Intention

On Wednesday night I had a long conversation with a friend about marriage. As I went to bed that night, I kept replaying different pieces of our talk. I will say over and over again, "I am no marriage expert" but I know that Andrew and I are doing something right.

I felt like for the first time, while I was sharing with a friend, I figured out something that I knew, but had never been able to put into words quite right.

The thing I said was this. "Intention is everything."

My friend immediately looked like I was crazy and followed with a line like "intention, never carried out is nothing."

Then I asked my friend to hear me out and this is what I want to say now.

In life, as followers of Christ, it is our job to honor one another, esteem one another BETTER than ourselves (romans 12:10), to build one another up (1 Thess 5:11) , MUTUAL EDIFICATION (Romans 14:19). When we get married and say our vows, we say that we will "HONOR and CHERISH" each other. This is important in all of our relationships and this includes our marriage relationships...it is our job to do these things.

Andrew and I know, 100%, that we intend to honor each other with our word and actions.

It is never our intention to do or say anything that does not honor or cherish each other. Our promise is to mutually, MUTUALLY, edify one another.

This is my example of how this works and what I see on TV, which is way too close to real life.

I just found out that Andrew doesn't love pancakes. He doesn't dislike them, but he would rather eat something else for breakfast. Somewhere along the line I got the idea that he really liked them, so occasionally on Fridays or holidays that we don't have to go into the office, I will get out of bed a little early and surprise Andrew with a pancake breakfast.

(This is where intention comes in)

Andrew wakes up and walks out, smells the pancakes and stands in the living room looking at me with fresh morning eyes and a smile and says, "Oh, you didn't have to make breakfast...you love me."

This is where he understood that my intention is to serve, love and bless him with a breakfast that I was cooking for my Beloved husband.

If he didn't know my intention, his response may have been..."Oh, you made yourself breakfast...good morning (He reaches into the fridge and pulls out eggs)."

Or "Did you know that I don't really care for pancakes, after 5 years of marriage you should have known that."

These responses would not make me feel very good.

You may be saying, "BUT HE DOESN'T LIKE PANCAKES!"

And you are right, sort-of, I mean he doesn't dislike them, he just doesn't choose them...anyway. To that I say this; when I found this news out I asked him why he didn't say anything and he said..."I knew that you were making breakfast to show me you love me." To him, the food didn't matter as much as the action...and his response mattered more than the food too.

If we can truly know that we are in the mode of intending to bless, honor, encourage and build each other up with our words, actions and body language then the results of your relationship will be much more like God intended.

I have more to say, but I have more posts to post...so I will end today's post with one question;

What are your intentions?

Overcoming Hate

You know that one chore that you completely hate doing? You know...the one you just CANNOT find joy in. For some it is laundry, for some it is vacuuming, while for others it is cleaning the bathroom. Well, for me it is unloading the dishwasher. That is right. I HATE UNLOADING THE DISHWASHER. This is an unfortunate thing for me to hate for two reasons.

1. I love to cook (which requires dishes).

2. Andrew loves to bake (which also requires dishes).

oh and there is a three.

3. we have company (like 30ish students) over at least once a week...and we cook/bake for them.

So this is what I decided to do today.

Let me start with Last night...the dishwasher was full when I got home from work, so I ran the dishes while I cooked green curry with chicken and made guacamole for the students and Andrew made (From Scratch) peanut butter oatmeal cookies. These three dishes filled my sink with yet another load of dishes filled with 2 mixing bowls and cookie sheets. ugh.

so my point was...TODAY...I got home from work and looked at my sink, utterly disgusted, I hate dishes in my sink...it makes the whole room look dirty...and decided, "I should not hate this so much. I bet it takes me more time to think about cleaning this mess than it actually does to clean it!"

True story, this happened.

So I set a timer and got to it.

Do you wanna know how long it actually took me to unload that ridiculous machine?

FOUR MINUTES AND SIX SECOND! That is like noooooooo time at all.

And now I know, I have no reason to hate on my beautiful dishwasher that saves me so much time. Have I found joy in unloading...HECK NO...am I willing to seek the opportunity to appreciate the fact that I have a dishwasher and food and dishes and overcome the hate?

Yes.

