You may have to pardon anything in this post that confuses you.  I’m still trying to figure this out myself and so my thoughts may ramble as I go about my writing of this.

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:11-13 KJV)

Contentment is not always easy, okay, I’ll be honest here – I don’t know about you, but for me it can be extremely difficult.  How, when you desire something so so badly, can you be content?  For me it’s not material things that I struggle with, it’s where I’m at in life – something that I have no control over.

For me the first (baby) step for me is to realize that there is a reason for everything in life, including where I’m at right now. I may not understand it, though who knows, for me right now it could be as simple as the fact that I need to learn contentment, but I can only guess at the reason.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 KJV)

A week ago I went to a Bible conference where  the speaker mentioned a verse that caught my attention.

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 KJV)

So God will supply all my needs right? But I think that I need something and I need it now and badly! However, I’m coming to realize that maybe I don’t need what I think I do.  Oh I want it – I know that.  I want it so bad that it hurts, but God knows what I need more than I do.  Thinking on this verse makes me realize that God does fill all my needs, I just may not know what my needs are and I may be getting my needs and my wants confused with each other.

I’m sure that there will be more on this subject (and on the related subjects of peace and difficult circumstances in life) soon!

For those of you who may not be familiar with NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month – in November, it is where authors from around the world of all different ages and genres spend the entire month trying to reach 50,000 words.  Please go check it out at the link above for more information and to look around.  My personal profile can be found here.

Also, please check out this link to find out how you can help me support this cause. Please check it out if you can donate! It doens’t have to be much at all.

So now is the hard part and that is figuring out what to write.  My writing blog has full details of what I have written in the past, but they have both been historical fiction romance and I’m only half way done with the one that I started last year, but I would really like to start out with a totally fresh idea.

I am not a morning person – ask my poor dad who has had cold coffee in the morning because I wasn’t fully awake when I got up to make it for him before he went to work and forgot to let the esspresso machine warm up.  On the contrary I’m a good night owl – maybe not so much now as I used to be (thank you Tim who talked sense into me).  Generally, I go to bed at a decent hour, but if I’m reading a book that I am wrapped up in it is impossible for me to go to sleep.  I stayed up reading Jane Eyre until five a.m. on morning.

Last night was a night like that.  I was tired, hardly could keep my eyes open, but picked up the book I was in the middle of anyways.  Now, I’m a Nicholas Sparks fan, I have been since I watched The Notebook, but I hadn’t read much of his recently.  Then I saw that a new movie based off one of  his books was coming out.  Then I saw the book at the library two days ago – though I must have seen it a thousand times – and picked it up.

I was up till 3 a.m. reading it. 

This is definetely one of Spark’s best books yet.  He has a way of capturing your emotions throughout his works and he has the ability to leave you in tears at the end.

The Last Song is a story of Veronica “Ronnie” Miller who is forced to spend the summer with her estranged father.  Ever since he left his family she has been bitter towards him, to the extent of avoiding piano playing, something that she would do with her Julliard teaching father and not answering his calls or opening his letters.

At the same time it is a story of Ronnie’s dad Steve and his search for God and the connection with his children that he had lost all those years ago.

Ronnie has become rebellious and continually fights with her mom, but something is different about her father and eventually she opens up to him and begins to make up for all of the years that she shunned him. 

It is a summer that changes the lives of Ronnie, her father and her brother as they come to know each other more and of course…Ronnie falls in love – it is a Nicholas Sparks novel after all.  But even though things seem to be looking up at the same time they are coming apart.

A beautifully written book charged with emotions it is told from multiple point of views that brings the reader closer to the characters.  In the end this story of “the summer she’d been betrayed, the summer she’d been arrested, the summer she’d fallen in love”  left me in tears and contemplating life as Spark’s novels aways do.

It seems like the commercialization of this holiday only continues to grow and we’re seeing hearts and cards promoting Valentine’s Day in stores shortly after the new year.  Trust me, I’ve already been out and bought those chalky little conversation hearts that I love.

