Ash Wednesday

I'll start off by introducing myself. I am Joelle. I am a student at Carthage College. I am majoring in French and Spanish. I will be studying abroad all of next year, a semester in France (Cannes) and a semester in Spain (Barcelona). I love languages and learning new ones. I hope to teach myself Russian this summer. I love to read and spend most of my summer laying in the sun with a good book. I swam competitively for 8 years but quit this year because of the time commitment and my shoulder injuries. I am a very strong Christian and love to glorify the Lord in everything that I do.

For Lent this year, I am giving up Facebook and sweets. As of late, I have become a bit too addicted to the site and realize that this is an issue. I am hoping that by taking 40 days away from it I can break that addiction. The sweets is something that I attempt every year. Last year it failed miserably. I am hoping that this year I can make it and that it will help to start towards my goal of getting into peak shape by the time I leave for Spain in the fall. Of course above and beyond my personal reasons for giving these things up for Lent, I am giving them up for God. He deserves for is to do something for Him after all He did for us.

Last night at InverVarsity large group, we had a speaker come and speak to us about "The Fall." This was a very interesting thing to talk about considering that Winter Conference is this weekend and the topic this year is Sexuality. The speaker focused a lot on the sins that we commit and the original sin and how all of it goes back to attraction and relationships. We were each created to have a relationship with God, to support God's government on Earth, and to reproduce. However, there is a time and place for each of these things. God does not want us reproducing when we are unmarried nor when we are unable to support the new life in this world.

God Bless you this day and always!