Thanks for stopping by.

some things you should know

This past weekend we took a group of students to Springfield, MO for a conference. Overall the conference was great. there were a few highlights which are things that I think you should know.
1. Shaine Claiborne. (Yes, this is a pic of him making his own clothes)

If this name is unfamiliar to you then you must swiftly click here to learn about who this man is. one of His books, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, has been used as a tool of the Holy Spirit to encourage people to DO SOMETHING!

Check this out to see a list of other things you should maybe consider reading.

2. Family Force 5.

Again. If this name is unfamiliar to you and you love to dance and have a good time. DO NOT HESITATE TO CLICK HERE! I was the proud leader of a group who was not afraid to get their dance on! We had so much fun and we sweat like crazy people..."who is this unlikely group of 14-30+ year olds?" I asked myslef...

it is these people. Do they look like a crazy bunch of students, maybe not...but they are dancin fools, and I am proud to call them my kids.

3. Scott Erickson.

Do you know him? You should...Andrew and I met Scott and Holly two years ago at National Youth Workers Convention. We just chatted at their table for a few minutes...Scott had done some art for the book "The Gospel according to LOST" by Chris Seay. This intrigued us, since we love LOST. This year he collaborated with one of our favorite artists, Derek Webb on a project called Feedback. You are going to need to check this out. It is an instrumental electronic album based on the Lord's prayer. It is delicious. We had just gotten the album this year when we went back to NYWC and wanted to tell Scott what we thought of it...we went up and said "hey" and out of it grew 3 new friends...well we havent met the newest addition, little Anders, their 5 week old baby, but he was in Holly's belly, so it totally counts.

Anyway...Scott was there painting in worship. It is always a blessing watching the creative process...and Scott and my husband may be long lost brothers...they are really similar and so his company is fun for Andrew and me. Keep your eyes out for Scott...you will know him soon enough , and if you want to know him now...CLICK HERE!

Hopefully this has either been a confirmation of your awesomeness for knowing these people or has opened your eyes and heart for some new visual, mental, spiritual and audio inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh snow...

You know those scenes in movies where someone does something that causes a mess and then people laugh. Like, someone throws food on someone and then follows a two person food fight. Then they sit in their mess and laugh. I feel like this is a far cry from reality. Most folks don't see this ever happen. Most people would see this start, then worry about their clothes and space being ruined or dirty. I have discovered a way for this to happen without making a mess.
It has been snowing a lot here recently. The snow is piled on top of our car because we don't have a garage. Yesterday we went to the movies and then ran a few errands. We were chewing gum and Andrew decided it was time for the gum to go (while we were driving). He says, "I think I'll throw it out of the moon roof!". To which I reply, "okay" (with a laugh). Only thinking about the 24 degree temp. Well, Andrew opens the moon roof and and in falls the avalanche!!!! ON MY HEAD. Andrew had like maybe a snowballs worth of snow on his arm and I got it all down my shirt and all over my lap! All I could do was laugh. We just cracked up.
Don't get me wrong, if it was something that would have ruined my clothes, I may not have thought it was so funny...but it just was.
In the process of the moon roof opening, some ice slid into the opening and the moon roof got stuck open.
So the next time you want to have a silly movie scene turned real life-use snow!
Thanks for stopping in!

Late night snow walks

Romantic and freezing.
We have some friends who live a short 5 blocks away. The weather was so bad our youth programs were canceled. So, we decided to walk over to the Fritson home and have a movie night!
We walked back at 11:00 and the snow had started to slow, but it was still coming down!

Looking Back

As I was looking back over previous posts, i was laughing so hard at some of my post of the interaction between Andrew and me. Immediately I wanted to started blogging again and making sure that I get some of this stuff in writing.
So I am back. I do not promise to be faithful, but I always have good intentions.
I will start with the fact that it snowed mountains last night. Okay, that was a little exaggerated. We got like 8ish inches. Today we were driving to Starbucks to read and meet up with a friend. On our way there we were talking about the state of snow on a cold day.
"Isn't it weird that snow melts even when the weather is below freezing?" Andrew asks.
"I just think it is amazing that the snow glitters like a vampires skin in sunlight." I reply.

Yes, these are the conversations that I want to remember.
I hope we can bring at least a giggle to your life every now and again. I really have missed this and am excited to be back.

Love to you and yours.

Sarah