want to, she said she would pray for me. "What we can't do, God can," she said.
I don't know why she said that, because it applies so perfectly to how I feel. I don't know why those two ladies were moved to tears, or what they saw in my speech that touched them. The speech itself is a disaster--an enormous weakness of mine. But somehow, when I got up and blurted out my six and a half minutes of poorly-performed story, God did something. It had to be God, because I know that no speech of mine would ever do that on its own. And maybe, He used my weakness, and all my inept stuttering and stumbling, to show His strength to the two ladies watching. His strength!
That...is incredible.
Well, I'm sorry I don't have anything less introspective to share today. Congratulations and many thanks to any of you who took the time to read it! |
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The tired blogger... Penned on Jan. 14, 2009
As you can see, my blogging efforts failed me yesterday. We do have internet access at our host home during the conference, but last night, blogging just didn't make it on my list of things to do. There wasn't much to say, anyhow.
So, in summary, I've just finished my first day at the MASTERS conference. I survived, contrary to all my forebodings, and I'm trying to let God use it to my benefit. Only crying once thus far is an accomplishment. But all in all, it hasn't been as bad as I feared--the classes have been interesting, and it's nice to be here with lots of friends. It doesn't rank as a particularly enjoyable experience for me...but at least it isn't sheer torment.
Hopefully, this week will help me learn to trust God even in my worst moments, when I feel like...hiding in the car.
"For Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, [...] in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -- 2 Cor. 12:10
I wish I was a better example of that verse. |
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