What God says about Love

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."
~ 1st John 4:7-12

"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear."
~ 1st John 4:16-18

"1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails."
~ 1st Corinthians 13:1-8

"13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
~ 1st Corinthians 13:13

Quote of the Week

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

~ C. S. Lewis

On Love

I tend to resort to poetry when I'm feeling melancholy (usually for no particular reason), but today I am suffering writer's block and must be content to read the words instead. Perhaps this poem's most memorable recitation was from the film Sense and Sensibility, where Marianne quotes it to her sister: "Is love a fancy or a feeling...or a Ferras?" ;)

Is love a fancy, or a feeling? No.
It is immortal as immaculate Truth,
'Tis not a blossom shed as soon as youth,
Drops from the stem of life--for it will grow,
In barren regions, where no waters flow,
Nor rays of promise cheats the pensive gloom.
A darkling fire, faint hovering o'er a tomb,
That but itself and darkness nought doth show,
It is my love's being yet it cannot die,
Nor will it change, though all be changed beside;
Though fairest beauty be no longer fair,
Though vows be false, and faith itself deny,
Though sharp enjoyment be a suicide,
And hope a spectre in a ruin bare.

~ Sonnet VII, Hartley Coleridge

Now That I Have Seen

Albertine

by Brooke Fraser

I am sitting still, I think of Angelique

Her mother's voice over me

And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent

And on a thousandth hill, I think of Albertine

There in her eyes what I don't see with my own

Rwanda

Now that I have seen, I am responsible

Faith without deeds is dead

Now that I have held you in my own arms, I will not let go till you are

I am on a plane, across a distant sea

But I carry you in me

And the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet

I will tell the world, I will tell them where I have been

I will tell the world

I will tell them Albertine

I am on a stage, a thousand eyes on me

I will tell them Albertine

I will tell them Albertine

This is my Albertine...my Samantha. Now that I have seen, I am responsible. And I will never forget.

omgosh a post

Wow! What a hectic few weeks this has been! In addition to moving all four kids into different rooms (not to mention all the trips to the hardware store and gallons of paint), we have been Mothers' Day shopping, celebrating William and Benjami's graduations, preparing our menfolk for camping and, who would have thunk, visiting Matthew in the hospital after the ensuing snake bite! There is no way we could have handled it all without God's grace.

And speaking of God's grace...

We are going on vacation! To Florida! In 8 days!!!

Oh yeah. I am actually leaving a few days before my family, who are flying. I am driving with the H's and will, therefore, have a couple extra days of vacation time. Woot! I am so psyched, you guys. And I am SO ready for the sun!

Speaking of which, the time has come for me to get a better camera. I will DEFINATELY be taking BILLIONS of pictures with it, too. Here is a picture of my new baby...

There are many awesome features to this little beauty that I won't bore you with here, but after she arrives, I may be too excited to resist. Hee hee.

So now you all are updated on my hectic life. I know I never post anyway but just so you know, this will probably be my last for a few more weeks...Florida, here I come!!

Abby Quotable of the Day :)

With my dad being a doctor, we have always come to him with all kinds of interesting questions. Abby, espescially, likes to hear about delivering babies. Here is a little interaction we had in the car today...

Abby: "Mommy, Daddy says that some babies come out with their feet first instead of their head. Is that true?"

Mom: "Yes, it can happen. It's usually not a good thing, though."

Abby: "Oh. I see. It probably makes the baby really confused, huh?"

Oooohhh man that just totally made my day. Hope you smiled, too! :)

My New Favorite Song. Ever.

The lyrics to this song are beautiful. I listen to them over and over. I just discovered Tenth Avenue North as a band and I will HIGHLY reccomend them. I am a hopeless fan of sad, ballad-like guitar and am always phsyched when they are paired with a God-glorifying message!

Without further ado here are the lyrics to Times by Tenth Avenue North. Listen to it with the player on my sidebar.

