A Vanilla-Flavored Thursday

This morning, I slammed the snooze on my cell phone alarm as it started playing that familiar song it plays every Thursday and Friday. It is funny how attaching a song to a certain day can plant a memory inside your head. Now, every time I hear this song I think, it's "Friday." I used to have a different song for every day of the week. Unfortunately my limited five alarms cannot support seven days a week. So when I decided I needed an alarm for Saturday and Sunday, I combined my Thursday and Friday into one. This practically "tricked" my brain into thinking it was Friday when it really was simply boring, old, vanilla-flavored Thursday. Is there anything special about Thursday besides the fact that it is one day away from Friday? I know in my previous post, I decided I would try to not look forward to what is ahead, or the weekend. After a week of hectic, chaotic, stressful school and work and all of the activities of life, I changed my mind. It is practically impossible not to look ahead! My solution is to... do nothing. For once, I do not have an answer to everything. I know it is purely inevitable that I will look forward to something in my life. This could perhaps be every day. As long as that does not distract me from focusing on today, it is perfectly fine. I will continue to pray for God to give me the ability to live each day for Him and try my best to not look ahead too often.

After I gathered up the strength to start my day, I jumped out of bed, ready to begin the Thursday, as unexciting as I anticipated it to be. After a relaxing, hot shower, I went through my closet, deciding what to wear. As many clothes as I have, this should not be a difficult task, however, I sometimes spend ten minutes to merely pick out an outfit. It is a long process indeed. First, I must take the weather into consideration. Is it cold or warm? Sunny or rainy? Thank goodness I receive handy weather forecast text messages on my cell phone from the Gazette. Although, I am usually too lazy to check and end up dressing completely opposite from what the weather indicates. Once I decide it is cold out, as it has been the past two weeks, I choose from a plethora of possibilities. Should I wear only long sleeve or dress it up by adding a jacket or a short sleeve shirt. Since today was Thursday, I decided to dress up by combining my treasured black, white, and gray plaid-patterned sweater-vest (I say treasured because I had been searching for one for months only to discover it when I had given up hope). After the top is chosen, I can then find an appropriate pair of jeans. Oddly enough, only two out of the ten jeans I owned last year fit this year. Luckily, I had purchased some new jeans over the summer. I choose the only "dressy" jeans that fit me (hard choice, right?). Finally, I added some practical and comfortable black flats for shoes (to fit the whole "dressy" theme). My long, flared jeans were to the floor when wearing the flats, but I figured it would be fine. That is, if it didn't rain. However, my unluckiness always triumphs and I forgot to check the weather. As I gathered my elephant of a backpack and my large violin, I went into my day with confidence, only to get my jeans all wet.

This may seem random and unimportant, but I simply felt like sharing my day. One fact I left out was something most "normal" teenagers would not include in their daily routine. On this vanilla-flavored Thursday, I sat down in my black swivel chair and opened up my manual for life-the Bible. With its pink and brown leather cover, it is a teenage girl's Bible edition titled "true images." A little over a year ago, I decided to embark on an adventure of a lifetime: reading the Bible. This might seem like a trivial task, but it is something I should have done a long time ago. I am not much of a reader. One thousand, six hundred, and fifty-one pages seemed intimidating. However, this is one book I cannot skim or merely set aside. I plan to finish it front to cover, digesting every bit of encouragement and hope and truth that it can bring. When I complete my task, I will read it again, and again, and again. I will continue until the day I die and go to live with the Author of it all, the "author of life" (Acts 3:15).

I am currently in 1 Chronicles and am also reading the Psalms (one chapter a day). When I flipped open to the page I had bookmarked, I saw Psalm 19. I am familiar with it because of its first two verses which say, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge." These verses are so powerful. They completely spell out creation. When people ask me why I believe in God, I think, "how can you not believe in Him?" Look around at nature. Everything from the giant waterfalls to the tiny but gorgeous flowers. The vastness of stars spewed across the sky and the galaxy are astounding! Does the complexity of our beautiful earth not explain God's work? They "display knowledge"! For all of life's existence, mankind has been searching for knowledge, yet it was in plain sight all along. I am grateful God gave us this gift of knowledge in His creation and a five-lettered word called the Bible.

This may have been a vanilla-flavored Thursday, but I started my day out meditating on God's encouraging Word. With Him, every day is new and a gift from God.

-Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream Cone found on Google