Keep it Comin'

Hey Everyone:) Hannah B. here from session 11. Just wanted to share a few things that are going on in my life, in the short amount of time I have been home.
So, before I left camp I was really nervous about my consistency, as far as reading the Bible and spending time in the word. I'm typically a prettyyy lazy person, which doesn't really help much. So anyway, that was my main goal; to just be consistent. My other goal was and is to be a light to those around me, and just resist temptation that I would normally give in to. WELL I knew I would be faced with challenges when I got home, but what I expected is totally different from what I have been receiving.
I really thought when I got home, I would be tempted like I have never been tempted before, most especially by my peers, and even my close friends. But what I found was more like a challenge within myself. Like a temptation to just blow off reading the Bible and spending time in prayer. I'll give you the low-down on what happened.
When I got home, suddenly all that energy I had in Quest vanished. I was EXHAUSTED!!!! It felt like all I wanted to do was sleep, and sleep some more. I figured that was to be expected, because you know I was just getting home from a long week, and you know it was normal. But my exhaustion pretty much continued for several days, to the point where it was pretty extreme. I can't tell you how badly I would get home from wherever I was this last past week and just want to collapse on my bed. But I knew I was being tested, and I continued to spend time in the word. I remember one night I was particularly tired, and it was the second night back from camp, but I was filled with this intense excitement to just get into the word that night. I had a plan for how things would go after I got home from wherever I was. I would go home, shower, do my Bible study, and SLEEP!! So..I get home, and my air conditioning just completely DIED upstairs, where my room is. I just got so frustrated, because I had a plan that night, and I wanted it to stick that way...But I figured, no big deal. I'll just sleep on the air mattress downstairs. I can still do my Bible study down there. But still, I continued to be tested. While doing my Bible study, my air mattress slowly started to deflate..for N O particular reason. So I basically slept on the ground that night. But I still did my Bible study, thank you very much!!! And I was completely exhausted, more than before, the next day. haha. I know that's not a big deal to some of ya'll, but it just goes to show how the Devil will do anything for you to just GIVE UP..just that ONE NIGHT!. I can't tell you how tempted I was to just not read the Word that night, and just sleep. So that was the air-mattrress fiasco. But there's more:)
I had All State Choir Camp last week at night. Around like...Thursday, I started having like a sore throat, adding on to the exhaustion. Well, over the weekend it just has gotten worse and worse, and now I can barely talk. And to be honest, I don't have much patience when I'm sick. But still, even when I feel especially sick or TIRED, I pray that the Lord will give me energy, and will help me start feeling better, all for the purpose of me staying consistent.
A word of encouragment:
We ALL are probably being tested in some way or another right now. Whether it's something like what I'm going thru,, or peer pressure, it's happening with ALL of us. Remember what we read in James. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverence. Perserverence must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in ANYTHING." James 1:2-4 We are here as servants of God, and it should be a COMFORT that whatever we are facing, if we lean on the Lord in our times of 'trials of many kinds', we will grow stronger in him.
God BLESS, and MUCH LOVE!!!
Hannah Becker