CW14~ Montage in Words and Music

Our assignment this week was to create a ‘media autobiography’.  What’s that?  As I found out, it is a collection of books and songs to represent my life and who I am.  So its in autobiography with media.  Makes sense, I guess.  Hope you enjoy!  🙂

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These books and songs represent my interests, significant events, and shaping factors in my life.  This is a collection of snapshots of me — a sort of collage of who I am. 

“VeggieTales Theme Song” — Mike Nawrocki

Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber were my first fandom.  By the time I was three, I could identify and name Bob, Larry, Jimmy, Jerry, Junior, and the French Peas.  I checked the videos out of our church library (on VHS) and watched them with my younger siblings.  We listened to the stories and songs on cassette and later CD.  My aunt even made me piñatas of the different characters for my birthday.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — C.S. Lewis

Before I could even read, Daddy read aloud this book to me in the four-part, abridged version that came in our Chick-Fil-A kids meals.  On car trips, our family would listen to Focus on the Family’s audio dramas of the Chronicles, and my siblings and I used to pretend we were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, getting presents from Father Christmas and battling the White Witch.  Now that we are older (and some of us have fallen in love with Tolkien), our interactions on Narnia have changed to things like debating which order to read them in (order of publication v. chronological order) and what exactly Lewis meant by Emeth in the Last Battle, but Narnia is still a favorite fantasy of our family.  I have read all the books at one point or another, watched several versions of the different movies, and count Narnia as one of my favorite series.  To me, the Chronicles of Narnia represent my earliest introduction to heroism, to courage, to faith, to magic, to other worlds, to imagination.

The Handmade Marketplace — Kari Chapin

Making things and making things beautiful is something I love, whether it be through art, sewing, or crafting.  I have taken several art classes over the years, and really enjoy using all sorts of media, particularly pencil drawing, colored pencils, charcoal, and watercolors.  Around seven or eight, I started hand sewing, and I took a machine sewing class at age ten.  From handmade dolls for my sisters and I to headbands to skirts, I have made (and mended) all sorts of things.  Though I do not craft as much, I still love scrapbooking, making cards, and making jewelry.

Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends — Sarah, Stephen, and Grace Mally

I am the oldest of seven (going on eight!) children, and my family is a significant part of who I am.  This is a book I worked through with Mom when I was around twelve to help me develop better relationships with my siblings.  To me, this book represents my big family, the time my Mom spent with me to read this book together, and the close friendships I have with my brothers and sisters.

 

The Tanglewoods’ Secret — Patricia St. John

This was one of our school read-alouds in fourth grade, and like most Patricia St. John books, it tells a captivating children’s story while expertly weaving in the gospel, making it understandable through parallels to the plot without being preachy.  While this was not as exciting as some of her other works, this is the book I was thinking of when I asked Jesus into my heart in September 2007.

“Be Thou My Vision” — Dallan Forgail

In addition to being my favorite, this is one of the earliest hymns I learned.  I love the beautiful, Celtic melody and the inspiring words.  Hymns set to old Irish or English folk tunes are one of my favorite music styles.  Ireland and old Celtic designs meet with the similar soft, green beauty of the Appalachian Mountains where I live to create a natural, yet elegant style that I love (as seen in my blog).

Stepping Heavenward — Elizabeth Prentiss

This was written in 1869 in the form of a diary chronicling a young woman’s journey with God from sixteen to her mid—thirties.  The main character, Katy, is not a saint or an Elsie Dinsmore, but a real girl who genuinely wrestles with real issues — a quick temper, boys, death, marriage, children, difficult in—laws, sickness — yet seeks God in the midst of it all.  Mom gave it to me to read when I was around thirteen or fourteen, and a couple years ago, I gave it to my younger sister to read.  For me, it painted such a realistic picture of a human girl with human struggles committedly walking with God through all of her life.  And this is what I want to do with my life.

Starter Vegetable Gardens — Barbara Pleasant

I got this book for my fourteenth birthday, and, aided by its wisdom, I have taken a stab at actually growing something productive in the backyard this year and last year.  But to me, gardening is more than merely producing vegetables.  Gardening means working outside — which I love.  Gardening means breathing in summer — my favorite season.  And gardening means the astounding miracle of gigantic amounts of life — vines and stems and flowers and tomatoes — coming from a few miniscule, dead—looking seeds.  God’s creation is an unending adventure of marvels.

Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen

I did not read this until high school, but when I did, Mom and Dad let my siblings and I watch the six-hour, BBC TV miniseries.  After this introduction followed more books and movies:  Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion.  Since our introduction to Austen almost three years ago, our family references something from her almost daily.  Sometimes it is to illustrate a personality using Lydia Bennet, Mr. Collins, or one of Jane Austen’s other timeless characters.  Usually, though, it is to quote some relevant line from the movie, one of our favorites being:  “Why should I wink at you, silly child?”

Virginia:  Simply Beautiful — Charles Gurche

Virginia is my favorite state for three reasons.  First, I live in Virginia, specifically in the New River Valley in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Second, I love Virginia’s climate and natural beauty.  My favorite scenes are shreds of hazy mist entwined about the deep green mountains, reminding me of Ireland.  And third, Virginia symbolizes my favorite period of history:  the founding of America.  The eastern side of the state boasts the historical triangle of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown, and nearly every year our family visits this modern—day museum as part of Dad’s single ‘destination’ business trip.  Virginia is the best out of the fifty, in my opinion.

Captain John Smith’s map of Virginia

 

 

 

Best Blogging Buddies Award

So, I was nominated for this twice (yay!) by Michael and Sarah a looong time ago.* The 5 rules of this are as follows:

1. You must make a post to show your award on your main blog.
2. You must tag the person who nominated you in your post.
3. You must nominate all of your best buddies, and those whom you want to become best buddies with, who, to your knowledge, have not been nominated, for this award.  (Although this rule is more flexible, it would seem, and has been bent several times now. :))
4. You must ask your buddies at least 15 questions on your post.
5. You must answer all of the questions your buddies ask you. On your post.

*I apologize to you two for taking sooo long to post this.  😦

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Here are my answers to Michael’s questions

1. Favorite book?
   • Why must you ask that?!  Let’s see.  There’s the Bible, of course, which is written by God Himself, His very words — hard to beat. 😉  In the regular-old-human-author genre, I like Stepping Heavenward, the Chronicles of Narnia, Pearl Maiden, the Viking Quest series, The Bronze Bow, and To Have and To Hold.  I don’t know if I necessarily have one favorite.  😦  If I had to pick… hmm.  It would depend on what mood I was in when you asked me. 😉  There.  I have successfully evaded the question.  ;P
2. Favorite movie?
   • I don’t like picking favorites!  I might have to say either the 1996 BBC Pride and Prejudice or the 2010 BBC Emma.  But I also love the 2007 Sense and Sensibility and Disney’s Narnias (give or take a few scenes).  And I like Frozen, too — when it comes to animated movies.  Again, I will evade the question…
3. Favorite game?
   • Probably chess (as far as board games go)
4. If you had to choose between your phone or your computer which would it be?
   • Easy — my computer (though it’s not technically mine).  I don’t have a phone. ;P
5. If your best friend’s life was on one side, and the lives of everyone else in the world was on the other, which would you choose?
   • The lives of everyone else in the world (that way I get to stay alive!).  ;P  Okay.  It would be an awful choice to have to make, but I think I would probably explain to best friend (probably one of my siblings 🙂 the situation, and they would hopefully understand.  But thank goodness I don’t actually have to make this choice!
6. How do you reconcile killing in the military with the sixth commandment (if you reconcile it all)? (I am being super philosophical right now. 😉 )
   • The 6th commandment forbids murder, not killing — something God commands in other places in the Bible such as the conquest of Canaan and as punishment for murder.  Murder is taking the life of another in cold blood, that is, without the victim being able to defend himself.  War involves the individuals in both parties openly putting their lives on the line for the cause of their side, and therefore the killing is not murder.  Furthermore, on the battlefield, the combat and killing is a matter of self-defense.  Of course, all this does not diminish the fact that killing — no matter the reason — destroys life and shatters families, and consequently, war should only be engaged cautiously and for worthwhile reasons.
7. Okay, a morelight hearted question. Chocolate or vanilla?
   • Chocolate — especially chocolate milk!  Except for, I think, when it comes to ice cream.  Chocolate ice cream does not taste quite like chocolate…
8. Would you swim laps or go cross-country running?
   • I haven’t done much of either.  But I like running, and I like the country, so I’ll go with the latter.
9. When did you start writing?
   • I started writing when I was really little — A, B, C.  Okay, I’m not exactly sure when the precise date was.  I used to hate writing because I did so badly at it and didn’t like what I had to write about.  Mom worked and worked with difficult me on it, and I finally got the point where I could write well, at least, enough to get better feedback on my papers.  When I realized I could do well at it, I started liking it more and more.  It’s been a kind of gradual process, starting probably sometime in middle school.
10. When did you finish your first novel?
    • I haven’t started. ;P
11. What is the most important part of a story?
    • The characters.  If you have unrealistic, undeveloped, unoriginal/too stereotypical, boring, our poorly picked characters, the story will flop — no matter what your writing style.  And vice versa — if you have good characters, people will read your work, even if your style is a little awkward.
12. If you had to describe a nine-dimensional world in one sentence, how would you do it? (Yes, I am cheating a bit, but who knows? I may get inspired. XD)
    • A nine-dimensional world is a world with nine dimensions.  (Lame, I know.)  Frankly, I’m not exactly sure what I nine-dimensional world is, so I’m left with sarcasm…  😦
13. If you had to change your name, what would you change it to?
    • I really don’t know.  I kind of like my name…  Maybe something with Elizabeth, since that is my middle name.  But then, I love Katharina.  Then again, the dream fantasy name I made up for myself (when I came up with Halaran) was Aeriana.  So, I don’t know.  (If you can’t tell, I struggle with being decisive.)
14. Given the choice of a ten million dollars or a close friend, which would you choose?
    • $10 million would bring you a lot of friends.  ;P  I don’t know.  I have some friends (though not exactly a ‘bosom friend’)  already, and I’m close with my siblings and all, so I’m tempted to be pragmatic.  And I guess I could always just go through life making friends the way I am now…  So I guess I’ll pick the cash — there are so many things you could do with it!
15. What world leader do you admire the most, and why?
    • Among those living, uh, I don’t really know.  Among those in history, I like admire Napoleon and Winston Churchill for their powerful speaking skills and George Washington (though he wasn’t exactly world leader) because of his humility, perseverance, and character.  And I’m not sure if Jesus counts as a world leader, since He wasn’t really a political leader, but if so, I like Him best because of His humility, love, wisdom, power, selflessness, speaking abilities, self-sacrifice, and all around for being God with us!

