Wow! What an easy question. I have three favorites, but they are all so different so I couldn’t decide which was number one.

• The office- honestly if you don’t like the office, I don’t think we can be friends….naw, I’m just kidding. It’s not everyone’s type of humor. At first I thought it was so dumb, but then someone convinced me to just keep watching it because it gets better. Man, that was so true. I kept watching and I thought it was so funny.
• Stranger things- I do not advise you to watch this if you don’t like scary tv shows. It’s not like super scary, but little kids should not watch it. The creatures are kinda gross and there’s some bloody things and, well, “strange” things.
• The Village- I just recently found this show on tv and it’s so good. It’s very realistic to real life situations. It’s about a bunch of people living in the same apartment building and how their lives intertwine. I just watched the season one finale and cried like the whole time, but I can’t wait for the next season.

Very. I think education is extremely important. I’ve been lucky enough to go to a private school and the education is great. The teachers truly care about all of us and want us to receive the best education possible. The sad thing is that most of us don’t really notice that. We often don’t try in school or complain about teachers, but they are such a blessing.

I’m a strong believer in that school should not be easy. I think you should have homework and your assignments shouldn’t be a breeze. Teachers should make you work to get an A. Although I think that school shouldn’t be easy, I don’t think hours of homework every day on top of practicing for sports or other extracurricular events is a good idea. Kids need to be able to let their brains rest, have fun with friends, spend time with their families, and be able to spend quality time in God’s Word. Education is important, but it’s not number one. God is number one, and I think family is next in line. Unfortunately, these two very important things are the things we take for granted most. So I encourage you to try and spend more time with your families and with God this year, especially this summer before life gets crazy!

I couldn’t really think of an answer to this one simply because I’m only 16 years old. So I decided to just share some encouragement for those who have something that their struggling with. First of all I don’t believe it’s a bad thing to feel regret or guilt, that’s just the Hoy Spirit working in your heart. He’s telling you where and where not to go. Feeling regret in a way is God speaking to you. Second, there’s no need to feel regret over a long period of time. As soon as you tell God you’re sorry,repent, then your forgiven. God doesn’t hold a grudge; He forgives. So don’t beat yourself up anymore for the tings you regret. Just move on. Each day is a new day! I know this one is super short, but I was very rushed in writing. Sorry😬

This question is super easy for me because I’m very picky when it comes to books. The first book that came to my mind was the Shack. I seriously love that book. It’s very sad and sometimes made me tear up, but it’s still my favorite. Yes, there is some debate on whether it was right to have God portrayed as a women, but I’m not here to debate that. All I’m going to say is that it does have reason to back up why it does that, but you’ll have to read the book to find out.

I think it does an amazing job of showing what a relationship with God could truly look like. It shows a very real and personal God who loves each one of his children. God is relatable; he wants a relationship with everyone, and this book does a great job of showing that!

Every Sunday, unless we are on a trip, my family gets up and goes to church. I’m on the praise team some weeks so sometimes I have to go super early to practice singing not playing the keyboard. Sunday school starts at 9:00 and church at 10:00. We start church with singing and prayer, then a sermon, and then we are dismissed, but we always stay and talk for like half an hour.

After church we go get lunch. We usually go over to my grandmas house for lunch with our aunts and uncles as well as our grandparents, but if they’re not making lunch we go out to eat.

Then we go home and usually chill for about an hour or two. This usually consists of watching tv, drawing, napping, or for me blogging. If it’s nice outside we go outside for the rest of the afternoon or if not we just hang out for the day.

During the school year we have youth group on Sunday nights. Souled out, youth group, starts at 6:16 and usually lasts until 8. Then it’s a thirty mile drive back home to spend some time with the family for the rest of the night. In the summer we just stay home or go fishing or swimming in the pool. Occasionally I will go over to my boyfriend’s house or he will come over and hang out, but if not Sundays are pretty lazy. That’s just one of the reasons that Sundays are the best day of the week.

I’m gonna list my highs and lows just from the last school year. I feel like this last year I’ve had a lot of highs and not very many lows. My highs were youth group trips, Christmas break, my first date, and some other great accomplishments.

My highs

First off, I enjoyed my two youth group trips. We went to Central District Youth Conference and Youthcon. The youth conference was over by Sioux Falls in November and Youthcon was in New Mexico. I loved both and experiences God in new ways at both. Here’s a picture we took at the top of a hiking trail in New Mexico.

Second, I had a lot of fun over Christmas break. My sister came back from college so I got to spend time with her. Also I love Christmas parties because of food and family. There’s no better way to celebrate Jesus birth than with family.

The next thing was my first date. In my family you have to be 16 to go on a date so this year I got to. We went I dinner and a movie, just a typical date, but it was still one of the best days of my life!

Some other highs this year were becoming a volleyball and basketball starter, and getting the grades I worked for in school.

