Porn and Prostitution

So, I was having a thought, and I want some opinions. I was just thinking about how porn is accepted in our society and perfectly legal, while prostitution is neither accepted nor legal. And I thought to myself, why is this? Aren't they basically the same thing, only one is behind a camera/computer screen? It's still exploiting people for our own personal pleasure. And in porn, it's still real people, which I think we sometimes forget. Anyways, I just wanted some feedback as to why our culture sees these two things as so different from each other. Let me know what you think. :)

What my head does when I'm bored and I just let it run...

Words...I need to write words. Haven't posted something in almost a month...what to write...argh, I don't know. Grrrr, mind so blank, nothing good to write. Why am I even typing this up? Oh yeah, to try and get the writing juices flowing. Maybe if I type long enough, I'll think of something. I miss Josh. Well, that was random. I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this, doesn't want a blog about that. Summer is too long. That's too depressing and not interesting enough. It's just complaining, that won't interest anyone. Hmmm...all the big topics, like drugs, abortion, homosexuality, sex, religion, politics, they are WAY overdone, and I doubt anyone wants to hear one more person give their opinion. Meh. This isn't working...this is what happens when I'm out of college and sitting at home too long: mushy brain syndrome. Friends. I love my friends. Wow, anyone reads this probably thinks I'm crazy. Oh well...What have I been doing this summer? Taking care of my mom while she heals from surgery, not much to write about. I helped cook last night...that was kinda cool. Lol, I'm so rambling right now. :P Hello earthlings, take me to your leader! Haha, ok, I need to stop before I really do freak someone out. My brain...this is my brain when I don't focus it. BaBOOM. It just goes helter skelter everywhere. Teehee. I'll tell you what, though. When I do focus it, it can do some pretty cool things. At least, I think so. So yeah...that's good. Lalala, I'm boooooooored. Summer is loooooooong. Oops, said I wouldn't complain. Bad Izzy!! Sorry, ladies and gents, I'll try and keep it positive. I want to watch Beauty and the Beast. LOVE that movie. Watched it with Josh last semester, just for the heck of it, along with the Lion King. That was fun. :) *bounces up and down for a second* Oooooooooooo, random energy!! Ok, I think I'm done now. Well, boys and girls, I had nothing to write about, so I thought I'd just write whatever happens in my head when I am bored, and just let it run. Here you are, hope I didn't scare anyone.

Six Months Together

So, this is gonna be a mushy post. I usually don't write blogs that are all about my boyfriend, cuz I don't figure people want to hear about how much I love Josh, blah blah blah. But today is out sixth month anniversary and I want to blog about him.
So, we started officially dating November 24th, 2012, making today the six month mark in our relationship. We knew each other for most of the fall semester of 2012, but we're both involved with other people when we first met. After a while we both ended up single. We started hanging out more, and before long we were dating. It's been such an amazing time since then. We made it through Thanksgiving Break, Christmas Break, Spring Break, two semesters worth of homework and exams, and plenty of fights. We are now enduring 3 and a half months of summer break away from one another before we return to Liberty University in August.
Let me tell you, this man is amazing. He is helping me with so many things. My self-esteem, my trust issues, my abandonment issues, and so much more. He is patient, trust-worthy, loving, strong, protective, loyal, and kind. He puts up with all my crazy mood swings, and never judges me. I know I can tell him anything and that I am always safe with him. He makes me feel special, needed, and loved.
He loves to spoil me and take me out on dates. He takes me to movies and dinner a lot, and we go shopping rather often. A lot of times we just look at stuff, but he doesn't mind looking at clothes with me. I also look at video games and stuff with him, so it all works out. (Course, I love to play video games as well. :)) He loves to randomly buy me stuff. He tells me I'm beautiful every day and loves making me blush. The first words out of his mouth every day are "Hello, Gorgeous". Sometimes, I just catch him staring at me, for no reason whatsoever. He always makes sure I am taken care of, and that I'm taking good care of myself. If I need something, he makes sure I get it. He goes places with me, just so I won't have to go alone, and doesn't mind at all. He loves cuddling just as much as I do. We watch so much TV together, and always snuggle while we do. He'll try anything with me once if I ask nicely, and is willing to talk out any issue with me. He has the cutest habit of wiping my tears off my face when I'm crying, and gives the best hugs.
Yes, despite all this, we still have fights and don't always get along. But we always talk it out, and come to some kind of agreement. We never make threats like "I'll leave you!" when we're angry. That's not okay. We have made it through a lot in these six months, and I hope we have many more together. His smile makes my heart light up. :)
Joshua Daniel Bray, this is for you. I love you so much, I can't wait to see your adorable smile in August. :D <3

