be like a zebra.

Ah the life of a zebra.

Not only do they have cool stripes, but did you know they don’t get ulcers? It’s impossible.

Why you ask?

Because while zebras live a pretty stressful life – what with running from lions and all, they don’t dwell on the stress.

Lion chasing them – stress. Lion goes away – no memory whatsoever of what just happened.

Now I like my memory. But it would be wonderful to be able to turn the perseverating off.

what’s that saying? “Let go. Let God.”

right. wish it was a tad easier.

the mary poppins woman.

If you know me at all, you know I have a bit of an obsession with Disney, especially Mary Poppins.

so on my weekend alone. i popped in the new DVD that Kait’s mom gave her for valentines, and switched on the commentary. Now, I’ve always looked up to Mary Poppins. I’m determined I want to be like her when I’m a mommy. You know, taking my kiddos on magical adventures (of imagination of course) and still being strict, but fun. She’s such a magical woman, even if she is imaginary.

But one bit of the commentary made me think. I’ve always been confused about what I think a woman should be. There’s the “strong-woman-who-doesn’t-need-a-man” ideal, and the “weak-woman-who-can’t-survive-without-her-man” persona. But I don’t believe I want to be either. The commentary, an older man- I believe the director, stated that Mary Poppins had this unique strong woman identity, but yet she was still so feminine. Obviously it’s not EXACTLY what a woman is/shouldbe/etc. But, I think its a better basis than our weak/strong ideals.

I’m pretty sure there’s a “strong-woman-who-likes-to-have-a-man-to-care-for-her” and that’s who I’d like to be.

Mary Poppins just help put it into words for me. I think that’s how I comprehend things properly about myself and the world. Words.

love languages.

I love knowing how people work. I think its kind of a key to learning how to be whatever you need to be to them. How to love on them.

Over winter break, my mom said she wished she had discovered what my love language was when I was little so she could “fill my love tank” as she put it. I had never thought about this specific to me. I had heard over the years, and looked at the books about it on the bookshelves in my home.

I think its so cool how God wired us each individually so different things make us feel loved. And how we each have a different way of expressing and a key to filling our deepest emotional need for love. According to this site my primary love language is physical touch – aha. this is why in my eyes hugs fix everything. and my secondary is quality time – closely followed by words of affirmation.

here are the stats. kinda cool. makes me easier to understand i think. maybe. haha.

Score	Love Language
7	Words of Affirmation
9	Quality Time
3	Receiving of Gifts
1	Acts of Service
10	Physical Touch

the definition of beauty.

Yesterday afternoon I had the privelege of shooting an old friend’s wedding and I came out with more than good photographs. Something Jon, the officiating pastor, said made me think. Obviously the main message was about love, but part of his elaboration of what love his really made me think, and put a requirement on the list for Mr. Right.

Paraphrased, he said that a husband is his wife’s definition of beauty. The wife is her husband’s definition of beauty.

For some reason this seems all the more powerful than simply saying “you’re beautiful.” To me it would mean that if my husband, fiancé or boyfriend were to say I was their definition of beauty, EVERY single other woman his eyes fell upon would be compared to me…and I would win the contest of beauty. Now how cool would that be. It is so on the list. I long for that kind of love and admiration.

question.

plenty of bloggers end their blog posts with questions.

this generally means if you comment, you answer the question, right?

i kinda thought that was the purpose of asking the question.. because you were looking for an answer.

What do you think?

trash baskets and trespasses

My mom forwarded me an email that she recieved today. It was originally from a preschool sunday school teacher at our church. During the prayer time for snack, the teacher asked a student to pray. Intending to say the Lord’s prayer, the child began to pray. Most of the prayer came out right..except for the part mentioning “trespasses.”

“Forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.”

I thought it sounded pretty theological.

PKS: Pastor’s Kid Syndrome

As a pastor’s kid, I’ve never had to worry about choosing my own church to attend, or working very hard to find friends once at a church. The routine includes being warmly welcomed by those who are in the church’s core group, and generally they would either know of kids, or have some of their own. While I made my own friends, I rarely had to do the whole awkward “Hi, um… I’m Laura…and I’m new here…” speech. It was automatically being saved from not knowing who to talk to.

Tonight, I went to another church’s youth group, and the friends I was meeting had yet to arrive. I realized that this was the first time that I had to do this. Stand around, wait and feel incredibly awkward. Fun, right?

But as much as it sucked, waiting to see someone I knew, it gave me a bit of perspective.. and also made me realize what is to come. Yea, I’ve moved a ton… but I’ve never had to try very hard to find friends at church.

Israel and America Merge.

On the second team meeting for the Israel trip, Eric asked us to split up into groups to pray for the  trip. Cameron, Ryan, Eric and I headed for the area near the stage in Heartland’s prayer room. The cross towered above us and reminded me of the reason I was going on this trip. Have you ever just felt a prayer thought pop into your head? I just felt the need to pray that whatever our experiences and lessons learned on this trip that they would follow us home, and stick.

A few days into our trip, we went to Adonai Roi’s Youth Group. When it came time to worship through song, we did this cool trade off thing. Shmuel had one of his students lead us in a Hebrew worship song. While I knew no Hebrew, I would try to sing along, not having a clue what I was singing. I realized afterwards that I didn’t need to know what words were coming out of my mouth. I was worshiping my maker with my voice echoing of the red walls, but it wasn’t about the noise, or the words, it was about my heart.

And here we are, back in the states.

Sunday night I went to Heartland Community Church’s “The Gathering.” While this time the words were in English, I didn’t know the songs. Also there was a lot of instrumental sections amidst the songs. Again. It clicked. It’s not about the words exiting my mouth. It’s not about the songs. They’re not even required. It’s about my heart.
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gmail has the strangest news-tickers.

i log on this morning. and this is what i see.

“Paris Hilton In Rwanda – www.ResponsibilityProject.com – Is Rwanda right in not wanting Paris Hilton visiting their country”

of course. i had to click.

it got me thinking… i always get frusterated when people judge. (okay, its not that i disagree with rwanda on this..) and that they should at least get to know someone before they reject them right? right.

but it made me realize. what you do, say, act. it’s how people perceive you. and as we are made in God’s image, and his representatives down here, peoples’ perceptions of me..translate to their perceptions of God-no not always, but most of the time. yes.

good enough to post twice.

truth.