Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Treasure



So, over the Thanksgiving break my family and I went to St. Augustine, Florida to spend the Holiday with my Grandpa. My Grandma passed away last March and I think my Grandpa misses her a lot, so we went to go spend some time with him. Anyways, Grandpa gave me this watch while we were down there. It belonged to my Grandmother and he wanted me to have it.

I think it's such a neat piece of jewelry. It's super vintage looking and I really like the detail around the face of the watch and the topaz stones on the band. The face is mother of pearl so it looks really pretty when it catches the light. I've never been real big with watches but I've very quickly become attached to this one. Mostly, I think, because it belonged to my grandmother. I've only know a few people in my life that have passed away, but nobody has ever left me anything before that they used to own. For some reason it makes me feel really special when I wear Grandma's watch, to feel entrusted with something she left behind on the Earth, to carry part of her with me. I get a lot of the way I look from my Grandma, so sometimes I imagine Grandma wearing this watch, it suits her well.

But it also reminds me of something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, about storing your treasure in Heaven. Everyone dies, it's a part of life. And when you die you don't get to take anything with you, not watches, not money, not even your relationships with other people. So where do I store my treasure? Is it here on Earth with the things that I own or accomplish, or with people who think I'm smart or funny or pretty? What do I value? Jesus once said where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-20

  19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Open Hands

So I've already broken my self-imposed 'I want to blog at least once a week' rule...but luckily for me there is grace.




So, lately I've been thinking a lot about my plans for my life and what I want to do and where I want to go and who I want to be with and I've decided this: I really like to be in control. I find that I often am white-knuckle hanging onto control and structure in my life. I like to be in control of my situations, the people around me, my feelings, etc, etc and it is utterly and completely exhausting to try and control everything. Not only is it tiring, but so often I feel like such a failure because I cannot get control my life. A relationship is tense, my grades aren't good, I can't get an internship, something is always lacking or not what I want it to be. I feel like there is something that I should be doing better, or something I should be saying, or more energy I should be pouring into a situation, and the truth is, I'll never grasp control of everything.

I can never control everything because it's not my job to be in control. I tell people all the time that God is the Blessed Controller of all things and our job is to accept His ways, His outcomes, and His timing. I think this semester is really teaching me how to know that in my heart and not just in my head. I told some of the freshmen last week when we were registering for classes to hold onto their plans loosely and to be open and flexible because you don't always get what you plan for, and sometimes it even turns out to be better, so don't get discouraged. I need to apply that to the rest of my life: to hold my plans and my idea about how things should be loosely. There is nothing wrong with making a plan and being intentional with the direction of your life, but the danger comes in trying to take on a role that isn't your own: the Controller.

So my goal for the rest of the semester (well the rest of life, really) is to live with open hands, to hold loosely onto the things that Lord blesses me with and to choose trust instead of fear during hard times, when things don't go according to my plans. Open hands I suppose is also a sign of surrender, a yielding to the Lord,  a sign of trust with the things that are important to you. It's counter -intuitive, but I am learning that when you live in trust with open hands, then you are living more securely than if you were clutching your will and your plans tightly. Now that I am growing up and preparing for entrance into the real world, I have a lot of decisions to make and a lot of things left unplanned, it makes me nervous, but I am choosing to think of it as an exercise of faith instead of a creeping unknown future.


Psalm 19:21
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Myers Briggs


So I have this friend who likes to find people's personality types according to the Myers Briggs personality categories. It works like this: there are four letters that make up your category. for each of the four letters there is a choice between two options that you pick. The first letter is either an i or an e for introverted or extroverted. The next is either an n or an s for iNtuition or sensing. I guess it means how you collect your data, but you intuition or by observation, I don't entirely understand the difference. The third is between an f or a t for feeling or thinking. I am hands down a feeler. And the last is between a p or a j for perceiving or judging. I was told this is more of a type A/ type B difference, whether you like to plans things out or just go with the flow of life. So my friend pegged me as an INFJ and told me to look it up. I found a description at http://www.personalitypage.com/INFJ.html and this is what it told me





The Protector

As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.

INFJs place great importance on havings things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it. Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff at, and the INFJ themself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it. They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive.

But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.

Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubborness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right. In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals.

INFJ is a natural nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.

In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.

