I think that every person that I have encountered throughout my life has influenced the development of my character. I have seen several traits in other people that I do not want to be a part of my character; however, there are some people that have been main influences on the person that I am today. My mother is one of those people. She has been raising my brother and I by herself since I was in middle school. She has shown me how much strength it takes to get through the everyday challenges of living paycheck to paycheck especially when church and God was not a part of our lifestyle. She did not graduate from college and has taught me that hard work can only get you so far and that I should value the education that I am receiving. My grandmother is another one of those main influences. She taught me the importance of having God in my life. Without her influence in my spiritual life I do not think that I would be at Spring Arbor, let alone be the Christian I am today. She is my spiritual mentor and look to her in all areas of my spiritual walk and how I can continue to grow in my walk with Christ.

Joshua 1:9 reads, “Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” I look to this verse often because it is a constant reminder that God will be with me wherever I go, whether it be in my dorm room at SAU or across the Atlantic in Zambia, Africa, God is always walking beside me and even sometimes carrying me. I absolutely love the Footprints in the Sand poem. My favorite phrase is “The Lord replied, ‘The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand, is when I carried you.’ ” I have had a lot of struggles in life and my beach would include a lot of times when God was carrying me because I could not get through those times on my own. I must never forget that as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:10, “for when I am weak I am strong,” because God is my ultimate strength. I take the Great Commission very seriously. I think that I should go out and spread the Gospels to anyone and everyone and showing them how much God has affected my life and changed the person I am.

One of my fears is being forgotten. I want to be remembered as someone who had an impact on the community that is Spring Arbor University. I want people to know who I am and what I’ve done on campus. I want to either be a Peer Advisor (PA) or a Resident Assistant (RA). When everyone was filling out the applications to be one of those positions, I felt that God hadn’t called me to be one of those people for next year. It takes a lot to be able to impact people and almost be “in charge” of 15 students as a PA or 30 students as an RA. That was something that I felt God was telling me that I wasn’t ready for in my sophomore year. He has tugged on my heartstrings and has given me the feeling that I should hold one of those positions here on campus sometime in my college career. He, however, has been telling me to look into blogging on SAUSpace and trying to impact the campus of Spring Arbor that way. I want to impact the community that attracted to me to Spring Arbor. I want to show people why I chose Spring Arbor and I want people to see those characteristics that made me fall in love with SAU and then those people will fall in love with Spring Arbor as well. I want to help see the Spring Arbor community flourish. I want it to be something that prospective students notice and recognize as a very important part of Spring Arbor. It’s part of the SAU Concept and I want to see the concept be something that impacts all people that encounter the Spring Arbor campus and community.

I want to focus more on God. I want to place Him in the center of all of my relationships and spend more time in His Word. I need to have more time dedicated to talking to Him. I got too caught up in loving college life that I failed to dedicate time away from everything to read the Bible and pray about what is going on in my life. I want to work on getting more sleep. I would stay up late watching movies or hanging out that I didn’t get much sleep. I need to remember that I need sleep in order to function and not be grumpy. I live with someone that needs for me to not be grumpy all the time, plus I know that my sleeping habits have rubbed off on her and now she is having trouble sleeping.

When I plan out my schedule for the days I am going to include time for God. If it’s scheduled then I can’t ignore it. I am also going to get my roommate involved and maybe even read the Bible together or do a devotional together that way we can grow in Christ together. I am also going to put a sticky note by my bed to remind me that I need to read my Bible. Sleeping is a hard goal because I feel like I do my best work at night. I’m going to start off the year going to bed early. If I start out going to bed late then that will be the routine. If I start out going to bed earlier than I will be well rested and ready for the next day. When I plan out my day I am going to include a bedtime and what the latest time I want to go to bed would be.

I think that a barrier that would get in my way of accomplishing these goals would be that I like spending time with people. I have trouble just sitting down and reading the Bible or trying to go to bed early. It’s hard for me to do, I want to spend time with my friends and enjoy college life. The barrier is that I don’t want to miss out on anything fun and exciting. I want to be there when my friends decide to make 2 a.m. Meijer run or go to Steak N’ Shake. I don’t want to be sleeping when everything exciting happens.

I have a planner that can help me achieve these goals. By writing everything down in my planner I can schedule everything from when my homework is due and what time I’m working on it to what time I should go to bed and what time I need to get up in the morning. I also have a roommate who would try to help me in my goals. She supports me through everything and will be my accountability partner. She will ask me when if I’ve read my Bible and she will make sure that I get in bed on time. I also have other friends who will be there to support me and help me accomplish my goals. They will make sure that I am doing everything that I said I would do and congratulate me in my accomplishments.