See. Curious. Wonder.
Introduced. Talk. Acquaintances. Smiles. Laughter. Conversation. Knowledge. Intrigued. Leave.
Home. Sleep? Can't.
Thinking. Wondering. Curious.
Working. Wondering. Text. Smile. Response. Text. Laughter. Texts. Conversations. Intrigued. Dinner? Yes. Smile.
Her. Dress. Hair. Lipstick. Heels.
Him. Jacket. Tie. Converse.
Smile. Adorable.
Restaurant. Talking. Laughing. Smiling. Glowing. Food. Wonderful. Company. Spectacular. Memories. Priceless.
Home. Goodnights. Flying.
Sleep. Dreaming.
Happiness.
Weeks.
Working. Delivery. Flowers. Roses. Red. Notes. Smiles. Joy. Melting.
Love? Maybe.
Text. Dinner? Yes.
Picnic. Birds. Sunshine. Smiles. Laughter. Classic. Conversation.
Him. Her.
Happiness.
Him. Confession. Love. Her. Shy. Excited. Twitter-pated.
Love? Yes.
Smiles.
Dating.
Days.
Wonderful. Bright. Gifts. Letters. Perfection.
Picnics. Walks. Smiles.
Sudden.
Fading.
Busy.
Working.
Nothing.
Flowers. Gone. Dead.
Letters. Hidden.
Winter.
Relationship. Cold.
Fading. Fast.
Love. Disappearing.
Home.
Doorbell. Answered.
Him. Her.
Staring. Looking.
Love? No. Gone. Coldness.
Her. Tears. Him. Sadness. Departure.
Her. Crushed. Tissues. Girlfriends. Consolation. Sleep?
No. Heartbreak.
Working. Mindless.
Home. Lonely.
Dinner. Never.
Months.
Release. Forgiveness. Talk.
Him. Friendship?
Her. Maybe. Attempt. Uncertainty. Gradual. Peace.
Trust.
Future. Bright.
Better. Change. Fixing.
Friends.
Party.
Her. See. Curious. Wonder. Introduced. Again.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
To Be or Not to Be...
The weeks have come and gone and it is finally fall in Greenville! The weather is getting colder and the leaves are falling. Today the wind is blowing leaving me with a definite desire to wear a wooly scarf and a sweater. I guess the joke around campus for the next few days will be that Dr. Bob has finally decided to turn the thermostat down here at the Bob, so that it could be fall. In all honesty, though, I love this weather. The crisp mornings, the crunchy leaves, even the grass that is brown...well it's supposed to be, it's always magically green here. Starbucks is bringing back its holiday drinks and boots are back in style. It's a time for change, and even though I just spent time writing a paragraph on the occurrences that have come about to bring on fall for us, that's not really what I'm writing about. I am going to write about change though.
For those of you who are somewhat familiar with Bob Jones culture you may know that we basically could write our own dictionary with all the terminology that we have coined here, like DFH, Artist Series, Triple Sticks, and even 'The Bob'. I suppose that one of the terms that we have that almost everyone on campus knows by the end of their first day here as a freshman is Boje. The definition of Boje is simply this...a person who is a literalist. They live by the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. They are the people who normally are not looked upon by most students as someone they would want to be BFF's with. To some they are the outcasts, the weirdos. Recently though, that term came to mean something different and it really gave me something to think about.
On campus there was a small group of students who decided that our campus desperately needs revival and it was time to do something about it. This group of students, who were also friends, started writing a secret publication that would put out a very strong opinion about some of the things that were breaking down our student body. On October 30th this publication was printed and sent out all over campus, the name on the front of the paper, in HUGE black letters was...BOJE. Everyone was shocked. To put that word on anything that a group wanted the whole campus to read was pretty daring. It put a shock factor into play and made everyone curious. After reading though your perspective changed and you saw the genius in the idea of putting out something like that. The perspective was this...there is way too much separation in our student body. We need to join under the common goal of the school to Build Faith, Challenge Potential, and Follow Christ. The point was that here on a campus of over 4,000 students, faculty, and staff, not everyone is going to agree, and that is ok because we are here on a campus where there is plenty of common ground. The first edition challenged us, as students, to make prayer group important and to stop putting ourselves against the faculty. It was a challenge that spoke to me and really made me think. It also took a term that was once used as a joke and made it something that defined anyone who chose to stand with the university and follow Christ, it suddenly became a term defined to unite rather than divide. So then the question is posed, am I a Boje? Yes! I am and I am proud of it. I am proud to stand by the side of Bob Jones University and stand up for what is right and honoring to my Lord. To the students who chose to stand up and say something, thank you, you have challenged me in a way I have never been challenged before.