This crazy, insane, amazing semester!!

Hey guys! I realize I haven't posted in a long time. I thought I should, but I wasn't really sure what to write about this time. Then I started thinking back over this semester and I realized that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to write about this past semester.
This past semester has been so amazing and so crazy. For one thing, I decided to take 18 credit hours like I did my first semester, but this time with my 200 and 300 level classes. That was a mistake! And my grades show it...but, I digress. This was also the first time I had friends in almost all of my classes. Only two of the six did not have someone I knew. My biology class had my friend, Joey, History class had my friends Sarah and Josh(not my boyfriend Josh), Psychology had my RA, Cori, and my friends, Kati, Angela, and Jeshad, and English had Sarah and Ciara. That just left Theo and Math with no friends. So classes were definitely a lot of fun(even the ones that had crazy teachers. :P). Lol.
This semester also included many, many homework and study sessions with my good friend Sarah Ross, who I was taking History and English with. Sometimes, they were long and tedious, and I honestly just wanted to go snuggle with my boyfriend. But, thanks to all her help, I pulled out with a B in English and passed History with a C. Without her, I'm pretty sure I would have failed History and maaaybe gotten a C in English. So, I am very thankful to her for all her time and help. And to God, for helping me.
I made some new friends this semester, that's for sure. My friend Jon has become my little brother, and has become quite special to me. We love watching people's faces when he calls me "big sis" and I call him "little bro", because although he is younger than me, he is over a foot taller than me and is somewhat wider than me. But, he will always be my little brother, and I am so glad I met him. I also met Amber, a girl who was in my boyfriend's Drama Appreciation class. They got grouped in the same group for a project and I ended up tagging along to one of the meetings. After that, we became pretty close, and spent more time together. She is so much fun and has such a positive outlook on life, even when she's sad. I love her so much. She ended up dating my "big brother", Daniel, and I am so happy for both of them. They are so good together and deserve a good relationship. :) I actually became friends with a guy named Michael this semester who previously had a been a friend of my other friends to me. And I met and become friends with Sterling, which was lots of fun.
I also ended up rooming with my "little sister", Hailey, this semester and am glad of it. Sometimes we fight and want to kill each other, but we always love each other, and are there for each other. She will always be my little sissy, and I love her. We vented to each other many nights, and had lots of fun together. And no matter how mad we got at each other, we always said good-night before we went to sleep, and knew that everything was fine.
There were some really specific memories this semester, as well. There were random trips to the Pet Store with Daniel or Sterling, and the random fishing trip with Michael and Sterling. There were double dates both with Hailey and her bf and with Daniel and Amber. There were trips to Doc's Diner with groups of friends, and special dates with Josh. There were days spent with Sarah, and nights that Hailey and I stayed up talking for hours. There were visits from people who had left Liberty, like Rebecca and Bradley. And, by far the most memorable of all, was the day we went hiking to see Michael propose to his girlfriend, Brandi. I will always remember that day for so many reasons.
Also, throughout this whole semester, my boyfriend Josh and I have stayed in a committed, healthy relationship. It's been a lot of work, and we have had some interesting fights, but we have stuck it out and are nearing our 6 month mark in less than a week. I am so proud to call myself his girlfriend and hope we have many more semesters together.
Overall, this has been my best semester yet, despite my grades. So many friends that I'll keep for a lifetime, so many memories to cherish, and so many lessons learned. I know not all of my friends are coming back next semester, and I will miss them so much. But I know we will stay friends for many years to come. I will always look back on this semester with fondness, and hope my next four will be just as amazing!
Thanks for a great semester, everyone!! :D <3

So...got worked up today...

