Money Money Money

My husband the other day was talking about how he had read a devotional about the four money languages.  I had heard about these before, but couldn’t remember them so I promptly looked them up on google and found this fun video.  We both could identify our money languages and could see traces of our secondary languages as well.

Here’s the line that I identified with most:

“We can take that trip. We can buy pizza!”

Amiable it is!  Pretty sure I’ve been known to say, “Hey! We have unallocated funds [funds not put in the budget yet]….let’s go buy something fun!” Not to mention that the last time we had unallocated cash on hand, I ended up going and buying all sorts of food for people.  Hello, money means love =) Plus, gifts is one of my top love languages.

Ryan on the other hand…well, he’s an analytic and…”Money means security.”  He’s been known to have thousands and thousands of dollars just sitting in the bank. Handy, though, when it comes time that he wants to do something with it like buy a wedding ring or go to Sri Lanka or head to Norway for a few months.

Thankfully, I have some analytic in me too and he’s willing to spend on experiences, which helps us be on the same page money wise and we’re Dave Ramsey fans.

How about you? Are you a driver, amiable, analytic, or expressive?

Playing in the Puddles

Are you ready for a triple shot of real? If not, then skip ahead to the weekend and come back after I’m done playing in the puddles…

Sometimes life feels like one big puddle where you start splashing around only to realize that the water’s gone up and over your boots.  That feeling? Not so pleasant.  For me, rejection sometimes feels like that.  I’m running along, playing, laughing, enjoying, only to be suddenly struck with some cold, wet reality.

In my first year of college, I found my boots flooded with dirty water.  I skated through first semester: made friends, studied extra hard, even met a boy. Come January, I found myself participating in rush. Why? Good question. I’m not a sorority girl and I knew that. But that was the thing to do on a campus with probably 90% of the students in a sorority or fraternity. So, I followed suit. Problem number one…

The thing that they never tell you is that some girls…don’t make the cut. I was one of those. After parading around campus going to the different houses for little get to know you parties, each house makes a list of those they ask back. These girls I didn’t know. These girls I met for one night. Slashed my name off the list of “wanted.” And, yeah, those cold waters pierced my skin in a not so pleasant way.

Except, the amazing part? God turns things around. I can still feel the sunshine, the crunch of grass beneath a blanket covered in books and my pink Bible laid open.  See, I used all this extra time to soak up and wrestle with God instead of running around with a sorority. He brought me  further along in the journey of learning how to turn toward Him instead of clutching some of my idols (success, money, my plans). He started me on a continual journey of learning to look to Him for who I am rather than what others say because then I can play in the puddles and if the water comes rushing, I will not be shaken.  Because see, He wants me, I’m on His list, and in the end…I am His delight.

Ready to put on your rain boots and go play in some puddles with me?

Because I know that I don’t want to miss out on some fun because of the fear of getting wet…do you?

*prompted to serve up a shot of faith by the Faith Barista 🙂

So Many Thoughts

Wow, I feel like my head has been turned upside down and is ready to burst with all the thoughts I have running through it.  Thank-you Carrie.  Yikes.  I have so many blog topics that I want to run with and embrace but now I’m overwhelmed to the point where I don’t know how to pick!  So, I’m going to give you a snapshot and then decide later (aka tomorrow or later this week) which topics I want to pursue further with the written word 😉

Me: “How do I live a life with purpose, with meaning, with passion?  Does this mean that I have to change jobs? What if I have to move? Will I give up the comforts I’ve embraced to chase after Jesus?  Wait a minute…do I even know how to follow Him, yet alone where He’s leading me!?”

“Big ideas…am I thinking too small?”

“Am I an F or a T? Who knows…but personality types sure are interesting”

“I love the deep, searching talks yet so often I leave wondering where to begin and what I need to do.  I want to change so many things and figure out things, but…”

“Alright, life…what are we waiting for?  I don’t want to live in a ‘when this happens’ life begins kind of state.  I want to live life now and embrace my current situation-the good, the bad, all of it.  Help me let go of the ‘when I get married or when I have money’ ideas.”

“I’m waiting for someone with passion.  I’m not settling.”

“I screwed up. I’m sorry.  I sinned and now what am I going to do about it?”

“I got hurt. So what? Jesus was betrayed–he didn’t throw a pity party so neither should I.”

Habit

People and places have all sorts of habits or little quirks.  Some make sense.  Others are quite ridiculous.  Lately, I’ve been noticing how almost all of the students and even staff at where I work use the handicap buttons to open doors.  Okay, if you have a huge cart or you are handicap or have three small children, ect. that’s fine.  You can use them.  I don’t know when or where or why this trend started.

