bless you

Last weekend I went to church with Kevin & fam in Cleburne. They were going through presbytery (1Ti 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery) that week where leaders from that church and other churches will come and prophesy over people in the church. They record it so that you can keep the words of encouragement spoken over you.

Anyway, there was a guest teacher that weekend, a guest teacher I happened to have heard about already. His name is Kerry Kirkwood and he pastors a church in Tyler, TX. In our small group every other Monday, I remember that Candiss had talked about a "recent" service at Shady Grove where he had preached this really super awesome message about blessing. By recent I of course mean last June. Anyway, what we talked about was really good and so Erin & I asked Candiss to get us cd copies of the teaching.

Flash forward to this morning - I still hadn't listened to that dang cd! She got it to me like 2 days after I was aware of said teaching's existence and I didn't listen to it for 9 dang months! Geesh! This is a something about myself that is prevalent in other areas of my life and I need to work on that (I'll add it to the list)!

Nevertheless, this morning I was reading in my daily study bible that Annie and I are going through together. (It's supposed to work out where you'll be finished in a year, but....what are "deadlines" anyway... *nervous*) Aaaaanybuns, I was reading in Romans this morning and I got to this verse (which is also where I stopped):

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation." -Rom. 12:14-16

This instantly did two things in me. 1. Struck a chord. 2. Reminded me of that Kerry Kirkwood cd that was still shining brightly on top of my turn table (thanks Keevs!) - though it's luster was a bit diminished by the layer of dust that has been ceaselessly accumulating on it's sweet face.

Let me talk about each of those numbas.

1. Bless those who persecute you. We've all heard this before I'm sure. But to really put it into practice? To truly desire to bless someone who dislikes you or works against you or even loathes you? To pray for their good and for the fulfillment of God's best for them in their lives? That's a difficult thing to do with a sincere heart and without selfish intentions. Especially when you don't particularly like this person and maybe.....maybe it might feel pretty nice to see them NOT succeed and NOT be blessed.

This is sadly true of me in lots of areas. And of course by cursing, it doesn't mean saying "I curse you that you will bear no children and that you will die......SOON....AND HORRIBLY!" I mean, I guess maybe some people think things like that but that's a little creepy. It means even something as simple as calling someone an idiot - even if you don't verbalize it.

(Sidebar: There is a lot more I could write about associating with the lowly, not being haughty in mind or wise in my own estimation, but I think if I want people to actually finish reading this mini novella, I'll save it for another entry. TWICE!)

2. When I was FINALLY listening to the cd in my car this morning, Kerry Kirkwood (who, henceforth will be referred to as KK) was describing cursing as calling someone something less than what God has created them to be. Dang. When he said that my instant thought was, "Oh no." I do that more often than I would like to admit, even if it's only in my mind. The instances and capacities might be too many to mention here.

KK also said that when we curse others, in cursing God's creation, we in turn curse him. As it says: "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'" Mat. 25: 40

I think I'm going to start trying to bless some more. If you are in anyway interested in listening to this blessing discourse, you can listen to some of his teachings at the Trinity Fellowship Church website and get your bless on!

.......

*runs away*

we hope you win

Jimmy Fowler of Ft. Worth Weekly (I said that like I know who that journalist is and I don't) wrote a review of Radiant's recently released album, "We Hope You Win."

Check it out!

the langley schools music project

In response to my "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" post, my friend Jerome wrote a post about The Langley Schools Music Project.

He's a great writer and he's great with musical reviews, so I thought I'd give him a shout out on this one. Please note his assessment of the Eagles in the 4th paragraph. It's comments like this that keep the friendship going.

FOREVA!!!

world contact day

It came. It finally came. At a recent practice with Bosque Brown, my friend and fellow musician, Winston, introduced us to a song by the Carpenters. It was a song I'd never heard of theirs, and it was very....entertaining. It's title, you ask?

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day)

If that isn't enough to spark your interest, I don't know what to say. It's on the Carpenters Gold greatest hits album released in 2005. I ordered it from Amazon about a week or so ago and it came in the mail today! Hurrah! Please. Please listen to it.

there's a hole in the bucket, dear LIZa....

