POV of an Autistic (Asperger's) Mind at a Party

As you enter the building, your brain instantly receives all the sensory input at once; the smell of the wood floor, the lighting, the low roar of voices nearby, how tall the doorway is...

Stop. You try to banish all unnecessary thoughts because the most important thing is to respond correctly to the person greeting you. You smile, and wonder if your smile was genuine. Hopefully it was. Your hostess is chattering about the length of time it has been since she’s seen you, about things she has been doing to prepare for today, and all sorts of ordinary conversation, and you pay attention and tentatively try to respond.

You try asking a question about her day; that’s an acceptable thing to ask, right? She doesn’t hear you and keeps talking to the person beside you. You feel like an idiot, smiling and trying to get a word in edgewise, apparently inaudibly. Controlling the volume of your voice to be not too loud or soft is a skill that you don’t have, as is feeling out the appropriate timing for speaking up. Well, you tried...perhaps it’s better not to?

Your eyes begin darting everywhere, trying to take in the whole scene at once. How many people are here yet? Is it a loud and fun atmosphere or quiet and respectful? Where is the safest place in the room you should position yourself? Is there someone you should greet right away, or someone you know better than the others? 

You get distracted by a shiny decoration hanging from the ceiling. Is that home made? Could you make it yourself? You study the way the sunlight reflects onto it through the window.

Someone bumps into you. Seriously, are you invisible as well as inaudible? You question your own existence...again. 

You realize you were standing in the main walkway  where people had been going back and forth finishing up their preparations. You make a mental note to keep a sharp lookout for main walkways in the future and avoid them.

The person was carrying a tray of chex mix and some of it spilled on the floor. You apologize profusely and they are nice about it but you still feel like you have made a momentous mistake.

Wanting to be useful, you reach down to pick up some of it, but only succeed in whacking their hand with yours as they pick it all up, so you awkwardly stand up again. Great. You can’t even be any help to anyone.

There are more people here now. They are arriving too quickly for you to process who they all are and what your relationship to them should be. It’s overwhelming, but you remind yourself they won’t care. They don’t really see you and you are alright with it staying that way until you can collect your sense. 

You want to go home.

No! You don’t want to go home; this is the closest thing you have to a social life right now even though it is a challenge. This realization brings tears to your eyes. No. You can’t be emotional in the middle of a party. Water. If you just drink some water it will soothe the lump in your throat. There are people getting drinks at a drinks table so it must be an okay time.

You head to the table and see there is lemonade. They did the thing where you pour several cups ahead of time and set them on the table really close together. Okay, you can do this. Concentrate. You reach forward and take hold of what appears to be the safest cup. Almost got it.

Seriously? Your hand jerks as if with a will of it’s own and knocks into another cup, splashing some lemonade (pink lemonade, of course) onto the white tablecloth. There has got to be such a thing as bad luck. How else could you have spilled two things in ten minutes?

Later, you find yourself standing against the wall. You recall how many times in your life you have heard the joke about holding up the wall. You plan out how if someone says it this time, you will have a witty response ready. Maybe it would make them laugh and they would not walk away, and it might start a conversation. 

You realize you’re standing still as a statue. You can’t do that-you check your phone and reply to a text message from a long-distance friend. Unfortunately the person who wants to talk to you is far away and not here with you now. If you would just stop thinking about yourself. Is there someone you can be a help to? Someone who needs you to listen to them? A job you can do for someone?

You look around at all the different groups interacting, you wonder if you’re being anti-social, but somehow it looks overwhelming to just walk up to one of them. When you do try that, people seem to guess you don’t know what you’re doing. You watch as other people go up and interrupt each other, circulate throughout the room and seem completely at ease. You have never known what that would be like.

Someone walks by you, appearing to be unattached to any groups or conversations. They stand still and survey the room for a few seconds as if undecided, and then they turn and see you looking at them, so you go ahead and say something random to them. Surprisingly, they actually talk to you, and even get you talking. 

You try to keep your sentences very short so the person does not feel bored and want to escape. The things you’re saying mean nothing to you, but they are like keys that unlock the person, who turns toward you and exhibits body language that says that they are willing to stand there with you instead of escape. This boosts your confidence so that you relax, and you and the other person start to talk about other things that you both relate to.

