To Recognize, to Know

People have a certain beauty about them. And of course we've all heard the cliched statement, "Everyone is different. Everyone is special in their own way." But as I build closer and closer relationships with people, the more I realize this statement is true. Each person is special in their own way. Why? The first chapter of Genesis informs us, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." God created us. I've always loved imagining God as the Creator. I may not be the most this way, but I can be a somewhat artsy person. And being that way, I can see why God loves all of His creation so much, and why He cares for all of it so much. But also, I love that He makes each thing different - just as an artist does. An artist may have a general style, but each thing he creates is unique and incredible in its own way. God has a way of making each person entirely unique. Entirely different. With an entirely different story.
As a child, I didn't understand the uniqueness of each person. My parents always told me that everyone has an entirely unique lifestyle, and entirely unique way of thinking. I used to imagine, "Weelll... what if someone rode their bike at the -exact- same time I did, spent time with their family at the -exact- same time I did, looked -exactly- like I do, etc. etc." After I grew older though, I began to realize that no one is going to have the exact same experience. No one is going to think the same way, have the same opinions, have experienced the same joys and pains.
In any case, my purpose for this post was not to give you cheesy, warm, fuzzy feelings. On the contrary, I have something I want to point out. And perhaps it's a random hangup that I have. But it's something that I've noticed more and more lately, and as my mom would say, it's getting on my case. I have realized that people, even close friends, will stereotype a person to the point that they don't see the other qualities and traits of a person. For instance, one of my friends is extremely intelligent. He's smart, intellectual, theologically sound, all of that grand stuff. But people fail to look beyond that sometimes. Oftentimes they'll look at him and say, "Oh look at him! He's the guy who is intelligent and intellectual." And yes, that is part of his unique self, but do we look beyond it? Why do we not look beyond that to see the entire person? To see all of the interesting traits? Another one of my friends has a reputation for being silly. And yes, she's silly. Extremely silly. Hilariously silly. I love her silliness. But she and myself constantly become annoyed when no one else realizes that she has other traits besides that. For me? I have a reputation for being cute. I don't have any earthly idea why, but over the past year or so, I have picked up the reputation of being "the cute one." Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind being called cute. It's a compliment. It's nice. But I get extremely frustrated when every other word I say, every other expression I make, someone blurts out, "Oh my gawsh Madison, you are so adorable!" Um. Thanks?
Of course we're all going to have more prominent traits. Some people are musically inclined, some people get 800s on their SAT scores, some people are Mr. Fix-its, some people are good at giving advice, some people have an eye for fashion, some people are theologically sound, some people always have a song to go along with the conversation at hand, etc. These are things that are going to stand out to us. But my point is, I don't like it when that's all we notice. I don't like it when that's the only thing people go so far to observe. When people call me cute or adorable, yes, it's nice, but I wish they would look beyond just that. These things are so superficial. We all have our own traits and talents, and it's important, especially with your close friends, to observe these. It's important to sit down and listen to a person, to learn about them, to know them.
Each person has their story. Each person does not consist of one talent, one trait, one idiosyncrasy. We should never judge a person by the one trait that particularly stands out. Because people are a world of traits. People have a world of knacks. People have a world of trials and seasoning that no one else has. My dad has always told me that people want to be known. And honestly, that's one of the biggest chunks of wisdom anyone has ever given me. People do want to be known. It's part of our nature to want to be known - the whole person.
Don't judge a book by its cover.
Recognize the uniqueness.
Know the story.
God created this person to be known by Him and by other people. Don't just love one mannerism. Don't go by the superficial. Love the whole person.

Of Changes and Christmas

First off I'd like to promise you I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Ever since my last post, life has been insane. It has come with it's good days and bad days and in between days. Days you want to scream (or actually did scream.... in a restaurant... oops) from excitement, days you sit on your bed and cry because things are going so awfully, days that are so ho-hum you really couldn't care less about anything. But with all of these days there has been a recurring theme of change. Some of the changes haven't been good. But about 97 and a half percent of them have been great.

Lately I've been building really close relationships. Of course, I've always had my friends, but back a couple of months ago, it felt like I was losing some of them. I did. And I can't hide the fact that it hurt, and still does. But despite the fact that I've lost some of my friends, I've formed closer relationships with the other friends I still have. The ones who have been loyal to me ever since I met them. They've started trusting me more. Talking to me more. Teasing me more. Hugging me more. I love those friends. I love loyalty in friends so much, I'm pretty sure it's worthy of canonization. As Arnold Glasgow said, "A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad." Loyalty brings light to life. It promises a constant, steady hand to hold you up when all you want to do is fall. I love my loyal friends.

Speaking of friends... kind of... my "not" "ish" "it's hard to explain" boyfriend officially asked me to be his girlfriend. See, coming out of conservative home school families, we're not exactly ones to rush into things. lol But after two years (exactly two years after our first dance. aaawwwww) we became "official," you might say. People's reactions were hilarious. Some people's reactions were, "Wait. What? Weren't y'all already basically official?" Others were screaming and bouncing off the walls. Either way, for the first two days, about every five minutes I would just start giggling. Talk about a ridiculous 16 year old. Either way. I'm excited... you know... maybe a little.

