Monday, November 2, 2009

Disney: Successfully Distorting America's Ideals of What Romantic Love Should Be Since 1937

Ladies and gentlemen, love is a great big load of crap.
Or, rather, what everyone thinks love to be is a great big load of crap.
Hollywood does a great job of lying to us and screwing over America's dating and marriage scenes. Your one true love will have a perfectly sculpted body, an annual salary of about $30 million, and will be an absolute moron who makes you "feel right." Well, maybe not. Maybe some of those things will be different. But who cares? It's the feelings that matter, right?
No.
Newsflash: feelings fade. Love is not just feelings. It's a lifetime commitment to actions. Marriage is a promise, which no one seems to understand these days. Commitment doesn't mean you quit because you "don't feel like it" anymore. It doesn't mean "I've fallen out of love with you." It means, "I'm going to do what's in your best interest, whether I like you right now or not, because I promised I would." It means you work through the tough parts, instead of giving up in the middle of them. Those tough parts enrich the relationship. Those tough parts are what you look back on in forty years and hold each other that much closer because you came through it.
True love really does conquer all, but you have to work for it. I'm amazed at people my age and younger who are making that commitment already. I just pray that they're more mature than I am, more ready to settle. I'll be the first person to admit that marriage does not sound like my cup of tea. It sounds like a lot of work, followed by a lot of heartache, and the rewards it offers don't sound as good as the rewards I would get from a single life (e.g., freedom, the ability to be my own person, etc.). And I'm really shocked that people are ready to settle right out of college, during college, or even before college. But I can't expect everyone to mature at the same slow speed I do. I just hope they know what they're doing. However, the divorce rate in this country is definitely telling me otherwise. I have a theory on this. Part of the divorce rate is from lack of sexual abstinence. People just keep remembering that Someone Else who was "better." Sorry if that's graphic; I never promised to water things down. The other part, according to my theory, is that people don't understand love as they're signing up for it when they get married. They're driven by hormones, and they don't think through what they're doing at a wedding. It's crazy, now that parents are no longer arranging marriages, marriages are failing, because people don't apply logic to a situation. They don't assess every part of their potential spouse, as the parents do with a clear, unbiased mind. They go with what they feel, and when those feelings are over, they want to back out. Another newsflash: Marriage is NOT just a dating relationship; you can't just "break up" when you're "tired of it." In the words of my friend Phillipa Gordon, "You've tricked something out with your imagination that you think love, and you expect the real thing to look like that. There, that's the first sensible things I've ever said in my life. I wonder how I managed it? (Anne of the Island--L.M. Montgomery)"
How to avoid the soon-to-be classic romantic blunder? Don't settle immediately. There's more to life than romance. Find out what it is before you sign your life away to that one special person, whom you better be sure is worth it in your mind and soul, as well as your heart. Just the one can steer you wrong. Prayer and logic are needed along with that "feeling". Don't be a statistic. Live first, and then take that life experience with you into marriage. Prince Charming doesn't exist. Nor does Cinderella. Don't look for that perfect person; God will put him or her into your life when you're ready. Focus on living, really living the abundant life Christ meant for us (John 10:10). Romance is not the greatest adventure life has to offer. God is. "That lovin' feelin'" will disappear. God won't, and a marriage centered on Him cannot fail, though it won't always be a bed of roses. Fairytales aren't real. "Happily ever after" is an overall assessment which means "And they were mostly happy in the knowledge that they could get through anything, because they had promised to love each other and serve their Lord, rather than marrying because they were 'in love'." Don't trick yourself into the belief that being single means you're not good enough. It just means you're not ready yet. And that's ok. Go enjoy your freedom while you can, and settle down when God says it's time.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go and enjoy my independence some more.

Monday, September 28, 2009

More wisdom

There is one word that successfully and completely sums up all of my feelings with regards to life as of late:

Rawr.

