Goodness.

Being home has been a crazy blur! 

I have done so many things I don't even remember what day some of them were! I went to a basketball supporting one of my friends who survived her treatment for breast cancer, I saw The Nutcracker, I hung out with one of my teachers who has become one of my dear friends, I went to a fifth birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, and I had a fun green themed evening with my sister and her friend! (we had Grinch floats, made corn flake wreaths, and watched The Grinch) 

After all of this I found myself getting caught up in all of these things and not paying attention to myself in multiple ways. 

One of these ways was physical. My throat started hurting the night after I got home and it just went down hill from there. I wasn't sleeping enough and I wasn't eating well and it messed me up. I am still feeling sick but I don't have strep throat so that is definitely a plus! I have a cough now but hopefully my body flushes this illness out quickly!! 

The next way I haven't been caring for myself since I have been home is spiritually. I have been getting into the Word pretty consistently but I have found myself not taking advantage of that time but instead just looking at it as something to check off my daily to do list or replacing it with something that I trick myself into thinking is better. 

Anyways, I am thankful to have realized all of this so that I can be more aware of it over the rest of break. 

I have been really thankful that God has been showing me a lot about grace this week. I feel like He has put me in specific situations where I have to give some extra grace. It is such an important way to show others Christ in me and something I need to be more intentional with while I am home where it is so much harder to do. 

As far as my family goes being home has been better than I expected. There has definitely been fights and rough days but overall we have laughed a lot and have been getting along pretty well. 

I am really thankful that although it can be hard to be home and not have a ton of friends here I have friends at school who have been keeping in contact with me, holding me accountable, and Snapchatting me! ;) 

It is so fun that even when I am not with my friends we can still talk often. It is so valuable to me. I already know it is going to be hard to be away from my close friends for three more weeks but at least social media makes it possible to keep in touch when we are apart! 

As Christmas is rapidly approaching I am realizing more and more every day the importance of remembering daily the reason for the season. Not only is it important to remember this but it is important for me to live this out all the time. As I am doing a study on advent I am learning what that looks like. 

After the shooting that occurred this week I was kind of shaken up. As a future educator it got me thinking how I would react in that situation. It is scary to think about the ways people act and the ways people are affected by others behavior. 

It also made me think about God's consistency again. No matter what evil and bad things happen in the world God is always good and he is always watching out for us. To be honest, it was hard for me not to doubt Gods goodness in this situation but then it hit me-people are broken, God can never be broken. 

How could I possibly doubt the goodness of an unbreakable God? 

It just made me all the more thankful and humbled that I am a servant of a perfect and holy God. 

Thanks for reading friends! I pray you are enjoying your break! Please let me know if there are any ways I can be praying for you! 

Sending love from Naperville! 
Allison