While being in a new month and a new place, I have learned a lot about family and community. I have learned this from the people that I am living with, and the circumstances that came while we were here.
I have learned that internet, ipods, and tvs are good things to have, but they are something that can also tear a family apart. I have learned that if I think I can’t get along with the people around me, it is just an excuse. I can get along with anyone and everyone I choose too. I don’t believe Jesus had a problem getting along with people, some may not have liked him, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to get to know them. I have began to look more deeply to him for the TRUE meaning of relationship.
I have learned that family is there for you no matter what. When we go through hard times, we come together, and we support one 
another. We are there to listen. There to push one another when we don’t want to go. There to shape each other into our potential. To help one another reach our dreams. Even though we are stuck together now, isn’t that what family is like forever. We may not have gotten close if we were on different groups, but there is a reason we are all together. Just like in family, we may not have all the same interest but there is a reason we are in that family.
I have learned what patience is, from the people around me. I have been catching a glimpse of what it means to love like Jesus did. I am catching a glimpse of what is means when people say, “the hardest time are typically the greatest memories”. I am catching a glimpse of what is means to “just change it.” I heard in a movie once that if you “I don’t like my life, I don’t like the place where I live” (the response)…then change it“. Do you believe that you can just change something, some place, or even yourself?
I am realizing that a lot of things take time to develop, that the best things in life don’t come overnight. I am truly realizing what my Grandpa told me once, “The things that are worth something you have to work for“.
I am realizing there is so much more than what I tried to put in a little box and call “life”. There is so much more than what I see in front of me. There is so much more that I want to grab and run with. There is so much more that I want to defeat. There is so much more that I want to experience. There is so much more to life than what I thought there was and a lot of that is because my perspective of life is changing.
I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh
and give them a heart of flesh,
that they may walk in my statutes
and keep my rules and obey them.
And they shall be my people,
