These are currently my favorite 3 commercials. I like sarcasm. I like things that are ridiculous. And I like being a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. :)
22.3.10
9.3.10
almost 30...
it is pretty wild to think how much my life has changed in the last two years. i distinctly remember my birthday two years ago. there's a phone conversation that has stuck with me.
at the time, i was living in savannah. i went downtown to do a little birthday shopping. there was a new jewelry store, so i went in to explore. while there, the phone rang. it was adam, this guy i worked with. he was calling to wish me a happy birthday...even though he had been next door to me all day...*ahem*... i remember he said he was in the grocery store, stocking up with dinner items. i remember wondering why he had really called, that i thought he was cute, and that i would never date him.
well, it's two years later, and adam and i have been married for almost three months. the past few months have been amazing. yes, there have been tears. yes, there has been frustration. yes, i've wanted to kick him in the shin a few times. however, i'm learning. i'm growing. and God is good.
recently i've focused on defining my relationship with God both within our marriage, and as an individual. adam and i have worked together very hard to grow spiritually as a couple. it has been an adjustment to find my own quiet space and time with God, but i'm slowly figuring it out.
we've joined a small group at church, and God's timing is perfect! we're in a newly weds group with two couples and two mentor couples. we really like everyone. i've spent so much time with teenagers i feel like i've forgotten how to relate to adults; i feel socially awkward, but i'm enjoying the group.
jaclyn gave me one of her sewing machines, so i'm soon going to be a domestic quilt-making goddess. right. i'm going to try, anyhow. i've decided to make a t-shirt quilt as my first project. we'll see how that goes...
mary kay. well, i'm trying to stay positive, but i've felt very discouraged with my mary kay business. still praying for that.
well, this past saturday was great. adam had talked about taking me out for a special dinner for my birthday. when we arrived at the restaurant, my good friends greg and jessica were there! i was so surprised and excited - it was a perfect gift. i'm used to planning my own birthday; adam did a fantastic job of making my birthday special.
it has been decided. i'm going to apply for grad school at uga. i hope to start summer of 2011. that's pretty exciting.
last week i was made department head of the English department at school. i def. didn't want it, so please don't congratulate. i haven't finished processing how i feel about this.
back to not grading papers...
at the time, i was living in savannah. i went downtown to do a little birthday shopping. there was a new jewelry store, so i went in to explore. while there, the phone rang. it was adam, this guy i worked with. he was calling to wish me a happy birthday...even though he had been next door to me all day...*ahem*... i remember he said he was in the grocery store, stocking up with dinner items. i remember wondering why he had really called, that i thought he was cute, and that i would never date him.
well, it's two years later, and adam and i have been married for almost three months. the past few months have been amazing. yes, there have been tears. yes, there has been frustration. yes, i've wanted to kick him in the shin a few times. however, i'm learning. i'm growing. and God is good.
recently i've focused on defining my relationship with God both within our marriage, and as an individual. adam and i have worked together very hard to grow spiritually as a couple. it has been an adjustment to find my own quiet space and time with God, but i'm slowly figuring it out.
we've joined a small group at church, and God's timing is perfect! we're in a newly weds group with two couples and two mentor couples. we really like everyone. i've spent so much time with teenagers i feel like i've forgotten how to relate to adults; i feel socially awkward, but i'm enjoying the group.
jaclyn gave me one of her sewing machines, so i'm soon going to be a domestic quilt-making goddess. right. i'm going to try, anyhow. i've decided to make a t-shirt quilt as my first project. we'll see how that goes...
mary kay. well, i'm trying to stay positive, but i've felt very discouraged with my mary kay business. still praying for that.
well, this past saturday was great. adam had talked about taking me out for a special dinner for my birthday. when we arrived at the restaurant, my good friends greg and jessica were there! i was so surprised and excited - it was a perfect gift. i'm used to planning my own birthday; adam did a fantastic job of making my birthday special.
it has been decided. i'm going to apply for grad school at uga. i hope to start summer of 2011. that's pretty exciting.
last week i was made department head of the English department at school. i def. didn't want it, so please don't congratulate. i haven't finished processing how i feel about this.
back to not grading papers...
