I love Valentines day!  I love all that comes with Valentine’s Day: the cards, the hearts, the pink and red everywhere, the CHOCOLATE!!  I just enjoy the focus being on love itself!  It does not have to be romantic love, although I am thankful for my wonderful husband in ways that no words can describe, to me the day brings the chance to celebrate love in many different forms.  My girls always want to make tons of cards and will spend days doing so.  Last year we made heart cookies and really enjoyed them as well as giving them away.

Why in the world am I writing about Valentine’s Day on January 25th?  One week from today will be February 1st and I have plans I want to tell you about

This year I will make a count down blog to Valentine’s Day and it will start February 1st.  Each day I will post three quotes on love.  The first category will be a Scripture passage or quote about the love of the Lord.  He is the BEST @ love, that is for sure!  What better example and encouragement can we have than the Lord himself.  The second quote will be from Jane Austen and one of her beloved novels.  If you have not figured it out by now I have a small obsession with Jane Austen novels!  The final category will be motherhood.   A mother’s love is constant!

So check back and count down with me as we are together encouraged by the Lord’s love, touched by love seen in fictional characters and reminded of our own mother’s love or our need to BE a loving Mom.

One of our Student Ministry values is “Ministry Ownership”.  This is very important in my experience in ministry to combat the consumer mentality that plagues the culture and the church (especially younger generations).  Practically, what this means is making sure that we (staff and adult volunteers) are not doing all the ministry FOR the students, allowing them to get the idea that they show up at the church and are ministered TO.  So we have students involved in planning teams, weekly programming teams, service teams, worship teams, tech/video teams, greeting teams and more.  This to me is one of the big differences between what I call a “youth group” or a “student ministry”.  The focus is on the ministry that we do together.

A few weeks back we did a Sunday morning where we asked the students to do everything…I and others on the team gave guidance before the morning, but during it I sat in the back and was astounded by God working through teenagers.  I even asked myself, “why do I come each week, they can do this!”  I was challenged and greatly encouraged by this morning!  The worship team, Matt, Anni, & Elliot, and all the support crew truly honored God.

So take a few minutes, click on the play button at the bottom of this post (or click here to go to the podcast section of the blog) it is TOTALLY worth it.  (apologies, as we did not capture the first part of Matt’s message)

A few weeks back I decided to dive into the madness and read Twilight! I was drawn by the scores of teenage girls I know who love this book, one even referred to it as her “Bible” (she carries it with her everywhere). It is not only teens that love it, there are millions of adult ladies who are right in the middle of the craze as well. To my disbelief, Addie has fourth grade friends who have read it, and even Emma’s second grade friends pretend to be vampires (Twilight was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Children’s Books of 2005). I realize I am telling you nothing that you do not already know! So I thought “Maybe, I should read this so I can talk to the girls in my small group who have read it, a mere twenty some times!” I borrowed a copy from another Student Ministry leader at Calvary and started in.
I must say it is a page turner and I finished it with in a few days. I found myself trying to figure out how I could work my schedule and parenting so that I could read more. Reminds me of when I read Davinci Code while my kids ate cracker after cracker and I put off lunch till the chapter ended. Besides being a page turner there is not much that I liked about the book. I found it to be dangerous and therefore I am officially NOT a fan of Twilight! Let me explain.
My first problem with this story, and the huge following it has, is the deception Bella the main character is comfortable living in. This is a subtle flaw in her character but is there none the less, and I would go so far as to say it is promoted through the story. Bella tells half truths or twists things to protect her parents or keep them in the dark about her Vampire boyfriend. “Dad, I spent the day outside.” Not the truth “I went hiking with a vampire who was either kissing me or working hard to prevent himself from sucking all my blood and leaving me dead in the middle of the forest.” What is a little white lie or two, you might ask. And why should I make a big deal about it. I believe truth is drastically IMPORTANT! The Lord is truth himself and he asks the same of us. A lie or even a half lie are not acceptable, and therefore I did not enjoy reading Bella’s half truths that continued through out the end of the book. Strike One!
Secondly, I found if unwise and distasteful, (a pun when referring to a vampire novel) that Bella pulled away from all her friends as her friendship/romance developed with Edward. She became more and more withdrawn from other relationships in her life while Edward became her entire purpose. Dangerous in deed! Bella’s total abandonment for Edward leaves her willing to end her own life rather than go on without him. Strike two!
Finally, and I could go on with other reasons but three will do, the main theme throughout the book disturbs me the most. Bella reasons something like this- “I know he is a vampire, I know he thirsts for my blood, I know he could kill me at any moment, but it just does not matter! I love him!” “It just does not matter”, runs through the book constantly! And here is where I find the most dangerous aspect of this story. If you fall in love with someone who is not good for you, it just does not matter. If he has a drinking problem, it does not matter. If he is abusive, it does not matter. If he is not a Christian and you are, it just does not matter. If he continually treats you horribly, it just does not matter. I realized that Stephanie Meyer was most likely not trying to write a novel to promote women into relationships or marriage with abusive men, however I find the story doing just that. Strike three…you are out!
I would not recommend this book be read by anyone who is under 18! That is my opinion, you may not like it. Young girls are forming what they want in a life partner and what they think about dating. Deciding who to marry is the second most important decision in life. Twilight does not promote Godly wise patterns, instead it captures you with a love story and makes you think “it just does not matter”.
I decided not to read the next three books in the series, I have read enough and Bella can make it on her own with out me – game over!

