What would you do?

If a girl you knew told you she was pregnant, but she wasn't married? Would you congratulate her?

Just something I've been thinking about.....

Nuts

I'm big on memories. By default, that makes me somewhat of a pack-rat in that I save physical items to help recall said memories.

My mom called my phone last year on my birthday and sang happy birthday. I had successfully saved and resaved the message several times over the past few months. My success ended today. In my effort to resave the message quickly to answer an incoming phone call on my office phone, I hit '7' to save. Then I realized that '9' was the save button. And '7' was delete. Boo.

I've got to figure out a way to save voicemails to disk....

The end is near

This is post #980. And I've pretty much made the decision that I'm going to end this blog at 1,000. So twenty posts to go. So there ya go. In other news...

I've been doing a lot of thinking as of late. Thinking about the plans God has for me. How long I'll be at my current job. When I'll get married and to who (or is it whom?). What kind of lasting impact I'll have with my co-workers. Where my travels in this life will take me. How long I'll remain at West Shore.

And I don't have any answers. And I feel like I should be very concerned about these things. But I'm not. I'm concerned about the here and now. And how I'm impacting the people around me these days. And what I could be doing better....

Lenten thoughts

As I was sitting in a Lenten service this evening, the words to this hymn came to mind and I thought I'd share.

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

-Frances Havergal

eDebrief

Okay. The eHarmony thing is done. I had three free days in which I initiated communication with four ladies, and received communication back from one. So in three days (which I didn't pay for), I don't think that's too bad.

I have to admit that the whole process, while rather restrained, was kinda fun. Not "barrel of laughs" fun, but "interesting" fun. It was fun to see the process that you have to go through and the questions that you're allowed to ask. At one point I realized that I was really scrutinizing people's answers. But then it occurred to me that it's very possible that others were doing the same thing to my answers. "What does she mean by that?" or "What kind of a guy would do that?" These were some of the thoughts that ran through my head.

However, if I want to continue with the eharmony, I have to pony up some bucks. If you sign up for a year, it's only $20.95 a month. But you can't pay it monthly. You also have six month and three month options which get progressively more expensive until you get to the "month-by-month" option which is $59.95 a month. No thank you. That's just too expensive in my opinion, even if it is "compatability matching."

Would I do it again if cost wasn't an issue? Can't say for sure. I don't know that it quite fits my personality to create relationships online. But then again, I'm not the most out-going person in the world either, so maybe that just makes it more convenient for me. But I'm not for certain that convenience is the answer here.

So for Diane, Sarah, Elizabeth (no, not that one), and Kassie, if it's meant to be, we'll meet again. But for the time being, I think our matches are going to be closed.

and the nominees are:

The first five:

1.Which of the following indoor activies sounds most appealing? Cooking, Shopping, Bowling, or Watching a Video
2.What style of dress do you prefer?
3.What do you think of "soul mates?"
4.Do you enjoy being alone?
5.What's your philosophy on travel?

The second three:

1.What are your three favorite hymns/worship songs?
2.What are your top five travel destinations?
3.Describe your parents' relationship with each other.

further reflection on electronic harmony

First a clarification on #5 listed below. You actually don't choose from the same question bank that you did the first time. Those questions were multiple choice. At this stage, you can pick three essay/short answer questions and you have the choice to ask your own questions if you choose.

I will be posting my first five questions later today, along with the three questions that I most recently asked. My eharmony communications will be ending today because frankly I cannot afford to continue paying for it.

And now, for something you'll really love..

I was watching some television over the weekend. And I saw an ad for eharmony. You know eharmony right? The online dating service? Or should I say "compatibility-matching" service? Anywho, they were offering free communication for this weekend. So I decided to give it a whirl. Here's how it went down:

1. I signed up and completed a lengthy questionnaire (maybe like 100-150 questions). In return , eharmony gave me the results in a nice little report.

2. eharmony then takes all those questions that you answered and tries to match you up with people who are like you (or maybe would be a good fit for you, I dunno). I got five matches right off the bat (hello to Stephanie, Naomi, Kim, Kassie and Diane). Then it's up to you whether or not you want to "make contact" with one or any of your matches.

3. To "make contact" you are given 57 questions, of which you choose five for your match to answer. The questions are all over the board from "How do you feel about food?" to "In a marriage how would you feel if the woman made significantly more money than the man?" You send them the questions and they answer them.

4. When they answer your questions, they also send you five questions for you to answer. Once you answer those and she gets your answers, then you exchange what they call "must haves" and "can't haves." They give you like 40 things to pick from and you pick the ten most important in each category.

5. Then you go back and repeat step #3. Keep in mind that up until this time, you have still not communicated with this person outside of eharmony's pre-set questions. Only after you have both completed this final step, are you then able to have what eharmony calls "open communication."

6. What I haven't mentioned, is that at any time either party can choose to close communications and it ends there. Since I do not have the money or necessarily the will to keep up with this process, I will be closing all my communications tomorow (when the free trial ends).

So there ya go. Tomorrow I'll wow you with the questions I chose for my matches.

It's Wednesday

As it's Valentine's Day here in the good ol' US of A, I thought about reflecting on love. And of course I couldn't help but think of the fact that it's another hallmark holiday in which I don't have someone to buy hallmark cards/chocolates/flowers/stuffed animals for. I'd really like a nice girl to love and encourage and do fun things with. But this has not yet come to pass.

So instead, let me talk about my love for my God. I love Him. He has done so much for me. He has given me eternal life. He has provided me with a great family. He has given me strength to get through the tough times and hope to carry on. He looks out for my best interests, knowing exactly what I need, when I need it (which is often not when I hope to receive it). He loves me and He shows it. I return the love by obeying His word and trying to live a life that pleases Him.

Happy Valentine's Day God!

The lust, the flesh, the eyes.....

There is one sentence from Phil's sermon on Sunday that has stuck in my brain. I wasn't able to get it verbatim, but here's the gist of it:

Sensualization of the soul leads to a disconnect in our dependence on God.

The topic of discussion Sunday morning was being hungry for God.

What stuck with me was how we consistently look to things of this world to replace that which God provides. How we are hungry for God, yet we satisfy that hunger with things. Things like work, hobbies, and relationships. We know that God's there, but we don't expect to be satisfied by Him. And I'll go so far to say that maybe we don't want to be satisfied by God. Maybe we like what we have going on right now. It's comfortable and we're content.

But that's not enough. We were created for so much more than comfort and contentedness. We are created to live our lives dependent on the love and forgiveness that can only be found in God. John Ortberg talks about the life you've always wanted. We know what that life is. And it's right there. But we've got to learn to let go of the distractions and set our eyes on Him.

And we have to want Him. With all our hearts.

That's what you call a snug fit..

Well it's been a while.

Somebody sang a song with that line in it, maybe Hoobestank? I dunno.

Anywho, it's been really cold here the past week or so. Locals know that, but I thought I might let my readers from the west and mid-west in on that news as well. I was out this afternoon at around 3:00 and it was 17 degrees. And the sun was shining. Brrr. I wonder if my winter-loving friend (the one still here in the states) is diggin' this cold. I'm so ready for Spring.

(While taking a break to wash dishes, my roommate informed me that the above lyrics were sung by Staind)

Just some random things today.

I made potato skins last night. They turned out great. The tortilla crisps..not so much. But they'll get better.

I got a haircut over the weekend.

I got a free meal at Damon's over the weekend.

Hopefully some items of substance later this week...

Funny ha-ha.

Check out Bear vs. Colt. Mostly funny stuff.

Before you go, here's my prediction: Colts 27 Bears 17