The Comfort of the Sabbath

I've always been on the fence when it comes to studying on the Sabbath. I hate to do it, but activities pop up almost every Saturday that are so irresistible (or required) that I can't part with them. I've always justified my Sabbath studies by arguing to my tender conscience that the church has only ENCOURAGED it, but not forced it.
As I woke up Saturday morning, this week is jam-packed with important assignments affecting my grade and ultimately the maintenance of my hard-earned scholarship and accordingly precious money that my family and I need to save. (Perhaps that's the main reason why I decided to study on Sunday.) As I pecked away at assignments Saturday morning that due this week, the rest of my day piled down on me like BYU's opponents do immediately whenever BYU decides to run the ball.... until after I took my date home after Elder Ballard's devotional.
With Elder Ballard's invitation to conduct a personal interview, I asked myself afterwords, "do I really trust in the Lord?" I felt that I can't say I'm fully relying on Him IN my comfort zone. You know where this is going... I didn't study on Sunday.
I've been working hard ever since then, praying that I would have success in my assignments. I woke up super early today to start working on my finance midterm. As I entered the testing center I felt confident based on my previous midterm. As I took a quick look at the questions, my confidence plummeted as I realized I only knew 20% of the questions (I'm NOT exaggerating). With every answer my calculator gave that wasn't on the bubble sheet, my heart started to fail me. For once, I was going to F.A.I.L a test.
I tried my very best and trudged on through the questions, missing my other classes so I could scrape away with a beautiful D or C grade.
At the end of 3h and 42m, I left the testing center with just ten minutes to get to university chorale. I didn't want to escape the unbearable feeling of looking what grade I got on testing.byu.edu. So I went through class, and started panicking because I had yet ANOTHER assignment I had to do I wasn't prepared for-the comfort zone assignment.
Afterwords, I went to subway and decided to face the truth-whatever letter grade it would be. Somehow, someway, the Lord produced a miracle and I got an 88 on the test! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I've been smiling ever since.
As I started eating my Subway, I realized the Lord had not only protected me from losing my scholarship because I trusted in Him, He also gave me a perfect comfort zone assignment.

Weekly Planning

Planning, no matter how spontaneous things may be, is the essential ingredient to anything I've done in my life. Though they have a tendency to go awry, the more I plan the more I'm able to visualize the future, which gives me confidence, which I need. The biggest problem I have at BYU is facing the ugly truth that I'm quite intimidated by many things! But when I write things down with a beginning and end in mind, I feel empowered and ready to face the future. 

BTW, I have started writing this in the middle of a weekly planning session. I got a free notebook from a graduate school fair and didn't know what to do with it. (btw, I just heard my roommate use a spray bottle for his hair. I hope he's not gay.)

"I'm so thoroughly convinced that if I use effective planning I'll make a big difference in my life. I once thought that I was losing my personality when I became a planning fiend, but now I realize that planning doesn't have to be cold as stones. Rather, there's so many things I can do freely. (I just realized my roommate is now cleaning up the bathroom. Woo!)