17.2.10
13.2.10
i used to
i used to be a lot of things.
when i was 15 i was really good at loving people. i was really thoughtful. i went out of my way to do special things for lots of people in my life. i cried with people when they needed to cry. i made people laugh when they were upset. i created gifts from the heart and hoped that person would treasure them as much as i did. i was not so concerned with myself.
i used to be cool. "cool" means different things for everyone; for me it means that i'm not like others. today, sitting at starbucks across from a mall, i feel like everybody else. somehow, i feel like i've lost sight of God's thumbprint on me, telling me that i actually am different from everyone else. i used to feel like i had something to offer the world...something that no one else could give. i am not doubting God's unique design; i still firmly believe that we are all wonderfully and fearfully made... i just can't see my own at the moment.
i used to love God. it's not that i don't any more, but things have changed. what i mean to say is, i used to be really good at loving God (which made me good at loving people unselfishly). and i'm sure that if i still loved God that way and people that way, i'd realize that that isn't even my best offering to my Creator. i don't think that i was doing the best possible job of loving God, but i know i did it with a very honest heart, a very willing heart, a very (what was, for me at the time) sacrificial heart.
i know that in many ways i'm wiser and more mature now than i was at 15, but the 15-year-old me was smarter. loving God is simple. sure, it was probably easier for me to react to God with a child-like faith at 15 b/c i was not so far removed from my own childhood, but i think in recent years i've made my relationship with God too complicated (and perhaps even overly simplified at the same time, if that's possible). it was so easy as a teenager to fall at the feet of Jesus. now, however, even when i want to fall at his feet, i simultaneously feel worldly responsibilities pulling me in multiple directions, and the burdens that i carry pulling me backwards instead of allowing me to fall forward to the ground...prostrate...which is how i prefer to be in front of Jesus...
you know that cheesy church-camp question of, "if you could be anyone in the bible, who would you like to be?" ... my answer has always been the same: one of the children Jesus welcomed in his company.
i've never been one to remember my dreams very well. there are, however, two dreams i remember vividly from my childhood. the first was a nightmare. it involved characters from sesame street. don't ask me why it was scary; i loved that show, but the dream haunts me even today. the second dream i remember is one i will remember into my very old age. if i ever have alzheimer's, this dream is something i will still know and talk about. i was probably about 4. at the time, i didn't understand the difference between a dream and a memory, so the way i explained it to my mom was that i actually "remembered" this event; i remember believing that i had had this experience. maybe i did. the dream was very simple. it was spring-time sunny with beautiful clouds, a fantastically cool breeze, and i was on the greenest hillside i've ever known. i was surrounded by about a dozen or so other children. we were jumping around, giggling, chasing each other... it was lovely. and at the center of it all was jesus. and he was one of us. i mean, he was the grown-up-bearded with a white robe jesus, like the pictures i saw hanging on the wall in sunday school, but he was playing with us and loving it.
that's where i want to be. literally? sure. but figuratively as well. it's not that i've taken some drastically horrible turn in my life that's cut me off from God. it's just... i've lost sight of his thumbprint b/c i've lost sight of Him. the amazing and beautiful thing about God is that i don't have to do anything majorly different to change my focus. i know He's here. i know He knows what i'm thinking and feeling, and i know He welcomes my heart, and that is the most comforting thing.
lent is coming up. i don't always participate in giving up something. i only do it if i feel the need or call to. this year i feel both the need and the call. i've decided to give up all drinks except for water. john 4:13 - Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." this is from when Jesus was talking to the samaritan woman at the well. he knew she had been unfaithful to her husbands, but he welcomed her to be faithful to God. i need to be reminded of where my breath comes from and where i can find the reason to love people around me with God's love, which doesn't run out. i need to be reminded of not just my daily need for Jesus, but my hour to hour, my minute to minute need for Him.
if you've not experienced God's love, none of this will make sense to you. there's no way for you to know Him unless you allow Him to love you. and He's a gentleman. my ignoring God is a decision, and he will allow me to make those decisions; love is not love if it forced.
and so He waits. He waits on me. He waits on you. may we both answer the call.
when i was 15 i was really good at loving people. i was really thoughtful. i went out of my way to do special things for lots of people in my life. i cried with people when they needed to cry. i made people laugh when they were upset. i created gifts from the heart and hoped that person would treasure them as much as i did. i was not so concerned with myself.
