Crowning Glory

I had a sort of revelation a few weeks ago. In the Bible study I go to, we're studying the gospel of John. We had just gotten to the chapter where Mary pours the perfume on Jesus' feet and then wipes them with her hair. I had never really given this story much thought - it's just a sweet story about Mary's love for Jesus, right? Well, I found out a lot more.

As I was reading through it, I realized that the focus of the story was that Mary was using such expensive perfume on Jesus, which Judas pointed out was a waste of money. But Jesus vindicated her, and said that Mary had her priorities right - that He would not be with them much longer and he was deserving of the most costly devotion they could give him.

As I thought about this, I realized another layer to the story. I thought of the verse in the Bible where it talks about woman's hair being her crowning glory. And that made me see the deeper layer. Mary was showing that she treasured Jesus not only by lavishing expensive perfume on his feet, but also by using her "glory" to serve at his feet.

This reminds me of the song, "We Fall Down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus." And I had to ask myself, "What glory of mine do I need to lay at the feet of Jesus?" I have a tendency to hold on to my "glories", such as my talents, accomplishments, and even just the way I look. But only when I pour them out at Jesus' feet, desiring them to be a blessing to Him and to point others to His life and work, shall I myself be blessed.

And I know when I do this, it is a sweet aroma to Him - just as Mary's perfume must have been.

An Inspired Young Woman's Daybook #2

Well, it's Saturday again, so here is my second entry of An Inspired Young Woman's Daybook. Click here to see the first one.

Oh, and by the way, a couple nights ago I had a dream where I met all of you bloggers who I've become friends with. It was really cool! I'd love to actually do that in real life. :)

Find out how to do An Inspired Young Woman's Daybook here

Today I helped my dad paint our hallway
I'm feeling motivated (though slightly overwhelmed)
My outfit is jeans and a blue shirt under a brown sweater
Outside my window are huge icicles dripping down to the snow-covered ground.
A song that's stuck in my head "The Call" by Regina Spector - and also "Pizza Angel" (VeggieTales) lol!
Something (a book, song, movie, person...) that's inspired me recently is the Olympics - it's amazing how they can be so driven, and so good at what they do!
A prayer of my heart this week is that I would focus less on me, and more on Christ.
I am creating a short story which is an allegory of the salvation story. It is called "Redeemer."
I am reading all the same books as last week, plus a few more. (Hopefully I'll finish at least one of them soon!)
I am thinking about the delicious peaches and cream I just ate!
A scripture verse or passage that's stuck out to me this week is Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."
A spiritual lesson I'm learning is to not be a procrastinator (which applies to all areas of my life)
An attribute of God I've seen this week is His love for me in sacrificing His son on the cross for my sins. I know this may seem elementary, but I so often forget what a huge love God has for me!
A picture I’d like to share of the icicles out my window:

A creative goal for next week is to get cracking on my editing for NaNoEdMo!
Did I complete my goal from last week... yowch! nope :/ I'll try to do better this week! :)

Brown

If you know me at all, you know my favorite color is brown. Not pink or purple or blue or some other normal color - brown. Chocolate brown in fact. So here I'll share with you some pictures I've taken that are brown.

 

me looking out the window 

 

Much like LotR... except there is a car :P

 I did some interesting edits on this one.

One of my favorites

And for a bonus, here's a picture of the delicious banana bread I made yesterday!

Wanted: Novel Readers

I want you, yes YOU to read my novel.

Why?

One word: NaNoEdMo.

NaNoEdMo may not be an actual word, but it has everything to do with words. It stands for National Novel Editing Month, and basically, the goal is to get up to 50 hours of editing logged in by the end of March. It's a somewhat similar idea to NaNoWriMo, which is writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Since I'm pretty excited about my NaNo 09 Novel, I thought I would have a go at editing it in the month of March (which is only five days away!).

And this is where you come in.

I need readers who are willing to read a novel with a critical eye, and help point out weak areas, things that don't make sense, parts that could be improved. (Not just the fluffy "Oh it's so great, such an awesome book!") Are you interested? Think you can do it? Here's some background on my novel so you can know what you're getting into. My novel is titled "Rescue My Heart", and just shy of 200 pages. It's a fantasy-esque story about a 13-year-old writer named Anna, who goes into the world of her story. Here's a little excerpt from my novel to pique your interest.

Anna looked up from her writing, teary-eyed. Her heart was pounding, and she knew she was walking on dreaded ground. This was where she needed to stop, before she began feeling the pain she knew was buried deep inside. This story, like all the other ones, was starting to tug too hard at her heartstrings. What if it made them break? She had thought that she was safe, but somehow, someway her story had twisted itself around to fit her heart. Dare she go further?  
 

She set her teeth. She would close the book, and forget about it and her characters. After all, they were only figments of her imagination… their story wasn’t important. She could just close the book and bury it, just like she had done with all her other books which had come to this point. She would bury it deep, just like she had done with her mother’s death. That way she could still function. There would be no pain.

But when she glanced back at the page, Anna’s heart melted at the princess’ last words. “Will no one rescue me?” 

Anna sighed deeply and scrunched her eyes shut. She knew she had to move on. Even though she hated the thought of having to expose her heart. Her story deserved to be written. Even if it hurt. There was no backing away from the pain now.

Anna opened her eyes slowly, willing her heart to stop its frantic beating. Then she took a deep breath, and set pen to paper. As she did so, the tear that had been held back in her eyes slid down her cheek. It dripped onto the page, right onto the word “rescue”. 

And before she knew where she was, Anna was actually in the place that she had always dreamed of: the world of her story. 

So, if you'd like to read my novel and critique it, please leave me a comment with your email so I can send it to you. Rest assured, I won't publish your comment with your email unless you're okay with that. I can also give you some guidelines for critiquing when I send you the novel. And if you're doing NaNoEdMo too, be sure to let me know so we can do this together!

Thank you so very much! You guys are awesome!