My hope is built on nothing less.

Last night was seriously awesome. There's no other way to explain it. Part of me still feels the same, but another, much bigger, part of me feels completely different. A 45 second ceremony means so much to me and will have such an impact on my life.

Chi Alpha service last night was so great. Andy's message was ON POINT. He talked about how a good way to gauge how much you love God is to look at how you treat and love other people. The more you love other people, the more you love God. I've never heard anyone put it that way, but it's seriously so true. My life is a perfect example. Over the last year, as I grew closer to God, I loved on others more. I sacrifice for others more. (Which was another point Andy made - sacrifice and love go hand in hand.) By the end of the service, Andy was tearing up. It was so powerful and so true. Then, the worship team did wonderful! One of my very good friends Ashley sang last night and did amazing. I've been getting more and more into my worship and last night was definitely the most I've been into it. I had both hands so high in the air. It was so.... just wow.

Right after that, we went to Hammons Student Center for the baptisms. There were 13 people that were baptized last night! Some of them were some good friends of mine. It was so awesome to see them go through that. And it was awesome to see Matthew get re-baptized!

I was second to last. Sarah performed the baptism for me, and I'm so glad I chose her. She has been such a huge influence on my life and I literally don't know where I'd be without her. Honestly, she is one of the reasons I decided to go to XA this year. It may have only taken 45 seconds, but those 45 seconds mean so much to me. I've only been a Christian for a year and a couple months. To be able to publicly announce that Jesus is my Savior.... WOW. It was an amazing feeling. I literally felt like a new person when I resurfaced.

And maybe I'm still way top excited about it, and maybe I'm putting way too meaning in it, but I don't even care. For me, it was an amazing moment. I've literally never felt more close to God than I do now and than I did in that exact moment. I don't care what other people think - I know that sometimes having a child-like faith (and child-like excitement) can be an exceptionally good thing. I'm not ashamed of how excited I was to get baptized, and I'm such as heck not ashamed to show everyone how much I love God.

Here's the group of those who got baptized and those who performed the baptisms:

I cannot even put into words how much this Chi Alpha family means to me. They've have become my closest friends, and they'd do anything for me. It's my third and final year at Missouri State, and I finally found my passion, and my place.

After the baptisms were over, Matthew, Grant, Zach, and I went out into the lobby. In light of our problems we had been having, Matthew drafted a Resolution, much like the one from the movie Courageous (if you haven't seen it - you should!). We went out and bought nice paper and a nice frame for the document. Grant read each line aloud and Matthew agreed to follow it. After everything was read, all three of us signed it. It's now hanging on our wall, right next to the door.

If you want to know exactly what it says, just let me know. I can either send you the text or send you the document. While we were signing it, Andy walked up to see what we were doing. We had extra copies of the Resolution, so we gave him one. He read through it and told us how proud he was of me and Matthew. That moment right there was another one of my favorites from the night. I respect Andy so much, and to have him say he was proud of us... MAN. I think it's safe to say that I was just floating on a cloud all night last night. It even overflowed into today. I'm one very lucky and blessed girl.