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"Hi, there! I have a diet coke and a strawberry limeade here for you." I hand them two straws and say with a smile, "Your total is $3.21. Have you heard about our fundraiser today? All the tips go to Jacob's place, a shelter here in town." The friendly customer hands me a five and tells me to keep the change. I stuff it in my right pocket of the Sonic apron I'm wearing, and I march confidently back to the door thinking, I'm gettin' the hang of this! Then there's the time that I get to the car and get ready to read out the order on the receipt. "Hey, how are you today? I have a..." I glance down at the receipt only to see the letters "SSCB" with the word "mayo" typed underneath. "I have a...uhh...something with mayo?" The customer stared at me blankly. My face turned red as I asked him what he ordered. "A super sonic cheese burger," he answered. "Got it, thanks." I handed him his order ...

"Hi, my name is Ashli and I am a student at Harding University." I started the phone call with a friendly, cheeful voice. "I have a group of girls who would love to come over to your house and do some yard work for you as a part of our day of service called Bisons for Christ." "Oh yes, Bisons for Christ, I know about that." She paused. "Did you say girls ?" "Yes, ma'am. Girls." "Well, I thought I requested boys because I have a lot of yard work, and a ditch to be dug, and raking, and windows to be washed..." I smiled to myself. "I think we have a group of hard-working girls that would be happy to give it a try and do as much as we can," I responded politiely. But inside I was remembering the two summers I spent in Nicaragua, where I became a ditch-digging pro. Give me a shovel. Bring it on! That afternoon, about ten of us arrived at the woman's house with work clothes, shovels, rakes, and hands read...

I expected to leave the police department with inky fingers, but did you know that they don't even use ink pads to make fingerprints anymore? It is all computer generated. You just roll your finger across the pad and it prints out a digital fingerprint instantly. But even more amazing than the method is the product, the fingerprint itself. I stared at the sheet with all my little fingerprints on it, fascinated by the intricate lines and loops. Then I raised my hand to my face, and my gaze shifted from the paper to my fingers. I inspected the pads of my own fingertips and began to see the swirls and patterns in my own skin. "Look at this," I said to my friend, "Isn't that cool? No one else in the whole world has a fingerprint like this." I smiled. "Only me." She nodded and contemplated. "You know what else is amazing?" She added, "Fingerprints don't change. You would think that with all the use and regeneration of skin cells...

"Are you still planning on going to the function tonight?" I yelled across our suite. Chelsea walked into the room with her floral shirt, khaki shorts, white knee socks, and tourist visor. "I guess that answers my question,"  I said as I giggled at her silly attire. She definitely looked ready for the luau function that our club was hosting at the beach on Greers Ferry Lake. The only problem was the weather. Practically the whole state was under a tornado watch for the evening. We peered out the window at the dark clouds before heading down to the parking lot to get the car. "This could be the bext idea we ever had!" I said. As soon as we started driving, it became apparent that we were driving directly into the storm clouds. When we arrived at a town called Sugarloaf, we turned on the radio to hear that long obnoxious beep followed by this announcement: The following areas are under a tornado warning until 6:30 PM: Greers Ferry Lake... "Hey, isn...

As I was driving back to campus, a million thoughts ran through my mind. It is 4:56. I can be back to my room by exactly 5:00. I have that meeting at 6:00, but I bet I can finish my paper by 5:30. Next I will check my email, then I will run to the library to print my paperwork, and then... I stopped in the middle of my thoughts. The line of planning halted and crashed just like what happens when someone at the front of a moving line stops abruptly when no one else is paying attention. It creates a domino effect of crashing and bumping. I remembered what I had read recently in One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp: "Thanksgiving makes time." I had just finished reading a chapter in which she wrote about Jesus feeding the five thousand. When Jesus held the five loaves and two fishes in his hand, he gave thanks . "When he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people." (Matthew 15:36...

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful ." Joshua 1:8 How do we define success? The other day, as I was talking to a friend about her day, I caught myself defining success unintentionally. She said that she had completed a lot of her homework, finished a project, and taken a test. "Sounds like you have had a successful day!" I replied. But is that really what a successful day is? We tend to define "success" by how much we get accomplished. It's all about how much we do . Success and proseprity is making good grades, getting a good job, making a lot of money, and being comfortable in life, right? That's what the world says at least. But what Joshua says is completely counter-cultural. He instructs the Israelites to hold fast to God's Word. He tells them to seek after it, to pursue it, and ultim...

This should only take one hour , I said to myself as I sat down at my computer and began to type my paper. When I was about half-way done, I heard my RA unlock our door and walk into our suite for her nightly room check. "Are you kidding me? Is it already curfew?!" I asked her in disbelief. She smiled and nodded. "That means I have been working on this paper for an hour and a half already! Why does everything take so much longer than it is supposed to?" She gently listened to my complaints, gave me a quick shoulder massage (because she is the best RA ever), and left me with the encouraging words, "You can do it!" Either I am really bad at estimating time, or things really do always take longer than I think they will. I was thinking about this the other day and realizing just how often I run out of time. I was secretly wishing for a day when I could make the sun stand still so that I would have all the time in the world to finish my h...