Country Sampler--comes with bacon, sausage, eggs, ham and a little steak for good measure.

Here's a little bit of what's been rollin through my iTunes lately: country music, my roots. Ahh...feels like home.

(click on the title to listen to them on YouTube--excuse the video presentation--some are just photo compilations, some are actual music videos, most are fairly cheesy...)

"All I Ever Wanted"
Chuck Wicks

"I Love the Rain the Most"
Joe Purdy

"Love Story"
Taylor Swift

"Guinevere"
Eli Young Band

"Roll With Me"
Montgomery Gentry

"Oh Love"
Brad Paisley, feat. Carrie Underwood

"Country Man"
Luke Bryan

Manhood

Watch it turn...

"Manly Man" by Bradley Hathaway

Flattery

I woke up the other day to a barrage of emails in my inbox from blogger. My friend's boyfriend had apparently discovered my blog and decided to read and post on every other odd. Like and eEaster Egg hunt, I challenge you to find and read his comments.

One of them, a quotation, I wanted to re-post just in case not everyone has subscribed to my comments on their Google Reader...

"Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to."

-Tolkien

It reminded me of something a friend of mine once told me: if it were possible to miss "the one" then it would take a very short time for the entire world to end up marrying the wrong people--because if you married someone else's "one" instead of your own, then you'd be messing up the marriage of their partner, who would marry someone else, and screw up another couple...and so on and so forth. In a world of sinful people (who, left unguided, would most likely screw things up pretty quickly), there's got to be a larger something coordinating things.

Still, we obsess. And in obsessing over trying to find that "more suitable mate," we get a little skittish at settling down with anyone. We believe the lie that some other person (the one we will marry) is going to be what makes us happy, when the Bible says that marriage itself (and the intimacy of relationship experienced therein) will be the blessing we long for.

While an imperfect person will certainly disappoint, God's design in marriage will continue to make us more holy and happy with each passing year.

Encouragement for the Dry Spell

No fancy intro, just wanted to post something that really encouraged me this morning:

In reading My Utmost for His Highest, I got to a passage about Moses--one of the great leaders of Jewish history, known for bringing the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. It's a great story...parting seas, a flip-flopping ruler, manna and fire pillars and all sorts of rad stuff. In lieu of all the action, the part of the story I usually breeze over comes a little earlier (just after the baby floating down the river in a basket bit). As a young man, Moses becomes aware of who he is, an Israelite adopted into the royal Egyptian family, and how his people have been treated as slaves. Burdened for his own, Moses realizes that he may be positionally equipped to lead them out of slavery. Gung ho, I'm sure his prayers sounded a little like mine--pursuing a God-honoring goal and ready to conquer the world with naiive, but good intentions.

Then God sent him into the desert for FORTY YEARS. How frustrating that must have been, to seek out what seems like a noble path only to have God say, "Nope."

What I sometimes fail to understand (and what Oswald Chambers, oh so kindly pointed out) is that God's got a better idea of how my life should run than I do. It's easy to get frustrated when I feel like my prayers are seeking something good (like marriage and family, missions opportunites, etc) yet they continue to go unfulfilled. It's good to be reminded that those desert places in life are actually vitally important when it comes to how God is shaping me as a person, breaking down my pride and disciplining my wayward heart. The desert isn't just a holding pen until other parts of life can fall into place, but rather, they serve their own vital purpose.

And while I'm here, I plan to enjoy what God is giving me and pursue righteousness for the sake of simply being holy. It would be easy to grin and bear the heat, all the while pining for the day I can get back to "reality," but that would completely undermine my faith in a soveriegn God who causes all things to work together for His good purpose. After all, why waste time whining when I can roll out my beach towel, don my oversized LA sunglasses, and get a tan.

Delightful

I'm staying up late tonight because I can. I can enjoy the night sky and the one star I can see through the power-lines and ambient LA light on my back alley balcony. I can enjoy nostalgia and country music. I can enjoy spending time reading.

And I am.

Here's a tidbit I came across, a top 20 list of "Marriage Rules"

Some highlights...

2. Don't marry a man who is neater than you are. You may, however, marry a man who polishes his tools and puts them away after use....

3. Don't marry anybody, man or woman, who says, "I'm going to call you at eight," and then leaves you waiting by the phone for an hour. Exceptions can be made for people who are kidnapped by Arabs, or who have epileptic seizures.

5. Don't marry a woman who spends more on makeup than she does on food. In general, don't marry a woman who engages in the sin of reverse gluttony.

8. Do not marry a man who treats his mother or his sisters discourteously. As he treats his mother, so will he treat you. But by all means do not marry a man who takes his direction from his mother, or who is ruled by his mother's ambitions. Mama's boys are unhappy, and they make their wives unhappy too. So are the mothers of mama's boys, come to think of it. Unhappy days are here again.

15. Never marry a man who is not admired by respectable male friends. The people in the world who know a man best are the men he works and plays with. They know well if he is a cheat, a thug, a loser. You may marry a man who does not have female friends. If anything, you should be suspicious of a man whose friends are principally female. The men may be avoiding him, and there is a reason for that.

Which are your favorites?