Hello readers! My name is Talitha Nason, an eager student wanting to live a life worthy of the gospel. Let me tell you this week at Joshua has been a whirlwind! Coming off of last week’s Phillipians 2 testing and our formal theme dinner, it has hit all the students that Christmas break is only days away! This week we finished our Old Testament class which is a bit sad because it has been a fun class but so exciting especially specifically for the time of year, having read about the Promised One and the longing for his waiting, and then getting to celebrate Him with a new point of view with our families.
Ok, story time. For weeks now four of the Joshua boys have been teasing some songs that they made. It turned into a whole thing where they hid polaroids around the building (I found four) with notes written on them. The main one though was December 15. So on this Monday everyone was excited about what was special on this date. At lunch they announced that they had made songs to play at Hardpressed Coffee Hours (with staff permission). They had made songs for each staff member asking them for an auto baley to put on the chimney so we could climb it. It was hilarious! They even sold merch and CDs! I love the creativity displayed in our class.
This week our speaker is Erik Thoennes. This man is a gifted speaker and has been taking us through a short series called Habits of Grace: How to Grow. He explained that his goal for the week is to help lead us to learn to love discipline and to grow. The goal for growth is intimacy with and enjoyment of God which bears fruit and glorifies him. I feel this is a much needed topic for our easy going generation that is arising. Through Erik, God is teaching me to draw closer to Him and set these habits of grace to enjoy Him and in doing so He will draw out the fruit that changes me to be more like Christ. And even if he doesn’t move or remains silent, to continue to trust Him that he is working in His timing and not mine.
One last thing that I would like to share was my Biblical Interpretation class. We learned of the Psalms and how they were written and how to interpret and label them (laments, Wisdom, praise, etc.). Jen then encouraged us to write our own Psalm out of five she gave us. I chose to write a lament Psalm with Psalm 13. It was so lifting to write it out as a prayer to God even though it was a lament. I believe that I will make this more of a practice in my life because I am much of a writer (if you can’t tell by my longer blog, LOL). I’m a bit sad to leave Joshua for Christmas but I am excited to return in the new year. Have a very Merry Christmas and New Year. God bless us everyone!
Talitha Nason (Current Student)