Strength For the Journey Pt. 1

“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” – 1 Peter 4:10

A few weeks ago, I went to a half day retreat called “Strength for the Journey.” This retreat was held by my Diocese for young adults. About 55 of us met at a church and spent the afternoon discussing our different strengths/gifts and how those can be used.

I went into the retreat thinking “This could be really good….or really bad.” Luckily, it turned out to be really good. It was a lot of fun and very informative.

One of the unique things about this retreat was that before it started, we were given a code to go take a strengths finder test (as part of the book Strengths Finder 2.0) Once we took the test, we received a .pdf document with our top 5 strengths (with specific definitions).  Just seeing the words didn’t make sense to me. But once I read the descriptions, I was was thinking , “oh yeah, totally me!“

So here are my top 5 with some words from the descriptions that I thought applied. If you know me, tell me what you think:

1. Achiever: …you approach your work-related or academic assignments with a great deal of intensity…you are known for putting in long hours…you automatically set aside time to map out the coming months, years, or decades…you likely resist devoting time to activities that impede progress, compromise productivity, or waste precious time…

2. Harmony: …you strive to be a dependable person…you willingly assume accountability for tasks, projects, assignments, or commitments…calming influence on friends, family members, classmates, coworkers, teammates, or strangers…realistic…you point out obstacles, glitches, or difficulties others do not or prefer not to see…you have a gift for simplifying, rather than complicating, chores…your capacity for orchestrating special celebrations, projects, or trips causes many people to feel less stressed or overworked…you thrive in situations where you can work on your own projects…

3. Developer:…you may derive satisfaction from helping youngsters…you take time to discover someone’s likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, or idiosyncrasies..you soothe the frayed nerves of individuals…you usually gaina  great deal of satisfaction from making a person feel worthwhile and valuable…

4. Individualization: …you are apt to be the one to whom others look for ideas about assignments to give each individual…you assist certain individuals by sharing with them information you have acquired, skills you have mastered, or experiences you have had…you rely on reason to determine how an event, decision, or condition led to a specific event…

5. Learner:…you usually channel your mental and physical energy into things that really intrigue you…you are drawn to the process of gaining knowledge and skills…your thirst for knowledge causes you to explore particular topics of study…you may prefer to read, write, and ponder philosophies, theories, or concepts that interest you…you have little difficulty giving intense effort to projects, problems, or opportunities that capture and keep your attention..

Tomorrow, I’ll do part 2 and give you some reflections I had on this.

Quick Takes: Oct. 16, 2009

It’s time again for 7 Quick Takes. I don’t know if I will be as witty as I was last week, but here’s hoping.

Actually, I decided for this one, I will take you through the last 7 days, because they have been awesome! (um, this will all be after work stuff!)

1. Friday, October 9: I picked up Caity and we went to the DHS/GHS volleyball game with several friends from Life Teen. Between the two schools, we have 4 girls who play, so it’s always fun to watch them compete against each other and cheer for Ann, Emily, Darcy and Kailiee. After the game, I went to Abuelo’s and had dinner with Joe and Nic, which is always so much fun.

2. Saturday, October 10: This day turned out awesome. I went to a Young Adult day retreat called Strength for the Journey (more about that next week, so come on back) with my friends Abby, Juli, Sydney, Brian, Amanda, Tim, Becki, Megan and Cat. When Abby dropped me off at home, I had a message from Shelby asking me to come have a sleepover with her and Carrie. So I did. We had lots of fun watching movies and eating cookies.

3. Sunday, October 11: Sunday always equals Funday. The senior class presented our Life Night and they knocked it out of the park. They did awesome and we had a lot of fun celebrating with them afterwards at the ‘Bee’s.

4. Monday, October 12: After work I had a great Spring Retreat meeting. I can’t wait! and then we had Teen Core meeting. I never laugh harder than when I am with those kids.

5. Tuesday, October 13: Our diocese is participating in the Why Catholic? program and Tuesday was the first meeting of my group. We had a lot of fun and I’m excited to do this with so many great people.

6. Wednesday, October 14: More retreat planning and then BOB and WOW. We had approximately 50 kids there Wednesday. That’s what we used to have on Sunday nights.

7. Thursday, October 15: Yesterday turned busier than I planned. After work, I had a quick meeting, and then I planned to go home for a little bit before another meeting. However, I ended up going to visit with Shelby, then heading straight to my XLT meeting. It’s gonna be massive. After XLT meeting and a quick Frosty run to Wendy’s, Stephen, Garrett and Bailey came over and there was some impromptu hang out time.

Whew! I’m a little tired just typing all of that. It has been an awesome week and luckily things will slow down a little bit tomorrow before everything starts up again!

Have a fabulous week and as always, visit Jen at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!

Praise and Worship Wednesday: Something Beautiful

Something Beautiful by Jars of Clay

Quick Takes: October 9, 2009

Jen is taking a week off, but I am still going to do 7 Quick Takes.