That's just whats been on my mind for the past week. So with that I will sign off for today, I suppose. I do want to end this post and challenge you, my dear reader, change your perspective. What can you do to be a better influence for Christ?Is there a change that you may need to make? Only you can choose to be or not to be one of those who makes a difference. Put yourself in places that challenges your potential, builds your faith, and allows you to choose to follow Christ. Stand up for what is right, and be the one who chooses to honor Christ in ALL that you do!
For those of you who are somewhat familiar with Bob Jones culture you may know that we basically could write our own dictionary with all the terminology that we have coined here, like DFH, Artist Series, Triple Sticks, and even 'The Bob'. I suppose that one of the terms that we have that almost everyone on campus knows by the end of their first day here as a freshman is Boje. The definition of Boje is simply this...a person who is a literalist. They live by the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. They are the people who normally are not looked upon by most students as someone they would want to be BFF's with. To some they are the outcasts, the weirdos. Recently though, that term came to mean something different and it really gave me something to think about.
On campus there was a small group of students who decided that our campus desperately needs revival and it was time to do something about it. This group of students, who were also friends, started writing a secret publication that would put out a very strong opinion about some of the things that were breaking down our student body. On October 30th this publication was printed and sent out all over campus, the name on the front of the paper, in HUGE black letters was...BOJE. Everyone was shocked. To put that word on anything that a group wanted the whole campus to read was pretty daring. It put a shock factor into play and made everyone curious. After reading though your perspective changed and you saw the genius in the idea of putting out something like that. The perspective was this...there is way too much separation in our student body. We need to join under the common goal of the school to Build Faith, Challenge Potential, and Follow Christ. The point was that here on a campus of over 4,000 students, faculty, and staff, not everyone is going to agree, and that is ok because we are here on a campus where there is plenty of common ground. The first edition challenged us, as students, to make prayer group important and to stop putting ourselves against the faculty. It was a challenge that spoke to me and really made me think. It also took a term that was once used as a joke and made it something that defined anyone who chose to stand with the university and follow Christ, it suddenly became a term defined to unite rather than divide. So then the question is posed, am I a Boje? Yes! I am and I am proud of it. I am proud to stand by the side of Bob Jones University and stand up for what is right and honoring to my Lord. To the students who chose to stand up and say something, thank you, you have challenged me in a way I have never been challenged before.
That's just whats been on my mind for the past week. So with that I will sign off for today, I suppose. I do want to end this post and challenge you, my dear reader, change your perspective. What can you do to be a better influence for Christ?Is there a change that you may need to make? Only you can choose to be or not to be one of those who makes a difference. Put yourself in places that challenges your potential, builds your faith, and allows you to choose to follow Christ. Stand up for what is right, and be the one who chooses to honor Christ in ALL that you do!
Friday, November 1, 2013
The Keys
Once upon a time there was a little girl.
This little girl was born in a quaint village to two, loving parents.
This little girl had the most beautiful long brown hair and blue eyes.
This little girl's name was Marilyn.
She was exactly what her parents had always wanted.
Her parents loved her very, very much.
When Marilyn turned five years old her parents gave her a very special gift for her birthday.
The gift was a long chain with a beautiful key on the end.
"Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
This was all that her father said to her on that day about the gift.
Marilyn was too young to truly understand, but she promised to guard the key.
As Marilyn grew up she became more and more beautiful.
Every day the key hung form the attractive chain around her neck.
No one ever said anything about the key to her, that is until her thirteenth birthday.
On her birthday the little girl, who wasn't quite so little anymore, was in the village square with her mother. While her mother was buying eggs, Marilyn wandered over to a nearby cart. As she gazed at all of the beautiful scarves hanging off of it the peddler's son, a dashing young man with dark brown eyes and blonde hair, came around the corner.
"Good day Mistress. Can I assist you with anything today?" Marilyn was astonished and captured by his incredible physique. She finally caught her breath and replied with a shy, "No, but thank you, i'm just looking."
"As am I, at that beautiful key about your neck. Is it a special key?"
"Yes, very special, my parents gave it to me."
"Would you be willing to sell this key?"
The girl stopped fingering the delicate scarves and looked right into the eyes of the young man. Mischief gleamed in them and she slowly began to back away from the cart. Her father's words rang in her head, "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
"No, I'm sorry." She said and she quickly fled from the cart and back to the safety of her mother's side.
What was it about this key that it had to be guarded so carefully? She shook the thoughts from her mind and grasped the key tightly in her hand as she followed her mother through the rest of the square and all the way home.
