Verdict? Guilty

An interesting thing has happened to me in the last few weeks. I've begun reading my Bible almost every day, following a reading plan that my Bible study group is doing. It's been longer than I'd care to admit since I've read my Bible on a daily basis, so I am really excited with the consistency I've so far achieved. I know it's gotta be God making this important to me. And I love knowing that He is enabling me to do what He's called me to do.

But that's not the thing that gets me the most. To tell you what that is, I've got to tell you what happened last Wednesday night at praise team practice.

Basically, I got into an arguement with one of the other ladies on the team. We argued about who was right about a certain part of a song and when I didn't agree with her she said, "Well, Allison, I guess you just know everything," and turned away from me. I knew I should've let it go, but I let my temper take over and I sarcastically replied, "Yeah, I do. Thanks for noticing." This led to more unpleasantness on the part of both parties and I left church that night feeling angry and insulted.

Trying to sleep that night, I kept replaying the argument over in my head, trying to convince myself that I was right. During the next few days, I managed to keep the incident out of my head while I was out in public with other people, but at home, or when I was trying to read my Bible, I kept going back to this spat I'd had with a sister in Christ. I couldn't concentrate on what I was reading, and I kept thinking about how I could've avoided the whole mess if I'd just squashed my pride and quietly thanked her for her advice and then even more quietly, ignored it. Instead, I chose to lash out and be rude and disrespectful. And I was feeling convicted about it!!!

It may seem strange to be excited about conviction, but that conviction is a sign of life! It's a sign that God is working in my heart to mold me into the woman that He has called me to be! And even though I had to swallow my pride and go to my fellow team member and tell her that I was sorry I'd disrespected her, I rejoiced! I realized that, in doing so, I was overcoming my own selfish nature and following Christ.

How cool to see conviction in such a positive light. Yay, God! :-D

Four Letter Word

Welp, it's time to jump on the wagon. The dreaded DIET wagon, that is.

I bought my wedding dress a few weeks ago. It's absolutely gorgeous, and it fits almost perfectly. "Almost" is the key word. It's just a smidge too tight around my tummy and I have now realized that I simply cannot afford to gain any weight at all between now and June. And since I've been steadily, albeit slowly, gaining weight almost constantly over the last two years, I need to put a stop to the madness.

My plan is to cut back my daily calorie intake (nixing my carb intake the most) by trying the SPecial K thing; eat regular, planned meals and snacks so I don't go diving into the ice cream container when I get home or running by the golden arches on my way to church; begin exercising at the gym 3 days a week and doing Pilates at home on the days that I don't go to the gym, minus Sunday.

I think it's a good plan. I've got a work out buddy for my days at the gym, and my computer is cued up to some pictures I took two years ago when I weighed 50lbs less than I do now. I' m just praying I can stay strong.

I've never done this before, and I think that the key to success is going to be changing my mindset, reshaping the way I view eating. I need to stop eating because I'm bored, or eating just because it tastes good. I think that realizing those things just might be the first step in making better nutritional choices.

Wish me luck!

Metamorphosis

Hello all! I hope you're having a happy Wednesday. Mine's been kinda crazy, but when you work at an elementary school, pretty much every day is kinda crazy. :-)

I wanted to take a moment or two to address the new look and blog name.

When I started this blog, I was getting ready to embark upon an adventure in my life. This blog was a way to stay connected with my friends and family as I spent the summer travelling and working at several youth camps and doing mission work in Honduras. "living loudly in the light of the Truth" was exactly what I was doing at that time in my life.

That was 2 years ago. Today, I am settled in a job that I love, I'm engaged to be married to a wonderful man in June, I'm about to be 24 years old and my life has quieted down a bit. This season of my life is one of growth and change. As a believer, I know that God will forever be changing and molding me into a woman after His heart, and this season is just the beginning of the changes that He will bring. Hence my new title: "Metamorphosis". Rather than running from and being scared of the changes that are coming, I want to embrace the things to which Christ is calling me.

This is only the beginning.

Mawage

The Princess Bride... I so love this movie. But that's not why I posted the clip.
For those of you who don't know yet, I'm getting MARRIED!!! My fiance is a wonderful man who loves God and loves me and I cannot express how blessed I feel when I am with him.

We've set the date for June of this year, but haven't signed a contract with the church or anything like that, so I guess I have to say that the date isn't set in stone yet. So far, I've purchased my dress and chosen my color scheme, picked out bridemaids dresses, and decided what I'm going to give as bridemaids' gifts. Which means I've got a long way to go of this thing is going to come together before June. Eek!

I have never been the kind of girl who dreamt endlessly about her wedding. (I was more concerned with the groom!) Since meeting Matt and getting more involved with him, I've started thinking more about the big event and how I'd like it to come together and look, but my ideas changed and I never wrote anything down, so I never really got a complete picture in my head. So now I've got to put this thing together and to be honest, I feel like I' have no idea what I'm doing! My budget is tiny, and I'm thankful for that, because I wouldn't know what to do with anything bigger.