My love is over,

Its underneath

Its inside,

Its in between,

The times you doubt me,

When you can't feel

The times that you've questioned 'Is this for real?'

The times you've broken,

The times that you mend

The times you hate me

And the times that you bend

Well my love is over,

Its underneath

Its inside,

Its in between,

These times you're healing

And when your heart breaks

The times that you feel like you've fallen from grace

The times you're hurting

The times that you heal

The times you go hungry and attempted to steal

In times of confusion

And chaos and pain

I'm there in your sorrow

Under the weight of your shame

I'm there through your heartache

Im there in the storm

In my love I will keep you

By my power alone

I dont care where you've fallen,

Where you have been

I'll never forsake you

My love never ends,

It never ends

i.love.words.

I recently came upon this wonderful book called "Writing Tools: 50 essential strategies for every writer" by Roy Peter Clark. "Writing is a craft you learn," he says. "You need tools, not rules." The fact is, the best writers break the "rules" of writing all the time. Writing tools, on the other hand, "work outside the territory of right and wrong, and inside the land of cause and effect."

For an example, I will share with you one of my favorite new tools:

Tool 20: Choose the number of elements with a purppose.

One, two, three, or four: each sends a secret message to the reader.

>> The Language of One Use One For Power

Jesus wept.

Call me.

War is hell.

I do.

God is love.

Elvis has left the building.

I have a dream.

I have a headache.

Read my lips.

>> The Language of Two Use Two for Comparison, Contrast.

Mom and Dad.

Tom and Jerry.

Ham and eggs.

Abbot and Costello.

Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus.

Dick and Jane.

Rock 'n' roll.

I and thou.

>> The Language of Three Use Three for Completeness, Wholeness, Roundness.

Beginning, middle, and end.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Moe, Larry, and Curly.

A priest, a minister, and a rabbi.

Executive, legislative, judicial.

The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

>> The Language of Four and More Use Four or More to List, Inventory, Compile, Expand.

Getting the drift? I am espescially enamored of the way the author uses what he is teaching in his actual writing. Some people may not catch it but I thought it was brilliant. I found it interesting how many of these "tools" I already used, but how being more aware of them by giving them a label has actually helped me in the every day writing process.

So. Anyway. If you made it all the way through that without falling asleep I applaud you. There actually are some wacko people out there who find themselves scraping the scraps off the plate, so to speak, when it comes to this kind of thing. Tool 44: Save String. You never know when you're going to use it.

Musings...

[EDIT: It has been brought to my attention by a particular Mr. Smith that I have not been posting his weekly articles. I am repentant and promise to start putting them up again in the near future...so stay tuned!]

Well, I finished my short story. By yesterday, I finally decided that I needed to go ahead and do something that I felt the most comfortable with...the Underground Railroad. It required zero research so I was able to finish it by this morning. Honestly I am not satisfied with it at all...I was kind of rushed and I know I could have done WAY more with it...but oh well. That's what the class is for, no?

I have found that, unfortunatly, the time I write the best is after 10 o'clock p.m. This presents the problem that, if I don't get to bed by 11 or 12, I have to sleep longer in the morning or I will not function properly the rest of the day. And when I sleep longer that pushes the rest of my school time to later in the afternoon, and I begin to feel rushed. Obviously I am in need of some time management skills?? The book by the Mahaney women, Shopping for Time, has been sitting on our bookshelf for quite some time. Maybe its time I took it off...;)

Anyway! Speaking of school I have quite a bit on my reading list. Most of it voluntary. :) Firstly, and so far my favorite, I have been going through the letters of John and Abigail Adams. The more I read their words the more I am amazed at what a strong woman Abigil was, and what a wise husband she had! God certainly knew what he was doing when he chose these people to help shape our nation.

