new domain

I switched domains. I'd love for you to keep reading my blog. Check it out at:

http://abigailsleftovers.wordpress.com

Thanks, Abigail

emerald green with envy

Sometimes I've tried to dress up my envy. Instead of thinking of myself as "green with envy," I prefer emerald, or maybe chartreuse.

I have many friends who are gifted with home decorating and design. This is not one of my strong suits. Their homes just seem so put together, so pottery barn, so... homey. So I become envious of them; of their good-looking homes and their skill in arranging them. And instead of heading toward a path of humility, love, growth and appreciation I have found myself feeling, all-of-the-sudden, critical and superior.

My jealousy takes a journey and lands somewhere between arrogance and pride--a place probably best named self-righteousness. And self-righteousness is so insidious, because when it's happening I don't recognize it as such, I just think things like, "well, that must have cost a lot of money, we spend our money more carefully," or, "hmm, that probably took a lot of time and I prefer to spend my free time improving my mind with reading or playing with the children." See what I mean? Emerald envy.

Somehow I must twist the situation around to make my decisions better than theirs and discount their gift of making a lovely home. The truth is that if I were able, I would have a home that looked just like theirs and all my reasons of why I don't (reasons created to make me feel superior) would be right out the curtain-hung window. And so envy has morphed into a new, uglier creature...definitely not the emerald I had in mind.

"But now let me show you a more excellent way," to quote Paul in 1 corinthians 13. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy; it does not boast. It is not proud." Instead of indulging in envy that careens toward pride, I can put it to death with a thankful heart. Thankfulness makes me recognize others giftings and be happy about them, because my thankfulness is ultimately to God, not man. It makes me content with the Creator who gave them one apptitude and me another. The thankfulness and love I have toward God translates to love for others. My envy becomes appreciations; my self-righteousness is now humility.

And if you are a friend of mine reading this blog, you probably have the gift of making a lovely home. Rest assured, I am grateful for you...for many reasons, one of which is that you can come to my house and help me with any home decor issues I may be having. :)

Comments welcome (about the topic of envy, or, home decorating tips...).

stolen ideas...a good thing.

As the holidays approach, I am faced once again with challenge of making them meaningful--more than just a chance to see family and get stuff. Not that I can "make" them meaningful. They are meaningful because of the realities they represent. My hope is that I can help the meaning to be realized in myself and my family.

So here are some ideas that I've taken from others to help us do just that:
1) before eating thanksgiving dinner around the table, remember the things you're thankful for from the past year. (stolen from my dad)
2) limit gift-giving to three gifts, representing the three gifts of the wise men to Jesus. (stolen from my mother-in-law)
3) reenact the Christmas story in theatrical form with costumes on Christmas morning. (stolen from our dear friends, the Millers)
4) bake a play-dough tomb, with stone to roll away, Jesus, and a wood cross. Place Jesus in the tomb on Good Friday and remove him Sunday morning before kids get up, so they can discover Jesus risen from the dead. (stolen from Noelle Piper's Treasuring Christ in our Traditions*)

I have given myself permission to unabashedly take traditions and ideas from others in order to enhance our family's own traditions, with the desire that we will be drawn to what's really important: Christ coming to earth as a man, crucified for sins and risen to defeat death.

What great ideas have you taken from others and made your own? (original ideas also welcome, with the understanding that we might steal them :)

*a book worth owning with a plethora of great ideas to steal.
**stealing ideas while patent pending...a bad thing.

inalienable rights and the doctrine of total depravity

I've been thinking about our country. I love it.

I love the constitution and all the freedom-loving ideals that founded it. When I hear the Declaration of Independence read aloud it gives me chills. But a couple phrases in it are quite opposed to Christian ideology. Jefferson writes, "all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..."

Rights. This is the word that gives me trouble. Do we really have God-given rights? As Christians, don't we believe that we are entitled to nothing...that life itself is a gift? Every breath I take is evidence of God's mercy; every moment it is his right to crush me, if he choose, for the unbelievable audacity I have shown by sinning against a holy God.

And if we do believe that we have rights, what does this mean for salvation? God's sacrifice of His only Son on the cross looks small, trite, perhaps even unnecessary, to one filled with their own self-important rights. Our depravity and our need for a Savior diminish as our rights increase.

Yet, depravity is a reality. We are utterly depraved. In desperate need of a Savior.

And because God has shown his outrageous grace to us by sending His Son to die for us, to reconcile us to Himself, we are then indebted to protect the life that He lovingly creates. No, it is not the right of the unborn to live, it is pure grace that they have been created. But it is our duty to protect and defend that life. Life has supreme value because it was created in His image, not because it was endowed with His rights.

Do you think this understanding of rights has had an effect on the Gospel in America? My hand has been tipped, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

fellowship for sale?

On more than one occasion I have been invited to come and buy things from ladies' home businesses. Sometimes on the invitation to come and buy things it will also include an invitation for fellowship at the home business event.

This leads me to wonder, must I come and buy something in order to fellowship?

This question is especially pertinent when I have never "fellowshipped" with the host before. Perhaps they are an acquaintance or casual friend whose home I've never been invited to prior to this occasion. And so the invitation to fellowship is conditional, in essence, saying: you can fellowship with me if you are willing to buy my stuff (or at a minimum sit through a presentation on why you should buy my stuff).

This is not to say that fellowship will not happen at a home business event. To the contrary, wherever Christians are gathered, fellowship will (one would hope) occur.

Now to the ackward point of the rejection of the invitation. If the invitation had simply been to buy stuff, I could reject without a second thought. But because fellowship has been added, I feel as though I am personally rejecting whoever has sent the invitation. Not only do I not want to buy their stuff, it also appears I don't want to spend time fellowshipping with them.

What do you think? Am I making a mountain of a molehill? How does this apply to having a bookstore at church? Comments welcome.

what is this blog about?

After being a stay-at-home mom for almost 5 years now, I frequently find myself at the end of the day with thousands of words unsaid--leftover ideas, conversations, opinions, questions and thoughts. Thoughts I would normally say to whatever other adult was around, just bounce around, trapped in my pin-ball machine of a brain. This is probably a big blessing. Nonetheless, I decided to start this blog as a way to give voice to some of the (hopefully) more worthwhile musings, etc., I find myself having day to day.

This should be beneficial for two reasons: it will keep me from having imaginary conversations with people and it will protect my husband from the word spew that he sometimes experiences (via me) from the time he gets home from work to when he closes his eyes to sleep, not that he has ever complained.

It has yet to be seen whether this will be beneficial for you, the reader. I will do my best.