true.

i woke up this morning with "the voice of truth" by casting crowns in my head. a bit out of nowhere but wonderfully appropriate. besides the killer rock-out "the stone was just the right size to put the giant on the grounnnndd" part that i always have to turn down for fear of somebody outside the car/house hearing it and besides the fact that i actually haven't listened to it since i drove an explorer, the lyrics stick with me:

but the voice of truth tells me a different story
the voice of truth says do not be afraid
the voice of truth says this is for my glory
out of all the voices calling out to me
i will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

okay, so maybe it's cheesy, whatev. last night at community group, we discussed having a son/daughter view versus an orphan view of ourselves in terms of God. of many significant statements, one that remains on my mind is that if we imagine the Lord's face as anything less than overjoyed when He thinks about us, we have fallen into a performance mindset. i think i very often imagine God having a kind of, well, just an "eh" kind of face or an almost scolding "what are you going to do to make that better?" face when He thinks of me. but overjoyed? rejoicing over me with singing? you mean i don't have to approach Him every morning hoping that what i have to say that day will be approved?

this morning i finished reading hebrews. 13:8 reads "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." this is one of those sentences in the bible that i would typically (and sadly) tend to ignore, fearing that quoting it would come across as too cross-stichy, if you can picture with me these words framed on a wall. but this morning the words were deeply comforting. i realized that the reason i imagine God's face as "eh" is because i think He changes how He sees me every morning. but if my relationship with God is based upon my salvation in Christ, and He's the same yesterday, today, and all days in both directions, God can't see me as anything but His completely loved and completely accepted daughter. and i can/should/need to believe that over my early-morning-fatigue-becomes-anxiety. the voice of truth. wonderfully, there is infinitely more to discover about God and i'm just getting my little taste of it for the day. i'll let you know what else i find out.

sarah and dan's wedding is this weekend. i was at target last monday and decided to buy their present early. i bought them a shower curtain off the registry. i was very proud of myself for making this purchase before the day before the wedding, so i told sarah how excited i was to have the present already. and she replied "if it's anything like the shower gifts, i'm excited!" what's funny is that it is absolutely nothing like the shower gifts which were unique, fair trade items from the store in which i spend 40 hours a week. instead it was a shower curtain, which, i mean, is that still like a shower gift simply by being a gift for use in the shower? i have since decided that i do not want to give her this shower curtain and will instead give her something from the seed that is unique, fair trade, etc., but i can't help but love the irony of "no, it's not like the shower gifts, it is a shower gift."

also, today is the four year anniversary of jeremy and my first date. it was march 12, 2005 and we spent 14 hours together. i'll tell you about it sometime. oh, love. :)