Grandma Visit

So, my Grandma who lives in southern California is visiting the house for a few weeks.  She comes and visits every summer, and it's great to see her, but at the same time, as much as I love her, she does somewhat add to the stress level in the house.

It's nothing that she intentionally does I don't think, she just has a very different lifestyle than we do.  Not that I'm calling her uptight or anything, but she is very much more set in her ways than we are, and we are much more laid back and easy-going, I find, than she is.

One thing that is very important to me and my family is our faith and our involvement in church.  My grandma is of the opinion that if you live a decent life and you do your best to be a good person, (coupled with belief in God) that God will let you into Heaven regardless of other beliefs or lifestyles.  She has concluded that all Christianity is is a list of rules and laws and regulations in order for you to be a better person, and that she doesn't need God to be a good, and upstanding.

One Year Anniversary of Graduation

But you wouldn't be able to tell a thing.

On July 25, 2009 I graduated from Ball State with a BS in Apparel Design.  Even before graduation, I had decided that my degree was just that... b.s.  Not only is the job market ABYSMAL for fashion designers, but about half-way through my senior year, I decided that I hated my degree.  I didn't like designing, I wasn't crazy about sewing and the whole fashion industry was not something I wanted to get seriously involved in... even if I wanted to, it would be really difficult for a fat girl to make it very far in an industry so obsessed with skin-deep beauty.

I really thought that, given a year, I would have made more progress in life than I have.  I thought that I would be living somewhere other than my parents house, working full-time, have more healthy relationships with people, and be healthier overall.  Even if not all of those things were going to happen, I would at least think I would be working more and be at least somewhat healthy physically.

Assurance

How do you know if you're saved? Christ saved the elect (assuming only the elect are saved by the work of Christ) by dying on the cross in payment for sins - but how do you know if you're elect?

We are saved by faith in Christ given to us as a gift through grace. I've heard that phrase and thought the gift was Christ, not faith, now, with further reading and study, I do still believe that Christ was a gift but the "gift" referred to in this particular statement is the faith - God grants people faith as a free gift.  Faith in the work He's already done, through Christ.  (In essence, our faith is a gift, and that faith is in Christ Jesus.)

Faith is the gift, Jesus Christ was the means by which it is given because it allowed God to grant grace. So, if Christ died for the elect and the elect are granted faith because of God's grace, is having faith our assurance for salvation?

In Regard to the Twitter Discussion:

So, the other day I asked kind of a big question and then had to leave and I wasn't able to see/participate in the conversation until much later.  (I still haven't actually said anything about it because things have been kinda crazy around my house!)