Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

On a day all about love, I find myself reflecting on the royal law, by which I try to live my life: Love the Lord and love others as I love myself.

Today, I was wondering why it is God wants to love others as we love ourselves. As I was reflecting on it at Bible study, a thought occurred. We sure do love ourselves. I think about myself a lot. Sometimes I am not even trying to think about myself, I just find my mind wanders to things that are going on in my life, things I want to do, want to change, etc.

God didn't call us to love each other just like we love our parents ... Or our children ... Or our friends.

There's a reason God chose to say love them as you love yourself!

I wonder if it's because if we love people the way we love ourselves, it takes the focus OFF of us and onto others. We would stop dwelling on us and start dwelling on others.

Doesn't that sound like someone familiar?

By loving others as we love ourselves, we are being more like Christ and less like the world. The world tells us to think about number one, take care of yourself, be independent. Christ tells us to think of others. Love others. Show mercy. Show compassion.

I make a lot of allowances for myself to mess up, to make mistakes. Do I offer that luxury to others? I allow myself the freedom to mess up, and I forgive myself - heck I excuse myself sometimes! Do I treat others to the same freedom? Or do I tend to condemn?

This is a great quote from a woman, "Do you just want to be right? Or do you want to have a relationship?" Because sometimes we choose being right over our relationships. Sometimes we choose self righteousness over grace and mercy.

And that is not love, especially not loving others as ourselves.

Ponder how you love people today, and so will I.

WORDS

A self-created acronym of my lessons from James 22-25 this morning.

W - Written on our hearts, God has put His law in us and in our minds (Jer. 31:31-34; Ez. 36:26-27)
O - Our "doing" may not always be physical activity. (Romans 4:20)
R - Relationships are the goal of regulations. (Matthew 5: 3-10)
D - Deception enters when we only hear and not also "do." (James 1:22-24)
S - Satisfaction comes at the fulfillment of our original purpose. (James 1:25)

Kids These Days ...

While proctoring the ACT this morning, I had a few "Kids these days" moments in my head...

The best of which, I will share. They're too funny not to.

Girl raises her hand
I approach
Girl: What's this? points to "Number with area code"
Me: That's your phone number.
Girl: I already put that up here. points to "House number"
Me: That's your address.
Girl: Oh ... what's my area code?
Me: Blank Stare

Same Girl raises her hand
Me: Under my breath Oh Dear ...
Girl: What's this? points to "Social Security Number"
Me: Your social security number.
Girl: Looking at her form I don't have one of those.
Me: Blank Stare Yes you do.
Girl: I don't see it anywhere.
Me: You should have it memorized. It's kind of important.
Girl: Oh. I don't know it.
Me: I gathered that.

Same Girl approaches me during the break
Me: Under my breath Seriously ...
Girl: How many minutes do we have left in break?
Me: Points to clock/Blank Stare 10:25
Girl: Looking at the clock So, how many?
Me: 2.

I would love to tell you those were the only instances of "Kids these days" I had ... but I can't because it wasn't.

Three for Three

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. (James 1:19, 20 NIV)

Yeah right.

But I'm working on it!

Thankful Thursday

Jesus, thank You for the following things (again, not in order of importance):

Your death, life, and saving grace;

Edy's Limited Edition Girl Scout Samoa Cookie Ice Cream;

Peanut Butter;

A wonderful husband, who beats me at Carcassone most evenings;

Oh, and this little thing ... who is NOT camera shy.

Progress

There are a lot of "things" accumulating in my life. A mixture of stress, lack of confidence, apathy, weariness, and a genuine feeling of being overwhelmed are just permeating in my heart right now.

I feel far from the Lord. I don't know why. I feel like I'm giving half of my heart to everything because I'm stretched so thin. I feel a general blah-ness that comes from not seeing the sun enough.

Then this passage comes to mind -- and I can fill in plenty for "THESE THINGS" ...

"No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us." (Romans 8:37)

I feel that. OVERWHELMING victory.

"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

I want overwhelming victory, but I'm a work in progress ...

But God is not finished with me.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns (Philippians 1:6).

God will not abandon me.

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever--do not abandon the works of your hands (Psalm 138:8).

God will keep me strong.

He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:8).

Why I Hated the Hunger Games ...

I know. You probably think I'm crazy.

But hear me out!

The books were extremely interesting, and they were very well written. I fell in love with Katniss's character right away. Nothing gets me more than sacrifice for family. After finishing the first book, I had to see how it ended.

Boy, was I disappointed. (No, I will not be divulging any spoilers. Feel free to read on.)

After the second book, I was leery to continue but I thought, well it will all wrap up in the end.

However, the third book just got worse ... And worse ... And worse ... Until there were only a few pages left. I kept thinking ... Ok, time to wrap up!

It didn't. At least, not in a way that pleased me.

I can't stand books where the main character does everything they can to be a good person or do the right thing - and just keep getting screwed over.

This book had an opportunity to show a mass amount of people - especially teens - that there is hope. Yes, life can be hard. The world can be cruel and terrible. But, in the end, there can be hope. There can be good.

But there wasn't. There was death, murder, and betrayal - over and over again.

I wasn't looking for a cutesy ending. I think the nature of what was going on wouldn't allow for a "happily ever after," but there were two major plot twists near the end that really didn't NEED to happen, which is what I am most angry about.

Yes, angry. I was angry after reading them. I'm angry every time I talk to someone about them. Ask Brent.

I think the ending could have been written extremely differently and still had a lasting effect on the audience. It was much to dark, depressing, and macabre for my taste.

I'll stick to Karen Kingsbury, thank you very much.