Hahahhaa, well looking at my last entry, this one is going to be a bit ironic...

I'm engaged!!!  My fiance is Josh Joyce, we met at camp last spring and fell in love this summer.  It has happened fast yes, which I can only credit to the power and will of God.  It has been an amazing ride and I am looking forward to what else God has in store for us.  We will be getting married at camp, hopefully on May 6th, but it may have to move to April 29th depending on the camp schedule.

Okay faithful readers (I say that knowing you are faithful since you have put up with a year of silence).  I have a serious topic to bring up, and I expect comments in return.  The topic?  Christians and the dating scene.

Here is the problem.  My last several years at school I have been taught the same message over and over again.  Christians shouldn't date, and if they do, they do it in a courtship type way, where they date with the intention of learning compatatibility for marraige.  Girls never initiate, that's the guys job.  Girls are to be pursued.  And honestly, we want to be pursued.  We really don't like to chase, the guys need to STEP IT UP and do their role! 

Where does that leave us girls?  Sitting back and hoping the guys in our lives will one day be the men they are meant to be and to take action?  So, we keep to our friends, hoping that either one of them will take the challange, or our prince comes along and sweeps us off our feet when "we least expect it" like many have told me to wait for.  So, I'm supposed to stop wanting a relationship, so that I won't be expecting it, so that it can happen.  Yeah, that'll work.  Hardy har har. 

A new book I'm reading tells me to get out of my routine and go out there and meet people, and not just meet, but to date around.  Now I don't mean handing my heart over to every man I meet, that wouldn't be protecting my purity or helping him any either.  Nor do I mean hounding the guys that just want to get to second base or third, or whatever those mean.  I mean meeting up with someone to learn more about them and them about you.  No intimacy, no strong emotion, (unless a relationship is established, which will be led by God.) 

 This is a christian book by a famous christian man who speaks for focus on the family.  He says that sitting back and waiting for God to bring a man into our lives is bogus, because in no other area in our life does God just hand us what we want.  We need to take and active role in the direction he leads us.  He says he will provide for the sparrows, right?  He doesnt bring the bugs and seeds to the nest, he expects the birds to take an active role and to get off their feathery little butts and to pick up some seeds and bugs.  Okay, so I get the point.  To meet a guy, I need to be meetable.  I can't keep hanging out with the same crew week after week and going the same places and expect magic.  I need to be available to meet so that a guy knows I exist to pursue me.  As this author says, I can't sit at home and expect God to bring me somebody to my door (unless I"m dreaming of the fed-ex man or a jehovah's witness).  I mean, hello? 

Here is the predicament.  I am shy, I stumble over words and look like a fool when I try to talk to new people.  I am scared of approaching guys, especially just to talk.  I'm learning, but I'm still a novice.  Then, once I swallow the butterflies and go talk to someone, how do I come across as interesting and pursuable (ie, be ME, real and true) without initiating or being too forward?  Or a big fear of mine, looking pathetic?  I am crying out, I am screaming... WHAT IS MY ROLE????? 

I've grown a lot since I last dated anyone (over two years) and I am now a whole person looking for someone to share life with (I don't mean marraige when I say life, I mean someone to call and tell about somehting exciting that happened, or to run to get coffee with.  please, don't misread me), rather than looking for a guy to complete me and make me feel like a whole person.  That's not what a relationship is for.  Ladies, if you are searching for someone because you feel incomplete, you are searching for the WRONG reason.  Asking a human guy to make you complete is not possible.  It puts way too much expectation on a poor guy.  The only One you should be seeking to fulfill you is the ultimate Man, Jesus Christ Himself.  Until you are your own complete person in Him, don't look to a human for qualities only God can give you.  (Guys, this goes for you too!)

Now, your turn to respond.  Are you in a relationship?  How did you meet?  Who initiated?  Are you single?  Why?  Do you agree with what I've learned?  Can you add to what I've learned?  How active a role should the girl have?  Should a guy have?  Guys, how do I approach you?  How do I show interest without being forward?

Okay, Okay... I get the hint.  Update. Update. Update.  So its been 14 months.  I am now a student teacher, busy enlightening the young, third grade minds of Kramer Elementary School.  They are great.  Only, I had to send one to the hall today and he bruised his forehead smashing it into the wall.  While this is going on, another sweetheart keeps me updated on my progress. "Miss Price, you're doing great teaching by yourself."  Thank you child.

So, I am a senior.  Any teacher ed people reading this... they are lying to you when they say student teaching is the hardest semester of life.  I repeat.  They are lying.  It's great.  I am doing something real and useful and I have free time like I haven't had since freshman year.

As far as life plans go, I am returning to SpringHill camps for my third summer, this time as head wrangler (ie, I'm in charge of the barn).  I have applied for and internship type job with them to do for the next year, and earnestly pray to be accepted as it is a highly competitive role to get.

Well.... of course there is much I could write about here, but I am stalling from doing my one assignment of the semester, so I really should get to work on that.  Love to all!

God Bless!

I know, I know... its been forever since I wrote anything here.  Lots has happened since last time too.  I can walk now.  big plus.  I spent two weeks of my break visiting friends from my church who moved to Arizona.  I got to see most of the east half of the state, including meteor crater, the painted desert, the petrified forrest, old tucson, a copper mine, wild mustags, lots of cacti, and the sun.

Had my first class today.  I have this one three times a week, but the teacher is trying to work it out that we have it twice a week instead, so I could have no classes on Friday.  That'd be awesome.  Nicki is going to make me to my homework timely this semester so I don't loose my health and sanity over the much dreaded "Lit-Block".  Other resolutions include actually doing my hair so I look at least 17 (I was again mistaken as a 16 year old over break), generally being more responsible, being happy, and the ever popular, loose 10 pounds.