I haven't been posting a lot lately, because I'm in the process of figuring out a bit more about html so I can create a new....er, updated blog. I absolutely love the theme I have going for this blog, but I think my excitement got the best of me. I jumped in head first, without laying some of the ground work. Now, as I have been blogging and reading blogs a lot more lately, I see the necessity of better formatting and planning. The look of your blog is the first thing people notice, and I want to give the right impression! Therefore, between working and homemaking, I am attempting to do a little revamping. I have a lot to say, I'm just not sure that I want to waste good posts on a less than stellar page.
I will, however, give you a quick update on things. Work has been coming along as well as work ever does....punctuated with some good friend times and a wedding here and there. In more exciting news, we close on our house mid April and will start the massive repainting process. I will wait to share with you all of the decorating plans I have milling about in my brain. Stay tuned!!
Simplicity
**I promised you a rant about simplicity...and here it is.
Humans were not made to sit at a desk for 40+ hours a week. People were not made to be separated from their families for 40+ hours a week. We were not made to eat processed foods and only have cyber-friendships. Humans were not made to live lives in which we must squeeze in five minutes for ourselves each day.
I believe that our purpose is to love God and love others. Humans were made for relationship...and not just the facebook kind, the real thing. Face-to-face, come-over-to-dinner, share-your-life kind of relationships. But the modern world, especially America, is so backwards. We value and reward working and individuality. The more time we put into a work week, the more of an asset we are. If we can climb the career ladder, then we will have really achieved something. Meanwhile, families are neglected, marriages end, and we become overburdened, bitter shells.
The effects of this problem are almost limitless. Because we have no time to ourselves, we eat fast food and our health takes a hit. Not only do we consume extra calories, but also an increasing number of fake, processed imitations of the real things. We spend most of our time sedentary, when our bodies were built for strength and movement, thus affecting our health even more. Magazine articles read, "Find Five Minutes of YOU Time!"
Social interactions have become alarmingly electronic. Text, e-mail, facebook, twitter, myspace, gaming over the net. Social competence has been de-emphasized and produced a generation of youth that no longer have deep, meaningful relationships. It is a self-serving system that demonstrates a persons value based on the number of "friends" they have and how many pictures are tagged.
I hate this system. The world is backwards in so many ways. I will never be a person who works more than forty hours a week. We were made to love people. We long for unconditional acceptance and support from others. How can this be accomplished when the main priority is to make more money and work more? We care more about living up to employers expectations than we do about really caring for people. What would it look like if Americans worked a little less and cared a little more. What if, instead of going into the office on a Saturday morning, we invited a new neighbor over to our house for breakfast? What if we spent time with our children in the evening instead of working late? What if we invested some of that hard earned money into charity rather than buying a new car? What if we were selfless?
It is a difficult task in America, but I believe we are called to simplicity. Lives filled with people and the Gospel. Things that are best in their simplest form. We should work hard, but it should be directed towards those things that point back to God and people, especially our families. Jesus said, "I have come so that you might have life, and have it abundantly." Are you living an abundant life?
**photo is from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34657321@N02/3780881873/
