Thanksgiving in April

Yesterday, I finished a book that I had been meaning to read for more than 13 years: The Hiding Place. On the surface, the story is that of a woman who is imprisoned during WWII for aiding Jewish people and hiding them. At its core, though, The Hiding Place is about how faith in Jesus Christ will sustain the weakest person in the harshest of circumstances.

I felt moved to share one of my favorite passages from the book. When the two sisters, Betsie and Corrie, arrive in Ravensbruck (one of the worst of the concentration camps), Corrie is dismayed by their surroundings. She implores the Lord aloud in prayer, "Show us how to live here."

Betsie, always full of faith, finds her answer in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

Corrie, a bit skeptical, challenges Betsie in the following conversation:

Betsie said, "We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about his new barracks."

I stared at her, then around me at the dark, foul aired room. "Such as?" I said.

“Such as being assigned her together."

I bit my lip, "Oh Yes, Lord Jesus!"

"Such as what you're holding in your hands."

I looked down at the Bible. "Yes! Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all the women here in this room who will meet You in these pages."

"Yes," said Betsie. "Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we're packed so close, that many more will hear. She looked at me expectantly, "Corrie!" she prodded.

"Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed suffocating crowds."

"Thank you," Betsie went on serenely, "for the fleas and for--"

The FLEAS!! This was too much. Betsie, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea."

"Give thanks in All circumstances," she quoted. "It doesn't say in pleasant circumstances. Fleas are part of this place where God has put us."

And so we stood between piers to bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.

As I read this, I admired Betsie's faith and optimism, but, frankly, I agreed with Corrie. There was no possible way that fleas could be part of God's plan. Surely, there are some things we are just meant to endure, but we don't have to be thankful for them.

I was wrong. Betsie was right. The Lord really did mean ALL things.

I was humbled to this realization a little farther on in the book when Betsie realizes why the women are given so much freedom in their bunkroom. In this room, Corrie and Betsie held prayer meetings and read their smuggled Bible (a miracle all its own) to the other prisoners. Had they been caught, they would have been immediately executed. However, no guards supervised their activities in the bunkhouse. Why?

Betsie excitedly told Corrie, "I found out for sure, Corrie. I overheard two guards. The guards will not step foot in the bunkroom because of the FLEAS! Thank God for the fleas!"

Truly, the Lord works in mysterious ways. Surely, the fleas weren't enjoyable. But, the Lord can use even a flea to bless the lives of his children in unconventional and unexpected ways. May we always be thankful for whatever experiences life brings, even if we don't understand how it could possibly be a blessing.

Carl Bloch

Yesterday, Graham and I went down to BYU and attended the Carl Bloch exhibit at the Museum of Art. I have been excited to see this exhibit for months, and I was in awe of the beauty and spirit carried by the art as we explored the rooms of paintings borrowed mostly from Lutheran churches across Europe. The exhibit was staged beautifully, with each piece built into its own “altar” of sorts and chairs lined up like pews so that onlookers could sit and contemplate the works.

Of all the works we saw, many of which I have seen for years in church buildings and on the covers of church manuals, my favorite was one I was previously unfamiliar with. It is a painting of the story of Jarius’ daughter in the New Testament.

It’s different than the portrayals of most of Christ’s miracles that I've seen. In this one, the focus is not on the moment of triumph, but on the intense pain the moments before the miracle occurs. In the painting, the daughter is close to death, or maybe already is dead, and the mother is weeping over her (you can’t really see the tears in the picture above, but they're there. Trust me). Outside the doorway, Jarius kneels before Christ, begging his help and healing power. Behind, the sun is rising, the dawn of a new day. With this new day, Christ brings hope and the resurrection of a lost life. However, the mother, whose back is toward the door, doesn’t see that salvation has come. She is focused on her grief and her attention is riveted to her daughter’s deathly pale face.

To me, it seems that Bloch’s goal is to depict the contrast between the intense emotions of the mother at this time of overwhelming trial and pain and the hope brought by the Savior. So often, when we are in the midst of trial, we don’t realize that our salvation is at the door and that we need only look to see that the world is not as hopeless as it sometimes appears. A shift of viewpoint, a different perspective, can bring eternity into focus again and give us the strength to carry on despite unimaginable opposition and difficulty.

