The Grade

So i kinda have a new motto if you will. Im getting kinda fed up with school so...ive decided that grades should be a means not an end. deep i know. and im sure this has been said before but i dunno i guess it just hit me recently. Cause Lincoln is a VERY competitive school that prides itself on very good grades. And that can be a good thing, it motivates people to do well. but im sick of it, quite honestly. And the fact that grades will get me into college drives me crazy. SO i think that grades should be a means of motivating people to pursue the knowledge that we hopefully come away with at the end of our schooling days. But they definitely shouldnt be the end or the reason that we're in a class or working hard in a class. Cause thats retarded. I mean, sweet, ill be able to say i got an A in Biology in highschool 20 years from now, but do i remember anything from Biology even now? Nope. Almost nothing. So thats my rant about school and grades. But i think that this can have a bigger meaning for my life as a christian too.

Ok Im gonna try and get this out, and i hope it makes sense. So first of all my Jesus says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. So heres my thing. Stuff we do in our walk with the Lord and things we 'accomplish' is awesome. And its very important. I mean, He calls us for a purpose, absolutely, and Im not trying to negate that or say that its unimportant, it is SO important. BUT its not the most important. Its not the end. He has called us first and formost to LOVE Him. And to let Him pour His love for us over us, that we may spread it to everyone around us without even consciously doing anything but loving HIM. Talk about cool. He's showing me that this, above all, is my main purpose in life. I know that. I claim it. Cause it is just too awesome to let go of. And too important to ignore.

And I Pray that you, being rooted and established in LOVE may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the LOVE of Christ, and to know this LOVE that surpasses knowledge-- that you may filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

A Picture

is worth a thousand words, or so they say. But i think i disagree. I think a picture is a whole lot more than a thousand words. Seriously there have been many many times when words completely fail me...like not just that i dont have enough, its that i literally cant express something in words. It has happened several times with this very blog. and im sure if i could figure out how to put flippin pictures up on this thing i would use them a lot more. gosh. anyways this thing does have a point.

So tonight was family night at the mozley house (minus my mama which was very sad). And the first activity was to look through very very old pictures. Some of which should never have been taken and which will hopefully never be seen in public. But that is beside the point. The point is that those pictures brought back so many awesome memories. Like they didnt just capture the one moment that the picture showed. when i looked at some, i could remember the whole day, everything that happened, in detail. It was so cool. It made me miss people a lot. And it was funny because when i stepped away from looking at the pictures it was like i was back in the real world. as cheezy as i know it sounds, it was really like i had stepped away from real life for a few minutes. And it was nice. Thats the great thing about memories. So often you remember all the good things. I mean there were probably some memories that went along with those pictures that werent very pleasant but i didnt remember them. It was so good is all im sayin.

And no worries guys. Me and Amy and Tatum are going to figure out how to scan them and put them up here. hah. You know yall are good friends when i let you see some of them. so yeah. i just needed to get that down i guess. I feel very refreshed after enjoying those pictures. refilled. its nice.
love lots

Deep

"Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls all your waves and breakers have swept over me"

How incredible is that? deep calls unto deep. That phrase refuses to stop going through my head. and i didnt even know what verse it was, where it came from, and i dont think i heard someone say it recently. I mean i guess Someone did say it cause thats what the Lord has been speaking over my heart lately. the image that hits me when i think of this is from Ted Dekkers Black Red and White. the 'real' people had to continually bathe in water that at first hurt, made you feel like you were drowning, but took you to depths of light and an incredible, all-encompassing love and peace that didnt exist outside of the water...except through those who had bathed and experienced the depths. Going deep is scary. Every time that phrase 'deep calls unto deep' plays through my head i get excited but if im gonna be honest, i cringe a little too. the white flaky people in the series (its been awhile i cant remember what they were called) were terrified of the water. despite the knowledge that those who had bathed had become whole people, real people, people who could truly live. They were scared because the water changed people. You couldnt bathe without being stripped, pulled, torn a little, and, i mean the reality was that you drowned before you came up. you died. Thats a scary thought. Depth is not an easy, comfortable concept.


I love in the Great Divorce how Clive describes heaven. The grass hurt, you could walk on the water, even the light hurt those who had 'come up' from the misty town below. because the place they had come to was so real, so deep, so firm that it made you look like a ghost in comparison. " i had got 'out' in some sense which made the solar system itself seem an indoor affair. It gave me a feeling of freedom, but also of exposure, possibly of danger..."

The deep that the Lord is i guess drawing me to is going to hurt, my feet are going to take some time to harden so i can feel the beautiful softness of the grass, and i am probably going to have to drown. But the hurt of the thought of not going deeper scares me more. i want this desperately. Right now my toes are in the pool, i just have to let go and fall in. Ive never been very good at that. letting go of something that seems solid, comfortable, terrifies me. But i guess thats where He can work the most.

Im avoiding school work

SO i changed my blog. I like clouds. and this template made me happy. Although i feel like all of the ones i choose have very little color. So then i had to play around with the colors and font of my blog to make it more interesting. Im blogging about my blog. Im officially pathetic. hey at least i recognize it. And as my friends it is yall's resposibility to help me. please. thats all

Well...

