Lions, Dragons, and Reading Your Bible.

“Stop doing spiritual disciplines.”

Oh gosh, did I really just say that when preaching last Sunday? I think I did. I didn’t intend to say that, but I'm pretty sure that’s what came stumbling out of my mouth as I tried to articulate that you don’t need to convince God to love you, like you, or accept you. What I really meant, though, was “stop doing spiritual disciplines for all the wrong reasons.”

Because there are wrong reasons and right ones. 

Convincing God to give you something you want? Wrong reason. 

Trying to impress God with how spiritual and mature you are? You just proved otherwise with that very thought.

However that doesn’t mean the disciplines are all for naught. For those of you who were at church on Sunday, you heard me read a passage from C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader about the story of Eustace, the spiteful boy whose insides became his outsides - he turned into a dragon. Then Aslan the Lion, the Christ figure, invites Eustace to unclothe himself of his dragon skin and bathe.

To push Lewis’s analogy far beyond its intention, this is what I would like to suggest about spiritual disciplines. The act of Eustace trying to scratch and peel his own dragon skin off is much like performing spiritual disciplines with the idea that you are going to somehow make yourself better, make yourself clean, remove sin from your own soul. You can keep on scratching, you can keep on peeling, but that old dragon skin just ain’t gonna budge.

But when Eustace sees the Lion call to him and then Eustace follows....when Aslan says “let me remove the dragon skin from you” and Eustace puts himself under the Lion’s care…those are what spiritual disciplines are meant to be like. They are an act of submission to God. When we pick up our Bibles, or go to our prayer closets, or fast from food, we aren’t doing these things to clean up our own act or to somehow impress God with how holy we already are. Rather, we do those things to put ourselves under God’s loving—but penetrating—scalpel; God is the one making us holy; God is the one removing the dragon skin once and for all.

The disciplines are about putting ourselves in a posture of obedience, in a place where we are allowing God to do His work in us, on us, and through us. The disciplines are an active posture of submission.  Not to make God love us—that was never the issue. Not to make ourselves holy—that was never an option. But to let God wash us clean—as only He can do.

Never Alone

Ascension from the Rabbula Gospels.
Source: http://gnccne.ws/JZhWU1

What can you say when

There's much too much to be said;

Verbosity stinks.

--My haiku on having to give a blog update after too long of a gap

Since the last time one of us wrote, I have since traveled to Florida for school, together we went to Indiana for vacation, and now we are in the throes of change. These things are all happening simultaneously:

• Our close friend and compatriot Jon is moving out of Okoboji to Wyoming (which might as well be Mars, in our mind). Which means goodbyes. Which means tears.
• We are moving out of our current condo and going to be renting a house about 4 miles north of us. Which means packing. And taking down wallpaper and painting at the new place. And then taking what we've packed out of one upstairs-and-up-a-winding-staircase location into a much-easier-to-move-into location. (Who wants to help?!)
• I am wrapping up my second semester of grad school. Which means papers and final exams.
• We are moving our church's worship location from our Julia campus to the Tabernacle for the summer. Which means long work weeks, lots of untangling of XLR cables, and the annual experience of discovering the ghosts in the system.
• We are launching our Pilot Missional Community, which means organizing a gathering of 35 adults and 18 children into meaningful gathering of worship, learning, fellowship, and mission.

As I compile these things into a list, it can seem a little daunting. Not to mention, it can make you want to shake your first at...whatever it is you like to shake your fist at. Because why on earth do all these things need to happen in the same 31 day period?

__________

I've been considering the Ascension of Jesus recently. It is celebrated 40 days after Easter,  so this year it will be Thursday, May 17 (and/or the Sunday of May 20). It is a time to meditate on Christ's final instructions to the church, the (delivered) promise of the Holy Spirit, as well as the promise of Jesus' return.

What I'm thinking about currently is Jesus' promise, "I am with you always, even the end of the age," (Matthew 28:20). The thought that we are never alone, never left by ourselves to deal with the up's and down's of life is (here comes an understatement) encouraging. Downright uplifting. Jesus' presence is with us; the Holy Spirit of God makes us His tabernacle, and the whole earth is filled with God's glory (Isaiah 6).

