Let the Adventures Begin!

As I finished packing my suitcase for my semester abroad I reminisced over these past couple of months that I have been preparing for my trip. First of all, I am in awe at how the Lord brought me to this place; first going to Belmont Abbey and then a brief side conversation with the brother of the woman who manages study abroad at Franciscan University and the rest is history. Or my future, really. 

So here begin's my travel blog! I'm so excited to be sharing with you all my experience traveling Europe!

<< First off, this is everything I am bringing to Austria. My suitcase weighs 41.8lbs (successfully under the 44lb limit). My carry-on weighs 18.2lbs (successfully under the 22lb limit). And I'm praying that my precious little tote that screams, "American" passes as a personal item.

Here is a little bit of what to expect in my posts to come:

My adventures in Ireland! I'll be in Ireland a week prior to starting my semester in Gaming, Austria. I'll be attending a retreat led by Anne, the lay apostle, for three days and then I'll be freely wandering through my ancestor's homeland with a couple friends, new and old! 

I don't have travel plans for the rest of the semester, other than planned school trips, but August 31st I venture into the world of academics. I'll be taking: Philosophical and Biblical Imagery in Literature, Christian Moral Principles, Philosophy of the Human Person, Christian Marriage, and Theology of Christ. You have no idea how excited I am for these classes. #nerdalert

Am I nervous you ask? Of course! I'm nervous because this will be my first time in Europe, my first time traveling pretty much independently. I'm going to a new school, and believe it or not I'm nervous because this is my first time checking bags on an airplane. I'm also going to be away from home, very far from home, for four months. As much as I try to deny the anxious feeling inside me, I admit that I am nervous. But I am also extremely, extremely excited. Belmont Abbey doesn't have a study abroad program like FUS or Dallas or Christendom. They just send, if they can afford it, approximately one student per semester to a program they are associated with or of the students choice. I feel very privileged to be one of the few Belmont Abbey students who will be traveling abroad. I feel unique and, well, just kind of cool, adventurous, and something I never describe myself as, independent. I know it is going to be challenging but "when we are weak we are strong"through Christ. I'm excited to be challenged, to be cultured, educated, and to make new friends. 

May this wonderful, blessed summer come to a close and may the adventures of Fall 2012 begin! 

                                       Next time you hear from me I'll be ^^here!! in Austria! 

I will be praying for all my readers and I ask, please, Pray for me! Blessings! St. Christopher, patron of travelers, Pray for us!

Food for thought: "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12

The Price of Beauty - Part II

Now before I completely bash health and exercise let me tell you how I actually feel about it. Health is extremely important and we owe it to God and ourselves as His children to take care of the body He has blessed us with. Furthermore, to me it makes sense that weight management has completely taken over the United States considering the rate of obesity and diabetes these days. I am glad that we try to keep our citizens healthy but marketing can push things a bit too far. Everything needs to be in moderation. I like to think of health as a virtue. Virtues are the happy medium between two extremes. Take temperance for example. Now when it comes to eating we are neither practicing temperance if we starve ourselves nor are we being temperate if we are being gluttonous. Working out to lose weight or get “a better body” when you are healthy makes you victim to marketing’s ploys and a nice little vice called vanity. Society has sold you their poison. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t eat healthy and you should become a couch potato until you’re out of shape enough to hit the track again. We all know that like virtues we must daily choose to be healthy and active. It is good to stay in shape and exercise so that our bodies are strong and able to do what the Lord calls us to do. And it is important to eat healthy food – not food to deprive your body of nutrients and simply satisfy your tummy growling – but food that will fuel your body to give it strength. Just as we must practice virtues to strengthen our souls we must practice health in order to strengthen our bodies.

Here is where the two collide…Virtue and health: Charity. We are called to love. In Mark 12:31 Christ gives us the second greatest commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I found that when I was living an anorexic lifestyle I did not love myself. Actually I would go as far to say that I hated a lot about myself. When I was going through healing, I came to realize that I could not love anyone, not God, not my family, or friends if I did not first love myself. I really needed to accept myself as worth God’s love – worth a savior who would become man and die for me. When I was so obsessed about my image and how others viewed me, I was blind to God’s love for me. I will admit, it is very humbling to accept ourselves in our littleness and surrender to God’s love. It’s also extremely invigorating. We don’t have to be someone great, do great things, or have great things. We are just simply loved. We really are priceless even though we are nothing in comparison to God. That’s why His love is amazing (more than!). We are called to be Christ-like and to love – ourselves, others, and God.

