Blueberry Barbecue Sauce Recipe!

4:47 PM

And we all float on..

5:20 PM

I wish I could say that I've been more trusting lately. I can't really. But I did have a funny trust-related moment I might as well share. I love that in our community up here we always talk about how our friends and family have planted seeds in us and that we are constantly planting seeds in other people that God will make grow in his own time.

My dear friend Kim is a huge joy in my life, always, but especially this summer because she has summers off from teaching. But, actually..it wasn't something she said recently that struck me..it's a story she told LAST fall that really resonated with me today. She told this long story last fall about how when she started her first job it was really difficult (she's a special ed teacher...sooo crazy and awesome and challenging.) Anyways, she cried out to God multiple times for guidance and strength and all kinds of fun stuff like that. And in the midst of seeking peace she recalled a time where she was out walking in the woods, pondering about all of this and praying, and then she just realized, "Well..............(drum roll)............life goes on." And it wasn't in a pitiful way she said it, it was just very matter-of-fact.

And I remember hearing that story and thinking..hmm, that's not what I expected. For some reason I expected her to tell me some great revelation God brought to her in the midst of the woods. Something she could run home and tell her sweet husband and be pumped about starting a new day. But she simply realized that God is still there, he's not going anywhere, and if this truly is where he wants her to be....then life is just going to go on and it's all going to be okay. God's already given me everything I need. He's given me his spirit. And life goes on, and we go on, but we go on with him...or, rather, he's already gone before us..and also with us.

Kim's story hit me today after my 72,843th job search. All you can do really is wait. So I sat there...and then had the same realization as Kim's. Life is going to go on. Does this count as a tiny improvement in my trust? Does it!?!? Haha...I'm kidding, I'm not looking for words of affirmation. That's not my love language anyway. Hugs, however, will be accepted.

Unfortunately for me this realization hit me in my living room, not in a cool atmosphere like the woods. But whatever, beggars can't be choosers. There are way too many things to be thankful for to worry about this stuff anyway. So, boom shaka stinkin' laka-life goes on.

That quote doesn't come from my head, although it sounds like it coulda. Chris and I don't have cable so sometimes we get sucked into funny youtube videos (mostly family vlogs) like Arturo Trejo and Amigos. Hilarious. This is a completely unrelated sidenote. You're welcome.

Magic Mike...a review I feel compelled to share.

10:32 AM

"Do not go where the path may lead..go instead where there is not path, and leave a trail."

The following was shared on facebook and I couldn't help but post it. (Thanks, Kandace!) It's funny...I didn't even write this myself and I'm STILL nervous about posting it! Eek, a bit unsettling. Regardless, I know that it is a valuable review and one that I have felt strongly about ever since I saw the trailer for Magic Mike (quite late, I suppose, since we don't have cable...I started seeing "Magic Mike" pop up all over facebook statuses. Call me naive, but when I looked up the trailer online I was just a little bit shocked.) This awesome, heartfelt review is from Melissa Jenna's Blog. I'm not here to make people feel bad, but I think this is important. Before you read, I want to stress this point that, as she states, this is directed towards the Christian community. She tries very hard to make that distinction--because it would be pointless to try and apply any of these points to someone who does not identify with Jesus.

{50 Shades of Magic Mike (In Which I Am VERY UNCOOL)

This is a post that will not make me any friends, and will alienate some of my existing friends, and generally make me look like a complete stick-in-the-mud. Do people still say that? Stick-in-the-mud? How about killjoy/spoilsport/wet-blanket, etc? You get what I mean.

Explanation

The only reason I’m writing this at all is because I feel compelled to do so. I’m not sure if you ever had this feeling, but sometimes there are words that I need to write, only I don’t want to write them. So I push them deep down, underneath all of the other words I actually want to right, and beneath my mental-list of chores and errands, so far down that I think they basically don’t exist anymore. But that’s never the case. Something always causes them to spring back up, and this will continue happening until I sit down and write the words out. Then I can move on with my life. That’s what this is.

