I am such a slacker. Seriously.

Ok, so it's been forever. I won't bore you with the details of my life since the last post. Honestly, I would be hard-pressed to remember. Haha. Anyways.

It's not even 10 o'clock yet and I have been so convicted this morning. My focus is so off. My eyes are not on Jesus. He is not my first priority. I will never understand how I can neglect the One who died for my sins. Praise the One who paid my debt.

The other day I was reading in Jeremiah and I came across this verse.

"If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?

Jeremiah 12:5

That hit me square in the face. So many times, I get caught up in doing a "thing" for God. I have no idea even what this "thing" is going to be--but in my silly human mind, I know it's going to be big and so great. I just know the Lord is going to be so excited and happy with me. SILLY Lauren.

I read this verse and it was like the Lord was saying to me: "Lauren, dear child. You have not done what I have given you today to do. You get tired doing nothing and stumble on flat ground. How are you going to climb the mountain?"

That's killer. I felt about 2 inches tall. It's so true. I get caught up in the hype of doing this big "thing" for God when I don't even take the small, precious opportunities to share His love. Talk about some conviction. Man.

Anyways, I hope that you are having a great day. Remember how great his love is for you. Let him love you with an everlasting love.

xoxo

Lauren

Well, It made it to day two.

I have alot going thru my head right now.

The only constant & sure thing I can cling to is my Savior. That's all I need. I'd pour my heart out here but it might get a bit intense.

So, I will just share the simple parts of my life. After work yesterday, I met up with Chelsea and Larry--who met for the first time. That was fun. Haha. We ate at Chick-Fil-A then headed to Wal-mart to help Larry with his Peru list. I'm pretty sure we saw some airline magazine models.

As we were leaving, we passed a mom and her two daughters. She had two baskets full of things & they were stopped at those twenty five cent toy machine things. She asked us if we had a quarter for two dimes and a nickle. Me and Chelsea began to check our purses and Chelsea handed her one. She thanked us and we walked out the door.

I promise you as soon as I walked out that door, a ton of bricks hit me. I had a crazy intense sinking feeling in my stomach. I would dig thru my purse to find her a quarter but I wouldn't take five minutes to tell her about a Savior who died for her and her girls? How dumb. I knew we had to go back.

I immediately told Chelsea and Larry what I was thinking and we turned around and walked back in. They were still standing there, getting their toys. We stood there super awkward not sure how to approach her. So before I could give myself time to back down, I walked up to her.

I had no idea what to say. It came out like this: "Hey, I know this is really random. But I am a christian and after I walked off I got really convicted that I would take the time to find you a quarter but I couldn't put for the effort to tell you about Jesus. I just want to make sure you know Him."

Then I took a super deep breath because I am pretty sure that all came out in one breath. Haha.

She just smiled and said, "I do know Him. We all know Him actually. We are all saved and we know where we are going. We're relying pretty heavyily on Him these days. He gives that inner peace we all need."

Then I smiled super big. Such a sweet answer. She went on to talk to us about her church and ask us where we went. It was such a blessing.

I say all that to say. If you feel like you need to share Jesus with someone. You do. Don't hesitate. Give them something that's worth so much more than a quarter.

After Wal-Mart, we definitely hit up Steak and Shake for shakes. Then we visited a random park we found by accident. We swung and discussed life. It was very nice.

Larry went back to his own state and I spent the night with Chelsea. I got to sleep until 9:15 which was really nice since I went to bed about 1:30. Due to some not so great reasons.

Work has been pretty uneventful. Delivered some flowers, you know--just normal stuff. It's quiet now and I love it.

Tonight, me, Jenn, and Hallie are going in to pick up our dresses for Kayce's wedding. It's getting super close :D There's talk of a possible patio party with some AO boys. We shall see.

Anyways, I have rambled too too much. I hope that I haven't put you to sleep. Have a splendid day. Be safe and smile.

xoxo
Lauren

We'll how long this lasts...

Okay, so I am randomly inspired to blog. I'm not sure why. Maybe I just need to talk and whoever wants to listen can. I will mosty likely ramble alot. So if I began to bore you--which is totally possible--I totally understand if you just move on. I shouldn't say "totally" so much.

I started this blog for my PR Writing class so if you read anything before this post, it was required and probably boring. Just throwing that out there. Haha.

It's super gloomy outside today and crazy humid. I am really over this whole humity thing. So is my hair. I'm at the flower shop and it's pretty quiet. I do tend to complain about this job, but I have to remind myself that the Lord is faithful and I really should be thankful for a job at all.

