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Sunday, July 06, 2008

  • Do Unto Others

    I don't do waiting well. I especially don't do waiting well if I'm in a grocery store. I start swaying back and forth, huffing indignantly to myself, and criticizing people in my head. (Do you still like me?) And I always pick the worst checkout aisle. It can be an aisle with one person who only has a handful of items, and I'll choose that one (of course) over the aisle with three people with loaded-down carts, but who ends up in the quicker line? The loaded-down carts group. Something always happens in my lane to slow down the process, whether it's an item that won't scan, a coupon that won't scan, or a check that won't clear. (Why do people even use checks anymore? They're such a hassle!) This trip to Wal-Mart was no different; I found a lane that only had one couple in it. Their cart was quite full, but I figured it was the best bet since the other lanes (all 2 that were open) had several people in them. The couple was an elderly couple, and the man was slowly placing his items on the belt (emphasis on slowly). As I watched him pick up one item at a time and debate on where to put it, I started to get antsy. Couldn't he grab more than one thing at a time? Did he have to be sooo slow? As I was chastising him in my head, he turned around and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, ma'am, I just don't move like I used to. I hope we're not too much trouble." Awww. I immediately smiled and said, "Oh, it's okay, I'm not in a hurry." I mainly said that just to be nice, but the thing is, I wasn't in a hurry. I had no reason to be standing there huffing and puffing and getting all agitated at this sweet old man. What did it matter if I spent 5 more minutes in the grocery store? Why am I always in such a hurry? What am I hurrying to? Time on the Internet? Time in front of the TV? I chided myself and thanked the Lord for this check in my spirit, and I helped him put out the rest of his groceries.

    As I left it occurred to me that I hope people will treat me with respect and patience when I'm older and can't "move" like I do now. I am ashamed at how quickly I grow impatient, how easy it is for me to criticize instead of love, and I am thankful that God showed this to me through a man in a grocery store. I act like my time is such a valuable commodity, and yet I waste a lot of it doing things that aren't important. May I learn to spend my time in ways that matter to the kingdom of God, in ways that show love and not hate, that build up and don't tear down.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

  • What Have You Read?

    Taken from Stef
    According to this meme that's been making its way around The InterWebs, "The Big Read reckons the average adult has read only six of the top 100 books it's printed."
    1. Bold the books you have read.
    2. Italicize those you intend to read.
    3. Underline the books you LOVE.
    4. Star next to the books you're reading/have read some of.
    5. Copy, paste and repeat.

    1.Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
    2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
    3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
    4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
    5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
    6 The Bible
    7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte     (GAG)
    8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
    9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman* (I"ve read The Golden Compass but not the other 2)
    10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
    11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
    12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
    13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
    14 Complete Works of Shakespeare* (I'd like to meet someone who's read the "complete" works of Shakespeare)
    15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
    16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
    17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
    18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (I can't believe I haven't read this)
    19 The Time Travelers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
    20 Middlemarch - George Eliot (Pretty sure that's on my summer book list, but I haven't touched it.)
    21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
    22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
    23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
    24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
    25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
    26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
    27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck*
    29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
    30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
    31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy* (Have attempted several times)
    32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
    33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis* (I am lacking The Silver Chair and The Last Battle)
    34 Emma - Jane Austen
    35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
    36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Okay, why is this separate from the Chronicles?)
    37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (This book is SO sad, but I love it.)
    38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
    39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden* (Am trying to read right now)
    40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
    41 Animal Farm - George Orwel
    42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
    43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
    44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
    45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
    46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
    47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
    48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
    49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
    50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
    51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
    52 Dune - Frank Herbert
    53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
    54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
    55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
    56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
    58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
    59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
    60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
    62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
    63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
    64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
    65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
    66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
    67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
    68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
    69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
    70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (I'll never get those 500 hours back.)
    71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens * (I think I read an abridged version of this in grade school. Hehe.)
    72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
    73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
    74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
    75 Ulysses - James Joyce
    76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
    77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
    78 Germinal - Emile Zola
    79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray* (started several times)
    80 Possession - AS Byatt
    81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
    82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
    83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (HATED this book)
    84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
    85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
    86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
    87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
    88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
    89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
    90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
    91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
    92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
    93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
    94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
    95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
    96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
    97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
    98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
    99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
    100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo*

    I was hoping I could say I've read half of them, but I've only read 40 completely. How many have you read? Which ones MUST I read?