1. I don’t know about y’all, but the Sonic’s in these here stomping grounds are serving up a Chicken Strip Dinner and Drink combo for $3.99 right now and bless my heart, I have gone hog wild on this here deal more than once since October 1. Call me crazy, but I feel dadgum Southern when I am eating up fried chicken strips, an onion ring, french fries, and Texas toast, with a side of cream gravy for dipping and a Dr Pepper. Mercy!

and now back to my normal semi-Southern vocabulary:

2. Tomorrow I am attending a day retreat for young adults called Strength for the Journey. I am excited to go and more excited to go with my friends Abby, Becki, Megan, Cat and Gretchen. We had to take a preliminary quiz and determine our top strengths; this will then be tailored to us on the retreat. My top 5 were Achiever, Harmony, Developer, Individualization, and Learner. I’m interested to see what happens tomorrow! Those of you who know me, what do you think of my results?

3. Speaking of retreats, last week I mentioned our Fall LifeTeen Retreat. It went great! It was called Unstoppable and focused on the life of St. Paul. We had 26 teens and had such a fun time! Saturday night during free time the girls put on a dance party and let me tell you, you can’t help but smile when teenage girls are jumping around the room dancing and singing to Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” and dcTalk’s “Jesus Freak.”

3. I got invited to my 10-year high school reunion next summer. Well, I got a “save the date.” Shesh. I feel old.

4. I am very heavily considering working on a family cookbook for my mom’s side of the family over the next 13 months (I figure a Christmas 2010 deadline is much more realistic than a Christmas 2009 deadline). Any advice? I already have ownership of all the recipes from my grandmother and my mom and I have pulled the “good ones.”

5. I just realized that I have a book read that I have not posted a review on! Whoops! Look next week for my review of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

6. Our Life Night this week is being done by the Senior class. I’ve been working with them on it and they are such a joy. It’s hard for me to think of them as Seniors — they were little baby sophomores when I met them! Next year will be even harder as the Class of 2011 will be the first class I have seen all the way through their high school years. Don’t cry now!

7. I was going to write some gobbledygook here as filler cause I can’t think of much else, but the plumber is here at work and guess who gets to let him in?

150

This is my 150th post. I didn’t notice when I hit #100, so I thought I would celebrate #150. Originally, my plan was to share 150 things you probably didn’t know about me. However, that takes a lot of time – time that I do not have. So, I decided to give a 10% effort and share 15 things you probably didn’t know about me.

150 15 Things You Didn’t (maybe you did) Know About Me

1. I’m not afraid of insects. Except crickets. They creep me out.
2. In terms of cooking, I am at my best when it comes to desserts. I don’t know why.
3. I’ve given up on reading “classics” and mainly browse the YA or fiction section in book stores. Give me light and fluffy any day.
4. My sister and I used to check out The Sound of Music from the public library (2 VHS tapes!) and watch it constantly. Our parents would actually make us take time off from the movie and place limits on how often we could rent it.
5. When I was 11, my parents argued about letting me see Jurassic Park(a PG-13 movie). My dad won and I got to go see it. I had nightmares for months but couldn’t tell anyone because I knew that if they found out, I’d never get to see an older movie again.
6. Another thing my sister and I used to do (before we could drive and had jobs and such) was our daily summer routine: Wake up at 8:55am. Watch Star Trek: The Next Generation from 9:00am – 11:00am. Eat lunch. Watch a movie (Sara would pick the movie without me knowing, I would have to guess what it was before the previews ended), Watch another movie. Hurriedly do our chores between 4:00pm and 5:00pm before Mom got home.  EVERY. DAY.
7. In first grade, I read all of the readers in the classroom by February and had to start reading the 2nd grade readers.
8. I have a freckle on my forehead hair line and my older cousin Jennifer has one in the exact same spot.
9. I prefer vanilla ice cream over chocolate ice cream.
10. I don’t like pepperonis on my pizza
11. Despite these last two admissions, I really am not a picky eater.
12. Contrary to the previous statement, I am extremely picky about cereal. Here are just some of the cereals I do not like: Honeycombs, Fruit Loops, Applejacks, Fruity Pebbles, Captain Crunch, and Trix.
13. This one won’t be about food: We learned that I needed glasses in the 3rd grade at a Texas Tech football game in the Astrodome.
14. I estimate that in my 27 (almost 28) years of living I have been on 48 retreats either as a retreater or a staffer, or a chaperone. I’ve got another one this weekend.
15. Continuing the statistics theme, I have been to 11 states (including my home state) and 5 countries (including my home country): Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Austria, Canada, England, Germany, U.S.A. I did not include states I have only driven through or landed in on my way somewhere else.

Praise and Worship Wednesday: My Savior My God

My Savior My God by Aaron Shust

Rooftops of Tehran

Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji

Normally my book link takes you to Amazon.com, but this time, clicking on the title of the book will take you to the bookclub page for this book at 5 Minutes for Books. This was the selection for this past month (or is it this month? I can’t figure it out since the posts come so early in the month).