Monday, August 17, 2009

A Lesson on Accepting Pathetic

Being human is frustrating for someone like me who want to fix everyone's problems. It is beyond my ability to heal someone's dying grandfather who is approaching death. I can't even speed along the process in order to end his suffering without being imprisoned. I can't solve world hunger or save the environment. I can't cure AIDS, cancer, or even a common cold (though Theraflu does wonders for that--serious recommendation on that one, folks). I can't end all my friends' family problems. I can't fix my boyfriend's body when it aches and stops him from doing things he wants to do. I can't force my best guy friend's crush to fall in love with him, too. I can't stop my best friend's depression, which just kills me. I remember that demon quite well, and I might never forget him. I can't even force myself to focus on God and the good things I should; my mind always slips off unbidden into some dark corner of which I'm ashamed later. There are so many limitations to being human. There are so many situations where I have to be content with fighting the enemy as best I can and leaving the rest up to God. There are even some where I have to admit complete defeat and go running to my Father in a rout. There are situations that are so big I can't wrap my mind around them, and all I can do is pray.
That's it.
All I can do is talk to someone I've never seen in person (literally, here. We're not talking about seeing Him in people's actions. I mean a legit, face-to-face confrontation) and wait for one of His usual three answers in those cases: Yes, No, or Not yet. God knows I'm the most impatient person ever born, and I really don't think I'm exaggerating on that point. It amuses Him to continue to tell me, "You don't need to know yet," when I ask Him what He wants from my life. He's been giving me that same answer since last November. Instead of teaching me patience that way, I wish He would've just zapped me with it when I first asked Him for it. And thus we reach a paradox.
Actually, I'm not sure that was a paradox. The sentence just sounded cool.
But I digress from my initial frustration.
I've always believed in actions speaking louder than words. So quite frankly, I'd rather start breathing life back into the dying grandfather than take my knees to the floor and my pleas to Heaven's door. Praying in and of itself doesn't feel productive to me, which, I suppose, is why I don't do it nearly as much as I probably should. There's so much to be done in the world, and I don't want to waste God's time by telling Him what I think He should be doing about it. I'm under the impression that He already knows. Being omniscient will do that to you. Frankly, I get irritated when I'm doing about 15 different things at the same time, and someone comes up and reminds me what I need to be doing in regards to problem #6. Really, I'm on it, just give me a second! And God's holding together a whole universe! That means he's got to make sure these two galaxies don't run into each other and this star's death won't trigger the wrong reaction, and these planets keep rotating around the right star and, seriously, who's going to bother worrying about our little podunk planet, not to mention the tiny, broken people within it?
God does.
Who do we think we are, putting demands and getting impatient with the God who not only created and maintains everything we know, but also everything we haven't been able to see far out enough to discover yet? As we expand our ability to turn our vision out into that teeming void called space, we just keep finding more and more mind-blowing wonders from a mind-blowing God. He's so far outside the tiny box of what we can understand, and we've got the nerve, or rather the stupidity, to think we have the right to rule anything.
And yet, somehow, He has lowered Himself so we might approach Him and actually ask Him for things we need help with, as children ask their father.
Sit back and try to wrap your mind around that.

I don't know when that turned into a sermon, but it definitely put some things in perspective for me.
He's so good.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Oh, hey.

Hey.
This is me.
Posting a blog.
Because I haven't for quite some time.
I have more to do in life than weigh people down with what I'm thinking.
Oh, the irony of that.
Happy face.

You know, I just realized that that could totally be taken as a poem. I love accidental happies like that.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Hello, confusion, frustration, and a whole bunch of other emotions I don't want to deal with....