In just a few minutes, this painting completely changed the way I view that story in the Bible. The exhibit was saturated with the spirit of God, and it was clear that those present understood the love, faith, and knowledge of the divine possessed by Bloch that went into these masterpieces. What a blessing to be able to see them.

Food: A Life-changing Experience Part 2

My last post was about the wonderful food I had at a restaurant, so today I'm going to tackle cooking at home. I LOVE to cook, as many of you know, and I am constantly looking for new, yummy recipes to try. I have combed the internet for ideas, and I've come up with more inspirational recipes than I have time to try. However, I thought I'd pass on a few good finds to you.

First, a food blog I love is called Real Mom Kitchen. Laura, the author and cook, is a mom and total foodie! She has a lot of great, simple meals to try. Sometimes it's hit and miss, but I love her Santa Fe lime rice, and I used her simple chocolate fondue recipe for Valentine's Day this year.

Second, I love the menu planner on allrecipes.com. You can search through practically limitless ideas, or you can just have them create a weekly plan for you. Cool!

Third, and most amazing might I add, is a site called onetsp.com. For a while now, I have been frustrated with the fact that I will find a neat recipe online, but I have no way to remember where it is. I could bookmark the page, but bookmarks don't organize terribly well, and it would be hard to find the recipe once I develop a sizable collection. Onetsp.com solves my problem. It's an online recipe box of sorts where you can copy and paste recipes to save, and you can add the link to the original recipe (if you want to see the picture or check something). You can also tag recipes in various categories so you can search your own database later. COOL! Food and organization...I'm in heaven. Not to mention, it's totally free...DOUBLE HEAVEN!

I just found this yesterday, so I have yet to see how it functions over time and whether it will meet all my recipe storage needs long term, but it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship. :)

Bon Appetit!

Food: A Life-changing Experience

I was raised in a family that appreciates good food. For those of you who also appreciate this love, how's this dish?
Friday night we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill and I had one of the best meals of my life…no kidding. It was a honey balsamic chicken with sun-dried tomato cappelinni and steamed broccoli. YUM! Ooh, and don’t forget the blackberry lemonade. Mmm. It pretty much changed my life. Graham says I sounded like Bill Murray in What About Bob? I'm not offended; I'm pretty sure he's right, and I doubt I’ll ever eat anything else at that restaurant; that meal might become the only thing I order from here on out. I mean, why mess with perfection?

In all seriousness, I was reminded why that is one of my favorite restaurants. If anybody can ever find a copy-cat recipe or teach me how to make something that good, I will pay good money for it. So good.

That's it. I just had to share my pleasure at culinary genius!

Love is Like a Tree

I've been married for almost two months now. While that doesn't quite make me an "expert" on love (I'm pretty sure I'll never be that), I have learned a few things in the short time I've spent with the one I love.

One of the biggest lessons that I've learned in my relationship with Graham (pre and post marriage) is that love is a CHOICE. So often, we talk about "falling" in love and finding our "soul mate" as if it is something that we have no control over. Hollywood and generations of fairy tales have conditioned us to believe that love means perfection, constant bliss, and an eternal happily ever after. While I do believe in happiness, bliss, and the eventual achievement of perfection, love isn't as perfect or as easy as story books often make it out to be.

And, you know what, that's OKAY!

Not expecting perfection of myself or others is incredibly LIBERATING. Furthermore, as I've allowed myself to love, despite my imperfections, I've learned that the more I actively choose to love, the more my feelings of love grow. All the "warts" and flaws melt away (or at least don't seem to matter much) when we focus on improving the lives of others.

One of my favorite quotes on the subject is from Richard Paul Evans's book, The Letter. In it, an old man gives some advice to a young, floundering husband. I couldn't find the exact quote, so I did the best I could from memory:

"You talk about love like it's a hole, something you can fall in and out of. But real love isn't like that. It's more like a tree: grows if you mind it, dies if you don't. No one stands back of a neglected tree and says, 'Guess that tree just wasn't supposed to live,' but people do it all the time with their loves."

May I never neglect the tree that I am finding more and more beautiful and desirable each day I spend with my eternal best friend and companion. May I strive to love him as well as he loves me.

