James 2

Faith without works is dead.

Yes, I am doing my homework on my blog. Oh the joys of technology. Every week for my New Testament class I do some sort of project on my choice of 3 topics. As I looked over this week's topics this one jumped out and begged to be a blog post. Here is the prompt:

Your friend, who is investigating the Church, has expressed a question in the letter below.

Dear Christy,

Some of my friends are saying that Mormons are not Christian because you believe that you need to do righteous works along with having faith to be accepted by God. My other friends claim that with the grace of Christ, works are not necessary. They say that if I join the Mormons I would be denying Christ's grace. How should I respond to them?

Your friend

My response would go something like this:

Dear Friend,

Christ's grace brings us up from where we are to His level. After we try as hard as we can to be as righteous as we can, He makes up the rest. I just looked up at my wall and realized I had a picture of Christ up there that I had forgotten about. It's far enough from my bed that I don't normally see it. It's a popular picture, we use it a lot in the Church, but as I look at it now I realize there is no way I am not a Christian. I know Christ is my savior. My heart feels close to bursting now with the love I feel for Him. We believe that we need to prove ourselves before the Lord to be accepted into heaven. We need to work our hardest. Christ lived the perfect life. It was full of examples of kindness and righteousness. Though I could cite scriptures that say how important actions are and even Christ saying keep the commandments and do good, but I'm not going to. Why? Because I believe there is something more important in there. Faith in Christ motivates me to be more like Him. I look up to His example and want that more for me. As my faith grows so does my desire. That I believe is the important part. Faith is a motivator. True faith encourages us to show it through our good works. Faith doesn't sit idly by waiting dormant. It wants to jump out and be shouted from the rooftops. That faith is shown in our actions.

Love,

Christy

Body Image

I've been thinking about body image a lot lately.

It's pretty obvious when you look at me that I am not in shape. Not very close to it either. This is a statement of fact. I've also gained a considerable amount of weight since I've gotten home. However the only reason I really noticed is my clothes stopped fitting as well and I went to the doctors. Now that I've been thinking about it I notice and recognize that I need to take better care of my body.

When I was a freshman in high school I began dieting. I stopped drinking all pop and eating candy. At first I ate diet meal bars for lunch, but then as my sophomore year began I was eating only an apple from breakfast until dinner. During p.e. I ran my heart out, frequently with the goal of pushing myself to the point of throwing up. I did this for a couple reasons. First, the guy I liked only liked skinny girls. I was trying to fit into the mold I perceived he had. Second, all my friends were skinnier than me. Once I started I was on a goal of forever losing weight. I looked in the mirror and only saw how fat I was, how much bigger I was than any of my friends.

Me on the far right October 2006

My friends and I would do things like have formal dress parties where we all got together and put on our dresses and felt pretty. The only one I fit into was mine so I'm behind everyone in the picture to hid the fact that I am in the same dress I was last time.

In January of 2007 I had to have 3 surgeries on my foot leaving me out of my crazy exercise for a while. I never regained the active lifestyle that I had and have basically been gaining weight since.

The real question is why have I been so comfortable with my pretty obvious unhealthy and unflattering weight gain when before, when I looked much better, I was so unhappy with my appearance?

Happy Christmas!

I'm already thinking about what I want to make for my family's Christmas Dinner. Menu planning is one of my favorite things and holiday foods are even better! I was thinking that an international dinner would be fabulous to make things new and different. But now I'm wondering if I should just do an English dinner... hmmmm... so many yummy choices. Any thoughts?

Thinking back

You know what I did on 9/11/01? I went to school. My 1st period teacher kept saying things like she didn't know if we were going to be staying in school all day. I was confused. I could not figure out what was going on. I got sent home from school. I learned what happened when I went home, but it didn't really mean anything to me. I think I went to pizza hut. I mocked my siblings the next day as they went to school and I didn't. I desperately hoped that while I was out of school Mom would not have the baby because a) that would basically ruin my birthday and b) I would be stuck in the hospital. As I have gotten older it has meant more, but at the time I was just glad I didn't have to go to school.

