Living Abundantly

Last week I was driving to town, and, for a reason I can no longer remember, pondering Highschool Sweethearts – you know, those couples who date as teens and end up marrying.  I don’t know why but I have an occassional fascination with them.

I was wondering how hard it is for them to be married.  I mean, if your spouse continually thinks of you as who you were when you were 16 or 18 it would be really difficult to grow up (don’t you think?).  How do you move past who you were when you were young and stupid and on to who you are going to be?

It’s an unfinished conversation though because train of thought was interrupted (by a stop sign and a left turn) and I forgot all about it.

Then, a few days later (still last week) driving back from town (I do a lot of driving to and from town) I was just happily minding my own business when a thought smacked me right in the head – I’M married to my highschool sweetheart! Wakizashi and I have been dating since I was 15, and yes, in highschool.  Why had that never occured to me before?  (Maybe because he wasn’t in highschool anymore – he was 19.)

Isn’t it funny that days before I had been pondering the marriage of highschool sweethearts only to realize I had one?  Hmmm….

Today is Wakizashi’s and my 9th wedding anniversary (tomorrow is my birthday).  It’s hard to believe we’ve been married nine years.  I can’t decide if the years flew by or if I was just a child when we got married (not literally, I was legally an adult).  And if we are any evaluation of the limitations or possibilities of Highschool Sweethearts then I’d have to land on the side of possibilities.

Right about the time we stopped telling each other who the other was and how they always behave, or what they really meant when they said, and started worrying more about who we were and how we were bahaving our marriage started to improve.  The last few years have been wonderful and I love my husband more and more each day (cliche and corny I know but what can I do – I’ll try to hold back on the mush in the future).  I can mark the season when things began to change for us, and I know exactly the steps that have added such depth and richness to our relationship – I thank God that he lent me his wisdom and I didn’t follow my plan for a better marriage.

So, it seems, that my conclusion on the road up to the stop sign (you remember, before I go distracted) that a Highschool Sweetheart relationship would just require a lot of grace and hope for the other person (with a dab of freedom to be yourself) for a lasting relationship, was right.  I love being right!

(Now aren’t you glad I wasn’t writing about spending the rest of your life in highschool – phew!  That sounds like one of my chronic nightmares.)

Happy Anniversary my love!  And, just a little advanced notice: next year I expect jewelry - diamond jewelry.

This weekend I did a bit more reading than I anticipated doing; at the same time, I wanted to leave my comments on one of the audio books I recently listened to so I thought I’d just sum them all up together.  Short and sweet – yeah right, this is me we are talking about.

My Weekend Course on Color
(I’ve decided for your reading pleasure to relent and use your wierd American spelling of the word.)

So, this weekend, for completely irrelevent reasons, I ended up reading two whole books on color.  Obviously, because I’m learning to paint in watercolor it, at some point or another, it becomes necessary to get some kind of understanding on color.  It turns out that I actually made the perfect book choices.

First I read Color Choices by Stephen Quiller.  What a great book on the application of color to paintings.  It has great tools for choosing paint colors and knowing how to balance a painting so that it’s full of harmony. It seems the author offers workshops and I’d love to attend one.  When I painted my limes I chose a different color combination for each one (analogous for the blue and green and split compliment for the orange and blue), it wasn’t till I read this book that I discovered I hadn’t done the split compliment properly.  Darn.  Oh well, there’s always next time.

The next day I read Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green by Michael Wilcox which was completely different than the first book; rather it’s a scientific look at the mixing of color.  I immediately decided that the Kung Fu Master will be reading at least the first chapter and a bit (he doesn’t need to read about specific paints but I do want him to read the science of color).  This book was so fascinating I lugged it down stairs to read whole sections to Wakizashi – always a good sign when it comes to books.

For those of you teaching older kids (12 or up I figure) who like science (light and color) or art this is definitely worth adding to your curriculum.  It’s only about 50 pages before it begins to talk about paint types and practical mixing results (although, that’s neat to flip through you don’t need to read it) so you could just take it out from the library.  Then you’ll be the only family on the block able to defend the argument that True Blue and True Yellow mixed, do not, in fact, make Green (in case you were wondering, they make black due to light absorbtion).  Want to know more?  You’ll just have to read the book people.

I figure if you combine these books with my earlier book on color I’ll have completed the equivalent of an entire course on color!

To Change the Topic

The week we were slaving away over the house I listened to 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Stephen Chandler on my MP3 player, then, a few days later I listened to it again.  I don’t know what the print format is like but the audio book is in tiny short bites.  I liked this book so much.  Not because it was full of new things I’d never heard of but because it was full of such simple, practical advice.  If you picked just one “Way” a month and worked on it, even just half heartedly, you really would see a change in yourself.  It’s simple steps that build on each other and I’m a whole hearted subscriber to the philosophy that it is the small simple actions you take that make big changes in your life.  I enjoyed the book, I’ll probably write one very similar to it sometime soon.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled surfing.  Enjoy.

I just read this after posting today and thought it was not only the perfect compliment to said post but a good idea for us to keep balanced on the topic of sin.