That's it. It's finally happened. Liz Penelope Lowrie (that's not her real middle name) started a blog. Click on the word "blog" in the previous sentence. It's not the normal "link" color, so I am forced to leave you, my devout readers, instructions. I ask that when you go to the address that you look closely at the URL. I love it! Here's Liz:


She's funny, cute and married to boot! Read her blog. Religiously.

cuddles magoo!

Annie.....er....I mean Samuel posted a blog with some pictures of Cute Face Samuel.....er...himself (that's his street moniker) on his blog. You can see all of them here.

I've chosen a few gems....and by gems I mean photos that feature me....to post here for your undoubted viewing pleasure.

Samuel and I. My indifference to the drool on my shoulder is indicative that I will one day be a really good mom:


Here's one of Rian and I making a Samuel Sandwich. What? We were hungry. Oh and don't worry, he's not laughing:


I love Samuel's cheeks!

escuche

Monica wrote a great post that is speaking to me real direct-like. She's been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer and here's an excerpt:


She pretty much says what I feel about myself in the rest of her post, but one thing I can see a lot in myself is that I often want to give advice in lieu of just listening. I want to be able to contribute and help and solve and make right. I imagine that sometimes this is warranted or even requested, but I'm not always so good at making the effort to distinguish. I can also see in my life how not always listening and always talking has become habitual, even in my conversations with God. I want to learn how to listen more. To my friends and to the voice of God.

Friends, help me out. If I'm talking, and you need me to be listening...please tell me.

what erin really looks like...

...under normal circumstances:


blurry, but normal.

Erin Joy

I don't think I've EVER posted 4 blogs in 1 day. This one's for you E.J.S!



This gal is 26 today. Actually tonight around 10pm. She's a pretty awesome person. Hosanna! Hoop Hoop!

things I never knew I never knew

#3 today.

There is a blog I frequent, and every once in a while, the author will write a post wherein she shares a few gems in her hate mail collection. Some of them are quite interesting. She included one recently that wasn't exactly hate mail, but one in which a contributor gave her some advice that I found to be quite interesting:


Wow. Good to know.

DANG! my first review....

I actually think I may have gotten one when I was in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" at the Mesquite Arts Center. It was in the Mesquite News, a Thursday publication. It was glorious.

My friend/Bosque Browner Jeremy Buller showed me this review of SXSW this morning.

Here's an excerpt. It's kind of small and I'm working on figuring out how to change that, so you can click on it to enlarge:


I love Bosque Brown!

the process by which groups make decisions

I was listening to NPR this morning and on Morning Edition they were interviewing Tom Delay about his new book 'No Retreat, No Surrender.' Now I don't claim to be a connoisseur of politics, though I'm continuing to better educate myself with each passing election.

Anyway, one thing that kind of surprised me was when Tom Delay was talking in the interview about how he hadn't wanted to meet with Democrats regarding some issue, and said something to the effect of "Why would I want to converse with the enemy?"

My question is this - Is this a commonly held belief that members of your opposing political party are "the enemy?" I understand opposing view points, and I have several friends who are quite liberal and several friends who are quite conservative, so I'm expecting some responses. I just think that "enemy" is taking conflicting views to the extreme.


Thoughts?

cheep cheep

Turns out, I've been into birds lately. They're really neat and small (usually).

Here are some birds from a website that julesdwit dot com inadvertently directed me to:











When you can't find the words... don't use any.

03.13.2007

Yesterday was an interesting day for 3 reasons.

1. Around 3pm I discovered that my shirt was on backwards.

2. We survived the thunderstorm at the office wherein the sky turned black, the trees were blowing sideways a bit and water started coming in through the windows.

3. I left the office at 9:15pm after 12 hours and 30 minutes.

How was your day?

cumulus + nimbus

Today is another GREAT day! And I'm not even kind of being sarcastic, friends. I was crazy tired as a result of DST (Daylight Stealing Time) and it was ridiculously hard to get out of bed this morning. Spunky, who I'm dogsitting, is harboring what I believe to be mild frustration towards me because I have to be at work all day and not at home playing with her. She hides it well, though, as she is always excited to see me when I get home. Or so she would have me believe. She is the best dog I've ever dog-sat without a doubt.

