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Consume Responsibly
I’m on a church retreat with the high school youth group I volunteer with as a leader, we’re staying at a camp in the middle of Minnesota, we call the retreat Snow Camp and our theme this year is “consume responsibly”. It’s based on a candy land theme, where we’re talking about how we can be responsible Christians. Friday night a student spoke about responsibility in relationships and how we as Christian’s need to build each other up in our relationships. On Saturday another spoke, about our responsibility to tell the truth, he spoke about good examples, and how truth affects our lives. For Snow Camp we have teams every…
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Snow Camp
: noun, /snō/-/kamp/, a ridiculously fun activity for high schoolers in the GracePoint youth group, filled with snow, ice, chapel sessions, awesome conversations, and other crazy fun antics This weekend I’m at snow camp with my church, GracepPoint, senior high ministries. It’s a yearly event with tons of traditions, from the polar plunge to the black light dodge ball, and sliding across the ice playing broomball. Tubing is also a fun part of the weekend, we hike up a giant hill and sail down the cavern. After that? Well we put on our swimsuits and like true Minnesotans dunk in the lake and then hide out in a sauna on…
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CV You Later
While at university I learned a ton about resumes, even after university I would go back to the career center for help…with my resume, a basic piece of paper that mentioned great things, but wasn’t as thought-provoking as I wanted it to be. Because of Praxis, I’ve learned so much about how to pitch my skills to employers and provide true value, beyond just my credentials alone. I’ve learned how to be a better employee once I get a role, how to maximize what I can accomplish and what not. So how do we do it in Praxis? Well, first off, click here if you want to apply. Anyway I’ll…
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Learning Styles
I love music, but I also appreciate and learn a lot from a good powerpoint. Lectures can sometimes be nice, but often group work brings its own value. Writing ideas out, or having a kinesthetic experience can often help solidify ideas as well. There are many ways to learn and that doesn’t mean you just fit in one box or another, it means that listening to a song could help you understand one, thing, but a video clip could make another aspect more clear, maybe you need to read the original source though, just to make sure you didn’t mishear/misinterpret something. Oh, and don’t forget you might want to write…
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Order of Operations
I was recently talking to one of my senior high students, and we got talking about prioritizing church. He mentioned that he wanted to go on the youth group trip happening soon here but also wanted to make his sports match. He then confessed that he had realized he wasn’t prioritizing church enough, and I told him I was happy that he was able to process all of that for himself and tell me about it. He then said something to the effect of: the order of operations goes church(Christ that is), family, school, sports. We talked through it some more and I told him the group would be glad…
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A Physicist and An Athlete
I watched The Theory of Everything last night with a friend of mine, it was available on Netflix, and looked interesting. Stephen Hawking was a very good physicist, but the movie left me feeling uninspired, but reminded me of someone who leaves me feeling inspired. If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time, you would’ve read about my grandparents, who are all amazing people. My Grandpa Glader has been confined to a wheelchair for about 10 years, but the number of people he has inspired through his life, and his continual trust of God even while sitting in a wheelchair is amazing and inspiring. You see, we may…
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This Little Light of Mine
If you grew up going to Sunday school you know the song: “I’m going to let it shine.” As Christians are lives are supposed to lead others to Christ. It sounds obvious, but it’s so much more than just telling people you’re a Christian. It’s about the conviction and love you have in Christ. It’s about him being the most important thing in your life. That’s hard! There are so many wonderful things that God created, and gifts He has blessed us with that it can be hard to draw the line between worshipping Him and just appreciating His work…and just worshipping the work. I think part of what’s glorifying…
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The Story of the Rich Young Ruler
This morning in Sunday school, we talked about the story of the rich young ruler, from the New Testament. It’s a tough thing to think about. America is amongst the riches of nations, therefore the people in it are pretty well off, especially in light of the rest of history, we live better, eat better, travel far easier, and in general, we’re far better off than anyone else. With that in mind, we have to think about how this story applies to our lives. In class, we did get the chance to talk about how some people who are rich bless others immensely, this is important to consider especially since…
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The Mega Mall
In Minnesota we have a lot of cool outdoor spaces, but sometimes it gets too cold for even us Minnesota natives. So in the 90s, we built a mall with a couple of roller coasters in it, and an aquarium, and theatres – and called it the Mall of America, or MOA if you’re around here…or mega mall if you’re my family. Since then it’s gained more roller coasters, a flying simulator, a go-kart racing track, a hotel, and umpteen stores. I know what you’re thinking, its just a mall, with some extra amenities. Well, you’re about half right. There’s a little more to it. For those of us who…
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A Burrito Bowl, and a Good Friend
My friend took me to chipotle yesterday. It’s one of my favorite restaurants and we got to talk, a lot. We are actually quite different, she has a larger immediate family, mine’s tiny. She is a teacher, I work in marketing. She skied in high school on the same team as my sister, I played tennis, and enjoy the theatre stage. She is far more introverted and a bookworm, I’m far more extroverted and I love a good movie. But what we agree on is that we’re both so thankful for our friendship, and that our Christian faith is the most important, plus even though I like politics way more than…
