Well friends, I learned a lesson in humility on Monday night.  My drive home from school that first began with a flight from Houston didn't end well.  Eventually I did make it home relatively safe.  However, before that, about twenty minutes from home, I got into a pretty bad wreck.  Every monetarily valuable possession I own was sitting in the front passenger seat where I was hit.  They aren't looking too good.  I was told repeatedly that I should have at least been hospitalized (I was not).  I was fortunate to only receive several bruises, seat belt burn, whiplash, and a cut on my foot.  I am blessed and I am grateful.  Now I'm in the process of rebuilding along with juggling a class and a job.  Continued prayers would be excellent as I continue to heal and get my head on straight again.  Oh, and for all you sick, twisted people who enjoy photos of destruction...  ;)                                                                                                  

Lent started on Wednesday.  That evening as I was leaving Mass, one of the younger girls hurriedly asked if Father was coming out soon.  I said yes and asked why.  As chatty girls tend to do, she explained to me the whole situation.  For Lent, she and her boyfriend gave up kissing (a noble resolution) but she was bargaining.  Since Sundays are typically the exceptions in the season--don't fast when we're called to feast and glory in Jesus' resurrection sort of thing--she wanted to know if she could take advantage of that.  However, her manipulation went further.  Could she take those four Sundays worth of "feasting" and transfer them to other days like Valentines, her birthday, their anniversary...

I left that answer to Father but I did mention that her motivation was central.  In my opinion, she was missing the point of her Lenten resolution.  It's not that we get four "freebies" in Lent because we're weak and can't commit to change.  Instead, the goal is for us to appreciate the day on which we celebrate Christ's victory over death.  How many times do we try to manipulate and bargain with God?  I'm sure I'm equally as guilty, it just isn't as obvious to me quite yet.  Lord, soften our hearts and open our eyes, humble us.

I can say that I stuck to my resolutions for the first few days.  Going strong.  Ben and I are again struggling with our joint resolution, but that is merely a time thing.  We haven't given up though and we definitely aren't discouraged.  Maybe we should give up kissing too?  :p 

I'll hopefully post an interesting reflection of mine from the past two weeks or so.  I'm in a couple of classes focusing on minority issues, immigration, discrimination, etc. and I've been noticing some serious stirring in my heart when it comes to my field and the population I work with.  To tell later.  Happy Sunday!

Can I just throw a crazy idea out there?  I was thinking about it last night.  I don't think that waiting until marriage has to be a faith/God/religion-inspired thing.  Let me explain.  Now, of course, all of this is purely my understanding and opinion and all of that.  So, with that disclaimer in place...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't sex one of the most intimate experiences in human terms?  I mean, how much more vulnerable can one person ever be?  There's a beautiful, passionate, and intense connection of man and woman.  There's an exchange of self in every way.  Taking God out of that equation, I still find myself asking why anyone would want to steal that experience from their future forever person.  Sure, we are tempted because of that beauty and intensity, but the anticipation of that moment with just one person forever definitely motivates me.  I recognize the awesomeness of that union, but I also want to wait on the right time, on that time when I say that I am all his and I can mean that in every way. 

I guess my hypothesis falls short in that a number of people don't see sex as this gift of self.  In fact, a good portion of our society thinks that such a view puts way too much importance on a simple human desire and experience.  People rank sex as a necessity equivalent to eating and breathing.  They go on to rate sex the way they rate restaurants or athletic events.  I think that's what frustrates me and that's where I get hung up.  How can this uniting moment, when it is participated in with love and commitment, be looked at in such a trivial way?  It seems that those things actually can't go together.

Related to that, I don't want to have anything to compare!  I want my husband to be the one and only.  I want him to be the only man that I ever am so completely known by.  I want only him to receive every aspect of me and only once we are wed.  

Call me old fashioned, but I think we've lost a whole lot of meaning and depth when it comes to sex.  On that principle, I have confidence in saying that waiting til marriage doesn't have to be a faith-based decision.  If anyone recognizes the reality of that act and all that comes with it, then they would be inclined to look similarly at the situation. It is something worth waiting on.  If only we could see that.