I must say goodbye.

Years have passed since I have started this blog.  It was a fun toy when I started it, but now it’s just no longer… well… me.   Three entire years have passed and I have changed and grew and learned and hopefully grown wiser. There are much bigger projects ahead of me now, and I’ll have to put away this little blog.  I’ve been a bad blogger, I do realize. I’d hate to share the number of posts I’ve written. But I enjoyed sharing my thoughts. I needed the opportunity to put my writing out for other’s to see. Now it’s time to move onwards. Thank you all so much for reading.

Let us keep our eyes focused on Christ as we follow Him daily!

~Marie

Perhaps these people are just trying to comfort the sick and save them from depression. Their intent is most likely kind. It’s just that their phrases are all wrong. I can’t imagine my fellow  sufferers reading the notes and suddenly feeling better. Nor can I see them immediately jumping to their feet, kicking over the trash can full of tissues and rushing out the front door to a world of golden endings. : )

“For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.” Ps. 149:4

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. “Matt. 23:12

Thou art Mine.”

Are there any words more beautiful? “You are Mine” Is there anything more incredible than to be owned, possessed by the Almighty God? First, He created us. He didn’t need to, we aren’t indispensable to Him, He didn’t make us because He was lonely. He created us to love us and to glorify Himself through us. He created, shaping us from dust into His image.

He formed us, our spirits, our personalities, all that makes us who we are, He planned.

He redeemed us. We erred, we sinned, we turned our backs on Him and chose our own way. He redeemed. He died for us, and provided our redemption, and holds it out to us.

He called. We, like sheep, had to be called to Him. He called us by name, like a Father calling his child to him. (There is something else to marvel in. Almighty God cares about us so much that He calls us by name.) And once called, if we respond we have the assurance of never needing to fear, for we are His. Forever, and ever, through anything, nothing can displace us, nothing can make Him forget us.

We are His. His exclusive property, not just until the end of time, but even for all eternity.

There is another facet to this verse. It has to do with where it was placed in the Bible. Isaiah. The book where God tells of the coming of chastisement for his wandering people. Where He points forwards at the punishment fast approaching. And right in the middle of a book of reproof and rebuke to sinful people, He puts this chapter this verse.

“But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, and He that formed thee, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; Thou art Mine.”Isaiah 43:1

“Do not fear, though I chastise I do not hate, though I punish, I do not forsake. Do not fear, I have provided you with redemption, I am directing you towards it. I chastise you because I love you, because you are mine.”

Oh, the infinite, unimaginable, love of our God!

Then one day reality hits and she’s no longer little . It’s hard for the  girl dreamer. She clings tightly to her dreams, but they are secret things now, thing she keeps hidden in her heart. She works, she learns, but it’s a tough thing growing up. As her years progress, her dreams seem to get farther and farther away, as if polarized by her. Will she ever gain her desires? Could she ever be anything greater? She looks into the future and wearily awaits the sunrise of someday.

Will someday ever come?

I scraped macaroni off of yet another sticky plate. The noodle missed the trash can, (as usual) and had to wipe up the splatter the cheese left. My head hurt, my throat hurt, my heart hurt. What was I accomplishing anyhow? Another load of laundry, another floor swept? Would someday ever come? Would I scrape macaroni plates forever?

I heard the noise of the faucet turning on behind me. I turned,  standing on a stool, her hands squeezing the soap bottle, was a little angel in pink polka dots. She smiled at me. “I’ll wash, you dry.”  I was pleased, who wouldn’t be? I helped her tie on her “robe”, an orange striped apron longer than she is tall. She scrubbed away at the broccoli pieces stuck in the cheese sauce. I wiped each plate and bowl. Ten minutes later, and the pile by the sink had been transfered to the cupboard, sparkling clean. She rinsed the sink out, I wiped the counters, wet after their sprinkling.

“This is what I’m going to do when I grow up.” I heard her say. I turned and looked at what she was doing. Between her hands was the sink strainer. You know, the little basket that lays in the bottom of the sink to catch any stray bits and pieces. She was carefully picking out every bit of dirt. As rinse water splashed over it, she admired it’s cleanness.

“When I’m a mommy, I’m going to keep everything clean and nice. I’ll be a good mommy.” She dried the wet spot on her dress.

Those were her little girl dreams. To be a mommy, a good mommy, with a nice house. She wanted to clean  her own sink strainer.

I was surprised at this. But why should I be? Wasn’t that what I dreamed for too? To be a mommy someday, a good one, with a nice house, and a clean sink strainer? Why was I so disappointed that I didn’t have that yet? Wasn’t I living out my dream here, now? The greatest dream a woman could ever have?