Friday, June 27, 2008

  • Rain: A Love Story

    Rain has followed mine and Stephen's courtship from the beginning. Take the following examples:

    1. We had planned to have a picnic on our first date. It rained. So we saw Mission Impossible III and had our picnic inside instead.

    2. 3 months later, Stephen had planned to propose to me on a bridge at Natchez Trace State Park. It rained. He proposed to me in his apartment. It was still beautiful. I still said yes. I still love him.

    3. On the afternoon of our wedding, as we were standing in the parking lot of TGI Friday's, locked out, it rained. We still made it to Nashville's Embassy Suites, our stop for the night (and it was an awesome hotel).

    4. When we went to St. Louis to celebrate our first anniversary and excitedly walked up to the entrance of Six Flags, it rained. When we came back the next day and had ridden just one ride and were in line for another, it rained. We simply donned our totally awesome St. Louis Cardinals ponchos, watched people with looks of envy pass us, and waited it out.

    5. Just last week, Stephen and I took his parents and our parents to a Redbirds game. We had front-row seats right behind home plate. I don't even really like baseball all that much, but even I thought it was amazing. Three innings in, guess what happened? It rained.

    I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to learn from all of these rainy experiences, except to remember that we choose how to respond to everything that happens to us. In each of these situations, we could have stomped our feet, shaken our fists at the heavens, and bemoaned our bad luck (and I probably did some of that), but did we really lose anything? No. Every time, we ended up enjoying ourselves anyway. And while we've been dealt several times of physical rainfall, thus far we've been incredibly blessed not to experience that metaphorical rain of hardship, rain that seeps into your soul and causes you to take cover. We praise God for that now, and it is my fervent hope that even when our happiness is clouded by trials, we'll still praise Him. He is constant, though all around changes. And even when we do face those times, I have no doubt that while we may come through it soaking wet, we'll be the better for it. Think about all the benefits of rain: Without rain, we wouldn't appreciate the beauty of sunshine. Without rain, we wouldn't see rainbows. Without rain, grass wouldn't grow and flowers wouldn't bloom. Without rain, crops would die. Without rain, our world be a lot more grim.

    If rain means a better us, bring it.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

  • Music that Gets Me Movin'

    I exercise a lot. I love music. It's only natural that the two go hand-in-hand. I must have good music to accompany my exercise (unless I'm using one of my fitness DVDs). I pick songs that are upbeat because my body usually follows the tempo set by the music. The songs may not all be incredibly inspiring or deep, but they keep me going. Here's a list of some of my favorite workout songs:

    1. "Gonna Fly Now (The Rocky Theme)" from the originaly Rocky soundtrack. When I first began my lifestyle change, I listened to this song every day at the beginning of my workout. As cheesy as this may be, hearing that song really gets me motivated and excited about working out. Being motivated was crucial when I was first beginning because I HATED exercising, and this song just gets me pumped.

    2. "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson. Despite the fact this song is guilty of the cutesy spelling I abhor, it's so great for exercise because of its rhythm. I also listen to Kelly's song "Never Again" quite often. I guess the angst works for me.

    3. "The More" by Downhere. I love the lyrics of this song: "The more You show me, the more You grow me / The more Your glory becomes all there is / And the more I know You, the more I need You / The more I love You, the more You become to me. Upbeat and thought-provoking all in one song! Also, the group is offering on their website FREE downloads of their entire album, Wide-Eyed and Mystified!