But in yet another stroke of genius, Christ is with us in another way than a spiritual sense. Jesus setup His church to act as His presence on this earth. In fact, the church is meant to be the very body of Christ. When people ask, "Where is God?" in fact they are asking perhaps the harder-to-answer question, "Where was God's church?" But on the flip-side, when we are looking for God's presence, protection, and love we need look no further than the Bride, the Church itself.

So when I think of us moving, us saying goodbye to a dear friend, us launching a fresh, never-done-before ministry at our church, we take heart in the fact that we are not alone. We never were and we never have to be. The very Body of Christ, His presence, manifest in the church (local and universal) is here with, strengthening, bolstering, and helping us.

And that (here comes an understatement) is encouraging.

Welcome 2012!

I suppose I should call this blog post the perfunctory New Years post. Though it may be cliche, there’s really nothing wrong to take the time to reflect on the past and dream about the future. In fact, a good reflection is probably needed more than once a year. We can’t really know where we’re going without knowing where we’ve been or how we got there.

All this to say that 2011 has been a good year for the Parrott household.

It’s been a year of travel (Hawaii, Switzerland, Italy, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, etc). It’s been a year of new experiences (concerts, grad school, church planting, etc). It’s also been a year of settling. We’re coming up on two years as residents of Okoboji, IA, and it’s been a wonderful two years. We now feel very much at home here in this little corner of the Midwest. We’ve adjusted to our jobs, made friends, and probably can’t use the excuse, “we’re new here!” any more.

This idea of settling in has really got me thinking as I’ve been reflecting on the past year. Up until this point in our lives, neither Anthony nor I could really tell you what settling in somewhere meant. We’ve gone from school, to graduating, to getting married, to job hunting, and now are finally here. Up until this point, we hadn’t had a job longer than a year (not a real job, anyways)... we had never lived in a home longer than a year (unless you count growing up with our parents!). So now we find ourselves in this whole new realm of life. We’re past college. Past some of the uncertainties of life. And we’re here. At least for now.

All of this has really made me adjust my prayer life and desires for the next year. I can see how easy it can be to let apathy creep in once one is settled in somewhere. How easy it can be to become comfortable. And how easy it can be to let that comfort dictate our lives. My prayer for this next year is that Anthony and I live intentional lives. That we be intentional with our time, with our love, with our money. My prayer is that we would seek God’s desires above all else and follow them even when it doesn’t make sense. Even when it seems “weird.” Even when (and especially when) it pulls us away from being comfortable. I never want to lose that desire from God that love and grace really can change the world.

So hopefully our lives can reflect this in the year 2012. Hopefully we can continue to learn to hear His voice and let that guide us. That is my prayer for us, and it shall be my prayer for you as well!

Happy New Year!

Autumn for the Parrotts

There's nothing I loathe more than writing a blog entry after it's been dormant for a while. (obviously, this is an exaggeration because there are a lot of things I loathe more than this, but stay with me). I've been thinking about writing something for a couple weeks now, but every time I've moved to write, I freeze up. Do I just ignore the past couple months of silence and pretend like it never happened? Or do I clumsily attempt to fill the reader in on what's been happening and then go ahead and write about what I originally wanted to write about?

Well, I guess the good thing is that I didn't have a specific topic in mind for today, so you get a little of everything!

This fall has been full of work, church, and school for us! Anthony is almost finished with his first semester of grad school. The homework thing has been an adjustment (for both of us), and it's been busy, but he has been doing well and is excited for the semester to be over. Here are some highlights from the past few months:

* In September, we had a wonderful 2 day visit from the Boards, who were in the process of moving back to the States from teaching in South Korea. It happened to fall over my birthday, which made it extra special! We reintroduced them to American culture with the Clay County Fair and lots of fried food :)

* The first weekend in October, I traveled to Michigan City, IN for a girls reunion weekend! There were 8 of us who got together over the course of the weekend, and words can't express how wonderful it was to see my lovely roomies from college.

* Also in October, Anthony I and traveled to Minneapolis with 10 other members of the worship team at Good News for a David Crowder* Band Concert. It was his last tour with the band, and it was a fantastic concert! And with Gungor opening the concert, it's hard to go wrong.

