keepin up with the times

Orange is my favorite color. It's been my favorite color since the year before I got married - 2006. Before that it was teal for as far as I can remember back. However, once I saw the movie Devil Wears Prada, and the scene about the "Cerulean Sweater" (watch it: http://www.hulu.com/watch/12450/the-devil-wears-prada-corn-chowder), I began to rethink my opinion of the color orange and why it was my favorite. Do I like Orange because I chose it or did something else set me up for it?

As we grow up and older, it's inevitable that we will change. Our society in America is grand, therefore having presence. There is weight in this presence, in turn, leaving impressions. Influence and manipulation is the foundation for today's world, not leaving much room for truth. We tend to base our decisions upon what others claim to work or be correct, instead of seeking it out for ourselves or accepting what we have and being content with it. For a society that is made up of opinions and loud voices, we are quick to be fooled and quieted. So how do we decipher what kind of change we are to accept in our lives?

Honest change comes from obedience. Obedience to God. Being obedient brings about change that can be trusted as truth and that embodies a future. Trust in Christ will bring about choices that transform our lives, not just get us by until the next best thing that society claims will make you happier and more accepted. It is through God's plan that we will succeed and survive this world - and be fully prepared for the next one.

So, just to clarify, I'm not talking about the changes regarding favorite color or hair style that give us a fresh start or boost in enthusiasm, but rather the changes in today's world that are not worth keeping up with. The ones that leave impressions on us that do no good for our spiritual health and well being. We often times feel the need to keep up with life's societal influence, but the reality is, society doesn't always have the most honest and innocent motives - making things a bit cloudy and hard to navigate through.

We are going to be changing every year through every new experience. I believe it really is inevitable. But do it right, and accordingly. Give yourself a foundation to build upon. Society is built from people and people are wrong sometimes, mean sometimes, and down right disappointing sometimes.

Something to think about, the next time you are worried about being accepted by and correctly aligned with what the world and our society is reforming to. Change isn't compromise.

daddy's prayer

Growing up my dad was always the one to tuck me in at night. He would make sure my closets were closed (so nothing creepy and strange could come out) and check all four corners of my ceiling for spiders - I had and still have this paranoid kind of phobia when it comes to spiders. We have all found a few spiders up on our ceilings, especially those "vintage" popcorn ones! I have found a few more than my fair share, almost developing a six sense for them. So after my dad had made all of the important checks that eased my mind, he would kneel next to my bed, palms clasped and would perform his final bedtime task that lastly eased my spirit. He would pray.

Now my dad's not one for change, therefore, never minding repetition. So evidentitly, our prayer together was always the same. Together we would recite the Lord's Prayer. To this day, I still don't know why we continually prayed that prayer. Maybe once he reads my blog, i'll receive an answer. That is, if he even remembers! Though I didn't know what trespasses were, let alone how to pronounce the word (dad always had to help me along at that point), it was still a beautiful memory that was filled with powerful words.

Today, I want to revisit the Lord's Prayer. It is often forgot about due to its traditional format. Often times it is looked upon as something mechanical and only recited out of tradition. As I can successfully comprehend this prayer, now in my late twenties, I read it with so much emotion and feeling. There is no doubt that this is a powerful and mesmerizing prayer. You cannot tell me that this doesn't perfectly represent our All Mighty God in the most tangible and fundamental way. Enjoy.

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen.

in a blink of an eye

Do you remember having "What it will be like..." thoughts? I sure do. I can remember thinking about what it would be like to ride a bike without training wheels. My curiosity eventually got the best of me after I commandeered my big brother's bike. I wasn't even out of the neighborhood yet before I fell off and onto one of the handlebars, knocking the wind out of me.

I also remember thinking about what it would be like to drive! In High School, driving was the coolest thing next to having a Letterman's jacket or for the most part, wearing a boyfriend's Letterman's jacket. I think the latter was actually the cooler of the two because you had a boyfriend (1 cool point) who also lettered (bonus cool points). But driving was a one way ticket to freedom and social attraction. I was a little extra cool in my days. I had a car my Sophomore year and and parking pass, illegally that is! I was the only Sophomore parking my car in the lot. Apparently only a select few could appreciate my coolness because I couldn't letter in it and didn't get to wear a boyfriend's jacket for it.

And then there was the "What will college be like?" thought. College was everything and more than I had expected. I guess I didn't really know what I was going to expect for college but it was a time full of late night food runs, cramming as many people as you can into a car and paying with change, long nights of girl talk, movie watching and dorm room pranks, and finally, early morning classes that you would attend in your sweatpants and sweatshirt (sometimes even slippers) while dozing off and comprehending nothing while at it, only to go back to your dorm room to sleep until mid afternoon.

Now my short point is that these life chapters felt like they were going to take sooooo long to get to. I remember counting down the years to when I would reach the end of each of my "What will it be like..." questions. And once they arrived, they seemed to be gone faster than I could ever had imagined! Don't let the years go by without making them count by fulfilling them with purpose. Without purpose, no direction can be taken, leaving us with just empty years ending in what will feel like a short-lived, shallow life.

Here are some lyrics by the band Revive that state this beautifully and will hopefully make you think twice about what you are going to fill your years with:

Teach me to number my days
And count every moment before it slips away
Taking all the colors before they fade to gray
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this

It happens in a blink
It happens in a flash
It happens in the time it took to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink

When it's all said and done
No one remembers how far we have run
The only thing that matters is how we have loved
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this

It happens in a blink
it happens in a flash
it happens in the time it took to look back
I try to hold on tight but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink

Slow down, slow down
Before today becomes our yesterday
Slow down, slow down
Before you turn around and it's too late

It happens in a blink
it happens in a flash
it happens in the time it took to look back
I try to hold on tight but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink