Death to Life

Sunday was a GOOD day. Sunday I was submerged in the greatness of Jesus. Sunday I took a big step in obedience to His commands. With my friends right by my side, I went from death to life. I was baptized at Vintage church and it was the greatest experience of my life. 

Jesus makes me alive. He takes my broken, sinful heart and transforms it. I am a daughter of the King and the least I can do is live my life for the One who gave His life for me. I desperately thirst for the wisdom, grace and love of Jesus and that thirst can simply never be quenched.  I didn't do it for myself. I didn't do it to gain the approval of Jesus. I did it because I was ready. I was ready to surrender and to give it all to Him. With a lot prayer, and a lot of encouragement from the people who know me best I made the decision. I'm never turning back. I'm running straight into the arms of my Savior. 

[Colossians 2:12] the message."No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross."

So far

On to my 3rd week of college and I am absolutely LOVING it. NC State is most definitely where I was meant to be. I have fallen more in love with Raleigh and the Wolfpack in the last three weeks than I ever have before. Classes are starting to become more challenging-but I'm keeping up with my work and actually enjoying it! I have found the greatest community of friends who are so similar to me, we all have so much fun together. It's hard to sum up the past three weeks but I'm gonna give it a shot. 



YL College. By far my favorite part of college so far. Young Life is a ministry that reaches out to middle school, high school, and college kids to share the love of Jesus and to have a blast while doing it. I was really involved with Young Life in high school and am SO excited to be a part of it in college. Every Tuesday night we have club, which mostly consists of skits, games, songs, and the Gospel. The leaders are awesome, the people are awesome, basically it's all awesome. 

First NC State YL club! 

Beyond.   Aside from YL Club, every Wednesday night we have what is known as "Beyond". It's a time to go deeper into the Word, gain insight on what it's going to be like becoming a YL leader, and just a great time of fellowship with new friends. This past week we were challenged to find an accountability partner and to start encouraging each other in walking with the Lord. 

   My partner, Cat is so awesome. She's from Ohio, loves Jesus, wears Chacos, hangs in an eno, and loves YL. We decided to memorize a verse each week and go through a She Reads Truth devotional together. She Reads Truth deserves a blog post on it's own. It's an online devotional that has made more walk with the Lord so much stronger over the past year. They have a multitude of different plans that are laid out on a day to day basis. So helpful. 

   Cat and I are doing the 'Prayer in the Bible' plan and so far it is great. After we each do it on our own we send each other a text with our response, or really just anything that really stuck out to us. It's so encouraging to have someone that can hold me accountable. Last week we memorized Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit". This week we are working on memorizing Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Sweet truth. I'm so pumped to become a YL leader and to continue to be apart of this awesome community. 

Birthdays. We celebrated two of my best friends birthday's last week, which was so fun. Mego turned 19 and Liza turned 23! Liza's roomies had us over for dinner and just to hang at their house. We told stories...lots of stories and laughed a lot. Which both made for an awesome night. We celebrated Mego's by of course her favorite restaurant- Bad Daddy's, SO good. And then headed to YL club. 

Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors came to Raleigh!! It was hands down the best concert I've ever been to of theirs. They never fail at putting on a great show. A bunch of YL girls grabbed dinner together and then headed to the concert. 

Homies at Chipotle 

Carley & Kellza

Great pic taken by Kellza! 

Got to see my best friend from Greenville, MORGZ!

Go pack. NC State had their first game of the season on Saturday! It was a 12pm game aka the hottest time of the day...it was blazing, literally. My friends, Carley and Hannah and I left at 8am, thinking the lines would be long to get in. Rookie mistake. We were the first ones at the gate and waited at least two hours until we were allowed to go in. We were struggling big time in the heat. By the second quarter we were already sunburnt. We chugged water like it was the last drink of our life. We only made it to half time, but on the plus side the Wolfpack pulled out a win of 40-14 over Louisiana Tech. Even though it was scorching, I had such a great time cheering on my favorite team in my favorite stadium. 

These last 3 weeks have been some of the most fun times of my life. I can't wait to see what the next 4 years are like and the memories I get to create. Thankful.