Anthropology

I really don't like my anthropology class. These are my reasons why:

1. It takes up potentially 4 hours of my Monday depending on how long of a lab we have.
2. I do not like monkeys. Small ones are cute but we don't study the cute kind. In fact, I am scared of monkeys (especially the one from Toy Story 3, and yes I do have to close my eyes)
3. In lab, we have to touch bones. Real, human bones. And in one of the labs we studied a real baby human skull. I felt like I was going to pass out and cry at the same time. Thankfully I did neither.
4. My teacher looks like a monkey. Actually, that is the biggest argument she has in telling me we are related to them.
5. Evolution. I studied evolution all through school, and the biggest reason I took this class was because I knew a lot about evolution. I am not sure but I may be the only Creationist in the class, at least the only outspoken one. In a class where I should be enjoying the wonder and complexity of God's creation, I am having to regurgitate lies for my teacher in order to pass.

Doubt

Tonight I went to RUF and the speaker Matt Howell spoke on John 20:24-31 on the topic of doubt and faith. The message was really good and actually something that I needed to hear. Recently I have been struggling with whether or not it is right to doubt God. Not that I am at all but some things have happened lately that made me wonder if a reaction of doubt is as terrible as I always thought it was.

One of the points Matt made in his message was that we put too much faith in our faith. We tend to base our view of God on how much we allow ourselves to rely on Him for. When I have moments when I feel I have faith to move mountains, I think nothing is better than my God. But when I have moments where my faith is a mustard seed I start wondering where my awesome God is. The reality is that no matter how much I trust in Him, he will always be exactly the same. Instead of putting my faith in how I respond to God for what happens in my life, I need to just know that His response will always be the same towards me. When I focus on that, there is no room for me to doubt Him.

Smile :)

There are so many different smiles in the world. There is my embarrassed blushing smile, my half smirk smile, my laughing smile, and my everyday, normal, all the time smile. I started thinking about this last Thursday when I was getting lunch at McAlisters. I forgot to tell the cashier that i needed my food to go, so when i picked my food up at the window i grabbed a bag on the counter. As I was about to walk away, the girl who called out the names said "Oh you should have just asked for me to make it to go!" I quickly responded "Its ok I got it!" Then she said something that has stuck with me throughout this week. She said "Normally I make people do it themselves but you were smiling so I would have done it for you." 
Do people really go through the day and not smile at other people? Was that really all I had to do? Just smile? 
Today I had the opportunity to sit in on staff worship at camp. I, along with the rest of the praise and worship team, was asked to sit in front of the staff as they prayed for and encouraged us as a team and as individuals. When Shelley mentioned my smile I remembered the McAlister incident and started thinking that maybe I smile too much. Which then ironically made me smile because I don't think that's possible!
I know that smiling is not just my personality. It's definitely not that I am not a worrying person. Its that I have a God who will take away my negative thoughts and feelings if I just give them to Him. He is the one who gives me the joy that people seem to notice in me. And He uses it to catch other people's attention and makes people feel comfortable enough to open up to me. Or at least recognize there is something different about me enough to offer to help with a simple task. I know God has many different ways He uses me to reach people, and my smile is one of them. :)