Speaking of the Lord's faithfulness, He is providing left and right. Let me give you some background. My friend Kayce is getting married August 1st in PA. Me and Jenn are in the wedding. Weddings = Expensive. Especially when there is a plane ticket involved. Just sayin'. The Lord is providing the hours at work that I need crazy bad. Thank you, Lord :)

My granny randomly called me this morning and somehow we got on the subject of when my dad asked my mom out on their first date--after which he has told me he knew he was going to marry her. I would say it's worked out well with 29 years of marriage of 4 kids. Haha. It was a sweet story.

There's alot going on in Lauren world currently and the Lord is teaching me so much--It's overwhelming but in such a sweet, refreshing way. If that makes sense. I guess the biggest thing I am learning is the incredible importance of abiding in Him. That is the key to everything. Everyday I am called to put Christ on. That's the only way things are going to work.

I hope that whoever you are reading this that you know His love. I couldn't face another day without it that's for sure. Come back tomorrow. I might ramble some more. In the mean time. Smile :)

xoxo
Lauren

Do you Twitter?

I do. Do you?

Just recently has Twitter become the talk of the town. Everywhere I go, I hear people talking about Twitter.Twitter-this, Twitter-that. I "tweet" quite frequently. Sometimes, they are deep and philosophical and other times, they are fun and sarcastic.

Mike Massimino, a mission specialist on the space shuttle Atlantis, announced this week that he will use Twitter from space during the shuttle's next mission in May. It is official, this trend has been taken to new heights. Pun intended--of course.

Massimino is a relatively new "tweet-er". Within two weeks of beginning to use Twitter, Massimino has accrued 119,893 followers. By the time you read this, he will most likely have more. He is proving himself to be a pretty popular guy. NASA's PR team is responsible the idea of Massimino twittering in preparation for the May mission as well as while actually in space.

If you don't Twitter, you should. Mike goes by Astro_Mike.
Go follow him and I'll see you on Twitter.

Here's an app, there's an app...

Everywhere an app-app...

I own an iPhone and iLove it. Oops, I mean I love it. I'm sure you're aware of one of its hottest features: the "App store". This aspect of the iPhone allows users access to more than 25,000 programs, with 5,000 new added every month. There is seriously an app for everything.

Apple is in a league of their own---a market solely dominated by their genius idea. Others have tried to grab an edge and catch up, but they can't really compete. Microsoft, Nokia, Palm, and Research in Motion (BlackBerry's maker) have already opened app stores this year or plan to do so.

Did you know there were about 80,000 "apps" for the BlackBerry before anyone had even heard of the "App store"? No. It is ALL about how you market and project your message, clearly.

Many apps are free, some cost--but remain inexpensive. Consumers view them as disposable and therefore won't invest too much of their wallet.

This feature connects the product directly to the consumer-- direct market-- a really great thing. Apple has got the idea. It's profitable and it shows.

So, I'm sorry for all you out there without an iPhone. They are amazing. You really should join the club and go get one :)

Constructive Criticism

Feedback is a great thing.

How will you ever know what isn't working if no one tells you?

Yelp is a user-submitted small business and restaurant review site. It has some controversial policies as well as pretty intense influences in local markets. Originally, business owners could not respond to or retaliate against harsh reviews their companies received. Recently, Yelp has softened on this protocol-- letting businesses respond to damaging comments.

It's a win-win situation. This recent change in policies will give Yelp positive publicity and also will mean that business owners will be spending more time on their website.

Complaints are "free customer research." View them that way and they will be 100% more helpful and 100% less frustrating.

My Kind of School

Mattias Hansson is 40 and the CEO of Hyper Island. He helps to train more than 1,000 students a year in digital media and digital business management. The "school" is located in Stockholm, on a former prison island off the coast of Sweden. Graduates are quickly recruited by well-known firms such as Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Ideo.

"Look into the eyes of the creatives you know and ask them: If they could choose, would they pick the traditional academic world or an opportunity to learn by doing real stuff such as building e-communication solutions for MTV, Ikea, and others. We don't have classrooms or auditoriums, and we don't focus on grades. We don't educate people to become something. They have to decide that themselves."

This sounds so incredible to me. I learn best with hands-on activity. A main reason I chose to attend the University of Memphis was the amazing basketball team. Well, Memphis no longer has that. I might as well transfer.

Hansson's "school" gives "students" opportunities to boost their skills and increase their demand after graduation the program. Every student has at least five job offers from top international agencies according to Hansson. One student alone received 56 offers this year.At least 80% go abroad to work.

"We're more of a household name in Manhattan, Paris, or San Francisco than in Sweden."

Seriously, where do I sign up?