Fruit # 1 - LOVE

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have decided to write about one of the fruits of the spirit each week for the next nine (ish, I am not off to a great start) weeks.  This week's post is about love.

According to dictionary.com, love is: 

1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3. affectionate concern for the well-being of others.
4. the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.

What do you think of when you think of the word "love?"  For me, when I first think of love, I think of the relationships that I have with my family and friends. I think of the overwhelming sense of love I feel from them and the feeling of love that wells up in my heart when I interact with them.  My second thought (which probably should have been my first) is about how much I am loved by God, my Creator.

Did you know that the only reason that we are able to love is because God first loved us?  That's right, according to 1John 4:19, "We love because He first loved us."  Isn't that a crazy thought.  Do you want to know what is even crazier?  This will give you a sense of just how much God loves us...John 3:16 says "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son (Jesus), so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."  For those of you who have children, can you imagine giving your child over to death to save another person, much less someone who has wronged you as we wrong God everyday by sinning?  Yep, that is how wide, long, high, and deep God's love for us truly is. Mind-blowing isn't it?

So, how are we supposed to live this fruit of the spirit in our daily lives?  I think that 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 below sums it up quite nicely.  To exude love, we must be patient and kind in our dealings with others.  We must also humble ourselves and be thankful for who God made us instead of being envious of others.  We should do what is best for others instead of always doing what is best for us.  We should not let conflicts fester and root bitterness in our soul. And, we should always protect and trust the people we love. 

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

What are some simple ways you plan on showing LOVE this week?

Resolution Update - Falling off the Wagon

Well, I hate to report this, but I fell off the wagon pretty early on in my New Year's resolution.  As one of my colleagues put it, not only did I fall off the wagon, but the darn thing ran me over and is dragging me behind it because I don't want to let go.  So, I am going to muster up all of my physical strength and climb back in the darn thing and strap myself in this time. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you may need to read my resolution post before you keep reading this one. 

Although I failed, I did try, at least the first week, to pick a fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) each day and live it out in my daily life.  I found that it was difficult to remember to pick a new fruit each day and to try to find ways to live it out on top of the other responsibilities, activities, and distractions I deal with on a daily basis.  Excuses, excuses...  Well, I am not giving up and I now have a plan I really think I can do.  Instead of picking a new fruit of the spirit each day, I plan to focus on a different fruit each week.  In my paper calendar, I am going to (today) assign a fruit to each week throughout the rest of the year.  I am also going to add a reminder in my work Outlook calendar to pop up each Monday morning.  Then, I will not have the excuse of forgetfulness.  To get me really committed to this resolution, I also pledge (to you) that for the next nine weeks, I will write one post each week describing the fruit that I am focusing on and how we (you and I) can live it out in our daily lives.

So, if you have also fallen off the resolution wagon, have hope.  Together, you and I still have a chance of being (322 days left this year/365 days per year=) 88% successful this year.  That's pretty good!

Next week's post - LOVE

Old Wives' Tales

I recently had a very interesting conversation with my dad about old wives' tales in his family.  He shared two tales with me, one that his Grandma Coggins performed on him when he was young and one he has seen my Grandma Coggins (his mom) perform on other people. 

Great Granny's Tale: Lillian Stokes Coggins (If you get easily grossed out, you may want to skip to my Granny C's tale below.)
When my dad was 15 and playing basketball in high school, he had warts all over one of his hands.  It bothered him, but he didn't know how to get rid of them.  One day, his dad said "Son, do you want to get rid of those warts?"  Of course, my dad said "Yes."  So, his dad replied "Well, come with me son." They went over to my Great Granny's house where she blindfolded my dad and began to perform an old wives' tale on him.  She counted the warts on his hand and tied a knot in a thread for every wart on his hand.  She placed the thread in his hand with the warts and led him (still blindfolded) outside to dig a hole with his other hand.  My dad buried the knotty thread in the hole and left the yard.  When they were back inside, she took the blindfold off of him and told him not to bother the buried thread and just to forget about it.  She told him, "When the thread rots, your warts will be gone."  My dad swears that his hand was completely wart free in about two weeks (about the time it takes a thread to rot).  Kind of gross, but cool huh? My dad believes that this is a lost art in his family because Lillian was supposed to pass this practice down to my dad's dad (Leslie Coggins AKA Les or Bud) and ultimately down to him.  Unfortunately, she passed away before this art was passed along.

Granny C's Tale: Margie Elizabeth Pollard Coggins
This next old wives' tale involves a pencil, a sewing needle, and you guessed it, more thread!  My dad swears that Granny C could accurately predict the gender of a baby by completing the following steps.

1. Thread a sewing needle with some thread.  It doesn't have to be a lot, but perhaps around ten inches so when it is threaded it will be around 4 to 5 inches.
2. Stick the needle straight into the top of the eraser of a sharpened lead pencil.
3. Holding only the thread, dangle the pencil above the wrist (palm up) of a pregnant woman.
4. If the pencil swings parallel to her arm, she is having a boy.  If the pencil moves perpendicular to the arm, she is having a girl.

