Internet control

Hey readers! I have some time off from homework, so I thought I'd share some thoughts with y'all.

As some of you may know, I deleted my Facebook account this past Tuesday night. Many people have opposed me in this decision, but I'm sticking with it. It was consuming my life...quite literally. It was taking the place of God in my daily routine. Everything I did usually had something to do with it at some point or another. These things, along with the fact that there are plenty of other ways to keep in contact with me/for me to keep in contact with others (including this blog, btw), all contributed to the deletion.

Like I mentioned, I have several friends who have been/are trying to get me to change my mind, but stuff like that usually just strengthens my resolve. Another note: a smallgroup that one of my cousins is involved with at MSU and a Sunday school class at my home church BOTH used this event in their discussions. My cousin said people in her group thought it was really cool, and the class at my church ALL sent me letters together encouraging me to stick with my decision and stay right with God. Holy crap. Despite all the negative, God has been using certain people to really encourage me and make me convinced that I made the right decision. =]

God has been really working on me, as you can see with this post and my last one. I'm pretty pumped. I really want to give up all the crap I'm holding on to, and He's been helping me do that. I guess that's been the main thing lately. Hope y'all have a good night!

Encouragement

Things have been building up lately: my dislike of school, my irritability, my frustration with myself, my desire to get closer to God (ironically, after the first three), and my stress with homework, which I'm making worse even now by writing this post...but oh well.

Even through my failure to keep up my end of a healthy relationship with God, He still has been teaching me various lessons lately. Time management would be one, being the one issue which has been interfering most with my relationship with Him. I'm really good at procrastinating and distracting myself from what needs to be done, which has been affecting pretty much everything in my life in some way or another.

One of the biggest things God has been weighing on me about lately is my attitude toward others. I've come to the realization that I am not a very encouraging person. I mean, I can be when I feel like I really need to be, but that's really not very often, and my language in general is mostly not good for building people up. I intend to change that, with God's help. I've already set a goal to encourage a set number of people this week, but I would like to not even worry about the number and just do it. Are we not supposed to be doing so anyway? Fail. I've been doing some serious self-analyzing lately, and my life is not matching up to what it should look like if I were truly letting Jesus live through me. Sigh. I have so much to say, but only a few words to articulate it with. I'm looking forward to, and yet terrified of, whatever God's will is for my life.

If it seems like my thoughts are jumping around, I'm sorry. Our chaplain, Ron Kopicko, spoke at Deeper tonight, and it really affected me. I realized how many people on this campus are hurting and need love, and how calloused I've become to that fact. I've been so focused on myself lately, even though I didn't realize it, that I've blinded myself to others' needs.

I know this is all pretty scatterbrained, but that's the way I feel right now. I just needed to write some of it out. Thanks for reading.