This month I’m going to focus on the topic of love on this blog – but wait! – before you hit the back button on your browser or type in a new url address hear me out.  I’m not going to go just go on about mushy love and all that despite the fact that I am a romantic at heart and love being in love.  No, I won’t bore all of you with that.

During this month I want to go over several things, love for others (not just romantic), patience (doesn’t matter if you’re single or not) and many other aspects, as well as some content on relationships. 

So I hope you stop back by and enjoy what’s coming!

(I thought that would be an appropriate way to sign posts on this kind of thing)

I’m still working on a few things – My blogroll will have it’s own page with some description of each of the blogs there, If you want yours there plase send me an email or post a comment on this and I’ll get to that soon. 

February is coming up, so I’m going to have soem posts reflecting love, romantic and otherwise.

Check out the Dockers website if you haven’t already

I think that we should be supporting Dockers for this, so if you are in need of Christmas gifts still and aren’t sure what to get, check out the Dockers site.

I’m looking to update my blogroll, so if you have a blog that you would like to see there please send me a message here: jennachristine90 [at] gmail [dot] com. 

I’m looking for Christian blogs, you can see examples of what I’m talking about by visiting my current blogroll there on the left. 

I’m not fully sure what will change during these few weeks, but I have a few vague ideas that I am going to be working on.  So until then, enjoy the falling snow and Christmas theme and peruse some of the old topics.

One more note :  As started a few months ago Princess of Literature is also back.

Also, last Thursday a young man (who also happens to be my best friend) asked my father for permission to court me!  Dad said yes, and of course, I did too.

I heard about this in an email a few weeks ago and thought that it was a great idea.  For those of you who haven’t heard of it yet, here’s the original letter that was sent out:

Dear Friends:

This afternoon I was praying about a number of things, and my mind began to wander. I was deeply distressed at the symbolic actions that President Obama took as he began his presidency. Namely, that he signed executive orders releasing funds to pay for abortions, permission to fund human stem cell research, and federal funding for contraception. I have been involved in the pro-life movement for nearly 20 years and it pained my heart to see a man and a political party committed to the shedding of innocent blood. This man and his party lead our country; but they do not represent me or the 54% of Americans who believe that abortion is wrong and should no longer be legal.

As I was praying, I believe God gave me an interesting idea. Out in the garage I have a box of red envelopes. Like the powerful image of the red LIFE tape, an empty red envelope will send a message to Barack Obama that there is moral outrage in this country over this issue. It will be quiet, but clear.

Here is what we would like you to do:

Get a red envelope. You can buy them at Kinko’s or at party supply stores. On the front, address it to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500-0001

On the back, write the following message:

“This envelope represents one child who died in an abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception.”

Put a stamp on it, drop it in the mail, and send it. Then tell everyone you know about the website or give this letter to them and encourage them to do the same. Time is running out. It is our hope that 50 million red envelopes, one for every child who died before having a chance to live, will be sent to Obama. Maybe it will change the heart of the President.

There are two sites that I have seen for this:  
http://www.redenvelopeproject.org/
http://www.sendaredenvelope.org/

If you are one facebook, there are also two event pages for it that I have joined:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=57018901077
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=54756540869

So that is the goal.  Yesterday a group of people got together to prepare envelopes.  We were able to get 400 ready to mail, we just have to get some more stamps.

Afterwards we all gathered in prayer over the envelopes – praying that they would  make a difference in the life of all the people that they come in contact with.  We also read Daniel 9 aloud, so I will end my post with this.

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ⁴ And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, ⁵ we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. ⁶ Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. ⁷ O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.
⁸ “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. ¹⁰ We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. ¹¹ Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. ¹² And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.
¹³ “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. ¹⁴ Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. ¹⁵ And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!
¹⁶ “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. ¹⁷ Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. ¹⁸ O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. ¹⁹ O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (Daniel 9:3-19)