Where have the last two weeks gone?

I can tell that work is back in full swing --- life has exploded in the past two weeks.
Here's a quick recap:

I went to my cousins wedding in Indiana. It was very interesting since her husband is Serbian and they were married in a Serbian Orthodox church.

I went to the eye doctor and spent $300 on new glasses.

With the help of my graders, I graded 144 exams last week. (They didn't do as well as I had hoped. I always hate when my students don't do well. I wish I had time to help them all one-on-one. It is amazing how their attitudes towards math can change by a simple one-on-one conversation and a little pep talk.)

I took the third-grader that I tutor for out for pizza. She's a really cool girl. I enjoy spending time with her.

I cleaned my living room carpet.

Joel and I started a new (additional) small group. We're going through Mere Christianity.

I was able to get ahead on lessons, homework assignments, and quizzes for trig!

I feel that I've neglected my friends lately though. Mari, Jessica, Lynners, Josh, Daneal, Autumn ---- I've thought about you all a lot this week but just haven't had the chance to call! Miss you guys!

Say It Isn't So!

Both today and yesterday I saw someone walking around campus with overalls one --- with one strap hooked and the other undone. Tell me Vanilla Ice is not back in style!

Dodging Bullets

Joel and I have dodged two huge bullets in the past two days. Yesterday I took Stokley to the vet because he had been having issues with his back right leg. If he jumped off something and landed on it wrong, he'd not put any weight on it for a while. Since it happened about 4 times over the weekend, we thought it was time to get it checked out. The vet kind of scared me at first because she was pretty sure he had torn his ACL --- which meant surgery. The cheaper of the surgeries was $1000 and couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't happen again. The second, better surgery which kind of reconstructed the knee was about $2500. So I was sitting there thinking where are we going to get this money and looking at Stokley saying how can I not spend it on you. But after looking at the x-rays, the vet didn't see any signs that the ACL was ripped. So she thinks he probably just sprain (is that the right tense?) it. I was so relieved. We just have to keep Stokley calm and rested for 2 weeks --- no play dates or long walks. And he has to take some anti-inflammatory medicine.

Secondly, Joel has been having some issues with his front teeth and wasn't sure if the nerve was dying or if he needed to have them replaced. So he went to the dentist today, a dentist that goes to Riverview and is a friend of ours. He doesn't think that the nerve is dead, so no root canal. He just grinded a bit down on Joel's teeth and said things look ok! Yeah -- no new teeth for Joel.

Praise Jesus!

Personalities and Holiness

I've been trying to work through how personalities and holiness interact with each other the last several days. I've kind of confused myself, so I'm seeking your help. I would love to hear how you think these two relate to each other. I've had some conversations with friends about it, but I'd love to get some other ideas. Feel free to point out flaws in my thoughts too!

So here is a situation that happened to help flush out what I'm feeling.

On Saturday, Joel completed a task that I had been wanting him to complete. So I walked into the room and told him that I was really proud of him. Several hours later in the midst of another conversation, he revealed that my comment rubbed him in the wrong way but he didn't say anything about it --- he just chalked it up to my personality. But I was hurt that he didn't tell me. In my mind, if my comment has rubbed him wrongly, then I need to know that so that I can change my actions otherwise I am sinning because I'm not being loving towards him. But Joel doesn't see it as a sin issue.

So my question comes in this world where we have so many personality tests and discussions about personalities and gender issues, are we creating different levels of holiness for different genders or personalities? (in my example above I think it's pretty clear that Joel and I have different levels of holiness in this case.)

Here are some of my other thoughts:
1. God only has one standard --- holiness. Even though we are saved by grace and not works, our natural response to His amazing gift of love to us should be to strive with His help to become holy. He expects holiness out of all of us --- no matter what our personality is. (Yeah, I do know that the Bible talks about those in teaching leadership being held to even a higher standard, but that is the only exception I've seen.)

2. In areas of sin in MY life, if I'm not quite sure it is a sin, a tend to error on the side of calling it a sin. But I also think that I expect others to view my life in the same way --- if they think that I might be sinning but are not sure, I'm expecting them to call me on it --- which I don't think many of them are aware that I'm expecting them to do it or that they are really willing to do so. I'd rather try to change things for the better that perhaps are okay the way they are than to get to heaven and hear God say "Well you just made it in by my grace" and not say "well done."

3. I fear that our culture, including myself, uses personality differences and gender difference as a cop-out. I know that in the past, I've said things were just personality differences because I was being selfish and didn't want to change.

So what are your thoughts on all of this? Am I out to lunch? being a heretic? expecting too much from people? I'm really interested to hear all your thoughts.

Small Group 2

I've been for the last several months that Joel and I should be doing more to help people at Riverview get connected. Riverview really became our home after we were able to get involved, make friends, and have a deep sense of community. I just wanted others to experience that same feeling ---- which many of them are longing to have.

At first, I thought we should do that through our small group --- continue to open it up for new couples to join - which our small group has been doing. I didn't really know how else to go about it, except through our small group and Together activities.

Then we went to Mexico and made some amazing friends who are a bit younger than Joel and I, and mostly single. We've hung out with them quite a few time since Mexico and our friendships have strengthened. Many of them are desiring to be connected at Riverview and have their own "Riverview family." So Joel and I are going to have a small group with them.

We're definitely not replacing our small group ----- that is our place to do and be feed and be ministered to. We'd never want to give our small group. We just feel that we should be pouring into others lives. Our new small group (I call it small group 2) will be meeting twice a month on Sundays after church for lunch, fellowship and growth. I'm really excited about it and I think the others in the group are too.

We start Sept. 24th!

Labor Day

Joel and I had a great Labor Day weekend. Saturday we spent working on the finishing touches of our fence, mowing lawn and cleaning house. I love when Joel and I have a blast doing work together. Sunday we had friends over for a "make your own quesidilla and smoothie" party. We had yummy food, a euchre tournament (which both Joel and I lost), played a mean game of UNO ATTACK and watched a movie. Stokley had a blast too -- he had four puppy pals over to play. We spent Monday at Birch Run, where we met some friends for lunch and did some shopping. Our best deal of the day was two pairs of adidias gym shoes for $50! We also both got new leather bags for work for a great price.

Hope your weekend was a fun and eventful as ours!

It's the small things in life

Here's some pictures of Stokley helping me put away the groceries.