The Social Porcupine

" Know your boundaries."  Boundaries. What are they? An invisible barricade around my persona? Some sacred bubble that must not be encroached upon? "I don't think I really believe in having boundaries." I confessed to a friend. "Or maybe I just disagree with the modern philosophy of boundaries."  "Eh, I don't think anyone really knows what they mean when they talk of  boundaries."  Pinterest seems to know a lot about the topic.  Listen to yourself  Speak your needs Say no when you want  Do what makes you happy Don't let people use you Sounds so. . . selfish.  Especially compared to:  Turn the other cheek. Walk a second mile. Let your coat be stolen. Give to those who would hurt you and take advantage of you. Don't resist or fight against those who are evil; pray for them instead! Love your enemies.  (Matthew 5:38-40) So... Don't have boundaries?  Ah. But does this mean we let people do just whatever they want to us?  Funny thi...

I have a question for you: "If you lived in Germany during the Third Reich, would you have been one of those that stood by silent as Jews were dragged away from their homes? Would have refused to believe that Jews and many others were being killed and treated inhumanly at several large concentration camps scattered throughout your home country?" Before I answer this question for myself, I want to take a break and share a story from my siblings and me.  When my Dad was in the hospitable last year for a month, my mom spent all of that time with him, I was mostly in charge of my ten younger siblings. The few just under me in age were able to take care of themselves and help out with the younger ones, too, but as the oldest one I ended up dealing with most of the messy, stressful situations that arose.  Such as making sure my younger siblings did their chores and school and not spend every moment watching movies or playing video games. The only problem was dur...

Baby of my new Au Pair family. He thinks I gave him my phone, haha! In November I went to a Freikirche German church service with my first Au Pair family. I didn't understand most of the sermon ... and yet I got the gist of it, and enough of that to be inspired to write this post. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food —Hebrews 5:12 I think most of us are familiar with both the actual life concept and the analogy that those who are young need something that grows them, and those that have grown need something that sustains them toward strength.  Often, churches talk about this without really talking about it. What is the difference between the milk and the meat? And which is that one needs for themself? And how do you know it's time to be "weaned" from the milk and to start participating in a healthy, wholesome meal that only an adul...

"Your life is defined by what you hate. Whatever you don't hate you allow, and whatever you allow you will never change" ~ Myles Munroe Immaterial things I hate: Cold Spicy food Snow Ice (even in my soda) Soda (maybe an occasional sip is all right) Unnecessary chaos Winter Dogs Freezing Dirt where it doesn't belong Lazy people Video games Trash: on the side roads, inside and outside of houses, and on people instead of decent clothes. Being cold Material things I hate: Abortion Stupid Idiots aka Selfish Idiots Cold Death Misunderstandings Men who are narcissistic jerks Women who are narcissistic jerks People are who are obsessed with cutting "toxic" people from their lives but refusing to love anyone besides themselves False philosophies (socialism, "follow your dreams", "love yourself", etc) Complacency Inaction Hate Sin While I've written many posts on loving more , I think hate isn...

Our modern world is living under a major crisis, where every youth is searching for their identity and few seem to be succeeding to the full satisfaction. The sad thing is that the majority of people from the past would probably laugh at us. " Why do you care who you are?" They might ask. " What does it matter?" "Easy for you to say," we'd reply. " You don't have to decide what to do with your entire life. It's been decided for you since your great-great grandfather took up from where his father left off. I have choices. Billions of them." We are in a unique, horrible time. Because not only are we searching for who we are and what we should do with all of our lives we also don't want what we do to define us. Because deep down we feel as if we are much more than our chosen careers. The thing is we are both right and wrong about this belief. I explain how work is an integral part of our identity in Work Then Rest . But...

Girls hiking in their skirts with their guns = exercised feminine rights  I used to hate hiking. But then I used to hate a lot of things. I had been wanting to see Alexa's baby (Alexa is the girl on the far left) and I hadn't actually yet met Keziah (the third girl to the right). I really needed a break from writing and cleaning, and for me that means hanging out with friends. But I don't really like shopping (spending money is stressful, y'all) and I like to be active. So I decided to kill three birds with a stone — I planned a girls' hike up near where Alexa and Keziah lived so I could meet Alexa's baby and meet Keziah. Best "mutli-tasking" idea I've ever had! We had a fabulous Sabbath ( most of us keep Saturday sabbath ) of hiking, fellowship, and fun! When I finally went home I was refreshed and inspired. Great conversations had happened. We encouraged each other, discussed what was on our hearts, and grew. It's hard to expla...

