:)

Farewell my friends, see you in a week! I will try and post pictures while I'm there, if possible. Adios!

This Moved Me

When you have realized that our position is nearly desperate you will begin to understand what the Christians are talking about. They offer explanation of how we got into our present state of both hating goodness and loving it. they offer an explanation of how God can be this impersonal mind at the back of the Moral Law and yet also a Person. They tell you how the demands of this law, which you and I cannot meet, have been met on our behalf, how God himself becomes a man to save man from the disapproval of God. It is an old story and if you want to go into it you will no doubt consult people who have more authority to talk about it than I have. All I am doing is to ask people to face the facts--to understand the questions which Christianity claims to answer. And they are very terrifying facts. I wish it was possible to say something more agreeable. But I must say what I think true. Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth--only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair. Most of us have got over the pre-war wishful thinking about international politics. It is time we did the same about religion.

Mere Christianity--C.S. Lewis

Destination: Paris

So, I am going to visit a family friend who lives in Paris in 4 days. I have so much stuff to do before then because I'm going to be missing a week of school. I have set a goal to get all of that stuff done before Thursday night. I can't wait until Thursday comes and I will be stress free and France bound. I have never been to Europe. A good friend of mine, Katy, is coming with me. We plan to go jogging around Paris in the morning, take millions of pictures, play soccer in the park in front of the Eiffel tower, go wine tasting, say a prayer in the Notre Dame Cathedral (God will hear it better in there), and discuss theology while watching the sunset on the Seine River. It is going to be awesome to just get away from the routine life I have here for a week and clear my mind. Also, I just checked the weather and it is supposed to be in the mid-upper 50s while I’m there! Yes! I have an 8 hour plane ride on the way there, and about a 10 hour one on the way back, including a 5 hour stop in Amsterdam (hopefully we will find a way to leave the airport and accidentally get stranded there and never leave). I have so many books I want to read; hopefully I will make a dent on them there as none of my school text books will be in sight, I refuse to read anything about argumentative essays or abnormal psychology while I’m there. I’m praying for good health as I am just getting over a cold and my sister and dad both have the flu! I’m staying away from them the best I can. Pray for my travels and feel free to be jealous because you will be in Michigan and I will be sipping fine wine on the banks of the Seine. Mwahahaha.

Oi, lienda,
Bella che fa?
Bonita,
Bonita, Qué tal?
But, Belle,
Je ne comprends pas français
-Jack Johnson

I'm not sure what that means... something about being beautiful and not understanding French.

With love,
Franny

I want to go back to Kentucky

jhgbmnbhgj

So I learned a lesson tonight... One that I don't feel very good about still. One that I actually feel like crap about. I have some growing up to do. I can't wait to go to the retreat this weekend and spend some serious God time.

-Fran

The date on my blog is in Dutch, how cool am I?

Girls, come on now.

Sorry this post is kind of self explanatory but I still feel like writing it.

One thing that God has put on my heart lately is the way that I dress. Seeing some of the girls I know, especially the younger ones, show off their "goods" with the way that they dress honestly hurts my heart. WATCH WHAT YOU WEAR. Lets have respect for ourselves and for each other by keeping our bodies sacred. The world's attitude says to leave as little to imagination as possible and our minds are being flooded with images that tell us to flaunt what we've got, but God said:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. -Romans 12:2

I know that when I first became a Christian I never really thought much about this, I just wore what I thought was cute, but if you have that attitude, you should change it, NOW. We have to remember who sees us when we dress like that, and we need to help our guy friends out by not putting temptation in their faces.

I suggest wear something like this all of the time:




or this would work too:



Not really, but GIRLS, COME ON NOW, we can do better than this Hollister, Abercromie, what the world wants you to look like kind of crap.

The Late Mitch Hedberg

"You know, there's a fishing show on TV. They catch the fish, but they let it go. They don't want to eat the fish, but they do want to make it late for something."
-Mitch Hedberg


Dev and I saw "Catch and Release" last night. Not your typical chick flick. It was a pretty good movie, but it was depressing. It took place in one of my favorite cities in the world, Boulder CO. The scenery was beautiful.

Consequence of Sounds by Regina Spektor

Very same morning right next to her coffee
She noticed some bleeding and heard hollow coughing and
National Geographic was being too graphic,
When all she had wanted to know was the traffic
"The worlds got a nosebleed" it said
"And we're flooding but we keep on cutting
The trees and the forests!"
And we keep on paying those freaks on the TV,
Who claim they will save us but want to enslave us.
And sweating like demons they scream through our speakers
But we leave the sound on 'cause silence is harder.
And no one's the killer and no one's the martyr
The world that has made us can no longer contain us
And profits are silent then rotting away 'cause

The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds.

Very cool song, I'm going to go to bed now.

Escucha a este cantaron

Listen to this song: "Star Mile" by Joshua Radin.

You might like it.

Yes!

My passport came in the mail! I was worried that it would come late. I'm going to Paris in 2 1/2 weeks! Despite the fact that my picture is extrememly unattractive and I will have to keep it for 10 years... I AM GOING TO PARIS.

Romance at its best

I was reading through Ecclesiastes today while the little guy I babysit was taking a nap and I kept reading into Song of Songs. Wow.

Want to read something romantic?

3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
is my lover among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

4 He has taken me to the banquet hall,
and his banner over me is love.

5 Strengthen me with raisins,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.

6 His left arm is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.

7 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.

I found this carved into a rock near our cabin



My parents in Kentucky


I hate when I sit down to pray and I pray for everything I want. I often catch myself praying a wish list and I feel like a brat. The truth is though, God has answered so many of my prayers it's seriously ridiculous. I am so selfish, I am so undeserving. Whenever I truly hand something over to God and quit trying to make something happen myself, everything works out. Three of my friends and I have been reading this book called "When God Writes Your Love Story." It is really cheesy, but so encouraging. I think about it a lot. There is a part that talks about how even if you are dating a guy for 4 years, see desirable qualities in a guy, whatever, you still never know if he is going to be your husband until he IS your husband. Therefore, you should treat him like any other brother in Christ. You should think of him just like any other brother in Christ. That is one of the coolest mind sets about dating I have every heard... They are just like any other guy until they are your husband.

"Have you ever thought about that? Just ponder it for a moment. If God's plan and purpose for you is marriage, then that person you will one day marry is alive and wandering the earth. If that's true, if they are really out there somewhere, don't you wonder what they are doing?"

Yeah, and I sure as hell don't want to be with some other guy when my future husband is thinking this thought. It is hard to love someone you might not even know yet, but I would hope that they would do the same. Hmmm... My tangent is over. And I REALLY should be doing homework right now. Arg.

-Franny

Hmmm....

So God does answer prayers... :)