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We all know the “love verse” well. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 tells us what true love is. It helps us to understand God better since He is Love. I have begun a study of this verse with my girls on my floor for Bible study. Each week we are going to look at one aspect of the love verse; one adjective that the love verse uses to describe true love. We will then look at a story in the Bible that exemplifies that adjective of love. This will help us to fully understand what true love really is and stop seeing it as just a part of the verse that is read at weddings and in church. I want to share our studies with you all.

The first part of the love verse is patient. Love is patient. A story that exemplifies patient love is that of the prodigal son. Luke 15:11-32 talks about a son who takes his inheritance and leaves home. He loses all his money living a “wild” life and then comes home begging to be a servant to his father. Instead of accepting that offer, the father wraps his arms around his son, kisses him, and throws him a party to celebrate his return.

That is patient love. The father had so many chances to just forget about his son and then not accept him when he came back, but instead he accepted his son with open arms, like Christ accepts sinners. Look at these parallels:

1. The father is basically told that he should be dead. That is the only way the son could get the inheritance. Jesus had to die for us to get our inheritance, grace. Both of these occurrences should cause people to have non-patient love, but that is not the case.

2. The son goes out and squanders his money. He is left broke and alone in a harsh world. We, as sinners, go out into the world and squander our lives by sinning and turning from God. This, again, should warrant non-patient love, but it did not.

3. The father accepted his son back with patient love, open arms, and a celebration. Christ accepts us sinners with patient love, open arms, and a celebration.

Patient love is the love that endures everything. It waits for the person to turn around and run back. It is one of the hardest loves to have all the time, but it is so rewarding when it is acquired.

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SLA Handbook

This year, I have joined the ever growing Spiritual Life Advisor team. It has been an amazing experience so far and I would like to share with all of you what it is like to be an SLA. Picture this: as a Resident Assistant (RA) you must fine people for various things, keep the halls quiet during quiet hours, go to weekly meetings, open up people’s doors when they lock themselves out, and be on duty many weekends so you do not get to go home as much as you may want. Now picture this: as a Peer Advisor (PA) you must go to your freshmen’s core class three days a week, go to weekly meetings, meet with every one of your students twice during the semester, have meetings with your students if their grades are slipping, go to every core event that is planned, and not be able to leave campus as freely as you may want. Now, I don’t want you all to think that these jobs are no fun. I know that they are plenty of fun, but you have to be the right person for those jobs. Neither of those fit me, so I became an SLA! Here is what it is like to be me…

Yes, I don’t get paid for my job, but being an SLA is worth more than any salary pays. You get to invest in the lives of the boys or girls on your floor. You run a weekly or bi-weekly Bible study that proves to be more rewarding than you could ever imagine! I have had a steady amount of girls come each week, and that amount is close to half of my floor. I have learned so much about them by discussing topics and Bible stories with them. Everyone always has great insights, and those are welcomed in Bible study. I also get to plan fun events for my girls to do, such as Secret Santa! We, as SLAs, promote community on our floors by getting people to know one another and know ourselves. I have become a person that the girls know they can go to to ask for advice or just talk to when a listening ear is needed.

Being an SLA is not a simple job, but it is VERY rewarding. I have met so many great SLA’s and get to share monthly meetings with them and fun parties! I also get to invest in the women on my floor and give them a friend that they might be in great need of. Being an SLA is truly being the hands and feet of Christ. It is SO amazing!

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College life is busy and continuously full of excitement and things to do (if you leave your room). I have already talked about how great the community is here at Spring Arbor but I cannot say enough about the difference that I see in my own life through my interactions and fellowship that I have with those around me. One thing that I have been challenged with though is to not to overlook how important building relationships are. All freshmen were required to read a book called Wisdom Chaser written by Spring Arbor professor Nathan Foster. I read this book over the summer and though the book had talked about many different ideas, it had one core theme that has continued to stick with me throughout my time here. By the end of his book Nathan (the author) comes to the conclusion that the most important thing that he could ever do in his life is build and cultivate relationships. I have been so challenged to take that to heart and work to invest my time into building solid relationships that will grow and blossom over time. Even in my short amount of time at SAU I feel so blessed by the people God has been continually placing in my life. I have grown so much both relationally and spiritually and I do not take those friendships for granted. Everyone has a different experience when they come to college, but personally, I am extremely excited to see what the rest of the year has in store!

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Ticket for Twilight

As many people know, the final Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn Part 2 came out November 16th! My floor decided we were going to make an event out of it and go together to the midnight showing. Almost the entire floor went, including out Resident Director, Kelly McGraw! We piled into the cars and headed to Jackson 10 around 10pm. Upon entering theater 2, I discovered that Spring Arbor University had many Twilight fans. Almost half of the theater consisted of Spring Arbor students; my whole row was SAU students. We dug into our popcorn and candy as the previews began, eagerly awaiting the lights to dim and the screen to widen.

Finally the movie started and the excitement in the room could be heard in the whispers between friends. The movie proceeded to take the audience on an emotional roller coaster ride. I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone, so I won’t describe what went on, but it was an amazing movie! If you have never seen any of the Twilight Saga before I would recommend them, even for guys. It is the perfect combination of a love story for ladies and intense fight scenes for guys. It is also a pretty clean series, so pre-teens and young teenagers would be able to watch it as well.

My floor loved it! We discussed it the whole way home and into the early morning hours. After a thorough discussion, we fell into bed around 3 o’clock. My floor was very quiet the next day as girls slept until the afternoon. It was a great bonding experience and an enjoyable time as well. If you haven’t yet, GO SEE TWILIGHT!

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The program from 'Grease' at Western High School.

Last weekend, Western High school’s drama department performed the musical Grease at the Performing Art Center at Western. So why would college students attend at high school production? Because we are involved in the community! My roommate Hannah Baker and I went with another friend to see the high schoolers perform. Hannah is actively involved in the Spring Arbor Free Methodist high school youth group and one of the girls was performing in the show. The cast did an amazing job!

We had a lot of fun getting off of campus for an evening to see the performance. After the performance was over, Hannah and I stuck around to see her friend Maddy. It was so cool to see the excitement on Maddy’s face when she saw Hannah. It meant so much to Maddy and her mom that Hannah showed up to support her.

All this to say, I want to present a challenge… what are you currently doing to make an impact on this community? At Spring Arbor University? At your church? In town? If you haven’t found a place to get invested yet, take some time and find a way to pour back into your community!

Hannah and Maddy after the performance of 'Grease'

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Every year Spring Arbor puts on a Senior Expedition event, which is a time for high school seniors to stay overnight and visit the campus. The best part about this is that the kids get a real look into the college life because they stay overnight in the dorms. Four guys from my high school came and stayed with me this year. It was a blast getting to see them and we had a great time hanging out and exploring the campus. All four of them stayed on the floor in my dorm room, which was definitely a tight squeeze considering usually each college student is supposed to only house one or two seniors. Unfortunately, I had two back to back early classes on the next day along with a big test so it was a rough trying to wake up the next morning on time, because we stayed up way too late. The seniors got a chance to tour the campus as well as go to the campus chapel service, which got roasting hot with all the extra bodies in the sanctuary. When deciding on which school to go to, it is important to visit the campus ahead of time (which is what most people do). But what is even more important is spending time with the college students that actually go to the school, because they will give you so much more information then any pamphlet or letter in the mail would about the University. That is why Senior Expedition is such a great idea here at Spring Arbor, because the interaction with the campus is much more genuine than it would be to just visit for an afternoon. The community is a large part of the education at Spring Arbor and that is hard to appreciate without spending time in the dorms and going to campus events.

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