OH RIGHT, BACK TO THE REVIEW/DISCUSSION.

I enjoyed this book. It is set in 1970s Iran, which is a new book destination for me. I’ve never really read books set in the middle east, fiction or otherwise. It definitely made me want to read more about it (and isn’t that what a good book does?), although I haven’t. I wouldn’t say this has become a favorite, but I liked it.

Now, on to answer the questions posed by Jennifer:

1. The story is told with some mysterious flashbacks. What affect did this have on you? Did it pique your curiosity? Confuse you? Intrigue you?
   I liked the flashbacks. They didn’t really confuse me because of how they were laid out. I was more curious than annoyed or confused.
2. A heavy theme of the novel is friendship. What friendships make an impact on you? Do they seem similar to our own contemporary American relationships, or different?
   The friendships in the book seemed similar to American friendships – it was the courting/dating/romantic relationships that took a different tone than the American counterpart. The loyalty between the friends was fierce, and I liked that.
3. I felt like this was generally an uplifting story, though set amidst some trying circumstances. Did you agree? If so, how did the author achieve this?
   I agree, Jen. I think the author achieved this by focusing more on the relationships than the circumstances. It isn’t a history book. It’s a story of friends who happen to be in a rough political/social climate. Their lives don’t revolve around everything going on, but it of course affects them. I feel that this is how I would want a story about me to be – don’t make the focus what is going on in the world around me, but show how my world is affected by that.
4. How do characters in the book perceive the United States? How did the way that they see the U.S. change the way you see it?
   Some perceive it as the promised land, some just see it as a land to run away to.
5. Did reading this book give you a greater understanding of Iranian culture or politics? Did you read (or have you read) any of the suggested works that are listed in the back of the book? How do they compare and contrast with this portrayal of Iran? What does the fact that the author included a list of suggested readings, and the other personal information that he includes after the novel ends say about his purpose in writing it?
   Considering I knew nothing of Iranian culture or politics before reading this, yes I have not read the suggested works, and I’m not sure I will. I was curious about the culture, but maybe not enough to do extra reading specifically for that purpose. I think the fact that the author included that shows he wanted to raise awareness about Iranian culture and politics. He wanted the book to be a “gateway” for people to start being interested in the country.

A quick “heads up.” There is profanity in this book. And an uncomfortable chapter (that really has no bearing on the plot – if you want to read this book and skip the chapter, let me know and I’ll go find it.) This doesn’t bother everybody, but I wanted to let you know.

If you want to read more reviews, hop on over to 5minutesforbooks.com and read the bookclub posts.

next up: any book by Louisa May Alcott (I’m going with Little Men)

7 Quick Takes: October 2

1. How come it seems like every time I do this, it’s retreat weekend? Oh, because it’s October and we’ve already had two retreats. That’s why.

2. Speaking of retreat weekend, I get the privilege of driving the BIG van. Reasons it’s good: I didn’t have to clean out my car so that 4 teens could pile in with their stuff; I enjoy sitting way up there; it should be a fun drive with 6 teens. Reason’s it’s bad: blindspots the size of Texas; the fact that it doesn’t belong to me makes me slightly nervous.

3. I really enjoy the weather we’ve been having lately (minus the downpour that happened yesterday at the exact moment I was running errands.) Dear Texas, please stay like this.

4. Last year, my cousin Aileen got married the weekend of fall retreat. This year, my cousin Kevin is getting married the weekend of fall retreat. Interestingly enough, since Aileen was married on a Friday and Kevin will be married on Saturday, I think they will share an anniversary date.

5. Quote from WOW: Teen girl: “Can we have a 24-hour hotline?” Another teen girl: “We don’t need that. I just call Holly.” Different teen girl: “Holly, can I have your number?” yet another teen girl: “I’ll put it on the board!” I don’t mind, it’s just funny.

6. I’ve rediscovered my love for some things this week: 1) fish tacos (namely from Fuzzy’s), 2) clothes shopping (i usually hate it, but I had a good experience this week) and 3) Painting my nails. I know. I’m a girl.

7.  Ok. If Texas Tech can’t pull it together this weekend, I am going to cry. I love them and I will never be embarrassed or ashamed that I am a Red Raider, but seriously. Calm down. I realize you guys always take a few games to settle down, but normally you still pull the W. Wreck UNM!

As always, if you want to read more, hop on over and visit the fabulous Jen at conversiondiary.com

Special Treat

One of my favorite singers. This girl’s voice is amazing. Carrie and I saw her live in Arizona.

Hosanna – Audrey Assad & Brian Wurzell – Cornerstone Chandler – Worship from brianwurzell on Vimeo.

If the video doesn’t work, listen to Audrey on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/audreyassadsings

Praise and Worship Wednesday: Lead Me To The Cross

Lead Me To The Cross by Brooke Fraser (Hillsong United)