no more training wheels!

  Saturday, June 29, 2013, I officially graduated from high school, although I finished high school work mid-May.

   Sunday night, after everything was cleaned up and finished after my grad party, I told my mom, "Now that I'm officially graduated...now that it's final...I feel like a real adult."

  It's true.  I feel like a lot has changed in my attitude in the past four days.  But in a good way.  God has opened several doors of opportunity within the coming year and a half, and it's going to take a lot of prayerful consideration to find out just where He wants me.  But I know that He'll show me and I'm just looking forward to taking this one day at a time.

  These will be days full of school...of work...of intense Bible study...of a lot of prayer...and discussion...full of fellowship....of getting involved in new places...of school...of making adult decisions.  It's gonna be crazy.  I know it will be.  But as I am transitioning into full-time adulthood (finally - I'm an actual college kid!), I am ever-so grateful for my parents who are willing to give me advice and help me make the right choices.

  When you are really small, your parents probably stuck you on your first tricycle.  Then you moved to training wheels.  And finally, you could pedal all by yourself, but your parents still ran along with you just in case you fell and needed help back up.  And eventually...you and your parents could go on mile-long bike rides together, always there in case someone fell, yet you were fully capable of riding by yourself.

  I feel like this past year and a half or two years, I've had my training wheels.  And as of Saturday, they were taken off!  For the first time, I'm on my own, but I still have my parents there to guide me and help me when I need it - and I will!  I have a feeling which I can't explain: scared...excited...nervous...joyful...confident...unprepared...sad...responsible...Spiritually strong...Spiritually inadequate...purposeful...indecisive...and the list could go on.  It's all mixed in one.

  But I have to say, as I've said before.  This "new unknown" makes me pretty excited.  And I have full faith in God that any struggles I face, He'll be my shield.

  As I went through my graduation cards after my party, I found two common passages referenced: Proverbs 3:5-6 and Jeremiah 29:11.  However, I found three cards which each offered a different verse from each other and from any other card I'd received.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart."  ~Psalm 37:4

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."  ~Romans 12:12

"But be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you."  ~1 Samuel 12:24

God bless,

   Sierra

PS: coming soon...graduation party pictures.  (happy)