Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sunday Lunch

I love Sundays. A whole lot.  I always have and I always will. Like any other day, I have a "Sunday routine". Oddly enough, it's the day that I allow myself the smallest amount time to look cute and I somehow always look my best. But that's really not the point. I love my church. I love the fellowship, the worship, the teaching. I've been at this particular church since I was in third grade and it's become home to me.

Every Sunday after the morning service, I go out for Mexican food with my parents and two other families. Usually, there are between 11 and 14 of us. Today was no exception. We all smoosh together with absolutely no regards for personal space and we've been known to steal food and blow straw wrappers across the table. We are always the loud, obnoxious bunch and I can't count how many times we've gotten angry glances for our noise level. I guess that's what happens when you get a group of "young-uns" together with their parents.

Today, we didn't sit at a collection of tables pushed together like we normally do. Instead, we were seated at two large booths. The "kid" table (ages 5-19) had eight of us today. And we spent the entire meal recounting games of cut-throat mafia. (If you don't know what that is, well, that's terrible. Because it's ridiculously cool. It's kinda like regular mafia, but better!)  It was entirely random and hilarious, and the descriptions were rather detailed.  Yeah. We're a bunch of weirdos. But it's awesome.

There is something comfortable about Sunday lunch with these people. It's almost more than just a habit. It's practically a tradition. A weekly tradition. Whatever it is, I love it and I love those people!

Hebrews 10:25 NIV
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Yay! Books!

I've finished my first book of the new year! Hurray! I didn't start it this year though...does it still count? I think it does. I read The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, because I decided that I should finally get around to reading the Lord of the Rings books. I'm not gonna lie; I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was accused of being "nerdy" for reading it. I got a high five for reading it. There were a handful of quotes from it that I thought were absolutely hysterical. As in, I would be reading in the car and start laughing. My mom gave me weird looks.

Two of my favorite quotes were, "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." and "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." I don't know why I was so taken with the first one, but I was and I liked the second one because of the truth that it holds. We are at a place where we forget how important and wonderful the little things are and we take them for granted. The second quote hit a chord and really made me think about things. It was awesome.

So now I can be on my way to actually starting the trilogy, but I've taken a slight detour to read the first book in the Percy Jackson series. I'm not sure if I'm planning on reading all of those before continuing with my hobbit friends or if I'm just going to read the first one right now. Eh. I'll figure it out. I just like reading. =D

Psalm 16:1 ESV
Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Contentment

There's just something about sunny weather that makes me happy. It's January, and I am absolutely comfortable walking around in a tee shirt. For some reason, the weather today showed me that I am content. I can't honestly say that I'm content a good portion of the time. No, there is almost always something that I find making me not content. But today, it's real. Genuine. I am perfectly content because I know that I am so blessed. God is so good! He allows the sun to rise every morning. He allows me to take my every breath. He has given me more than I need to survive, even though I've done absolutely nothing to deserve it. He continues to bless me each and every day. God never "forgets" to do anything. His faithfulness to us is astounding. And because of that, I can sit here. Perfectly content.

Psalm 13: 5-6 ESV
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

And here. We. Go.

New Year. New things. Resolutions. Personally, I think New Year's Resolutions are a bunch of hogwash. As far as I know (which is, in fact, very little), hardly anybody keeps them. I certainly don't. And yet I set them anyway. Why? This really makes no sense. I'm knowingly "participating" in something that has hardly any effect on anything.

Obviously, this blog is one of those "new things" I mentioned. It's not a resolution per se, but I thought it might be interesting to give a shot. So here I am. Embarking on my own little journey of blogging. Who knows how it will turn out? The odds aren't really in my favor: I rarely ever finish things I start. Sorry, Blog. But as I said, I want to try it out. It should be fun...right?

I've noticed something. The beginning of the year, especially the first few days of January, often result in much thinking. Thinking about the past, thinking about the future. I find myself reflecting on the previous year and looking forward to the forthcoming one. But I rarely stop and think about the present. Hmm. The present. I love that scene in Kung Fu Panda in which Master Oogway is talking to Po at the peach tree. He says, "There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the 'present'." Corny as that sounds, it holds some serious truth to it. Every day is indeed a gift, and should be realized as such. I'm often so focused on things that are in the near future that I forget to think about now. I can't do anything about the past and I can't do anything about the future. I can, however, concentrate my efforts on what is going on now. Because now is all I have.

James 4: 13-15 NIV
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."