"Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there..."

Extreme.Winter. Conference. 2010.
Oh my goodness. It was one of the best trips I've been on. No lie! It was SO much fun! From the bus ride to the concerts and speakers each day, it was awesome! Tenth Avenue North was good, but it wasn't exactly what I expected. They are still hands down my favorite though!!!! Skillet, Newsboys, and MercyMe were all really fun to watch, and I loved Unhindered! It was such an amazing experience. The speakers were awesome too! My favorite was Tony Nolan though. He was so passionate for what he's talking about and it really came across in what he was saying. He's VERY energetic and I couldn't help but pay attention to everything he said. My friend, Tate, and I split the cost of Tony Nolan's book and are going to share it. It's really good! I'm on Chapter 3 and I love it! Something one of the chapters was talking about was being a good neighbor. Most of us have all heard the story of the good Samaritan. (Luke 10: 27-35) I went back and read it while I was reading this particular chapter and the whole time I had the stupid commercial in my head "Like a good neighbor, state farm is there!" Do you know which ones I'm talking about? Like a piano falls from the sky on this dude's car and his friend says "Man, that stinks!" but the dude laughs and says "No worries! Watch this...'Like a good neighbor State Farm is there!' then a lady in a business suit pops up and begins to talk about how State Farm can fix it and you save on insurance. Then the friend is like "Cool! Let me try it! 'Like a good neighbor state farm is there...with a jacuzzi!' It's a retarded commercial, but that's what was going through my head.
They say that State Farm is "...like a good neighbor..." What is a good neighbor? Is it someone who saves you money on car insurance? Someone you can run down the street to borrow 2 eggs from? I think that a good neighbor is someone that places your needs above his or her own. Like the Samaritan. He could've passed the dude by like the two before him did, but he didn't. He went way out of the way to make sure he could help in every way that he could.
 I didn't comprehend this really until now, but Jesus was asked in Luke by the man "who exacly is my neighbor?" and Jesus (through a parable) basically said everyone.
Leviticus 19:18 says "...love your neighbor as yourself..." It didn't hit me until on this trip but if I treated my neighbors (the people surrounding me) the same way I loved Melissa Jennings then wouldn't I have a much better chance of making an impact on someone's life for Christ? If one of our goals as Christians is to bring glory to God and to spread the love of Christ couldn't we do it much better if we truly loved the people around us?
Now, that's far easier said than done. I am definitely not saying it's something easy to do. But shouldn't we at least try? I am extremely guilty of "judging books by their cover" if someone looks like they are stuck-up, mean, and a non christian person I definitely try to avoid them and do something else. People are broken and it makes me so sad to think that they are avoiding the church and don't want anything to do with it because the experiance they've had with Christians and churches have probably been bad. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm rambling, but I can't figure out how to edit it and make it sound right. lol =)
I had so much fun on this trip! =) I love Gatlinburg! It's so pretty!!! <3 I only slipped and fell on the ice once. Hahaha it didn't hurt too bad. I do have a bruise on my leg though... lol
We have a New Year's Eve lock in tonight at church!!! I'm so excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!

In 4, 3, 2, 1...

Four days until I go to Gatlinburg!!! We always do our (Mom, Dad, Brother, Me) gifts a few days before Christmas. I am so excited!!!! I got a bunch of new CDs that I can listen to on the way to G.burg and to Crossroads (I still don't really have a clue as to were it's at. It's not too far though. lol) I got a ton of new books too! I am in LOVE with the Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn. Seriously, it is hands down my FAVORITE!!!!!!! Robin Jones Gunn wrote a few book series kind of as a continuation of minor characters from the Christy Miller books. Does that make sense? lol Like, Christy Miller is the main character and her best friends are Katie and Sierra. There is a series called Sierra Jensen series, and then there's the Katie Weldon series. I've read the Christy and the Sierra books (12 books per series) at least twice. Anyway, I borrowed the first Katie Weldon book from my library (LOVED IT) not too long ago and got my own copy of the first and second one tonight!!!! SO excited about reading those!!!!  I also got "So over my head" which is the newest in the three book series "A Charmed Life." A few days ago I got the fourth book in the series "Gallagher Girls" and I was COMPLETELY surprised to get "The Message: New Testament" tonight also!!!! I've really wanted a copy of the Message for a while but they are really expensive. This is just the New Testament, but I'm looking forward to reading it. Sooooo much to do! =D

Oh, and get this: One CD my mom got me had a single by Tenth Ave. North I haven't heard of yet!!! I totally flipped out! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! =) TWO DAYS TO CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although it has been said many times many ways, Merry Christmas to you...