Finally, someone is exuding energy that you can pick up on. Maybe your spirits are kindred, or on the same wavelength or something. Not that you’re jumping to an assumption, of course. You don’t want to come across desperate for friends and over-enthusiastically grab onto them. 

As you make attempts to converse, they respond heartily and smile and you talk back and forth. This person is not walking away or looking at you as if you were from outer space. You try not to show your exhilaration at the fact that you are actually participating in a conversation. 

Unfortunately, someone comes up and tries to physically pull them away. Why don’t they even try to resist? They must want to be pulled away. Someone is announcing a group game. That could be fun. Group games require interaction and bring people together. They ask you if you want to play charades. Charades?? “No!”

Why did you have to be so adamant? They were being kind to ask you. All you ever do is push people away. But you can’t play charades; your whole life is made up of trying to over-think your body language to portray what you want it to; how can you do it with a group of people all watching and analyzing you without completely passing out? 

“We need more people,” they say, trying to pull on your arm now. No, please let go...you don’t want to go into defense mode...

“Well,” you hesitate.

“Come ON!” they complain and look at you as if they were completely disappointed in you. Then they go and join the group. Would you have ventured to try the game if they had urged you a little more? You’re not sure. Your brain seems to be freezing...you’re confused...about something. It is because the noise level has just risen greatly. The group seems to be arguing about whose team everyone is going to be on in charades.

No. Don’t freeze up. You can adjust to the noise. Take a deep breath. When you finally “un-freeze”, you realize you’re standing in the main walkway again. Don’t want to do that. You edge away to a table, turn a chair around facing away from it to sit down and watch the people playing the game.

“That’s a pretty loud game, isn’t it?” remarks an older middle-aged adult at the other end of the table. “I don’t play games like that anymore. I’m like you, I just like to sit and watch.”

Great. One of the oldest people here relates to you. Did you skip being a carefree young person? You HAVE been called an “old soul” before...

You and the older person make conversation for a little while. Eventually, you realize your mind has gone blank and you literally can’t think of anything else to say, so the person just good-naturedly smiles and placidly watches the game. 

The only thing you want in the world right now is to be normal. You watch the people in the group game...the couples absorbed only in each other, the couples who pretend not to be or don’t know they are a couple yet. The best friends who will literally do or say anything to each other because they know they can, and they won’t give each other weird looks. If they do they quickly say they are just kidding and hug each other. The natural leader, whom everyone automatically looks to without realizing they are the followers.

Someone has been tugging on your arm. Apparently the people you were here with were ready to leave and you hadn’t realized. Should you be saying goodbye? The hostess is disappearing into another room and you don’t have time to go chase her down...would that be creepy, anyway? Probably would come across that way, with your level of intensity.

Maybe you could say goodbye to the person you sort of had a conversation with, so they get the feeling you appreciated it and would talk to them more in the future. You locate them across the room laughing and practicing a complicated handshake with a few other people.

Why can’t you learn those? How does one even begin an activity like that? Hello, do you want to learn a special handshake? There was a time in your life when you tried random topics like that as a form of social interaction. But all you got was those alien looks so you stopped trying. 

You bravely go over to the person and say their name. They don’t hear, so you say it again, so loud that you know you definitely yelled it this time. It’s just that the noise level has risen so much that you can’t physically compete with it. However, a few people did hear you and look at you rather surprised as if they thought you were angry or maybe an evil witch or something. That’s how you must have unintentionally come across. One person asks you what’s wrong.

You quickly backtrack, valiantly trying to laugh and relax your face. Everything is fine, you explain, you had just been trying to get this person’s attention to say goodbye. So they get their attention for you and loudly tell them what you just said. The person’s eyes widen and they apologize for not hearing you while you try to tell them it’s fine and just stumble over your words as they give you a quick hug. The group of people around raise one eyebrow as if wondering why saying goodbye needed to be such a big deal and interrupt their game, but somehow you don’t care anymore.

On the way home you silently look out the car window. Maybe in the future you just won’t walk up to a group. Maybe in the future you shouldn’t bother speaking until being spoken to. Maybe, you contemplate, as you study the stars outside the window, you should just stay home.