My dad says that Granny C correctly predicted his gender and the gender of his two brothers while she was pregnant and that he has seen her accurately perform this tale on others.  Oh how I wish she was still here to perform this tradition on me when the time comes.  I miss her.

My dad doesn't believe that this old wives' tale is one that has to be passed down from generation to generation.  So, if this one tickles your fancy and you or someone you know is pregnant (and you can actually find an old-school sharpened lead pencil), give it a whirl.  Let me know what happens!

Cheers to great family traditions - some lost and some cherished forever.

A recurring dream

I have the most elaborate, detailed, ridiculous dreams almost every night.  I used to be able to remember the details of my nightly mental excursions, but as I get older I can't remember a darn thing.  I can hardly remember things I have done during the day, much less my night musings.  Anyway, whenever I have a dream I can remember, I'll give you a sneak peak into the crazy worlds I experience and adventures I have while I'm laying unconscious upstairs in my Cary townhome.  Fun times, let me tell you.  BTW, Inception was a great movie, but it kind of freaked me out.  Yes, I have had a dream within a dream.  FREAKY!

Here's the first dream I'll share with you...

Back in high school, I participated in something called Junior Miss.  First, let me stop your thought process and tell you that it is NOT a beauty pageant although it sure sounds like one.  This was a scholarship pageant that was judged based on grades, an interview (off stage and on), physical fitness, poise, and talent.  I will start off by saying that I am so glad that I participated because I truly had a great time with the girls that were in the program and it was a very unique experience.  However, the experience of Junior Miss somehow haunts me because I dream about it often and it has been somewhere around 11 years since I participated.

In my recurring Junior Miss dream, I am always struggling with my talent.  The actual talent I performed was a flute solo of Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera. In my dream, it is usually about five minutes before I am supposed to perform and I either have no idea what my talent is going to be, have lost or left my flute at home, or I'm trying to practice and I have totally forgotten how to play it (yes, it had to be memorized).  This is way too much stress for a person that is sleeping!  I usually wake up in a panic and am so thankful that I am 11 years on the other side of that pageant.  When I drift back to sleep, I am usually standing back stage trying to figure out what I am going to do.  Eventually, my mind shifts to something else altogether and I find myself flying (not in a plane) or falling down a hole like Alice in Wonderland.  Crazy, I know, but entertaining.

Do you have any recurring dreams that you want to share?

To Sell or to Rent, that is the ????

Ryan and I have a nice, cute townhouse in Cary, NC, but we are ready for a yard, no shared walls, a garage, and more space.  In short, we are ready for a house.  Problem is, we have to figure out what to do with the townhouse we have before we can even think about looking for a house.  You're thinking - That's easy, just sell it.  Yeah, okay, in this economy selling a home is as easy as baking cookies on the dashboard of your car in the middle of January (especially this one) in North Carolina.  Unless the stars align, it ain't happening.  Our house has been on the market for about three months and we have had four showings.  One of the showings was yesterday, so I am praying for the stars to align any night now.  We'll see.

Anyway, another option is to rent our property.  The very thought of this makes me squirm with anxiety over the possibility of bad tenants, costly repairs, and all the "what ifs" that come with having a rental property.  Part of me thinks that we are way too young to have that much responsibility. I mean, will we be able to keep up with the maintenance of our house AND a rental property.  Oh geez, I feel a panic attack coming on.  Just kidding.

So, while Ryan and I have definitely done the pros and cons list (in our heads), I am open to a good debate.  Tell me what you think we should do and why.  Now, I will say that we have other factors playing into this decision, but I love a good debate every once in a while.  So, let's hear it.  What do you think we should do?

our house

kitchen

dining room

living room



back deck

  

A fruitful new year

I was sitting in church this past Sunday and Patrick, the head pastor of my church, said something about new year's resolutions.  I suddenly realized that I had not made any resolutions for the new year.  YIKES!  What's the point right?  It always seems like a great way to start the year, but by the end of January the resolution is either forgotten or completely trampled leaving you with a sense of failure.  Sitting there in church, I almost made a snap resolution like eating healthier, exercising more often, or reading my Bible more, but I decided that I did not want to make a fruitless resolution this year.  So, I let the moment pass.

In the last 24 hours I have been thinking a lot more about resolutions and goals for the new year and fruit came to mind.  Not the kind you eat, but a different kind.  Ultimately, as a Christian, not only my year goal, but my life goal is to become more like Christ. So, I had the idea to focus on and try to exhibit one of the "fruits of the Spirit" each day of this new year.

Galatians 5:22-23 says:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

I'm not going to tell you which fruit I am going to focus on first, but I will periodically give you an update to let you know which one I am focused on and how the resolution is going.  I'm sure I'll fall off the wagon throughout the year, but my goal is to keep chasing the wagon down and jumping back on so that I can become more like Christ.  Keep your fingers crossed, we'll see how it goes!