January life

Every time I think something will be crazy, or that I won't be able to make it through things, or that something cannot go smoothly, it seems as though God proves me wrong. Which I appreciate.

The teenage girl who we are watching is a bit, well, she is a typical teenager who wants everything her way. She is stubborn, fairly loud, doesn't want to go to bed, wants to be on the computer all night, and really isn't great to her siblings. I was really quite concerned about this week with her because she is used to going everywhere and doing everything. And I don't know her friends or their parents, so I am cautious about where she goes and who she is with.

I prayed with a woman at church yesterday who knows this young girl. Last night I talked through the schedule for the week with the teenager and she was wonderful about it. And this morning she got up right away. I feel as though it was miraculous.

The truth of it all is, this young girl reminds me a bit of myself. So I have hope for her.

Staying with these kids has already taught me many spiritual lessons.
1. Prayer helps. Not necessarily to change anything about my outer circumstances, but time in prayer changes my heart and I deal much better with the children.
2. Children have fun. They are silly. I think I have somewhat lost the art of celebration in my life and I don't think God really appreciates this. Celebration is a key biblical idea. I need to work on that.

This is a just a couple, but I'm still having fun.

I'm currently reading a book for my class called Women in Conflict by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis. The class I will be taking next week at the seminary is entitled Women, the Bible, and the Church. I am extremely excited for this class. This book has been wonderful so far because it actually explains the different facets of feminism. So often, evangelical culture views feminism as a bad word because they look at the modern feminist movement and see things they don't believe line up with the Bible. And I agree. There is much in the modern feminist movement that I disagree with too.

But there is a difference between kinds of feminism. Just like there is lots of cereal, but not all of it has the same ingredients or tastes the same. I know that is a simplistic analogy, but it illustrates my point. Groothuis explains that people who hold to an evanglical, biblical view of feminism still hold the Bible as authoritative, and they believe that the Bible shows us that women and men are created equally and should have equal opportunities in this world. Now, people can disagree with me, or with Groothuis (since it is her book I am talking about) and that is fine. Regardless of whether one agrees with this, I think the point remains that to categorize all people under a label into the same camp is wrong. It feels like saying that all people who go to church believe the same thing, which we all know isn't true.

The truth of this book is significant if only that it helped me to understand how quick I am to label people when they say certain things about themselves. I am quick to judge people who have certain labels, but then I get angry when people judge me for saying I am a feminist. Isn't that interesting? Definitely something I need to work on. Anyway, I am still processing this book, and after my class I am sure I will have a more eloquent way to say these things. But for now, this is what you get.