life. faithful.

What do you do when you're totally level-headed, feet planted firmly on the ground,      but your heart wants to fly? I've always been a realist. You know the type--always saying things like, "That would be great, but it's just not plausible." I'm in grad school for physics--good grief, how much more realistic can you get? When I get my degree in a few years and go back out to the real world, I'll have lots of doors opening for me. There will be good pay, regular hours, and everything that goes with those. My kids will be well provided for, my husband will finally be able to pursue his dreams, I'll be doing something that I know helps people, and I'll finally be able to pay back, in some small way, all those who have given so much to get me to this place. My brain sees all those things as good (well, duh--why wouldn't it?). The journey is all mapped out, and all the steps lead across solid ground. Sure there is the possibility for t...

So, school is crazy right now and I have so much physics I should be doing. I have a Modern Physics test  at 8:30 in the morning tomorrow, Quantum Mechanics and Classical Mechanics homework due Friday, a Classical Mechanics test I'll start Friday, Modern homework due next Tuesday... In true Mandy-style, then, I'm procrastinating. I realized it has been quite a while since I posted pictures of the most beautiful kids in the world, so I figured it must be time for picture overload!   A while back we took a trip up to Cabela's to show the kids where Nathan works. As you can see from the picture above, Raiden was her usual girly self and Conan was super excited to be going... oh wait, half of that statement may have been a bit sarcastic...   Once there, they were both pretty excited to see the giant grizzlies fighting over the antlers. So above we have the "before" Halloween picture. I was escorting Snow White and Batman this year. Below is the aft...

"God works in mysterious ways." "It must have just been God's will." How many times have you heard those statements? I know I have; too many times to count. Most of the time they're said in response to a tragedy or when something else terrible happens. It seems like so many times as Christians we are told that we aren't supposed to ask questions. We are supposed to take everything at face value without ever trying to dig any deeper. In Matthew 18:3 , Jesus tells us that we should have child-like faith. Most of the time this is equated with simplistic faith (which is partly why so many of my peers in the science world have such a hard time with Christianity). People point to children's faith in their parents as an example. Though there are obvious exceptions, most of the time children don't have to wonder if their parents love them. Children trust their parents to take care of them, and they have no doubt that their parents will live up ...

Sometimes it's easy to feel like our prayers don't go any higher than the ceiling. We don't feel like God is hearing us, and we definitely aren't hearing anything from Him. Have you ever felt like that? If you're honest, I imagine you'll say you have. I know I have. You know what? You aren't alone. Mother Teresa, a woman know the world over for her faith, told those close to her that her heart was broken because she felt like she was living silence for somewhere around five decades. Seriously. 50 years feeling like she wasn't hearing anything from God. Numbers vary, but Noah and his family were cooped up on the ark for somewhere around a year. I can't say for sure, but I imagine it is safe to say that they felt like God was being pretty silent there for a while. I don't know about you, but when I feel like that I just want to quit. I get this thought in my head that apparently God doesn't care about what I'm doing because H...

So, I told you that once I finished my homework I would post it here for you to see. Well, here you go! ***** I believe that God is the Almighty Creator, the One who spoke this complex yet somehow incredibly simple universe into existence out of nothing ( Hebrews 11:3 ), through the power of His Word who is Christ Jesus ( John 1:1-3 ). I believe that God made us in His image ( Genesis 1:26&27 ), but through our sins we have fallen way below the bar of perfection that He set for us, and in ourselves we are incapable of pleasing Him ( Romans 5:12, 8:8 ). Despite all our failings, though, He still loves us. In fact, He loves us so much that He gave us His Word; both through the Scriptures which were spoken by God ( II Timothy 3:16&17 ) and have the ability to cut us to the quick to reveal the true thoughts of our hearts ( Hebrews 4:12 ); and through the Son, Jesus, who left His seat next to the Father and took on the fragile, weak, humble body of a man who would be slain as t...