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My answers to Sarah’s questions~ 1. How many novels have you written, if any?

• Zero.  I’m a bit of an ambitious perfectionist, and to me, a book has to be great enough to be read a hundred years from now to be worth writing and publishing among the humongous market for them out there. ;P  Like Amy says in Little Women about art:  “Rome took all the vanity out of me.  I want to be great or nothing.”

2. If you could live in any book, which one would it be?

• One of the Chronicles of Narnia — probably either one of the ones with the four children and/or Caspian in them  (i.e. not LB).  They’re just hard to beat!  🙂

3. Favorite snack?

• Cheese-its!  And I love anything with chocolate!

4. If you could have any pet, including mythical creatures, what would it be? (Don’t take maintenance into consideration.)

• Love your parenthecital remark!  Not taking that into consideration, I would have a pet unicorn — something akin to Jewel in The Last Battle.  🙂

5. What are your favorite genres to read and/or write?

• Historical fiction and fantasy — both to read and to write.  🙂

6. What are your pet peeves?

• Hmm.  I don’t like fingernails on a chalkboard, stuff laying all over my bed when I want to get in/on it (there’s this girl who always leaves stuff on it), not being able to find the thing I just set down 30 seconds ago, having to put down a project or a book right in the middle of an exciting part, and that’s all I can come up with right now.  A rather pathetic list, I know…  Sigh.

7. If you could take the skill of any author, which one would it be and why?

• Too many authors!  I love Jane Austen’s witty commentary on characters, but I think I may have to go with C.S. Lewis.  He wrote Narnia and was an amazingly clever thinker and writer.  🙂

8. Which book character (or characters) do you most relate to?

• When I first read the question, my reaction was a rather blank, “Uhh…”  I guess I will go with Lucy Pevensie. (Narnia again!)  She is curious, innocent, and optimistic (not that I am necessarily all those things all the time, but I think she’s the closest to me I’m coming up with right now.)