Ok, so in one of my classes we were analyzing a literary work, and my teacher said something that very much made me go "WHAT?"  Basically what was said by the teacher was that if you're being verbally hurt or abused in a marriage, that the proper way to handle it is to be mean and hurtful back to them. I was like, "What?! What happened to 'two wrongs don't make a right'  and 'a soft answer turneth away wrath'?!" Ok, so here's my thing: If you're being verbally abused, by no means should you just let it continue. That's not ok, at all. But being hurtful back will just escalate the situation and make it worse. You should sit down with the person and confront them about, try to work it out maturely. If that doesn't work, get other people involved. Call a pastor, go to counseling, go the church, etc. Get help, is the point. I raised my hand in the discussion and respectfully gave my opinion on this. The teacher then proceeded to go on a rant about gossip in churches and pretty much dissed all counselors. Which if you know me, that upset me as I want to get a job as a professional counselor. I didn't say anything after that, but, wow, I couldn't believe she said that. And if you're church starts gossiping about you, that's a problem in the congregation, and should be dealt with. So yeah, I was really worked up about this and just wanted to get my thoughts out there.

God's Furious, Wild Love

 Hello again, to anyone who is actually reading this, lol. So, this post is about a song that really gets me thinking. See, here at my college, Liberty University, we have this thing called Convocation on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It's kinda like chapel, but we have speakers who are respected in their fields from all over the country and world come to speak to us, rather than just our university pastor every time. Well, there is one song we sing sometimes and the chorus goes like this:

His love is deep, His love is wide
And it covers us
His love is fierce, His love is strong
It is furious
His love is sweet, His love is wild
And it's waking hearts to life

 I very much LOVE this description of God's love. I think we tend to picture Him as this tame God, who love us with this sweet, mushy love that hopes against reality that we'll come to know Him. We think He is simple and good, fuzzy feelings. We put Him in a box. But this is not how God's love work. His love is fierce, jealous, wanting our affections to be for Him and no one else. I love how this chorus describes His love as firece, strong, furious, and wild. He loves us with a furious, intense love. Like a man who loves his bride with a desperate love that is so deep it hurts. Not only that, God loves us with a wild love. His love is not tame or predictable. He is not a tame God, so neither is His love. I think of the scene in Chronicles of Narnia where they say of Aslan: "He is not a tame lion." So is our God. He is good, always, but by no means tame. He wants wildly lavish His love upon us, not just pat us on the shoulder. 

  I just love thinking about that, and wanted to share my thoughts. Hope you enjoy. :)

So This is Me!

Ello guys! So my name is Izzy if you don't know me. I decided I would start this to share some of my thoughts about life and experiences throughout it. Probably won't be any anything amazingly deep, (only happens VERY occasionally, haha) but it should make you smile/ entertain you. I am 20(21 in August) and finishing up my Sophomore year at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. I am majoring in Psychology and hope to be a professional therapist someday. I love to read and write, and also hope to become a published author. I  have moved around many times in my life. Most of my young childhood was in Elyria, Ohio and then LaGrange, Ohio. Eighth grade through eleventh grade were spent in Jacksonville, Florida. Senior year was in Oneonta, Alabama, and my year between high school and college was in Huntsville, Alabama. I have amazing friends and  the best boyfriend ever, named Josh Bray. I love Tolkien, Doctor Who, Hunger Games, C.S. Lewis, Ted Dekker, Frank Peretti, Psych, Star Wars, Buffy, Harry Potter, and lots of other authors, shows, and movies.If you ever want someone to talk to let me know, I'll have a listening ear. I'm a little strange, but I love people. I am Christian, but I don't shun you if you disagree with my beliefs. You don't have to have the same beliefs as someone to love them. So no matter your thoughts or lifestyle, I will love you just the same. Try me. Well, anyways, that's some background on me. If you want to read some stuff I write, follow the blog. :)