Homework

Two events occurred in the last two years, accompanied by various thoughts and convictions here and there, which have led me to a massive stack of "homework".

I'm finally committing myself to coming up with, defining, and writing out my core values. What defines me. What do I want to "be about". Spiritually, that is.

Event One: I was in a wedding where the gift the bride gave us was a verse (or verses) that she chose for us based on our character and personalities. Can I just say I thought that was the greatest gift!? Especially since each one of the passages she chose had great thought put into it and personal meaning. I've never had a "life verse" that I've claimed (and I've never wanted to, for many reasons, but that is an entirely different post...) but now I have changed my thinking some, and I have been struck by the passage I was given so much in the last year and a half, that it is now my "life verse". More on this in a moment...

Event Two: I was at a friend's house for a party a few months back and I saw this cute frame thing with different words and beautiful pictures in it. I made a comment on it and she informed me that the words were the core values that she and her husband had chosen for themselves. I was like, "COOL!" I loved it. And the things they chose were very appropriate for what they believe and how they live. I started to think that I would love to do that one day if I get married.

"If I get married..."....."when I get married...." It's a phrase that gets tagged onto a lot of thoughts and statements when you are in the "limbo-single-stage". I've read some encouragement to NOT live with the mindset to put things off until marriage comes, because there is no guarantee it will ever come. So DON'T wait to cultivate godly femininity, DON'T wait to practice your spiritual gifts, DON'T wait to be involved in a church/ministry....etc. So I said to myself, "DON'T wait to do your core values!"

But I don't want to just put some words down on a piece of paper and be satisfied that I've made another list. Instead I really wanted to put thought and study into my core values and be convicted with what I want my life to represent.

I kept coming back to the passage I was given as a basis for my core values. Separately, I came up with some values that I wanted to think about as being my core values. I narrowed that list down as far as I could and came up with seven words. Then I started to look at my passage of scripture and match up phrases with the words I chose. I wasn't going in any order at all and I was just picking and choosing phrases at random, and wouldn't you know, every phrase from the passage of scripture was taken when I got through my list of seven values. So I thought that was cool. When I started that process, I sorta thought I might like to narrow it down to only five values, but now I feel very happy to have seven.

And now I want to do more study on the passage I've chosen before I get into the definition and writing of my core values. Which is where the "homework" comes in. I will read some commentaries and listen to sermons. I went to the Desiring God site to look up sermons on my passage (which is only five verses long) and found THIRTEEN sermons. So that pretty much gives away the fact that my passage is in Romans.

I wanted to have this all done by my birthday, which I am now realizing won't happen, but I wanted to blog about this so that I have at least a little accountability and urgency to get this accomplished soonly.

So, stay tuned for what my life verses and core values are!