***

This is something I was "inspired" to write, in that it happened rather quickly. :) It's a hypothetical situation, but every bit is directly from my own experience. I think the goal in letting people read this is so they can not only relate (everyone has these thoughts and experiences to some degree) but also get an awareness of just how much analyzing and exhausting intensity is happening in the brain all at once. I can only hope I did a satisfactory job.

Experiencing the Beach

Yesterday morning I was trying to pray as I was walking along the beach, and I got distracted watching the waves and accidentally started to say the same phrase over and over. This is the usual happening in my brain when I lose focus, and when I snapped out of it and realized what was happening, I said, “I’m so sorry,” and I almost slipped into the same old thought pattern; “I can’t grow closer to God, I can’t focus, I don’t know how to pray”, that sort of thing. 

Then I felt as if he said, “You don’t have to be afraid to talk to me. I love you.” 

I was surprised, and I thought about it for a bit. I know I shouldn’t be scared, but I want to say the right things to the king of the universe. I need to have a respectful and thankful approach.

“Well, think about how you would talk to a friend. You want to say the right things and show respect for them. But when there’s someone you have a level of trust and love with you don’t have to walk on tiptoe around them. They understand.”

I realized I was struggling with praying because I was listening to the voice of condemnation in the background, telling me I was doing it wrong. Now I just felt loved and appreciative that God would still listen and speak to me. I figured maybe I should just listen for a while.

For the rest of my walk, I listened to the early morning beach sounds and tried to keep my thoughts quiet (not an easy task). I collected shells, of course.

One in particular stood out to me because it was broken, revealing the beautiful details on the inside that would be hidden if it were whole.

I noticed the waves, too, and how strong and intimidating they are. You know, some people think they are going to swim in the ocean. However, once you get in the water, you quickly discover that you are not really going anywhere. You’re fighting the waves and the direction they are taking you, trying to go your own way. God’s will is like that. If you stop fighting and go along with wherever it takes you, you’ll have a much smoother experience, and often even an enjoyable one. :)

Of course, there was condemnation in the back of my mind; “you know all these things already, or at least you should. Why are you all excited about things that are not new revelations?”

But I do not want to think that way. I want to relish the experiences I have here and not forget what I learned but let it sink deeply into my heart and work it’s way into how I live.

Being Apostolic, Holiness, and the World

This post on Facebook today, put together by Acts 2:38 Street Ministry, presents what he hopes to be a clarification of some of the Apostolic beliefs. 

While filled with well-meaning intentions, the post is ridden with problematic thinking; even serious fallacies. This is not the first time I have heard such fallacies and wished to address them; this is simply a perfect opportunity to do so. My thoughts are controversial and not necessarily likable and I don't wish to draw attention to myself in speaking them, but I feel a necessity to convey the truth. I present the post in it's entirety, and will then dissect it's key points. 

Several things stood out to me.

1. Holiness Standards, the first words in the post; first I want to clarify that we are called to be holy before God, as He is holy. That is the goal that we strive for. There are many aspects of being holy that I won't go into right now. The issue at hand is that he labeled the main appearance "standards"in the overall Apostolic denomination "Holiness Standards". He is not alone in doing this. He says, "They are not a rule, not legalistic", "...not standards that we place on other believers", "Apostolics aren't saying don't wear makeup," and "Apostolics aren't saying that you can't wear pants."

I respectfully disagree. You most certainly are telling us not to wear those things. And those standards most certainly are placed on other believers. Do you not believe Apostolic is the way to go? and to be Apostolic you follow those rules? Rules, then, are most definitely what they are. No, we don't physically force anyone; I hope not, at least! But ask yourself this: is she considered an Apostolic girl if she is still wearing pants and make up? Be honest with yourself.

So what is the problem? 

Well, I submit that following a dress code on the outside does not equal holiness, and actually isn't even deeply related to holiness. 

First I want to say that appearance is extremely important. It's the first, and sometimes the only thing people notice about you. Appearances can deceive, it's true, but at least they make a statement. Girls' appearance can tell you if they are feminine, meek, and modest. Guys' appearance tell you if they are masculine, respectable, and stable. As Christians we need to strive to reflect Christ in our appearance.

Leann, who was mentioned in the conclusion, talks about reasons for why you do what you do; she discusses the importance of asking whether we do something to please God or ourselves.

