the majestic ficus tree

so...i was sitting in my university student center today and i noticed a tree. it was a living tree in a pot in the middle of this building where the only other living things were people (and bugs and maybe mice but we won't mention those because some of you are probably squeamish :) i started thinking about this tree, because it happens to be a picture of the way that human beings cry out for God's presence in everything. even in big cities there are small gardens and pets and things that remind us of God's goodness shown in creation.

how does this relate to your brothers? well i'll tell you. your brothers are human beings and they cry out for God's presence. i want you to show them God's presence in everything that you do. as a woman and a daughter of the Most High, you can display His character and creativity and joy and beauty in a way that no one and nothing else on this planet and in this universe can. i think that your brothers deserve to see that and i hope that you will show it to them. :-)

this is altogether necessary because the world around us is full of nontruth. nontruths about God and nontruths about us and nontruths about reality and nontruths about truth. so...display the truth! display the character of the Lord of the universe! it'll be fun ;-)

hummingbirds

i spent a lot of time this summer watching hummingbirds as they fluttered and flew around the feeder on my front porch. after awhile i started to notice their habits and personalities and i realized that most of the birds would never actually land on the birdfeeder because they didn't ever stop moving for long enough to.

coming back to school i've felt a bit like one of the hummingbirds: flitting from place to place and never stopping for long enough to sit still. in relation to my brothers this causes problems. i don't have very much time to sit and chat and learn more about their interesting lives, personalities, and hearts.

this makes me sad. brothers are so very important. mayhaps it would be good for me to chill out a little bit and make less time for things and more time for people.

storge

so...i think i was so excited to post my first blog post that i fogot to tell you what the title of the blog means. storge. it's greek! oh yay! storge is one of the four greek names of love. it normally sits behind agape (unconditional love), eros (passionate love) and philos (friendship love)...either behind them or not mentioned at all (like on my philosphy of love textbook). but i still haven't mentioned what it is, i'm easily distracted...sorry...oh look, something shiny! yeah, that was a ridiculous joke.

aaanyway, storge is the love of familial affection. like the love between a parent and child or a grandparent and grandchild or a brother and sister. i like this kind of love. i think it's important so i'm writing about it and will continue to write about it (Lord willing:) k thanks for reading!

why hello there, welcome to the blog! i'm glad that you're here. but i think that it would probably be a good idea for me to tell you why i'm here right, right?

hokay so, here's the earth (this is your cue to look at everything around you and say 'oh yeah, the earth is here')...and on that earth there are lots and lots of people. i don't know how many because i haven't counted them all (who does that?) but i do know that those people are seperated into two distinct groups: male and female, in case you were wondering, and that those two distinct groups are different but both made in the image of the Almighty God.

this particular blog is written for the female group of humans (if you don't fit in that category then i hope you know that you are a very precious masterpiece created by the Lord but this happens to not be the blog for you...you should go to ninjagentleman.com to find your blog :) this particular blog is written to women but it's written about men, more specifically it's written to women who follow Jesus about men who follow Jesus...oh yeah, one of those blogs right? NO!

i'm writing to you because i'm just about finished writing a book about how you should treat your brothers in Christ as brothers and not simply romantic "potentials." it's very exciting work and i'll tell you when it's finished (Lord willing) but for now i'm just going to tell you how i discovered the value of brothers, it took awhile because i can be pretty dense. :-)

so, one day i was chillin' in ma house and my big bro asked me to go to a thing by an organization called campus crusade for Christ. aaaannnd...i went. when i got there i met a cool group of men who treated me with respect and love and i stopped, stared, said 'wait, what!?,' and then got to know them better. soon i was told about the idea of brother-sisterhood within the family of God (you'll hear lots about that later but i don't want to kill your attention span with a desperately looooooong blog :)

these men confused me because they actually treated me well. they opened doors and gave away their umbrellas when it was raining and bowed and were generally helpful and not harmful and they did it all simply and only because i was a lady and their sister in Christ. this was obvious because they also treated every other woman that they came across with love and respect and care.

eventually, i wanted to know what it was that i could do for them. so i started asking questions, studying, and seeking out how to help my brothers and that's where the book and the blog come from: this search to help my brothers because they should be loved like Jesus by their sisters in Christ.

yup. that's the general idea. thanks for reading...i'll post more soon (Lord willing :)