The goal here isn’t simply to not sin.  Our purpose is to increase the shalom in this world, which is why aproaches to the Christian faith that deal solely with sinning always fail.  They aim at the wrong thing.  It’s not about what you don’t do.  The point is becoming more and more the people God had in mind when we were first created.
– Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

And just to give you a full understanding of that quote I’ll reverse a tiny bit and quote this too:

For many of us, we understand peace to be the absence of conflict.  We talk about peace in the home or in the world or giving peace a chance.  But the Hebriac understand of shalom is far more than just the absence of conflict or strife.

Shalom is the presence of the goodness of God.  It’s the presence of wholeness, completeness.
– Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

By: Laurie Beth Jones

Check it Out: The Power of Positive Prophecy

I just realized I hadn’t come back to share my final conclusions on this book; I’ve already lent it out, but I haven’t posted on it.  For shame.

I have to say, I truly enjoyed this book.  In my time I’ve done a lot of reading and research on prophecy.  I’ve read the hard core, charismatic prophecy ‘textbooks’ (or, some of them anyway – if you are interested I always recommend The Voice of God), and many of the lighter books on the subject.  I’ve read articles and magazines, taken workshops and attended seminars (I’ve also delved into the topic of prayer just as deeply), and none of those things was anything like this book.

Which isn’t to say that this book is the crown of prophetic teaching.  Actually, quite the opposite (no, not the junk) – it’s a great “everybody intro” book.  It’s a light read (with nice short chapters), full of stories and experiences – a conversational book – that touches on prophecy not as the deep rumbling communication of a high and holy God, or even the supernatural psychic experience.  No, when I lent the book to Michelle, I told her it combines the idea of blessing and prophecy together under the same heading.

If I tell you I dreamed I was speaking to thousands of people around the world – that’s a prophecy (there’s a chapter on dreams).  If I tell you I think you are a great friend because you always make me feel listened to and understood that’s a positive prophecy too.  One is a vision God is offering for fulfillment and one is a vision I’m casting for you to fulfill.  The best thing though is that this book is completely uncharismatic, unsupernatural, and even though it’s steeped in the Bible, it’s a great book for non-Christians too.

Laurie Beth Jones is a very encouraging writer, I always leave her books feeling like ‘I can do it’ (whatever it may be); she’s one of my favorites.  If you can get your hands on this one I think you should read it – we all need a little reminder of the power of our words now and then; especially those of us who are parents.

Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to sinful desires.
Romans 6:12 (NLT)

Yesterday, I was sitting outside having a much needed (read long neglected) quiet time and was reading over Romans 6 when this line caught my eye.  (In case you don’t know, Romans 6-8 are immensely powerful passages for dealing with sin in your life.  I have found them to be the “cure” to habitual sin – if you understand the teaching.)

It was a mini-epiphany.  Not what I was looking for in the passage but I read the line and just blurted out, “That means that I have complete control over all my sin!”

I think we all know that deep down inside but we don’t often act, or talk like it’s true.  That’s definately the implication that Paul is giving here: don’t let sin…

Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to sinful desires.  Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin.  Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
Romans 6:12-13

The passage uses at least five instances of active verbs which imply that whether you sin or not is completely within your control.  It is an active choice on your part.  I have a choice; I can let sin control me or I can control sin.

Really, there is much more to this topic.  There is first the issue of being set free from sin in the first place (which gives you this control) and understanding the authority you have etc… (all of which is explained in these chapters of Romans) but to put it simply, in the end sin is completely within our control.

I find that kind of empowering; and more than a little humbling.  Yes, I can just walk away from that, oh too tempting, situation without putting my foot into.  And yet, when I do put my foot in it there are no excuses or scapegoats it’s completely my fault – no matter the circumstances.  (Although, in other circumstances I may have maintained my self-control better.)

I figure this is one of those little steps to life altering freedom, like realizing you are an alcoholic.  They say that recognizing you have a problem is the first step to recovery; so recognizing you have the power here is the first step to living out your freedom.

(I should say, this isn’t the first time I’ve known this to be true.  It’s been years since I first studied this passage and years since I’ve applied it successfully to my life.  More like, it was a timely reminder to help me through my current frustration – where I had seemingly forgotten my own responisbility and ability.  It’s not my first time epiphany, but it might be yours.)

I did promise to show you my completed Blue Limes project and so I’m finally following through.

I actually finished the second piece early this week (but it took some time to get it converted to digital format).  I had so much fun with these.  To be honest I hate still-lifes; they just don’t do anything for me.  So I’m not sure why I had to do these pieces.  They popped into my head and I couldn’t ignore them; I to paint blue limes.  The Kung Fu Master is under the impression that the fact that the limes are blue means his mother has completely gone off her rocker.  Apparently, blue limes just aren’t Art (who knew!).  Maybe you’ll have a higher opinion of them.

I’m really, very proud of them.  I don’t know why.  I think it’s because they are entirely my own.  I envisioned them; I planned and designed them; I used my own ideas, my own tools; they are my own.  They aren’t perfect (I would do things differently next
time) but they are mine.  I’m proud.

  
[Painted on Arches 200lb Watercolor paper. Both are approx. 5x6]