She is right in this, but we need to make sure not to carry that over into the common argument, "Well, why would you want to?" Let's say you walk out of your house on a hot day with a decorative yellow hat on, and naturally, this catches my attention, so I ask, "Why do you WANT to wear that?" You can not think of any reason other than that you just wanted to, even though it isn't a necessary accessory. So I tell you there is no specific way that it pleases God, and so you should not be wearing it. Would I not be a hypocrite because I do and wear things that have no specific purpose for God? Thus, if you tell someone not to wear make up and jewelry, you need to back it up with a more Biblical support than, "Why would you want to, does it please God?"

My point is that I believe in setting standards for yourself, especially when it comes to modesty. My family and friends and I have reasons and principles for what we choose to wear and not wear grounded in the Bible; but I do not believe for a minute that "Apostolic standards are holiness". 

Let's look at this reasonably. Apostolic standards are pretty much for girls. Guys cut their hair and some standards forbid shorts, but if an Apostolic guy goes out in public he can blend in pretty well, especially since he can often wear his hair in the different styles and trends while still keeping it short. If an Apostolic girl goes out, she stands out as very different from average. Why do women have more requirements than men in order to be holy? OR, are women holier than men?! (I won't go any further with THAT silliness!)

Another point about the phrase "Apostolic standards" is that there IS no complete "standard" list of standards. Apostolics don't all agree what holiness standards are, any more than all Christians agree on anything. If you bring up the topic with even a small group in one church, contention usually arises. The standard to follow is usually left up to the pastors of each individual church group. Holiness, then, is defined by mere mortals, instead of God. Dangerous? YES. At least, it would be if these rules really WERE equivalent to holiness. Let's move on to the second phrase that stood out to me in this post.

2. The World! Notice that he capitalized "world", just like "holiness standards". This personification of the world is very typical of Apostolics. The author is comparing what Apostolics don't say (although I would assert that they do) to what "the world" is trying to tell you. Apparently the world tells you that you need to cover up your face by wearing make up and that you can show off your body with tight, revealing clothes. 

That's a pretty strong generalization, especially since the world is a pretty big place, so let's look at this phrase "the world" for a minute; where it came from, what it means.

A verse that strikes fear (and should) is James 4:4: "...whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy with God." No one wants enmity with God! I want to be a friend of God. Another verse is Romans 12:2, which compares being conformed to this world to being transformed, proving what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Instead of going along with what everyone else is doing, we need to be deep into the will of God. This is where the popular phrase "in but not of the world" originates.

That's pretty serious! So what does "the world" mean? Well, I am not much more than a baby Christian, and I am not prepared with a detailed word study. No one should try to talk about things they don't know enough about, so let's just go by what I do know: the Bible talks a lot about earthly things, and walking in the spirit, not the lust of the flesh. Earthly things could involve appearance as the Bible talks about not focusing on adorning and decorating ourselves and our hair with costly array. Jesus also talks about not fretting about fleshly things such as what we will eat or what we will wear. (Sadly, I have grown up being around so many people who claim to be separated from "the world" and are quite caught up in clothes and adornments, and what and where to eat.) 

Basically, James 4:4 comes across to me as talking about life here on earth and all the physical things we have, as opposed to spiritual life and spiritual things. The world could also be the majority of the people here on earth, especially since at the time that it was written, people saved by Jesus Christ were very much the persecuted minority ("because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" John 15:19). 

The above are my own personal thoughts. I just can't seem to locate a connection between "the world" and make up, modesty standards, etc. Even if there is one, the bottom line is that growing up in the modern Apostolic church culture I consistently heard the teaching (and I am ashamed to say, I taught my younger sisters) that "the world" was ANYTHING non-Apostolic. (I suspect because they used to say "the majority of the world" and it has been shortened.) Those scriptures about the world would be quoted and receive amens and rules would be enforced; not just appearance but the rules of lifestyle as well. Unfortunately, a lot of those issues aren't even agreed on among the different Apostolic church groups, such as movies and television, wine, electric guitars, organized sports, etc. Once again, it ends up being whatever the pastor of each particular church group decides. 

Do you see the pattern here? Just as many Apostolics teach "be holy; therefore follow these standards that we decide are holiness standards", they teach "don't be of the world; therefore stay away from what we have decided is 'the world'".

