Don't Waste Your Circumstances

Taken from Pastor John's article Don't Waste Your Cancer, I've altered his 10 points slightly into what I have been thinking on lately...and hopefully putting into practice.

1. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I do not believe it is designed for me by God.
   
2. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I believe it is a curse and not a gift.
   
3. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I seek comfort from stability of housing or income rather than from God.
   
4. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I refuse to think about death.
   
5. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I think that coming out of this with a residence and sanity means having a roof over my head and reaching ‘normalcy’ rather than cherishing Christ.
   
6. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I spend too much time thinking about the present difficulties and not enough time thinking about God.
   
7. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I let it drive me into solitude instead of deepening my relationships with manifest affection.
   
8. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I grieve as those who have no hope.
   
9. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I treat sin as casually as before.
   
10. I will waste these last five years and present circumstances in which I find myself if I fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

Earnestly, I pray these 10 would shape and define my attitude and state of mind in reaction to that which is presently occurring in my life.

Calvinist clothing

Do your clothes adhere to the Reformed persuasion? Be sure you're Calvinist-clad this fall with TULIP, or the "five requirements of Reformed apparel."

Total washability
Unconditional size selection
Limited tone and tint
Irresistable to embrace
Perseverance against stains


Thanks Lee for the laugh - this was great!

Who's up for a good laugh?

First, read this (or if you prefer visuals).

Then, with that in mind, check this out.

How can thoughts of our own self-importance even dare plague our minds?


Edit: This link had to be added and must be read. It is so well-written and very poignant in light of the topic at hand.

Senior Moment, Spinach, Stingrays, and Sleep

Don't you hate it when you're thinking about something (and rather enjoyably so), then you blink, and you can't - for the life of you - even remember what you were just thinking about?!

I'm fully convinced the assembly of a fabulous post was underway in the old primary control center for the peripheral nervous system, and it just died in synaptic transit. Consequently, you'll have to put up with this one until next time.

On a completely different note, I've been noticing increasingly more how this blasted e. coli epidemic is affecting my daily living. C'mon, you think we can move a little faster in ridding ourselves of this calamitous occasion of contamination in the leafy green realm?! Please.

Ladies and gentlemen, my life has taken on new form. I am bold, daring, and adventursome; I live on the edge and push the limits. Ok, so I pet a stingray this passed weekend at the Great Lakes Aquarium, along with my partner in crime. It was fun, and we both got a sticker. It says "I touched a stingray!" The entire escapade was the ultimate in photo ops; we didn't get one, but the memory lives on in our minds...

On a final note, I'm in dire need of a little beauty sleep here.
Ciao.

Funniest blog post titles ever (this isn't one of them)

Such cleverness displayed in the blogshpere, as to make me laugh or, at the very least, crack a smirk, deserves to be recognized. The judging of this is based on the sole criteria of having a humorous title - I cannot vouch for the comicality found or otherwise lacking in any of the following posts, though it must be said that the content of most of these found herein equal in humor represented by their respective titles.

Pomp and Circumstance on an untuned piano, and throw a few wrong notes in for good measure...
Such vivid imagery, while the length in and of itself was droll enough to make the list.

Dead Man Blogging and An Open Letter to the Spider that Lives in My Shower
Each vying for a spot on my blog, neither of these could prevail over the other...I decided to spring for a dual award on behalf of this jocose blogger.

Have you ever been led to Kiss someone?
Enough to raise a quizzical eyebrow...

Woot on vacation
She used the word 'woot.' Immediate qualification.

p for papal craziness
Sorry, but that's funny.

A Downside to Nail Polish
Cleverness reigns in this post title.

The Successor®
Oh, I knew this would happen! A sneaky little bugger...the placement of this post has more to do with the content of the post than the actual title. However, I'm sure it can squeak by, simply because of the R in a circle after the name - it does add a lot to the title.

I Believe in Phlifterofftenopf
Me too.

Just STOP "it's" !!
Any grammartarian will appreciate this title...and post. (While considering myself among said "grammartarians," is it right of me to make up a word not found in Webster's?)

Go To Hell Footnote
Humorous, because honestly? Who hasn't thought that?

Why I Am Not an Armenian
...It's because I'm a Calvanist.

People hate kids.
This, more for the shock value.

Dave Hunt Denies Original Sin
I couldn't tell if this was more funny or sad...I think it's erring on the side of 'sad.'

Coming Soon in 2006
This is only funny because there has not yet been a post claiming the date "2006." And it's rapidly approaching 2007.

And I thought it was quite apropos to end with this:

Poking fun, because... well... it's funny
Quite. Clearly.

...blink, blink...

There are currently so many unruly and disorganized thoughts ramming themselves through my cerebral cortex lately that I wish I could blog about...if only I had the wherewithal to form and develop a coherent thought.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.
Isaiah 26:3-4

All I got.

Yesterday

Aside from a wonderful, much-needed chat with Oats, yesterday was...long. Rough.

Oh, on a completely different note, my mom turned 47 yesterday (what a perfect age to be turning, too)!

