The time has come. Tomorrow marks the end of my summer at camp and the transition back to school. By 10pm tomorrow night I'll be on a bus with 43 of my CU soccer teammates headed out to Montana for a week of pre-season training and "team-get-to-know-you" time. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't had the most awesome experience on this team over the last 2 years, but now I'm finally at a place where I have some good friends on the team, I actually feel competent and confident on the field, I might even be getting some scholarship this year, and I'm actually starting to look forward to this season. It's a good feeling. :-)

And also I'm in shape this year -- BEFORE pre-season. haha. Which is a HUGE step for me; I think this is the first summer ever that I have actually made it a point to exercise hard regularly, and stuck to it, and it's paid off. Although coach has said this is going to be the hardest pre-season he's ever put together... So the other day a friend and I were talking and I told him, "You know that if you don't do anything over the summer, you're going to die during pre-season, but you also know that even if you work your butt off this summer, you're still going to die during pre-season." haha. Doesn't really offer that much incentive to work, huh? ;-)

And just in general I'm coming into this year with some big changes in my life: my sister Lynnette is here, I'll be living in the apartments for the first time, I'll be a DC, I'm getting a new job, I'm starting my junior year, (which I hear is pretty rough), one of my best friends is leaving for 6 months, and my family will be here for the whole spring.

To be completely honest, I'm pretty scared about this year. I think it has the potential to be one of the best years of my life, but I feel like it could just as easily be pretty miserable. There are a lot of unknowns...

But if there's one thing God has taught me this summer, it is how awesome of a loving Father he is, and how much he wants us not to worry about these things. Philippians 4:6-7 has, in many ways, become my "theme" verse for the summer... I've read it so many times over the last 3 months, that I know it from memory now: "Do not worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." What an amazing promise. I've clung to that this summer so many times, and every time I start to worry, I pray that promise.

And actually, the next two verses after that -- the ones about "whatever is pure, whatever is noble...think about such things" is in the context of this last verse! I've always put the "whatever is pure" verse in the context of lust and entertainment, mainly, but God has come to show me this summer that obsessing and worrying about the future is just as sinful a mentality and lifestyle as entertaining lustful thoughts, for example. And I've come to see that it's something that I struggle with hardcore. But God is so faithful, and I can honestly say that every time I have turned to him, confessed my thoughts, and asked for his peace, he has given me all that I need and more. Praise the Lord!! :-)

~~~

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever!"