A clean sink strainer.

Postscript: There was a little more to this little girl dream she shared with me. As she snuggled down under her blanket to take her nap, she looked up a little sadly. “When I’m a mommy, I won’t have to nap. I’ll stay up.”

Let’s just say that I haven’t actually been motivated to write it. Perhaps it was the fact that after hammering out a 50,576 word novel out in 2 weeks and three days I didn’t feel like writing one more word for awhile. Or maybe because as I finished those last 500 words, I fell prey to the 10 day flue. Or maybe that as soon as I had recovered from that we entered an incredibly busy but incredibly fun Thanksgiving week. Or that no less than 12 hours into the next week after Thanksgiving tragedy struck and I wound up with two broken toes. (2 Can you believe it? All my life I have been falling, running into, and dropping things upon my feet, and finally after 19 years and about 2 million hair breadth escapes, I finally have broken bones due to a humble box of Diet Cream Soda)

Broken toes don’t lend themselves very well to assisting one to think of good blog posts. So I waited. Now I believe that I am finally on the way to recovery and thought perhaps I ought to drop a line before something else happens. : )

Writing isn’t the only thing I haven’t gotten to do much of recently, pottering around in the kitchen and home is another thing.  This afternoon I had my first return to the kitchen and it was glorious. : ) Just me, the snowflakes, Christmas carols, and pots bubbling, lids bouncing, and lettuce being cut up. It was great. I had forgotten how fun it was to mess with the vinegar and sugar in a salad dressing until it gets to that perfect ratio, or how serious the pondering was over whether we ought to have green beans with basil and garlic, or broccoli with cheese.

So when will part 2 be finally published? Well, seeing as the original Jane Austen Post sat in my post box for almost 4 months while I debated over ever little part (You don’t believe me do you? It really did) you may have some time to wait.  I’m praying about it, as it is something so much bigger to me than just one author or one series of books, so please await it. You may see it tomorrow, maybe next year, I don’t know yet.

So until then, as I am sure you all are busy with the approach of Christmas, enjoy this holiday month remembering the greatest gift ever. And perhaps, listen to my absolute favorite Christmas music ever here.  (Scroll down to the CD Bethlehem).

Until later,

Marie

So here is why I wrote what I did.

I read a lot of blogs, talk to a lot of people, and hear a lot of things. One thing I have been thinking through recently was the way the christian culture is rapidly declining. I often wonder where it started. Reading and books has to be one of the ways. Everyone, especially me, has the tendency to let little things slip. Perhaps we fall in love with the way an author writes and decide just to ignore little problems in the book. I hear it about movies too. “Oh there is only that one word, we just fast forward over it.” Or, “There are only a few little curse words, we black them out”. But after a little while we somehow begin to forget to use the fast forward button or pull out the permanent marker. We start to let little things slip and pretty soon the things slipping by us are bigger and bigger and bigger.

To use a far-fetched example. In acting an actor who has to use a special accent for his or her part uses a simple technique  to blind the audience. In the beginning of the film the actor will use the accent very heavily, but as the film goes on he or she will gradually decrease their accent. By the end of the film there is hardly any  left. The audience never catches what has happened, they just got used to it, and were blinded to its dissappearance. Watch a movie sometime, you’ll be surprised how well it works.

This blinding is something the actor knows the human mind is prone to. Just the same, if we are not careful we will let other things slip past us, we start well but as we go on we start to realize less and less and less. People don’t like to hear it, but gradually we become (to use an old term) demoralized,  actually brain washed.

This is my fear. That we have been becoming gradually demoralized, and no longer realize what we are imbibing. The beginning of this process is either carelessness or excuses. Pretty soon we no longer remember what our original morals were. It’s really the second law of thermodynamics affecting us.

Take a look at the film industry. In the beginning (except for a few rarities) films were clean. Think about an Andy Griffith show. Very little bad language, violence was at a low, there were even mentions of God. The American life was set forth as a clean, moral, “good” life. But gradually they let things slip in. You can see it happen in the Andy Griffith show itself. Season 1, 2, even 3, are great. Season 4 starts introducing words like “heck”, “gosh”, “golly”. Words just a shade away from “light” swear words. As time progressed tv shows got worse. More words were let to slip, the clothing got scantier. I haven’t even watched a tv show from today’s day, but basing upon what I have heard, and the names of the show themselves tv has slid majorly. I know people who have just let themselves be carried away with this, and when they hear a swear word in a movie, they don’t even catch it. They’ve been demoralized. It’s the classic Frog in a pot of water.

Do you see what I mean????