    4. "Shiver" by Coldplay. I've always loved this song, and it fits right in with my workout. "Clocks" is another Coldplay song I often listen to while working out (and I walked down to it at our wedding!).

    5. "Hypocrisy #785" by Jeremy Casella. Jeremy Casella is an artist I've just been listening to for a few months, and I really love his songs. This one in particular has a great message along with a beat that helps me maintain my pace.

    6. "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield. This song just makes me happy.

    7. "Typical" by Mute Math. Mute Math is one of my favorite bands, and this song's driving rhythm is perfect for exercise. Click on the link to their website, and you'll see a YouTube video of them performing the song, and it's an awesome video because it looks like everything is going backwards. Watch it. It's amazing.

    8. "Control" by Mute Math. This song is also a great workout song, and it contains one of my favorite song lyrics: "There is no better loss than to lose myself in you." Love it!

    9. "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet. From the first few beats, this song hooks me.

    10. "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson. Such a fun song. I never get tired of it.

    Others: "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" (KT Tunstall); "Work" (Jars of Clay); "Revolution" (Grey Holiday); "Move Along" (All-American Rejects); "Beautiful Love" (The Afters)

    Any other suggestions?

    P.S. I've lost 26 pounds!! Woohoo!

Monday, June 23, 2008

  • "What is that to you?"

    Stephen and I have been going through a one-year Bible, and today I read the end of the book of John, when Jesus asks Peter if he loves him and then tells Peter to feed his sheep. I really love this passage and blogged about it before, and I was reminded again of how like Peter I am. After Jesus has instructed Peter to feed his sheep, Peter is still not content but looks at John and asks Jesus, "What about him?" Jesus replies, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." In other words, "Who is your focus? Is it John, or is it Me?" You must follow Me.

    Last week at my church's music camp I had 5 girls under my care, and I had ample time to discover their individual personalities. One girl in particular--we'll call her Samantha--is a tattle-tale. She is constantly on the lookout for others to break the rules so she can then come to me and report it. She loves getting onto the other kids if she sees them doing wrong, and she constantly would look to me for affirmation of this behavior. But instead of affirming her for her policing of the entire group of children, I would tell her gently but firmly, "Samantha, you are not the leader here. You are not in charge of these kids. All you need to worry about is yourself." She would sigh in great annoyance and say, "Yeah, but what are you going to do with them?"

    Samantha reminds me a lot of myself. I hate to say it, but I have a feeling I was a lot like her when I was younger. I relished opportunities to please others, especially those in authority, and I felt that a good way to do that would be to find what others were doing wrong and report it. (How did I have any friends??) All it came down to was a desire for attention and a yearning to feel significant, to feel as though I measured up. I imagine this is how Samantha feels, and how Peter felt. We want so much to feel significant, to feel as though we measure up, but then we look around at other people and wonder how in the world we'll ever make the grade. How could Peter, the one who denied Christ, be like John, the "disciple whom Jesus loved?" How could Samantha get attention unless she did so by pointing out the flaws of others? How can I ever feel successful in my weight loss when so many others are doing much better?

    The answer is that we can't do it, and there's no need to even try. Just as Jesus exhorted Peter to follow Him, so also must I do the same. I don't have to look at other people for my example; Jesus is the perfect One! I don't have to worry about what other people think because it's not them I'm trying to please. Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, "For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ." If there's anything I want, it's to be bonded to Christ. But I can't do that if I'm a slave to the world and its expectations. I can only serve one master, and Jesus is far better than anything the world has to offer. If I look to Him, I will be so blinded by His glory that I will see nothing else. So I fix my eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:18)

    I must follow Him.



Erin1022

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    • Name: Erin
    • Country: United States
    • State: Tennessee
    • Metro: Jackson
    • Birthday: 10/22/1981
    • Gender: Female
    • Member Since: 2/9/2005

About Me

  • I'm a lover of God, Stephen, Gilmore Girls, dolphins, books, poetry, writing, and all things LOST and The Office.

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