The Sunday 7

Yesterday got away from me and I never got around to blogging, but I'm here today to make up for it. 

1. Did you notice my new blog layout? I've been wanting to change it forever, but couldn't figure it out until this week. Never fear, you're in the right place and will continue to be provided with riveting content - just in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. 

2. We went to Great Wolf Lodge in January with Luke and Esther, their kids, and my parents. But Ruby got sick and Esther had just torn her ACL, so they went home early and it was kind of a bust for them. When we saw another Groupon pop up this summer, we decided to try for round two and went again with the same gang on Thursday. It went much better this time and the kids had a blast!

Sidenote: I discovered a fun new feature on my new phone. There was a kid on the floating wood slice in the background of that picture, but I was able to "erase" him from it! Here's the original picture:

Isn't that amazing? Technology, man. That's good stuff.

We got to the hotel about an hour before the pool closed on Thursday, so we swam for a little while:

That's Lena in that huge water splash on the left. Haha.

After the pool closed we got ice cream . . .

Then we went down to the lobby for the evening dance party. The kids had a blast, but I didn't get any good pictures. 

We were back in the pool by 10:00 the next morning. Grandpa even got in on the fun with the kids and did some water slides and the 1,000 gallon bucket dump . . .

Before

During

After

Lucy loved the waterslides and did them over and over - some with Justin, some with me, most by herself. Lena was glued to my side 99% of the time, so we did a lot of waterslides as well. Oddly enough, I detest roller coasters but love waterslides. Levi bopped all over the place. Another family from school happened to be there so Levi played with them a lot, he was brave enough to do two of the tube waterslides with Justin for the first time and loved those, but I think his favorite thing was the lazy river. I never got a great picture, but there were many times I found him laying on his back on the tube with his hands behind his head just living his best life. Lol. 

Sometimes he didn't even use a tube! Haha. This kid is buoyant. 

I love this one of Ruby and Lena genuinely laughing about something.

Justin says it's inappropriate to take pictures of unsuspecting people when they're sleeping, but how could I resist? Ow ow! The poor guy got up at 3:30 on Thursday morning to bring his parents to the airport, worked all day, then drove us up to Traverse City as soon as he got home because I'm a baby and hate driving in the dark. 

I forgot to ask my mom to send me the pictures she took that prove I was there too. Haha. But I played in the water with the kids most of the time and tried to be present instead of worrying about documenting every second. 

The only way we could get Casper in the picture. Lol

3. The only other thing I have to report on is the election and I'm still unsure what to say. Haha. I had Thea on Tuesday so she got to come with me to vote. 

Yes, I highly filtered my face. 

We had some major proposals on our ballot as well as an important gubernatorial race (I love the word gubernatorial). And when I woke up on Wednesday, I was disheartened to see that everything I voted for lost (with the exception of one measly house seat). I don't care that much about the governor. She'll be gone in two years anyway. But seeing proposal 3 pass, enshrining the right to an abortion at any fetal age to our state constitution made me rage. I spent most of Wednesday seething over it, and honestly my stomach still hurts when I think about it. Over 2 million people in our state consider infanticide a human right. How did we get here? How are people so blind? I ended up reading through the first few chapters of Romans that morning because all I could think of was Romans 1:21-25:

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires.

Our nation's minds are dark and confused. The "enlightened elite" claim to be wise, but they're fools! Instead of worshiping the glorious God, they worship idols of sex and autonomy and freedom without consequences. They worship vanity and ambition and comfort at the expense of real-life children! So that brings us to verse 24, which is what I kept thinking of on Wednesday. God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desire. The people rejoicing over the passing of Prop 3 feel like they've been granted freedom, when all they've been given is a temporary reprieve from God's wrath. He's not trying to stop the depravity anymore. He's going to let it run its course. And it is terrifying to be in the path of that. I hate that my identity as a "Michigander" is tied to that. I hate that I will have to work that much harder to teach my kids that despite what the government tells them or society tells them or the media tells them, sin has consequences - even if it's not immediate or obvious. That sin is still sin even when it's legal. That the nature of sin is that Satan takes something that was once considered unthinkable and abhorrent and turned it into something people now fight for and celebrate!

I don't watch a lot of live TV, so I didn't see many campaign ads, but I did catch one for Prop 3 that left me with my jaw hanging. It essentially said that without a right to abort your baby, women won't be able to go to college or get jobs or climb the corporate ladder. It made me want to scream, "Women! You are being lied to!" Where are the feminists protesting the idea that women can't do anything they put their minds to? Are you saying that women are too weak to have children and go to college? Too emotional to be a mother and a corporate tycoon at the same time? And what about choices? The almighty pro-choice movement seems to forget women have other choices than to murder their children in a quest to get ahead. You really want to break that glass ceiling so badly that you think a child will hold you back? I'll take your baby. Thousands if not millions of other couples who want children will take that baby. If science could swing it, I would carry that baby for you so you don't have to suffer the indignity or discomfort of bearing life. I'm about to the point where I'm ready to stand outside an abortion clinic with a sign advertising that very proposition. I'm just so angry that people are that selfish. And don't come at me with your sob stories. Yes, of course there are instances where women are abused. But the vast majority of abortions are performed simply because a baby is unwanted or inconvenient. And that is depraved. That gets me fired up. That makes me want to shake the dust off of Michigan on my way out. 

Because this is the result of God abandoning people to their shameful desires, and I don't want to be around for it: (From Romans 2)

5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done. 7 He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. 8 But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. 9 There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil

But you may have noticed I skipped a few verses from the beginning of Romans 2 . . . 

You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. (Rom. 2:1)

I didn't want to read them on Wednesday, and I don't want to bring them up now. I want to cling to my righteous anger. But the truth is that "but for the grace of God go I." Without Christ I'd still be just as foolish and blind and wicked as the people I'm mad at. My anger itself is a sign of my sinful heart. Romans 2:1-4 is a reminder to people like me that we're worthy of that same judgment. The only reason I won't be on the receiving end of it isn't because I'm so good or so enlightened. It's because God is kind and merciful, because he opened my eyes to my depravity and rescued me from it. 

So I'm still torn on my response to this whole vile business. I think anger has its place and is a proper gut reaction, but I can't let it fester and turn to bitterness. Really, I should probably be driven to sympathy more than anything - fear for my neighbors who are willing to exchange the truth of God for a lie and let themselves be abandoned to their shameful desires. I haven't worked out yet what that looks like practically. 

I also can't help but draw parallels to the years of slavery in the U.S. Most people considered it their right to own slaves. They did not perceive slaves to be human. They didn't think they were doing anything wrong. A century later you'd be hard pressed to find an American who condones that kind of thinking. But how did we get here? What radical actions did abolitionists take to turn the tide of public opinion from the nonchalance of slave ownership to the outrage over it? What is my place in history to do the same for abortion? Is it even possible? Let me know if you have any bright ideas on that one. 

See? This is why I didn't want to get into it. My fingers overtook my common sense and I started spewing. And now I'm going to have to wade through scads of angry comments about my self-righteousness and backward ways. I guess it's the price I'm willing to pay. Because I'm done tip-toeing around the "nuances" of a "complex" situation. It's time to call it what it is. 

4. On that delightful note, enjoy these last few random pictures and memes before I call it a night: