So here are the rules. I will post a word and its definition. It will be a real word, and its real definition. But then I will create a fictionary definition for the same word, and invite you to do the same. Sound good? Good. Here we go:
Dictionary Definition: Appeasev. to bring to a state of peace, quiet, ease, calm, or contentment; pacify; soothe
Fictionary Definition: Appeaseadj. the ability to download and use iPhone applications with little to no effort
Time for Wit & Wisdom Wednesday, where I post a quote from a well-known (or not so well-known) person. Please feel free to comment with quotes that have touched your soul.
~
"Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral."
Three days ago, the World Cup was played at the schoolyard by my apartment.
At least, that's what it seemed like: players running up and down the plastic grass, bumping into each other and careening off to the side, diving to save the ball, and lobbing it back into play.
But what really made it important is the spectators lining almost the entire field. "Go, go, go-go-go!" yells one man. "Bueno, bueno, bueno!" cries another.
You would think they had put money down on the outcome.
And it made all those "Soccer Mom" stereotypes come to mind.
Because really, it wasn't the world cup. It was a game between 11-year-old girls.
But you'd have thought it was the World Cup.
Story #2
Yesterday on the ride home from work I stood near four kids: two boys, two girls. Probably about 10 or 11. I'm assuming a parent or two were nearby (possibly enjoying being on the other side of the aisle). Each child had a cell phone.
You can tell that the parents had a part to play in which phone the children got. There was the nearly indestructable one for the boy who probably breaks everything. The "cheap" phone for the boy who probably leaves his phone "somewhere" once a month. And the super cute phones for the girls, because of course it's all about how you look on the outside (but that's another post).
What I found so charming, however, was not the fact that they each had their very own copy of technology that didn't exist when I was 11, but that they were weilding their phones like swords, holding them up in salute to each other, and then taking photos or videos, trying to get the silliest picture.
And then when they had taken a round of photos, they all held their phones into the center and compared the pictures.
There was something very endearing about this simple game they were playing.
Hello! Thanks for stopping by today. Today is Be My Guest Monday! If you haven't talked to me about being a guest yet, why not? Do it now!! I'm always looking for more--there are a lot of Mondays!!
Today is a very special day, because my guest blogger is... me! I have another blog, Moments of Majesty, that I started as an attempt to hold myself accountable to reading some scripture every day and actually thinking about it (amazing how easy it is to do the first but not the second). What started as a 21-day project ended up as an ongoing thing, so I decided I wanted to "go public" with it. So if you follow Jesus, or if you're interested in learning more about him, please give it a look. And please let me know your thoughts/comments/questions on anything I write.
In honor of being completely open with what was originally a personal blog, dear readers, here is a post in which I wrote about what happens when the whole world is looking at you:
Light of the World
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6)
I believe that today you can change "Gentiles" to "non-believers" and realize that this scripture suddenly applies to your life. God has made us a light to shine into the lives of everyone with whom you associate.
The problem, I believe, is that most of us (myself included) don't recognize this and/or don't walk in it. Maybe it's a low feeling of self-worth, that no one would look to us to see God's salvation, or maybe it's because we're still holding on to an area of sin in our lives and we don't want anyone to notice.
But you know what, the light is there no matter what. If people know you are Christian, there is a spotlight shining on you. It's a harsh light sometimes, and it will point out all of your flaws. This light is not necessarily the light from God that Isaiah was talking about. But it's not all bad either. Sometimes we need to realize that we are going to be in the spotlight around people who know we believe in Jesus Christ. They will be examining us to see what makes us who we are, and yes even looking for those cracks in the foundation. Because people who resist the Truth will want to make you out to be a liar.
And when we are hiding in shame or sin, this spotlight is worse than the "ugly lights" that turn on when a bar hits closing time. We can try to pull a covering over ourselves to hide our shame or our dark thoughts and actions, but the world will cast it away and point and stare, and the more you attempt to live in the shadows, the more your actions will be brought to light.
If you accept the Holy Spirit into your entire being, however, you will find that the light around you is actually a light within you. It is the living Spirit of God exuding from your very pores. Because as you open yourself up to God and surrender your own identity to His, the pure and true light of Christ will shine from within you. It will show in your eyes, in your words, in your actions, in your very bearing. And you will find that this light, even though it is softer and much more gentle, completely obliterates the world's spotlight. Because you are welcoming the scrutiny. "Seek," you will tell the people around you. "look into my life and see the joy that I have which is from Christ."
