Love is a Verb

I was watching a series of Youtube videos Wednesday—all hilarious, sarcastic and well said by a young man named Jordon, a homeschool graduate. One really got me thinking again— it’s about the word love. He covers it here in THIS VIDEO which I beg of you to go watch after you finish reading this post. Or, go watch it now and you’ll know what got me thinking. Either way—JUST WATCH IT.

…moving on…

His point that got me thinking was that we, the American culture, have so overused the word ‘love’ that it’s meaning has just about been lost.  “I’m sure Jesus is extremely happy to be on the same level as grilled cheese your mind!” His point being, “Can we all just agree to default to “like” instead of saying that we loooove everything?”

And than he said this. “But maybe that’s the whole problem! Maybe we’ve forgot what love is suppose to be in the first place. Love is a verb. It’s something you actively do, not something you feel. It’s something you wake up every morning and decide to be.”

I was like. “Wow.”

Love is a verb.

Real love is action—you know when someone loves you when they’re willing to DO whatever needs to be done, when they’re will to die for you, when they’re will to LIVE for you. Anyone can ‘speak’ love, but only those who truly serve will actually give real love.

This really help give some glue to many of my opinions about the ‘love’ we see in many movies. There are always those films where the girl and the boy just ‘fall in love’ at first sight. Admit it, you’ve seen at least one movie like that; I know I have. And the girl and boy will do anything to be together, because they just know they’re ‘in love’. Even to the point of disobeying parents or even God. Because their feelings tell them they’re ‘in love’.

But if love is something you do, you aspire to be, is being a servant— than what kind  of love do they have if they only just met? (Example: Aurora and Prince Phillip of Sleeping Beauty).

No. That girl and boy in the movie (and sadly in many real life situations even) are not “in love”, even though they might think they are. I think it would be best to reworded this feeling as ‘becoming physically attracted’. What they’re ‘feeling’ is probably natural chemistry–but not real, Biblical love.

“Love is something you do.”

Think of Scripture: 1 Corinthians’ definition of love is a entire list of verbs/actions/things to do. Being patient, being kind, don’t be easily angered, ect. And even John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” Catch the verb gave.

I certainly am not saying that there is no room for the affection/chemistry type love—no way. That love will be there, because it’s natural. I’m just saying— DON’T MIX THE TWO UP! Because which one should have a higher priority?

I still do not understand everything there is to love—no one will ever perfectly understand it or be able to perfectly live it. But I will certainly keep thinking about it. What Jordon has stated in his video is very powerful and something I’ll certainly want to apply to life, especially when I enter a relationship with a young man. Because the verb love will certainly help a marriage last, rather than the chemistry love—because that love will eventually dull (this is one of the reasons why there are so many divorces, people). I want the love that binds and glues—ultimately Christ’s self-sacrifing love of serving others.

‘Cause that’s all that will matter in the long run and that’s what will last.

~Jamie

Creation Museum

Today I downsized and edited a few of my favorite shots from the Creation Museum. I took most of the pictures; but I will try to remember which one’s Mom or Kayla took. This up here is in front of the museum.

Mom took this shot above just before we went in. Check out my Captain America t-shirt. I love it.

I snapped this shot when we got through the enterance. This is right above their bookstore. I thought it looked really cool. I’m actually really pleased with the way the picture came out.

I think Mom got this picture. She wanted a picture of all the signs, it seemed.

This was part of the Walk Through History. So true!
Here is Adam naming the animals at the beginning of the Bible. It was nice because they had a narrator speaking the different passages as you went through the Genesis part of Walk Through History, instead of a sign that you could read if you wanted to. Anyone going through there would have heard God’s Word!

Kayla and a dinosaur that was part of the Naming the Animals sequence.

The serpent, Satan. I actually like their depiction of him. It looks realistic.

This dinosaur is awesome! The sounds and moves are choreographed so perfectly, it’s like it’s alive! Very, very cool!

We were excited to find penny machines throughout the museum. We got all four. I can’t wait to add them to my collection when I get home.

This is the T-Rex. So very awesome!
Mom had me pose right under the T-Rex.  You can see just exactly how tall it was! Also, better close up of my shirt (new love right now, ya know).

Here is me, Nathan and Kayla posing with this dinosaur that had a saddle on it for little kids to sit on. Nathan almost left his squished pennies there, actually. He and Dad had to go back to fetch them when we left and Nathan wondered where they were.

This awesome statue was above the exit of the bookstore. The inside theme of the bookstore with kinda knights and dragons.

I was totally looking forward to the petting zoo. Because there they have two creatures. Zorses. A combination of horse and zebra. They interbred these two breeds as an example that they are the same kind; horse kind. This is a blow to evolution which says that everything is in a species, where they say that animals are in kinds. It’s a lot like a horse and donkey mix: you get a mule. Other interbred creatures that have been seen have been ligers (lion and tiger).

They had two zorses in the petting zoo; in their own fenced little area. They walk up to the fence and stick their heads over the fence to eat feed that you hold out. After you feed them, than they’ll stand there and let you pet their heads.

If you know me, I LOVE animals, petting zoos, animal parks, ect…. And I love horses (which I never get to be around, ever). So I gave all my feed to the two zorses. They were extremely soft and very friendly. One nudged my arm to see if I had more food. I completely lost my heart in the petting zoo, and was one of my favorite parts of the visit.