9. What is your favorite music genre and/ or artist?

• I like Celtic-style hymns best, I think.  My favorite artist is Michael Card (and, among other things, he does Celtic-style hymns!)  But I like classical music — Mozart, Vivaldi, some of the more livelier composers — a lot, too.

10. Love triangles: yay or nay?

• Well, maybe not love, but I definitely like them — especially if they are congruent! 😉  CPCTC

11. What makes a book good?

• As I wrote for Michael’s question, good characters make a good book.  If you have unrealistic, undeveloped, unoriginal/too stereotypical, boring, our poorly picked characters, the story will flop — no matter what your writing style.  And vice versa — if you have good characters, people will read your work, even if your style is a little awkward.

12. Surprise!  Your novel is being made into a movie.  Who do you want to be a part of the production?  (Could be actors, directors, soundtrack writers, etc.)

• Well, since I don’t have a novel, this is a little hard to answer…  I might pick Andrew Davies (from Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility) as screenwriter and maybe Harry Gregson-Williams (of Narnia fame) as composer.  Actors I like include: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keenes, and Ramola Garai among others.

13. Which superpower would you chose and why?

•  This is hard!  Well, invisibility is just about impossible to beat.  But flying would be amazing, too!  Perhaps I’d pick flying invisibly… 😉

14. Favorite book growing up?

• I kind of still am growing up.  😉  But when I was younger… Hmm.  I know I remember reading the short little books that made up the story The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — the little ones we got from Chik-fil-A 😉 with Dad and liking those (maybe that’s why I’m addicted).  One of my favorite series growing up was the Promised Land Diaries — historical fiction set in Bible times and written in diary form.

15. Do you kill your characters left and right, or do you do keep them alive at all costs?

• I probably tend to keep them alive.  (:>  I don’t really like killing people…

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Okay.  And even though everybody seems to have been nominated at least twice, here are my nominees~

Celia

Jessica

Rachel Elizabeth R

Sarah 🙂

Anne

Just because I want to see some of ya’ll’s answers to these questions… And, nominees, here I will note that you need not feel compelled to do this if you don’t want to since I realize the BBBA™ craze is kind of over… And to all CW classmates whom I was not able to officially nominate, feel free to comment or answer some or all of the questions on your own blogs or in the comments.  I would nominate all of you if I could!  🙂

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Here are my questions:

1. Do you play an instrument?  If so, which one?  And if you could play any instrument you don’t already play, which would you pick?
2. What is your favorite parable of Jesus?
3. Mexican food or Italian – which is do you like better?
4. Favorite dessert?
5. What is your favorite hymn/sacred song?  Favorite Christmas carol?  Why
6. If you could be amazing at any sport, what would you pick?
7. Which Star Wars is the best?  And do you like the Prequels or the Trilogy better?
8. In Little Women (the one with Winona Ryder), have you ever noticed the drool string between Laurie and Jo when they kiss?
9. What is your dream weapon – Excalibur? A light saber?  Susan’s bow and arrows?  A [boring!] .22?  (And you don’t actually have to know how or be able to use it.)
10. Is Jane Austen only for girls?
11. Do you prefer the chronicles of Narnia in chronological order or in the order they were written?
12. Have you ever sung out loud ‘Let It Go’ — even if no one else could hear you?
13. If you could pick any time in the Bible to live, when would you pick?
14. If you could only read on Old Testament and one New Testament book for the rest of your life (God forbid 🙂 ), which would you pick?
15. And finally, is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? On that note, do you say tom-AY-to or tom-AH-to?

I hope you enjoy!  🙂

CW10~ In Which I Meet a Mouse

Our assignment was to write about an imaginary meeting with either a historical or fictional character.  After brainstorming with my brother, I decided to meet one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite series:  Reepicheep from the Chronicles of Narnia.  I wrestled a lot with writers block on this assignment — ugh! — but in the end, I think I like how this assignment turned out.

A couple of quick notes on this post~  1) I described Reepicheep as black with a shrill voice as Lewis describes him in the books.  This does not mean I picture him this way.  😉  2)  ‘Chelra’ is an anagram of my name and is pronounced ‘Kelra’.

I hope you enjoy!  And don’t forget to comment!  🙂

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 “I can hardly believe it!” I grinned, running down the hill towards the stream at the bottom.  “Mother actually let me go off and explore by myself for the afternoon.  Well, I suppose it is only because it’s my birthday…”  My thought trailed off as I slowed myself down and managed to stop at the base of the slope.   “The woods in Narnia are so lovely in August!” I exhaled delightedly.