My lows

Honestly I had a hard time coming up with anything. My first low would simply be the weather. There was so much snow, rain, and just yucky weather this spring, and I’m not a fan of that. I’m more of a hot, humid type of person when it comes to the weather. Florida weather is perfect for me.

My only really big low was not being able to go to prom with my boyfriend. At our school you can’t go unless you’re a junior, and I was a sophomore so I had to serve all he food. So since I couldn’t go my sister filled my spot. It was hard for me to watch them have a good time while I served the table eighth next to them. In the end it’s really not that big of a deal because I’ll still go next year.

Besides that it was more of just daily struggles. I’m very thankful for this last school year and all the amazing experiences. God blessed me with this last year and I hope the next school year is the same way.

This question is super easy to answer, but very hard to actually do. I know it seems like it should be easy for a Christian to make time to read God’s Word and pray, but it’s hard for me. I either make the “I’m too tired” excuse, or I don’t even think about doing it. I’ll do really good for about a week, and then I’ll struggle the next week.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot better about doing it before bed and praying throughout the day, and not just once before meals or bed. The thing that helps me the most is asking God to give me time. Most likely if you think your too busy, your not. Pray and ask God, and He will give it to you. If you struggle to do it after you do homework because your to tired, do it before you do your homework and ask God to help you get the homework done. It works! I have a few tips for better devotional time below.

Tips for more focused devotional time

• Be in a quiet place. It could be in your room with the door shut, in the office, or anywhere in the morning before everyone else is up.
• Turn everything else off. Leave your phone in another room. Don’t turn the tv on, not even on mute. Don’t play music or anything, just spend this time with you and God.
• Make enough time. Don’t be in a rush to get done. Set a timer for how long you want to do it, and don’t do anything but be with God in that time.
• Take notes on what you read, pray about, or anything God speaks to you through during this time. This will help you stay involved in your devotions.

1. Sit down with my family or alone and watch a movie. There’s something about a cozy blanket and a bowl of popcorn that just makes you relax. What’s really good about this option is that you can do it any time of year.
2. I love to sit at the kitchen counter with a hot cup of coffee to relax in the morning. I’ll usually drink a cup and draw, blog, do my devotions, or color. In my eyes, coffee is always a good option.
3. In the summer time I love to go outside and tan. I get a towel, put on a swimsuit, and go lay out on the pool deck. This option is always good with some good music playing too!
4. Take a short nap. I’ll just lay down and rest for twenty minutes and then get up and I’m totally refreshed. If I take a nap any longer then twenty minutes I find myself wanting to do nothing all day or getting a headache.
5. I love to do puzzles when I’m overwhelmed. I could sit down and work on a puzzle for an hour and think it’s only been five minutes.

Since almost all of my family lives in South Dakota I think I would still like to live here, but there are plenty of places I would love to travel to.

Top Five Places I Would Like To Visit

Besides my trip to Europe this summer I would love to travel to…

• Uganda. I want to go back to Africa so bad. It was the most amazing experience, and I would love to visit the people again and see the kiddos at the orphanage.
• Hawaii. One of my dream vacations would be to go to Hawaii. I’ve never been a beach on the real ocean so I want to do that. I think snorkeling, hiking, paragliding, and surfing would be a few of the many things I want to try there.
• Haiti. It’s definitely not a vacation site, but I would love to go on a missions trip there. Someone I know was able to go and help build a house for someone living there and that would be amazing.
• Ecuador. Similar to the one above, it’s another missions trip destination. They go build a house over Christmas break and give the house to someone for Christmas. Seeing the joy on the new owners faces would be better than any Christmas present I could ever receive.
• Brazil. The only things I really know about Brazil are it has soccer and the setting in the movie Rio, yeah the animated one with the talking birds, is there. I would love to experience that type of culture, maybe even a Brazilian carnival.

Like I said above, I’m going to Europe this summer. We are going on a tour of seven countries and singing at sites in all of them. It’s always been my dream to travel to Europe, especially Paris, France. After I’m done with this thirty day challenge I will most likely be blogging about my trip. I’m excited to experience the new culture, taste the foods, and have fun with one of my best friends since she is going with me.

I did this a few days ago to make sure I got it done.

• Got up and scrolled through my phone
• Got ready for the day
• Made some coffee and watched an episode of the Village. Ok, maybe two:)
• Cleaned up my bathroom drawers and shelves so my sister could move her stuff back in
• Sorted my email out and imported photos to my computer
• Ate a peach because I forgot to eat breakfast
• Worked on a crafty project
• Our cat had her babies so I checked on them
• Ate enchiladas for lunch
• Prepared my travel journal for a bit
• Went for a quick swim
• Journaled some more
• Played just dance on the wii
• Played the piano
• Went outside and played fetch with the dogs
• Ate supper
• Tried to watch Harry Potter but fell asleep for the last hour because I was too tired
• Did my devotions
• Scrolled through my phone
• Went to bed

As you can see, that day was pretty chill. I got up at 6:30 and stayed up until 11; it was just another day in the life of Kerstyn Fast.