“Mommy Porn”

“50 Shades of Grey” is an erotic novel, and “Magic Mike” is a movie about male strippers, and both are very, very popular with women right now. In fact, they’re being called “Mommy Porn.” (I won’t go into more detail, because there is enough about them both on the Internet already.) I can’t check Twitter or Facebook without reading another enthusiastic update about both of them. Seems like every woman I know is into one of those works, or both. I am not surprised that both of these works are being celebrated so openly; there are so many equivalent works that are aimed at men that garner major public attention that I’m actually surprised it took women this long to get their own “thing.” I am surprised, though, at how completely accepting Christian culture is to both of these works. I’ve read a few dozen different updates from Christian women regarding “50 Shades” and “Magic Mike,” and the verdict? They love them. I mean they really looooove them. They can’t stop talking about them.

(Quick, like a bandaid:) This is not okay.

Christian women need to reject both of these works, and instead, use our voices in support of what is good, right and true. It is our responsibility, as daughters of the Heavenly King, to remain set-apart from the poisons of our culture, to rebuke temptation, and to celebrate and honor righteousness.

Some Scriptural Support

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

If your enemy thinks he can snare you with something as “acceptable” as 50 Shades or Magic Mike, you better believe he will take advantage. Don’t let the culture’s acceptance and celebration of these works confuse you, or put you off your guard.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-9

(Emphasis my own.) Do not conform to the patterns of this world. In other words, just because everyone else is reading it/watching it, that doesn’t make it acceptable.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23

Is what you’re putting in front of your eyes healthy? Is what you’re putting into your imagination healthy?

Put Yourself in His Shoes

To gain another perspective, imagine your husband (or father/brother/church leader) going around bragging about how much he loved reading last month’s Playboy magazine, or rallying all of his guy friends to go see “Magic Meghan” for the third time. If our husbands were drooling over a movie about female strippers, we would be livid. It wouldn’t be tolerated. Church leaders would be publicly denouncing men’s sudden acceptance of pornography and erotic films. (Why aren’t church leaders publicly denouncing 50 Shades or Magic Mike, by the way?)

Make Good Decisions

If you’re a Christian woman, and you’re reading this, know that I am not judging you. (I own 50 Shades myself. I bought it before I knew what it was, on the recommendation of a friend, and after reading some pages and discovering that it’s pornography, I cast it aside.) We all have poor judgement sometimes, and leave ourselves open to temptation.But we can also use our agency to make good decisions. Like throwing 50 Shades away (don’t re-gift it!), and not going to see Magic Mike. (Or if you’ve already seen it, stop encouraging all of your friends to go see it.)
Rather than causing each other to stumble by putting our sisters in the path of temptation, what if we decided to use our voices to celebrate our marriages? Or the marriages of your friends and family? What if we championed healthy relationships?

Taking Things Up a Notch

(This next paragraph talks about sex a little bit, so stop reading if you don’t want to read about sex.)
What if we invested our time and energy into spicing things up in our bedrooms? Rather than spending $12 on that movie, or the book, why not save the money, and instead, wear something sexy to bed, just because? And what if all the time that you would have spent reading 50 Shades, you instead spent making love to your husband? (Though probably not all in one day…unless you’re, like, training for a marathon.) We can definitely kick things up a notch without resorting to reading pornography, or lusting after celebrity-strippers.

Non-Christian Perspective

It is not okay to sexually objectify people. Just because evidently this summer we’re all about objectifying men, that doesn’t make it okay. It’s not like there’s a scale, and all these years, it’s been heavy on the objectification-of-women side, and we need to balance it out by objectifying men now. It doesn’t work that way. The only way we “balance the scale” is by quitting objectifying anyone, and leaving the scale empty. Oh, and that saying “you are what you eat?” I’d say the same thing goes for media: you are what you consume. Pornography is unhealthy. There, I said it.

Do I win some kind of prize for being the least popular person on the Internet for this? Like I’ve said: I did not want to write this. Please be nice to me in the comments, because if you know me at all, you know that this is totally out of character for me. I don’t preach at people…well, ever. I’m just glad these words are out so I can finally write the things I want to write.

xoxo, mj}

Blueberry Barbecue Sauce Recipe!

And we all float on..

Magic Mike...a review I feel compelled to share.

{50 Shades of Magic Mike (In Which I Am VERY UNCOOL)

Explanation

“Mommy Porn”

Put Yourself in His Shoes

Make Good Decisions

Taking Things Up a Notch

Non-Christian Perspective

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