Thesis: (noun) a dissertation embodying results of original research and especially substantiating a specific view
Origin: from Late Latin and Greek
First Use: 14th Century
Synonyms: argument, assertion, contention
(Basically, a thesis is a sentence that summarizes your point of view or the main topic of a paper. One thesis statement would cover your entire paper and every thing you say in that paper should fall in agreement with your thesis statement.)
Because of this trip, I’m taking a semester off of college, which means I shouldn’t even be thinking about the word “thesis”… right? I haven’t written any papers, only blogs that have come straight from the heart. I haven’t studied anything but my Bible. I haven’t had any professor ask me what a thesis was. In fact, I don’t think my brain was used to thinking in the direction of writing any sort of paper… until this week. Perhaps that’s why I found my mind spinning and my thoughts in a muddle when given the question: “What’s the thesis over your life?”
My thesis in life? Is my life supposed to have a thesis? But as my mom so eloquently stated in a message:
“It’s like a bunch of papers that you are writing, each a chapter of your own life, each
intertwined with the other, and you have to figure out if each one is following your thesis
statement. Is your thesis statement obvious or obscure…or…do you even have a thesis
statement? Sometimes that statement is swirling and twirling around in our heads, thus it feels
obvious and clear to us… but maybe not really?”
Did I have a thesis? I know what I want, who I want to follow… WHOM I want to follow. I know the standards I’ve set and the goals I’ve created for myself, but having a set plan or even an outline of my life, doesn’t mean I have a thesis statement. In my college English class I took my senior year of high school, Mrs. Harris stated that we needed to form our thesis before we even wrote our paper.
To be honest, I didn’t even have a thesis statement over my life until just twenty minutes ago. And now, after writing it, I will need to go through and evaluate the many chapters of my life to see if they are in melody with my “life thesis.”
My thesis? Here it is:
I will love the Lord with all of my heart and strive to become more like Him every day. I will live out the passions God has placed in my heart, knowing that the more I become like God, the more His will becomes my own. I lean not on my own understanding, because my life is in the hands of the Creator and He has ordained every day to be. I choose my paths, but the Lord will guide my steps.
