I’m not cool

For all those who remember the “Un-Lame my iPod” facebook group I had about a year ago, you know that I’m not cool when it comes to music or pop culture.  However, through another blog I found NoiseTrade. It is a cool new site (I assume will grow) that allows you to buy music at any price or get it for free if you send an email to 3 friends.

Along with that, there is an ad at the bottom of the page for a year long subscription to Paste (apparently a cool music, movie, culture magazine) that you can order for whatever price you want ($1 minimum).  So, I ordered it for the heck of it… I mean, it was a buck… It also comes with a monthly sampler CD, so hopefully after this year my iPod will be a little less lame.

Party Poopers

One day this week we had one of those super sweet “wow…that’s our son” moments in the van with Asher & I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer.

For those who don’t know Ryan & I have decided not to lie to Asher…about anything. If we reach a subject that he’s not ready for the truth, we just tell him we’ll tell him when he’s older or something like that (not to say we’ve never slipped up in this area, but we strive to not lie anyhow). So in the eyes of some folks I realize this makes us out to be a tad bit…grinch-y. We love to play pretend, but we like to make sure the kids know it’s just that - pretend. Asher knows there is no such thing as Santa, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy (though we enjoy playing pretend about all of these…i fully intend to play tooth fairy when the time comes…it will still be a fun game, he’ll just know it’s us). There’s certainly a myriad of reasons we’ve decided to be upfront with him on the issue of what’s real & what’s not, but ultimately…we don’t want to lie to him.

So the other day in the van: He had been talking about or pretending to be a monster (new favorite activity) & then said, “but monster’s aren’t real”. I said, “that’s true” So then he went on to list other things (that he enjoys) that are also not real….mermaids, dragons, Diego, goblins & various talking animals. What was so sweet & a perfect example of why we’ve been so clear with him was that in the mix of naming off things that aren’t real he said, “God IS real…Jesus IS real….the Holy spirit is real…” then went on with his list of ‘non-real’ things.

I got a little choked up, but tried to play it cool. “Yep, that’s right bud. God IS real. You’re a smart kid.”

I’ll choose to be a party pooper any day if it helps my kids wade through the waters discerning the Truth through all the lies.

Adoption

I was going through the 300+ blog posts that had accumulated in my google reader over the past 4 days and found a link to a great resource for churches looking to start adoption funds.  How amazing would it be if the church took seriously its call to care for widows and orphans?

Adoption lies in the future for Jennifer and I. The who, what, when, where, questions still lie unanswered, but the reality is already in our hearts. As the website above points out, money is one of the hardest challenges to overcome with adoption. While money is a big challenge, it is also a strong and powerful reminder to me of the gospel.  See, the price that Jennifer will have to pay in order to become the father and mother of one who is father and motherless will be thousands of dollars. When I think of this great financial cost I am always reminded that Jennifer and I were adopted by God at the greatest of expenses… the very life of his son (Gal 4:3-7).

Church… adoption beats in the heart of the gospel. Let us take seriously the call to care for the father and motherless. Let us give ourselves and our money to make the grace of God in adoption known to the world.

E-pistle

I have a few women friends that I email with regularly.   With 2 of these women in particular our exchanges lately have been mostly 3-way discussions vs. one-on-one.  I have been finding myself more & more reading our email exchanges imagining letters exchanged from the apostles to the church ect.  “1 Email, a letter from the christian Melissa to her sisters in Christ scattered over the United States”  Or “2 Jenn:  Dana, a seeker of Christ by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, To Jenn my beloved friend”.  We are praying for one another, working through the practical application of our theology, analyzing our heart motives in parenting and toward our spouses….encouraging one another & preaching to each other.

In the past couple weeks via myspace I have reconnected with a girl who was my “8th grade best friend”.  She had an enormous impact on my salvation (though it didn’t ’sink in’ till MUCH later) and it has been a breath of fresh air catching up with her & getting to tell her how much she impacted my life as a giddy little middle-schooler.

I know there are facets to “web 2.0″ that cause us to shirk and hide from REAL community, but I must say, I am grateful for the virtual community as well as the “IRL” community.  I have received many timely “e-pistles” from friends over the past few years that I still occasionally look back on.

Mom’s for Modesty

I stumbled on this website this morning (as you may guess…not an entirely productive morning…arg…). This tends to be one of my soapboxes as well, so thought i’d ’spread the word’. It’s just a little protest blog.

The link that led me to the site said, “cuz our daughter’s aren’t trash & shouldn’t dress like it”.  Preach it sister.
Mom’s For Modesty

Love you Grace.

E.R. on Atonement

wow… wow…

miPod

Used my iTunes gift card to purchase Stavesacre’s How to Live With a Curse. The album has been out for a while and the band actually broke up a while back… but the album is amazing. Mark Soloman is, hands down, my favorite singer. The whole album is good. Just good, clean, driving, rock!

Amazing album!

You can listen to some of the tracks here if you want to check it out.

Ben Stein

I saw Ben Stein in an German airport about 6 years ago. He was eating in the food court. He was wearing a suit and chucks.

In other Ben Stein news, he’s got a movie coming out this spring that looks very interesting.

I’m not a big movie guy

I’m not a big movie guy for too many reasons to list here… however, my friend Shelby is a movie and culture buff and I was really, really, impressed with his most recent thoughts on No County for Old Men. It is a long, but really great, post. So, for those who wish to partake… enjoy.

Adultolescents

I can’t sleep. My mind is racing & I just plain don’t feel tired. Not sure if it’s just stress or the fact that I drank two glasses of sweet tea at chick-fil-a this evening (I don’t do caffeine or sugar very often, so the combo at night was probably dumb). Anyhow, I did all the quiet chores I could do and have been whiling my time away catching up on blog reading. Figured I’d go ahead & contribute to my own while I was at it.

A VCU student fwded me this article by John Piper on the problem of “Adultolescents“. Amazing. Please go read it.

As a couple who married at 21 & 22yrs old while still very much full-time college students, Ryan & I both have a soapbox about the notion of having to wait until you’re “mature” to marry. Marriage has been a primary conduit of maturation for us both. I would go so far as to say for many people it could be an unnecessary postponement of marriage that leaves many 30-somethings stuck in a 20-something mentality. Obviously there are legitimate reasons to postpone, but I do think our culture has needlessly caused an aversion to commitment & “growing up”. I don’t think everyone should marry at 20. I also don’t think we should freak out when people do.

Suck it up folks. You will not and cannot be 21 forever. How about instead of idolizing youth we enjoy EVERY stage of our lives that God has seen fit to grant us in the correct context?

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