This is stupid.

This gun show is getting ridiculous.  Inciting fury, people losing their minds, and blatant ignorance of reason all around!  Good times on all news networks.  This will be short.

Guns are inanimate objects.  They do not take any action.  You do not get angry at a knife for cutting you, it's the person wielding it that you get angry at.

People get shot all the time.  Usually its by someone they know, and is a result of domestic violence or drug/gang issues.  It's when the media decides to cover these things in such intensity that makes it seem like they happen all the time.

People scare perpetrators off with guns all the time.  It's when the media decides NOT to cover these things with intensity that makes it seem as if it never happens.

Guns are equalizers.  I am a weak, small framed girl.  I cannot overpower a lot of people, and I don't want to be close enough to them to have to!  I have been around guns that were not locked up my entire life.

Guns do not make for more violence.  In fact, the UK, where they have extremely strict gun laws and the entire populace is brainwashed to fear and hate guns, is in fact the most violent country in Europe, and is in fact more violent that America.

And finally, legislation is not the answer.  The issue is that the state does not have the right to restrict your right to defend yourself from the people who will ALWAYS have guns... ya know, like criminals (people who don't follow laws) and the government (who, by the way, does not care about you.  Stop believing that.  It's not true.)

Simple.

hehe.

The Strangest Thing

Has anyone ever asked you why you loved a certain person?
Have you found that to answer that question is actually quite difficult?
Has anyone ever asked you what love... is?

Naturalists believe its a chemical process in your brain.
Taylor Swift (though I love her) seems to equate it with intense infatuation.
Others believe they have it, but learn later that they really didn't at all.
think of all the love songs with so many different perspectives all trying to express the same thing.

This was the subject of an episode of one of the shows Mom and I watch recently.  The question:  What exactly is love?

...

Think about it.  It's actually really hard to put words to it.  To define it.
I pondered this a long time, and kept coming back to one singular answer:

Love never ends.

Parents.  Covenants.  Best Friends.  Old friends. Old romances. 60 years of marriage.  If it is truly a feeling of love, then though situations, chemistry, intellect, and relationships change, though love itself grows and changes, the strange supernatural thing called love never goes away.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

admit impediments.  Love is not love

which alters when it alteration finds,

or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark 

that looks on tempests an is never shaken;

it is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

but bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved, 

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

(Sonnet 116, Shakespeare)

Love is patient and kind; love does no envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth   Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.

(Paul, 1 Corinthians 13)

Do You Hear the People Sing?

There has been a crescendo of music in my life the past couple of weeks. Last night my dad and I stayed up far too late talking about the evolution of rock and fashion and watching videos. And then of course, I saw Les Miserables for a second time and I've been humming more than usual. My whole body is just itching with the urge to belt out!

Now, bear in mind, I am a stage frightened person. I love performing in groups, but I choke if a solo even looks my way. I've done two in my life, and they were very hard for me, and they annoyingly never turn out to be the best I'm capable of.  I am an innately shy person.

This music is burning inside me, just itching to get out, and I'm in need of an outlet. I want very badly for that outlet to be a church outlet...

I attend a very traditional Baptist church.  I adore my church family deeply, but like all of us they have their problems. Their biggest problem is comfort. They are incredibly comfortable. Consequently, tradition is highly valued.  And that bleeds over into... worship music.

Music is a language of the soul. The entire physical process if making and appreciating music is practically miraculous. The human experience that is music is so amazing in itself. I love music. My soul breathes music. I'm not all that. Creative or terribly talented but oh how I love it. How I just feeel  feeel! But not at my church.
The music minister is like a second father to me. I even went caroling with his family over Christmas and the harmonies and blending and love was so magical. He tries so hard to please and be wise and get people to worship, but its just... dead.
Few people are singing in their seats.
The choir are the only people standing.
There's barely any joy in the place.
Few smiles.
Just... dead.
I've been places where the music starts and people jump to their feet cheering, hands high when they feel it, and there is just an encouragement of love and worship and praise!
There's more praise going on at a Justin Bieber concert than at my church, and its left me starving.
Music is bursting out of me all day for weeks because I want to praise God. And I feel singled out and weird doing that at my church. It is so sad. I couldn't even get over the old songs if people were just worshipping!

I have so much hope resting on this coming year. Hopes that include my church becoming a house of worship once again.

2013

My soul belongs to God, I know
I made that bargain long ago
He gave me hope when hope was gone
He gave me strength to journey on...

There was a shadow over this year for me.  But, I've gotten over the need to whine about it (I do that far too often anyway ;), and decided to take all those things that made 2012 bad and hard, and to instead list the good that came out of them.  List the good of this year, not the bad.  Because God reconciles all things for those who love him, and he is faithful.  So in that spirit, 2012...

My two best friends happily married the loves of their lives last year.
Their weddings gave me a LOT of practice!
I was blessed with a job I love.
I learned that I'm better at that job than I thought, and not as good at that job as I thought.
Les Miserables.  The Hobbit.  Both very important good things!
I learned that guilt is something that is reigning over me like a slave master, and not always for things I myself have actually done.
I learned to appreciate my grandparents so much more while they're here, and I love them so much more passionately.
My church is making some long-awaited changes, and I have hope that God is going to do wonderful things this coming year.
I have gained respect, and learned how perspective and littleness of mind are things to be carefully guarded.
I've been able to see in my grandparents how a Christ-exalting marriage after 58 years and counting is so much better than any other kind of marriage.
I've actually touched some kids lives and learned to love and appreciate them more when I was all but ready to give up on them because they're not the "smart kids".
I can see how awesome my sister has always been and continues to be.  She's amazing.
I've learned that true love, no matter what happens or what is uncovered about people, absolutely never ever goes away.
I've seen how communication and respect and kindness are key to relationships of any kind.
That's why God wants us to talk to him, too.
I was reminded tonight that my problems are small compared to some, and that I have been given years when some only have months, and that it is a sin to waste that time.
I see my parents in very different lights than I used to, and I think God is using this to teach my humility and prepare me for my own future.
I've traveled.  And I really must do that more!
My heart has been so full, and in how I responded to that I can see that I don't like the person I have become, and that is because I'm doing it all on my own.
I am more blessed than I remember day to day.

So, 2013 has begun!  I'm glad last year is over.  But, I have also seen that a lot of my problems are of my own doing.  This is the part where I list my resolutions, but really I have only one.  The same one I will have for the rest of my life! :)

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.