Annnnd there was rest.

We made it.  We are on the other end of a long 3 day journey through seminary.  

And I celebrated by ironing and doing the dishes.  It feels so good to be back ;)

Here is what it looked like:

I managed to squeeze in a good half an hour at a bridal shower for my friend Lindsay on Monday night. 

Gorgeous, right? I was about ready to just relax in that pool

Opening gifts :)

Annnd the rest of our nights looked like this. 

This may or may not have been my motivation these past three days.  And I may or may not have treated myself to a celebratory one last night.... so much for looking good at my brother's wedding right?

Then we needed a change of scenery so we went to Panera.  Dan was very diligent :)

These are the next books we are going to be diving into next week.  Hello fall semester

Although fitting this class into 3 days was crazy, it was probably one of my favorite.  We basically just talked about our calling.  How are each of us wired? What are our strengths and weaknesses?  Our talents, emotional intelligence, strengths finder, etc.  If you like those personality tests, this class was perfect for you.

Yesterday we ended class by pairing up and sharing our stories.  A woman shared with me her struggle to find love when she was younger and what it was like to experience God's forgiveness after her painful decision to abort two babies.  I heard from another guy who grew up on the South side of Chicago with no father, and was truly hand picked by God to minister to men in that area, having a pastor pay for his education at Trinity.   Such. good. stuff.  It's days like these that all the studying and crazy paper writing are so worth it.

And the first day our professor challenged us by reading Psalm 139 and asked us:

Do you believe that God created you with specific talents and abilities for a purpose?

Do you believe that God thinks precious thoughts about you?

That we were carefully made... everything about us?

I was definitely challenged.  Especially when he said that understanding God has uniquely created us for something specific gives us the freedom to no longer compare ourselves with others and desire their talents.  I am so thankful for the wisdom our professor poured out on us these past couple days.