I'm hoping to be more active with my blog as graduation approaches. We'll see how well I update it before I really start putting it out there again (i.e. sharing posts via twitter and facebook).

I enjoyed using The Cutest Blog on the Block to customize my blog. It was simple and quick! As well, I don't know much about it, but I have a free software I use from time to time called Photoscape that is pretty nifty! I plan to try to watch some of their tutorials again so that I can get back into editing photos (need to take more).

We've been toying around with what computing will be like for us in the next few years. Possibly getting a desktop and two netbooks, possibly getting two laptops and a docking station. We'll see what happens. But, for the first time ever Mac has made it into the running for our computing possibilities. That would be a big change, but if we're going to make it we should do it before we get too old and set in our ways.

Hebrew Class

This final semester of divinity school, I am enrolled in Hebrew one. On today, I love it. Last night I got home from class and spent 2 hours at the kitchen table learning the Hebrew alphabet (aleph-beth) to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy. After Thomas got home from his classes around 10, we ate dinner and then spent until 12:45 learning my first week of vocabulary. What a blessing to have someone who reads Hebrew in my household. I was able to check my pronunciation and he was able to give a final review for me, simply allowing me to review the vocabulary by him reading them out loud to me.

Today in class I had an exciting epiphany about a piece in Genesis that is used out of context to speak down to females in churches. When the Bible says "Let us create man in our image," the word for man is AdAm. Although it can mean man, it also means mankind. The passage goes on to say [Genesis 1:26-27] "...male and female he created them."

I learned this verse in the King James Version when I was in Bible drill as a child. I always thought it was really repetitive. I thought to myself it just said he created man, why does it say he created male afterward? Well, the Hebrew goes on to say not again AdAm but uses different words that mean specifically male and female. In other words, I think it should really read "...create HUMANITY in our image, male and female..." I believe that this would be a more correct egalitarian reading of this verse and would open the door to forget the idea that only males were created in God's image.

You see all too often persons think of God in human terms with male characteristics. However, God does not have gender because we were created in God's image and not God in ours. Each human being is a reflection of God and as such the church should be the place that most embraces each person as equally valuable in God's sight. I fear though, that many of the churches in my part of the country are not only a place where gender causes persons to be valued as more or less than others, but it is a breeding ground for such behavior based on a misunderstanding of scripture.

I pray that I will be a teacher, by word and deed, that every persons is indeed made in the image of God.

Results of Afformentioned Wedding

Here's the actual photos of my sister's reception! It was a wonderful time in April & I loved getting to give her the gift of this unique family gathering.