First things first.

Before I write my first real entry, I want to say a few things about myself and what I'll be writing here.

I am a Christ follower, daughter, sister, and friend.
I am a recent college graduate (Grove City College class of 2010).
I have beautiful, wonderful friends (from high school, youth group, and college).
I have an incredible boyfriend whom I absolutely cannot wait to marry someday (let's be honest:)
I love my family, though a lot of times I feel like I don't belong.
I am real and honest, and I will be in this blog; no sugar coating here.
I love music almost as much as the air I breathe; I could talk about it for hours.
I am undergoing a lot of changes post-college, and it's been really hard on me.

I will be writing about my struggles, things I'm learning from God and life, people I love, blessings, things that make me laugh, things that make me angry, things that make me cry...and well, complete randomness from time to time. I will post some of my poetry as well.

I've entitled this blog "Learning to Love." Loving others is a lifelong journey that takes humility, wisdom, and strength from God. It's a CHOICE and a PROCESS to love God, love your family, your friends, your signficant other, a co-worker, a classmate, a stranger.. It's something we LEARN to do. It's something I will continue to strive to do, but will fail at daily. The jealousy gets to me, the pride gets to me, the anger and frustration get to me. I want to let go of a lot of those things and just love people freely. I can only do this with God's help. It will be a long, hard journey but I want to take it. Other than my relationship with God, relationships with others are the most important things in life, as they could have an eternal impact. I want to express a lot of this in my blog, hence the title.

Those of you who know me (but not quite well enough) might say, "Well it's easy for you to love people...your life is going great!" I will say that God has blessed me incredibly (I can't stress this enough) but I have had a fair share of struggles and heartbreak and weak times in my life. God is always healing me from my sin and my shame, and He is healing me from my brokeness. He will do that until the day I see Him face to face. So yeah, I am sinful, I am rotten. I need God's help to love others, just like everyone else.


Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. I honestly don't think that I have much to say that be of great worth, but I appreciate those of you who love me and want to share in the blessings, hardships, and lessons of my life.

Mal