i used to be cool. "cool" means different things for everyone; for me it means that i'm not like others. today, sitting at starbucks across from a mall, i feel like everybody else. somehow, i feel like i've lost sight of God's thumbprint on me, telling me that i actually am different from everyone else. i used to feel like i had something to offer the world...something that no one else could give. i am not doubting God's unique design; i still firmly believe that we are all wonderfully and fearfully made... i just can't see my own at the moment.
i used to love God. it's not that i don't any more, but things have changed. what i mean to say is, i used to be really good at loving God (which made me good at loving people unselfishly). and i'm sure that if i still loved God that way and people that way, i'd realize that that isn't even my best offering to my Creator. i don't think that i was doing the best possible job of loving God, but i know i did it with a very honest heart, a very willing heart, a very (what was, for me at the time) sacrificial heart.
i know that in many ways i'm wiser and more mature now than i was at 15, but the 15-year-old me was smarter. loving God is simple. sure, it was probably easier for me to react to God with a child-like faith at 15 b/c i was not so far removed from my own childhood, but i think in recent years i've made my relationship with God too complicated (and perhaps even overly simplified at the same time, if that's possible). it was so easy as a teenager to fall at the feet of Jesus. now, however, even when i want to fall at his feet, i simultaneously feel worldly responsibilities pulling me in multiple directions, and the burdens that i carry pulling me backwards instead of allowing me to fall forward to the ground...prostrate...which is how i prefer to be in front of Jesus...
you know that cheesy church-camp question of, "if you could be anyone in the bible, who would you like to be?" ... my answer has always been the same: one of the children Jesus welcomed in his company.
i've never been one to remember my dreams very well. there are, however, two dreams i remember vividly from my childhood. the first was a nightmare. it involved characters from sesame street. don't ask me why it was scary; i loved that show, but the dream haunts me even today. the second dream i remember is one i will remember into my very old age. if i ever have alzheimer's, this dream is something i will still know and talk about. i was probably about 4. at the time, i didn't understand the difference between a dream and a memory, so the way i explained it to my mom was that i actually "remembered" this event; i remember believing that i had had this experience. maybe i did. the dream was very simple. it was spring-time sunny with beautiful clouds, a fantastically cool breeze, and i was on the greenest hillside i've ever known. i was surrounded by about a dozen or so other children. we were jumping around, giggling, chasing each other... it was lovely. and at the center of it all was jesus. and he was one of us. i mean, he was the grown-up-bearded with a white robe jesus, like the pictures i saw hanging on the wall in sunday school, but he was playing with us and loving it.
that's where i want to be. literally? sure. but figuratively as well. it's not that i've taken some drastically horrible turn in my life that's cut me off from God. it's just... i've lost sight of his thumbprint b/c i've lost sight of Him. the amazing and beautiful thing about God is that i don't have to do anything majorly different to change my focus. i know He's here. i know He knows what i'm thinking and feeling, and i know He welcomes my heart, and that is the most comforting thing.
lent is coming up. i don't always participate in giving up something. i only do it if i feel the need or call to. this year i feel both the need and the call. i've decided to give up all drinks except for water. john 4:13 - Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." this is from when Jesus was talking to the samaritan woman at the well. he knew she had been unfaithful to her husbands, but he welcomed her to be faithful to God. i need to be reminded of where my breath comes from and where i can find the reason to love people around me with God's love, which doesn't run out. i need to be reminded of not just my daily need for Jesus, but my hour to hour, my minute to minute need for Him.
if you've not experienced God's love, none of this will make sense to you. there's no way for you to know Him unless you allow Him to love you. and He's a gentleman. my ignoring God is a decision, and he will allow me to make those decisions; love is not love if it forced.
and so He waits. He waits on me. He waits on you. may we both answer the call.
21.11.09
the blindside...we've all got one
if you know me you know i'm a sucker for true stories - especially when they involve teenagers. today adam treated me to a movie and we saw The Blindside. it has been a very long time since i've seen a movie that affected me as much as this one. i'm not going to go on and on about it, and i'm not going to write a movie review or anything like that. i just want to say that leigh ann tuohy is now one of my heroes, and i hope to be like her someday. i really appreciated that at the heart of this movie was a lesson on how to be more like jesus, and that's what i'm after. i know kids like michael oher, and i hope i'm brave enough to love them, love on them, and teach them to love.
20.6.09
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