hehe...you can write dude. ;)

And I like it! It doesn't appear to be spell checked, but at least it isn't like Jordan's form of writing, where each word is typed the opposite way that it is meant. ;D

I followed it mostly...but I'll re-read it sometime later. ;) Preach it brother!
Love you!
<3 ~ Jon

zac im not goiing to lie.... i didnt read this

but i will

in the mean time i just want to be cool and leave so earyly comments

much love

manclan out

I read the whole thing. It made sense. Thanks for writing about it, it's something I need to hear over and over again. There is the verse that says we need to die to ourselves, and we need to take up our crosses and follow Jesus, or something like that. But it's so hard, because I'm so selfish. But yeah, it's so true that living for yourself only leads to destruction, but letting God lead your life leads to true joy and eternal life. I like this "So say to self, get out! I've found someone better." True dat bro. Well said, well said Thank you so much for the encouragement and the reminder. And I can't believe you wrote all that--could we say divine inspiration?
You had church on the appalachian trail? That is so cool. When was that?

ya dude i agree with laurel. that line " so say to self, get out! i've found someone better." really hits home. i think it gets hard when your around people who arent christains so they are selfish and you feel like if you dont also be selffish then you wont get waht yu need. i think wat we need is wisdom mostly. its like when your at school, all you see are ppl, everyone else but your self. if god wanted us to be focused on ourselfes he would have given us eyes that could look back on our selves. but he didnt, so we cant,so we shouldnt.

anyway

we had some good bonding time last night, and i hope your "better" now....

Yeah that's awesome! We should hike it sometime. I've always wanted to. Yeah, for Jon's partayyy, I'll be there, and some howells you comin?

SWEET!! so I guess i'll see u there.

Oh and yeah there is just something fun about crawling underneath cars and getting dirty...I don't know why. lol

Okay so...why don't you update xanga more often? With amazing entries like this one (spell checked or not )I would encourage you to write something in here at least every week...gosh.

Anyway though, while I was reading this I couldn't help but think of the song "None of self and All of Thee". You know that song, right? Of course you do. It begins with "All of self, none of thee" then "Some of self, some of thee", then "Less of self, more of thee" and then finally the last verses say "None of self, All of thee". It's just interesting to me how letting God become number one in our lives is definitely a process that a lot of christians don't usually think about. It's in our human nature to be more full of ourselves than we need to be; I think sometimes our biggest stumbling block in our christian walk is ourselves. Though we are not totally worthless and God's love for us is unchanging and strong, I know we let Him down a lot and we don't always fully appreciate Him or give him the credit He deserves for everything he's done in our lives.

okay I'm starting to ramble and pretty much repeat what you said so I'll stop now. But I thought you should know that this is a good entry and I'm glad you took the time to write it for us. :)

Brit

Oh I know!! And here's a fun (not so fun) fact--so many girls are like that--like if a guy is nice to them, and talks to them, they automatically think he "likes" them, when he doesn't, and they will "interpret" every action, word, whatever into meaning something. It's rediculous, like, it's TOTALLY rediculous. lol

Yeah I know! I mean, it's GREAT when guys are friendly to girls, I really appreciate it, and by no means should you stop being nice to her, but here is one place where I will say that it is totally the girl's fault if she gets disappointed. I've been there too...lol, and definitely learned from it! Good luck

dude you have problems with girls getting the wrong impression??? duh! YOU. ARE. MANCLAN. these things happen. why do u think jon lives in the mountains.... or i go to and all boy school? girls kept stalking us....we just to much Man

yeah it is sad.
Haha. ^^^ Jordan's comment=lol.

...Speaking of stalkers...oh nevermind

z-p...I am so proud of who you are becomming. You are an amazing person. The love you have for others and Christ is so encouraging to me. I love you so much and you have been an amazing example to me throughout these years and I can't wait until you come down here and I can see you grow in person!  Keep letting God in and working in your life! Stay connected, he's doing great things with you!  I'm so blessed to have you as my cousin and especially as my brother! Thank you for sharing your heart on here.  Keep working on the inside out. You're doing great, keep on keeping on! I love you!!!!!!!

Amazing entry. =)

I look forward to getting a good verse from you sometime =)

Yeah me too. I wish I could be more consistent. It's so hard though, like a constant struggle. Just reminds me of my weaknesses.
Ha--yep I did have fun I did

Wow--you? I didn't know that. But there's a lot nobody knows about me. It's like a protection. Not that I'm insecure exactly, but like you said, i feel better that way, but sometimes I get so sick of it. So sick of hiding...

Dude you took the words right out of my mouth. That's exactly how I feel. I thought I was the only one, actually, that felt that way. It's like there is the me that everyone sees, and then there is the me who nobody except God sees and it can get so lonely sometimes, even if I don't really want anybody else to know. It's so hard to break out of it, but I don't always want to. A while ago, if you would have asked me to tell you who I am, it would have been so easy, I KNEW exactly who I was, but not anymore. I feel so confused. Like I know I'm a Christian, I know I love God and am trying to live for him, but other than that, I don't know anymore. I really hate that. But I guess the thing is to just live one minute at a time, and let God lead me in everything, and he's already helping me open up a little more. It's just really hard.
Anyway, i feel like I'm commenting on here too much--I mean, I scroll through the comments and almost all of them are mine. lol. Sry. But I really appreciate your comments. :) You're such an encouragement.

Yeah I think you're right, everyone probably has that. Although I wouldn't have thought that before, cuz I though I was alone. :-\ Most of the stuff I don't talk about is because I'm afraid of peope's reactions to it. So I just keep it inside. There's so much I want to say, and so many questions, but nobody to ask. Sometimes I think that the things I struggle with are an endless cycle of being strong and then weak, I wish I could be strong all the time. But life isn't like that, so I guess I'll just have to wait until heaven. :) That's gonna be sweet!

Yeah I think I know what you're talking about. I pretty much agree about not dating and just hanging out. It just seems like there's this pressure for people our age to "date" if they like each other, instead of just hanging out and getting to know each other and spend time with each other as friends, and then they get themselves in this mess. I'm not saying it's always a bad idea to date, just be careful about it, and like you said, get to know the person better first. Yeah the fantasy part--sheesh that always ends up hurting in the end. If I'm thinking of the same thing you are, it's like where you build up all these expectations that basically blind you to reality, and when they aren't fulfilled it's a huge letdown that hurts soo bad. Takes some self-control though, cause you know how the mind works. lol.

Hmph.

call john snyder

chyeah, it's so stupid.

Bon bons are like..little cream filled pastry puff ball things. lol I won't lie...they're pretty tasty...and fattening..yaay fat!!

How was the Wedding?! Was it basically amazing? I wish I could have been there...Jon and I hung out with Jordan though and watched him hurdle hurdles..hahaha.

Oh and..you were pretty close on the "d" word (hahaha)...but its actually decision, not desicion. =P I pretty much still love you anyway though bro. lol

I had something else I wanted to say to you, but alas..I have forgotten. Go figure!

OH MY GOSH! I REMEMBER WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY!

Okay so I was watching Seinfeld yesterday and George (one of the main characters) is at a business meeting and he's eating like ALL of the shrimp there and so one of his co-workers says to him "Hey George! The ocean called, they're running out of Shrimp!". So he has no good comeback at the time but he thinks of one later and then he says to the co-worker "oh yeah? Well...the...Jerk store called...and..they're running out of you!" lololol!


I seriously laughed so hard because it made me think of the toilet store comeback. Anyway...I figured you should know that. Good story right? I know.