NOW you may kiss the bride

- from The Chicago Sun-Times

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Staff Reporter/mwisniewski@suntimes.com

So what is it like to kiss a girl for the first time ever, after she has become your wife?

"It was surreal," said Claudaniel "CD" Fabien, 30, after his marriage to Melody LaLuz Fabien on Saturday. "It was like, my other self came out and said, 'Look dude, you're kissing her!' "

Claudaniel, 30, and Melody, 28, had pledged to be abstinent before marriage -- but went a little further by agreeing not to kiss each other on the lips before their union was official.

Why so strict? They didn't even want to get close to temptation, instead waiting until the minister said the magic words: "NOW, you may kiss the bride."

Both Claudaniel and Melody Fabien are abstinence educators -- Claudaniel for the nonprofit Confederation of Spanish American Families. Melody is director of the "What's Good" program for the LYDIA Home Association, a Christian service agency. Both teach abstinence programs within the Chicago Public Schools.

Melody and CD met on their way to a mission trip in Uganda in 2006. 

You MIGHT be having an Off-Day if ...

What should I do tomorrow?

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Pride came in with the wind

That's the Pride of Baltimore II, with Fort "Star Spangled Banner" McHenry in the background.

Photos taken this afternoon from the end of my dock.

What I DON'T want for Christmas

(humor)

A Snuggie?

Don't do it.  Just saying.

It's just not my color, thanks.

I paid my money, so why didn't I see Him?

Scripture tells us that after Christ was resurrected he remained on earth for more than a month, and appeared to hundreds and hundreds of believers before he ascended into Heaven.

I started wondering about the folks who followed Jesus during his 3-year ministry, but then weren't included among those who literally eye-witnessed his resurrection.

And I started wondering if one of them might have been named Brother Bigbux.

Oh I can still hear him, griping and complaining to the disciples, "Why didn't anybody tell me Jesus was back?  I had to hear it from Peter, because nobody ever tells me what's going on with this church.

"Haven't I been generous with my tithes and offerings?  Didn't I donate a warehouse-full of palm fronds when nobody else had any?  

"Why, I've contributed more than anybody else and frankly, if it wasn't for me this ministry woulda folded in its first year.  Didn't that entitle me to know Jesus was back?  If I'd known he was back, then I coulda told him some of my ideas about fixing what's wrong with His church.

"You know what?  I don't believe Jesus came back.  I think ya'll made it up. Because if he'd really come back from the grave, I woulda been the very first person he appeared to.

"So I'm withdrawing my financial support from this church and finding me a place where the congregation appreciates all my opinions and contributions.

"Oh and one other thing.  What'd ya'll do to hurt Judas's feelings?"

Yep, I feel quite certain a man like that must've existed.

Perspective - (Reality/Hope) = Expectations

 We feel disappointed when our expectations go unfulfilled and we have expectations when we feel Entitled.

Nothing ever quite completely suits us when we feel entitled.  Not even on the best day.

Oh, how much simpler life would be if everything ... and everybody ... simply conformed to what entitlement tells us should be true.

When we're disappointed, it's because we feel we deserve something better.

Disappointment is a strong emotion and draws a map to Feeling Discouraged. Given enough discouragement, our outlook can swing to a perspective of Feeling Rejected.  And the Yellow Danger Alert associated with Feeling Rejected is that rejection hurts and stings enough to whisper that our worst fears and misgivings about others will inevitably, and always, turn out to be true.  

Lo and behold, we start seeing that no one else ever quite measures up to our expectations.  Because, strangely, the pain reaction of Feeling Rejected has made us feel superior.

--   ---  --

You've probably heard something like this,

"What so-and-so did disappointed me, but that's not the first time.  Nobody has ever lived up to my expectations and I always end up getting disappointed.  

People who get along with others are either putting on a front, or they're living in a dream world because they can't see what's really going on."

Expectations = Entitlement - (Reality/Hope * Rejection)

Rearrange the letters any way you like but you can't find enough, not in a lifetime, in "Entitlement," "Disappointment" or "Discouragement" to ever make Joy.

You gotta add Jesus and Mercy first.

-- --- --

Seems like it'd be easier to address our Personal Expectations first ... before we tackle fixing what's wrong with everybody else.

Tug-A-Lug, toot toot

This morning I watched two tugboats dock a 500-foot long car carrier ... by turning it on a dime and (safely) backing their charge into her slip.  

The entire endeavor took about 45 minutes and not once did they back off, take a time-out, ask for a "do-over" ... or form a committee and ask for a vote about what to do next.  Those guys are Good.

They have to be.

--   ---   -- 

Tugboat captains communicate with whistles, btw.

waiting

Still limited connectabilitation.

what should I do tomorrow?

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

- Deuteronomy 6:5

Type A, or Type J?

Even before my wifi connection headed south for the winter, I cut back on my blog-reading.  Seemed like "Leadership" began showing up everywhere, and spread faster than a "Type A" flu.

I'm fallible and imperfect, and don't deserve or aspire to be called, or ever be looked up to as, a Leader in God's kingdom.

I'm at the very bottom rung, struggling to be a follower ... and to embrace a Type J personality instead.

  

Sign o' winter

Maybe hard to see above, but it snowed here for about 3 hours this morning.

Snow is the blue stuff on the XM Weather radar, above.

Brrrr, arrrrg.