Verses for Meditation: Summer 2015

I've always known that memorizing scripture was important. Recently, though, someone pointed out to me that the Bible does not tell us to have a quiet time or command us to read it daily. The Bible says to meditate on scripture day and night, to write it on our hearts. This livened both my quiet time and my scripture memory, for it re-energized my quiet times and provided new purpose and importance to scripture memory. Here are a few verses I've selected for meditation this summer:

"...I will cleanseyou from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36:25b-27

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus,who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.' " 1 Corinthians 1:27-31

"Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God." 1Corinthians 3:18-23

I've also been working on memorizing more in Romans. Right now Paul is discussing the importance of faith over law for righteousness. 

Thank You, Lord, for a mind capable of memorizing. I pray that I would not be a hearer only, but also a doer of the Word. I pray that it will not merely be available for playback, but that it will infuse my mind, heart, and soul. Please use it to soften, encourage, and convict me. 

Tuesday: Letters

A few letters from the past, because letters are a beautiful way to communicate and I love them:

Notes to sweet sophomores from school:

Notes to some sweet freshman friends:

A letter to a couple who were a blessing to me when I'd just moved to Samford:

Mail I sent from kamp that I painted on my time off:

Tuesday: Grammar

Well, seeing as I haven't met my quota for the month, and the month ends tomorrow, and you have all expressed your concern, and Tuesday has three categorical options for blog posts, and I'm waiting at the airport for a few hours, I have decided (drumroll, please!) to post again. 

*cheering gif that wouldn't paste in*

This post is about grammar. I like grammar. But I also like people. This post is about the lack of agreement between those two statements for many grammar-lovers. 

See, some people are good at grammar. They've had good schooling, or good parents, or they like to read, and somehow they're good at grammar. Most people, however, aren't good at grammar. They know their language enough to use it, but maybe not enough to use it well. They know enough to use it, but they don't know how it works. Just like me and my iPhone (or computer or car or flashlight or pretty much anything technological), I can use it to get online or send a text, but I couldn't explain to you how the Internet or texting works. And if it were to break, I would guess one or two ways to make it work, but I'd be pretty much unable to fix it. 

Most people have this relationship with grammar. But because language is our central method of communication, people continue to use and misuse it. Then the grammar-competent come across grammar mistakes and the people who make them. They berate them for their comma splices, split infinitives, and misplaced modifiers. They point out their lack of parallelism, hyphens, and Oxford commas. Their effect is to affect whether the person can weather their company and accept them except when they can't stop correcting. 

Then the poor person who never learned the intricacies of the English language leaves having decided never to talk again, and the grammar-competent person leaves having corrected the injustice of the world. As they walk  home, cheering peasants line the streets, throwing down their clothes to be walked on and singing the praises of their faithful hero. 

What's wrong with this picture? I think it's priorities. 

Just like in any appearance of pride, in this situation the grammar put their own knowledge and concerns above that of the person they spoke to. I think the reason they don't see it is because they told themself they are helping the other person. 

But here's the thing I wish they understood. Conveying their importance helps people. Affirmation helps people. Loving words help people. Who is supposed to be cheered for? Who walked on cloaks and was worshipped? Jesus! 

Jesus helps people, not grammar. Love helps people, not criticism! Words are powerful when used correctly, but they are more powerful when used affirmingly! 

People's grammar loses its importance when people's salvation is brought up.  

So to all those who notice mistakes in grammar: Nothing you teach people will be more important than that Jesus loves them and you love them. 

Any way, I know their's alot but its worser then somethings.

Fashion on Tuesday!

I've been at a summer kamp in the Missouri for the past six weeks, so I decided that the best way to catch up on fashion is to flip through celebrity pictures on the Internet. Here we go!

#1: WHITES

I love love love white on white on white. Here's a few of my favorites:

Light, pretty, breezy—I can't get enough. 

#2: LDD (Little Denim Dress) 

Instyle alerted me to the popularity of these coming in summer 2015, and I haven't been disappointed by their prediction or by the trend. I think they're summery and precious! 

#3: DRESSES 

Okay I know it's a category not a trend, but here's a few that especially caught my eye in addition to those beautiful white ones above. 