Work today was crazy from the moment I no longer thought that I was going to be the only one here. I walked in at 8:32 and had to disarm the alarm and unlock the doors, which is no big deal, but for some reason today - perhaps it was the heap-rain (or in layman's terms, cumulonimbus) clouds outside, the loss of an hour, the school zones that didn't make me slow to 20 mph today, and the spring breakness all around me, but I really thought that maybe we were off today and I didn't know it. Though the fact that we get to celebrate nearly 3 national holidays per year should have indicated to me that there's no way we'd be off work, since March 12 is only Girl Scouts Day and Plant a Flower Day and not, "Take this Holiday off Because it's Nationally Mandated Day," like Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Anyway, work has been going non-stop since then (except for this few minutes in between jobs that I'm taking the time to post - but don't worry, I type really really really fast, so this blog will only take me 45 seconds to complete. I'm at second 27 now).

Nevertheless, it has been a great morning. And I think it's due in large part to those cumulonimbus clouds I mentioned. They're fluffy, yet ominous. Actually, they're not really ominous, but I was kind of excited about talking about something that was fluffy, yet ominous. I've mentioned it before, but we just LOVE it here at work when it's overcast.

Anybuns, this is what cumulonimbus clouds look like:

Fluffy....yet ominous.

werds...

That last post that I just wrote, "reveal-ation," came as a result of a conversation I had with Jerome, aforementioned blogger/friend/writing partner extraordinaire. We both decided to write blogs on wherever our minds led us from the conversation.

This is what he churned out.

It's funny, because when I was reading his, there was a part that really made me start thinking.


Oh my gosh. Boy, do I remember. Like the first day of school in 6th grade. See, I don't know about anyone else, but we used to kind of dress up on the first day of school. It was a big deal that required a lot of preparation. I wasn't just going to wear my old, but also "timelessly" "fashionable" puff paint shirt from the fifth grade again, no sir! This was a time of transcending into elementary adulthood. So naturally, I decided on a navy and white sailor-esque outfit, consisting of a top that had a build int vest appearance and kulats (sp?). That's right. The shorts that appear as though they might be a skirt, but be fooled not! They are shorts.

Anyway, the kulats were navy, and if anyone has ever seen me in person, you know that pigmentation is not my strong suit. There is quite a contrast betwixt navy and extremely white. Anyway, we were standing in line right after having made a class trip to the bathroom, and this kid, whose name I shan't mention, was playing around and pretended to kick my shin. He then promptly said,

"Oh, sorry, I don't want to ruin your white tights."

.....

Except, see, I wasn't wearing any tights. Subsequently, if ever you see me wearing shorts, we must be really good friends.

It's just amazing how words can so deeply hurt a person, whether that's the intention or not. I know I've hurt people, and I remember many other times that someone said something to me that has stuck with me for years. There must be something to that whole taming the tongue idea. Thinking before you speak carelessly. I'm working on that, too.

reveal-ation

I've always wished that I kept a journal. I've gone through periods of my life when I've started writing in a journal and kept it up for, oh.....say three or four days, and other than being amusing to look at in hindsight, I never kept it up long enough to be anything of significance. So here sit I, with 3-4 pages of journal entries peppering 4-5 journals, the location of most I'm unsure about.

I think the reason I haven't is largely because of the time it takes to sit down and write in a journal, not to mention the ensuing cramp in my hand. When I'm actually inspired to write something down, it's generally lengthy and involved, and I don't have the desire to spend my free time writing on paper. Typing on the other hand, though it still takes some time, takes SUBSTANTIALLY less time and much less finger/hand/wrist exertion. Which is part of the reason I like to blog. I like to write. About myself, my friends, social goings on, current events, Jesus, you name it.

However..... *cue dramatic crescendo of music*

On my blog, there are limitations. You see, I have feelings, and I go through struggles - with other people, with myself, things in my past, etc. and I don't always want to share them with anyone worldwide with access to a think box (read: computer). It really is theraputic, though for me to process my feelings and emotions and some such onto paper/screen. It helps me work through things, and sometimes it even reveals depths to those feelings and emotions that I didn't realize were there.

I know some people write things on their blogs about specific people in their lives, and some people mention those people critically. It boggles my mind that people can do that with a clear conscience. They write about people that can read what they're writing! It's almost a passive/aggresive way of getting your anger/hurt out there without having to face a person. Then there is a part of me that admires it. "Here are my feelings, like them or not. It really hurt me when you did this, and it's affected me, deeply." But there's also a part of me - the avoid confrontation and people not liking me or a decision I made at all costs part of me - that shudders at the thought of this.