As Marilyn continued to grow up she noticed that more and more people would comment on the beautiful key that hung around her neck. It became a custom to simply say thank you and then try to move on to a different topic. On her fifteenth birthday she asked her father what the key was for. Was it really as meaningful as she had come to believe? Her father would simply smile and repeat the phrase that stayed ingrained in her mind, "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right." What the phrase truly meant, she was not sure if she would ever know.
As she grew into young adulthood more and more young men would come calling on her home asking for permission to court her. As she watched her father handle each different young man with much wisdom she came to discover that her father seemed to turn any one away who commented on the key. It seemed that there was an intense interest in it, and yet the interest didn't seem genuine to her.
One day while Marilyn was outside tending to her garden a young man came riding up on a handsome horse. As he came to a stop at the edge of the garden, she looked up and greeted him with a warm smile. The young man was tall and had dark brown hair. He smiled politely back at her and dismounted his horse. As he approached she noticed something shinning around his neck. Looking down she saw a key, much like hers, hanging off of a beautiful chain. She gasped, but kept her surprise to herself.
"Good day my lady, I was wondering if by any chance your father would be at home. I had heard he had some work that I could possibly do and was hoping to discuss it with him." She led the man inside and left him with her father. As she continued to tend the garden she pondered the key around his neck and suddenly it made a little more sense. None of the other men who had come calling to court her had keys around their neck. She had never really seen a lot of the girls from the village with keys around their necks either. Perhaps, they had given away their keys. Perhaps its significance was more that she had ever thought. Could it be a key to something?
The weeks went by and the young man who had met Marilyn in the garden that day worked tirelessly for her father. She would watch him with wonder from her bedroom window as he would chop wood, build troughs for her father's cattle, and tend to her father's fields. She saw in him something she had not seen much in the men around her village. What a strange young man he was.
Months went by and the two became good friends. They would go for long walks in the evenings through the village square and he would accompany her to the market. They would race down the road at the end of each day as they let the cattle out to graze for the night. Sometimes they would sit on the fence and talk about the stars and how beautiful they were. After a time Marilyn began to find that she was somewhat attracted to the man. He was good and kind, and he served her family well. There was something deep within her that would sing when he would smile at her, and she could not stop thinking about him. More than anything, though, she thought about the key that hung around his neck, and the matching one that hung around hers.
One evening as the two of them were sitting on the fence gazing up at the starry sky, their conversation went in a different direction than normal.
"Marilyn, I have come to notice the beautiful key that you have hanging around your neck."
Marilyn was surprised, but she didn't feel any hesitation, there was no urge to change the topic at all. "Yes, it was a gift from my parents many years ago. I have noticed that you have one as well."
"This key was a gift from my parents when I was a young boy. For years I have worn it around my neck, but I have never seemed to understand the meaning of it, that is until I met you." Marilyn was shocked! She had felt the same way for weeks now. Her head was suddenly spinning with thoughts. What could all of this mean for her?
"I know now that this key is the key to my heart." He continued, "I have guarded it for all these years, never knowing what for. I feel that you are the one who I have been guarding it for. I believe that you are the one I am supposed to give this key to."
Marilyn stopped and thought for a moment, the key was to her heart, it all made sense now. Her father's words ran through her head "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right." All of the memories connected to her key filled her mind. It all suddenly became clear. The key was to her heart, her precious heart that she had to guard from the wrong people! The key had been to something so precious, she had been right! She smiled with joy! She felt the time was right. He was the one she would give her key to. He had become her best friend, and someone she could trust. Their keys belonged to one another. She could not have been happier. As she took the chain from around her neck and gently placed her key within his hand her father's words rang in her ears one last time,"Guard this key with all your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
This little girl was born in a quaint village to two, loving parents.
This little girl had the most beautiful long brown hair and blue eyes.
This little girl's name was Marilyn.
She was exactly what her parents had always wanted.
Her parents loved her very, very much.
When Marilyn turned five years old her parents gave her a very special gift for her birthday.
The gift was a long chain with a beautiful key on the end.
"Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
This was all that her father said to her on that day about the gift.
Marilyn was too young to truly understand, but she promised to guard the key.
As Marilyn grew up she became more and more beautiful.
Every day the key hung form the attractive chain around her neck.
No one ever said anything about the key to her, that is until her thirteenth birthday.
On her birthday the little girl, who wasn't quite so little anymore, was in the village square with her mother. While her mother was buying eggs, Marilyn wandered over to a nearby cart. As she gazed at all of the beautiful scarves hanging off of it the peddler's son, a dashing young man with dark brown eyes and blonde hair, came around the corner.
