There are many Christians who see Halloween as a fun, harmless holiday, but I have the strong conviction not to celebrate it. It disappoints me to see so many Christians dressing up and taking part in the celebration. Most other holidays have something worth celebrating. Thanksgiving is being thankful for what God has given us, Christmas is celebrating God sending His Son in human form to save us, and Easter is remembering the death and resurrection of Christ.

Halloween may be “fun,” but when you dress up, people notice that. As Christians, we need to be different than the world, not trying to blend in with them. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 says, “Avoid every form of evil.” The origins of Halloween are associated with evil things. Even though many of those evil things have died down in today’s celebration, Halloween is still a holiday based on those things. A good compromise is handing out candy and tracts to the people that come knocking on your door. That is what my family has always done, and I like it because it’s using the holiday to share Jesus with others.

I can’t remember ever loving fall as much as I have this year. I carry my camera everywhere with me because I love to take pictures of scenery and special moments with friends. The trees around campus are beautiful! These are a few of the scenery pictures I have taken while walking around campus.

I thought this was really cool. The leaves farthest from the camera are green and they gradually turn red!

Here is a beautiful tree just starting to turn green by the University Center.

This is a cool picture of Gunter Hall with wispy clouds above in the blue sky.

I just had to take a picture of these trees lining the sidewalk across the street from Frasier.

More signs of fall over by Frasier.

I took this picture just a little bit ago as I was walking back to my dorm after practicing violin. This verse popped in my head when I looked up at the sky, so I pulled out my camera to take the picture!

Speckled tree!

Now this was a cool sight. It was sprinkling, and the sun added a pink color to the dark thunderclouds!

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
~Colossians 3:2

This was my verse to memorize last week, but it has applied more to me this week, and it’s only Monday! Last night I was upset about possibly not being able to go to Spain with the orchestra next May because I’m last chair, and Dr. Guyver is allowed to bring 75 (which is actually really good because before it was only 60 and he got it changed to 75). I really don’t need to worry about that because it’s in God’s hands. He knows best, and it’s not like it’s the worst thing in the world if I can’t go.

Tonight I did a HUGE load of laundry–I hadn’t done it in a while. My roommate Ashley had forgotten to wash her black napkins for band, so she asked me if I would stick them in for her. There was only a small problem with me doing that–she had never washed them before and they are BLACK. So, yeah, it got on ALL my light colored stuff (because I don’t separate my laundry since it’s just me, and it’s a WHOLE STINKIN’ DOLLAR to do ONE load of laundry). I was pretty upset, but I know that my clothes are only earthly things. It seems like God is trying to teach me something here… “Set your minds on things ABOVE, not on EARTHLY THINGS.”

One of my ABSOLUTE favorite things is singing worship songs around a campfire, and I got to do that very thing last night. Every Saturday night, a group of college kids from Bethel Baptist Church gets together to worship, fellowship, and pray for the service the next day. I had never gone, and all week I had been planning to go this week. I missed Thirst No More on Wednesday night because I was sick, and when yesterday came, I was still sick.

I debated whether or not I should go, but then I found out that it was a special night last night because they were driving to Daniel’s house in Kersy to have a bonfire and sing worship songs and pray around the fire. I REALLY wanted to go even though I felt terrible half the day. So I decided to go anyway. I was losing my voice, but that didn’t stop me from talking to my friends and helping people make s’mores. The worship music was AWESOME! I couldn’t sing, but I got the priviledge of playing the little hand drum while Adam played guitar. It was SO much fun to be a part of the music even though I couldn’t sing. Even if I did have my voice, I still would have wanted to play the drum, but it meant so much more BECAUSE I couldn’t sing. It was the awesomest thing EVER!

This morning at church I still couldn’t sing, but I tried to focus on the words of the song more. Sometimes when I’m singing in church I find that I focus more on the music than the words, and the words are the most important. I’m always wanting to harmonize, which isn’t bad, but sometimes it does take my focus away from the words that I’m singing. Even without a voice, I can still worship God with singing in my heart!

“Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.”
~Ephesians 5:19b

“An orchestra is only as good as it’s last chair player.”
~Martha Agee

There is great competition in the music world. Being a music minor at the University of Northern Colorado, I don’t work as hard as the music majors, but I definitely love music. Most the time when people ask me what my favorite class is, my answer will either be Music Theory or Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Guyver, our conductor, really keeps us on our toes–after every concert, we have chair auditions of the new music. It gets to be stressful at times, practicing so much music.

We had our first concert last Thursday, and, of course, the audition followed on Tuesday. The piece we had to prepare was Symphony 1 by Shostakovich, and it is a difficult piece, let me tell you. I started practicing a page a day about 2 weeks before the audition, and I practiced 7 hours total in the four days between the concert and the audition. I felt like I was pretty prepared for the audition, but I was still nervous. My audition acutally went pretty well. I’m sure I was way below tempo, but for the most part I got all the notes and rhythms. Afterwards, I felt good about the audition, and Dr. Guyver told me that I was well-prepared and that I hit all the high notes. I still have a lot to work on, but I felt like this was one of the best auditions I have had.

It was suspenseful and somewhat nervewracking waiting until the chair listing was posted on Wednesday. A group of us stood outside the orchestra office waiting. We jumped every time the door opened, and finally Dr. Guyver came out and posted the list. My eyes scanned the list of names under the 2nd violin section, and they stopped at the bottom where I finally found my name. Yes, I am last chair. I was immediately disappointed, but after thinking it through and talking with friends and family, I know that this is the best chair for me. I am a music minor, and I am still in the orchestra! The reason I am last chair is definitely not because I had a bad audition. Everyone was well-prepared for this audition, and as a result, our string section is going to be so much better! I have so much to work towards, and I am not going to let my seating in orchestra discourage me. I know that I played my best, and just playing with this awesome symphony under the direction of Dr. Russel Guyver makes me happy!

Job said to the Lord, “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.”
~Job 42:2