The Cutest Valentine Ever

I couldn't resist, I had to share this one :) This is Jean's precious little girl, Bethie, all dressed up for Valentines Day--seriously, you can't get any cuter! AND, Jean and Josh just found out that baby number 2, due July 11, is going to be another little girl! They are SO excited, and I am sure this new little one will be just as beautiful as her big sister!

Single's Awareness Day?? Not so much.

I had some interesting conversations last week with a couple of younger students here at Fuller surrounding the topic of bitterness and Valentines Day. Something many of you know about me is that I love holidays, and I happen to really like Valentines Day, I always have. As a kid, I loved getting to make those fun little mail boxes that would get attached to the side of your desk, and you would bring a cheesy Valentine for each person in your class, being careful to not give any of the boys cards that might imply that you actually liked them. The little candy hearts with the dorky messages, the class parties--ah yes, Valentines Day was the greatest.

When I got to college I started realizing there was a little bitterness surrounding the holiday as people who no longer wanted to be single were reminded that they were indeed single, and I can totally understand where those feelings would come from. However, somehow I never managed to get sucked into the Valentines Day slump that so many young women found themselves in. As an RA in the freshmen/sophomore dorms I made the whole week of Valentines Day "love week" focusing on a different person each day--love yourself day, love the world day, love your roommate day, love your family day etc. Not everyone appeciated this, some still chose to dress in black in protest and in an effort to remind the world they were single, and because of this, not a fan of men in general--which never made sense to me. If I were a guy looking at the girls around me as potential dates, I don't think I would ask the girl out who was dressed in black and had the aire about her that basically communicated men suck. But what do I know, I was single all through college.

What has surprised me the most is that as I have gotten older, the bitterness in the people around me when it comes to Valentines Day has gotten worse and worse. Pocket reminded me the other day about our first Valentines Day here at Fuller two years ago. We were in a small group of women and all of us were single. So, that Valentines Day we decided to go out to dinner. Pocket and I assumed this was a fun celebration of a day where you get to hang out with friends and show them how much you love them, whether that is with cards, candy, flowers, etc. To us, we thought it was a fun day. So we show up, and find the other two dressed from head to toe in black, declared it Singles Awareness Day, and announced that they were in protest of the holiday because they were single. (and just a disclaimer, yes we do realized we are dressed in black from head to toe here too, we promise, it's purely out of how great black looks and has nothing to do with bitterness!) They spent the entire dinner whining about how much men suck, guys "just don't get it," they are bascially scum. Jenn and I left the dinner so frustrated; our attempts to help them understand that life isn't about having some guy on Valentines Day, and celebrating the holiday and loving the people around you can still happen with or without a man in your life fell absolutely flat. What drove me the most crazy was that these are women preparing to go into the ministry, preparing to spend their lives working alongside men bringing about the kingdom of God here on earth. Yet it's okay to make broad generalizations and refer to all men as scum out of bitterness. Right, that makes sense.

So last year we determined that Valentines Day was NOT going to be spent with people bitter at half the human race. Guy or no guy, we were going to spend the day celebrating life, one another, and the relationships God has given us. Thus, the secret valentine tradition was born. It was awesome, something I would highly recommend all women do with their girlfriends, whether they are single or not. So, of course we had to continue the tradition this year. I do have a wonderful guy in my life now, and I am so thankful for him, but that doesn't replace the friendships I have with the women God has brought into my life, and celebrating Valentines Day with him doesn't mean I can't also love and celebrate other important relationships as well. The foursome drew names again this year, secretly delivered gifts to one another on Valentines Day, and then went out to a nice dinner and to see the musical adaptation of Alice Walker's novel, The Color Purple on Saturday night. (Which was wonderful by the way--if you're here in LA this winter I think we would all highly recommend it!) (and photos are below...)

Sophie and I--she apparently found a wrap in just the right color for the night!

Dinner at the FireflyPocket and I--she had me as her secret Valentine & put together a very fun gift for me centering around the theme of beauty--a gift certificate for a manicure, fun underwear, a framed photo of a beautiful sunset, and a CD of songs about being beautiful inside and out. She was a great secret valentine!
Sophie had Becca and gave her an urban outfitters t-shirt that had Becca written all over it!
Pocket liked the Sangria
Becca's turn to open a present! I think she's excited!
Sophie looking gorgeous Finishing getting ready
Pocket's turn to unwrap her gift from Becca!
Becca went clothes shopping for her!
And I kind of think she has a crush on her...

Disneyland!

This weekend my parents came in to town to escape the negative temperatures of Minneapolis, and it was wonderful to have them here! They got to meet Chuck for the first time (and promptly declared they liked him a lot!), hang out with my girl friends again, and see a bit more of Southern California. Saturday Chuck and I went with them to Disneyland, which was the first time they had been there since I was 9 years old, which was very fun and was an absolutely gorgeous day as well. We didn't take very many pictures from Disneyland, and they aren't the world's greatest pictures, but I thought I'd post a couple anyways.

Our first stop, lunch time!