The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

My Girls

So, this semester I have the honor of co-leading a bible study with my wonderful, beautiful friend, Lauren :) It's so special because last year, when she was a freshman, I mentored or discipled Lauren and walked alongside her and shared life with her. She was sort of like my little sister or my daughter; I wanted to protect her and help her discover what full life in the Lord looked like. It is so wonderful because this semester Lauren has gotten to step up and lead a bible study with me and she is now meeting with her own freshman little sister/ daughter (my granddaughter!). We have four amazing freshmen girls in our bible study this year, Lauren has started walking alongside of one and I have been meeting with the other three. I cannot tell you how much I have been blessed by these five women that God has put me with, they totally rock my world and encourage me me so much. They essentially are my ministry, my little family that I have started, and it has been such a beautiful thing to share life with these girls and to have fellowship and community with them.

So anyways...here they are, in case you want faces to go with names:


This is Lauren, my friend and now my teammate. It has been absolutely remarkable watching this girl grow and discover who she is in Jesus. She is most def one of the most beautiful people I know and I am totally stoked to see her become the leader and the servant I know that she is. I think one my favorite things about Lauren (among the long list of my favorite things) is her spirit of honesty and openness. I have truly been blessed by Lauren's willingness to talk about tough things and to look at situations through an honest lens. Such a blessing!

As for the newbies, in no particular order, they are:


This is Hannah. She is super cute. Hannah is Lauren's person and my (sort of) granddaughter. Hannah is a fellow Smallville lover (well, in her case, a fanatic) so you already know that she's amazing. She is a super fun, super beautiful girl who is a joy to be around. I love her heart for the nations (especially Africa) and I am excited to indirectly (through Lauren) and directly (though our bible study and the times we get to hang out) help her to figure out how to serve the Lord and influence people here before God sends her out over seas to touch the people there.



This is Haley. She has a huge heart for other people. She loves being with other people and knowing what's going on in their lives, it's so fun just to hear her talk about her friends and the people she influences on a day to day basis because she is so intentional in the way she loves other and the way she loves me. I think that the Lord has such big plans for her with her compassion and willingness to share her life with other people and I'm excited to walk with her through it all. God is already stirring things up with her friends, it's so fun!



This is Melissa. She is a huge ball of energy! I wish that I had her spunk and her enthusiasm about life, people, events-- pretty much everything gets this girl excited and it is so much fun to just be around her and feel that excitement with her. She is always hilarious and such a positive person to be around, there are not many people like her at Tech. Getting know Melissa has been such a treasure and getting to be with her as she's transitioning into college.I love her so much!

This is Kayla. Kayla is great, the first word she picked to describe herself was that she was a "thinker" and it is so true! Kayla is like a sponge, she likes to sit and absorb everything that's going on in her life and with the people around her. She likes to collect wisdom wherever she goes, and because of that she is very wise for somebody so young. But I am very excited about what God is going to teach her and the ways He is going to mold her during her season in college.


Anyways, so these are my girls. They're pretty great and I love hanging out with them so much!


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Tis the Season


So I recently have been going through a bunch of interviews trying to find an internship for this summer. Even though I switched into chemical engineering a year and a half ago and have really loved it so far, I still have very little idea of what the day in the life of a chemE looks like. So I'm trying to figure it out. So far I've been talking to Proctor and Gamble, General Mills, BASF, and Celanese. If I had to pick right now, General Mills is my top choice. A great, steadfast company with high integrity and with a plant right down the road in Covington, Ga. My interview with them went pretty well, I guess I should be hearing back from them in a few days hopefully.

I also had a blast at my BASF interview. It was kind of intimidating because it was a round one and a round two interview in one (so I had a technical interview as well), but I felt that it went really well and I really, really just enjoyed getting know the guy that was interviewing me, Anthony Mason. He was hilarious, and super easy to talk to. After the BASF interview I'm starting to get really excited about the idea of doing engineer work this summer. Engineering is super interesting.

Last one up for round one is Celanese, which is a chemical company.

Anyways. It's really scary because I feel all grown up. Wearing business attire and meeting people and having a portfolio filled with resumes and transcripts. It's exciting, but also terrifying. I feel like I'm very close to leaving a large chapter of my life behind me, and I have loved being a kid. Moving into adulthood is scary and weird, but I suppose it's just the nature of things. Sometimes I think adults are just boring old people who have already had their fun in life. But then I realize that God has called me to have life to the full in all seasons of life, rich or poor, young or old, hard time or good times. To really claim His peace and His plan for my life. I get excited with how the Lord is leading my life and where He will end up taking me. God's strength helps me to choose joy and contentment with life in stead of fear and anxiety because I believe that God is loving, wise, and powerful, and if all three of those are true then he is worthy of my trust.

