Diet update

Lost two pounds last week, most I've lost since the first week! I enjoyed my first Creme Egg of the year this evening :)

Tonight I went to a body combat class with two girls from work. I recommend it! It was a very fun way to exercise your whole body and difficult to keep up but something easily learned.

For all those afraid of the dark

I have a bit of a thing about watching films that turn out to be scary. I try to make sure I don't watch anything above a 15 rating and anything that has excessive violence or blood and guts etc, because otherwise I have huge trouble sleeping the next few nights and every single noise is an intruder, every dark shadow a stranger standing in the room.

I thought Derailed might be okay but it turned out to be one of those films! (I didn't have the benefit of the Amazon synopsis and it had Clive Owen in it!) Good film but too scary for me.

On a more positive note, I came across these words in a re:jesus daily prayer (they have a pretty good prayer section that I've just rediscovered). From an evening prayer:

The darkness will come but in the darkness the light of Jesus shines... Jesus, help me to find the peace you offer. Just as I surrender to sleep, encourage me to surrender and trust you. You are the light in the darkness.
Amen

Vocation

Mark has posted some good words here.

Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge

Helen has been talking about this book and I've heard good reviews about the male counterpart, Wild at Heart, so Ben and I are reading them at the same time and will swap later.

So far the book has talked about the huge task of being a woman - living up to the women we meet at church, and in the shadow of the Good Wife in Proverbs 31:

"... whose life is so busy I wonder, when does she have time for friendships, for taking walks, or reading good books? Her night never goes out at night? When does she have sex? Somehow she has sanctified the shame that most women live under..."

I must admit I hold the Good Wife in very high esteem and I would love to imitate her and be all that I can be as a wife and someday a mother. It was a completely different perspective for me to read that this is such a huge difficult image to live up to, as I view Proverbs 31 as something that I will probably never be in this life but something to work towards as God changes me.

The book talks about the heart of a woman, that we were made in God's image as women and how our desires have an important part to play and shouldn't be dismissed. For example, the need to be romanced and win the heart of a man, to be treated as his beauty and be rescued.

The girlish part of me likes this. I love the thought that everything my little girl heart wants is valid and important, even the dream of being a princess and being fought for, and that I have a role to play in using the fierceness of a woman's heart in being a warrior "in a uniquely feminie way."

The next part of the book struck an uneasy chord in me. It describes woman as "the crescendo, the final, astonishing work of God... She is the Master's finishing touch." The book seems to use the story of Genesis to extrapolate theology in a strangely literal way, for example Wild at Heart says that men were born to hunt and be outside of the home because they were created outside the Garden of Eden - the garden was built around him almost as a cage. I'm not sure the Bible is meant to be read like this.

Helen also directed me to this review, which points out the "questionable theology" and the un-Biblicalness (is there a better word for that) of a lot of the statements in the book, eg:

Given the way creation unfolds, how it builds to ever and ever higher works of art, can there be any doubt that Eve is the crown of creation? . . . Look out across the Earth and say to yourselves, "The whole, vast world is incomplete without me. Creation reached its zenith in me."

I feel like the authors ignore the sovereignty of God at times which is disappointing and uncomfortable to read (but then, hey, maybe they'd say I have a spirit of bad self esteem or something...!)

I'm still hoping to get something out of it (once I get past Chapters Three to Five which seem to dwell on going over past hurts more than I'm comfortable with). I'm looking forward to reading Wild at Heart too, Ben seems to be enjoying most of it so far. The only other quibble I have so far is the writing style, which seems to consist of a huge amount of very short sentences which don't flow nicely!

Has anyone else read either book? What did you think?

Help!

I'm in the middle of my spelling and grammar proofreading test and have spotted most of the mistakes. I think a few more of them are split infinitives, but can anyone spot the mistakes in these sentences? There's meant to be at least one spelling or grammar mistake in each:

* Climbing the stairs yesterday, his leg suddenly gave way.

* Driving through the park yesterday, a stag jumped out in front of us and was hit by our car.

* Stranded at the station, the strike left Mick with no alternative but to take a taxi.

* When just a baby, my mother took me to India.

* It was her, and not the girl who owned the horse, who came out of the stable carrying the saddle.

* When something goes wrong at work, she is always more philosophical about it than me.

This is probably cheating, but I don't think I've yet developed the supernatural skill to spot all mistakes that experienced proofreaders seem to have!