Preparing for a Future Valentine

  This past Friday evening I watched the recent film, Les Miserables, for the first time. Though I definitely would not label this movie family friendly, I highly recommend it for more mature audiences. I have grown up listening to the soundtrack of this incredible story, but watching this film put some things into place for me, and the music became so much more meaningful.  Two of the characters in this film that really stood out to me were the characters Fantine and Javert, played by Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe respectively. In the story, they are both greatly blessed by the protaganist, John Valjean. Valjean takes Fantine out of the gutter and granted her grace when Javert would have had her killed for her "crime." Then later Valjean lets Javert go with no strings attached when he has the opportunity to kill this man who has chased and haunted him for years and never shown an ounce of grace or mercy. WARNING!!! May be spoilers if you wish to see the film, a

 Yes, that is a picture of a plush gallbladder. But I found it both cute and fitting for this post. The inspiration for this post actually came from a funny little cartoon I found on Pinterest. For those of you who have read my Pinterest Series , yes I do still surf Pinterest from time to time merely for a good laugh, but I still try to make it a practice to pin mostly those things that are useful and helpful. The cartoon that follows is the inspiration for this post: At first this cartoon gave me a good laugh, but then it made me think. The sign in the background especially grabbed my attention. "You have a purpose...maybe." When talking about literal organs, this is pretty funny, but isn't this exactly how many of us Christian's often feel?     "If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to

In years past, when I started a journal or diary of some kind, inevitably I felt the need to write about each member of my family in there, giving a summarized synopsis of their characters. Well as a blog is pretty much an online journal that I am willing to share, and my family is so essential to my values and character, writing a similar synopsis on this "journal" seems like a good idea at the present moment.(My earlier post Many Hands Make Light Work introduces some of my family members, but under different "names"). Dad : Yes, at our house, Dad seems like the inevitable name for the father character. "Father" is only used when annoyed with said person, and "Daddy" only as a fond endearment or as a title that only the smallest of the children use with regular frequency. My father is an incredible man, and one that has guided, taught, and loved on me since the day I was born. About 5'11'', he is of regular height with d

"Deep inside of you, there is a hunger, a calling, to know and love God. To truly know Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit. You're not after more head knowledge, it's heart to heart intimacy that you long for. Yet a part of you hangs back. Exhausted, you wonder how to find the strength or time. Nurturing your spiritual life seems like one more duty, one more thing to add to a life that is spilling over with responsibilities. It's almost as if you are standing on the bottom rung of a ladder that stretches up to heaven. Eager, but damned, you name the rungs with spiritual things you know you should do: study the Bible, pray, fellowship..."                                                -Joanna Weaver( Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World ) As I read this last night after a wonderful, yet tiring, day, I wondered if Joanna had peeked into my spiritual life and thoughts and decided to write a book about it. The entire first chapter continued to aff

As I went to wash the breakfast dishes this morning(much too late, as it was almost 10:00 am, and I had been lazy), I started listening to this album by Rebecca St. James that I have been listening to for the past 10 years. The second song was titled "Everything I Do," and I immediately began to sing along to it, knowing every word by heart. But after a minute or so, I really started thinking about the words I was singing. Everything I do let it be in your name Let it be for your glory let it be for you Everything I say let it be in your name Let it be to your glory let it be for your sake Cuz I wanna please you in everything I do And that last line really caught my attention. Of course I want everything I do to be in His name, to be for His glory, to be for His sake, and to point to him. But is my ultimate goal in life to please God? Do I spend my time wondering whether a certain action, spoken word, or thought, is pleasing to God? Well, what if I did? Wouldn