"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what's going to happen next."

Monday, March 8, 2010

A Fun Marriage Tip

From: "Laugh your way to a better marriage." By Mark Gungor
     One of my favorite verses in the Bible reads, "Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much revenue comes by the strength of the ox" (Pro.14:4). The meaning is clear: If you have an ox, you're going to have ox poo. If you don't want any ox poo, then you have to get rid of the ox. But an ox is a good thing--we get "much revenue" from having an ox. So there's the quandary: If you want the benefit of having an ox, you're going to have to endure the poo that comes with it.

     Marriage is a good thing. We get "much revenue" from being joined to another person. However, there are problems. There is no such thing as a poo-free marriage.
     Nevertheless, marriage is wonderful. I love being married! And what's the alternative? Being alone for the rest of your life? That's no picnic, either. The point is, challenges come with every choice we make.
     Now, if all you are getting out of your marriage is a pile of poo, you have yourself one sick ox. I can help you with that.
     The problem is, many don't expect to find any poo at all in their marriage, and when they encounter stuff that stinks, they see it as a sign that they married the wrong person.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Hikkoshi (引っ越し)

Phew! Thank you Jesus, we got the house, and we're moving. That's our room in its present condition. We're pretty much turning it upside-down.

We should be like the bubble, blowing free and unrestrained
I was playing with one of those kids bubble toys, where you put what is like glue at the tip of a short straw, and you blow into it to make bubbles. The point is to try to make it big. As I watched it blow in the air, I thought that that's kind of how we need to be in the Spirit--we need to flow where the wind blows us. And if it seems to be blowing us somewhere unknown or unfamiliar to us, we need to trust that we'll end up where we're meant to be, that we're in God's hands.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Hina-matsuri

Hina-matsuri
River made these little treats for Hina-matsuri.

     [Definition: The Japanese Doll Festival (雛祭り, Hina-matsuri?), or Girls' Day, is held on March 3.[1] Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (雛人形, hina-ningyō?) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.
  The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi (雛流し?, lit. "doll floating"), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them. The Shimogamo Shrine (part of the Kamo Shrine complex in Kyoto) celebrates the Nagashibina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo Rivers to pray for the safety of children. People have stopped doing this now because of fishermen catching the dolls in their nets. They now send them out to sea, and when the spectators are gone they take the boats out of the water and bring them back to the temple and burn them.]



Deryk and Kenj with their most playful uncle--Daiki.