whole my life

My ever-so-enlightened uncles strike again. I was talking to one of my keun-ah-bbah's last night because Mikey oh-bbah is having his wedding reception something something soon, and he starts asking me about life. So we're making small talk, and the topic of TKD comes up. Now, his reaction winning Nationals was "wait...isn't that going to give you problems in terms of getting married?"

Yes, because clearly the man of my dreams is so insecure that he would not be supportive of pursuing hobbies that I enjoy and the opportunities God has given me. Gotta love the old school Korean logic.

All my life (or whole my life, as my dad would say) I've heard my uncles criticize my parents for the way they've raised me. But what bothered me was that it was never about character or values - it was always about making me a threat to a boy's ego and therefore unable to be wedded off. Seems a bit ridiculous to me. "She's too smart, she talks too much, she doesn't play with dolls, she doesn't like pretty clothes, she's learning how to defend herself"...yep, those are my ever-so-supportive uncles. I told my dad once that God blessed him by not giving him any sons, because he never would have understood the value of a daughter otherwise. He had to think about that one...

What is so wrong with being talented or intelligent or athletic? And if they really wanted me to do ballet instead of TKD... after going to the ballet last spring, I have to say that ballet dancers are ridiculously athletic and strong - there's much more past the pink leotard.

I'm not a feminist by any stretch of the imagination - but in the end God made each of us with different gifts and talents and the purpose is to glorify Him by using them - boy or girl. And last I checked, marriage was intended to be a partnership, not a dictatorship.

Very interesting in light of my current read, "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldredge. I haven't finished it, but it's been a good book so far. I picked it up when I noticed it was the woman-book version of the popular man-book craze by the ACF bros "Wild at Heart". (Gosh, that semester the guys read it in small group, they couldn't stop talking about it!) I think it's actually very interesting to read the books together. Obviously with the same authors there will be parallels, but I thought it was cool that they talk about partnership and sharing in the adventure together. Particularly since we're studying Philippians in sg and partnership is one of the big themes that pops up everywhere.

Have you ever worked on a group project and been the only one working? Or been on a group project and felt useless? I have, and both feelings pretty much suck. One thing that I thought was amazing about this crazy pumping analyzer thing that my group at work built a few weeks ago was that when we had to actually go install it, everything just sort of came together. Everyone went to do different tasks, and it was incredibly hectic and stressful, but in the end, it worked because we worked together. In the debriefing meeting, that's what my boss commended us for - the teamwork and how each of us brought something different to the team. And I must say, it felt good to hear him say we'd done a good job.

Sab always told me not to bury my coins in the sand. A good servant is a good steward...and as I think about how to steward my time, money, and even love, I can only hope that in the end I will hear "well done".