Love, God's Voice, and others

There's a house on my extended (3 or 4 mile) walking route that has a windmill and several solar panels in its back yard. I have often wanted to stop and ask the inhabitants how much of their household energy they are able to produce themselves, but knowing how I would react if someone I didn't know knocked on my door at 8:30 in the morning, I've never stopped. A couple of months ago I told Scott that we should hook up a bike to our TV so that if we want to watch TV we have to produce our own electricity. I think he thought I was joking. One of the TV stations in the Twin Cities did that during the MN State Fair--they had several bicycles hooked up and passers-by could take a turn powering the broadcast.
. . . . . . . . . . .
It snowed here yesterday! Just thought I should let you all know so you can be suitably shocked (and Eric, don't tell me how it snowed where you live in August...it's not a competition, right? :-)
. . . . . . . . . . .
Saturday was Cody and Logan's last day of soccer for the fall. I'll post a picture sometime. Logan was really excited to get his medal--he kept telling anyone who would listen that his coach gave him his first. We also signed them up for basketball on Saturday--that's Tuesday evenings starting in November. One of my favorite things to do with Cody is shoot baskets (for those of you who don't know, my children gave me a basketball for mother's day), so it'll be fun for him to learn techniques or whatever they're gonna teach them. I'm sure Logan will have a good time, too.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Thank you to those of you who bought popcorn from Cody. He has met his goal of selling at least $400 worth, and he's one person away from having sold to 25 customers--he gets a free waterpark pass if he does that.
. . . . . . . . . . .
If you'd like to take the love language assessment, you can find it online at http://www.afo.net/hftw-lovetest.asp
Be aware, though, that it's easy to "cheat" on this one.
Let me share a few insights on love. I know that you all already know this stuff, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded, right? So first of all, love is a choice. That means that every day I can choose whether I will love my husband, my kids, the rest of you all. How do I make that choice? Well, here comes the second nugget of wisdom: love is an action. That means that love is something you do. We can show our love through what we do and what we say and how we listen and how we choose to react and behave. And why would we want to show our love? Because if it's not showing, how does the person know he or she is loved? And if he or she doesn't know that he or she is loved, are you really loving that person at all?
If you take the assessment, please let me know what it said about your love language.
. . . . . . . . . . .
And here's the bi-weekly update on hearing God's voice. I've already told you that God's voice has authority, is compassionate, and is true. That's how you can know that the messages you're receiving are of God. So, one of the ways God speaks to us is through disciplines: scripture, prayer, fasting, and worship. Of these ways, which is your favorite? Or which have you found to be the most effective in your life?

Scripture: Isn't it amazing that this book that was written thousands of years ago can still be relevant this day? That's because the words are God's words, inspired and holy. Have you ever gone to scripture seeking God's voice and not heard it?

Prayer: I realized, when reading this section of Jen Hatmaker's book, that I don't really listen when I'm praying. I don't expect an instantaneous answer. I approach prayer more like snail mail than a phone call, as in, I send off the message and I know that God will get the message and respond at some point, but I don't expect it to be right then. I think I need to expect that more, or at least be open to an instantaneous answer. I wonder how many times I've missed hearing God's voice because I've moved on to the next action item in my prayers.

Fasting: Most people have bad impressions of what fasting is. I think most people see fasting as a self-denial kind of thing, that you do for God, because you think it will please God. I think of fasting as making space in your life to hear God, which, yes, pleases God, but you can see the benefit for yourself as well. If you give something up, something that you've promoted to essential status in you life, you can see that really, God is what is essential. God sustains us. In my life, I have felt the closest to God when I have been fasting, and it's because of that reliance on God to provide for all of my needs and to sustain me. And before you start telling me that you can't fast because you get huge headaches when you don't eat, so do I. It doesn't have to be a food fast, or if you do choose a fast from food, it can be modified. You can eat rice instead of your regular meals, or even just give up one food item or refrain from snacking between meals. Ms. Hatmaker says that fasting can be a way of initiating contact with God when you urgently seek His voice.

Worship: I think when most people think of worship, we think of going to church. And that's an important place to worship and an important powering-up for the week, but Ms. Hatmaker points out that each of us is God's temple. God meets us where we are, and that makes each of our lives a holy place. How does that make you view your life differently? How can we engage in continuous worship?

. . . . . . . . . . .
In response to my brother's blog from yesterday (I know I should post a comment on HIS blog, but since he reads this and I'm already here, I'll just do it here), three things:
1. I don't understand how Senators Obama and Biden can, with a straight face, say "it's only fair," when referring to making people earning more pay a higher percentage of taxes than those not earning as much. If they're interested in being fair, why don't they abolish the current tax system and go with a flat tax? It's not that I'm against redistribution of wealth--I do quite a bit of that myself through giving to charitable organizations. I just think the government has no business doing it. That is a choice that I make, and everyone should have that choice, including "rich" people.
2. I don't understand how Senators Obama and Biden can think that taxing oil companies more is going to make gas prices go down. Their own characterization of "big oil" is that they are greedy, money grubbing, rich guys. So what makes O and B think that all of a sudden once their administration is in place, big oil is going to say, oh, yeah, we see your point. I guess we won't charge as much for our gasoline anymore because our profits are excessive. I don't think so. That windfall profits tax is going to be coming out of my pocket and yours. So either O and B are not very smart, or they're lying to us--you decide.
3. Watching Joe Biden, it just seems to me like he doesn't really buy in to Obama's platform. If the guy's own running mate isn't confident, why should we place our trust and our future in this guy's hands?