Homework and reading and tests, oh my!

I start grad school one week from today. I haven't been in school for a year and a half. So ... this is slightly intimidating. Why? Well for one thing, the syllabus is scary. I mean seriously, they could have included a monster at the end and I think it would have made the whole thing a little happier. =/

During the course of my undergraduate career I did many things
- made friends, was highly involved in a ministry, baked a lot, the usual stuff. Except for studying. I did NOT study. My grades proved my lack of studying, too. I barely squeaked by with a 3.11 GPA. Now there may be some of you who would kill for that GPA, and I'm not trying to put you down. It's just that I'm good at school and can do much better. I graduated in the top 4% of my class in high school. I know how to make good grades. But instead of doing my best in undergrad, I played around and literally only got the grades that I needed to make to keep a 3.0 GPA. I had the papers with calculations to prove it.

My greatest desire is to not repeat the same behavior; to take my Master's Degree seriously. But already I can sense a bit of apathy creeping into my brain. I have 11 chapters of reading to complete by the first week of classes and I decided to get a jump start on them. Thankfully I am halfway done, but it's taken me a week and a half to get there. For an avid reader, that's ridiculous. But the main reason that I want to do well is not so that I can say "What's up?! Look how awesome I am!!" I mean yeah, that's a desire if I'm honest. In fact, it kind of frustrates me that Liberty didn't look at my GRE scores. I knocked that test out of the park! But the driving desire is to bring glory to God in all that I do.

Colossians 3:17 says "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

Colossians 3:23 says "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ."

Now neither one of these verses is directly talking about school work, but I believe that both can be applied. How can I claim to be a follower of Christ and joke around with things that are supposed to really matter? I am actually attending a Christian university and want to show my professors that I not only take my schooling seriously but also my testimony before them.

So all of that to say: This semester is going to be crazy. If I'm not around a whole lot, you now know why. I'm trying to do my best in all of my classes and that means I'll have to make some sacrifices in hanging out with people, but I promise I won't drop off the face of the planet. =)