Now I am going to have to share with you the first letter, while they were still courting. It is the first existing letter that we know of, from John Adams to a certain Miss Abigail Smith, or, "Miss Adorable":

Miss Adorable, Octr 4th. 1762

By the same Token that the Bearer hereof satt up with you last night I hereby order you to give him, as many Kisses, and as many Hours of your Company after 9 OClock as he shall please to Demand and charge them to my Account: This Order, or Requisition call it which you will is in Consideration of a similar order Upon Aurelia for he like favour, and I presume I have good Right to draw upon you for the Kisses as I have given two or three Million at least, when one has been recd, and of Consequence the Account between us iis immensely in favour of yours

John Adams

Anyway, I thought that was so cute and there are many other letters of more...serious buisness. :) Adios amigos!

So!

Finally finished Composition 3! Yes! Now I can move on to what I've been looking forward to since last year...my short story work-shop! I am so psyched! (Is that how you spell that?) My weekly lessons will be covering character development, conflict summaries, outlining plots, crafting dialogue, etc. All of this, of course, is applicable to more than just short stories too. So excited!!

My first assignment is to...surprise...write a short story. :) Basically they are just going to see what I've got, and then move on from there. I will more than likely get the opportunity to write more than one story, of course, but right now I am brainstorming for my first one. I wanted to do a fantasy-type thing, but those get to be too complicated for something restricted to 5 (give or take) pages. So my only other option (of course ;)) is to do a historical fiction. That is all I have established thus far. I am going to have to pick a time period, narrow it down, and personalize it. =O So I need some ideas! I either want to do...

1. Elizabethan England...you know...God save the queen and whatnot...

2. The American Revolution, preferably something to do with Abigail Adams

3. The Underground Railroad, either Harriet Tubman or something to do with John Brown?

If you have any suggestions please comment! All I need is the teeny-tiniest nudge in the right direction and I will be good to go!

~ Elisabeth

P.S. I am also trying to come up with a pen-name, like people would do for newspapers in Colonial times. Would love ideas there, too. :)

New Piano!!!

About this time last year a bunch of men came over to help unload a piano into our dining room - a lovely old 1910 standup that belonged to my grandmother. I was in love. But as time went by, we realized that the "little peice of history" sitting in our dining room was not as young as it once was. It creaked. It groaned. And most of the keys, when they played at all, were un-tuneable (if that's a word.)

So! This year, I am the proud owner of a brand new mahogany Charles Walter! It is the prettiest little piano you will ever see and everything about it is old fashioned. PLUS: It actually is capable of playing music! Now I am really in love. I had a cramp in my hand yesterday because I've been playing so much...lol. :)

Anyways I am very blessed. My parents are so incredibly generous with me it is unbeleiveable. Thank you SO MUCH!!

So now I'm done with my little show and tell. :) Most of you probably don't get why I'm so excited about a piano but oh well. I've always been a little weird, I guess. *shrugs*

Over n' out!

"Careful, Or I'll Put You In My Novel"

Edit: [yes I know my Christmas template didn't last long. we couldn't seem to get along. :( And also, check out the bottom of my page...]

If you've ever read a copyright page (and I am not saying most normal people do) you will have come across the line "any resemblance to persons living or dead unintentional." I used to think, how stupid is that? I mean, who is going to pick up a book and imagine that the author has stolen "them", as a person, for one of their characters?


Ridiculous? Maybe not. As I progress in the novel I'm writing, I've begun to realize my characters don't always behave. What I mean to say is, they don't seem to stick to who I originally imaged them. Some of the more placid ones stick to the path I've already paved for them, but many more seem to run off and take on characteristics that I certainly never planned. The more I write, the more I begin to realize, maybe my characters aren't quite as "fictional" as I thought. In fact, some particular ones seem to bear uncanny resemblances to some key people in my life. Including - uh-oh - me!


I wonder if anyone who's ever written runs into this problem? Or if it's only me. Is it better to control characters? Or to allow them to evolve a little? Maybe someday I'll have it all figured out. But for now I guess I'll just let my characters run things and see where they take me...


Ahem. Thank you for bearing with me and my seemingly-random ramblings. Sometimes I'm not really sure where they come from. All I know is I have to get it out somewhere before I go crazy.


And yes. If you are reading this, you are most likely someone, somewhere in my novel. ;)

Another Novel

Yes, I have been at work again on yet another "novel" of mine. I have many, you know, though I never have the heart to finish them. I feel rather disloyal to my characters if I finish a book. So there is no guarantee this one will be finished in 2009 like my spiffy little "trailor" says. I just made that for fun. :) But yeah, I find the fact that Robert E. Lee and George Washington were related (by marriage) fascinating. And sadly, my brain will run away with something like that and add a whole bunch of "what ifs...?" to it and voila, I start a new book. :)

So yes. This is what I have been up to lately. :)

End of a Long Week...:)

Oh man, I don't think I was ever so happy to see any one as I was to see my parents today after being in Hawaii for a week. In case you all have stopped breathing at the idea of me staying with the other kids...breathe. My grandma was here - she was very brave and a true blessing from God. But that doesn't necessarily mean the week was completely uneventful...

Well, the first part was, at least. I cooked, but needless to say, we still went to McDonalds quite a bit...lol.

But then on Friday, the toilet overflowed.

And then, on Saturday morning we had a little visit from the fire department. (A direct result of my "cooking".) It seems I can't even fry an egg without it resulting in disaster. The dumb thing wouldn't quit smoking. I'm sure our neighbors were very reassured to see the giant red fire truck parked in our driveway.

After that, we went to Taco Bell for lunch. :) And then we came home. And came to realize we were locked out. :)

That being established, we went over to the H's to see if they had a key (which they didn't...only our garage code...). They did have a phone book, however, and we were able to get a hold of a lock smith - aparently the only one who was working that weekend. So we hung around at their house for about an hour until the guy could get there and break us back into our house. He declared our door to be "unusually hard" to get open. Hmm. Imagine that.

But we did, eventually, get inside and I was able to grab a bite before going to work. Julianna and I convinced ourselves there would surely be a stick-up that evening at Chick-fil-A, knowing our luck that past week. :) We also contemplated warning the manager, but nothing ever happened. :) The worst that happened was that I - with the help of my world-renowned kitchen-skills - made a huge mess making a milkshake. But yeah. No stick-ups. :)

I have decided to write a a book entitled - "HOW NOT TO COOK." It does have a certain ring to it.

Anyway! My parents - my beloved parents - are back; bringing sanity and peace to our household.

And thus ends my rambling account of the weekend. ;)

God Is Good =)

Well, the Lord certainly works in mysterious ways.

His grace is ever present - up to the point of giving us gifts, even when we've really blown it and definitely don't deserve them.

Okay, OH MY GOODNESS!! I GOT THE JOB AT CHICK-FIL-A AFTER ALL!!

Yeah, so, I'm pretty excited. =D Definately wasn't expecting this a whole month after I interviewed...but yeah. Got a call the other day while I was making dinner with my mom, and they're like, "we have a position for you if you're still interested...can you come in on Monday to sign some papers?"

Still interested? OH YEAH! Instead I said (very calmly) "why yes, as a matter of fact I am. How does 2:30 sound?"

And that was it.

I have this image of the lumberjack from the animated movie, Hoodwinked, saying: "I got a call back!" LOL

On Saturday, I'm going in to watch some prep. videos (they say they're quite cheesy but oh well) and then I'm going to shadow some one during the lunch hour (which can be impossibly busy, so keep me in your prayers! lol). Yeah, so, please nobody I know come in on Saturday afternoon!

Anyway, this is even more exciting for me thinking about the Mexico missions trip next summer. So 6 bucks an hour isn't very much, but I am SO EXCITED to think that I'll actually be able to contribute to that a little! Money that I actually earned to help care for people and further the gospel...maybe that sounds dumb but oh well. I'm really happy about it. =)

The End.
:)