Best Moment of the Weekend

Picking up my mother's Bible, and realizing that she has read it for so long and so consistently that the edges of the pages are worn down so that they are soft - like running your fingers over a feather.

That is a legacy.

Thanksgiving Quote

"...and then dealing with the screaming kids..."
"What are you talking about?"
"Walmart."
"Walmart is the best form of contraception."

Family Thanksgiving Catchphrase

"It's hot molten lava! Austin Powers says it really funny!"
(game beeps)
Other side: "MAGMA!"
"No, it was the first word. I didn't get to give the clue for the second."
"So what's the word?
"Magma Carta."


"It's a storm we don't get in Montana and it sounds like a religion."



"When you really want something! 4 Words!"
"Hot for it?"
"That's three."


"You use it! Its a tool!"
"Carson Daly?"

Quote for Montana

"I am in love with Montana...for other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection; but with Montana it is love and it's difficult to analyze love when you are in it."
- John Steinbeck

Identity

This past week I had to write a paper on the book "The Price of Privilege" and diagram my family tree (called a genogram) and write 10 pages about interpersonal relationships within the family.



And as my mom and I talked this afternoon (face to face for the first time in months) these two very different assignments began to make a lot of sense, and I realized that God was teaching me a big lesson.



One of the things that Price of Privilege highlighted was the emotional problems affluent kids have. One contributing factor is that kids are taught to base their identity on unstable 'things' in the world - performance, status, grades. Sometimes I struggled with these things that define, but I realized as I read the book that I hadn't as much as others had struggled. Why? Onto my second assignment.....



My genogram highlighted that my family deals with conflict generally better-than-average. At this moment I'm waiting for Ben, Bekah and Jeremy to get home from school/work. Can't. Wait. to see them. Why?



This afternoon's conversation with my mom really revealed why our family relationships are so encouraging. I was wrestling with some things that have happened during the last week that tried my humility and patience. I was so frustrated for so much of our conversation. But she repeatedly, uniquely, consistantly told me the truth: Be humble. Be a biblical peacemaker. Remember where your strength comes from - NOT. YOU. Remember whose you are. Remember that 'whose you are' isn't performance-based.



And so my two very different papers came to life in a 20 minute conversation with my mom. And on this Thanksgiving eve, I'm really thankful for my family - my mom, dad, Ben, Bekah and Jeremy. They point me to the gospel and help ground my identity in the one person who really defines me - Christ.

Monday Richard Pratt Quote

Last one of it's kind - Next time we meet, it will be Final time!

You don’t really need the Holy Spirit if you’re trying to avoid suffering.

~Richard Pratt

Expectations

My (she just edited "fabulous") roommate said she was sick of looking at my blog and not seeing a new post, so here I am. Posting.

I've been thinking about expectations and failed expectations lately. Last night there was a missed expectation which resulted in the necessary peacemaking this morning. Last week there was hope and refraining from having too high of expectations.

Over the last few years, I've talked with a good friend about expectations. Do you abandon all expectations? Do you have expectations, just to be disappointed?

The longer I'm in seminary, the more I realize life is all about "the tension in between." I'm living in the tension of holding onto good expectations and not holding others to high expectations.

Ultimately expectations are not rooted in us. Even when I'm just looking at today and thinking, "I missed that expectation of _______. I've failed again." The truth is Christ will fill all of our expectations and fulfill the expectations of others that we could have filled, were we perfect.

(And my other roommate just said, "It all goes back to Pratt's class and covenant." THAT is a post for another day.)

Bayer House, otherwise known as a Sitcom

{Previously, in our conversation J tells me that she didn't know about Mark Driscoll until a few weeks ago. }

J:...Then I find out it's concerning Patrick Henry College. {blank look from Hannah}. TELL me you know about Patrick Henry!"

H: I know who Patrick Henry is....But I don't know about the College. {Look from J of dumbfoundment}. Hey, the nation is big! I knew about Mark Driscoll a few years ago!

It's Monday, which means "Richard Pratt Quote Time!"

If you believed your prayers would stop the locusts, you’d be praying.

~Richard Pratt

Irony

Lyrics heard when put on hold by Discovercard:

Dire Striats

"Now look at them yo-yos thats the way you do it
You play the guitar on the mtv
That aint workin thats the way you do it
Money for nothin and chicks for free"