Sometimes Life is Like a Coconut...

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As you can tell by the title of this post it will be a very metaphorical one, the reason simply being because life is very much unlike a hairy fruit in many ways. Now, I didn't name it that so I could tell you all of the ways that life is unlike coconuts but to share a little revelation as to why it can be.

I was thinking the other day about all of the things that they say life is like: toilet paper, rivers, a box of chocolates. And those metaphors are all fine and dandy but I decided to mix it up a little. Sometimes, life is like a coconut. You can't tell what it is like on the inside, because all that you are seeing is external. There is a story to back up my new saying, it goes like this:

My brother loves coconuts! What's not to love really? Anyhow, we walked into the store one day and saw a big box FULL of coconuts. Soren, my brother, went crazy, begging for a coconut. My mom finally caved, even though we don't own anything that can open coconuts easily, or because some people in my family do not like coconuts. But that day we left the store with a coconut in our cart. It sat on our table for days, my mom not wanting to open it up in fear that it would be to hard considering we don't own an ice pick. One day Soren finally begged hard enough and mom went at it with a knife. She took the knife, hammered as hard as she could on the coconut's eye, and it still didn't crack. Finally it resulted in her sawing it open with a knife that was very nearly ruined afterwards. After much effort the fruit was open. Yay! It smelled great, looked fine and we all were craving some. I went to serving a little of the meat to everyone and we were met with a bitter surprise. It was actually more of a rotten surprise. You guessed it, the coconut was totally rotten. It had pink fuzz growing inside of it and it felt really slimy. So the much awaited coconut ended up in the trash.

What's the moral of the story? Well that, sometimes, life is like a coconut. It looks great on the outside! It is super desirable and appealing, you think it is all dandy and await the day where you will take the time and effort to peer in, expecting to be pleased. But what if it's gross? What if we take the time, and with God's help, look deep into ourselves and find mold and gunk in our souls? Unlike coconuts, we cannot go to the store and buy a new life. So what happens? We need to fix it. We need to put our lives in shape, take out all that which is gross and unappealing. There is good news, we can. We can fix up our lives and make them great again. God gives us the tools to do so. We can dig into our souls and rip out that which is bad, not only that we can keep it out, with God's help. Lent is a great time to do this, to look inside of our souls and ask for God to help us fix it up. That way, when we look inside again, we get to delight in the goodness of our lives and souls.

Peace and love in Christ,

Alyse

New Family

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My dad just got married this last Sunday. He is married to a wonderful woman who's name is Simona, she is from Rome, Italy. She came in with her daughter, her mother, and her stepfather. I was really blessed by being able to meet all of them.

The wedding was so nice and all of the family was there, having a great time, and enjoying each other's company. The reception was at a beautiful bed and breakfast and it was really nice.

My new little sister's name is Beatrice, she is the cutest! She is four years old and has the sweetest personality. She only speaks Italian, but with a little effort you can hardly feel the language barrier. God blessed me so much with her openness and free spirit. He reminded me of the beauty of playing with children, and blessed me so much with her. On the way to the airport today we played with dolls, something I haven't done in years! I really felt God's blessing during the time we had with Simona's family.

God has the funniest way of doing things, like giving me a family in Italy :) I have really enjoyed my visit with Dad, Simona, and her family, although her family left today. It reminded me of my family in the international church and that there are people to love and enjoy all around the world!

Peace and love in Christ,
Alyse

It's Lent!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Lent has arrived again. On ash wednesday I was blessed to see the church so full. It is so encouraging to see so many come to mass for the preparation of a forty day penance time. When I think of lent I usually don't think "happy" or "great" as it should be, since it is a time for penance, but it does get me excited. Excited to know that my soul can go through a sort of spring cleaning, and get rid of all of the junk that has been in it for the past year. It is a great time to examine your spiritual life, your everyday actions, and change them. To turn your life around with penances and fasts that you stick to and form good habits of.

Of course you don't avoid sweets for the rest of the year, or that kind of thing, but lent can teach you so much. God really works when we sit and listen, and I find lent to be a good time for that. To be able to say "Okay God, I love you so much that I am going to die to myself for a while and let you work in me."

I hope that you all are having a blessed lent and are preparing your heart for Easter, when we will celebrate His resurrection!

Peace and love in Christ,
Alyse

The Media

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today at mass a deacon gave a homily. He touched on many points but one in specific caught me. He said,
"I feel like the biggest problem in our society today is,"
I waited to hear what he would say, curious as to what he thought it was.
"the media." He continued.

I was surprised. He went on to say that we watch so many people and spend hours of our days devoted to them, and slowly we become desensitized. We become desensitized to all of the bad stuff that the media contains. Now, desensitized is one of my favorite words to describe slacking, because it is so powerful. To be desensitized is to not feel, to no longer be alert to something.

When you think of becoming desensitized it is almost scary, to know that it is still equally as bad, but you just don't care anymore. I have become desensitized, and I feel that it is a common problem in society. To see gore, or listen to crude jokes, or foul language and not flinch. Slowly it becomes so common place that you don't notice, or don't care. How sad, huh? To know that we are settling for less than what is good, to be okay with the mediocre or straight out bad. We need to become re-sensitized to the world around us, we need to pray for change.

Media affects our society sooooo much. Without noticing it, you may change the way you look, act, speak, respond and even feel, because of a tv show or music. Media is what sets our trends and enters our lives and conversations. It is where we go for entertainment, or to have a good time. And if it is bad then it affects us no matter how hard we try. Do you get my point?

Now, I am not saying that everyone should stop listening to anything but praise and worship music, and never watch a movie above a PG rating. What I am saying is that we should become more aware of what we watch and listen to, it should still affect us. If you know a movie has awful stuff in it, just choose not to watch it. If you are listening to the radio and all of the sudden there is nothing but vulgarity, switch the channel.

Since media affects us so much, let's make sure that it is good media. Things that glorify God, or at least doesn't glorify sin and the devil. We can pray for change, we can pray for better media in our society. We are in such desperate need of clean tv shows, movies, books, songs, and magazines! When we pray, God answers. So let's all pray to be aware, let's pray for good, entertaining, clean media.

Peace and love in Christ,
Alyse

Spring

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today we stepped out of our house and I saw this beautiful tree. I saw how beautiful and bright the flowers on it were and how happy and new it looked. I also noticed that the tree itself could have been mistaken for dead. There weren't any leaves on it and it was dry, brown, and twiggy. I pointed it out and my sister said, "I bet if you cut it open it is green on the inside."

I looked once more at that little tree with the beautiful flowers and it made me think of God. So often I find myself in a spiritually dry place, it seems like my relationship with God is almost lifeless, just the twigs of what had been a beautiful relationship. But then you see God turn it around and make beautiful life spring from what had been dead! In the bible you read about the dry bones that came back to life, that is what that tree reminded me of. The picture is below and you can see what I am talking about. Such a dead tree has so much life inside of it that it no longer is dead but is giving life!

My friend and I were having an awesome conversation the other day. She said that when God gives you spiritual dryness it is to bring about something new and wonderful. Like Winter, if it were Spring all of the time you wouldn't be able to see the beauty of what is present. God may give us times where we feel dead or dried up but his plan is so much greater! He gives us those times so that he can work in the secrets of our hearts and bring about a spiritual Spring!



Our plans are different from God's but he tells us "I know the plans I have for you. Plans for your well fare and not for your woe. Plans to give you a future filled with hope".
Praise God for his goodness and his perfect plan!

Peace and love in Christ,
Alyse