Today is December 22nd. That means that in 3 days, it will be Christmas. I feel like 2010 flew by! Seriously, I can remember the New Year's Eve party we had with our youth group and it was nearly a year ago! Now we're planning on going to this year's. =)
I am so excited about Christmas!!! It's one of my favorite times of the year! Usually we have 7 trees to put up in our house, but this year we only did two. Our Disney tree and our big tree. They both look awesome!!! The hearth room is decked out in Disney stuff, and it looks super cute!
I wish I had my mom's creative gene. She can make up crafts last minute with a bag of rocks, some rope, sharpies, foam stickers, and paint. You think I'm kidding, but I've seen her do it! lol =) She's absolutely amazing...
I am SO excited for next Monday!!!! Youth group is going to Gatlinburg! (Gatlinberg? haha)  Winter Conference!!! Three Words: Tenth. Avenue. North. AH!!!!!!!!! I am SO stinkin excited!!!!!! They are my absolute favorite!!!!!!!!! Skillet, Newsboys, MercyMe, FRANCESCA BATTISTELLI, Jeremy Camp, Newsong, and The Museum will also be there. SOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!!!!!

If you don't read anything else just read the chorus...

It's falling from the clouds
A strange and lovely sound
I hear it in the thunder and rain
It's ringing in the skies
Like cannons in the night
The music of the universe plays

You are holy great and mighty
The moon and the stars declare who You are
I'm so unworthy, but still You love meForever my heart will sing of how great You are
Beautiful and free
Song of Galaxies
It's reaching far beyond the milky way
Lets join in with the sound
C'mon let's sing it loud
As the music of the universe plays

All glory, honor, power is Yours amen
All glory, honor, power is Yours amen
All glory, honor, power is Yours forever amen

Canons (Phil Wickham)

<3

Yearbook

I realized something yesterday: I absolutely adore Yearbook staff. I'm one of four sophomores and then their are thirteen upperclassmen. My responsibilities are small, make a few pages about the clubs at Arlington High, make sure I complete those pages by my deadline, take pictures for my pages, follow directions, and occasionally run a few errands. I'm definitely not a big deal, but I absolutely love this class! I love how I get to take pictures AND write! I love everybody in this class! It's absolutely amazing! <3

So on Wednesday night we had Reverb at church. It was awesome! (It always is...) We played a game where Grant would show a picture on the screen and you would pick someone to do an unknown challenge. For example, there was a picture of a crab. We had to pick two people and then they were told to "Crab walk" across the half court.
There was a picture of Mariah Carey on the screen during the round I volunteered to "compete in". (WHAT possessed me to volunteer for this one I don't know) Long story short I had to sing Feliz Navidad into a WORKING microphone in front of at least 30 people. That was one of the scariest things I've done in forever.
It was also Tacky sweater night. I WISH I had taken pictures of myself. I looked insanely stupid. I wore a HORRIBLE sweater and decorated myself in lights, wore a red nose and reindeer ears, and carried an overstuffed scottie dog wearing a santa hat. I won a new camera though! Lol =) My other one has been acting weird lately. =(
8 days to Christmas

Insert a title here...

It feels like forever since I've posted anything. This is definitely one of the busiest times of the year for the Jennings' family! It's absolutely one of my favorites though!
I've been going to the high school girl's Wed. night focus groups for a while now. It's awesome! We're currently reading this book by Francis Chan called "CrazyLove" It's insanely amazing!!!! I could sit here all day and type all of the stuff I've learned from that book, but I'll save it for another day. =)
Last night was our Christmas party! Each one of us picked a name and bought that person pajama pants! I got the most comfy pj pants EVER!!!! And they're blue!!!! =D Lol
We ate Milano's pizza, had cookies, played a few games, listened to the adorable baby Maks "talk" and just goofed off and had alot of fun. <3

10 days until Christmas!!! I'm so excited!!!!

Sounds like fun to me!

Visit The Gingerbread Shoppe on December 12th, 2:00-8:00 p.m.! 
http://angelanixon.blogspot.com/2010/11/gingerbread-shoppe_29.html