He is the Blessed Controller
Thank you Jesus

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

My Bachelorette Pad

So this is my dorm room :


It's a pretty sweet set up. It's the first school year since I've been in college that I have my own room. It's both really nice and little a lonely. But mostly I'm grateful to be able to go to bed and get up whenever I want and not feel bad about disturbing anybody. I also happen to love my room a whole lot. You can ask my mom, I was way stressed out when I moved in because I my room wasn't turning out to be how I wanted my space to look. But my mom really came through for me and helped me feel more situated in my room and she helped my vision come alive. I love my mom. Anyways, you'll also notice the purple orchid in the picture. No, it's not fake. I am the proud owner of a new baby orchid. This is the first flower that I've ever tried to grow on my own and I just love it! Orchids are kind of high maintenance getting them set up, but after that they're super easy, and they look beautiful! My orchid might be my favorite part of my room. That and my paintings, and my desk hutch. It's a pretty sweet place to live, you should come visit sometime :)



You'll also notice my sweet apartment-mate, Molly. That's our sink that we share and our bathroom is to her right. Paige and Cole live on the other side of the apartment, which his pretty much a mirror image of our side (except a lot warmer). And in between the two sides we have an entryway, a kitchen, and a living room. Pretty sweet huh? I bet you really want to come visit now.



Saturday, September 25, 2010

Illinois: Round 3

So last weekend I went to Illinois to see my wonderful friends JR and Aly. These two have really been some good friends in my life since I was first going into high school. Aly helped me figure out a lot of things about life just by being a great example, loving me well, and giving me tons of great advice along the way. They moved to Illinois about four years ago and I have missed them terribly, but I usually try and go to see them once a year or so. It's been so exciting to see their family grow from one kid, to three kids, and then this past March to four kids (crazy!) I've gotten to see them through hard times and through good times, but through everything they are such a strong light on a hill for the Kingdom, and I love that (so much).

Anyways, so I got to spend all of last weekend hanging out with them and getting to know the kids better and to hear what's been going on with life. It was amazing...I think their kids are my favorite in the whole world of kids. Here they are:


This is Foster. Or Frostie, or frost man, or foz, or bug. Either way, I love this kid. It's funny, if you go back to July 2008 on this blog you can see my first visit to Illinois, back when it was just Foster, and he looks so young. This past weekend I could actually carry on a conversation with him, it was so strange. We had a couple of epic pillow fights and some interesting conversations. He was so amazed when I told him that I flew here in an airplane. He responded "To our yard?" I laughed so hard and explained what an airport was to him and he was like "Really?" His amazement was adorable.



This is Paisley (or peanut), she is the girl of the girl-boy twins and number two in the line up. She is way prepared for the terrible twos that are coming up in a couple months, but I think she is still so precious. I was watching the twins and Foster on Saturday morning and I needed to take a shower, so I told Foster I was leaving the door open in case they needed to get me for some reason. Well, halfway into my shower, this little face peeks around the shower curtain smiling up at me and it was little Peanut. And I didn't know what to do, so I was just like "Hi Paisley", and she stuck her little arm in the shower and offered me a teddy gram (I had given them teddy grams for snack), and I wasn't sure how to respond (because I was in the shower) so I took the teddy gram from her and said "Thanks Paisley" and she beamed at me and offered another one of her teddy grams so I took that one too. I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I ate them. In the shower. It was tasty.


This is Charlie Jude, or judderbug, or dudder, or if you're Paisley, then JuJu. He is number three and the boy of the boy-girl twins. It's so funny, I always seem to come around during potty training season. Frostie was being potty trained two visits ago and the twins were being potty trained this time around. I suppose I'll have to make a another visit when Betsy is getting potty trained... Charlie is so great. I loved playing the blow dryer game that I used to play with Foster with him. You know, the whole zap him with the blow dryer, he screams and runs away, then he cautiously sneaks back up to me and waits for me to zap him again, repeat until tired or hair is dry. It's a pretty great game for two year olds. I can't wait to play with Betsy. Anyways, as you can see, Charlie loves driving already, and he frequently took me for a spin around the block, you know, no big deal.

And the newest addition to the Dakin Clan....


Betsy Jean Harper

Oh, the many faces of Betsy, aka blues, aka blue bells, aka bitsy (if you're me). We are birthday twins (sort of) We were born less than 12 hours (and twenty years) apart. So naturally you can imagine how amazing she is. Of all the kids, Betsy is most definitely the most laid back and she's the youngest. She smiles like 85% of her life and causes her family to dream big dreams. I grew so attached to this one over the weekend and I wish I could hold her still.

