As promised a much faster update

Hello all,

I am very glad that i am giving you all another update so quickly. It usually does not work out that way. But the sad news is, our season is now officially over. We lost both games that we played this past weekend that i said we needed to win in order to make the playoffs. I had the opportunity to play in the game friday night and i felt as though i did not play very well overall. I thought that i did not have a very good 1st and 2nd period, but i did feel as though i played much better in the 3rd. In the 1st and 2nd period, i was playing all nervous and i was not playing in joy and i did not like that at all. But i was helped to settle down and play a much better 3rd period. We lost the game on friday night, which meant we were out of the playoffs. Then we had another game saturday night and i figured i would play in it again, in order to gain more experience and all that, but sadly i did not play in that game. I was pretty disappointed at first, i really really wanted to play in that game and i really wanted to score a goal (since i did not score any goals this season). But as i went to the Lord for help i was comforted. I found help in Psalm 42, i love when the psalmist asks himself "why are you cast down oh my inner self?" or "why are you in despair oh my soul? Hope in God!" Also as i called my mom to tell her i was not playing i also received help from her. To keep standing on the rock, to keep pressing on, to not give up. To keep trusting in my God who knows and understands every circumstance in my life. So for that encouragement i was very thankful.

Also carol sent me a text of some scriptures i can be speaking throughout the game in order to keep my mind directed toward the Lord. This one was just perfect for yesterday, "Thou hast deal well with thy servant according to thy word" - Ps 119: 65 That scripture was just perfect for me. My situations and experience was telling me that the Lord had not dealt well with me, that this past season was just so so, and not so great. But that is not true, and i still need help to get a greater picture of this past season. But i am thankful for this scripture to start with, that i can confess with my mouth that the Lord has dealt well with me, His servant.

Now that the season is over i will have a little bit more time on my hands. Generally my afternoons were filled with practice and weight lifting. But now i will have my afternoons free. However my plan is to diligently workout in the afternoons and to try to get on the ice whenever i can. Eventually the rink here will melt the ice down and i wont be able to skate, but i might be able to drive to Ithaca which is about 25 minutes away sometimes. Another plan that i had was, i might drive to Scranton Pa, which is only about an hour and a half away. The Pittsburgh Penguins power skating coach who i have skated with before has his headquarters out in Scranton and i might call him to see if i could skate with him some weekends.

I started the first half of this blog about a week ago, so now it is Friday the 26th and i am sitting up at 7:45 am writing this blog. Wednesday night we received a TON of snow and we had some classes cancelled on thursday and now this morning 2 of my classes were cancelled, both which i happened to have a test in. So i was kind of happy about that because i was not ready for those tests yet. I did not study enough last night at all.

This past week has been interesting, and it has been very busy. Even though this was my first week without practice in the afternoons, it still felt as though i was just as busy. Only because in all 5 of my classes, 4 of them decided to have a test or quiz thursday and friday and then in my 5th class we had a paper due friday. So you can imagine that i had my hands full. Other things have happened this week, and my conclusion is, my God is faithful to me, His servant. I have experienced the gentle kindness of the Lord in several ways over the past couple of days. I believe His kindness is evident in our lives daily, but this week in particular i was overwhelmed by the kindness of the Lord to work out situations on my behalf. As i laid in my bed at night i was truly able to say, Yes Lord you have been faithful to me today, and i was extremely thankful for that.

As i continue to progress deeper into my relationship with the Lord each and everyday He continues to reveal Himself to me in a greater way. One thing my pastor up here says, "the Word of God says, "My sheep hear my voice", and i am His sheep therefore i always hear His voice." I truly love the simplicity of it, so as i have considered this truth i have gone deeper into that FACT, that i do hear His voice daily, and that He is leading and guiding me every single day. In addition, a couple times this week i have just been walking around or have been in my private times with the Lord and i just talk with God. I ask Him questions and He responds, it seems right to me to be able to talk with your Heavenly father in that way. And i am excited to go deeper into that, more and more conversations with my God. We are His sheep, we DO hear His voice. Will you listen?

I also wanted to share with you guys something really cool that happened last week. After our game saturday (our last one of the season) we were riding the bus back home, and after about an hour into the ride i decided to go the back of the bus and sit back there with some of the older guys. I was sitting there for just a little bit and then a couple of the guys started asking me questions about the Lord, and they were asking me about things i can and can't do in my life as a result of being a christian. ha. They also took the opportunity to ask me what i thought about certain subjects in life. It was really fun, i basically had the attention of about 6 to 8 guys who were listening to all i had to say and i think i spoke with them about the Lord for about 45 minutes or so. I believe the conversation started with them asking me about sex and marriage and how i was waiting till marriage (seems to be a hot topic among them, ha). But as i tell them things they are always amazed that i can do that, wait for that long, but its not me, it is the grace of God in my life and it is my desire to be pleasing to the Lord in everything i do.

One of the guys on the team grew up and went to a catholic high school, and he was saying to me that he feels that anything too extreme is wrong. He talked about Catholicism and how he felt it was too extreme, i agreed with him in this matter, but i said too; "sometimes there are things that i do that might SEEM extreme in order to please the Lord, and i would not count that as wrong, just because it could seem extreme." I also took the opportunity to tell him (with everyone else listening of course) about how one of my problems with Catholicism is its all about what YOU can do for God, about how YOU have to do this or that for Him, in order to please Him. But then i started tell him about Jesus and how He came in order to fulfill the law and He came down and died for us, simply because He loved us, not because of anything we did to deserve it. He came and died for EVERY SINGLE one of us, even when we hated Him. That is true love! I was very thankful that the Lord gave me that particular truth to speak, because i do believe it is a freeing truth for my friend on the team. The Love of Jesus is always freeing, knowing that we did nothing to deserve it and we cant ever do anything to deserve it. It is a FREE gift from God.

So i was extremely thankful for the opportunity to share all these things with the guys on the team, i believe it was helpful to all who heard and to me as well. That is all i have for now, i will attempt to write again in the near future. Thank you all who continue to read, i love you all. Continue to go on every single day with our great savior!

Love,

Adam