I'm not so sure how to deal with this...

Recently, I got into a pretty cool discussion with a girl I work with. (This post is kinda serious, so I won't take on the name Mr. Publix.) We were talking about God and things related, when my clumsy mouth stumbled on the law vs. grace thing, and how even though we do wrong, God is still okay with us if the blood of Jesus has covered us, and shown us the way to love Him and one another. Well, I didn't quite word it that way, but she took it the wrong way, and thinks I'm into the idea of total carnage and what not, and expecting God to let me into heaven covered in sin. As I was telling her of grace, she mentioned to me "God is a wrathful God, and He gave very strict guidelines."
Now, he did give strict guidelines, all of which were totally summed up in His two commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your mind... the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself."
Now, I was shocked, here is what surprised me, that she says God is such a wrathful God, yet he loves and commands us to love. She talked as if she had never seen the loving side of Him, or the full reason He died on the cross. I don't want to show it directly to her, because only God can open her eyes, but I'm going to tell her about it, in hopes that God uses me to open her eyes to His love. I just don't know how to tell her without her thinking I'm some kinda hippie liberal. *sigh*. I don't know... help, anyone?

On the night of the Sunday before the Sunday before Christmas...

... me and my awesome group of Christian friends had a white elephant gift exchange. It started out incomprehensibly rowdy as we watched a ballgame that we never saw coming. That day, during the Dolphin's terrible season of '07, the Miami Dolphins.... won!!! They beat the Baltimore Ravens 22-16!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't like the Dolphins all that much...
But the party erupted into such a glorious state of somewhat-mock celebration after Brant Hansen stood among an amazed crowd, and started a slow clap. Then, we ate! Dinner didn't last too long before we started the gift exchange.
It was ruthless, awful, as children under five years of age had the gifts adults coveted cruelly stripped from their hands. The Hansen family tearing each other apart over a stretchy, gooey frog-thing. I DESPERATELY attempted to sell off my five-episode classic collection of Little House on the Prairie to someone who didn't care so much about their gift. I finally found someone, and I got a pair of socks. Then, I traded the pair of socks for a plush Patrick Star from Spongebob. I later traded that for a collection of "create your own adventure" books. Score!!
The women quarreled over both a pink purse or a bag with fake tattoos and $5. Twinkies passed around the room, a squirrel-themed lamp switched consistently from reluctant hands, and two men, one being Brant, dressed in small girl's clothing.. Yes, don't worry, it was unfortunate that that was the gift they ended up with. Brant's said "GIRL POWER" and had pictures of Wonder Woman and other female super-heroines. The other one's said "Multi-talented."...
We had a blast over all, and I desperately wish I had pictures to share.

I haven't posted in a month, and this is what I came up with.

Over many decades, the Grundles had no power over bread. Only recently have they come up with a contrivance to extinguish bread’s reign of power over the mid-south-northwest. It seemed impossible, but they had all grown tired of being slaves to bread. It was time to strike back… with a vengeance.

Was it love, or was it Fancy Feast ®? None of the Grundles knew for sure, but whatever it was, the bread’s vicious feline army was unstoppable, for the Grundles only had wet food, and that gave the army gas. The bread they fought was unleavened, and even more voracious than the kind that had flour. They commanded their cat army whit ruthlessness, and settled for nothing less than unleavened conquest.

The Grundles, however, came prepared this time, for they had flour, and flamethrowers, how they found these things was unclear to the bread, after all there was only one store you could buy those things from, and that was heavily guarded by the felines. Unless the Grundles had found a way past them, but that would require dry food, which was only attained from the pet store, which was heavily guarded by the unleavened bread.

The Grundles had penetrated the bread’s incomprehensible defenses, and now there was no stopping them. With flamethrowers in hand, and flour in pocket, the only thing the bread could think to do was to surrender and be leavened. All the evil reign of bread had come to an end. The Grundles had their victory. Hoo-ah!