After a few more moments of drinking in the scene, the sun, and the sounds of the rushing water, I set off to follow the stream down into the woods. 

“Hello! Hello!” a squirrel chattered from the branch of the beech tree above me.

I smiled and waved back.  Now that Aslan had come back and Caspian X had been placed on the throne, the old Narnians – the talking animals, the dwarves, the centaurs, the fauns, the dryads and naiads – had all come out of hiding.  I was still astonished at how many were left after the many crusades led by my people, the Telmarines, in the attempt to exterminate them.  “My own great-grandfather fought in one of those,” I remembered ashamedly.  “But those days are gone,” I declared out loud, resolutely shaking my head to banish my dismal reflections.  “Narnia is alive!”  And this afternoon, I was part of it.

I had rambled about for an hour or two, when I heard the sound of horses coming through the woods.  Then, there were voices – men’s voices, a youth’s voice, a shrill voice.  They came closer.  Hiding behind a sturdy maple tree, I peered around the trunk and waited to see these unknown intruders.

In a moment, the riders emerged.  First, on a black charger rode the youth.  He was curly-headed and blond, wearing green hunting dress with a dagger and horn at his side, and looked to be about sixteen.  Following rode several older men, also in green.  With one of these I saw a flash of red, and starting in surprise, I saw a small creature mounted behind one of the hunters.  It was a dark mouse, I realized, about three feet tall, wearing a golden circlet with a red feather jauntily sticking up out of it.  And thrust into a small strap across his furry chest was the tiniest rapier I had ever seen.

They had nearly reached the tree I from which I was watching when the mouse noticed me.

“And who goes there?”  His was the shrill voice I had heard.

To my embarrassment, the entire party halted their horses and turned to look where the mouse gestured with his sword.

A frantic thought of running home as fast as I could flashed through my mind, but I just as quickly dismissed it.  I knew they would be able to quickly overtake me, since they were on horseback and I was on foot.  And as they were plainly not ruffians, I felt it would be safer to risk their acquaintance than their pursuit.  Coloring, I stepped out from behind the maple.  “I am Chelra of Haladale.”  As I dropped a quick curtsy, I noticed my bare feet were hardly clean.  “And at my age, too!” I thought, biting my lip.

“And that is the village yonder, I presume?” the mouse inquired.

“Yes,” I nodded timidly.

“Good lady,” interjected the youth, “my companions and I are looking for a place to refresh ourselves.  Would you be so kind as to show us the way to this village?”

Again, I nodded.  “Of course, sirs.”

“It is not far, I hope?” one of the men queried.

“No, sir,” I answered.  “I came from there only this afternoon, and I must go back for supper, so I have not wandered far.”

The man nodded.

“Take the lead, Chelra of Haladale,” the mouse rejoined gallantly.  “I shall follow you,” he added, dismounting.

Several others followed his example, excepting a few of the oldest men and the one dwarf.

A little shyly, I took the lead and began weaving my way back towards the edge of the woods and the village.  I desperately wanted to ask them who they were and what they were doing here.  “But come on Chelra,” I scolded myself.  “It’s obvious they are hunting, and you don’t want to sound too nosy.”  Fortunately for me – though unfortunately for my curiosity – the men did not ask me what I was doing there.

The mouse, however, caught up to me, and walked beside me in silence for a few minutes, before inquiring, “And so, what brings a lady so far into the forest?”

“It is my seventeenth birthday today, Sir Mouse,” I explained, “and my mother said that I might explore in the woods this afternoon – so long as I am home in time for dinner.”  I hoped he would not think me childish for frolicking so.

“I see.”  His red feather bobbed as he punctuated his words with a succinct nod.

“And what brings you here?”  I felt that asking the mouse was less awkward than asking one of my own kind.

“Well, my lady, my king, Caspian, is out hunting today along with a party of his knights and squires of which I am honored to be a member,” he informed me.

“Caspian the king?”  I gasped – quietly enough so the others of the party would not hear me of course.  I glanced back at the blond boy behind me in awe; I had not imagined a ruler younger than myself.  Suddenly, something in my brain clicked as I turned back to the mouse.  “Then you must be…”

“I am Reepicheep, knight of Narnia and loyal servant of his majesty, Caspian X,” he introduced himself, pausing to execute a noble bow.