It is this light which will shine through the darkeness of the world. And if you have accepted Christ as your Savior, it is this light which resides in you, right this very moment. All you need to do is surrender to it. Recognize that people will be looking at you anyway with their own judgements and presuppositions, but the more you open yourself to God, the more light will shine through, yes even through your flaws, so that they may glorify God that much more.
You are a light to the world. Shine on, baby, shine on.
So here are the rules. I will post a word and its definition. It will be a real word, and its real definition. But then I will create a fictionary definition for the same word, and invite you to do the same. Sound good? Good. Here we go:
Dictionary Definition: Legacyn. anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor: the legacy of ancient Rome.
Fictionary Definition: Legacyadj. describing a skirt that is so short you can see almost the entire leg: "dude, look at that skirt on her, it'slegacy!"
Time for Wit & Wisdom Wednesday, where I post a quote from a well-known (or not so well-known) person. Please feel free to comment with quotes that have touched your soul.
~
"Things to remember:
1. The worth of character
2. The improvement of talent
3. The influence of example
4. The joy of origination
5. The dignity of simplicity
6. The success of perseverance."
I want to share my new favorite song with you. I heard it on Pandora yesterday, which had much better sound quality than any of the clips I could find on YouTube, but hey, I think you'll get the point. Plus I'm going to give you the lyrics. :)
To give you some context, and in case you've missed (or rather, not missed) me for the past few weeks, I've been going through a rather trying time. You know, one of those "Who am I supposed to be?" times when you realize you're so busy trying to just get back into bed that you don't do anything fun or fulfilling with your day. You get up, you work, you work late, or maybe you do make it to something in the evening, you get home, and it's bed time. And then you get up again.
But where is the music, the worship, the joy? Where is the writing, the creativity? Where is just sitting outside in the sun, soaking it in?
I lost it somewhere. But lately I've been feeling the call, the call to worship God more, the call to write (Oh my goodness the call to write!)
It churns inside of me, it drips down my fingers when I type, it comes out my nose and my eyes. Yes it's a messy thing. But it's something I haven't felt, really felt, in a long time. To try to explain it, I love love love to write. Before I took my break from non-regulation blogging (and by that I mean the scheduled things like Curny Thursday, Wit & Wisdom Wednesday, Fictionary Friday and Be My Guest Monday--by the way have you noticed how I managed to almost fill my week up with stuff just so I could avoid writing any non-regulation posts??) I enjoyed blogging, I really did. I loved having the chance to be creative and get my thoughts out there, and even read other people's thoughts and their reactions to my thoughts.
But what I was missing was this deep down "if I don't do this now I might just die" feeling. That hunger that eats you from the inside out. Yes, it's that bad. It's the kind of hunger that makes me wish I had more in my savings account so I could take a leave of absence from my job and just experience life and then write about it for a solid month.
Short of bankrupting myself, however, I will find new ways to fit in time. I am getting up an hour earlier than I need to, which technically I was doing since the beginning of the year, but what I did was "listen" (sleep to) worship music, and then blog at my other home, Moments of Majesty. Well, an hour of sleeping to worship music was nice, but when I realized that I didn't hear any of it after the amount of time it took me to walk from the "on" button to my couch, yeah, that wasn't right. So now I'm on day two of getting up an hour early and just coming straight to the computer. Will I be able to keep it up? I sure hope so, because it's been nice having the time to write two blog posts before I even take a shower!!
And it's been fantastic writing to you guys again. I missed you.
But I want to lead back into my new favorite song. I think one of the things I was missing when I didn't have the Hunger to write, was a reason strong enough TO write. But I have that reason in and around me all day, every day: Jesus. The God who made me died to save me. He is the reason that I even have the ability to write, and I must use these gifts to worship Him. I want to write a new song to Him, maybe something just for Him and me, and maybe something that I can share with others, to bring others into Worship with Him as well.
So what I need to do is turn down the music that we're so used to listening to, day in and day out, and listening for God's voice in me, directing me on where to go, and who to be. And allowing myself to sing that Song which He gave me.
Check out my new favorite song here, and with luck, maybe sometime soon I'll have a clip of a song that I've written to share with you. :)
Turn Down The Music Shane & Shane
If you were hungry would we give you food?
If you were thirsty would we give you drink?
