Rant vs. Respect

I've still been working on a post or two that I'm not sure how to write.

The ideas I want to talk about are issues that are near to my heart because they effect my friends and family. At the same time, these issues and/or actions cause painful consequences that aren't reversible. (though they are redeemable, praise God!)

Also, our actions are never outside of God's control. That doesn't mean that "God caused us to sin" but it does mean that God could (and probably did) plan on using that exact action, and that exact consequence to bring that person (and possibly several others) into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. With that in mind, I have a hard time figuring out how to (or even if I should) write about problems in the world, or problems in my own life.


I think I can read an article, like this one by Mark Driscoll, with two different sets of glasses:

• On the one hand, I would think "Wow! Glad somebody said it!", or "Isn't that so true, our world is so broken!- just look at these people".

• On the other hand, I think "Man, if someone is reading this that did any or all of these things, will they be more turned off to God than before?", or "What if that were me? There's not anything except Christ that would have stopped me from being that person."

Now, In my opinion Mark Driscoll does a great job of mourning the Sin in the world, and the broken patterns of behavior, but in the end respects the individuals who may have gotten it wrong by offering Jesus and His redeeming grace.

But it's got me to stop and think about how to write about sin. I keep thinking about the verse Matthew 7:5-- You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. I think there's a place and a time to write about the sin of the world, and of others. I think Mark Driscoll approaches this well. For today I'm not certain my writing has reached this level of maturity. So I'll just leave you to read the post Mark Driscoll wrote on having children out of wed-lock (same link as above).

If anyone cares to comment on Mark's article and explain why it is or is not offensive to them, I'd love to hear why!

Newly Wed Valentine's Day

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything, and today won't be very different. A lot's been going on lately, and I have a few blog posts in the "draft" stage. I guess you could say I'm trying to form my thoughts on different things. For today I'll leave you with a synopsis of our first married Valentine's Day! 

Valentine's Day is certainly the subject of controversy, and while I've never placed too much emphasis on the day itself, I've also never turned down lovingly gifted chocolates! Since we're newly-weds it seems that all our free time is date time, which doesn't make Valentine's Day super pivotal to our romance or relationship, but it's certainly fun to celebrate our love and have a bonus date! (I personally hope every valentine's day feels like an unnecessary, but very welcome celebration!) I want to remember that one single day out of the year has no more importance than any other day, because every day is important. I want to remember that we should love each other every day, we should connect every day, and we should spend time alone together every day. (and maybe eat chocolate everyday too! :)

Of course any excuse is a good excuse to celebrate the blessing of our marriage, and love for each other! And celebrate we will!-- or did :)

To start the day off, I made heart-shaped breakfast buiscuits, with egg, bacon, and gouda...yum! (and super simple)

Later, my husband came home early, promptly giving me the best box of chocolates ever!! Void of the random fruit and cream-filled sticky things, this heart was full of my favorite: turtles!! (so in gratitude, I quoted the little kid from this video) Of course I ate them too quickly to take a picture, but I'm sure you can all understand. :)

Then we ate dinner at a cozy restaurant in town, La Madeline. (you must try the Chicken Friand)! Then at home we ate dessert and played board! It sure is fun being married to your best friend!

From my perspective, there's nothing wrong with having a day to be cheesy, and celebrate the grace we've been given to love each other.

There is one problem I see with all the red, glittery decorations-- If you're not careful they could end up in the washing machine :( which unfortunately did happen to us. (Sorry honey!)

Dusty Days

This weekend we cleaned out my husband's old things from his childhood home. He reminiced while I listened to tons of funny stories that were being exchanged over old clothes, toys and pictures. We had a great time! We brought all 5 bins back to our place, complete with 15+ years of dust. Needless to say our apartment smelled like basement, and itched our eyes like one too. As one could only assume, getting these unpacked and dusted was my first priority the last couple of days.

I managed to find a place for all but 2 bins of things in our small first apartment! Took me a while, but today I finally got to dust and vaccuum since we brought the basement home with us. It feels (and smells) wonderful!

We've also been listening to the Real Marriage sermons lately from Mark Driscoll. It's been humbling to hear the ideas he's teaching about friendship, unity, and marriage. We've only been married 6 months (and are still firmly planted in the "honeymoon" phase) but it's always good to be working on your marriage, just like it's always good to be growing in Christ. (It's usually when you think you've got it figured out, that you need the most help.) Anyways, I highly reccomend them, even if you're single.

Today I also managed to create a new save the date. I've been swooning over all the chevron patterns lately, so that's what this was inspired by! As always, critiques are welcome!

(view in the shop)