Everyone, I hope you have a wonderful and very Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your families and long weekend. Rest. Eat. And most of all, be thankful.
I, for one, will be doing all of the above. Expect my return next Monday, after the long holiday. And please know: I’m thankful for you, my loyal readers.
Today I’m writing over at the Good Women Project on Porn, Your Marriage, and Our Lackluster Sex Lives. Here’s how I begin:
They want you to believe that pornography isn’t harmful, and safe even. They want you to believe that it is somehow vastly different from actual physical adultery. They want you to believe that pornography in no way effects your sex life, except that it enhances it and makes it “sexier.” They want you to believe that porn can actually jump start a dull sex life and bring about renewed sexual desire in a marriage. They want you to believe that a husband or a wife viewing pornography will look at their spouse exactly the same way even after staring at strangers’ naked bodies. They want you to believe because they know good and well that it is all a lie, but the more of it you fall for, the better.
I heard someone say the other day how thankful we should be that we don’t serve a mean, vicious, spiteful, or angry God. We don’t serve a God of ancient Greek mythology who meddles in our lives for self-gratification or, worse, out of boredom.
No, we should be thankful because we serve a good God–a kind, generous, faithful God. I’ll admit, though, that I had never really contemplated the fact that our God could have been some other type of God. He could have been a mean, forgetful, neglectful God.
And what if He was? What if God treated us the way we treat Him? It’s not a perfect, apples-to-apples comparison, but play along anyway.
Friday, sweet Friday, it felt as though you would never get here this week. And I’m so thankful you’re here now.
Can you believe that this time next week we’ll be overdosed on tryptophan and cranberries (just the way I like it). But until then, I’m holding off on entering the holiday season as long as possible. So today’s Friday Findings are holiday-free. First up…
Piccsy. How did I not know about you? You are like a long lost cousin to Pinterest, only much sexier and better looking. Oh, and British.
Piccsy represents mankind. It is all of the emotion, the beauty, the wild, the valor, the humanity, the hatred, in pictures. Crude, beautiful, delightful, whimsical, and even painful photos. It is our good ideas, our funny ideas, and our terrible ideas.
It is a montage of human life and I am hooked.
Beautiful packaging. Now maybe you’re not like me in this, but I sure do appreciate some nicely packaged product. The weirder or more clever, the better. Then I found this list of 30 Bizarre and Creative Packaging Design examples the other day and was psyched to peruse the examples shown. There is some genius to be seen.
My favorite read(s) of the week. From Theology 21, Mannequin Nipples And Erotomania: Rethinking Consumer Culture (yes, that’s really what it’s about) From The Resurgence, Homemade People, about the importance of our homes.
Young and battling cancer. You may have seen the movie 50/50 recently about a young man in his twenties diagnosed with cancer. Well, turns out my husband and I know someone who is currently facing the same thing. Billy Price a.k.a William Price III is a friend of ours and was recently diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. He is 28.
Billy loves Jesus. He trusts God and this is how much…he tweeted this last month to announce the news:
Yesterday I was diagnosed w/ Hodgkins Lymphoma. It’s a very treatable cancer. I’m feeling great & by the grace of God we’ll kick its ass.
Billy is now blogging about this turn of events. His blog isn’t all cancer talk. It is also humor, politics, love, life…Start reading. You won’t regret it.
I attended a wedding recently. Over dinner, my husband and I sat across from a newlywed couple we know. We started in on the usual chit chat. They asked us about our kids.
During our conversation, I misheard the wife and thought she had said something about having a baby. Her husband quickly and loudly corrected me. “No! No baby! Not anytime soon!”
We all laughed. They then explained some of their “baby hesitation” to us. They had a few couple friends who became pregnant and promised that having a baby would not affect their friendships or lifestyles.
However, once babies were born, their friends slowly disappeared. No more dinners, no movies, no evening hangouts. They vanished and were sucked up in the baby vacuum swirling with car seats, burp cloths, and the dreaded suburban nightmare: the minivan!
They asked us point-blank: “What have you not been able to do since having kids?”
Jonathan, my husband, and I paused for a second and looked at one another. Then we replied in unison… Continue reading Does Life Stop After Kids?
Since I started writing here on Modern Reject, I’ve had the great privilege of answering many of your questions. Granted, I’m not always sure of the answers. Many times I don’t know exactly what to say, but still you ask…and still I’m honored to respond.
So today, you get to ask me all of your burning questions. You can ask anything. That’s right anything (well, don’t get creepy or turn into that guy).
Do you have blogging questions? Want to know something personal about me? Wondering why I write about this and not that or where I stand on a theological point? Do you have a question about marriage, sex, or dating? I’m all ears. Just ask!