We emerged from the trees now, and I began to lead the party – the king’s hunting party – up the grassy slope.

“You are the mouse who fought alongside the kings and queens of old in the battle against Miraz, then?” I asked in wonder.

“The very same, lady,” Reepicheep replied, seeming honored that his reputation had preceded him.

Our conversation paused as we needed the breath to crest the last bit of the hill.

Several hundred paces away sat my town.  Turning to address my followers, I gestured, “This is Haladale, my lords.”

Some of them murmured assents, and we turned and went onward, Reepicheep the mouse still keeping step with me.

I had already given into my curiosity once, and it could hardly hurt to do so again, I reasoned.  Turning to Reepicheep, I asked pleadingly, “Please, Sir Reepicheep, will you tell me about the Battle of Aslan’s How?  For I know you were there.”

The mouse twitched his long tail delightedly and made what looked like a mouse’s smile.  “Most certainly, lady,” he replied.  With that, he proceeded to tell me of how High King Peter had dueled with  the wicked Miraz, how the Telmarine Army had attacked, how Aslan had awakened the trees and the river god, and how the sovereign lion had given him his new tail.  I listened spellbound to his vivid account.

By then, we had reached Haladale and it was time to part ways.  The young king, his hunters, and the mouse thanked me courteously, and I bid them all farewell, especially thanking Reepicheep for his company.  As soon as they rode away down the cobbled street, I ran up the road and down the path to my house.  “Mother!” I called, excitedly bounding through the door, “I met Reepicheep today!”

 

J5~ All the World’s a Stage

Have you ever been in a difficult situation that you didn’t know how you would get out of?  This was our journal prompt for this week.  My response is not so much about one particular instance, but about a mental breakthrough I had on a ‘crisis’ I had been wrestling with for a while.  My ‘difficult situation’ was  more of a mental hurdle rather than a tangible complication.  

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As a senior in high school, the question I toyed with as child – “What do you want to be when you grow up?” – becomes no longer a prospective fancy, but an imminent reality.  And as ‘when I grow up’ is becoming ‘now’, that can be just a little intimidating and stressful.  There are so many things to consider – What do I want to do?  How does this translate to secondary education and choosing a major?  If I want to be a stay-at-home mom, I don’t want to get too wrapped up in a career.  But I can’t exactly determine when or if I will marry or have children.  Whatever I choose now will alter the course of my life.  If I choose this, I’m not choosing anything else… 

This question, the big “What am I going to do next?!”, is something I have been struggling with more or less since high school began, but especially now that I am graduating in May.  I remember one day in particular over the summer that this was really bothering me, a day that I actually recorded in my personal journal.

I had been getting frustrated with other people for asking me what I was thinking about for next year and all that, particularly with Mom and Dad whose questions – and rightly so – were not so easily brushed aside by my ‘I don’t really know yet…’ answers, and frustrated with myself for not knowing, especially when so many of the others my age seemed to know what they wanted.

A few days before, my two youngest brothers were watching Prince Caspian, and I watched four confident young people come running to Trumpkin’s rescue with triumphant music playing in the background.  People in movies and books always seem to know what to do, to know their destiny, I thought longingly, if a bit romantically.  If only!

Then the thought struck me that they really often don’t.  Maybe I, as the audience, watching the piecing together of the selected scenes that tell you the key information of the whole, completed story know, but the individual characters themselves usually don’t know what will happen next or how the battle will turn out.

But the story writers do know.

This is when a quote from another movie, Love’s Enduring Promise, came to mind, when the mother tells the daughter regarding suitors, “God is writing His own story for you.”  God is the story Writer in my life.  He knows how it ends, and because He is good and in control, I know that I can trust Him with ‘what comes next’ in my life.  Now this doesn’t mean I lay back and simply wait for God to bring the next twist of plot along, but it frees me to move forward.  I don’t have to stay frozen in fear and indecision – What if I pick the wrong major and ruin my life forever?!.  I can step forward in faith, as Peter did upon the waves, keeping my eyes fixed upon the Object of my trust.

He is the Author and Screenwriter Who works all the perplexing and complicated and seemingly contradictory elements of the plot together for good, just as He did in the life of Joseph.