Christ, Coffee, and Cornfields

   The holiday season is here, which means that many of us will be attending family gatherings of some kind. With lots of people together under one roof, there will more than likely be differences of opinions, which is totally fine! The thing is, not everyone knows how to disagree well. I don't claim to be an expert in the area of debate, but there are some general rules of etiquette that everyone should probably be reminded of if you plan to discuss anything remotely controversial. Remember your relationship. At the end of the day, you're still family. Yeah, squabbles happen, but you can't escape family; they'll always be in your life. Keep it clean. A cardinal rule of debate is to keep personal jabs off the table. It's one thing to throw in a harmless joke or to tease someone, but if you want to have a productive conversation, leave hurtful comments out of it. To booze or not to booze? This is one where you really need to know yourself and your counterpart. If alc

  This will probably offend some people...you have been warned.   The USA is the greatest country in the world; that is a fact, not an opinion. Obviously we haven't always done everything perfectly, but out of every country that is or was we are by far the best. We are incredibly blessed to live here, and Memorial Day is the solemn holiday where we remember that the freedom we enjoy comes at a price.    Many people don't realize that Memorial Day is technically reserved for remembering military service members who died while serving.  Current military members and military veterans each have their own day where they are honored (Armed Forces Day and Veteran's Day, respectively). Don't get me wrong, obviously those who serve and have served deserve our respect every day of the year. Memorial Day is different, though. In fact, it's my understanding that many of people who were/are in the military prefer to not be recognized today because they have personally experience

   National Marriage Week is nearly over, and I haven't posted anything....oops. That's not to say I haven't thought about it, though. It's hard to sum up the great blessing that is marriage, but I'll give it a shot. Jordan and I have been married for over 3 years, and boy have we had quite the adventure already!   Unlike the national average, we got married pretty young. I was only 20, and he was 24. Chalk that up to growing up in the Midwest, having strong faith lives, or immediately knowing that marriage was our future together, but we did it. While being young and married has come with its own challenges, it was definitely the right decision for us. We're of the viewpoint that if you know you've found the one to share your life with, and you've discerned this, why wait? We wanted to start our adventure together as soon as we could. At the end of 2017, on a frigid December day (much like today, in fact), Jordan and I entered the Sacrament together and

  This has been a tough week; I won't lie to you. One of our friends passed away completely unexpectedly, it was my uncle's 15 year death anniversary, and our country reached lows that no American could possibly be okay with. My Type A/mom/anxiety brain has been in overdrive, so naturally I haven't slept very well. You could say that 2021 is not off to a great start when you look at all that's been happening.     It's caused me to do some real soul searching, especially the death of our friend. We shouldn't have had 2 friends our age die in as many years, but here we are. My uncle should have just celebrated his 60th birthday with us, but he's gone, too. Honestly, I'm having a hard time even writing this because I just can't pin my thoughts down. They keep ping ponging around, jumping from subject to subject. There is a common theme, though, and it's one that has been coming up even before this week.     Focus on the right things.     

   Writing is going to be a bit more of a challenge now that I have a little person trying to type along with me! I'm going to try to be more consistent about getting new content out, though. Writing is an outlet for me, and I also view it as a type of ministry. It's a way for me to be up front and personal with y'all even if we're miles apart or we don't text each other on a regular basis.    My mom had me pick a word for 2021 on a word generator  the other day, and oddly enough the word was "write." It's been on my heart to start writing again, but with my new job and our first holiday with Mel, I kept forgetting or putting it off. It's really easy to just plop down with my phone or watch TV instead of doing something more beneficial, and it makes me feel crappy. I guess it's a sort of New Years' resolution. I don't love the idea of "new year, new me," though. I'm not changing just because the year is now 2021, and I'