Scholarships = Hard Core Thinking

So, Anna (youth minister) found this scholarship for me that's worth a ton of money and it's an awesome scholarship to the college that I'm going to. When I first got it, I looked over it and thought it would be a piece of cake but today while Anna and I were talking about it I realized that I don't think it's going to be as easy as I first suspected. There is no essay part to it and it's all just short answer questions...sounds pretty painless, right? Not so much...there are some pretty deep questions on this application that I don't know if I'm going to be able to give a complete answer in less that 300 words.

For example, one question asks for two ways in which I have brought others closer to Christ. I truly hope that I am bringing people around me to Christ every single day but I don't know that...they do, so this question is making me think quite a bit.I am most definitely going to say something about Theology of the Body because it is my passion and I really think that it is an amazing way for one to become closer to God and realize why He made you just the way you are. I am planning on talking about how we have evangelized with it and taken it to different youth groups and such. So, that's my easy answer but they asked for two...and I really don't know what I'm going to say for the other one because I don't feel like I actually bring anyone closer to Christ. I think that I expose them to His greatness and then they decide for themselves if they want to accept Christ or not. I think the whole process is between that person and Christ and not so much me but I guess I will have to change my style of thinking and come up with another way I have led someone to our Savior.

Another question asks about the depth of my commitment and how I practice my faith. I'm going to kind of approach this like a testimony...but how am I supposed to do that in under 300 words?! I will definitely talk about my Confirmation year which is when I truly took Catholicism as my own and made the decision that I wanted to pursue my faith and I wasn't going to just sit back and watch it happen, I wanted to be a part of it and since then I have been growing in my faith every single day and I learn more about God and how much He loves me constantly. But Theology, and our mission trip to Harlan, Kentucky, and my family, and youth group have all played vital roles in my spiritual journey and to try to put that into words is going to be somewhat difficult I have a feeling. I love to share my story with others and tell people how great of an impact God has had on my life but I've never written about it before so we will see how this all turns out.

So, along with all these questions, my brain has kind of been going crazy just really thinking about God's role in my life and how I can let Him play an even greater role. We can all let God take more control in our lives. And life would be so much easier if we truly gave every part of our life up to Him and didn't worry about controlling anything at all. But we can't actually do that...we are human and we live in society that's all about independence so we all strive to be in control of our lives and have a handle on everything that's going on but I think if we just let it all go and became a society that was dependent on God our lives would be dramatically different! We would be worry-free and careless and God would take perfect care of us...if only we lived in a perfect world...