So folks, I’d like to expand on that thought: We are just simply loved. This summer I read an absolutely incredible book by Jacques Philippe titled, Interior Freedom. (Buy it, read it. It changed my life.) He talks a lot about accepting ourselves as we are and others for that matter. Toward the end of the book he writes, “Human beings are more than the sum of the good they can accomplish. They are the children of God, whether they do good or cannot yet manage to do anything, Our Father in heaven does not love us because of the good we do. He loves us for ourselves, because he has adopted us as his children forever.” He further explains in a footnote in reference to mid-life crisis: “People find…that they have a great inner emptiness, because they wanted to live by doing, while forgetting their true, inalienable identity as children of God, loved not for what they do but what they are.” We don’t have to be supermodels, we don’t have to have a talent; which God has so graciously blessed all of us with whether you realize it or not; and we don’t have to be perfect. Society lies, it really does. It’s not about how beautiful we are, how skinny or muscular we are, how much sex appeal we have, or how much money we have. That wont fulfill us, we’ll never love ourselves or feel loved. Only when we recognize our worth lies in God’s undying love for us will we feel beautiful, accepted and loved.

I’m going to conclude with a challenge, before my traditional "food for thought" of course. Every morning when you’re brushing your teeth in front of the bathroom mirror, look at yourself. Look at the absolutely beautiful human being God created – no matter if you’re short, tall, skinny, chubby, hairy, bald, have acne, flawless skin, have a big nose or sparkling eyes, regardless if you’ve made terrible mistakes or are as close to the Lord as you could possibly imagine - recognize your unique beauty as His creation and your priceless worth simply because you are the child of God. And ask the Lord, “Show me my true beauty and worth.” 

            Thanks for reading, people! May God's love conquer your fears and set you free. 

Food for thought: “Humility is truth. I am what I am in God’s eyes: a poor child who possesses absolutely nothing, who receives everything, infinitely loved and totally free.” Interior Freedom by Jacques Philippe 

The Price of Beauty - part I

Take a look around. Not just the room you’re in but the world. Look around a store, the television, and magazines. What do you see? Numerous products saying, “You are not good enough. You’re not beautiful enough.” Right? “Eat this, it’ll help you look beautiful. Use this; it’ll help you look beautiful. Wear this; it’ll help you look beautiful. Do this, it’ll help you look beautiful.” This is what society tells us and it is no wonder that people never feel good enough. We’re constantly being told that we need to become a part of certain fads in order to be beautiful, handsome, good enough. The world never simply tells you that you are beautiful, naturally, the way you are.

NEWS FLASH: Society lies.

Listen. Really listen, with your heart…”You are beautiful.” Do you truly believe that? Do you know that? Are you allowed to believe that? I know I didn’t believe that until last summer and I never felt like I was even allowed to believe that I was beautiful. It wasn’t until I went to college and I built a strong enough relationship with Christ to believe that He made me beautifully. And the truth is, in this poisonous society, I still struggle with it sometimes.

I truly feel that marketing has made it close to impossible for people to be satisfied with their image. In high school, the biggest environment for insecurities, the main topic of conversation among my friends was diet and exercise. If we lost weight or we were sore from working out – we were idolized. But why? Who ever told us that we had to constantly strive for some ultimately skinny, muscular body? And what happened to individuality? Now I’ve sadly come to notice this seeping into young children’s lives. Once I was fixing breakfast for a little boy I was babysitting and he asked me, “How many calories are in this?” My heart broke. Why on Earth was a five year old asking me how many calories were in his breakfast cereal? Why did it matter? And even now that I am out of high school many of my friends will talk about their workout plans and the do’s and don’ts of their diets. They whine and cry when someone orders a frappacino or brings brownies to a party and they eat it too. They practically hate themselves when they miss working out one day of the week.

Not only have I experienced these insecurities with girls but also in young men. They’ve observed that women these days are so obsessed with bodily image that they are more physically picky about their men. Men find themselves self-conscious about their weight and image now, too – whether they’re strong enough, muscular enough, fit enough, chiseled enough for a woman to notice them. But who ever told them this was how they should form their conscience? I’ll tell you - It’s the magazines with technologically altered bodies and marketing’s push for low-cal, non-fat, high protein, high fiber, low-sugar, highly processed and chemically altered food. It’s health and diet shows and gym ads. It’s pictures of anorexic women with boob-jobs who link to a workout plan on Pinterest. It’s pornography and birth control rooted at people’s lack of self control and lack of knowledge of their own worth and capability to choose virtue over sin. It’s everywhere and we can’t escape it.

To be continued…

Food for thought: “Consenting to the deficiencies of our own being means trusting in God who created us as we are.” Jacques Philippe, Interior Freedom