Color in my life

This week I am studying the Phoenicians and how they used murex snails to dye clothing red and purple.

Colors are important in my life because I don't like everything looking the same. I enjoy a diversity in my surroundings. If I lived like the Phoenicians, in a brown world, where everything was mostly dust, brown buildings, the grass, and then the blue of the sky and ocean, I would definitely miss the other, rarer colors such as red, orange, yellow, and purple. If I was a Phoenician and found a way to make clothing red or purple, like they did, I would be thrilled at having a new color to wear. The Phoenicians added more color to their clothing when they discovered that the dye extracted from murex snails could change the color of cloth and stay that way. Due to the fact that they could only extract drops from the snails, it took a long time to get the dye to color an entire toga.

The final question in this activity is if I would like an environment with more or fewer colors. I prefer more color to add to the fun of life. I prefer to be in nature when the flowers are in bloom, or the trees are budding. To add color in my life, I think I will get some flowers or other plants that have colorful blooms and plant them outside this spring.

Ecclesiastes and Discussions about it

This morning, I read the book of Ecclesiastes and I have to say it is a very depressing book. It sounds like the person who wrote it is a HUGE pessimist and was really down on life. He believes in enjoying life the way it is and not regretting having a good time. You won't take earthly belongings to Heaven, so don't hoard it for yourself on earth. Today's exercise asks me if it sounds like something someone I know would write, and I have to say it doesn't. Evyn can be a pessimist sometimes, but never as bad as the guy who wrote Ecclesiastes. It also asks how I think he felt when he wrote it, like if he's down or a pessimist, and if not, was he giving a realistic point of life. I would say a bit of both, as I described earlier. It is a bit of a realistic point of life, but life isn't a bad as he portrayed it. There is hope in everything we do, and all we need to do is find it.

Another activity is what would I tell a friend who sounded like the author of Ecclesiastes. I would tell them to lighten up and look at the good side of life, the glass is half full, stuff like that. If all you ever do is look at the bad side of life, you will never enjoy yourself. If you have a heavy heart because of something, and that's why you are down, cheer up, because a cheerful soul is more likely to heal faster than a heavy heart.

Psalm 51

Today I had to read Psalm 51. It taught me that God is forgiving if you come to Him with your problems and will help you forget your sins if you repent of them. He would rather you came to him with a heart full of sadness over sins rather than coming to him with sacrifices to try to gain forgiveness. I also now know that no matter how many bad things you do, if you come to God, he will except you for who you are and wipe your slate clean.

The Story of Mephibosheth

The story of Mephibosheth takes place after David's war with Saul. God has blessed David , and David wants to show the same kindness to a member of Saul's family. Only one remains, and David asks that Mephibosheth be brought before him. Because Mephibosheth's feet are hurt, David tells him that he will provide for him and gives him a man named Ziba to help him. Ziba, his sons, and his servants all work for Mephibosheth since he can't do any work because of his feet. By giving Mephibosheth a good life, David showed himself as a Messianic figure, or a symbolic Christ-figure.

I can relate to this story because of how much God provides for me. He has blessed me and my family so much, and I am very thankful to Him because of that.

Christmas and New Years

Well, it's the beginning of a new year . . . 2011. I figured I would start the year with a new post. Since my birthday, I have gotten my iTouch, fixed my laptop for wireless, and celebrated Christmas and New Year's Eve.

For Christmas, Mom and Dad got us a new game called Carcassone. It is a game of strategy where you lay tiles and little wooden followers (Meoples to us) as different jobs to get the most points. Since then, we have gotten another expansion (they gave us two with the original game). We all enjoy it and love playing. We also got a Wii game called Petz sports. On it, I have adopted a Beagle named Hunter and I am training him to be the fasted dog in the game.

Last night, Ethan, Dad, and I all spent at our friends' house until 1:20 or so. The other two and Mom stayed home as Evyn and Amber are sick. They are on the upswing though, so that a good thing.

The next big thing we are doing is our trip to Grandma's over in Idaho. They are having snow, so we will be able to enjoy some this winter. We will be getting up at 2:00 a.m. to get ready to leave since we need to get Dad to the SeaTac airport for his flight to Texas, and then from there we go to Grandma's for a week. Dad will be meeting us there about midweek.

Another big thing I did, before I forget to write it down is that I got my signaling merit badge yesterday. I managed to get it the day before it went away, as it was a centennial merit badge. That means I got all of the centennial badges and ribbons by the seat of my pants, as Mom put it.