Why I don't like Saint Valentine's Day

It's not because it is overly commercialized... let's face it, what holiday isn't commercialized? We are a culture of commerce and consumerism. That doesn't make giving gifts bad - although we might do well to think about idolatry and materialism as we browse the candy aisles at Wal-Mart.

It's not because I don't love my husband, or that I wouldn't readily use any excuse to celebrate the romantic love we share. I do. I would.

It's not because there isn't any real reason or known history behind the holiday, especially about this Valentine character, who probably died a martyr for reasons unrelated to romantic love (though there are many fabled stories who tell differently).

It's not that the holiday might have pagan roots - who cares? God's common grace given to all of his creation means that we can celebrate God's good things when they reflect the truth about life or about God (celebrating love (eros) in marriage = awesome).

No, none of these reasons galvanize me to dislike any sort of holiday, even Valentine's. What I do dislike is remembering what it felt like to have the world celebrating a holiday that I was excluded from, because I had no romantic relationship at the time. I think I would very much more enjoy a holiday celebrating romantic love if it was actually only a piece of a 3-part holiday celebrating all three types of biblical love: agape, eros, and philia. Any reason we should have a whole day celebrating just one of those and not the other two? Frankly, if we are going to celebrate one, wouldn't it be better to celebrate agape love, sacrificial love, the kind of love manifested by God towards us in Christ?

I guess we could make an argument that we do celebrate that - on Easter. But do we do anything with it? One thing that I would love to affirm about Valentines is that we are at least DOING something with our love - going outside of ourselves to love another, by giving gifts or serving dinner or even just spending time with the human object of our love.

Dan and I did not celebrate Valentine's day this year. The day after, we talked about why not (I, at least, had told him I didn't want to - but the main reason is because we were driving back in snowstorm from Kansas City). I think we decided that from now on, we won't boycott it or anything, but we might just start to minimize the focus on eros celebration and look for ways to celebrate agape and philia love as God's good gifts to his people - in marriage, in communities and the church. How could we do this?

Parenting in your face(book)

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My Walgreens Deals for the Week

Shopping List:

(1) Quilted Northern Bathroom Tissue, 9 big rolls, $3.99
(3) Nabisco Ritz Crackers 8oz $.99
(6) Reach Toothbrush 2 Pack $1.99
(2) Dove Men's Body Wash $5.99
(2) Kotex Feminine Care 2/$6.00
(3) Arm & Hammer Deoderant $2.79
(1) Aquafresh Toothpaste $2.19
(2) Oceanspray Cranberry Juice $2.50
(1) Burts Bees Knockoff Lipbalm $2.99

This totals to $72.28 worth of products (and some of those are already marked down to sale prices).

After in-store sales, coupons, and register rewards:

We paid $10.77 (out of pocket)

My favorites were:

1. Getting 12 toothbrushes for $3
2. Getting 3 sleeves of ritz crackers for free
3. Getting the dove men's bodywash for free - so Dan will not have to use my fru fru stuff anymore!

Conan O'Brien's Final Thoughts

Dan and I were so impressed with Conan's last words. Leaving well is important. Good job Conan.

Today in my class "Humanity, Christ and Redemption" Dr. Matthews gave a helpful Intro Lecture on what Systematic Theology is and why it is important. Here are a few things from my notes I found especially good:


A chart showing all the categories of systematic theology. The column on the right are the classes the MA degrees take and what they cover.

Also, here is a quote for you:

"The degree to which you diminish the depth of sin is the degree to which you diminish the glory of humanity. And the degree to which you diminish the glory of humanity is the degree to which you diminish the depth of sin."

What Dr. Matthews was getting at is the fact that all the categories we study are equally important and affect our views of the other. And of course they all affect the entirety of our lives, etc.

Yay systematics!

Time for a new post

I quit my job! Ok this is actually sort of old news. I quit in December, and my last day was Jan 15th or something. I am going to school full-time to finish my degree for sure before any accidental babies come or anything like that (not really-- but it will give us more flexibility to have my degree over quicker for future opportunities, etc).

I'm also going to be the full-time housekeeper-cleaner-cooker-budgeter and everything in between for our life maintenance. This will hopefully free Dan up to work his part time job consistently and also keep up with his own studies.


This semester the class we will take together will be Christian Ethics, taught by Dr. David Jones. Dr. Jones is retired (I think?) and is coming back to teach this class this one semester, which he used to teach. So we tried to arrange to take it this semester since we both need it.

Here's the rest of our schedules:

Dan:
Hebrew in Exegesis (Translating lots of the Old Testament!)
Pentateuch (Focus in on the Moses books)
Christian Ethics (The moral of the story is...)
Calling, Vocation, and Work (Doctors, Lawyers, and Bears oh my)
Gospels (Dr. Doriani, holla)

Brittany:
Teaching and Learning (This class is so meta)
Curriculum Analysis and Design (My only class that will ever have a prerequisite)
Humanity, Christ, and Redemption (They fit all of this into one class??)
Christian Ethics
Leviticus - Audit (Lots of rules, but important stuff)
Gospels - Audit

I am also excited that I am auditing Leviticus, because Dan and I will be studying some of the same material. Dr. Jay Sklar is teaching it, who is also Dan's Pentateuch professor. He has apparently been working on a commentary on Leviticus for a long time. Also, Dan says he must live close to us because he has run into him several times while walking Lucy, who Dr. Sklar says is cute (brownie pts!)

School starts Thursday.

Free Pair of Pearl Earrings ($25-$30 ARV)

Sign up to enter the following sweepstakes for Helzberg Diamonds:

http://www.helzberg.com/category/about+us/sweepstakes/expressions+of+love.do

Soon, after you might receive a postcard in the mail or an email offering you a free pair of pearl earrings if you bring the card into the store. This is confirmed, I received mine a week or so ago, although it seems holiday related, so I am not sure how long they will be sending these out.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out for you!