Here is Nathan feeding two goats just his size. He was more concerned about keeping his hands clean than enjoying the animals though. Lol.

We had a wonderful experience there. I think everyone should go there at least once as it’s both refreshing in worldview and very profession and fun to visit!

~Jamie Joyce

The Princesses: The Good, Bad and Ugly

There is much I don’t know about these girls, but I know enough to be very suspicious of what their stories model and teach. While not all of them are ‘bad’ but they certainly don’t teach a biblical model for Godly womanhood. Although there may be somethings we can learn, we shouldn’t hold them as our standards.

Before I begin to bring up some of my thoughts, I did want to mention that the one thing I love seeing in most of them is their feminine dress. In our world of trashy jeans, tight, too short shirts and unkept hair in today’s women, most of the princesses are both feminine and mostly modest (I did notice a trend in that the more rebellious princesses are more revealing in clothing.)

I love seeing the long dresses, the long hair, the feminine shawls and gloves and normally  high-enough neck lines.

These are one of the few aspects that I love to see when finding pictures like these; is simply seeing some feminine clothing again. My more favorite outfits are from the older films; Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. And Belle’s too. I love the simple clothes they wear, too, not just the gowns.

My Four Favorite

Now that I’ve had my fill, I want to propose some things which I have found lacking.

I want to start with a problem in my personal favorite (and the only one I’ve seen in a whole). While I love much of what Belle does and says throughout the film, the message she delivers in the beginning of the it is dangerous. “I want so much more”–the thought that comes immediately to my mind is dis-contentment. We should try to be content in what the Lord has given us always and not wistfully wanting something more or better. No, we shouldn’t be content in sitting in sin or not growing in the Lord, but we shouldn’t be discontent with where he has placed us either. I’ve gotten similar themes from the different quotes from ‘The Little Mermaid’ as well.

When I learned Sleeping Beauty’s philosophy of ‘knowing who the right person is for you’, I was quickly alarmed and rather disgusted. “We met once upon a dream.” WHAT?! How much sense does that make? When you hold it up to the Biblical standards of finding a spouse, it lacks greatly and can be summed up in one word; “Cheesy”. I’ve gotten the feeling that Snow White is a little similar to this. I saw a saying with the above picture that summed this up nicely–”Disney. Teaching you to avoid strangers…unless they’re hot.” Rofl.

“Haven’t you ever had a dream?!” A large message of Disney’s ‘Tangled’ was following your dreams. This is so stark that I won’t say much except that we should be following God’s plans and desires for us and not what our feelings tell us. I had a dream once of becoming a veterinarian (I shouldn’t have to tell anybody that I love animals) but as I matured, I came to realize that God’s call in my life is bring glory to Him. A sure way to bring glory to God is to as He commands, and one of the things he commands is for women to marry and bear children. My vision now is to someday be someone’s helpmeet. And be a mama. Shallow dreams will never compare to God’s vision.

I’m sure I could bring up tons more–if I ever see films, I’ll be sure come back and tell you all what I saw! LOL

To end on a lighter note:

When I learned this, I realized why Belle is the most graceful of them all. Anyway, just thought you’d all like some neat facts to top of my rather random Disney post.

~Jamie Joyce

Bible Blast Update

So…I don’t have any notes to share, but I did want to announce that between Tuesday and Saturday of last week, I read the entire book of Genesis! I couldn’t believe it when I realized I was near the end and was starting Exodus! I’m stopped in Exodus 32 today!

It has been a very good thing doing this Bible challenge. Learning more self-control has been valuable, especially from last night. Being at church all day, coming home to eat dinner, see a documentary and then dishes pushed me up to eight o’ clock before I had any spare time for anything. I desperately wanted to get on the computer to check my email . . . but I knew I had my Bible. I first considered doubling up the chapters with today’s. But then I decided that I never liked doubling things up anyway and that a whole point of doing the challenge was set aside things you would rather being doing and taking the time to read the Bible. So that’s what I did. I grabbed my Bible, sat down and read my chapters. It turned out that when I was done, I still had a whole hour left before ten to still do things on my computer and I felt glad that I had done the right thing. I’m also glad that I didn’t have twice as much to read today! *grins*

~Jamie Joyce

 

Genesis 1-37

From Tuesday to this morning, I’ve read Genesis 1-37. I’ve never read so much Bible in so little time before, so I’m really excited over this. I sat in my favorite chair where I couldn’t see the clock to do my reading. One of the best tips I have for trying to sit down and read without being distracted is to sit where you can’t see a clock. The clock can be very distracting because you always want to look at it. Anyway, I wanted to post some of the things I noticed. So below are my raw notes right off the page.

• God mentions creating plants for multiplying
• Always ‘according to their kind’
• Animals were blessed by Him by being told to multiply
• Woman was brought to man.
• Man was made aware of the need for modesty
• There was a way to live forever
• Giants did exist
• 2nd month, 17th day was the flood–should make date a holiday
• Old Abram reminds me of Rooster Cogburn (when he went to rescue Lot)
• Sarah called Abraham ‘lord’–honor indeed
• Generational sin; both Abram and Issac both lied about their wives being their sisters to save their skins.

~Jamie Joyce