If you were a stranger would we let you in?
What would be a song we’d sing to you when there in need?
Would it be an empty hallelujah to the king?
Turn down the music
Turn down the noise
Turn up your voice oh God and let us hear the sound
Of people broken, willing to love
Give us your heart oh God a new song rise in us
And if you were naked, would we give you clothes?
If you were an orphan would we give our home?
And if you were in prison, would we visit you?
What would be a song we’d sing to you when there in need?
Would it be an empty hallelujah to the king?
Turn down the music
Turn down the noise
Turn up your voice oh God and let us hear the sound
Of people broken, willing to love
Give us your heart oh God a new song rise in us
Let it be our worth shared
Let it be our true religion
In this world of ?
Holding on to our confessions
Let it be your worth shared
Let it be your true religion
In this world of ?
Holding on to our confessions
Turn down the music
Turn down the noise
Turn up your voice oh God and let us hear the sound
Of people broken, willing to love
Give us your heart oh God a new song rise in
A new song rise in
A new song rise in us
Happy Monday everyone! While it's often hard for me to look forward to Mondays, I always look forward to my blog post, because it's always amazing. And why is that? Because someone other than me wrote it!! Today is Be My Guest Monday! If you'd like to be a guest blogger, please check out that link.
Today's post is by Michelle (Shell) over at Things I Can't Say. This girl tells it as it is, folks. Not in an "oh my goodness I can't believe she said that" way but in an "I don't need to pretend to be perfect because none of us are so let's all just enjoy life" kind of way. I respect this type of writing very much, being one of God's imperfect people myself. :) So enjoy some of what Shell can say today, and find the extraordinary in the...
Things that Make me Happy
It's easy to talk about the bad.
The things that annoy me.
Or go wrong.
I like to take them and spin them to make them funny.
Because it helps me to deal.
But, it makes me seem so negative all the time.
So, today, I'm listing the things that have made me happy in the past week.
*A good morning snuggle from my 3 year-old: always the first one up
*A squishy-faced smile from my 1 year-old
*My five year-old dancing
*Dancing with my husband
*My mother-in-law volunteering to babysit
*Time to myself
*A lunch date with my husband
*The sunrise over the ocean
*Showing up and being perfectly dressed for an event: not under or over-dressed
*Seeing my former students all grown up
*Having those students offer to babysit
*Listening to my boys sing along with the Chipmunks
*Getting a good night's sleep
*Having a best friend who is always there for me
I need to remember those things and add to this list as this week goes on.
Because it is easy to focus on the negative and forget all the good we have going on.
So here are the rules. I will post a word and its definition. It will be a real word, and its real definition. But then I will create a fictionary definition for the same word, and invite you to do the same. Sound good? Good. Here we go:
Dictionary Definition: Reflectv. to give back or show an image of; mirror.
Fictionary Definition: Reflectv. past tense. To spatter flecks, as of paint, after already having done so. "Jackson Polluck used a lot of paint in this work; after he flecked it once, he went back and reflect it."
Time for Wit & Wisdom Wednesday, where I post a quote from a well-known (or not so well-known) person. Please feel free to comment with quotes that have touched your soul.
~
"It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it."
Hello and welcome again to Be My Guest Monday! I'm still looking for people to guest post on my blog every Monday for the rest of 2010, so please let me know if you are interested and haven't gotten a date from me yet!
I have to apologize to my guest blogger for today, I was out of town this weekend and completely failed on getting my computer turned on last night to post this. But please don't hold it against her, because this is one of the most intimate and open blog posts I've read, and I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to post it here for you. Today we've got Elle over at A for Effort (B for Blog). What a fabulous blog title, no? And each of her posts starts with a letter. So very fun! In honor of that, today we've got:
G is for Guest Posting
God and I have always had a different kind of relationship; one best defined as complex. I'm not involved in organized religion, but I do believe in a higher power. I think I'm a little too analytical at times to believe that something that I can't see or feel, such as God, really exists. There are times, when I've really needed to, that I've "felt" something—peace, calm, strength; it’s hard to put into words, but I've known in those moments that there was a higher power at play.