It all started at 1:30 this morning with a phone call from my father.
Let me make two things very clear:
1) I never get phone calls at 1:30 in the morning.
2) My father usually goes to bed at 10, 11 if he's feeling rebellious and night-owly.
I remember very little of the actual conversation, being half-asleep at the time, but I do remember that he was speaking matter-of-factly about life-changing matters. My grandfather is currently in the hospital, and that's really tearing my dad apart, because he's been hurled against the brick wall known as reality. He's finally had to face the fact that his parents aren't immortal, and that's been really hard for him to accept. But he told me this morning that God had told him Grandpa might die, but that was ok. That in itself is good. The weird thing was that my dad doesn't really believe that God speaks to today's generation except through the Bible. But he was talking like he and God had just sat down over a cup of hot chocolate and gotten everything all worked out. Then he asked me to pray for a friend of his, who was going through some really rough times. And then my father wrapped up the conversation thus: "I think it's time to really start living for Christ. Will you do that with me?" Ok, my father doesn't really do the "radical faith" thing, but something's changed. I called my brother, who'd gotten a similar call not long before, and we tried to figure out what was going on, to no avail. God bless my boyfriend, who took a 2 AM phone call to hear a very confused girl tell him absolutely nothing except that her father needed prayer and might be off his rocker. In any case, I'd appreciate loads of prayer on that front. It's super-confusing. My mom, who could dissect the psychology of a rock, can't even figure this out.

Ok, now on to the rest of the day.... It took me 20 minutes to print off one piece of paper in the library this morning. Woohoo for wicked-fast technology. This left me about 5 minutes for breakfast before my 8:00 class, so I was stressed from that. Fortunately, the prof let us out early, and I had time for an hour nap before chapel, which was good. I woke up refreshed, but still totally weirded out about my dad. Things went relatively smoothly until I tried to take another nap around 3, being totally exhausted from my doings since my earlier nap. But the world woke up and decided to conduct a rather noisy symphony...or cacophony, rather. I gave up the nap in a bit of frustration and went to take a shower, which served to soothe me.
I got a new phone about a month ago, and the representative told me I might be able to get unlimited texting for $4.95/month, which I'm totally on board with. But I've called him about 4 times since then about it, and every time he hasn't checked. So I called him today, determined to get an answer. He had me call the phone company itself, and I jumped through a whole bunch of loops to find out that the request for texting had been denied. *sigh*
I recently interviewed Dr. Gary Chapman (the Love Languages guy--big deal!!!!) by email. However, I completely misunderstood the assignment and thought that his agent was the editor I was doing the article for, and she also happened to be the go-between. Leave me alone; it was Liz Johnson (the agent) vs. Lin Johnson (the editor). No joke. So I emailed the editor (now that I've got all the right answers for an article that would focus on Dr. Chapman's new book, which would be par for that particular magazine) asking what she wanted for the article, and she tells me she wants an article about Dr. Chapman himself. Both Dr. Chapman and his agent are currently on vacation now. Go figure.
My neighbor just came in, saw me glaring at my computer screen, and kissed my cheek (no, that's not weird; it's just a college-girl thing) by way of asking me what was wrong. And then she and her roommate listened and sympathized while I ranted to them. Then they made me laugh, told me they loved me, and left.

You know, looking back on this post, I was writing it to vent, but God has used it for His glory. Everytime something happened to frustrate me, He provided something to calm. Great is His faithfulness! I'm still stressed (it is the end of a college semester, after all), but I know He'll pull me through. I may resemble Laffy Taffy when He's done, but I'll make it, and be better for it, I'm sure.

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens.
Your faithfulness stretches to the sky.

What a God....

Monday, March 23, 2009

Snickers

No, this post has absolutely nothing to do with the candy of that name. Though that particular sweet is slightly a favorite with me. I could go for one right about now. Then again, I could usually go for chocolate.
Now, wouldn't you know it? I was just so derailed by the thought of Snickers candy that I totally can't remember what I was going to write in this post.
It might have had something to do with the fact that I told my boyfriend about half an hour ago that I was going to sleep. But then I was going to watch "just one more video" and Youtube takes forever to load. Not my fault. Though I am feeling pretty sneaky, which generally leads one towards feelings that cause snickeryness.
And that made a heck of a lot more sense in my head.
Which currently feels thoroughly vacant.
As it is Spring Break, my brain has left me behind and gone to Florida or the Bahamas or the Vatican or somewhere, without my knowledge or permission, leaving me even spacier than usual.
Ironically, I think this post has better syntax and higher diction (CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE THOROUGHLY INVADES MY LIFE) than my other posts.
Hmmmm....
This leads me to the completely logical conclusion that I write better without a brain to hold me back.
And I'm quite sure I'll be as baffled by this post as the rest of you.
I should lose my mind more often.
Much love, and God bless!
I really am going to sleep now.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Procrastination