My concern with Austen was that I’m seeing the characters become more and more a ruler for todays conservative Christian girls. These girls actually idolize it. What will be the next thing they idolize? How far from Austen books are the “clean” Christian romances of today? What will the next step be? What is the next step after the movies?

What got me really thinking about this was a phrase I heard from a girl about one of the movies. “It has the BEST kiss scene I have ever seen.”    Oh dear. Have we really come to that? We view one actress passionately kiss another actor to whom she is not married either in real life or the film. (Which, by the way, would probably rank in the Bible as Sin) What will the next step to this be?

I think that is going to become my question when I evaluate things.  What will the next step be?

So please understand my heart here. I never meant to mock anyone. I’m concerned about where we are going, what we are doing. Christ calls for Holiness. Would he be pleased with what I am reading, what I am watching? Would I be ashamed for Him to view it with me? I want to strive for excellence. Excellent books, excellent films, excellent words…

To be continued. : )

“The Post that Will Probably Get Me Stoned”       : )

But really folks. Take a look around you and realize what a dangerous disease has crept into our midst. A malady  that makes Swine flu or Bird Flu look like a case of the sniffles. Might I be permitted to give you the brief and dreadful history of this disease and alert you to the symptoms?

(Cue readers to start getting angry)

Let me start at the very beginning. Say, 1811 when an “old maid” published her very first book. Sense and Sensibility. 6 more books were to follow and the female world would be changed forever. Well, that is, not until recent history. For it would seem from what I have read that Austen’s books didn’t really take off too well in her time. Didn’t really take off at all until the nineteenth century somewhere around the 1940′s. Which was when the very first film version of Pride and Prejudice was released and women began to fall under the imperious gaze of Mr. Darcy.

(cue readers to pick themselves up from wherever they swooned at that gaze and begin rolling up their sleeves.)

The rest, as they say, was history. The infection spread, grew, and multiplied until we have reached the present (I fear incurable) state we are in. Far and wide women have fallen prey to flitting around in their Regency gowns, (Don’t worry friends I shall not say anything about them looking like nightgowns), lounging under parasols at high teas, with Jane-ite quotations rolling from their tongues. I’m not sure I know of once single girl not crazy about Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightly…

(cue readers to begin gathering stones into great heaps by their sides)

And thus the infection has taken over the world.  I have watched with trembling as one after another of my friends has fallen to it.  I thought this one or that was safe, strong enough to bear the awful strain.  They look healthy, secure, normal. When I see them again, their eyes are clouded over, their faces blanched white, they tremblingly hold out to me a DVD with some sort of light apology. “I know what you say about Austen but you MUST watch this”.  And I have. I have seen Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and 2 versions of Emma. I tell you it has been a fight to stay well but I think I have done it.

(no need to cue you, I can hear the stones flying my way)

Okay now in all seriousness I do want to talk a little about Austen. I would like someone to tell me why these are so popular today? Why, why, why. Personally, I found the stories to have rather weak plots, and, in general, all the stories sharing the same one.  Why are they so insanely popular?

And have any of you ever really analyzed the characters they portray?

Tell me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t normally the Father a quiet, mousey type of man, afraid to stand up to his wife, afraid to take responsibility (His God-given responsibility at that) and lead his family?

Isn’t the mother generally either a conniving hypocrite, or a shrunken mass of weakness, unable to care about anything but her place in society?

Isn’t  the heroine really the leader of the home, or, if not the leader, definitely boss of herself. Doesn’t she normally have at some point a stand against her parent where she asserts her rights and way?

Aren’t the siblings generally either painted as ridiculous fools, or disillusioned dreamers?

Isn’t the minister or parson generally mocked in some way?

Doesn’t the heroine always get angry at the her?. Isn’t there normally a clash of wits, wherein she comes out the victor?

Doesn’t the man seem to be fighting tooth and nail not to fall in love with her and in the end drops at her feet?

Isn’t he generally angry at himself because he couldn’t fight it any longer and angry at her because her charm made him do it?

Aren’t elder’s generally despised and made to look ridiculous?

Am I wrong? With all my heart, and apart from my above bashing of Austen, I am concerned. What are we putting into our heads? Why are we reading these “clean romances” that will end up giving us false views of how God really meant life to be lived? Why are we encouraging younger girls to read and watch this stuff?