I could go on about how I don’t use the handicap button and how much energy and money I’m saving the school, but I won’t.  Instead I’ll use the concept as a reminder to me that there are things in my life that don’t make sense and where I’m being lazy.  I’m probably about to learn even more quirks about myself and my roommates (who are finally moving in!!!).  One of my favorite quirks is how I play tennis…it’s ridiculous to be honest.  I have all these little rituals and then I love talking/singing on the court because well you kind of have to when you love playing singles 🙂  I’m really ridiculous when I write as well.  I go in streaks of “Oh, I wrote a really great paper while sitting on the floor with green tea…let’s repeat that.”  Well, I think I’ll stop there for now and keep you all updated as I find new ones! 

100

100th post!

House!

Yikes…I have to move out in less than a month!  I’m getting really excited, but at the same time every once in a while the whole thing freaks me out.  I’m curious to see where I’m going to live and with who and how all of this will pull together in time.  I’m ready to see God’s hand work through and with all of the details to something great.  We’re hopefully going house-hunting this weekend!  I’ll let you know how everything goes 🙂

p.s. I ran/walked outside today and it was AMAZING. I LOVE the warm, happy weather.  Helped make up for the ridiculously busy day.

Distortion and Deception

A few weeks ago I went to the Chapel where Lauren Winner spoke.  She has written Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity and Girl Meets God.  I just noticed she had a book coming out today too! Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Disciplines.  Now that I’ve fully publicized her books (which I haven’t read, but want to), we can move on to the actual talk.

Here are some of the key points/interesting quotes

• “I’m a writer mostly because I don’t know what I think until I write about it”–I agree with this wholeheartedly!  I can see my opinions and ideas SO much more clearly after I’ve written about them.
• The notion that if you have premarital sex or engage in sexual sin then you will wake up feeling awful is a LIE. This may be true for some, but not for everyone.
•  Our feelings and epistemologies are DISTORTED
• Feelings have to be refined and checked against scripture.
• Lie # 2: If you’ve had premarital sex or other sexual sin you will be scarred for life, you’ve committed an unforgivable sin, it will haunt you, ect.  Though, the lessons of sexual sin are long lasting and many find it hard to unlearn behavior.
• Jesus is the “master gardener”
• Be careful not to idolize marriage
• We can be quite prone to self-deception–especially in areas of sex, money and time.
• Repentance is not about pretending the sin did not happen–rather it is about turning and living faithfully

For me, the biggest part that hit close to home was the reminder that my feelings are distorted and that I am really good at deceiving myself.  Eventually in the “Confessional” blogs I will probably expand on these thoughts.

Holy Club

The members of John Wesley’s Holy Club asked themselves these questions each day in their private devotions:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidently pass on to another what I was told in confidence?

4. Can I be trusted?

5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?

6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

7. Did the Bible live in me today?

8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?

9. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. When did I last speak to someone else of my faith?

11. Do I pray about the money I spend?

12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Do I disobey God in anything?

14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscious is uneasy?

15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

17. How do I spend my spare time?

18. Am I proud?

19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisee who despised the publican?

20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard?

21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?

22. Is Christ real to me?

Sexually Charged Culture

I listened to a sermon entitled “Sexual Sin” by Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, today from his “Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions” series.  This series came out of the “Ask Anything” challenge.  Basically, people were allowed to write in answers and then vote for their favorites.  The top nine questions make up the sermon series.

Now that you have a little background…I’ll get to a few of the thoughts that stood out from the sermon I listened to tonight.

1. Don’t try to manage or tolerate or suppress your sin.  Put it to death!  Legitimizing, justifying, and judging sin hinders us.  Sin leads to death.  Sin separates us from God.  Jesus died so that we could put sin to death.  (See Colossians 3:5-8)

2. Driscoll suggested fasting from television, your ipod, the computer, the radio, ect. for a few days and then returning to see just how “sexually charged” our culture is.  For me, the hardest part would be the internet…I use it FAR too much.  I waste time looking at things that are really not worth it in the long run such as Steep and Cheap, REI, Facebook, and my e-mail for the hundredth time.   I’m pondering doing a variation of this challenge.  I’ll keep you posted.

3. Number 3 of “How to Resist Sexual Temptation” consisted of living as a new person with a new mind.  This included not viewing men or women as potential sexual partners but as brothers and sisters in Christ.  I think you could rephrase this to not seeing men or women as potential boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, cuddling buddies, friends with benefits, ect.  Personally, I’ve found myself with a little crush that turns into a downward cycle of temptation that does not honor that person as a brother in Christ but sees him rather as someone who I could date, kiss, cuddle, befriend ect.   I could add a lot of disclaimers to this and further the thought, but I think for now I’ll leave it at that.

4. Who or what do you worship other than God? Sex? Television? Sports? Relationships? Success? Money? Good looks? Weight? Books? Authors? Pets?
Worship the Creator not Creation

p.s. I’m impressed with my newfound skill of in-text links! 🙂