Family Influences

Today I just finished up the last assignment for one of my two classes in Seminary this quarter, SP505, Spiritual Formation. Although there are more classes to attend there is no more reading or work to do, so ... rah! Done with one, and I can spend all remaining effort and energy on GC505DE, which has plenty of reading and papers left. :(

But as a reward for working hard even while on vacation... tomorrow is a movie day! I think I'll see Paranormal Activity, Twilight: New Moon, and The Blind Side, at a minimum. Maybe This Is It as well. We'll see how long my butt holds out.

The assignment just completed and sent to my editor (who lives upstairs) was 2500 words on the influences from my background (culture, family, peers, gender, temperament, etc.) that have contributed, positively or negatively, to my formation spiritually. I actually had writer's block for a while. Me! Writer's block! Imagine...

Honestly, this was one of the harder papers I've had to write, in part because so much of my background contributed negatively to my spiritual formation. It wasn't a pretty picture. And yet, somehow, God used people and circumstances to break through it all (or worked through them all) to step in and guide my development, including a lot of it within the last 5-7 years.

Writing the paper was discouraging & encouraging at the same time. Sort of like life.