I guess that since I don't like to put people on "front street" all exposed and stuff, I don't like to write about certain issues in this "e-journal" o' mine. Not everything is for everybody, and some things aren't for anybody. Just me & J.

On the topic of such things, I actually really appreciate censorship in people more than I appreciate a lack of censorship. I admire honesty, don't get me wrong. If I've offended someone, I want to know, but there are ways of communicating that don't have to a) make a person feel small, or b) make a person feel attacked and subsequently, defensive. I think that might lead into a whole other post in itself, so....NEXT!

I know I can't find a solution to this that involves me blogging cryptically, i.e. "This friend of mine who's a girl and was wearing that green number on Tuesday really hurt my feelings and I don't know how to handle it." I might just start keeping a file on my computer labeled "Top Secret Diary Folder - Do Not Open Even If You Really Want To," though my computer will tell me that the title contains too many characters. I just really like the idea of a handwritten journal.

Maybe I just need to get over it. Typing is the new writing. Hoopa!

our founding diddy's...

My friend Jerome started a new blog. He's funny. And insightful.

Enjoy.

resolve

I didn't really resolve to do/change anything this new year. Last year it was to work out 3 times a week, and that lasted for a few months and then it's been pretty sporadic since then. This year I kind of just didn't think about it. I was reading a blog that I haven't read in a while, called just thinking. I got down to one of the entries and it started talking about Godspell.

I totally LOVE Godspell. If you ever get a chance to see it, you should. I saw it for the first time when my friend Briana was in it at this theater camp-esque thing in Austin.

Anyway, he referenced this one song, "Day by Day," which instantly got me struggling to sing it only in my mind at my desk, along with "Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord)." This is pretty much how the "Day by Day" song goes:


Talk about a New Year's resolution.

family exposure

And now for post #2 today.

My uncle sent me these pictures this morning, and I LOVE looking at old family photos and seeing my parents and grandparents when they were younger. It's neat to think about the life they lived before my sister and I were ever in the picture.

Here's my grandpa, Robert R. Love (Grandpa Bob), my mom's dad. I never knew him, so it's cool to see pictures. He's with some of his relatives. I'm not sure, but I think they might be his brothers, John J. Love and Edward Morris Love, III:


Here's the Love family photo. My mom is in the red dress with my grandma. My uncle Matt is one of the small kids on a lap, but I'm not sure which one or which lap:


Here's my Uncle Dan and Uncle Doug, my mom's older brothers:


This is my mom in either the late 60s early 70s:

She's pretty.

newsworthy

I don't write about Paris Hilton. Not because I intentionally want to leave her out of my blogging as some sort of vindictive way of saying, "Ha! I'll show you Paris! Not one of my 3 readers will ever think about your rich face whilst browsing MY entries!!" but because she never crosses my mind unless she's on a news website where I update my knowledge on the world or if someone else is talking about her. I think that almost everything she's involved in is not in any way newsworthy. Entertainment gossip magazines is one thing. But CNN? MSNBC? Really?

Anyway, on CNN.com this morning I read this article about how starting on Feb. 19th, the Associated Press was going on a weeklong Paris Hilton ban wherein they would write nothing of her countless escapades. They were talking about anticipating the reaction to such a bold move, which was funny to me, because I'm not sure I would even notice.

This paragraph explains:

And this was the part of that section that made me laugh out loud at my desk:

Oh, how I love hilarious people.

good day

My sentiments exactly. I woke up today feeling like it was going to be a great day. Then Kevin wrote me a text saying it was going to be a great day. And it's true. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, people are sitting outside for lunch and it just generally feels like a great day to be alive.

It's one of those days that makes me wish I were still in grade school and could have the summers off. Today is a perfect day to not be at work, and instead to be outside on a lawn chair eating an ice pop and drinking lemonade out of the transluscent blue pitcher we used to have when I lived in Mesquite. I think everyone should try to go outside today, even if for just a teeny tiny bit. As long as it's longer than it takes you to get from your house or your work to your car.

Holler!