* We celebrated 1,000 days of marriage on October 7th! Gotta love reasons to celebrate!

* Towards the end of October, Anthony and I made a trip up to Minneapolis again. This time to visit with some family! Anthony's sister lives near Minneapolis and his other sister and bro-in-law were in town for a conference. We seized the opportunity to eat at Benihana's and talk the night away. It was a good, though brief, visit.

* This fall we also participated in a Spiritual Retreat in Sioux Falls, SD. This was part of a class that Anthony and I are taking at church. The retreat was just a day long, but oh-so-beneficial. To set aside a day to rest in the Lord was very refreshing and much needed.

* In November, we found our traveling once again to Minneapolis with about a dozen members of the worship team. This time, it was for a Hillsong LIVE concert. Yes, it was 2 concerts in 2 months, but can you really pass up the chance to see David Crowder or Hillsong? I think not. The Hillsong concert was a wonderful night of worship. As Anthony said, it was nice to go to a worship night and not be the one planning it or facilitating it. We both thoroughly enjoyed the concert.

* Sometime this fall, Anthony made the tough decision to change schools. Originally registered at Fuller Theological Seminary, he discovered that their distance program was not what he thought it would be. They offer limited classes online and are limited in the intensives he would need to take at the school. So in January, he will officially be a distance student at Asbury Theological Seminary (based in Kentucky). His classes will transfer, and at Asbury, he will be able to complete a Master's of Divinity in less time than it would have taken him to complete a Master's in Theology. They have a much better program for distance students and have been much better to work with.

* And that brings us to Thanksgiving! Holidays are difficult for us to get away, so this year my parents came here! They were able to make it in time for our Thanksgiving Eve service that we do with the Presbyterian Church. We had a great time of visiting and eating and relaxing. Luckily, the turkey and meal we made turned out well :) I also took advantage of the extra hands and we decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We cut down a tree at the local Christmas tree farm, and spent most of Saturday trying to fit it in the tree stand. Word to the wise, don't buy a tree with a crooked stump - it's not worth it!

Well if you've stuck with the blog this far, then BRAVO! You are now up-to-date on our lives! This next month looks to be just as busy: it's advent, we have a wedding in Michigan (yay Brett and Anne!), and Anthony will be taking finals. But we are excited about it all (except for maybe the school work). We will try to be better about writing (don't we always say that?). More to come later. We love you all... thank you for staying with us and supporting us!

Emily

Living Out Your Giftedness

 A few days ago I got an email advertising a sermon resource website. For a monthly subscription you would be able to download sermon outlines, media, and even entire sermon texts for you to use on your congregation. Now, I understand the need for resource websites. They’re helpful, they spark ideas, and they can come through for you in a pinch.

But the idea of a monthly subscription to this website just made me sad. It made me think of the many pastors out there who feel obligated to use this website, finding themselves called to ministry and yet not gifted in teaching and preaching. It has to be a scary place to be. And I can’t imagine that it feels very good to head to a sermon resource website each week when you’re probably thinking to yourself, Why am I not able to do this on my own!

So what causes this situation, that we have people called to ministry doing things that they don’t feel equipped for? Have we forced our pastors - and ourselves - into doing things that they’ve never been equipped for (either by natural talent, education, or the gifting of the Holy Spirit) because the rest of us, as the church, are not living out the things that we are equipped for.

I think many of us, way too early on in our lives, get pigeon-holed into a certain role or position we believe we must play. Much of our education system is based on the premise that you must pick one thing to major in and then do that one thing as a career the rest of your life. Can that really be healthy? Should our complex personalities, talents, and gifts we whittled down to a word or two?

Sometimes we get pigeon-holed into things we’re not even good at (like the person called to pastoral counseling, but finds themselves having to preach - and hit up sermon resource websites - 52 times a year). Sometimes we are pigeon-holed into something we are good at (like playing piano) and use it as our safe-place, never venturing to discover whether or not we’re good at anything else.

Is it possible that we have churches filled with folks who are simply unaware of their own giftedness? Many times it’s easy to get frustrated because of a lack of volunteers in a particular ministry. But do we simply live in a culture that constantly affirms this lie that you’re good only at what you’re most familiar with?