So we all know what last wednesday was. And i have to agree with Amy's sentiments that Valentines is the most useless holiday ever. My teacher was like i would so much rather get something from someone on a random day so i knew they really meant it instead of just felt obligated to give something cause its Valentines day. I agree completely.
Having said all that, Wednesday was probably my fav Valentines day ever. At school that day Alistair( I have GOT to find out if thats how you spell his name) came up to me and Sabine and was like "So you guys are coming to the Dance Dance Revolution Valentines Party at Kips house today right?" I mean seriously. I really wish yall knew Kip and Alistair because just the thought of them doing DDR makes me laugh. So I didnt really think i could go cause i had a huge French test the next day blah blah blah. yes they all think im a nerd.
ANYWAYS. I got home and my mom was like GO. Stay home now and study a little while and then im going out anyways and ill take you. I love my mom. So me and my friend Pilar (who lives like right down the street from me) went to the Mormons for a Valentines party. Course it ended up being me, her, Kip, Alistair, and for a little while trent and Matt(two 10th grade mormons). So we come into Kips house and Alistair comes flying out of kitchen and slides to a stop in front of us (Tiled floors + socks). "welcome. Please take a scooter". There were two scooters leaning against the wall. Pilar and i declined the scooters and just walked in. "Please take a seat. But if you sit at the table, please sit on the far side" (why we would sit at the dining room table instead of the livingroom couch on any normal day is beyond me.) But we sat at the table because Alistair told us to. There were two plates and glasses set and candles lit. i kid you not. Oh but it gets better.
So me and Pilar are just sitting there looking at each other like what the heck. And the whole time Kip and Alistair are running in and out of the kitchen very secretively. then Kip brings us an appetizer(his words, not mine) of frozen peanut butter cookies. They were delicious but a little hard to bite. Then they brought out Chicken and rice. They made us dinner. LOL. Although they did clarify that the chicken was from the freezer and they had just gotten it out of the microwave. But still, they made us DINNER. it was hilarious. And then while we ate they performed for us their skills on DDR. So fun. Then when we finished we played DDR. hah. im REALLY bad. Kip laughed. Alistairs comment was, "hey anna you know the other day when you said you have no rhythm, you were right" thanks guys. THEN Alistair was like lets dance. well i had just discovered at the MUN dance that Kip could swing dance so i was like sure why not. So we went in the kitchen with Kips computer, turned off the lights, opened the microwave, turned on "Time After Time" and danced. by microwave light. Now if that isnt the best Valentines ever, i dont know what is.
So we have an incredibly awesome team here from MHS so ill tell yall about the second half of Valentines night in the next one.
love

Donuts and Chinese Food

both of which have been very important parts of my life in the last three days. Because of course the last three days have been the third annual LCS(lincoln Community School) MUN(model united nations) conference. You would be amazed at the level of randomness that goes into creating a good MUN conference. We had four schools participating, two from Ghana, one from Burkina and one from Turkey. Two of the Turkey students are staying at my house and they are so awesome. We've had many good conversations and they even showed me some sweet Turkish folk dancing. Its good stuff. So at the conference the other day (its at the Kofi Anan Peacekeeping Center which i think is pretty sweet) we were discussing a pretty ridiculous topic and a resolution(the written 'answer' to the problem) that made next to no sense. But alas, we as chairs of the committee had to try and keep the debate going. So i called upon the delegate of France to tell us his country's opinion on the resolution. And he proceeded to give a brilliant and thoroughly hilarious analogy of a donut. "this resolution is like a donut. It makes us happy and gives us feelings of joy and it has lots of delicious crunchy things in it. Even though it is lacking in some areas, hence the hole in the middle, it still makes us happy and makes us laugh" By this time none of us can keep a straight face and no one is taking this seriously (bad chair anna). THEN the delegate of China rises and states "The delegate of china agrees with the delegate of France(welcome to trying to talk at MUN it tends to get ridiculous) to some extent. However, donuts are bad for you. they make you fat" Thank you delegate of china for clearing that up for us. Now during this inspiring and very productive debate, the delegate of the UK has been shooting rubber bands at the delegate of china and this is starting to get on chair anna's nerves. So she gives him a look and a carefully whispered "stop it!". Three of those later she gives up. " The chair would like to remind all delegates, in particular the delegate of the UK, that rubber band shooting is completely out of order. She would like a written apology to the entire committee." This is the written apology, somewhat paraphrased. "The delegate of the UK would like to apologize to the entire committee for assaulting the delegate of China, but the delegate of the UK does not like communists or chinese food". Now all decorum and protocol is officially out the window. laughing is now in order delegates.
just a little taste of MUN for you. Ill tell you about the MUN/Lincoln dance in the next post. cause this one is too long. Get excited cause its good

Please dont take anything i say seriously

I was up at four. It just happens sometimes. You know, when you wake up and your hair is wet and your skin is wet and you did NOT just get out of the shower. That awesome feeling of a blanket of heat smothering you as you try to get that extra hour of sleep. And then you give up and get up, light a candle (by now im hoping you realize that these are all symptoms of lights off in the Mozley home) and continue writing your historical investigation. Which you finally stopped in delirium at 11 last night. This post is not supposed to have a purpose or a point so if youre waiting for one, you prolly want to stop reading now. Who knows how long this is gonna be. Although i have to stop to go to school...yeah.
So yesterday on the way home from school at 5 (we had MUN meetings till then) me and my awesome friends/surrogate family, Mrs. Nansie and Alex were in a taxi. And taxis in ghana really enjoy not following traffic rules(the few that there are and no, i dont think there are actually any in writing). Which when you are in one in traffic is nice, but when they try and cut you off...well lets just say they get some pretty dirty looks from yours truly. ANYWAYS. we are in traffic and the taxi pulls onto the shoulder to get around it (the traffic).And there is a policeman up ahead and the taxi cant merge back into traffic. So the policeman( the ONE time they actually decide to enforce the nonexistent traffic laws) makes us keep going in the lane we were in. Which takes us basically back to where we started. So we got out and walked (and this is where the post turns positive. FINALLY). And it was so fun! I have so missed walking here cause i walked everywhere in Kumasi and its just not as easy or convenient here. So me and Mrs. Nansie and Alex walked home and it was a blast. Very refreshing. ok. i have to go to school now. I sincerely apologize for this post. i just felt like writing. hah.