week 2 - relationships

so i'm really sorry that this blog update is completely overdue! LT and work has been keeping me so busy! I’m going to try to catch up on the last few weeks of blogging by the end of this weekend stay posted!!



as you may begin to notice, LT has a theme every week. Week 1 was fear, week two was relationships. One of my pastors from my church at Tech, Mike Swann, gave the talks, beginning with talking about David losing sight of his mission by getting too wrapped up in the "me" and the "self" and losing heart of what he was working for. On that note, he told us to be careful about making LT about something other than God.. we'll never get this kind of chance back again. He challenged us to be conscious of maybe concentrating too much on relationships (or the lack thereof) while we're here this summer. He said to use LT to get to know ourselves and God's mission for us; that's the best way to prepare yourself for a relationship anyway! He also advised that we should know what we want in a relationship BEFORE we get into one: someone who is a follower of Jesus, us both evenly yoked/similar devotion, similar mission, and taking the time to really get to know each other first.


Obviously, this theme and these talks brought up a lot for me and everyone else at LT. But in having a talk with one of my roommates for next year, I did hear some encouraging words: there is going to come a day where I find someone who is so in love with the person I am in Christ and the place I’ve found in God’s Kingdom, and that’s the person I want to be with. It was a bit of an intense week for everyone here, and this theme originally wasn’t even supposed to come that early in the summer. But, in looking back, I think we would all agree that it was really God’s timing for it to happen then because it opened up an avenue for us to work through and learn a lot of things. Sometimes when you’re walking through those toughest things or season is when the greatest things happen and you come out even closer to God.. if you’re willing to do it. :)


On Project Day we had a session on learning how to better read through the Psalms, including understanding the themes & context of each one. Then in the afternoon we had a series of talks & mini seminars about relationships as well. The first talk from Mike & Sarah Swann was similar to what they taught in the [nlcf] Dating Workshop: learning about the differences in the way men and women’s minds work and their different ways of communication, learned about the Five Love Languages, the Languages of Apology, and about better ways to deal with conflict. The 3 seminars were about personal purity, including things like physical boundaries, emotional boundaries, accountability, etc.

We also had some great conversation in Lifegroup this week, and began praying about Sarah Swann’s upcoming surgery for her blood pressure. I also got the opportunity to seek the counsel of some great friends here at LT about a lot of things that I’m learning and growing in, abnd those conversations have been so helpful. I thank God for the opportunity to be surrounded by a wonderful community of believers here at LT. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced.