Grand Romance

I've been thinking about the church and the day that we will be brought to the side of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I've been thinking about how, on that day, we no longer will face the struggle of idolizing human beings because our eyes will finally be opened. This ridiculous fascination we have with flawed man will no longer exist, but rather we will be perfect and complete, face-to-face with our Savior. His glory will be all that we see, and we no longer will be blinded by darkness.

It's one giant, magnificent love story. You don't have to be a romantic to appreciate the fact that we were lost, Jesus Christ sacrificed everything because He loves the world, and though we must be separated for a time, we will one day be reunited with our True Love.

We're all part of a grand romance. 

Jesus is the hero. We are the damsels in distress.

The plot is filled with undeserving love, sacrifice, forgiveness,
loyalty, protection and life-long companionship.

All other romantic movies, books, plays, stories.. you name it..
they are all plagiarized. In fact, love itself is plagiarized. 

Jesus Christ is the original knight in shining armor. He is the first initiator of a relationship
and the only perfect relationship-participant. 

The Bible is the ideal romantic novel.
As we await the coming of our bridegroom, we must prepare ourselves, making the most of our time on earth. The wedding must not be missed, and our hearts must be ready.

Every engagement needs MARMALADE

So, I've blogged about awkward couples, but what about the non-awkward couples?
Don't they deserve a blog post? I say yes, yes they do.

However, this post is specifically directed towards ENGAGED couples. Oh yes. Don't think you'd get out that easily. ENGAGED. Not dating, but not married. An odd spot in life, but apparently a very popular one since 90% of my Facebook friends lie in this category.

(Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any skewed statistics; I am simply bad at math. Hence the journalism major).

So, to the 90%, the 10% have something to say. Don't worry, this is not a criticizing post-- mostly just an inquiring post. So in this case, I suppose we don't have something to say, but rather to ask....

HOW ARE THERE SO MANY OF YOU?
Really though. It seems that some sort of epidemic has taken over all social media
and the symptoms involve 

1. diamonds
2. cover photo close-ups involving such diamonds
3. and maybe a picnic basket. 

YES, the picnic basket is a symptom, and it's filled with roses and jars of marmalade and maybe some lemonade in a jug. Oh, and maybe some bread because you need something to put the marmalade on.

The question is, do you find the diamond ring in the picnic basket and then realize you've caught the engagement or do you just see the picnic basket and know? OR is the trick ACTUALLY just in the marmalade? I mean, that's an important factor. Who can get married without marmalade? ONLY NO ONE.

Also, does Kay jewelers pay you for advertising your engagement on social networking sites? I mean, it doesn't really bother the rest of us, but I hope you are getting reimbursed for such a romantically dramatized expression on the world wide web. It would only be fair.
Is there glitter involved? In the proposal? Or buckets of confetti? Why has no one proposed via lite-brite?

I don't know about you, but I feel as though that would be a creative (and vintage) way to pop the question. Like "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" in this:

...There wouldn't have to be Mr. Potato Head there, but ya know. If there was some sort of significance about having the potato in the proposal, then by all means.... Mr. Potato away.

Anyway. Those are mostly my questions for you.
Please continue on, since you are probably busy smothering your bread with marmalade.

Another disclaimer: none of this is meant to be offensive. I'm sorry if your feelings are hurt because you really just love marmalade and Mr. Potato Head, and I will try to be more sensitive next time.



Keep being cute, engaged people! With all of your cover photos and picnic baskets!

If it doesn't break your heart, it isn't love.

Every year, Thanksgiving seems to get more bittersweet then ever. Every year it seems that numbers  dwindle at our family gatherings, and the family time just seems less... existent. I love my family so much and we will always be close, but this thing we call "growing up" seemed to happen quicker than I thought. The little ones are in high school, the young ones are in college and the rest are married with children. Such is life, I suppose, but adjusting to the seasons of life will always be a challenge for me.

Maybe it's because I'm in more of an in-between season, whereas most everyone else in my family has already reached a new stage. My stage is more of a... purgatory, of sorts.
I've been spending a lot of time with my sister this week as I'm home for Thanksgiving break, and it's been awesome. It hit me today, however, that this holiday season will be the last holiday that I can just have alone time with my sister. When I come home for Spring Break in March, my sister's baby will be born. I am so incredibly thrilled for this boy to enter the world (and I couldn't be more ready to love this child to bits), but I am also realizing what this will entail. Life will change. My sister is part of a new family now, which is hard to grasp.