Exploring Tarzan's tree house

My dad and I in the treehouse

Our train got stuck on Thundermountain Railroad, and we eventually had to actually climb out and walk back out of the ride when they shut it down, so here are Chuck and I waiting for them to tell us what to do.

Mom and Dad waiting on Thundermountain Railroad

let the commercials roll!

Well ok, I actually watched the game this time around--most of it. Apparently everyone at Fuller wanted to see New York win, so I was one of only 2 of us rooting for the Patriots on Sunday, but we still had a great time enjoying food, fellowship and of course commercials! (I think my vote for favorite is still one of the first bud light ones, with the guy who can breathe fire...) Here are some photos from the Presby superbowl party that Pocket so graciously hosted in her apartment:

Alan, Sophie, Ryan and Alethia look ready!Chuck and ISophie and AlethiaRob and Dave--I think they are excited about the GiantsSo I was laying on the couch, minding my own business and Becca came and lay down next to me cuz there was plenty of room. Then, Sophie decided she needed to squash both of us and that led the boys to telling Pocket that she had to join the "fearsome foursome"--and then Chuck jumped on top of all of us. So here's the aftermath...

It's Almost Time Again!

Time to head to Houston that is! I can't believe it has been almost a year since Sophie & I were there for Cursillo, but we both just received confirmation this week that we are indeed going to be staffing April's Cursillo weekend, which means we will get to be there for a weekend at the beginning of March for training. We are both SO excited about getting to go back, to see our friends there and to learn the new staff positions we have been asked to fill. I know this is kind of a random thing to post, but I was excited & am procrastinating on grading the papers and writing the sermon I am supposed to be doing :)

Also, thanks to all of you who have been praying for mono to go away quickly, because amazingly enough I am almost feeling back to normal. I still get tired easily if I am trying to do TOO much in one day but I have been able to go to all my classes this week, out to dinner with friends, to a movie with Chuck for our Friday night date night, to a meeting this morning, and I am planning on going back to church tomorrow. SO, I am still trying to be careful as everyone has been warning me about relapsing, and especially since I know that I am going to need a LOT of energy for Cursillo in a couple months and want to be healthy for that, but I am very excited to be feeling stronger each day. So thank you for your prayers my friends!

Using My Words

I forgot how much I love it, apparently it is possible to miss something you love when you don't use it for awhile. I forgot the crazy feeling inside as it stirs my soul deep down. I forgot how much I love homiletics, the study and practice of preaching. I haven't been in a preaching group where weekly we listen to fellow students proclaim the word of God and dialogue afterwards about the strengths and weaknesses of the sermon for over a year now, and I forgot how much I LOVE this. Not only is it an incredible gift to be able to hear the word of God proclaimed powerfully at least twice a week outside of church, but getting to see the different ways individuals tell almost the same story has been absolutely fascinating to me. This quarter one of the classes I kept was my preaching practicum, and I am so glad I did, I needed to be reminded of the area of study I love the most. The first assignment the 9 of us were given is to each preach a 17-19 minute sermon on something from Exodus 19 or 20, the Israelites being called God's chosen people & then receiving the 10 Commandments. So far I have heard 4 different sermons on this passage and it is so amazing to see the different ways people communicate the same stories. Each of them has focused on or highlighted different parts of the passage--last week someone preached solely on the commandment to honor the sabbath, and someone else preached on the beautiful passage at the end of Exodus 19, where God proclaims that Israel is His chosen nation, His treasured posession. I preach this week, and while I am way behind in my preparation, I am going to preach on the first few verses of Exodus 20--"I am the Lord your God who has called you out of Egypt; therefore you shall have no other gods before me." Chuck was asking me the other day if we got to use any powerpoint or media in our sermons, and I said no, and that is what I love the most about this class and the way preaching is taught at Fuller. They stress that as a preacher, when you stand before a congregation, you stand before them with nothing to offer but yourself, your words, and any movements or gestures you happen to use. That's the beautiful and amazing challenge of it all, you have to use your words to tell the amazing story of God's grace, to carefully figure out how you are going to craft your message so people can hear it.

Listening to my friend Jeremy's sermon on Exodus 19 this week reminded me why I love this so much and why I love writing and language so much. He was talking about God's calling Israel to be his people, God claiming them. Jeremy has a gift of language and writing, so I knew that the words he was going to use were going to be beautiful, but I didn't expect them to bring tears to my eyes. He dropped his voice and almost whispered, "God drew near to Israel as a groom would to his bride during the first dance at the wedding reception. He held her close and whispered in her ear 'I choose you. Out of all the people and nations on this earth, I picked you. You are mine. You are set apart. And I love you." I know there are those who will strongly disagree with me, and that's ok, but I'm not convinced that something like that can be communicated quite as powerfully and as effectively through anything other than an individual so convinced in the truth of the statement looking into the eyes of his or her congregation and speaking words. Do I think there is a place in worship for things like video, powerpoint, or other media? Sure. But when I see churches getting rid of preaching done by real, live human beings with whom the congregation has a relationship in favor of a video of the latest and greatest popular speaker, I think we miss something vital to the life of the Church: the Word of God being proclaimed thoughtfully and creatively through human words to listening ears. Now I'm just praying God will give me words to speak on Wednesday!