People can be really difficult. Especially when you thought they loved you and they ignore you, hurt you, or betray you. Sometimes those you once thought you loved or could love do something outright hateful or worse.  And then you are left with the realization, " This person doesn't love me." "Did they ever love me?" Truth is spoken to us through others around us. We soon realize that this person is not a friend. In fact, some will tell us they are toxic. And soon enough we will recognize this truth when our tears finally meet up with our brains. And we are left with decisions. The world is full of advice of what to do with toxic people. Pinterest is jammed full of "inspirational self-love methods". All four of these were saved from my Pinterest board.  Before I go on, I want to take a moment to talk about Toxic People.  What exactly is a toxic person??? Toxic People:  When most people talk of toxic ...

I mentioned to you all in a  recent post  I'd write this one. I thought it would be a good follow up on  time and spending money .  "Now, don't work too hard." "Remember, fun is important, too!" "I saw this great movie the other day about a workaholic. He never noticed his family or did anything but work. So sad."  "Rest is good. After all God rested on His Sabbath." Now all of these statements are true. But the way I've been hearing them as of late, it's almost as if work ethics are being devalued. And the movies especially, love to have a "theme" where people who work hard are evil. Because, obviously, working hard means you are not paying attention to the "truly important parts of life." I'll admit, I'm a workaholic. And I'm proud of it. I'd like to explain why I think it's good to love to work hard.  1. Too busy for fun and why that's not bad: "How'...

I saw a post on twitter awhile back that said something all the line of, "Maybe bribing myself with the potential ability to buy a ---- will motivate me enough to keep a job." My first reaction was, really??? I'm a workaholic. I love working. I also believe in working hard. I have never had a need for more work. I have never turned down work. I have hardly even searched for work. It just . . . finds me. And I do it. From cleaning houses, to working for small businesses, to office work, to custom sewing, to babysitting. Some of it I've loved. Some of it . . . was me laboring because it was the thing to do, but I was dreaming of being done soon. But I've never had to motivate myself to work. Especially with a bribe. I am also a bit of a saver.  I love working. I hate spending money, unless it's on books, gifts, or something large I'm working toward (travel, land, etc). And any other way seems foreign to me. So, after reading this tweet and thi...

While cleaning awhile back the thoughts in this meme stumbled into my mind. And so I posted them on fb. I was slightly surprised at the variety of responses I received. A strong Christian woman who is active in knowing what's happening around her agreed . A bisexual Liberal agreed . A wife of a military man agreed.  A few other people agreed.  But many, many, many Christian authors disagreed .  The people with voices were the ones that said, "No, politics don't matter. And sharing our opinion doesn't help." "Then . . . why do you write???" I'm starting to realize is politics is a very distracting word. To many it means FIGHTING ANGRILY AND FORCIBLY OVER THINGS THAT DON'T REALLY MATTER. But that's not real politics. Politics is the all the little things that connect citizens and a country together as a whole unit. Politics is the science behind the laws, the beliefs behind the government, the culture of our environment...

This post shall be a bit different. Parts of it will look almost blasphemous, to be honest. But If you get to the end I hope you will see that I'm not being so. I honestly hope I'm sharing truths I'm learning. Awhile back on Facebook an uncle of mine shared a post. I'm not sure what point he was trying to make. Or if he was even trying to make any point. I replied, being both silly and serious. And then another uncle replied . . . being both silly and serious. I'm thinking he kinda meant his last comment as an insult? Here's the conversation: A friend just let me know that these words my uncle posted aren't actually his words, but in fact a quote from Mark Twain. FB can be very misleading at times ;)  Anyways, this got me to thinking. About when I was little. And about now. Why I used to pray for Satan. And why I don't anymore. And, yes, I used to pray for Satan. I used to pray that all my family and friends would love Yahweh mo...