This is how we love

http://bible.us/1John3.17.MSG
This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

Monday Link Love

I've decided to help you start off your Monday with some fun stuff.  I mean, who doesn't like starting off their week with a little mindless internet browsing.

Krissy's Latest Adventures This is my friend Krissy's blog.  It's full of fascinating stories of her life as she serves the Peace Corps in Benin.  She's funny and has the most beautiful heart.

ChristianAudio.com This month's free download is "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom.  If you have never heard of this enthralling story of Corrie and her family's choice to hide Jews during the German occupation of the Netherlands, you must simply get this download as soon as you can.  I read this book in my early teens and it was a really defining book for me.

Parent Hacks : No-Candy Easter Eggs It may seem cruel.  Until you are on the receiving end of a 2 year old's sugar rush.  You and any vases you may own will thank me.

22words: Ferris Bueller trailer as indie pic  I almost like this recut trailer better than the movie.

Matt Maher's "You Were On The Cross"  Grab two hankies.  One to wipe your nose and one to wave as you shout "Glory!"

Five on Friday

Five Places I've Never Been, But Wish To Visit

1. Italy.  The whole country.  I don't want to miss a corner, a cafe, a shop, or a fountain.
2. Banff National Forest.  Saw a feature on this park one time in National Geographic and it's just stuck in my mind ever since.
3. Prince Edward Island.  Yes, I am a card-carrying member of the Anne of Green Gables Society.
4. Ireland.  Part of the family came from Tipperary and I want to see those "forty shades of green" for myself.
5. New York.  That's right, I've never been to New York.  I've been avoiding it like I avoid people who are full of themselves. 

Paisley Hope is here!

Overjoyed for April and Jeremy!

Paisley Hope Bagwell arrived today.  Healthy and happy!

Read about their journey:

http://waitingfortheflowers.blogspot.com/

http://adoptionstory.org/

Simple Goals For This Year

I hate starting the New Year with resolutions.  It feels a little confining to me.  So, it helps me to think instead in terms of Big Ideas.  So, here are my Big Ideas for 2011:

• Write.  There's a story that needs telling.  Thoughts that have to get out or they are going to just bounce around in there until I lose it.  It's this year.  And I have a leg-up thanks to my friends Stephanie Newton and Lisa Long.
• Join the 5 o'clock club.  I already know that I get more done when I get up early.  My "To Do List" can be mostly crossed off by 11 o'clock if I get up early.  I think I'm just scared I might take over the world if I am that productive.  Well, no more fear.  Just a very awake Janet at 5 o'clock.
• Run.  I love it.  It makes my head clear and my heart pump.  It's a part of me now that I can't ignore.  See you on the streets, peeps.
• Craft.  It's my outlet for what little creativity I do possess. Also, if I don't do something with all those supplies my husband is gonna croak.
• Jesus.  Instead of just stewing in my own disgust at the cultural Christianity that I find myself participating in, I'm asking God to throw me into different relationships that challenge my idea of what Jesus would do.  I'll put the pics on Facebook.

That's it.  Those are the Big Ideas I'm contemplating this year.

What about you?

(Thank you, April, for the inspiration to do this.)

Five on Friday - Favorite Male Actors

I would climb mountains and hire any number of babysitters to see these guys:

1. Cieran Hinds.
   He was scarily vulnerable in Eclipse. He was charming and romantic in Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day.  He was passionate and commanding in Persuasion.  I can't get enough.
   
2. Cary Grant
   Old-school romance and humor, baby.
   
3. Colin Firth
   You will forever be Mr. Darcy, Mr. Firth. 
    
4. John Krasinski
   So much more than The Office.  Ex:  Away We Go, Leatherheads
   
5. Brad Paisley
   He's not in a movie, yet.  But, a girl can hope, can't she?

Filling Our Own Well

Advent 2010
Week One: Hope
Scripture: Romans 15:13

Romans 15:13 
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit

I am sad to say that there are more days when my well is low than when it is overflowing.  It seems that somewhere in the midst of my giving out of myself to those I serve, I forget that I am not my source.  I cannot fill my own well.  I must allow God to fill me with his joy and peace.  The result is a bubbling over of hope that I spill onto every single person I encounter. It would be like the wake of a ship, visible long after I leave a person's presence.  


Here is a prayer poem by Amy Carmichael:
Hope through me, God of Hope,
   Or never can I know
Deep wells and living streams of hope,
  And pools of overflow.


Flood me with hope today
  For souls perverse, undone,
For sinful souls that turn away,
  Blind sunflowers from their Sun.


O blessed Hope of God,
  Flow through me patiently,
Until I hope for everyone
  As Thou hast hoped for me.