It's a funny family tradition that we go to IKEA for birthdays (who, but my family, would go to a Swedish furniture store for birthday celebrations? Ok, they do have a cafe too..). So after work, I met up with the family, along with my Aunt Mary and Gram. They had already started eating when I came back to the table with my Swedish meatballs. As I was sitting down, my zipper got in my plate and got gravy all over my sweatshirt. At the same time, my sister leaned forward and asked how my day had been going. I just looked up at her. We both nodded at the implied assertion of the state of my day. She cocked her head and said, "Well, your hair looks good!"

Quote of the Evening

"It's a good thing life doesn't center around snowboarding..."

-Frank Martens

By the way, it's the second tier of life.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me

Wait--what?!

Where on earth did this taunt come from anyway? I don't know about you, but for me personally, I have found that bruises by the occasional stray rock heal much faster than a stray word. Have there been words said to you that seem to echo in your mind, maybe for years? I have recently been thinking on this myself.

One bright spring day when I was little (I'm not sure exactly how old but I was very young), I was happily singing in the kitchen with my mom. At the end of the song, we struck the last note and the small kitchen filled with one of the coolest sounds my little ears had ever heard. It had a sort of vibrating buzz to it. I felt it was possibly one of the most amazing things I had ever heard in my young life; I didn't want it to end, thinking it could never be reproduced. I eagerly looked to my mother - "Did you hear that?!" I asked, fascinated by the distinct sound yet tingling in my ears. "Yes," she replied, "that's because you were singing off-key."

Those few words made such an impact to me that, even now, I can still vividly picture the exact way we were facing, and were both standing, on the linoleum flooring in our tiny kitchen. I love singing, but, largely due to those careless words said, even now I'm terrified of singing by myself or loud enough that anyone can distinctly hear my voice.

How powerful the product of our tongue can be! I myself was convicted of this, after thinking about this very topic, and then with the perfect timing of this post over at Solo Femininity. I haven't read through all the links yet, but I intend to. I have skimmed a few, and from the looks of it, that's going to be...fun (ok, read: sanctifyingly painful). And what's the deal? This seems to be at the forefront of everyone's mind as of late. How ironic is it that the verse in Proverbs 31, pertaining to this very topic of words and gracious use thereof, is the very one displayed on my name plaque?

O that God, through His Holy Spirit, would grant me the grace, gentleness, and strength to harness my wildly flapping tongue and use it only for His good purposes - for praising and worshiping Him, for the building up of the Church, and for boldly proclaiming His name until He comes.

A blast from the past

A plaque, identical to the very one pictured in this photograph, hung above my crib, and then my bed, when when I was little. I'd go to bed looking at it every night.

When I was much younger (about 3 years old), I remember (and have heard stories of) when my mother would take me to the grocery store. I was a very gregarious child (I have since grown out of that phase). I would happily greet everyone and anyone I could.

My standard greeting consisted of the following: "HI! Hi, my name is Jennifer Noelle, Fair Lady. 'She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.' Proverbs 31:26. What's your name?" The strangers that I would greet thus typically did not know how to respond. They'd stare dumbfounded, either at me or my mom, and stutter out a response. I'm sure it was just because they couldn't remember the verse that went along with their name...

Five years...yesterday

This "shape" poem was written a couple days after the events of September 11, 2001. I thought'd I'd dig it out for the five-year marker. And in 15 minutes, it'll be posted two days late. (No, I didn't forget - I'm just dropping the ball.)

..
.....
.........
..................
It looks like snow --
It isn't snow; it's filthy ash.
People rush about their daily
routine. If you look closer, though,
you would see pain, agony, and confusion
etched on their faces. Some walk around in
dazed disbelief, while others gaze longingly
at an empty skyline... Over in a cemetary
stands a lone tree - white with ash and
dust... Strong and bravely we will
stand... So many questions
without answers. All this
ash, and so many
tears...

Ahh, sweet September; 'tis upon us

Sitting along the river in Stillwater this past Sunday, a friend and I began talking about the glory of God and (either unnoticed or uncharted) nature going unseen by man and how glory is brought (and will be brought) to Him by such unobserved works of His hand. Our conversation turned more specifically to leaves.

Consider one leaf: the stem; the shape, each specific to its kind; each tiny vein; the exacting detail devoted to a single leaf; and in certain climes with the rotation of seasons, the change of color; and new leaves then budding, being brought forth into existence with the same exacting detail. Now consider one tree, replete with thousands of these leaves. Consider a forest.

Our thoughts ensued subsequently toward how God creates, so consistently, each leaf in the spring, sustains them, and (here in Minnesota) turns them into a glorious burst of color in the fall. And there are leaves all over the world consistently being made with exacting detail -- that no eye has seen, and yet they are still being created each spring. What a testament to the faithfulness of God! How I wish to be amazed out of my complacency and boredom with faithfulness. May I see each leaf as a marvelous tribute to God's character of faithfulness and so ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.

Now, allow me to close with a quote most apropos to my first blog post of September, and that which is quite in concurrence with my own thoughts toward the season in which we find ourselves.


Delicious autumn!
My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
-George Eliot