Happy Les Miserables Day!!!

Is it bad that I was more excited for Les Miserables than for Christmas itself? Ha ha. But really, I am so excited. We're going at 10 pm... and I can hardly wait.

But Christmas has been really great! I had a wonderful conversation with my Mom, and she seems much more accepting and wanting to understand than she ever has before. We talked for along time about my frustrations with the Church, and she really understood... which, to be honest, was not something I was expecting. It's always great when people are more understanding than you think they will be. And I've found that they usually are. Perhaps it's just the irrational optimist in me, but I can't shake the feeling that everything's going to work out just fine.

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I'm a little bit cynical of the history of the holiday and far from criticizing the materialism associated with this time of year, I rejoice in it. What better reason to stimulate the economy than getting nice gifts for each other? But I also love remembering Jesus. I love remembering that God gave His only begotten son, not to condemn the world, but to save us.

And this is one of the many things I love about Christ:

Christ acted, and was not acted upon. Christ influenced, but never gave in to the influences of those around Him. He knew His relationship with His Father, and He spoke boldly. While the scribes and the pharisees would always appeal to the authority of other rabbis and their own interpretations of scripture, Christ would say "verily, verily I say unto you." The truth is most powerful when it comes from within; it has the most influence when it arises from our individual relationships with the Father. And He didn't give us the spirit of fear, but of hope. Because "whosoever believeth in God might with a surety hope for a better world..." So let's keep hoping and never give up!

“My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson