Victus vestri fabula- Living your story

So, while sitting in FST (Functions Statistics and Trigonometry)  class today I though of something that I was going to write about. Then, throughout a long day of assignments piling upon more assignments, I forgot. I hate when that happens. Although there is one thing I want to talk about, my story. This summer I took part in an internship at my church with 5 other high schoolers. (See above photo..Matt was missing that day.) To begin, we went up to Grace Adventure Bible camp to have a team building day. Since we were to be working with each other all summer, we needed to learn what gifts God gave us and how we can use each person's gifts to our advantage. We learned the 8 characteristics of leadership: perseverance, wisdom, humility, honesty, courage, self-control, compassion, and obedience.  Throughout the summer, we ran a kids camp at a trailer park in Hudsonville. We learned that we needed to work together in order to make it work. Throughout the weeks and days we spent together, we did grow closer, and we- well most of us- shared our stories. Let me get something straight though, we did not always like each other. Sure, we had our days when Austin actually took care of our plates at breakfast, gave compliments, and when the boys invited us girls to have lunch with them, but Austin and Alivia argue like a married couple.. ok..ok, so do I... One of my favorite parts of the summer was Wednesdays. Wednesdays was when we hung out with Ryan Wallace and he taught us about how we should live good stories. Everyone has a story, every house, everyone in that house, and the things in that house. There is a story behind everything.  You, you're reading this. You have a story, and that computer that you are using to view this blog? It has a story of where its been; the person who made that computer has a story too. Now, think about this: Are you living a good story? This was the question that Ryan asked every week. And every week he had a new perspective on it for us to think about and judge our stories with.  Would we, in light of what Ry talked about, want to read our story? Or would we get bored with it and put it down for something more entertaining, say..Facebook? It's kinda sad..isn't it? That we would get bored reading or watching our own lives play out? Chew on that for a while.

Principio- The Beginning

Hello everyone!
I'm Katie, a junior at Unity Christian High School. I thought of the idea of a blog because I found that I enjoy writing. I've been writing in a notebook every night which is to be given to my boyfriend, Josh, for Christmas. And yes, he does know about it, so this should not be a surprise. I named this blog "Simply Smiling" because that is my goal if life: to smile. To find joy in everything I go through. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, it says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Well hey, it says right there that we need to be joyful, because -get this- it's God's will for us! Why wouldn't we want to do that!? I think just knowing that we are doing what God wants for us should make us joyful enough... shouldn't it? Yes, I know that it's hard. And there are times when the best thing to do is just sit down and let those tears flow, but later, looking back on the situation, it's easy to see where God poked and prodded us to realize the benefit of the situation. Well, this is my first blog post, how fun!
K