After suddenly and tragically losing my youngest sister to domestic violence murder, I found myself being very angry with God, even denying his existence. In my mind, there was no logic that could explain why she was taken so suddenly and in such a violent, horrible way. I'd always heard that God was loving and merciful, and that he decides when it's our time to go. I couldn't understand why a loving, merciful God would have her last moments be so extremely horrific. I didn't know why he'd decided he needed to take her early, and I didn't care. I wondered why it was his right to make that decision and why those of us that wanted and needed her here didn't get a say.
So many times after my sister's death, and after other "dominoes" in our life were falling or had fallen on top of that one, I heard that God doesn't give us more than we can handle. I thought that God must not know me too well, because he apparently did not understand that I couldn't handle all that he was giving me. His meaning of "enough is enough" and my meaning were apparently not the same; nowhere near it, in fact. I became increasingly angrier at him, and at times that made me feel good, because I needed to be angry and he gave me somewhere to direct that anger.
At the same time, I found myself needing more than anything to believe that God—or something—existed. I needed faith in something, and the comfort that was supplied by that faith. I had to believe that there was somewhere for my sister's bigger than life spirit to go. I had to believe that that place was good and that she had found peace there. I needed to believe that she felt, all at once, the overpowering love we all feel for her and that she understood that she was loved and that she would be missed terribly. I needed to picture her being greeted and excitedly welcomed by many of those who have gone before us—her paternal grandparents and our maternal grandpa. I believe that my maternal grandma’s youngest granddaughter and husband where there to greet her when she followed my sister a couple months later.
I believe that I will one day be reunited with all of them, and our reunion will be most joyful. I believe that we all, especially her son, now have a beautiful guardian angel watching over us. This gives me peace. Talking to her spirit helps me cope on some of the hardest days. I feel her around, and I know that she hears me. I've gotta believe, that with the continuation of time, my pain will lessen and the harder days will become fewer. Sometimes I find the need to remind myself that those moments of peace and happiness that I feel are what she would want, that I should not feel guilty for them, and that in no way am I tarnishing my memory of her, her meaning to me, or my love for her.
A few weeks after my sister’s death, I saw a quote: "You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have." I have absolutely no idea where this quote came from, or who it can be attributed too, but no better or truer words have ever been spoken. Looking back, God apparently knew me a lot better than I knew myself. I am way stronger than I ever knew or would've thought I was, and I learned a valuable lesson about trusting that "higher power."
To this day, people make comments about my strength. I'm asked how I got through it all—my sister’s death, interviews with the news media, the criminal trial of her murderer—and the answer is I don't know, but there's a lot to be said for FAITH and HOPE. Sometimes I felt they were all I had and that I had to hang onto them with all of my might. In a lot of ways I’m still going through “it.” It’s a process; one that’s made easier by my faith in a higher power and hope for a brighter future.
My life has been forever altered by the death of my sister, and I will always be a different person than I was before all of this; such is life. We are constantly bending and changing, and our path is constantly being altered. This is my path now, and I have no choice but to continue to follow it to see where it leads me. Giving up is never an option. We all have our paths, and we all will have our obstacles along the way. How we deal with those obstacles determines where the path leads us next.
As I proceed down my path, I will continue to live my life by my moral compass and ever-changing beliefs. I will continue to learn lessons about life and about myself; we must never stop learning. I will continue to make mistakes along the way—there’s no doubt about that—but I will persevere. The best way I can honor my sister is simply by living, facing head-on all that life has for me, because she cannot. I will, of course, hold on to my faith and hope; they will sustain me through the obstacles that will inevitably pop up along my path.
So here are the rules. I will post a word and its definition. It will be a real word, and its real definition. But then I will create a fictionary definition for the same word, and invite you to do the same. Sound good? Good. Here we go:
Dictionary Definition: Detract v. to draw away or divert; distract.
Fictionary Definition: Detractadj. pertaining to a train that is out of service.
Time for Wit & Wisdom Wednesday, where I post a quote from a well-known (or not so well-known) person. Please feel free to comment with quotes that have touched your soul.
~
"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. we must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained."
Happy Monday everyone and welcome to Be My Guest Monday. Yes, I have somehow managed to keep up with this despite feeling super-overwhelmed in the rest of my life. I think it helps that my guest posts are so fantastic, it makes the lack of my personal posts seem somehow ok. :)
For anyone who would like to Be My Guest, please click on the link and check out the rules, and leave me a comment if you're interested, or if we've already talked but I haven't given you a firm date yet. I will get back to you, I just have to catch up a bit first. :)
But today I've got something totally awesome for you. Autumn over at Living Out Loud has allowed me to repost something of hers that is just splendid. Please read this, then go check out her super-fun blog. I especially love that she's tracking her workouts. Way to go Autumn!! And if you've come over from her place, welcome!! I do hope you'll take a peek around. I'm getting back into the swing of things, I promise, and I do hope to get my blog to be a bit more participatory. :) Well, now on to what you came here for:
A Pair of Doves or Two Young Pigeons
21On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.22When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord"[a]), 24and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons."