My promise it too that if you ask the question in the comments, I will answer you. Cross my heart. But here’s the catch: you have to answer the question too. So go for it because, I can’t wait to read your questions…
A lot of people seem to think that who you are is more important than what you do. “Just be yourself” has become a slogan in the self-esteem movement.
Being yourself is touted as some kind of aspiration worth achieving–a sort of goal that, once fulfilled, equates to happiness and wholeness.(Doesn’t Oprah tell people to “be themselves” along with telling them they are their own gods?)
When life throws you trouble, people tell you to be yourself. When conflict arises, people tell you to be yourself. When you question your purpose in life, we often remind ourselves to, well, just be ourselves.
But what if being yourself is what got you into trouble in the first place? What if being yourself ain’t so great? I propose that you actually shouldn’t be yourself.
Happy Friday. This week, I made a new discovery, found a list honoring our troops and announce the winners of this week’s giveaway. Woot! First up…
Female voices. Alece Ronzino on her blog Grit and Glory compiled a list of female Christian voices when she posed this question on Twitter: “Who would you say is an influential, inspirational, creative FEMALE voice? Why?”
I was totally humbled and blown away to have found my way onto this list, along with some of my own favorite bloggers. I was also introduced to many female writers that I had yet to discover and I can’t wait to scope them out. You should, too. I think you’ll find some really talented and unique bloggers to follow. And you can add your own suggestions in the comments.
Our troops. In honor of Veteran’s Day today as well, here is a great compilation of the 15 Best, Most Famous Remembrance Day Sayings, including one of my all-time favorites:
“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.” -G.K. Chesterton
Big thanks. And finally, a humongous thanks to each and every one of you who entered the 1st ever Modern Reject Giveaway! What a fun week. I hope you all enjoyed the giveaway as much as I did! I’m looking forward to doing more in the future. Playing Santa is addicting.
And the moment you’ve been waiting for…
The winners of the giveaway prizes based on Random.org’s number generator:
#126 Kellie
#132 Chelsea
#4 Molly
#47 Katy
#5 Travis
Congratulations to all the winners! I’d also like to give one more huge shout out to those who contributed to the giveaway. If you have yet to stop by their sites, please do and show them some love. They are so talented and you’ll be happy you did:
Jones Design Company by Emily Jones
Jim LePage and his amazingly cool Word series
So what caught your eye this week? Any new discoveries? Do you honor any veterans in your family? Tell me!
Ever wonder what exactly is acceptable from a purity standpoint within a dating relationship? Is holding hands the extent or can you make-out (with tongue)? What if you happen to do a little more…where do you draw the line?
Well, my friend and writer Ally Spotts just wrote an e-book called Asking All The Wrong Questions: Why Christians are Waiting for Marriage for Sex? Basically, Ally demystifies this question and challenges Christians to begin asking the right questions about sex.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early copy and let me tell you, Ally pulls no punches. She says what everyone is thinking. If you are a single Christian navigating the dating world have you ever asked yourself any of these questions: Continue reading How Far is Too Far When Dating?
******This Giveaway is Now Closed*******
Welcome to Modern Reject 2.1. My beautiful blog just got a whole lot prettier with a new face-lift. You may be thinking pish-posh, she didn’t need it, but au contraire.
The new and improved version of Modern Reject is full of fanciness that will actually improve your experience. The navigation is easier to use, which means you’ll be able to find what you are looking for faster. The new sidebar, for example, now lets you find posts by subject like sex, marriage, church, lists, and other topics.
“What else,” you ask? Well, let me tell you. You can also subscribe much more easily to Modern Reject. Say you don’t want every post in your email or RSS (but I gotta ask, why wouldn’t you?) you can subscribe to a specific category, like Culture or It’s Love. Simple and cool.
Perhaps you are much like I used to be, however, and you are unsure what this whole “subscribe” business means. It allows you to never miss a Modern Reject post. You can choose to subscribe via email, which would bring posts right to your inbox. Spiffy, huh? Or you can use an RSS reader, like Google Reader (my preferred choice), which lets you read many different blogs in one place. Also very cool.
To subscribe via email, all you need to do is enter your email in the box up at the top of every page that reads: Get my emails. Easy peasy.
And, if you’re a mobile junkie like me and, say, you prefer to visit Modern Reject on your phone, well the times are a changin’. There is (finally!) a very nice mobile version of Modern Reject. You can even post and respond to comments from your phone.
Now, as you can read, I’m quite excited about the new Modern Reject look and, as a result, I thought I’d throw a little party–the first ever giveaway on Modern Reject! Woot!
So what’s behind door #4? Let me tell ya. I’m giving away some cool stuff… Continue reading GIVEAWAY: $50 Amazon Giftcard and a Whole Lot More