Something Beautiful

I grew up in the I Kissed Dating Goodbye g eneration (p lease follow the link for information on this book if you are not familiar with it). I was nine when Joshua Harris' book hit the shelves, and by the time I was a te enager, his ideas had taken off like wildfire. I remember studying it in our Sunday school class , and ma king the decision that I would not kiss , have sex , or do anything that would cause harm to my future marriage and spouse.  That decision along with my personal tendencies towards borderline idiotic stubbornness likely kept me from getting into trouble with boys . It also found me 25 and single. For more than ten years , I sav ed myself and wait ed for my Prince Charming to show up. I had been careful to avoid romantic entanglements, having no t so much as held hands with a guy.  Now t here is nothing wrong with being 25 and single. The problem lay in the fact that being 25 and single lead me to question what was wrong with me. I ha...

My heart has hurt for the last year. Just when I thought that nothing could make it worse, there would be yet another news story filled with hateful words and painful circumstances or yet another F acebook post with friends and family fighting and throwing written punches back and forth. My heart hurts because of so much h atred and anger and pain.  Tues day, I voted. And as the polls were closing on the East Coast, I went to church. I gathered with my favorite pastor and members of our church family who fall on both sides of the political spectrum. Together we declared peace and unity. Together we declared that we belong to God and that our allegiance is to Him. We gathered around the Communion Table, we joined hands, and we raised a song in prayer that the Lord would bind our hearts together as one.  We broke bread to remind us of how Jesus allowed Himself to be broken for us. We took the cup to remind us of how Love poured Himself out for us. We prayed for uni...