Friday, February 19, 2010

The Beginning of Lent, and Some Other Stuff

This year, I discovered that not everyone celebrates Lent. It was quite a surprise, as I had always assumed everyone did it because my church did it, and I could go to Wal-Mart on Ash Wednesday and there would be a ton of people with crosses of ash on their heads. It made sense to me that everyone did it.

But that's really just a side note. My Lakeside people mocked me for it. But, ah well.

I've always had a problem with Lent. I've never been one who really enjoys Lent. It always just seemed stressful to me. You had to pick something to give up. Something that would really challenge you, but not be entirely impossible, either. Something that would "draw you closer to God." Whatever that meant. This year, though, was different. I felt like I had already done Lent. I felt like I had really succeeded in my Lent-like facebook hiatus. Giving up my facebook page did help bring me closer to God. I picked it up again because I had really broken the cycle, and could control myself. (I find myself getting bored with it now, sad, huh?)


Anyway. So. I felt almost justified. I had "served my time." But I knew this wasn't right, and I knew that one can always get closer to God. (Some of you may remember from my testimony, there is a BIG difference between knowing something, and knowing something.) I knew that, but I didn't know that. I'm still not sure if I know it as well as I should. But I am trying.

Back to the point: (sorry if I lose you guys. I get off track) In my mind, there was nothing for me to give up or take on! Got up almost an hour earlier than I would normally to read my Bible, I have finished reading the entire New Testament in the days without my facebook, and am currently working on the Old Testament. I try to carry around my Bible and a small notebook to write short notes to God. I've been working hard to "be better" for God. I want to please Him. I really do. (That also gets written in my notebook almost daily.) I honestly couldn't think of something to give up to draw myself closer to Him. Some suggested facebook, but I had just done that. I considered music, but I worship in my car a lot of days. My music is encouraging. I wanted to give up school, but that wasn't an option. I didn't know.

It's about an hour before Lent officially started, and I still had no idea what to do for Lent. I was helping Emily Lynn with her message for church. When Bradley Fish Sticks IMs me on facebook, and we ended up talking about Lent and I told him how I didn't know what I should give up and whatnot. And he suggested that I pick up something instead. He suggested that instead of my usual "Ugh, I don't want to go to school today" posts, that I make my facebook posts for the next 40 days about God, and take whatever I find inspirational during the day, and post that.

That will be my Lenten project! It's very exciting. But a lot more challenging than I had anticipated.

In other news, I have begun to LOVE art class. Mostly because I'm obsessive and easily distracted and there is always stuff to do or work on and stuff. I'm working on two projects right now. One is my genetic engineering project, which is where we took a bunch of different animals and put them together.

My animal has the body of a kangaroo:
 
A tail like a snake:



The wings of a butterfly: 



And the horn of a narwhal:




Nice, huh? I love it! I am hoping to get it almost finished this weekend. I have to work on the shading. I also am working a series of paintings and collages. I did one completely by finger painting, and today's was pretty much awesome. We had to start with a gesture sketch, where then take one color, and do different shades of that color to paint each of the little sections. I got messy! 



Guess who was happy? Me! :D 
Now once I finish these projects, I can start on my NEXT project. My next project is very exciting. I have completed one novel in my lifetime, and one day, while I was bored, I drew out the floor plan. I am going to convert the floor plan into a real model house. To scale and everything! The house will be complete, with furniture and people and everything. Just mini-sized. I've even arranged for carpet and mini hardwood floors. :) 


That's all for now, folks!

2 comments:

  1. Wow even though I already knew most of this stuff I always find your organized thoughts very inspirational. I can't wait to see the finished work. Also what happened to the other Kangero picture ;)

    ReplyDelete

If you honestly expect me to blog more. Comment. Trust me.