Sunday, January 29, 2012

Coming in 2012...............................


What a busy busy year we have ahead!!!!!! We have a date for the wedding - May 12th. So excited about all the fun times ahead over the next few months. They are so precious and can't wait to get married.

And then as if that weren't enough excitement for the year..................................................................


Look who is going to be a "Big Bro"!!! Baby Peep coming in September. We are bursting at the seams at the Cheney household. So many blessings to look forward to and such thankful hearts to the Lord for our family that just keeps growing and growing.

Plenty more to say in the weeks to come. Just wanted to share with everyone since the Okay has been given. Have a blessed week.

"Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them."
Deuteronomy 4:9



Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Death of Pretty

I read this article yesterday and haven't stopped thinking about the truth of it. As a girl who grew up hearing "pretty is is pretty does" this struck a chord with me. As a mother of two daughters, one grown and gone but one still very much at home and caught up finding her place amid the maelstrom of teenage culture, I am curious to know your thoughts on this. How do we bring pretty back? How do we teach our daughters it is your inner beauty that radiates to become lasting outward beauty. How do we teach them that if they spent as much time cultivating their spirit in relationship to Christ as they do scrutinizing themselves in front of the mirror that their beauty would be dazzling. I guess they must first see it in their mommas. Tell me what you think - I look forward to your comments.

The Death Of Pretty


Share by Pat Archbold Wednesday, December 21, 2011 11:11 AM Comments (631)
This post is intended as a lament of sorts, a lament for something in the culture that is dying and may never been seen again.
Pretty, pretty is dying.
People will define pretty differently. For the purposes of this piece, I define pretty as a mutually enriching balanced combination of beauty and projected innocence.
Once upon a time, women wanted to project an innocence. I am not idealizing another age and I have no illusions about the virtues of our grandparents, concupiscence being what it is. But some things were different in the back then. First and foremost, many beautiful women, whatever the state of their souls, still wished to project a public innocence and virtue. And that combination of beauty and innocence is what I define as pretty.
By nature, generally when men see this combination in women it brings out their better qualities, their best in fact. That special combination of beauty and innocence, the pretty inspires men to protect and defend it.
Young women today do not seem to aspire to pretty, they prefer to be regarded as hot. Hotness is something altogether different. When women want to be hot instead of pretty, they must view themselves in a certain way and consequently men view them differently as well.
As I said, pretty inspires men’s nobler instincts to protect and defend. Pretty is cherished. Hotness, on the other hand, is a commodity. Its value is temporary and must be used. It is a consumable.
Nowhere is this pretty deficit more obvious than in our “stars,” the people we elevate as the “ideal.” The stars of the fifties surely suffered from the same sin as do stars of today. Stars of the fifties weren’t ideal but they pursued a public ideal different from today.
The merits of hotness over pretty is easy enough to understand, they made an entire musical about it. Who can forget how pretty Olivia Newton John was at the beginning of Grease. Beautiful and innocent. But her desire to be desired leads her to throw away all that is valuable in herself in the vain hopes of getting the attention of a boy. In the process, she destroys her innocence and thus destroys the pretty. What we are left with is hotness.
Hotness is a consumable. A consumable that consumes as it is consumed but brings no warmth.
Most girls don’t want to be pretty anymore even if they understand what it is. It is ironic that 40 years of women’s liberation has succeeded only in turning women into a commodity. Something to be used up and thrown out.
Of course men play a role in this as well, but women should know better and they once did. Once upon a time you would hear girls talk about kind of women men date and the kind they marry. You don’t hear things like that anymore.
But here is the real truth. Most men prefer pretty over hot. Even back in 6th grade I hated the “hot” Olivia Newton John and felt sorry for her that she had to debase herself in such a way. Still do.
Our problem is that society doesn’t value innocence anymore, real or imagined. Nobody aspires to innocence anymore. Nobody wants to be thought of as innocent, the good girl. They want to be hot, not pretty.
I still hope that pretty comes back, although I think it not likely any time soon. For every Taylor Swift, there are a hundred Megan Foxs, or Lindsay Lohans, or Miley Cyruses etc.

Girls, please, bring back the pretty.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Random