Now, don’t get me wrong. We can’t be faux-idealists and sit around only doing what we feel “called” to do. As a good friend of mine has said, “Do something you’re not passionate about.” And he’s right. Too many of us are waiting around for the “perfect” opportunity to get involved in something, but - gee whiz - that perfect opportunity just never seems to find us. So, on the one hand, I want to affirm that it’s okay to be involved not only in things you’re good at, but also in things that are just simply good. You may be uncomfortable changing a baby’s diaper, but sometimes they just need to be changed. Everytime you hear an opportunity to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or help the poor, you can’t just claim, “I just didn’t feel ‘led.’” In the words of James, “If you know the good you ought to do, and do not do it, to you it is sin” (James 4:17).

But, on the other hand, what would happen in our churches - in our lives - if all of us began to seek out the rest of our giftedness? Could the woman who really doesn’t like children (God forbid) be allowed to leave the nursery and start some coffeehouse evangelism? Or the man who really doesn’t like handywork be allowed to pursue photography?

Most recently, I have been struggling under the weight of feeling unequipped to plant a new congregation. I’m fairly introverted, I’ve only led one person to Christ (and that was because I told him I would let him be my friend if he became a Christian. It was sixth grade), and I’m pretty comfortable doing the whole lead worshiper thing.

And then our denomination had me take a personality/giftedness test based on the “five offices” of Ephesians 4 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher). Go figure, it came back saying I was an apostolic evangelist (apostle meaning “sent out”).

Perhaps there’s more to me than I’ve ever considered.

Perhaps there’s more to you than you’ve ever considered.

And maybe - just maybe - if we began to live out all of our calling, we would stop forcing people to do things they were really never meant to do.

The Spiritual Discipline of Worship

Yesterday, I ran slides for church. It’s one of the “perks” of being married to the Worship Director- I automatically get roped into volunteering in nearly every capacity. But I don’t mind this... it allows me to serve the church and be connected with Anthony’s ministry. However, yesterday was an early morning. The typical Wednesday evening rehearsal had been canceled, so the band was meeting extra early on Sunday morning to practice. As I sat behind the computer clicking sides, the sound man Chris made an observation. He said to me, “Do you think we really mean the words we sing about?” At that moment, the band was rehearsing a modern version of the hymn, “Take My Life.” Do we really want God to take control when we sing these lyrics? We mused for a few moments about what it means to truly desire God to take our lives, but then duty called and we were quickly pulled back to our respective jobs.

I found myself, however, mulling over this idea all afternoon. What does it mean to truly worship*? Why don’t more people actually bow down when we sing the lyrics “We fall down, we lay our crowns, at the feet of Jesus?” Why don’t more people lift their hands in worship when we sing “We come and lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength?” I realize part of this is due to culture and comfort levels. But I found myself reflecting on my own history with worship. And it dawned on me that it takes me much longer to enter into authentic worship than it used to. So naturally I began to try and analyze why this is so. Back in college, it was easy for me to enter into worship without worrying about what people thought or without evaluating the band or my surroundings. But I think a large contributor to this fact was that I was attending chapel 3 times a week, church twice a week, and worshipping on a regular basis with wonderful communities and an amazing band. It was a constant part of my life.

On a bit of a different track, I have also been thinking a lot lately about spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines. I am working on choosing a book for our church’s women’s ministry small groups to study this fall, and the book I am looking seriously at is all about spiritual formation and discipline. It has been a great reminder that much of our faith is about training ourselves to become more like Christ. We don’t easily and naturally sit down and pray for 5 hours. Well, at least I don’t. But through discipline and training, this can become possible. In some ways, I think the same is true about worship. I believe in order to authentically and genuinely worship, it takes practice. It takes practice to shut out the nagging thoughts about the day’s schedule. It takes practice to turn your thoughts fully on God. And it takes practice to not think about how your voice sounds, how the band sounds, or how your neighbor sounds. Perhaps this is too harsh a way to think about worship. But I think we have to admit that there is a ring of truth to it. If our only time of worship is on Sunday mornings from 9:30-10:00am, then we don’t get much practice, do we? It’s difficult for your heart to be focused on worship. But if it’s a discipline that we focus on throughout the week, we learn to be better and more authentic worshippers. And not just alone, but together in church, in our small groups, at MOPS, wherever we gather. For me, I have been challenged to try and be more disciplined in my worship experiences throughout the week. I want worship to become a natural part of my life and who I am, and not just be a Sunday morning at 9:30 thing.