Perhaps Jesus would have something to say about this type of teaching: "And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." Mark 7:7 

Thankfully, this is not ALL people in the Apostolic church, by no means. Still, the scary result is a group of (maybe hundreds of) so-called Apostolics out there strutting around thinking, "How holy and pleasing to God I am because I'm sooo separated from the world." With that mindset, do we really think we are portraying the one God, Jesus Christ, the Acts chapter 2 message of salvation, grace...love? 

In God's eyes we might be the pharisee in the parable in Luke 18 who thanked God that he was not like other people. We might need to drop to our knees and pray, like the publican, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." 

The author says you can identify most Apostolics by their appearance (although he did add that it goes a lot deeper than that). But Jesus said, "By this will all know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Lord, let this be our focus!

Above all, what we can take away from this post by Acts 2:38 Street Ministry is: words are deathly important! We can see the danger of ANY group, community, or church denomination (because Apostolics sure aren't alone in doing this) applying their own definitions to words in the scripture, instead of applying the scripture and it's original interpretation to our hearts. Dive into God's Word! It trumps any word we could ever create here on earth. And in conclusion, I would offer this word of caution: whatever you do or don't do, understand why.

My journey with Asperger's/Autism

It's kind of funny. Because of my trip to a psychologist earlier today, I feel as if I am beginning a journey. But in reality, I have been on the journey all my life. The past couple of years, especially, have been significant in forcing me to come face to face with who I am. At least two or three people that I have had contact with who had mental impairments caused me to feel sympathetic. Living with a mental illness and being conscious something is wrong with you is one of the worst difficulties ever. People think you're supposed to be normal, so you're rejected for acting weird; or they think of you as not all there, so you're rejected as inferior and unintelligent. 

Terror then struck when my own mental and social impairments surfaced to my realization more and more. I was-am-one of those people.

My psychologist's confirmation today that I do match up with a case of Asperger's (although he said the most recent terminology is "high-functioning Autism") left me with mixed feelings.

I'm going to be honest, I almost despaired a bit. It kind of hit me that I would always struggle with judgment and misunderstandings and loneliness. Maybe I would eventually destroy all my close relationships. Maybe the number of people who dislike me would grow and grow because of my lack of control over my facial expressions and tone of voice.

However, you could say it gave me validation. I can embrace it. I can learn from it. And most importantly, I can help others. My goal is to get the word out about high-functioning mental illnesses. People need to be inspired to stop the judging, the hasty assumptions, the subtle bullying and down-putting because you have no idea what is really going in someone's head.

Plus, it is kind of great to have my one little gift of perfect pitch. :)

I am encouraged and grateful to at least live in this era in which such diagnoses exist. It is time to move forward.

Power over demons

I tend to listen to a lot of lies from the devil. Lies like, I can’t be used by God, no one likes me, I am ugly, I have no worth.

The worst is when I recognize that it is the devil speaking, but I can’t stop believing him. Then I feel even worse, even farther away from God. It’s like being on the floor, being attacked, and not being able to get up. I deal with this every single day. It’s hard to write about, but at the same time it is an awesome story about God’s victory. The story is over a period of a few years, but I feel like God wants me to share it now.

I had a dream a few years ago. 

There were lots of familiar places in the dream, as there usually are in dreams, but in it God revealed specific people to me who were dealing with spiritual warfare. They were people that I knew for a fact were either depressed and inviting evil (like through cutting) and some people who were unwittingly operating under lies. The mood of the dream grew from tense (I could sense there was something not right) to an outright explosion of demonic activity. At the very end, I saw a woman I know grow angry and broke into a frenzy of screaming curses; her eyes seemed to be on fire; it was unnatural. Then the dream faded to black, like a movie right before the credits. And I heard a voice say “All power is given to me...and I am with you always.”

Yes, I was a bad Bible student, or whatever else you want to call me, because I didn’t know those two verses were in the same chapter. I was very excited and impacted by the dream. Of course, I prayed for the people in the dream, but then I quickly looked up those scriptures I had heard and I got chills.

Matthew 28:18 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."

