Posts

What Young Women living in the 21st Century need to know

Image
This post is dedicated to the ladies of 2nd Noordewier during the 2017-2018 school year. I was so blessed to have the privilege of knowing you and experiencing life with you. Thank you for sharing yourselves with me and teaching me more than I could ever write in a blog post. Last year, I had the privilege of living and working as a Resident’s Assistant at Calvin College. I enjoyed forming deep relationships with freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, eating delicious early breakfasts at Wolfgang’s, playing jeopard-tea with my suitemates, and watching women form friendships with each other while experiencing the wonderful and special community in the dorms. As I have been reflecting on the year of being a Resident’s Assistant and thinking about what it means to be a woman in our world, God has put some ideas on my heart. In this post, I would love to share about what I believe young women living in the 21st century need to know. Many of these ideas come from recent conversatio
Post a Comment
Read more

God: The Greatest Teacher

This summer, I have worked with 3rd and 4th graders at day camp. And I’m going to be totally honest—it hasn’t been easy. I am so grateful for my job and have been blessed to work at this job for the past 4 years. Who else do you know that gets paid to go to Disneyland (and Knott’s Berry Farm, waterparks, the USS IOWA, beach, aquariums, trampoline parks...etc.)? I am gaining experience that will help me as a teacher and I’ve been using what I’m learning in my summer independent study English course in my classroom. I also get to spend all day with kids who say the funniest things and are always able to put a smile on my face (see “Kids Say the Darnedest Things: Parts One and Two”). Throughout this summer, God is good and continues to teach me more about His character and how good and constant He will forever be. The most valuable takeaway from this summer has happened when I am with my students; My 3rd and 4th graders give me a glimpse of what God sees when He looks at us. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Kids Say the Darnedest Things: Part Two

How would you spend a quadrillion dollars? Divide it into fifths: 1. I would buy a Lamborghini so when I get older I can drive it 2. A beach-house 3. The Riley hospital 4. Church 5. Bank account. I would 1. Help every homeless person in the world 2. Help cure cancer so everybody can be healthy and 3. Buy 50 bars of gold. 1,000 dollars to the poor, buy fidget spinners, buy China, buy 20 farms, and buy 100 farmers. Give it all to the poor, feed the homeless, help all branches of the military. I would get 10 french bulldogs, 87 pairs of my same outfit, a comic company, have my own labs, and have my own mansion. I would buy a private gold jet, a gold room, a golden Lamborghini, and a 1,000,000,000 inch flat screen tv. I would buy all fidget spinners, a big house with a pool, a porshe, and a PS8 (if they invent it). First, I would make cool gadgets like a portal that teleports you to the place you want to go automatically, buy new video games, help poor peop
Post a Comment
Read more

Kids Say the Darnedest Things: Part One

This summer at daycare, I asked my 3rd and 4th graders journal questions every Tuesday and Thursday in their Language Arts class. Looking over their responses, I loved seeing their creativity and enjoyed hearing them share their ideas with the class. "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" is what I have decided to title their answers. Enjoy! Write down a question that you don't know the answer to: What heaven looks like. Why is the moon made out of cheese? Why do you get hurt in football? Why does the world have homework? Why do you form a scab? Why did so-and-so steal my pencil? Why is earth the only planet with living things? Why isn’t minecraft reality in real life? Why isn't the moon like the earth? Why does earth have gravity and space does not? How was God formed? I don’t know how to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Why does space have 0 gravity? What is the meaning of life? Why isn’t the milky w
Post a Comment
Read more

Justice in a Broken World

Why act justly? Growing up in a CRC church, I remember attending weekly GEMS meetings and reciting Micah 6:8 before each lesson: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” I often overlooked act justly because I never received an accurate definition of the word justly . I associated the word with correct, well-behaved, and good. Looking back on these words, I find that my definition was self-centered; the definition was focused fully on myself instead of others . God loves justice and out of respect to God, I have learned that one must not only act justly towards others, but right injustices. People must be treated equitably and live with their God-given rights. As our society continues to become self-absorbed, this gap of injustices will continue to increase. We must continue to fight not only for ourselves but for those who are the vulnerable, poor, and marginalized in society.
Post a Comment
Read more

Love the Life you Live

Image
“Guys, I just really love life right now”   My roommate says this at least once a day and my floor mates and I are constantly teasing her for this but we share these feelings. We love our lives. Dwelling on this season of Thanksgiving and shifting the focus towards the birth of the greatest gift as Christmas approaches, I wanted to share a few ways that I have loved in my life this semester: Being involved in RHET. Planning dorm retreat, Chaos night, Service Auction (jumping in the Sem Pond after raising $1000 for our dorm partnership), and getting to know the friends on RHET has made this semester amazing Throwing M&M’s at a professor  Building community with the girls on 1st Veenstra (1AM talks in the hallway with cereal and peanut butter, floor outings with half-off appetizers, 11PM secret dance parties, movie watching in the basement, 8:15 breakfasts, waving to each other on the path) Learning and growing in a new relationship Classes and professors who invest
Post a Comment
Read more

A Prayer for the Year

God, School starts tomorrow. In 10 hours, we walk into our first classes. So many feels. We’re excited, scared, nervous, and wishing for more summer. We think we’re ready, but we have no idea. Will our professors be easy? Will they assign homework on the first day of class? Will we get lost on campus? In our studies, I pray that we persevere. It’s not going to be easy. School is hard and requires commitment. May we commit to our studies while looking to You. Give us the strength we need to get through each day while making a difference on campus. Grant us the strength we need, but bring us back to You. This is a new year. With a new year comes new friendships, new relationships, and new dreams. In all this newness, may we seek You first. Calm our nerves when we are nervous and make it clear as to which path we should take. We pray that we would live in faith, not fear. Thank you for the leaders on campus and the behind the scenes staff that make our days normal. Let th
1 comment
Read more