So lets talk about this for a little bit. Let’s make the comment section a chatting place. Lets talk this through. Tell me where I am wrong, tell me good reasons to read these. Tell me why these books and movies are so very fascinating. I really do want to know. The last thing I want is for you all to ignore this post. Or to never mention anything pertaining to Austen to me again. I’m curious, so let’s talk please? I await all your thoughts, even if they do come tied to a stone. : )

Studied. That word caught my eye this morning. I study lots of things. I study history, I study writing styles, I study English. I frequently scrutinize and peer into a writer’s style, the way the author uses his adjectives and adverbs. I work over every little phrase, every comma, every word. I’m trying to understand him and his works. Trying to know what he was thinking, why he wrote this, and what he wanted to convey to the readers.

But when was the last time I studied God’s works?

Do I carefully scrutinize His word trying to understand?

Do I take the time to peer into His creation?

Do I stop long enough to remember what He has done?

Do I actually delight in His works and in the study of them?

Am I one of those who delight in Him enough to study His works?

~ Study ~

Let me paint a picture for you. You are standing on a hill looking out over a grey, grassy, hilly country. Along over and around the hills there snakes a road, a road full of rocks and thorns and difficulties. -This is the road of life.

Along this road are people traveling, all walking in the same direction. But the road is rough and difficult and so all of the travelers walk with their faces to the ground. Their bodies bent over watching where they are going.  These travelers are all dressed in the same clothes. Dull grey cloth wrapping their bodies, they are clothed in sin. But some of these travelers clothes look different. They are still the dull grey but covering the grey is a light gauzy sheen of red, blood-red.

You continue to watch these travelers as they painfully make their way onwards faces bent to the ground. Dirty grey and blood covered bent over towards the road. All they can see from this posture is the road and hill dreary and ugly. But above them, oh above them! If they could only look up and see, there is stretched a sky so beautiful and bright. And in the heavens a golden kingdom hovering above this earth. And in the kingdom enthroned in a ll brightness and glory is their creator. Watching them as they toil along the weary road. This Creator has given to all who will accept the red covering. And with this covering is the power to straighten the tired backs and lift up their weary faces towards the sky. He now looks down at them, pleading, begging them to look up to no longer be bent and weary.

But they continue on, bent and weary. Occasionally on the road they will pass a dull shining stone, or a mud puddle reflecting some light from the sky. Then the traveler will stop for a moment and marvel at this thing. An imitation of a smile will cross his face, he calls this one of the pleasures of life. But how very dull it is compared to that marvel above their bent heads. But the “pleasure” can only be looked at for a moment, for the traveler cannot stop but must keep going. And so these travelers continue on seeing nothing but these substitutes for beauty, then the heartaches, the dangers, and the feel of approaching death. The  blood-red covered and grey, alike bent towards the ground.

Look around you today, look at yourself. And you will see this in the faces of everyone. Both of those covered in Christ’s blood, and those not.  A sadness, a weariness, a focus on life and its cares and little fleeting pleasures. We are the travelers on the road. Are you one of those with the blood-red covering over your dull grey clothes? If so, do you know that you have a privilege greater than those around you? You can straighten your back and look up into the beautiful brightness. You can look face into face with your Creator, you can glory in Him, worship Him, and He will guide you. A different atmosphere is open to you. Beauty, peace, and eternally lasting joy.

Stand up Christian, fix your eyes on your Creator and on the beauties unimaginable he will give to you. Forget the shining mud puddles, the sparkling rocks, they do not last, they cannot. Lay aside the weariness, the pain, the darkness. Enlarge your view, and breath the clean, sweet life-giving air. Lock your eyes on Christ and never let them stray back to the ground.

My computer is really important to me, I need it for a lot, but would my happiness be ruined if I lost it? What do I really define happiness as? Lots of people could fill in the blank after the words “happiness is ——–” Maybe it would be: “happiness is: being with your favorite person”, “happiness is:  a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream,”    or,  ”happiness is: a good book and some peace and quiet”…. The list can go on and on. What would you fill in the blank?

Would what you put, look any different from what an unbeliever would put?

It made me think of that little children’s song

Happiness is to know the Savior, Living a life within His favor,  Having a change in my behavior, Happiness is the Lord.Happiness is a new creation, Jesus and me in close relation, Having a part in His salvation, Happiness is the Lord.

Happiness is to be forgiven, Living a life that’s worth the living,  Taking a trip that leads to Heaven, Happiness is the Lord,

>Real joy is mine, no matter if teardrops start;   I’ve found the secret, it’s Jesus in my heart!

Simple words and simple truth, too bad that we put them aside as we “mature”.

One thing to be remembered is that, if our happiness is in the Lord, then we have a happiness anchored into the God who can never change.  A joy unexplainable by those who do not understand it.  And something we all have free access to.

So what would you fill in the blank? Can people tell by watching the way you live?