all i ever needed to know.....

...i learned in kindergarten. or, maybe not. maybe i've learned all i needed to know in the last couple of days....well, that's a stretch, but here's my Top 10 list of fun and/or enlightening tidbits from the last 24 hours (in no particular order):

1. Chik-Fil-A is sooooo very yummy, especially when you don't get to eat it very often! MAJOR cool points that there's one right down the street from where i'm staying :)

2. Miss Wilkie (one of the regular senior attendees at the Community Center) told me all about her husband yesterday, who passed away in the 1970s. she met him in high school, nearly beat up a girl from across town when she found out that she was 'chasing after' her boyfriend, followed him to Dayton, OH from Pittsburgh, and endured both joy and sadness as First Lady when he accepted a call to ministry later in their marriage. he was the absolute love of her life, and she never remarried or even dated anyone else after he died. she asked me if i had met the love of my life yet...i told her i had not....she told me that i would, and that there would be nothing like it in the world! today, she told me that she hoped i met him while i was in Greenville...i think she and some of the other ladies are gonna try to marry me off in the next 9 days :-/

3. admittedly, i had preconceived notions about how i, a female seminarian from a relatively liberal denomination, would be both perceived AND received by a Southern Baptist, male, old school preacher, with 40+ years of pastoring under his belt, as he came to teach Bible Study to the seniors this morning. he couldn't have been more warm, encouraging, and edifying. i was humbled.

4. the South is lovely to visit, but standing on the site of a high school that was for 'Blacks Only' in the 1960s and was burned down not once, but twice, makes it definitely NOT a place i could see myself moving.

5. 'Boundaries' by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend has been an absolute Godsend. i have been called upon to utilize its lessons over and over again, both for myself and in conversations with others, within mere days of reading it. i see myself in the long-term teaching a seminar on its life-changing messages.

6. I get really nervous when asked to publically pray.

7. Trinity United Church of Christ is known in all corners of this country thanks to the media debacle during the Obama campaign...and ppl really believe that our beloved Pastor Emeritus was wrongly persecuted. i feel very proud to tell ppl of my church home.

8. i MISS my baby girl :(

9. if 85 year-old Miss Minnie can press her way to church each and every week thru frailty, sickness, and other afflictions...i no longer have any excuse in those instances where i hit the 'snooze' button one too many times.

10. i'm teaching a short devotion tomorrow on the Parable of the Sower and i'm nervous!!

Bonus: Target is the DEVIL no matter which of the 50 states you are in!!

hope you enjoyed....stay tuned :)