We realized that I usually come visit after every round of kids, so somebody jokingly asked me when my next visit was...I don't think Aly and JR are looking to have more kids any time soon but I am WAY looking forward to get to know these guys as they grow up and turn into people. It's so exciting! It was so fun also to hang with Aly and JR and just to hear how God is blessing their lives and rocking their worlds. JR is back in school trying to get to med school. I think that that is so awesome! We got to talk about calculus and chemistry...you know, things up my alley. And I always enjoy getting to hear whatever Aly has to share with me because she is such a good older sister who cares about me and my life, and always has some awesome wisdom about life and relationships to offer me. It was such a refreshing visit and I really wish that I could have stayed for longer.

Friday, September 24, 2010

I'm brining blogger back (what)!

So, for those of you who don't know, I used to blog fairly often in high school and in the first part of college. However, life just got busy. Georgia Tech has this way making sure you always have more than enough to do so that you're never bored with life, so I stopped writing for the most part. But the other day I realized how I should use my blog now more than ever. There are a lot of you guys out there that I, unfortunately, don't get to see very often, and this space would be a great way to keep you up to date with my life through pictures, videos, stories, things that I'm learning, etc. So to motivate myself I decided to reinvent my blog (as you probably notice that it doesn't look the same anymore) and to give it a new name. I really like the idea of beauty from ashes, It comes from Isaiah 61:3 where the Lord declares he will crown his people with beauty instead of ashes. And it also correlates the idea of the phoenix, and the imagery of dieing and then being reborn from ash.

Anyways. All of that to say...I'm back. And feel free to read through older posts if you're new to my blog, because I've posted some neat stuff!

So to start out my return I would like to share a funny story that happened last night, that I look back and laugh about now, but definitely was NOT laughing about it last night.

So I have this really great boyfriend, Joshua, who turned 23 this past Wednesday:


So at our weekly meeting for Navigators I decided that at the end it would be a good idea to get Josh a cake and have everyone sing happy birthday to him and celebrate him. Well towards the end of the night I suddenly realize that I don't have any forks or plates or anything for people to eat this cake with, I only have the cake, a cake cutter, candles, and matches. So my quick-thinking friend, Haley, says she thinks that the Taco Bell in our student center is open. So I quickly run down to Taco Bell and ask them for about 25 of their sporks. After some deliberation they finally agree to part with their beloved sporks for my birthday celebration. I also grabbed a bunch of napkins and ran back upstairs where we were singing our closing songs. I was thinking to myself "whew, that was a close one, crisis averted!" Now, I had previously asked Adam how many songs we were going to sing so I could leave during the last one to get the cake for Josh. Adam told me we were going to sing three songs, however, after the second song he started to pray like he was closing us out for the night. So me and my cake buddy, Haley, are like 'oh shoot!' So we sprint to where we hid the cake and are ferociously trying to light all 23 candles quickly and run back to the room. Well, I was holding the cake and we were going so fast and we were so frazzled, that I did not think at all about tieing my hair back and my hair caught on fire. But of course I am holding the cake and cannot get the fire out, so I start panicking and Haley desperately tries to pat the fire out of my hair and comb some of the ashes out. I don't know if any of you have smelled burned hair, but man, it smells awful! Anyways, we don't have time to worry about it because we're late, remember? So we run to the room only to discover they are in fact singing the third song and we were just deceived. So all we can do is wait in the hallway for them to stop singing, meanwhile the candles are burning and getting smaller and smaller and melted wax is going all over the cake. So by the time we finally got inside there were little pools of wax with very small flames on top. So we all sang and I brought the cake to Josh and him and the guy standing next to him (Drew Martin) both cover their mouths when they see the cake and go "Ew, gross!" because there was melted wax on the cake. At this point I start crying because I am so defeated and Josh FINALLY blows out those stupid candles and makes his wish and we all eat a very delicious chocolate cake after scraping off the wax and some of the icing.

Moral of this story, I am a loving girlfriend and Josh is an ungrateful boyfriend. Haha, just kidding. Later on he told me he loved it. I really think that dysfunctional cakes have the most love and thought put into them. I hope Kate Fields is reading this because I think this cake has beaten out your 18th birthday cake for the most dysfunctional cake I've ever given.

Anyways, I hope you are laughing at me as much as I am now :)
Happy Birthday Josh!