what does your love look like?

The love for equals is a human thing--of a friends for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing--the love for those who suffer...this is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the unfortunate is a rare thing--to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich...the world is always bewildered by its saints. And then there is the love for the enemy--love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.
~Frederick Buechner

since I can't actually be there

here are my favorite memories:

1. eating ABE pasta and watching home dec. shows
2. sipping tea at the St. James
3. rolling out cookie dough
4. washing dishes at our old house
5. learning to read ;-)
6. talking on the phone as I walk to school
7. shopping/trying on clothes for hours
8. watching you sew our indian costumes
9. Anne of Green Gables every time the guys left
10. learning how to sew
11. perms. for you, for me
12. 8:00 chats with you and whoever else would join us
13. staying up "super late" helping you pack for Clovis, cause I couldn't sleep =p
14. decorating with Nativities and celebrating Advent
15. Hot Cross Buns
16. Christmas school
17. talking late into the night on the patio
18. working puzzels
19. catalogue shopping
20. waking you up (that alone is special, haha) and you rubbing my legs for hours
21. friday night pizza night
22. tagging along to Mom's Meetings
23. flying to Nashville and exploring Franklin TN
24. baking with my Easy Bake
25. next time, long time
26. reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time
27. Sew Creative Club
28. making dinner on my own
29. letting me dress up and wear it all day long
30. Soufflé and Cinnamon Rolls
31. Mother-Daughter Retreat
32. JoAnn's for hours!!
33. ABQ Uptown window-shopping
34. making snow ice cream
35. naps on the couch
36. scrapbooking
37. Ramen Noodle Salad
38. talking through my plans and all that I want to accomplish...
39. crochetting/coloring while you read to us after lunch
39. days at the library
39. getting you all dressed up to go out with Daddy
39. wrapping presents for you
39. making big breakfasts on Saturdays
39. designing kitchens just the way we'd like
39. looking through your wedding book and asking you again and again the names of the same people
39. shoe shopping
39. McAlisters
39. my first manicure
39. reading Love Comes Softly (all of them!) with Risse
39. pesto pizza

daily motivations; getting down to the basics

Tonight my roommates and I shared some verses from the past week that were particularly insightful to us. I thought it was great how they all pieced together (guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it was pretty awesome). here they are: 


Philippians 4:11-12
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.


That means having the mindset of being thankful for everything, even when it's not what we would choose or how we wish it was--learning to find joy in ALL things.


1 Peter 3:3-4
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.


So in all our striving to be pretty, wear nice clothes, and fix-up our hair (which I do quite a lot of these days!!), we need to have the right motivation. Really, the spirit behind all the adornment is what needs to be in-check before hand...oh so much easier to write than to practice!


Jonah 2:8-9
 Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
   will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the LORD!


And then what we set up as gods is all for not. We need to organise our lives in a way that first and formost brings honor and glory to God (that is what our chief end is to begin with!). Only then will our loves come together rightly, and we are freed to flourish as the best we are made to be.


Ps. 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.