Wouldn't it be lovely
if I could concentrate
on anything at all?
Motivation
what does that even mean?
Convalescence
Ha
I worked it in
This music doesn't mean anything
I'm sure it's corrupting the light somewhere
Don't breathe so deeply
The icicles will drop
(groan)
Grown?
I suppose I have a little
But it's not about me
Welcome to my mind
This is just a postcard
Scared yet?
because there's just a void
behind skin depth...don't
Just don't
Lock that safely away
(shudder)
Yes
behind the shutters
there is much to torment the mind
But we dissemble
And smile
and wonder
who can see it
pierce the masks
find the lost inside
But apparently, it only counts if you don't ask

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Blips of Joy

Ok, so I was sitting and working on homework, and I experienced something I have not felt for a long time--The Urge. I had to write. I knew what I had to write. It was beautiful. Of course, I probably won't be able to write like that again for a few months, but who cares? I did it! Oh, quick disclaimer: the following material has no bearing on my life and does not resemble any thought processes or decision making in my own mind whatsoever. Anyway, here's what came out when I set my fingers to the keyboard.

She preferred the bittersweet ending to the definitively happy, so she walked away. She felt she would rather wonder what would have happened had she stayed than to stay and risk not having a happy ending. She watched his tears with love and longing to dry them, but she stopped herself, stroked his cheek, and walked. She knew there would be sleepless nights, when she would wake suddenly, feeling the emptiness, the darkness, the utter lack of him. She would turn over and feel the chasm of her heart beside her. She knew there would be tears. She would cry and cry, and in the end, she would do it all again. She would rather lose him now, when he still loved her, than lose his love in the lengths of angry words and thoughtless happenings that had begun the ends of other relationships. And so she walked, knowing she would never love anyone else, knowing she was dooming herself to a life alone, and wishing him all the best.

Yeah, I know it's depressing. Sorry. That's what hit me at the time and it just had to come out. Writers know how it is.
Anyway, I hope you're all well, and I love you all!
God bless!
Becky

Monday, February 2, 2009

Blessings

God has been teaching me about blessings lately. I mean, I thought I'd grasped that concept a long time ago. I always defined it as an unmerited gift from God, but the "unmerited" part never really sank in. I have subconsciously adopted a strict "no handouts" policy, even in regards to the Lord. I pushed myself to the limit, not wanting to let anyone say that I got where I was by riding on someone else's coattails. I wanted to deserve all the good things I got, and I was more than content to take the fall for screwing up. I was eager to show God how much good I could do Him, and maybe He would treat me with an ice cream sundae or something.

I never expected Him to completely spoil me.

But there's no other description for what He's done in my life in the past couple of months. He drew me away from a situation that probably would have destroyed my life and put me in another situation that feels like the beginning of a new life. I never saw it coming, and I know that I never could have earned it! Amazingly, He used it as a humbling experience. Only God could be that efficient! Not only did He pull me away from a dangerous position, but He used it to show me that I'm not as good as I like to think. I'm not used to feeling like something is too good for me, but I'm definitely there now. Sometimes, it is depressing, because I still haven't let go of that mindset completely. But for the most part, it's a relief. It's as if He just wanted to tell me, "No, really, you can't pay Me back for everything, and I don't want you to try. Just live for me, and that'll be enough."

What a God....

Sunday, February 1, 2009

This Degree Is Out To Get Me. Help.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who could write. Her dream was to be a bestselling author. She wrote constantly...unless, of course, she was reading. She found a wonderful college, where she would get published while she was still in school. Suddenly, she had no time to write because of all her writing assignments. Through a series of events, she decided to forego the main genre in which she had been writing and reading.
One day, during a break in her schooling, she tried to write again.
Nothing came.
She found herself going to her friends with the plea, "Give me something to write about," thinking all the while, "I need an assignment now? What's happened to me?"
So she created a blog, in the hopes that she would be able to revive the gift she once had.
Welcome to my blog.