People you make me grumpy

Girl, you are making me crazy angry. When you borrow something and then leave somewhere out of state, please return it or make plans to give it back. And DO NOT blame it on me or tell me that you shouldn't have to because you washed dishes. What a poop head.

Fitness goal number 2

The Teton Dam 10k was about 2 and a half weeks ago. I did well for myself. The course took me about an hour and 20 minutes which is my fastest time. It felt pretty excellent. Except the past 2 and a half weeks I haven't exercised at all and my candy and unhealthy consumption has skyrocketed. Basically, I feel like I have totally regressed. Any weight that I lost I'm going to gain back and then some if I don't stop. Through this whole 10k thing I learned that I am only motivated to exercise when I have to, when something is making me, so I'm doing the triathlon in Ridgecrest this fall. Starting Monday I will work my butt off.

Update on my shoes. I fail. I have some pictures but I lost my camera which was really smart of me. So I have to find that piece of technology. Also, I learned that there is a reason I don't wear some shoes as often as I do. OW! And these things look innocent. I developed a huge blister on the back of my ankle. Then I went to the lake and dirt got into it, so I cut off the skin so I could get the dirt out and not cause and big icky mess in my leg, as much fun as that sounds. I'm wearing my comfiest shoes until this thing is gone or at least away enough that shoes that hit in the exact right spot don't make me want to tear my feet off. In addition I have a gnarly sunburn on my back and I don't give a crap. Not sleeping well does that too a person. So here's to me getting over my back and healing up my foot, or locating enough dollars to buy some bandaids to cover the blistered spot. Oh, and my camera. That too. Where did I put that thing?

Now for the real reason I'm writing this post. None of my favorite cousins are online to talk to me right now to talk to me. And I think my roommates started ignoring me in their efforts to go to bed and do homework. I don't understand. Isn't watching Christy make a sad face so much more important? How does that even make sense? I already talked most of this out to Chelsea and was just sitting around making a sad face, but feel the need to talk about it more. It's still stuck inside of me, no matter how nicely I say, "Dear Feelings, Leave now. Please"

It's story time! One of my very favorite and best friends up here is a guy named Bryce. (and it's totally ok that I'm writing this. We're cousins! 4th cousins but that's another story) The first time that I met him was almost a year and a half ago, now. He texted his sister, Esther, who was and still is my favoritest Esther roommate, a question about his AP lit homework. Fairly fresh from AP myself I helped Esther answer. (Her brain was way too bogged down with college-y English stuff. or something) In an attempt to get around a rather awkward dinner with roommates, a roommate's boy friend, and that boyfriend's friend, I took Esther's phone and proceeded to text Bryce. We ended up texting for about two hours. Pretty impressive according to me. I saw him another time that semester and it was a little awkward. It probably didn't help that he walked in on me and my roommates taking pictures with our superman cardboard cut out. I saw him for about 3 seconds in the fall when I came to visit with my mom and Rachael. Still weird. The first time I saw him this year he was singing Boys, Boys, Boys by Lady Gaga really high and it was hilarious. I laughed at him and still do. That's his ringtone now and he can never live it down, no matter how much he shakes his head at me.

Anyway, back on topic, Bryce is a wonderful, wonderful person who I cherish to pieces. I feel like I can tell him anything. I can be my most ridiculous and my most serious, though that doesn't happen too often. Last week I had a drama with an old friend to deal with and it was stressing me out. The three people that I told it to were Arianne, Rach and Bryce. He was so helpful calming me down. I haven't been his friend that long, but he's quickly moved up the ranks of my closest confidants.

Recently, Bryce got his mission call. He's leaving in August. I'm going to be in Idaho for the couple weeks between school ending and Bryce leaving so I hope I'll be able to see him then. But after that, he'll be gone for two years. At about his year mark I'll be putting my own mission papers in and getting a call. I realized this weekend that after August I won't see him for at least 2 and a half years, but probably somewhere closer to the three year mark. Right now I don't feel like I can handle it. 2.5 to 3 years is a long time to not see one of your best friends and it doesn't help to know that I am an awful letter writer. I hope I can get better. I need to for my own sanity.