"Good day Mistress. Can I assist you with anything today?" Marilyn was astonished and captured by his incredible physique. She finally caught her breath and replied with a shy, "No, but thank you, i'm just looking."
"As am I, at that beautiful key about your neck. Is it a special key?"
"Yes, very special, my parents gave it to me."
"Would you be willing to sell this key?"
The girl stopped fingering the delicate scarves and looked right into the eyes of the young man. Mischief gleamed in them and she slowly began to back away from the cart. Her father's words rang in her head, "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
"No, I'm sorry." She said and she quickly fled from the cart and back to the safety of her mother's side.
What was it about this key that it had to be guarded so carefully? She shook the thoughts from her mind and grasped the key tightly in her hand as she followed her mother through the rest of the square and all the way home.
As Marilyn continued to grow up she noticed that more and more people would comment on the beautiful key that hung around her neck. It became a custom to simply say thank you and then try to move on to a different topic. On her fifteenth birthday she asked her father what the key was for. Was it really as meaningful as she had come to believe? Her father would simply smile and repeat the phrase that stayed ingrained in her mind, "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right." What the phrase truly meant, she was not sure if she would ever know.
As she grew into young adulthood more and more young men would come calling on her home asking for permission to court her. As she watched her father handle each different young man with much wisdom she came to discover that her father seemed to turn any one away who commented on the key. It seemed that there was an intense interest in it, and yet the interest didn't seem genuine to her.
One day while Marilyn was outside tending to her garden a young man came riding up on a handsome horse. As he came to a stop at the edge of the garden, she looked up and greeted him with a warm smile. The young man was tall and had dark brown hair. He smiled politely back at her and dismounted his horse. As he approached she noticed something shinning around his neck. Looking down she saw a key, much like hers, hanging off of a beautiful chain. She gasped, but kept her surprise to herself.
"Good day my lady, I was wondering if by any chance your father would be at home. I had heard he had some work that I could possibly do and was hoping to discuss it with him." She led the man inside and left him with her father. As she continued to tend the garden she pondered the key around his neck and suddenly it made a little more sense. None of the other men who had come calling to court her had keys around their neck. She had never really seen a lot of the girls from the village with keys around their necks either. Perhaps, they had given away their keys. Perhaps its significance was more that she had ever thought. Could it be a key to something?
The weeks went by and the young man who had met Marilyn in the garden that day worked tirelessly for her father. She would watch him with wonder from her bedroom window as he would chop wood, build troughs for her father's cattle, and tend to her father's fields. She saw in him something she had not seen much in the men around her village. What a strange young man he was.
Months went by and the two became good friends. They would go for long walks in the evenings through the village square and he would accompany her to the market. They would race down the road at the end of each day as they let the cattle out to graze for the night. Sometimes they would sit on the fence and talk about the stars and how beautiful they were. After a time Marilyn began to find that she was somewhat attracted to the man. He was good and kind, and he served her family well. There was something deep within her that would sing when he would smile at her, and she could not stop thinking about him. More than anything, though, she thought about the key that hung around his neck, and the matching one that hung around hers.
One evening as the two of them were sitting on the fence gazing up at the starry sky, their conversation went in a different direction than normal.
"Marilyn, I have come to notice the beautiful key that you have hanging around your neck."
Marilyn was surprised, but she didn't feel any hesitation, there was no urge to change the topic at all. "Yes, it was a gift from my parents many years ago. I have noticed that you have one as well."
"This key was a gift from my parents when I was a young boy. For years I have worn it around my neck, but I have never seemed to understand the meaning of it, that is until I met you." Marilyn was shocked! She had felt the same way for weeks now. Her head was suddenly spinning with thoughts. What could all of this mean for her?
"I know now that this key is the key to my heart." He continued, "I have guarded it for all these years, never knowing what for. I feel that you are the one who I have been guarding it for. I believe that you are the one I am supposed to give this key to."
Marilyn stopped and thought for a moment, the key was to her heart, it all made sense now. Her father's words ran through her head "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right." All of the memories connected to her key filled her mind. It all suddenly became clear. The key was to her heart, her precious heart that she had to guard from the wrong people! The key had been to something so precious, she had been right! She smiled with joy! She felt the time was right. He was the one she would give her key to. He had become her best friend, and someone she could trust. Their keys belonged to one another. She could not have been happier. As she took the chain from around her neck and gently placed her key within his hand her father's words rang in her ears one last time,"Guard this key with all your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
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