#4: SLOUCHY

I am completely okay with this bed-to-runway trend. 

#5: MENSWEAR

Always on the top of my list, menswear by these lovely ladies especially caught my eye. 

And this next one has a choker! I'm interested to see how chokers will reappear over the next few seasons. 

MISCELLANEOUS: 

jumper + animal print + b&w = 🎉

art + structure + hem = 🎉

embellishment + black&metallic + shorts = 🎉

So there you have it—six categories of looks I like. Hooray for fashion and being back to cute clothes!

Music Monday

As I write this post, I find myself wondering how important what I have to say is. When I thought of "Music Monday," I pictured myself holding up various popular songs each week and measuring them against scripture. When I started to write for this post, however, I wondered why I would dissect one song when so many so obviously are so contrary to scripture. But clearly people either don't care (a major portion) or don't realize the contradiction (a few, at least!), so I push through despite my feelings that what I'm saying doesn't matter. But here's what's funny: no one reads this anyway, so it's not consequential anyway. So there's another way to solve that problem. 

Now I need to pick a song. 

*goes to iTunes*

Okay I decided to do Fight Song, because it's generally happy and I'm hoping there won't be much wrong with it. I'm not in the mood for something crazy sad or explicit. Here we go! (watch there be absolutely nothing wrong or extraordinarily right and this post be completely boring. Hey, I'm not complaining if a song like that is in the top 5!

welllllllllllllll.........

I'm afraid I predicted that a little too well. The song is lovely. SO I have decided o try to find places it lines up with scripture. Hooray!

"Like how a single word

Can make a heart open"

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." Prov. 25:11

"I might only have one match

But I can make an explosion"

"So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!" James 3:5

"And all those things I didn't say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight"

"Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit..." Job 7:11

"But there's a fire burning in my bones

And I still believe"

"There is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in..." Jeremiah 20:9

Now I understand that these verses are out of context, but I think they prove that the song lines up with Biblical themes. Certain lines from it are almost word-for-word with Bible verses, and the song emphasizes perseverance and courage. 

Final Declaration: 

👍🏻👌🏻🎉

bye, another idol! :)

I'm dropped my dance minor. Because I was pursuing it over Christ, because it was an idol in my life, because it fed my pride. Because the Holy Spirit convicted me to, and convinced me to (which, I assure you, took some doing). Because God is working good through lame human Madeline. 

I pray that he will purify my mind of false dance desires and put within me good dance desires which are pleasing to him. 

Ezekiel 36:25b-27

"I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

That is my prayer, for my lame, stubborn, prideful self. My self which, thankfully, is covered by grace. Thank you, God. 

Sabbath Ponderings: Fellowship

(this is me not commenting on how long it's been since I posted. okay. glad we had that talk.)

I've been at kamp! And kamp is wonderful. And God convicted me of something at kamp that I'm going to share with you. Because sharing obedience is a way to fellowship with other believers. (see the next post for that:)

But speaking of fellowship, here is today's Sabbath Pondering: I am tired of believers' fellowship being getting together, eating, and being cordial to each other because we aren't similar but talking anyway because we're members of a church and that's what we're supposed to do. I think believers' fellowship is, as my dear friend Mary, a missionary for 34 years in Japan, said, "talking about Christ." That's what she missed about Japan, that in Japan, people would *passionate old person voice* "talk about Christ. Here in America, we do not talk about Christ." She said this when I was at lunch with her; I had asked her to lunch because I wanted to hear the heart of someone extraordinary enough to spend so many years in Japan for Jesus. "I will talk to you about Christ!!" I wanted to say, "anytime! I love to talk about Him! I think that's what we are supposed to do!" The Church would look more like Christ if He were the subject of our conversations. I also think those "I'm going to this because I'm supposed to even though my relationships there are awkward and forced" church functions would be so much better because our  conversations would be rich and full, and the awkwardness and forcedness would be, if not less (I think it would be less!), at least more purposeful. It's often so much easier to love people when we knows their hearts, and it's the people we don't understand who are hard to love. So let's talk about Christ when we fellowship.
...she powerfully concluded, then went on writing, knowing that she herself was also guilty of not trying to talk about Christ and not being vulnerable, hoping the very writing of it would convict it in herself.