This is from Luke 2: 21-24.
I was reading this tonight when I paused and it occurred to me that Mary and Joseph had very little money. I myself am struggling financially right now. I'm out of a job and while Bill works full time his paychecks bring in just enough (barely) to cover our bills. We have no room for real wants (I don't count the internet as a want for me it is a need) and my mother helps pay my car payment because right now we just can't afford it. I sat there thinking about what I had just read and (as usual) put myself in Mary's shoes. I would not have been able to afford doves back then, at least not a pair of them probably. I'm thinking that Mary and Joseph's humble offering was most likely a pair of pigeons. Pigeons! We see those all over the place and they are often referred to as "rats with wings" in NYC. And yet that was all they had and if their financial situation is anything like mine that probably set them back a little even though I'm sure to them it was worth it. (And think about it, when does a sacrifice to God not cost you a little of something be it pride, time or what not?) I read the footnotes in my Bible to see what more they could offer if maybe they thought Mary and Joseph had given pigeons as well. The footnotes didn't specify which of the two birds they gave but they did have this to say:
"For 40 days after the birth of a son and 80 days after the birth of a daughter, the mother was ceremonially unclean and could not enter the temple. At the end of her time of separation, the parents were to bring a lamb for a burnt offering and a dove or a pigeon for a sin offering. The priest would sacrifice these animals and declare her to be clean. If a lamb was too expensive the parents could bring a second dove or pigeon instead."
Now while I don't agree with a woman being "unclean" after birth that was custom in those days. Think about it though, after the birth of a baby a woman is asked to stay away from sex for at least 6 weeks and during that time her body does a lot of….cleaning of its own. There is another passage in 1st Corinthians 7:5 that states "5Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control."
I'm just tossing ideas out here but I'm guessing that the "sin offering" was for the separation period in which the husband and wife "separated" themselves from one another. (In other words they didn't have sex for that period of time, after all, the woman was considered unclean and she'd just had a baby. Who'd want to have sex right away after giving birth, naturally I might add, in a stable?! Not me!!) The lamb offering was obviously thanks to God for giving them a child, and I just covered the dove part of it for the sin offering. But Mary and Joseph couldn't afford the lamb so they gave a pair of doves or a pair of pigeons.
I can just picture young Mary and young Joseph (they really weren't that old when they had Jesus) walking up to the temple with a pair of pigeons. How humbled Mary must have felt! Here she is just having given birth to a son that was greeted by shepherds and angels, the Christ our Lord; God's own son and all she has to offer are two simple pigeons. And yet…. It was enough. God knew where her heart was. And to him that was all that really mattered. It doesn't matter how much I give what matters is where my heart is. If I give all I can God doesn't see the amount, he sees the devotion and he will reward me for it. Later in Jesus' ministry he watches people offer up money to God. (Mark 12:42, and Luke 21:2) Some people offer a lot of silver and gold and one poor widow offers two small copper coins (total worth: less than a penny) and Jesus uses that moment to call his disciples and show them the value of giving with your heart. How cool is it that he doesn't look at the dollar signs he looks at the heart! I tear up thinking about how much God loves me and how little I have to offer back, and somehow reading that even his parents didn't have the funds for a lamb but gave what they could anyways reminds me that it's my heart God wants. Not my wallet.
So here are the rules. I will post a word and its definition. It will be a real word, and its real definition. But then I will create a fictionary definition for the same word, and invite you to do the same. Sound good? Good. Here we go:
Dictionary Definition: Romantic adj. displaying or expressing love or strong affection.
Fictionary Definition: Romanticn. a type of female who latches on to Italian men and sucks their bank accounts dry.
I'm an inspired dreamer, a social loner, a skeptic optimist... to wit: A writer.
I love Jesus and He loves me. Ask me about Him sometime and I'll tell ya that even being at the bottom of His barrel is better than being on the top of the world's heap.