{us ice skating this Saturday. Thanks to Mrs. Joy for the fantastic picture!}

More changes have been abounding, but the one that stands out the most is our new dog. For those of you who have been reading my blog since back the summer know we lost our four year old cocker spaniel in July this year. It was really sad, and honestly I still haven't gotten over it. Every now and then I'll still watch a video of him or see a picture of him and my eyes will water up. You'd think it wouldn't take that long to heal over the loss of a pet. Or maybe I'm just over sensitive? Either way, we've gotten past the really hard part, and we got a new dog. He is also a cocker spaniel, and is actually older than Winston was. We adopted him from a lady who had taken him in from a shelter. 

His name is Connor and he's a total sweet heart. Well. For the most part. Since he's older it's hard to train him not to do things that he's done for his whole life. For instance, jumping on people when they have food. Also he has this habit of jumping up on the couch, but we kind of gave up on trying to stop him doing that after two days. I mean, really, who doesn't want a dog snuggled up next to them on the couch while they're watching a movie? In any case, I'm really excited about having him. I still haven't gotten used to having another dog in the house after Winston died. I still want Winston back. I don't think I'll ever love a dog more than I loved him. But I still have my memories of him, plus pictures and a little piece of his fur sitting on my bookcase. And now we have another dog to make memories with and love. And that's a whole new exciting adventure that I'm setting out on.


 

Christmas. It's finally come. Finally no one can complain that "it's to early to celebrate!" Honestly, I've been celebrating since September, and I'm not tired of it yet. Christmas music, Christmas movies, Christmas everything. I adore me some Christmas stuff. I was one of those people born with an ability to love Christmas in a sort of obnoxious "I like Christmas so I'm going to celebrate it all year" way.  Most people don't like it, so I keep it to myself generally, unless I happen to be around another joyous lover of all things Christmas (except blow up Santas and Frosty the Snow Men). My Christmas season has already begun with a bang. Thanksgiving was great, and heralded in the coming season when everyone seems a little bit nicer, and everything thing seems to be seen in a little bit brighter light. On Friday my family went to cut down our Christmas tree. There's nothing like going out onto a Christmas tree farm and searching for that perfect tree that you know is the right one. You just get this fuzzy feeling in your heart when you see that tree. Because you know it's the right one. We found ours, cut it down, took it home, and put lights on it. But being as tired as we were, we didn't decorate it. But just the lights give you that feeling of, "It's Christmas." <3

On Saturday I went over to Daniel's house to help their family decorate their house for Christmas. There's nothing like decorating trees and houses for Christmas. It was particularly special for me, because Daniel's brother, Steven, who has been away at college for the past four months, was back home and I got to see him the whole day. As soon as I got to their house, the tree was out of the box, ornaments came out in hundreds. Daniel and I did the top of the tree, while his two little (adorable) sisters did the front and center. Because obviously when you're a little kid, the only part of the tree you notice is the bottom front of the tree. Some rearrangement was necessary. ;) Daniel, Drew (his other brother), and I tied a pretty garland down their banister. And all of a sudden, everything looked a little bit more magical. After decorating the house, we went ice skating with some of our friends. The second I was on the ice, I remembered why I hated it so much two years ago. I had only been once, and I swore I would never hit the ice again (literally). That promise to myself was broken, as you saw in the picture above. For the first 45 minutes I was in misery as Daniel dragged me around the ice and attempted to keep me from falling. Which worked about 73% of the time. After that I got off the ice because I was so sick of it and spent my time taking pictures. Then I went back out with my friend Alana, who is nicer than certain young men (*cough* Josh *cough*) who try to make me fall and insult my humorous attempts to not fall. She helped me, let me stay on the wall as much as I wanted, and soon I was skating without the help of a wall or a guy catching me every three seconds. Proud of myself? Um. Yes. But do my legs hurt now? Um. I can't move without wanting to groan. I've honestly never been more achy. After ice skating, back to Daniel's house. Supper. Talking. Watching Get Smart. Talking more. Leaving. Good day.

Today was good too. Went to church, had nursery, and spent the last hour hanging out with Daniel, his brothers, and Macy (my cousin). Coffee and laughing. Went out to eat at Panera for lunch. Daniel came back to my house to help decorate our tree. Since our tree is 6 feet, and he's over 6 feet, I figured he could reach the top branches pretty well. Went for a walk and had a good conversation down at the lake. Went to drama at church, which of course was a Christmas skit. After that, Starbucks and curly fries and looking at Christmas lights for nearly two hours. 

My Christmas season has been good, and it's only been three days.

I love Christmas time. It has a certain charm to it. A quiet charm. Silent night, flickering candles, and the constant sheen of Christmas lights in the middle of the night. Hot chocolate, crackling fires, and wrapping presents. Singing Christmas carols, laughing because you sang the lyrics all wrong. Wearing Rudolph shirts and watching A Christmas Story for the five hundredth and sixty second time. Humming along to James Taylor while driving by houses with classy, decorated houses. Standing outside in the cold at night with your favorite sweater looking at the stars for hours. It's a Wonderful Life or How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Christmas Eve. Watching snow flakes fall while buying junk food to eat while watching Christmas movies.
Nativity scenes. Reading Luke 2 and loving the passage more every year. Quoting it as Linus quotes it in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Thanking God for the best gift ever given. Jesus being born to die for us to be saved. Imagining what was going through Mary's head. Joseph's head. Elizabeth's head. And knowing that God had all of it perfectly planned out. Listening to I Celebrate the Day by Relient K. 

Breathing in cold air. 

Seeing the Nutcracker every year.

Clasping your hands together in joy.

Snow flakes falling on Christmas night.

Joy falling on everyone's hearts in a rush.

It's that time of year.

For to us a child is born

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon His shoulder,

and His name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over His kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

-Isaiah 9:6-7-