I was first introduced to Jane Austin’s novel Pride & Prejudice as a senior in high school. It was one of the senior research papers that were pages and pages long that I was to write. With this assignment I had to compare two novels by one author. I chose Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice (now referred to as P&P for the remainder of this blog) and Emma. I must admit I completed maybe 80% of P&P and just enough Emma to get the paper written. It was in college where I picked up P&P again and read it completely just for the fun of it. I had enjoyed the first “reading”, but it was most definitely the second complete reading where I feel in love with this story!

Elizabeth Bennete is such an amazing character! I love her strength, determination, witty comments and resolve to only marry for love. Her disregard for money is refreshing. I think it was she that first drew me to the book. Mr. Darcy is so consumed with appearance and control of his own life, that it rocks his world to discover he is falling in love with someone beneath him in society. She has such “fine eyes!” I love reading his transformation to become worthy of Elizabeth, his decision to abandon all that is “proper” to serve her and rescue her family name. “You must know, it was all for you!” And then there is the humbling transformation that Elizabeth herself goes through. Since college I have read the book three times or so. I reread it every few years just because I enjoy it and always find something new to appreciate. Brian loves to tease me “What are you reading? Are you really reading P&P again?” I compare it to watching a good movie over and over. “How many times have you seen Gladiator or Brave Heart Brian?”

Over the Christmas break Melinda, a senior in high school and Calvary Student Ministry member, and I decided to watch the A&E five and a half hour version of P&P. I own this movie as well as the more recent 2006 version. I love them both, each for different reasons. The five plus hour version is the closest to the book that I have seen, hence the five hours! It is a bit of a commitment to decide to watch it, especially if you decide to do so in one sitting. Melinda and I decided we were up for the hours of watching enjoyment while comfortably seated on my living room couch. What I did not expect was that my two oldest daughters, Addie and Emma, were also up for the challenge! I assumed the girls would get board and give up on the movie, but they did not.
Through Addie and Emma’s eyes I discovered a new reason to love P&P!

As the story unfolded I was bombarded with questions from my 9 and 8 year olds, but most of the questions had to do with Lydia Bennete. Lydia, the youngest of the Bennete’s five daughters, is a foolish flirt who abandons all reason and falls prey to the self seeking Wickham. I have always loathed her character, and the shame she so uncaringly brought on her family! “Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted!”

I watched my girls as confusion came to their minds and faces:
“What is wrong with that girl, Mom?”
“Well girls, she is foolish! She is a flirt and is chasing after boys, any boy.”

And to my delight as the story unfolded Addie and Emma were disgusted in deed! How wonderful! Tucked in this story that I have loved for years was a painful picture my girls could grab hold of – being a foolish girl brings ruin in the end! We talked the movie over and over as the girls had questions and I was thankful they had decided to hang out with Melinda and I while we watched. Hopefully, it placed in their minds and hearts the desire to seek wisdom in life, especially in the area of finding that perfect someone to spend their lives with!
I just love P&P, and now so do Addie and Emma

(By the way my Emma was not specifically named after Jane Austin’s Emma, but it was the first introduction I had to the beautiful name!)

A new year calls for new and renewed goals.  If you are not purposeful in life, you will get swept up in whatever is around you and before you know it years will have passed by, patterns will be set, and unwanted results will be occurring.  We find this can be true in our lives so we are challenged to be purposeful and want to challenge others to do the same.

As a family we have purposed to step up to the challenge of learning to love one another better in 2010.  Now, that would be a nice traditional resolution, but to make it effective, we have given it more specifics. (read fellow blogger, Michael Hyatt, about making resolutions “stick”)

So we have chosen 1 Peter 4.8-9 to guide us through this year.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

In a family of 6, love, hospitality, and not grumbling are great necessities for a well functioning team.  So our goals all carry this focus with them.

• We will memorize 1 Peter 4.8-9 as a family, and use it as a springboard for prayer throughout the year.  Mandy will be dedicating time throughout the year studying the ways God loves.
• Brian will increase daddy-dates with each child to happen 1 time per month on the date of their birthday.  So Emma, who has a birthday on November 5th, rejoiced that she gets to be the first one under the new goal…she is already making plans for what we will do on Tuesday, January 5th. (Owen doesn’t start yet because we start them on their 3rd birthday)
• All the family will each read at least 20 books this year (Isabelle and Owen will have to be read to).  Our blog readers will for sure be kept up to date on what books we are reading and how this goal is progressing through the year
• Mandy and Brian will run a half-marathon this year (Kuddos to Greg & Allison for the marathon/half-marathon they will be running in a few weeks!)
• Brian will submit 3 articles this year to a magazine for publication consideration

As we listen to the direction of God and walk with him through this year of loving, there will be more goals that we commit to and ways that we will change what we have set out to do.  We look forward to how this year will unfold as we strive to live out this journey of faith, family, and ministry.  May the Lord bless you and your goals in the year 2010…share your goals in the comments!!