One more quote for the road. This one comes from the book The Christmas List, a kind of modernized version of A Christmas Carol. At the end, the main character says the following:

"We humans...are seriously flawed. The things that are the most necessary, the most critical to us, are the things we take most for granted. Air. Water. Love. If you have someone to love, you are lucky. If they love you back, you're blessed. And if you waste the time you have to love them, you're a fool."

I love you all. And today especially, my love goes out to the man who chose to love me, "warts" and all. I look forward to eternity spent with this wonderful man!

Out with the old, in with the NEW!

I have never been much of a technology buff. While so many people around me have embraced the iPod and now the iPhone, I have been content with my CD player and Razr. In fact, I have had the same phone for at least the last five years! I just never got around to getting a new one, and I didn't want to be locked into a contract. Besides, what more could you want than this cute, pink phone? (Of course, the only reason I got this model in the first place was because it was free.) But, no more. It's time to admit that my Razr is out of date, and that it's time to upgrade. Since Graham and I got married, we decided to start a family plan (it's going to save us about $25-30 per month...WAHOO!), so I needed to pick a new Verizon phone. Here is my choice!


Isn't she pretty?! Graham laughs at me because he says that I pick phones simply based on how brightly colored they are. So what if I do? It makes me happy. If I have to give up my pink phone, electric blue is not a bad replacement. I got the phone last week, and I'm still trying to figure out what buttons to push when, and I'm not going to lie; I'm a bit sad to give up my old phone (we had spent a lot of time together...we'd bonded). Still, I'm ready to join the future, sort of, by learning to be all QWERTY and such.

P.S. - Whoever came up with calling the full keyboard "QWERTY" is really clever, and I admire them.

Home, Sweet Home

This post is especially for my mother, who has been asking to see pictures of my apartment for the past two months. Mom, thanks for being patient. Everyone else, thanks for indulging us.

Here is the grand tour:
This is our cozy entryway. If you look closely on the left, you'll see the awesome coat rack that Graham put up. He was excited to get to pull out the drill for this little project, and I must say, I really like having the rack there.
Our living room is the first thing you see when you come into the apartment. It's not big, but it fits our couch PERFECTLY (we measured before we signed the lease, and we have about 3 inches to spare). Eventually, we'll put something on the big, blank wall, but we haven't gotten than far yet. I spend a lot of time in the corner of the couch reading, grading, and (lately) watching episodes of Psych.
Next, we are proud to introduce our DINING table! It's a little guy, but it's cute and was a great price on KSL. Plus, it's much better than sitting on the couch and using a ShopVac box as a coffee table. (Notice the flowers from my cute husband on the table. They're two weeks old and still holding up!)My favorite place to be is the kitchen. Not that our kitchen is anything special (in fact it is ridiculously tiny), but I have been enjoying time to experiment with all the new toys we got for our wedding. I think my favorite part about the kitchen is that when you open the dishwasher, it takes up just about the whole width of the kitchen!With a small space, we've been creative with storage. Thankfully our laundry room is pretty big and doubles nicely as a pantry and cleaning closet.
Our bathroom is feeling more and more zen as I decorate bit by bit. The orchid, while serving no practical purpose (as Graham pointed out), makes me happy (which Graham supports generously).
I was really excited to buy this shower curtain. I found it at Ross before we got married and bought it on a whim. Graham doesn't understand my excitement, but he is enjoying having a house with matching decorations (and any decorations at all).

Last, but not least, our bedroom. It just barely fits our king size bed and dressers, but we don't have anything else to put in there anyway. :) And, my FAVORITE part of the whole apartment is the fact that we have...SALOON DOORS!

I mean, who doesn't need a set of these classics to add some flavor to a decorating scheme. The apartment manager called them cafe doors, but I don't buy it. These babies are straight out of a John Wayne movie. They are inspirational.

That's the end. I purposely did not include a picture of our guest room/office because it's currently functioning more as a storage closet. Someday, I'll finish organizing in there, and it'll be great. Until then, you'll just have to come visit and see it in person!

Thanks to all of you who have contributed so generously to our little home. It is a huge blessing to have a place we can call our own, and we are enjoying the creation of our HOME, even if it's a temporary one.