Do you ever feel out of practice with worship? What are some ways that you incorporate worship throughout the week?

*for the context of this post, worship is referring to singing worship songs. I realize that worship is so much more than song, but for simplicity’s sake I will use the term worship for music.

When in Rome...

Well, we've been there and back again as Bilbo Baggins would say. We managed to journey to Europe and back, and we had an unbelievable time! We've put lots of pictures up on Anthony's facebook account, so be sure to check those out. But I thought it would be a good idea to give a brief recap on the blog for those who are interested :)

Zurich:

Our first destination was Zurich, Switzerland! Why, you ask? Well because Anthony and I wanted to see more than 1 country (and Italy was for sure). We looked at France, Spain, and Switzerland, and Switzerland won out with the cheapest plane tickets! We flew into Zurich and spent much of our two days there recovering from jet lag. We didn't let it slow us down too much, though! Our first day was spent exploring downtown Zurich. We toured some cathedrals, wandered the streets of Old Town, and took a ferry around Lake Zurich. We spent a good portion of our second day hiking Zurich's mountain, Uetliberg. It was a beautiful hike with fantastic views of the city! The best part? Taking a cable car down the mountain!

Corniglia (Cinque Terre):

We could not have asked for a more picturesque location! Corniglia is one of the 5 towns making up the Cinque Terre region of Italy. These small towns are built in the cliffs along the Mediterranean Sea. Words cannot express how beautiful they are or how clear the water was. Try Googling Cinque Terre and look at the images. You'll begin to see what I mean. One cool, but exhausting thing about Corniglia is that the actual town is up on the cliff. Which means a good 400 steps from the train station. And a good 400 steps to get to the water. Beauty comes at a price, I suppose. We enjoyed a relaxing couple of days exploring the towns and swimming. Our last day there, we hiked part of the trail between our town and the next town. What I thought would be a simple, easy hike turned out to be much more intense. But the views made it worth it. And we met some fun people along the way.

Florence:

Florence was beautiful! It's definitely a bigger town, but easily walkable. We were lucky enough to spend some time with Anne Messer who was finishing her month in Florence taking a literature class for college. It was so fun to meet up with someone we knew and who could show us around a little. We visited the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and Piazza Signoria. We also made sure to walk through the Uffizi, one of the biggest museums in Florence. One special thing about Florence is that we happened to be visiting during Music Week. This, of course, meant that orchestra music filled the air every evening from the main square. We LOVED it! And spent some of each evening listening and taking in the sites.

Venice:

This was probably the most magical of the places we visited. Everything about Venice is beautiful. The canals, the bridges, the streets. It all looks just as you would picture old Italy. You just have to block out the thousands of tourists :) I had a love/hate relationship with the streets of Venice. No maps could help us, and we were lost most of our time there (they're just so winding!). This was fine most of the time and allowed us to explore the city. But when we're hauling luggage around trying to find out hotel, it's not so fun! We visited St. Mark's Basilica and the Realto Market (talk about fresh seafood!). Probably our favorite part of Venice was the most unexpected part.... we were there for the Redentore Festival which happens the 3rd Saturday of July. The fesitval celebrates the end of the Bubonic Plague (of course!). We joined the rest of the city on the grand canal to watch fireworks! It by far one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. We got to see how Venetians party, and the fireworks display was the best I've ever seen. Little One, you should put these on your list of firework shows to see in your lifetime.

