An Unfinished Story: The First Lesson

     I must first start with a disclaimer: this was not an original idea of mine.  "An Unfinished Story" is based off of a bulletin from a church service I attended in South Africa.  I will give credit to individuals throughout the series, but the bulletin is from St. Thomas' Anglican Church, Linden, from the 18th of December 2011 at 6:30 pm.  I edited to make it more modern.

The First Lesson: Humankind rebels and is separated from God

      When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
     He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
     “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
     The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
     Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

     Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
    more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
    groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
    and you will strike his heel."

     Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
    and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
    but he will rule over you.”

     And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
    whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
    All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
    though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow
    will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
    from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
    and to dust you will return.”
(Genesis 3:8-19, New Living Translation (NLT))

Remember, O Thou Man 

by Thomas Ravenscroft, 1611

 Remember, O thou Man, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember, O thou Man, 

Thy time is spent. 

Remember, O thou Man, 

How thou camest to me then, 

And I did what I can. 

Therefore repent. 

 Remember Adam's fall, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember Adam's fall 

From Heaven to Hell. 

Remember Adam's fall, 

How we were condemned all 

To Hell perpetual, 

There for to dwell. 

 Remember God's goodness, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember God's goodness 

And promise made. 

Remember God's goodness, 

How his only Son he sent 

Our sins for to redress. 

Be not afraid.

For the Beauty of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,

for the beauty of the skies,

for the love which from our birth

over and around us lies,

Lord of all, to thee we raise

this our grateful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour

of the day and of the night,

hill and vale, and tree and flower,

sun and moon, and stars of light,

Lord of all, to thee we raise

this our grateful hymn of praise.

This hymn has just been running through my head these last couple of days.  I look around me and I see so much beauty.  I'm driving along and I think OH I wish I had my camera.  So here's a couple instances when I did.

 Lamppost silhouetted by the sunrise

 Frost over the water at sunrise

 Sun shining through the forest along a undeveloped road

 Green moss on a tree in the forest

 Frost on a rosebud with a lamppost behind

 Frost on the roses in the gray dawn 

 Frosty grass in my lawn

 Water from snowmelt trickling over a cliff

Icicles and hanging moss

This is my last reflective post until after the holidays.  I'll be posting a series called "An Unfinished Story" in preparation for Christmas, so keep an eye out!

Missionary kid

     Some people call me a missionary kid because I lived in South Africa for two years.  I've stopped bothering to correct them, but it's not entirely true, in the commonly accepted sense of the word.  Living in a different country doesn't make you a missionary - your lifestyle and support do.  Having a businessman father (albeit for a humanitarian company like World Vision) who moved his family around the world doesn't make me a missionary kid.  I just got an opportunity to live somewhere else, an opportunity most people don't get.
     Most people would say a missionary is someone who leaves home, is supported by other people financially while they are serving, and is promoting a religion in some way or another.  Like our friends the Taylors, working in Swaziland right now, being supported by people in the states who donate money on a regular basis, doing the work God has called them to.  But while I left home and I am a Christian, Dad had a job which was paying for us to be in South Africa.  So I was not and am not a missionary kid.
     Yet.... am I?  This is the point in this post where I really run the risk of being cliche.  There's a man standing on the corner holding a sign saying "hungry."  There's a girl who responded to a newspaper ad requesting a nanny and who was subsequently trafficked into sex slavery.  There's a teenager crying because her sister, after helping a stranger get home, was killed in a car crash .  We have mission fields. 
     I think this message becomes cliche when we start referring to our comfort zones as our "mission fields."  Yes, you can certainly help those around you.  But there is unbearable suffering right here, right now, in your backyard.  You just have to intentionally stretch out and touch it.  God doesn't call all of us to the jungles of Brazil.  But neither does he call any of us to remain in our "mission field."  He wants us to find a mission field, where we love with God's love and hurt for those He hurts for.  What are you called to?

How to Make a Basic Pair of Earrings

     I had to write a process analysis speech for my English class, and I realized it would be a nice how-to post on here.  So, while, it's not a reflection, here it is!  Besides, I can, um, reflect on the beauty of glass.  And my creative side from God.  And.... the slippery character of beads?  Maybe that last one is a stretch.  

     The ability to work with wire, beads, and some basic tools has many advantages.  It enables one to create unique statement jewelry, reuse old jewelry, and fix any broken pieces.  To create a basic pair of earrings, first gather the needed tools: assorted beads, ear wires, head pins, chain nose pliers, round nose pliers, and wire cutters.  Ear wires are the bent wires which hang in one’s ears; head pins are a stretch of wire which have a flat part at the bottom to stop beads from sliding off.  Local craft stores should carry all of these tools.  One will also want to make sure to have patience with minuscule components, an eye for beauty, and a clutter-free, well-lit workspace.

     First, the design and style of the earrings-to-be must be decided upon.  Select the desired beads and lay them out on the work surface in the order they will be strung.  Since there are two earrings in a pair, lay out two sets of beads, same or different.  Carefully string the beads in the decided order onto the headpins, using one headpin per set.  Beads slide off as easily as they slide on, so be attentive to their desire to undo one’s hard work.  

     One set at a time, use the chain nose pliers to bend both headpins to a 90° angle just above the beads.  Now that the bend will stop the beads from sliding, lay one incomplete earring aside and focus on the other until its completion.  Using the wire cutters, cut the excess wire off of the headpin about one centimeter away from the beads.  The round nose pliers should now be used to create a loop at the end of the headpin.  This loop will be used to connect the headpin to the ear wire.  Clasp the very end of the trimmed part of the headpin between the two parts of the pliers.  The pliers should be perpendicular to the wire.  Holding the wire tightly, roll the pliers so a loop is almost completely created, leaving a small space on which to string the ear wire.  This is where patience comes in - shaping wire takes practice.  

     Now it is time to attach the ear wire to the beaded headpin.  Slide the ready-made loop at the bottom of the ear wire onto the loop which was created on the headpin.  Again using the chain nose pliers, gently close the loop on the headpin so there is no room for the ear wire to slide off.  One must be careful not to change ear wires and beaded headpins too often because the loops will break over time if they are bent too often.  

     The first earring is now complete.  Repeat the wire-bending-attachment process with the second earring.  Finally, the one of a kind earrings must be worn with pride because no one else has the same pair of earrings!  

or something.

Burrito in the Fridge

     Most of these posts come out in May.  "Love on your mom, it's her special day," they say.  WELL, I want to take the time right now to acknowledge my mom for her wonderfulness. 
     She's not just there on Mother's Day - she's there in the midst of "Where's my pencil?" and "I don't know where this spoon goes!" and "Have you seen my shirt?  You know, that greyish-purply one..." She's there when everyone needs to get out the door in -10 minutes to make it to school/church/appointment on time.  She's as I'm grabbing my keys and backpack at heading to school, and she's saying, "Sara, there'll be a burrito in the fridge for you for lunch."  I can make my own lunch, I'm capable of that.  But she made one for me anyways.  
     I love you Mom!

    I'm going to go eat my burrito now.

Hold your tongue!

I had a soccer game two days ago.  In said soccer game, we were tied 0-0 until the last five minutes.  Soccer being what it is, some rough playing was happening.  The ref wasn't trying to give us talking to's or anything, no one was getting hurt that badly, he was just calling it out when he could.  

How-eeevvverrrrrrrrrr........
the parents didn't agree
the players didn't agree
the coaches didn't agree
our team didn't agree with their disagreement
our team didn't agree with the ref
our team didn't agree with the other team
and so everyone badmouthed.

I find it so frustrating.  Please excuse any bitterness in this post and try to listen to my message - why can't we just hold our tongues?  We hurt people with what we say and think nothing of it.  We are quick to judge without knowing the person, and even quicker to express our judgement, whether it is a positive or negative one. 

In James it says "the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.  The tongue is set among our members, staining our whole bodies, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell...no human being can tame the tongue.  It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.  With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God." (James 3:6, 8-9 ESV)

This is so true.  SO true.  But that does not make it acceptable.  It is not an excuse.  We still need to strive to say nothing that is not pure, helpful, uplifting.  That's my challenge: hold your tongue.  

Compliments

     Yesterday, a stranger told me I was pretty.  I'm normally the smart one, or the short one, or the one with a strong faith, so the different compliment touched me.  Besides that, I realised the compliment meant more because it was a stranger saying so.  
     When you get to know people, they become beautiful and wonderful regardless of how they look on the outside, and we intuitively know that.  When Mom says I look pretty today, it's still nice hearing it, but it's like, it's Mom she's supposed to say that.  They're my friends they're supposed to say that.  A compliment from a total stranger will touch deeper and remain with us for much longer.
     With that in mind, we should consider complimenting strangers around us.  If you notice that the girl next to you in English has her hair done up nicely, tell her so.  If you really like those shoes, mention them.  Encourage those around you.  And not just those who you're supposed to compliment.