One thing that's difficult about this purgatorial season is that while my sister and the majority of my cousins have a new family, I'm still part of the old family. Every single one of my cousins, minus two (and I have a lot, so this is not a large amount) and the ones younger than me, are engaged or married. The family has all moved on, but I'm still here.
I know, I know. "It's all part of the cycle of life."
And I know. I'm only 20 (hence the limbo-land of change in my life).
It's a wonder that no one really seems to struggle with progressing through this cycle, but I can assure you that I do.

If Anne Shirley were not a fictional character, I would feel extremely comforted by her similar perspectives. "Why do people have to grow up and marry, change?" To which of course Gilbert Blythe responds obnoxiously, "Oh, you'd change. If someone ever admitted that they were head over heels for you, you'd be swept off your feet in a moment." Sorry Gilbert, but at this moment in my life, I'd have to side with Anne on this one: "I would not, and I defy anyone who would make me change."
Yeah, ok. So maybe they end up together in the end, and they both move on and grow up, too, but until then, I'm going to go with the "Why do we have to grow up and marry and change," sentiment.

Well, since it's Thanksgiving, I should probably throw into this cynicism a little bit of thankfulness.
I'm thankful that I have had a childhood worth missing.
I'm thankful that I have a family worth being sad to grow up from.
I'm thankful that I've been blessed enough that change is painful because the stage I'm in is so wonderful.
I'm thankful that this hurts, because it means that it's love.

As the wise Jon Foreman once said, "If it doesn't break your heart, it isn't love," and I couldn't agree more.
This pain in change, this hurt in necessary development? It's love. It's growth. It's beauty.
If it doesn't break your heart, it isn't love.

So, that's my nostalgic Thanksgiving post.

Sorry for the sappiness of it all, but I'm writer and if a writer can't be sappy and slightly melancholy sometimes, then the world has gone askew.

It Comes, It Happens, It Goes

Pinterest. The place where women pick their fantasy home, clothes, food and wedding. I have so many boards focused on dreams- dreaming of places I want to go or things I want to accomplish. Dreaming of what my wedding will one day look like.

So yeah. Here's the thing. We, as women, dream and dream and dream of our wedding until it's so dreamed up, we can't remember if it has happened or not. Thanks to chick flicks and romantic novels (yes, even the Christian ones), we have been brainwashed into believing that our wedding will be our ultimate day. THE wedding. The day that we "become happy." Maybe you ladies don't think that way, but I feel like after a good enough "bonnet movie" (the Jane Austen version of a chick flick), I find myself somehow believing that. Pretty lame, I know, but I'm being honest.
I was thinking about this other day though and thinking about all of my married friends/relatives. At one point in their lives, they dreamed of marriage.. dreamed of "finding the one." And then they had their little fairy tale as it led up to the wedding day.. then the wedding day came, happened and ended. And now they're married. No, I am not saying marriage isn't awesome, but hear me out.

My point is, it's a day. A day representing a commitment, but not fulfilling your life. Life continues. The day ends and you move on into different trials than in single life. Ya know, like living with someone of the opposite gender (a.k.a. asking for disagreements- sorry to break it to you, but men and women do think very differently), or just living with another human being (one sinful human being + another sinful human being = two sinful human beings.. together.. wanting their own way). And you know, there are bills, house decisions, extended family dramas, every day life issues like food and chores, eventually children to raise (and to agree on how to raise them), etc.

Life doesn't end at marriage; it just continues to the sequel. 
Life doesn't begin at marriage either; the scene just changes.
A wedding day is not life, just an act within the scene which is within the play which is part of a performance company... you know what I mean.

Marriage is not the end all of end all. The wedding day isn't IT. Don't get me wrong, I whole-heatedly support dreaming, but we cannot allow our "happy ending dreams" to consume us.


...Thankfully, the wedding, in a way, does last "forever," in that it will always remind of us when Christ will return for his bride (the church). That's another story for another day.