Matthew 28:20 "...and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

I didn’t KNOW they were in the same chapter and I concluded God was speaking to me, revealing the connection between those concepts. I took it as a reminder that he has all power over all those demons, and he is with us. Isn’t that awesome, that we have the One who is omnipotent as our friend here on earth, protecting us and guiding us? 

A few years later, I felt that same excited, awesome feeling as I was rereading the new testament and the powerful works Jesus did.

Let’s look at two accounts from the Bible about casting out demons. 

Mark 1:21-27

21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 

22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 

24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 

26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 

27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”

Now let’s look at the other account; this one is from Mark 5:1-10.

1 Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.

2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 

3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 

4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 

5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.

6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 

7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”

8 For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 

9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 

10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.

I can’t decide which of these stories is my favorite. In the first, I love how Jesus basically told the demon to shut up. In the second, the possessed man who could not be tamed ran and worshipped Jesus. And I love how the version in Matthew says that the spirit asked, "Have you come to torment us before the time?" They know their future and that they are already defeated! But in all accounts, the evil spirit recognized Jesus as the holy one of God and they obeyed his commands.

So just so we’re clear, Jesus has incredible, incomprehensible power over the devil and his servants. This is something to rejoice over! Yes, the demons hurt those men. They had control over them and they used and abused them. But when they saw Jesus, they saw the most high God. They knew exactly who he was and they believed and trembled that he had all power over them. 

So whenever you hear those condemning voices, those lies: 
“You are not worth anything.” 
“You should just die because no one cares.” 
“You can’t be forgiven.”
“Your scripture isn’t truth.” 

Call on the name of Jesus Christ. He will come running and your demon, whom you thought had so much power over you, will fall down and worship Jesus, son of the most high God. Jesus will command him to be quiet. He will command him to leave. And the demon must flee.

My meditation commentary on humility

Relying on our own strength we will fall; instead we must humble ourselves and rely on God’s strength. First I want to show how I believe humility relates to design, and then I will talk about what lessons I am learning about the humility of Jesus Christ from which we should learn.

“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.” Psalm 8:4, 5. The psalmist is in awe of the position God has given man. This is the kind of mindset we, as sinful human beings should have. That the King of kings would be mindful of us should not cause us to be puffed up and prideful and to imagine it is because of our great accomplishments. True humility is to see that we can be called friends of God and recognize who we are in comparison to him.

Recently reading the account of Jesus’ crucifixion again, I was moved as always, but the aspect of Jesus’ humility through it all struck me in a new way. Many people focus on the pain of the torture Jesus underwent, but even before any of that began, he was arrested, interrogated, mocked, paraded back and forth like a common prisoner, and even slapped in the face and told not to “talk back”. Through it all he remained humble and compliant.

His humility not only in his death, but in his entire time of existence on the earth speaks volumes. Our Savior never proclaimed himself king from a throne, or dwelt in palaces, demanding the obeisance and worship he rightfully deserved. We also never read of him proclaiming himself the Messiah. He let the prophecies, evidence, and his deeds speak for themselves. Who had a right to honor and credit more than Jesus? But if he could take on lowly positions, serve others, and fellowship with the least of his creation, how much more should we? 

Pinterest Fails

I love Pinterest, I really do. But sometimes it brings out the cynicism in me and I have to laugh.

This would be lovely.....until it rains.

My mom did this. It was back-breaking work. In hardly any time at all it will become broken and cracked from the weather, then uneven as weeds grow up underneath.

If you have never had kids or siblings, it's natural that you will get a big shock at what is going to happen next when your child uses this. Hint: hopefully you hadn't just polished your mirror.

My little brother and I came across this one. His response: "Why would anybody want to eat those?!" I said, "They aren't for eating, they're for decoration." He was disgusted. Bottom line: just serve real ice cream cones at your child's birthday party and I guarantee you everybody will be happy.

When a picture is titled, "Why didn't I think of that?" I like to take it upon myself to answer.

Because why on earth would you want a dress made out of gummy bears?! It's almost the same purpose as the paper ice cream cones above.

Because your child is going to pinch his finger in it and scream. Game night over.

So true...unless you want to climb a mountain, ride a horse, go to a nice restaurant with a dress code, or in general walk without tripping.

This one is titled: how to make a sea shell picture frame.

Well, let me guess - you glue the shells onto the frame? Why didn't I think of that?