Point in case, I've got a little less than 6 months to plan a simple, beautiful, meaningful and frugal wedding, without losing my mind. HELP!!! :-)

Harry Kwannukkmas!

It's that time of year again! Time for snow (if you don't live in Texas), evergreen trees, Bing Crosby songs and crowded malls filled with lovely decorations and not so lovely people. That wonderful time of year when all men are wished goodwill and peace on earth and reminded to be politically correct.



Seriously. I don't mean to be cynical, but this whole arguement bothers the crud out of me. I really don't understand why it is so offensive to hear the words, "Merry Christmas!" I understand that not everyone celebrates Christmas as I do, and I respect your choice to celebrate as you see fit. Have fun, make merry, be happy and filled with hope and goodwill. What I don't understand is why it became so offensive for someone to wish you well in their own manner. It is estimated that 89% of Americans celebrate Christmas, 5% of Americans celebrate Hanukkah and 2% celebrate Kwanzaa. I am not trying to disregard the smaller percentage that don't celebrate Christmas, but how am I supposed to know that you celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or something else besides Christmas?



So why do you take my smiling, "Merry Christmas!" as an insult? I'm wishing you well and a happy holiday season. I'm not shoving my customs down your throat. If it really bothers you, stop me and tell me that you celebrate another holiday and I will probably put my hand on your shoulder, my other hand on my heart and say, "Then I hope you have a wonderful insert holiday here!"



And to all of you Christmas celebrators, stop being angry that people have started saying, "Happy holidays"! It totally defeats the purpose of the reason you celebrate! For you, this is Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of the world. But you don't shove your Christianity down other people's throats during the rest of the year do you? You try to show them your faith gently and with love. So why is Christmastime any different? Please stop making this wonderful time of year a source of contention and just accept the "Happy holidays!" that the clerk has offered you, and if you feel so moved, you could say, "Yes it is a happy holiday, because of the love of God."

Thanksgiving

Tis the week of Thanksgiving
And all 'cross the nation,
Families are gath'ring
In glad celebration!

Now that I've gotten the rhyming bug out of my system... Happy Thanksgiving!!! I saw an interesting phenomenon on Facebook this November: People listing the things they are thankful for in a status update each day. I didn't do that, so I've decided to ponder the things that I am thankful for and list them here. I also would like to know what YOU are most thankful for this holiday season. It's cool to see things from other's perspectives.

Here we go! I am thankful for...

1. My fiance
2. My family
3. A good job
4. The kids I work with
5. My paychecks
6. A warm place to live
7. A lovely place to sleep
8. Good food to eat
9. Fusion (Bible Study)
10. My church
11. Godly coworkers
12. Sweet friends
13. A new apartment
14. My guitar
15. Music
16. Smiling faces
17. Giggles
18. Books (and the fact that I can read)
19. Funny movies
20. Calculators
21. Computers
22. Bottled water
23. Kleenex
24. Modern medicine
25. My pillow

I saved the most important thing for last. I am thankful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, how He shed His own innocent blood to pay for my sins. I am thankful that God has chosen me to be the recipient of such marvelous grace.

May God bless you richly this Thanksgiving.

Waiting for Superman

Director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) has struck again. This man who seems more interested in political propaganda than facts and reality has a new film out. It's called Waiting for Superman.

The film documents the academic journeys of five public school students who are desperate to escape the public school systems of Washington, D.C., New York, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles because they are, to quote chancellor Michelle Rhee of the DC ISD, "getting a really crappy education."

The basis behind this film is that the American public education system is horrendously behind in the global eduaction market. The movie postulates that the root of the problem is the teaching staff. The problem with this postulation? While the impact a teacher has on his/her students accounts for 10-20% of school-related success, non-school related factors impact student success by a whopping 60%! These non-school related factors include family income, family status, etc.

I bring this to my blog because it is amazing to me that people are looking to place societal blame everywhere but where it belongs. Since when is it a teacher's job to raise the children in his/her class? Since when is it a teacher's job to teach his/her students manners and personal hygiene? Last time I checked, those responsibilities were assigned to the family. Which means that the root cause of these societal problem is the deterioration of the family.

Isn't that a novel idea?

I understand that it is hard for unmarried mothers and fathers to raise their children and work at the same time. I understand that it is hard for grandparents who've adopted their grandchildren to have the energy needed to raise a child. I really do. But at the same time, anything that's worth doing is often hard, and I'm not sure I can think of anything more worthy of doing than raising a child well.

So, to those dedicated to education reform, you might want to start thinking about reforming the divorced, drugged, dead-beat, abusive, and neglectful family. It's a societal cornerstone that is currently crumbling.