Rome:

By the time we got to Rome, we were pretty exhausted. Walking all day, every day, in the hot sun really takes it out of you. But we were still determined to see what we could see. We stayed the longest in Rome - 4 days. Our first day (which was really a half day by the time our train arrived), we spent exploring the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona (one of the most beautiful squares!). Day 2 was spent at the Vatican. We toured the Vatican Museum and stared at the Sistine Chapel. We explored St. Peter's Basilica as well (so huge!). Day 3 was our historical day... we went to the Colosseum, Palentine Hill, and the Forum. It was one of the time when I wished we had a guide to tell us more about the history. But being there was certainly still amazing. We ended Day 3 with an evening at the theater. Movie theater, that is! We found a movie theater showing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in English! This is a rare thing indeed (most movies are dubbed in Italy). We simply couldn't wait until we got home to see it, so we gladly watched it in Rome. It was fun to meet other Americans and Brits who came to see the movie. We enjoyed the movie, though left a little sad that it was over. Day 4 was a more relaxed day. Part of the day was spent exploring St. Angelo's Castle (so cool!). We then relaxed in the afternoon in the Borghese region of Rome. It's a big park area with a lagoon. We found a bench and read for a while. It was a much needed break before heading home!

If you've made it this far, you've gotten a brief summary of our trip. We had so much fun, and were so blessed to be able to do it. It was definitely an adventure for the 2 of us. We enjoyed the places we stayed and have already begun dreaming of our next Europe trip (maybe France and England....?). It's good to be home though, and we're ready to take on the fall!

Emily

The March-y-ness of Time

 Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
So do our moments hasten to their end.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 60


Time is ever marching onward and there is nothing (short of experimental time travel) we can do to stop it. Which to some, I suppose, can sound entirely depressing. But when you're still 24 (or only a quarter-century old, such as my splendid wife) time moving quickly is still exciting and breathtaking. One moment you're dancing, the next you're receiving knee-surgery (that would be me); one moment you're office support, the next you're Office Manager (and that would be Emily); one day you're dreaming of traveling to Europe, and the next you're beginning to pack and do laundry for your trip which is only 8 days away (that would be both of us)!

And, of course, blogs have no respect for time. They will continue sitting there unentertainingly as your life moves forward and no one bother to update. But no longer! Today this blogging-strike ends! Today words shall flow like water cascading off of a cliff! Or at least like jello jiggling out of a Tupperware dish. Regardless, here is a brief update on just about everything. About Emily and I. In particular.

1) While dancing a jig in February, I somehow managed to tear my meniscus in my left knee. Many painful, limping weeks later, it was delightfully repaired by a surgeon who apparently I met, but I have no recollection. Ah, the delights of anesthesia.

2) My parents visited Emily and I and the Okoboji region last week (was it only last week?). They were here for 10 days--over two weekends--and we were thrilled. We showed them around town; they were able to hear me lead worship one week and preach the next; we spent a thoroughly therapeutic Thursday on the water (with many "thank yous" to the Steffens); we met up for dinner with my sister Jolee; and we conversed for endless hours, usually long, long after sunset. Emily and I both love to have guests as well as entertain, and it's always a special treat (if not a strange role-reversal) when it's our parents.

3) Some of the most exciting--though aforementioned--news is that Emily and I are heading to Europe! Since the primordial days of our friendship, we have always talked about wanting to go to Europe, and once we became lovers, it became clear to both of us that it was a dream that had to one day come true, or else we might each go crazy in our own little ways. Well, craziness will not overtake us. We came to the conclusion that while we don't have kids, before I start grad school, and while we don't yet have a house to take care of, we should grip this opportune time of our lives by the horns and ride it all the way to Zurich, Cinque Terre, Florence, Venice, and Rome. It will be a trip that will be romantic, adventurous, carefree, educational, and dream-come-true-ing all at once. In a word: stupendous.

Okay. Alright. Enough from me for now. Just as time is unceasing and stubborn, so does this pesky need to sleep at least once a day. I suppose I will succumb to it yet again. G'nite!

Book Review: One Thousand Gifts

Contrary to popular belief, Anthony and I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth. Just the face of the blogging sphere. And though I will try to make a real update come soon, this will have to do for now. A while back, Anthony signed up to receive a free book from Zondervan Publishing with the promise of blogging a review. The book came in the mail and sat there for a while unread (which happens when you have a husband who likes to order tons of books but then doesn't have time to read them.) So one day, with the urging of a friend who was already reading it (thanks Little One!), I decided to pick it up and read it myself. And therefore found myself with the job of reviewing it. So bear with me folks, I don't think I've done a book review since 5th grade. The book, which I'm sure you all are dying to know by now, is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

I will begin by saying it was very difficult for me to get into the book. Some books are able to pull you in right away, and other are so easy to skim through. But Ann uses such a unique voice in her writing that it was near impossible for me to use my well-honed skimming skills. Although this might sound like a negative to the book, I will say that it ended up being one of the most positive things I can say about it. What Ann was able to do was force me to sit and actually read the words she had written. I had to take time and actually think through what she was writing. Not skip ahead and assume that I knew what the author was trying to say. So kudos to Ann Voskamp for her unique writing style that eventually got me in the end. If you happen to pick up this book... give it a chance to get used to her voice and style. It will be well worth it in the end.

