As I reflect on this past year and look to the last couple of days in the semester I find an overarching theme in my life: God’s faithfulness. God has taught me a lot this year. Some of it has been hard like when he has taught me about pain, obedience, patience, and abandonment. But then in all of this he has also shown me his faithfulness. Although at times I have felt neglected and abandoned by Him. I have sent up prayers wondering if they were being heard. I have cried out wondering if He cared about my tears. I hung on to the peace that he gave to me. The peace that kept me patient when I wanted an answer, the peace that made me obedient when I didn’t want to do something, the peace that gave comfort to my pain, and the peace that reminded me that I was not alone. God has been faithful. He walked me through every step of the way this year, and now I see how he has. Even now, with only a couple more days left in the semester, he is pushing away all my fears and doubts to show me more who He is. He has brought me through this year, teaching me things that will forever affect my life. What a year it has been!

I have come to this verse often this past year:
Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

My hall has been such an amazing blessing this year. We have all gotten real close and I love them all so much! We have so much fun together: we love having dance parties, having hall meetings talking about a date one of the girls had that evening, acting completely goofy, having dinners together, and just getting to know one another better.

So tonight after our hall had gone to dinner we were called into our RA’s room. We all piled in to the bathroom where we found our RA fixing her hair getting ready to go on a date with her boyfriend. It wasn’t long though before we saw the shimmering diamond peek through her dark brown locks. We all went crazy. Her boyfriend had asked her to marry him, she was engaged! The hall went hysterical and finally settled down to hear the story. She continued to get ready as she told us how he had taken her out to this park and as they sat on a blanket under an umbrella he began to read he a poem. Then before she even realized what was happening he was on his knee asking her to marry him. The hall was so excited for her and helped her finish getting ready and walked her to the elevator wishing her to have a wonderful night.

It makes me sad thinking about leaving these girls for the summer. They have become so special to me. I am excited though that God has a funny way of working things out and I will once again be living in room 522 on Chi Alpha next year. And the best part about it is we get a whole bunch of new freshmen on the hall too next year! I’m looking forward to another fun year with the girls!