New Year and New Start

I am finally back in Virginia Beach and geared up to start a new semester. Being home was wonderful. The Lord blessed me with many special moments with my family and friends. It was so good to be at my home church and around familiar sights. The Lord even blessed me with an extra night at home. I was supposed to fly out thursday afternoon, but my flight was delayed and I gained an extra night at home. Some of the cool accounts from home: I was invited to sit in on several court hearings and a "Home for the Holidays" ceremony put on by Judge David Gooding, who is a dependancy judge in Jacksonville. On December 19th, I got to watch about 25+ children be officially adopted. Judge Gooding has a huge heart for children and every year at Christmas, he puts on a festive ceremony for the children and their families and finalizes all the awaiting adoptions. It was so special to hear the parents tell the court why they wanted the child. It was incredibly special for me, because I've seen parents rights become terminated in the same court room. From working at a homeless shelter, I've seen the Dept. of Children and Families workers come take the children. So, it is extra special to see the good things that come out of the court room. In addition, I'm pleased to share that I passed all of my classes, to the glory of God! I also had the opportunity to visit a friend in D.C. for the new year, which was pretty cool considering so many of our policies and laws come from that very area. Seeing the capitol building and the Supreme Court building helped inspire me a little bit when I wasn't so excited about starting the craziness again. Hopefully, that will give me motivation to start strong and stay focused this semester. I'm confident that it will be a good one with many opportunities!

Comfort

It's amazing how God shows up at just the right time and how quickly I forget that. I had an issue this week with some assignments that never got submitted over the internet, and I have no idea if they will be counted at this point. I have no idea how greatly that will effect my grade in the class. I was certain I had submitted the assignments, but in the end they never made it. I was so stressed out a few minutes ago, dumbfounded by my mistake and completely hard on myself. I don't think it was a matter of irresponsibility, it was just an honest mistake. On top of that stress and the stress of a potentially bad grade in the class, I have my last exam tomorrow. So, the stress just mounted. At this point, there's nothing I can do about it, and I have to go on. There's no sense in freaking out about it or spending the evening crying over it. I have to be diligent to prepare for the next thing. Move on. It's easy in these moments to forget that God is bigger than my mistakes and that He has a purpose that is beyond my understanding or reasoning. Nothing takes Him by surprise. He is truely a wonderful counselor, comforter, and prince of peace, regardless of my circumstances. While that's not always easy to convince yourself of, it's a matter of persistent faith and forward motion.

"Is this really happening?"

That seems to be the main question my friends and I are asking ourselves! Is this really happening? Am I really in Law School? Am I really taking final exams? Do I really know Property law or Contract law or tort law? Uhhh...probley some more than others, but Yes. I think it is all really happening. Finals week is something to be reckoned with! I feel like I'm battling with God, to have Him take this away, but instead He gives me thorns of all types (mainly the material and little time) to keep me in check and relying on Him! It's amazing how much a person's brain can retain in little time, especially Contracts. I had a contracts exam today, and I had no idea what was going on in the class until two days ago! I learned it the best I could, spent 2 1/2 hours on my test today, and I have NO idea how it will turn out. I was reading again in Joshua 1, where the Lord tells Joshua it's his turn to lead the people over the Jordan, into the promised land. Joshua was trained by Moses, was called to this task, and the Lord promised Him that he would take the land. I keep reminding myself that no matter what these grades are, the Lord has called me here; He's been preparing me (I've been preparing diligently- as well as I knew how for a first year student), and He's going to fulfill His purpose for me. So, on to the next exam, which is friday! Then only two more next week.

As with everything, there must be balance~ So, my friends and I went to the Regent Christmas ball. We all got ready in my friend's tiny apartment on campus...fixed our hair, put on cute dresses, and danced the night away in the atrium of the law school! It was a great stress reliever. A big band of about 12 members played my favorite music, and I got to teach my friends how to ballroom dance. Not surprisingly, there weren't many law students there. It is still my assumption that I don't exactly fit your typical law student mold. I don't think I ever will. That's okay.

Finishing strong

Now that Thanksgiving is over and I'm back to the push! This time its a full-on sprint to the finish line. I went home for break, and I'm so thankful for it. It was so refreshing to see my family and friends, to spend some time out in the middle of no-where, FL, and to sit by fire laughing. Every year, my family goes camping with a large group from our church back home. It's wonderful! Lots of food, lots of people, and lots of laughing. It's nice to take a break from the work for a little while, except that I worked several hours every day. Now that I'm back, I feel the pressure pushing down. We have one more week of classes and two weeks of exams, 6 exams to be exact. However, only two of my classes have grades where the exam is the only factor. These next three weeks will be the true test of faith for me. It's so incredibly difficult to not compete intellectually, to not seek the approval of classmates and professors, and to not become overwhelmed. I just flew in this morning from Jacksonville; it's sunday; and I haven't even done any studying today, but I feel so anxious already. Thank the Lord that He is big enough to cover my weaknesses. I hope to finish strong in these last few weeks, because that is what the Lord calls us to do. Keep our mind set, press on, not look off track, finish strong. In three weeks, I will be able to say that I finished my first semester of law school and I didn't give up! Also, I visited another church this morning and really loved it. Most of all, I loved that the pastor brought up the story of George Mueller. He is one of my heroes in faith. He was a missionary in England who raised some 10,000 orphans, maybe more. He never once asked for money; he only asked the Lord to provide. George overcame a lot of shortcomings in his own life to get to the place where God lead him, but he denied himself and the Lord moved in his life in Amazing ways! This reminds me yet again of I know God is calling me to. To take care of the orphans, whereever and however that may look! Prayerfully, my posts will come with increasing faith in the weeks to come. Hope and trust in God alone, no matter the circumstances, as I finish strong!

Christian Worldview on Controversial Topics

I'm required to take a class called Christian Foundations of Law for this first semester of law school. The first couple of weeks of class we talked about various christian philosophers, lawyers and theologians. They discuss different worldviews on the law and how it came to be and what kind of authority government and citizens should have on the law. Basically, we learn the background of law from christian thinkers. It's a very interesting class and I'm so glad we're required to take because we talk about a lot about reason and justice and morals and the law. Now, we're starting to talk about christian worldviews on more current, controversial topics. So far, we've talked about abortion, transgender rights, criminal punishments: retribution and restorative justice, efficient breach of contracts, criminal responsibility. Our discussions come from both christian and non-christian legal professionals. They discuss moral issues behind eah topic and justice. We also discuss relevant scriptures from the bible with each topic. Now, we're talking about preemptive war and the ideas behind the Bush Doctrine, which was the first instance where a nation openly claimed that it would strike down any nation that has or harbors terrorist, essentially a claim to use preemptive forces. This is a very interesting topic considering the majority of my classmates, if not all, have grown up in the midst of some kind of terrorist threat. Our college and high school days were engulfed with the "war on terror." In the midst of the conversations i've grown up hearing and what the news wants to report, it is so important to step back and see the bigger picture and what I actually believe is just and what the bible says is just. I appreciate this class so much, because it gives me an opportunity to hear multiple perspectives on worldview, because it's a christian univeristy, it's emphasis is placed on scripture and a natural law worldview, where God is the ultimate authority and all things are subject to His will.