Eminem knows MY name. Day 2

Well not really. But in my dream he did.
At some point this morning, I remembered a random dream I had last night where I walked into some room and there was Eminem. And for some odd reason, he was like "Hi Virginia." He may have even said my last name too and I was like "How in the world do you know who I am?" I forget most of the other details. I just remember that I was hanging out with him for quite some time and even had a crush on him.
That isn't so out there though because I used to have 2 posters in my room when I was in high school and thought he was "hott." I even talked about those posters when my youth group came to my home for a Cribs Edition. Oh goodness.
Such a FUNNY video that was. I get embarrassed watching it now and still like to close my eyes and block my ears when I show it to others. Don't ask me what I was wearing in it either! you'd think I would have dressed up for the video just a tad...meaning at least gotten out of my mens sweatpants from Aeropostale and would have wanted to look like I didn't just wake up. but not me haha.
What did I show them in my home? I first showed them my junk cabinet in the kitchen, where all my friends know the goodies are at. Then I showed them what was in my fridge, including disgusting looking, poop-like pea soup. Then it was off to my ghetto dining room that was bright pink at the time, and my ghetto heaters that Anthony made fun of. We then went to my "parla" where Amanda, Tiff, and Marissa were all watching/fake crying to A Walk to Remember. And then on to the attic where I showed them my pool table, ping pong table, air hockey and fooz ball. And then my poor Thunder and Lightning of course, had an appearance and even sat/gave me their paws for a bone. Best of all, Marissa punching the punching bag, pretending it was the face of some pretentious girl that Luke liked, and then Luke himself. Oh yah. I can't forget Amanda banging at the bathroom door to have Marissa get out, only to see Marissa opening and spraying down the room she stunk up, and her saying, in slow motion "I wouldn't go in there if I were you." I am smiling now thinking about all those little moments.

Then my room, which was the room everyone was waiting to see. bright yellow with light blue trimming, and clouds on the ceiling, which are still there to this day. P.Dan focused on the posters which included Eminem (like I already mentioned) and get this...Aaron Carter. how pathetic was I? Gosh! and they are like the complete opposite too. But I justified my Aaron Carter poster by saying I couldn't take it down until I got a new poster to replace it. ahhh goodness.
Best part of my room at the time: CANDY MACHINE! and i mean a legit candy machine that my dad got who knows where. He would always stock up the machine before I had any parties/sleepovers (which seemed to be frequently). It had four sections and contained Skittles, Starbursts, Mike and Ikes maybe? I'm forgetting what else!
I would have been Mary Oakman's best buddy if we had known each other then...simply because of the candy stash alone.
And it was for freeeeeee. best part was the top came right off and we could slip our hand in and pick out a whole hand-ful. It was glorious :)

This is making me want to watch the video all over again. I hope I haven't lost it in the shuffle of bringing it to school and back. I'd be so darn sad!

That is enough about Eminem/Cribs/youth group days. Don't want to get all sad missing those times. Cause I can do that so easily.

My dear friend Megan Smith (from Nebraska- which I always like to add) sent me a book called Just Do Something by Kevin DeYOUNG. I already know it is going to be very helpful to me when it comes to making decisions and being in God's will.

Listen to the opening paragraph of this book:

It is God's will for you to read this book. Yes, I'm talking to you. What are the odds that you would "just happen" to pick up this and flip open to this page and start reading? obviously it's a sign. Of all the millions of books in this world, you found this one. Wow. I have chills. Do not pass up this divinely orchestrated moment. If you miss this moment there's a good chance you will completely miss God's will for the rest of your life and spend your days in misery and regret.

This made me chuckle and sigh a sigh of relief.

now read the following paragraph in the book:

Now that I've scared you, let me acknowledge that everything in the previous paragraph is total baloney. It's bunk. Not true at all. Actually, I don't know if it's God's will for you to read this book. But I do think that reading it could be a really good idea.

Sometimes I hate hearing people say things like "God told me to do this..." Actually, I don't want to continue to say I hate things because it is not that intense but it sometimes bugs me to hear people say things like that. Maybe part of it is because I'm jealous and like "really? well gosh God, you don't speak to me like you do them. or I just have a lot of wax in my ears/can't seem to hear from you." And then I feel all bad and confused about my life. But other times it just seems to be that people too often use phrases like "God told me this" or "God wants me to go here" when all along it is really because they just want to do it. OR, I always wonder how they are so certain about these kinds of statements. I am included in this though. But why don't we just say "Actually, I'm not sure if this is what God wants for me right now. But it seems like it could work. It is something that interests me. These are the pros. So why not? I'm going to try it out!" I'd appreciate it so much more if people were just honest about not knowing exactly what God wants. Because there seems to be a select few who always know what God wants them to do, even if it means that God changes his mind drastically from month to month, and then there are others who don't hear from God in that way and just seek guidance and wisdom from others. I feel like I sound bitter about this, and maybe I am, because I tend to be a bitter person (need work on this) but I just get annoyed with all these Christiany sayings like "God called me here. God told me this. God opened this door." blah blah. I don't doubt that God can do this. It's definitely not that. And I don't doubt that God does do this in some circumstances. But I am beginning to think that maybe God gives us choices. We have endless opportunities and maybe there is not just this one straight path to follow to "be in God's will." Because if that is the case, because of our tendencies to mess up and sin on a minute to minute basis, we would never be going down the right path and never be living according to God's will. But instead, I think like this book is going to say, God uses everything. Even the wrong decisions. And instead of just waiting around to hear from God, we need to

Just do something.
Pray. Seek Guidance. Use our brain. Make a move. See where it takes us.