Overall, I would say One Thousand Gifts is a refreshing take on what it means to actually live out the Christian life. Ann challenges her readers to live fully and purposefully in everything you do. She shows practically how she moved from being a woman dissatisfied with the mundane to learning to see God working in and through her life. What I appreciated about this book is that it doesn't give the reader "5 easy steps to having more of God in your life." Nor does it sugar coat the growth process. Ann was very real and honest in her struggles with the transformation process, and she readily admits the years it took her to get where she is now. Through story and inner musings, Ann takes the reader on a journey exploring how to live out a life of continual thanks and in grace - a life of eucharisteo. And for her, it all started with a challenge to write a list of 1,000 things she loves. And from there, discovering that perhaps the Greek word eucharisteo really does hold the key to it all.

I won't go into much more detail. I encourage you to read it for yourself and be challenged to live differently. One final note that I will mention: many might see Ann's book as a women's book (especially by looking at the cover), but I would argue that story and lesson transcends gender. I believe men could get just as much out of this book as women. Yes, it's written by a woman and therefore includes details about her life as a wife and mom, but there is so much more depth that should be experience by men and women. I will end by saying that I definitely recommend the book. It was challenging, encouraging, and unlike any book I've read before.

If you're interested in buying it, here's a link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-Gifts-Fully-Right/dp/0310321913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307732338&sr=8-1

Until next time,

Emily

It's Friday (Friday, Friday, Friiiday)

It's Friday!!! For some reason, whenever I say that (or think it or write it), I am always reminded of a song I sang my freshman year of high school in choir. I don't even remember what the name of the song is, but it was a cheesy song about students being excited for Friday. So it starts with "It's Friday! (and the other parts echo: Friday, Friday Friiiiday) Today is Friday-day." It never fails. After all these years, that silly song is still in my head. Just thought you all would enjoy that :)

The sun is shining today with temperatures in the 30's... it's about as warm as it's been since October! I am definitely getting antsy for spring. I thought a trip to Hawaii would cause us to be ok with the rest of winter, but not so! I am ready to be outside again, for people to come back to the area, and for flip flops. But March is here, so hopefully it won't be too much longer!

Nothing too exciting is going on in the Parrott household. Perhaps the most exciting this for us recently is that we got a new couch and chair set! My boss is in the process of building and moving into a new home, and was looking to get rid of her set. It's a million times nicer than our old set (may it rest in peace in the church's youth room) and so comfortable! We were happy. A big thank you to those who helped get it in! It's no easy task to get a huge couch up to a second floor condo unit with only a small winding staircase.

Anthony and I don't have a lot planned for this weekend. Which is a nice thing because this week has felt really long and really busy for some reason (it really wasn't much different than a normal week). Tomorrow (Saturday) night, we are hosting 2 students from St. Olaf College. Their band is coming to play at the Sami Center (our theater/auditorium) and then smaller ensembles will be playing at various churches. A flute ensemble will be at Good News, and 2 of them will be staying with us! It should be a fun adventure.

It's been a while since I've blogged, so I don't think I mentioned the wonderful surprise visit from friends last month. Anthony was in on it, but managed to keep it a secret from me for quite some time. 3 of our best friends from college came and surprised me, and we had such a good time! I was thinking it would be spring or summer before we would see faces from home, and it was a perfect pick-me-up for February (or any time of the year, really). Speaking of visitors, my parents are coming out in a couple of weeks to spend their spring break with us (they both work for the local high school)! I am really excited to see them and spend some time with them. Hopefully some of the restaurants start to open up by then :)

Welp, I think that might be it for today, folks. Sorry for the not-so-deep post, but like I said it's Friday and my mind is not running too deep today :)

Much Love,

Emily