Ignorance is.... STUPID!

You know that old saying ignorance is bliss? Well, I only agree when referring to "initial" ignorance. (Huh?!) I mean... when you initially find out that you know NOTHING about something... understandable. It is! But unless you are a child (when it's obviously okay to continue on about your business without a care in the world), then take it upon yourself to grow!

(Okay - this doesn't make sense... but in all fairness, I warned you about the confusion and lack of direction in my brain!)

But I think that a trap we easily fall into is comfort or complacency. Sometimes we say things like "I'd rather not know" or "I'm better off not knowing!" But are we really? Or is it an excuse to not feel guilty about something? Obviously, I'm not talking about joking around with friends, or something like that, but think about it...

As Christians, we get caught up in this cookie-cutter-idea of a world that because God loves us, he wants us to be happy and enjoy life and things will be easy and issues will be resolved by God and just resolve themselves. But that's SO missing the point!!! God gave you a BRAIN and the ability to fill it with knowledge and sound judgement. He also gave you a command to love your neighbor, not to avoid them until a problem goes away. When the bible talks about relationships we like to think about how people are supposed to treat us, but we TOTALLY miss or ignore the whole point that it's telling US how to treat OTHERS and NOT the other way around! God tells us to love other no matter WHAT they say or do to us, no matter how they treat us, no matter WHAT they say about us or our friends... we are to love them as HE loves us!!!

And how does he love us? Unconditionally. We screw up... he loves us. We screw up again? He loves us. The same thing over and over? He loves us and forgives us for it - and here's the kicker: He doesn't hold it against us!! So how can we EVER justify a decision where we do just that to another person? Whether they are a Christian or not doesn't matter. God didn't tell us to love the church... he tells us to LOVE. Period. Not conditions. No questions. No circumstances. He just tells us to love.

So what are we doing about it? Lord knows I'm failing MISERABLY! But we have GOT to wake up and start trying harder. It will take work, but it can happen. Just don't forget to love. If we do all these nice things, and help people, but we don't have love, we might as well have just thrown around a bunch of metal trash cans and called it a day, because it's just useless noise and empty motions. Do some homework. Read through 1 Corinthians Ch. 13 in The Message translation, and tell me what you think - what do we need to change, what are we doing wrong?


ALRIGHT!!
Enough seriousness for one day. Now on to the fun stuff!

A BIG shout-out to my Big sister... She's reached AND surpassed her goal of a 10% weight loss!! WOOP WOOP!!

And also - it's almost Mother's Day!! What are we planning? Not a clue... still working on it, actually. BUT I do know it will involve a lunch with Mom at the restaurant of her choosing, and that won't be decided until she says "I don't know! Why don't you guys just pick something!" and we all mull around until someone says "Olive Garden. It's done. Let's go - I'm STARVING!" So... after all that, we'll probably be at Olive Garden eating lunch on Mother's day, and I'm sure there will be SOME gifts involved! *tee hee hee* (insert additional innocent childish laughter here). More on Mother's Day plans to follow.

And on that note ... a BIG Shout-out to the almost-mothers out there!! Brittany is expecting her first little on and will actually find out if it'll be a girl or boy JUST before her first Mother's Day (isn't that cute?!), AND Kelly already knows she's having a girl, but it's still her first Mother's Day as well. And Finally, Terri is going to actually be able to HOLD her wonderful baby boy, Bennet, on her first Mother's Day! CONGRATULATIONS, LADIES!!!!!

Peace out! :-P

For BLOGGING OUT LOUD!!

So I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but from what I understand, it's just like putting thoughts to paper, or like a public diary of sorts... something like that, right? So welcome to my mind - I apoligize for the lack of signs and direction, but please do be careful - it gets pretty crazy in here at times!

We start with this - I began, this weekend, to sort of put things into prexpective for myself. I've decided that I'm not happy with everything as it is, and that I need to make some changes for myself. So here's what I've come up with, thus far (brace yourselves, it's a somewhat lengthy list):
#1 - I need to be better at housekeeping (don't we all?!). I am behind on laundry, organization, dusting (what's that?) etc. My main problem si a lack of storage space. I can't keep laundry in with the washer/dryer becuase it's just a little closet thingy. And the spare bedroom has walls lined with thing (in a somewhat organized fashion) that I just do not have room for, at the time. Our closets are full and we have a huge need for more storage space... so I supposed I've slacked off and made excuses for why it's no done. But not any more!! It'll be a slow process, but it will happen! I finally cleaned up the kitchen last night. It wasn't bad, but wasn't good, either. The only thing left to do is put the organized mail in it's appropriate place. :-D One Gold star for Sarah!

#2 - I need to be better at MAKING time for devitions and personal time with God. I'm REALLY REALLY bad in this area. Yes I pray... all the time... but that's not enough. And at that, just reading verses isn't enough either. It's called STUDYING for a reason. I really need to push myself here. I've been challenged a LOT lately, thanks to a GREAT church and GREAT teachers, but receiving the challenge is nothing - it's acting on it that's important. So off I go into the wild blue yonder... (what... I'm an Air Force wife - I couldn't help myself!). I've tried adding variety to my time. It's not jsut about putting your nose in a book and coming out having memorized a new verse. It's about growing in and loving a God that never fails us, and I OWE it to him (and myself, really) to put more of myself into researching what I'm reading AND worshipping him on my own (not just in church when it's easy). So that's the next goal. :-)

#3 - I have GOT to be better about money. The good news, though? I (we) have already started with this one! We've got a budget, debt reduction plan, AND it's coming alogn nicely! According to the math, we'll be debt free in less than 2 years (minus the new car we're going to be buying this summer). But after that, we're done for at least two years!! Awesome, right? I'm excited!!

AND FINALLY... (drumroll please)

#4 - I have GOT to get OFF my rear and get to stepping!! The dog needs more exercise, and Lord knows I do too! We're BOTH better off when we've had a good walk/run. Plus, he doesn't drive me batty when we get home, either! We are both happier when we get some good exercise (even if it DOES include a certain risque' type of dance class - I'm married... nothing wrong with that, right?!)

Anywho - that's the plan. Call it my New Spring Resolution 2008 (since I WAS passed the whole New Year thing). Feel free to "Puhl" my card (ha ha... again, couldn't help myself. I'm a dork, what can I say!) and check in on me to see how I'm progressing... any thoughts to add?