a new discovery

i have, for quite a while now, been a fan of john piper! i enjoy reading/listening to his sermons, and when i recently shared one with a friend, he told me about the narrative poems piper has written. so, today, i took some time to look through some of them and decided to listen to one he wrote about ruth. i picked it because ryan is translating through ruth in hebrew right now...so it comes up in conversation from time to time. anyway, i enjoyed the poem very much. this part really stood out to me: 

And tears

cannot conceal that generations yet

to come through us, will not forget

to praise the bitter providence

of God that wrought for us immense

and precious mercies in this place

and lavished me with painful grace.

a rod of famine was the price

for me, that opened paradise.

(You can read or listen to the rest of the poem here) 

until next time...

date night

the other night we went downtown and had a nice little date... can you guess where?!?

make-overs

it seems like every other post is about some television show i've recently come to enjoy. i apologize for that, especially for all of you who think television is a waste of time-i'm probably offending you with all my talk of it. deep down, i agree that it's usually a waste of time...there are other things i could be doing, but honestly, sometimes it's nice to chill in front of the tv and enjoy a good show! for years, we didn't have television to watch (i mean, like the past 8 years or so!), so maybe that's why i'm eating it up right now...
anywho, on to the good stuff, one of the shows i love to watch is TLC's "what not to wear." people vote in their friends, family members and co-workers who seem to have no fashion sense, and in the course of an hour, they are completely made-over...transformed...metamorphisized... and i love to see this change. i think about the verse in matthew where Jesus says, "don't worry about your life...about what you will eat or drink or what you will wear...for isn't life more than these things?" (paraphrased)...and as much as i love to see the change in what these fashion-challenged people wear, i like to see the transformation that takes place inside. so many of these people start the show with a very low self-esteem. they don't feel very good about their bodies, which is displayed outwardly by tacky clothing, oversized clothing, overly-revealing clothing, or just plain ugly clothing...the heart of the problem, though, is much much deeper than the wearing of what should not be worn. and oddly enough, i think that has been touched on in every episode i've seen. and the people come out, at the end of the week, with their sweet new clothes, great hair-cuts and perfect make-up (used to "enhance the beauty that's already there") not only looking better, but feeling a whole lot more confident about who they are. and really, i think this is a very good thing.
i think, too, this is a good image of all problems in life...a lot of times they masquerade themselves as shallower issues, when really they are deep down parts of who us, and deep down parts of the person we see at work each day, or that we share a bed with at night. maybe we just need to take a little time to look a little deeper..
just a thought...

what makes a house a home?

two months ago, i might have said that a house becomes a home when you have lived in it a while (say, like 2 months?)... but, alas, i now know the untruth of that thought. i like our new house alright...there are definitely some really nice things about it that we didn't have it our apartment back home-extra space, a fireplace, our own garage.... and even though i appreciate those things and am thankful for a nice place to live for a decent price. but all the same, it doesn't feel like our home yet. i definitely don't agree with those cliche statements like "home is where the heart is" and "home is where you hang your hat." of course, maybe the first one could be true and that could be why this doesn't quite feel like home just yet...because part of my heart is still in the good ole 'ham....
until next time...

yayyyyyy!!!

my dear brother is getting married!!!! he proposed to his precious girlfriend (of three years) this afternoon! we are absolutely thrilled...as a girl with just one lonely brother, i don't think i could have picked a better women for my brother, and to thusly be, my sister-in-law!! they've already picked a date even-june 20th, 2009! we are so, so excited! after the proposal (at the botanical gardens), they went to my mom's and had a huge party with all our family and friends. and thanks to amazing technology, my sister skyped us and we got to be part of the party! i seriously have been sitting at the computer for nearly 3 hours now, chatting with different people and watching all the happenings! right now, they are opening cards and gifts, and i get to be a part of even that. it's been so fun to feel a part of things even though we didn't get to physically be there. i've been so bummed all day that we don't get to be part of it all....but this was nice! so congrats to them (even though they don't actually read my blog)! love love!!

even yarn

you all saw the beautiful (lol) scarf that i began knitting recently. well, i had this new plan as far as knitting is concerned, and that was to buy the yarn as needed. what has happened in the past (when we actually had extra money ;)) when i was at a store with yarn, i would carefully look through all the yarn. if i found some that i really liked, i would go ahead and buy it and think "i just might want to make a sweater out of this, so i better get a couple of rolls" (if it was at all reasonably priced). well, now in our "poor" days, we just don't have a lot of extra money for me to go off buying 10 rolls of yarns...so, i decided a better plan would be, instead of buying 10 rolls of a particular yarn i liked and never getting around to making anything wonderful with it, i would just buy one roll and when i began my beautiful project, i could buy another ball when needed. well, i've learned this might not be the best way to do it. let me just say, i have absolutely been loving the yarn in the scarf...so, i got through one ball and begged ryan to take me to michaels to get another one. so, after much groveling, ryan finally took me last night and you'll never believe what happened. the yarn was gone! gone, i say! and it had only been like 3 days since i bought the other ball and there was TONS of it... i walked around and around and around, thinking maybe they had reorganized, but NOTHING! so, i pouted and decided i would just have to get a different yarn and start a new project (it's not like i don't have enough going already)....so, i picked out three different yarns that i liked and decided i'd get all of them, "to make up for the never to be finished beautiful scarf i've been working on..." then it hit me, like a word from above "samantha, look at the clearance yarn!!" so, not wanting to ignore the voice, i decided to do just that, and walked over to the clearance section and low and behold there were three balls of my yarn just sitting there all by themselves, screaming "buy me! buy me!" i picked one up and saw that it was on sale for $2 (for those of you who aren't yarn buyers-that is superSUPER cheap for good yarn)...and three balls were just what i needed to finish my scarf. and you know what i remembered? God cares about even the little, not even all that important things in my life.....

take a few moments..

and read this: on time. it's long and you might think "education-not for me." but i think you'll find application somewhere in the article for your personal journey. i know it did!