A Valuable Piece of Advice...

For all of my millions of readers: to those few thousand of you thinking of taking the LSAT at the University of Denver, a word of advice:

1. Get there early - when you read "8:30 a.m." think "7:30 a.m." - not because they start on time (because they don't - praise God or I would have wasted $129), but because DU has really limited visitor parking.
2. When reading the instructions and you see the word "snack" - think Double Cheeseburger with fries, a coke, and maybe some apple pie because it's longer than "snack" would imply.
3. Don't bother with a sharpener - they don't do what their name implies - just take a half dozen pencils - one for each section of the test.
4. Skip the questions that take too long (some very good advice I received on Tuesday) - even if it means skipping a whole passage and 7 questions because instead of English it seems like the passage is in Greek or Latin or some equally dead language.
   
5. At the 5 minute warning, stop panicking and just do what you can - actually it's kind of comical how little you can get done in 35 minutes when it's 9:30 a.m. and your brain doesn't turn on until 3 p.m.
6. No ball point pen means no ball point pen - take pencils, people and listen to the instructions!!!! (seriously, how many times did she say no pens and someone was writing with one???)
7. Don't forget your water bottle.
8. When crossing the DU campus don't look the Rushers in the eye and enjoy the chiming bell in the clock tower - the latter is reason enough to go to a campus like DU on the hour :)
   
9. Praise God when you don't get a parking ticket because you didn't listen to #1 and you didn't have enough change.
   
10. Remember - the outcome of this test does not affect your life's happiness - God's going to use you where you're at - fact - no matter how smart the LSAC thinks you are.
    

List of Fifty (one)

I had the privilege to speak to the high schoolers at my church yesterday morning. The topic was simple enough for me to speak on because it was the story of my life with Christ. In the midst of my talk, I spoke of the times of life when we are pushing through confusion - when the stack of unanswered questions is dauntingly high - and suddenly we pop out the other end and some things finally make sense. We are able to breath once more because 5 of the items on our list are answered or clearer. We still have this list of 50 things, but it doesn't seem as daunting any more.

Yesterday a few friends of mine added one more item to my "List of 50" - the things in my life that need prayer saturation. After my talk, one of my friends told me I should go into public speaking, and my boyfriend seconded her opinion. I must confess myself quite taken aback! The fact that the Lord was moving through my words that morning was made clearer and clearer as I spoke to more people - praise Him with me!

I must confess that I do enjoy speaking - telling people all that the Lord is teaching me and sharing with them all that I have learned in hopes that the Lord will use my words as one way to touch their lives as He has mine. I forget, in the months and years that span between the times I have taught, how much I enjoy it. The thought of actually trying my hand at it more than once a decade had never occurred to me, though. Being a lawyer has occurred to me; being a teacher has occurred to me; I am a secretary, and I am a writer. But me? a speaker??

Apart from the Lord I can do nothing, and so the "List of 50" is in constant flux as I turn to Him and as He answers me. It's interesting, as I think and pray, a number of things that I have been told over the years suddenly take on a whole new meaning....