"...deeds of love and mercy..."

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"
Micah 6:8

These words have been copied from God's Word and printed on a simple sheet of printing paper. It hangs on a bulletin board for all to see. My mother put it there--this is just one out of many deeds of love bestowed on us, her children. There it is, right next to our computer, reminding us like a beacon through the fog of essays, papers, email, and yes--blogging, of the simple, beautiful duty of each of us servants of the Master. It never ceases to fulfill it's purpose, for every time I sit at this desk, it speaks to me with compelling arguments.

"He has shown you, O man, what is good...". What more do I need? What more can be said? There it is, shining brightly from a few little words. No matter the questions to be asked, or the complexity of future choices, this stands strong and clear. It is strange how words that have no meaning on their own, can be brought together and weaved to create such wisdom.

This epistle would be more lengthy if it weren't for the sad fact that I must not be on the computer longer than fifteen minutes--Mark's orders. I have already exceeded my limit. We have to be careful of the hard drive you see, don't want it crashing on us--again.

her parting shot

"Drive carefully!"

These are the words that I hear every time I leave my teacher's house--drive carefully. It would be quite a normal thing to say to a student as they left your house except...I don't drive. I don't have my license or a car, and I don't think I'll be getting either for a while (you need money for such things).

Dear Judy knows perfectly well that I will walk across her lawn and down Grover street for about a mile before I reach the Lynden Library. She knows perfectly well that I don't drive, that I don't have my license or a car. But still she says these blessed words: "Drive carefully" in her cheerful, sunny voice. I complain too much. My family is well aware of that fact. But it reminds me every time she says it. I reminds me to...

"...be resigned, bear up, bear on the end shall tell, the dear Lord ordereth all things well!"

You may not see the connection between the use of a funny little illogical phrase and my contentment, but it makes plenty of sense to me. What if I couldn't walk at all? As much as I hate, despise and loath having to ask for rides of people, what if I wasn't able even to walk one mile in order to get across town?

But aside from all this, I want to share with you all the simple preciousness of a person who must impact my life very deeply. Judy is the image of endurance and cheerfulness. She is my dear Mother's age and she took a job nobody else would keep just because they needed her. It is not exactly the ideal, wonderful, nice pay with benefits job. Her employers are ridiculously tight-fisted. And what hard work and dedication they get from my wonderful Judith Lynn! When she's breaking her back, all she'll say is, "am I doing this to the glory of God?" and goes back and does it better. She shall have her reward--her children (Drea and me) shall praise her in the gates!

~PINK~

Pink. Seemingly the essence of girlish femeninity, chickly weakness, and babely pride. Pink is my color. It is the hugh that every girl child by default makes its grand entrance into society wearing. To some it is shallow and wimpy--but hey! Its just so pretty! You can express so much in this perfect color:

Powder pink--you're calm, a little shy, very sweet.
Fuschia--vivacious, bold, a teensy bit rompy.
Petal pink--soft, but lively, lovely in the fullest extreem.
Pastel pink--a trifle niave, happy, girlish.
Magenta--(not from Blue's Clues) rich, mysterious, but charming.

To all my pink hating friends--remember that it takes allot of pink and blue to come out with your precious purple.

Now you may be thinking, "Why so much ado about a color?". Well most everyone has their color, for instance--Sara and blue, Jenna and red or black, Mark and yellow...these colors are universally loved for their brightness, and basic boldness. They are on every color pallate. But what about pink? Its not even included in the rainbow! Someone has to sing its praises--so why not me? A girl who really does appreciate it in all its splendor.

opinionated little me...

Okay, after leaving a rather lengthy and adamant comment on my big bro's blog I decided that it was time for me to address such issues here, full blown on mine, instead of shooting out pathetically small little fireballs to gum up everyone else's. So here we are.

I can't understand people who insist that a person must be over eighteen in order to fully understand and take responsibility for crimes they have committed. How can this make sense? Do they really believe that a seventeen-year-old cannot understand his sins, but a few short months later, will understand completely and be responsible--simply because having turned eighteen, he is suddenly an "adult"?

Don't they remember being kids? Hello! Teenagers are not stupid. They know just as well as any human being, made in the image of God, the diffence between right and wrong. And its not just teenagers either. I believe that even an eight-year-old child who has wilfully murdered another human being should be subject to the same punishment as any other criminal.

I know kids. I make my daily bread caring for kids. (yes I'm a baby-sitter--I prefer the term "care giver" actually) I also love kids. They make life so much more wonderful. I'm an auntie five times over, and I like to make and maintain friendships with kids of all ages. I have never met one child who did not know that hitting is naughty, and who didn't know that he deserved to be punished for it. They all know--even down to the last two-year-old baby.

I'm a seventeen-year-old conservative--no, more than that--I'm a seventeen-year-old Christian, and you can believe me when I say that if I went out tonight and hacked someone to death, I pray that I would be executed for this terrible crime. This terrible sin.