I miss blogging! The technology issues in my house are too complicated to explain beside the fact that no one cares. So..... what has been going on in my world? Not as much as what is going to be going on in my world. 2012 is about to get exciting! Did I mention we are having a wedding? May 12. We are so excited we can hardly stand ourselves!!! Our future daughter-in-love is precious (her own post is coming shortly -she deserves one :) ) and she is busy busy making arrangements. Baby girl has been asked to sing at the wedding and you would think she was going to perform at Carnegie Hall. She was so proud when they asked her. So she and I have been frantically searching pinterest - of which I am now obsessed - looking for stuff to wear. I laughed earlier at the idiocy of that because our groom - said son- was just commenting to me a bit ago when I asked him about a t-shirt he had on that I didn't understand, that in the last ten years (since he has been gone from credit card disbursing home)- that he has probably only spent about $100 on clothes for himself. To include socks and underwear. That Christine is one lucky woman. My boy is many many wonderful things, high-maintenance is not one of them. I will have to post pics later of his before and after beard he has been sporting for the last several months.
Aside from all things weddings I have been doing the following:
-working hard on lessons for the Bible as literature class I am teaching this semester. It is so much fun and my students are a lot of fun.
-reading the Hunger Games trilogy and several other books. I read several at a time. Don't know why but it works for me!
-trying out new healthier recipes. I recently lost 25 pounds and I am anxious to stay that way. Plus I have a wedding to dress for :) Just a note, baby girl and sweet man are not buying that pureed cauliflower and mashed potatoes taste the same. Even with cheese on top.
-Being obsessed with pinterest. Why can't I come up with a cool idea like that?
- Sticking to my resolution

What do I have to look forward to this year:
- Wedding!!!!!!!!
- Baby girl turns Sweet 16 in a couple of months, sniff, sniff
- Watching my sweet grandpeeps be ring bearers together at the wedding. I can just picture them in their little tuxes!!!!
- Watching our sweet baby boy get married. Sniff, sniff
- Our oldest grandpeep starts kindergarten this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!Sniff, sniff
- Starting our new Bible study on James with my bible study peeps! Can't wait
- Hopefully blogging more - I am anxious to write more this year.
- Every day being thankful to God for another day to live for Him - I hope I do not disappoint Him.

Hope your year is starting out wonderfully. One of my sweet friends commented today that January is the Monday of months! It will be gone in a flash. Cherish every day.
Blessings,
Michelle

Sunday, January 1, 2012

RESOLVE

Happy New Year!!!! 2012 - I still remember like it was yesterday being a senior in high school and thinking as I listened to "Party like its 1999" that that was soooooooooo far away! Now it is the year 2012. Time keeps right on marching doesn't it? It waits for no one.

2011 overall was a good year for our family. But as I look forward to 2012, I am eager with anticipation. I don't even know how to explain it, yet I feel as though this year is going to hold some major changes for us. Good things. Even if there is trouble - overall good things. My precious in-loves spent the day with us yesterday as we celebrated their anniversary. 57 years! FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot imagine all they have experienced together. They have seen it all. But more importantly they survived it all - together. They have no idea what a testimony they are to all of us. My mother in-love said she and Gerald sat and talked yesterday morning about the day they got married all those years ago and having no idea what would be in store for them and then they looked above their mantle and stared at the legacy of their 57 years together. Their family of two is now one of twenty-three and this year will increase to twenty-four ( did I mention we are having a wedding!!! Whoop Whoop!).

As I sat and listened to them tell their story of courtship and marveled at how they both still blush as it is told all these years later, I felt compelled to ask them what is the one piece of advice they would give about marriage.

My father-in-love said without hesitation, " Give thanks for all your blessings, all the good times and prosperous times, but more importantly see the hard times as opportunities for growth." Mother-in-love said, " Never give up. Keep going day after day." Then I asked for their best parenting advice after all this time. They both agreed with one thing - Consistency.
It struck me as I thought about what they said, that their model for marriage and parenting has always been biblical. Even after 57 years - their model for living is God's Word. And it also struck me that even though the world is so different now than when they married 57 years ago and the times we are raising children in is so different than when they raised theirs - GODS WORD IS NOT DIFFERENT!!!!! His model for righteous living is not changing. Regardless of how the world changes, He is steadfast and His plan will endure for generation upon generation.

Which leads to me today. January 1. Beginning of a new year. A fresh start if you will. I don't normally make resolutions, however I am reading The Resolution for Women and I am stating that my prayer for this year is to become a woman of RESOLVE. By definition I am stating that I desire to be a woman who is determined and has firmness of purpose or intent.

A woman who:
 - seeks God's word for daily living - not just in  overall life but the dailyness of a life submitted to God.
- remembers that for my prayers to be answered for my children to love the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind, they must see it in me.
 - leads by example to my daughters and daughters-in-love what the biblical model for femininity is
-is not defeated when issues arise but rather is equipped with the armor of God to fight the battle ahead
- wants more of Christ every day
- who is not daunted  in my role as mother when asked "Why do my parents have to be so different from everybody else?"
- who is ready to answer "Because God calls us to be different, that's why" and pray they too will choose Him over what the world offers.
- prays diligently for my husband and my family
-who stands firmly on the foundation of God's word even while storms may swirl around me.
- who is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ
-who remembers every day the sacrifice made for her on the Cross and lives a sacrificial life not a selfish one.

I am so thankful for our time with my in-loves yesterday. I have been struggling with some things lately and through our visit yesterday God reminded me - He is the same. Jesus- yesterday, today and tomorrow. His plan never fails. And I RESOLVE to believe Him.

Happy New Year!