online meanderings

The ache of mortality - Is it just sentimentality, or the sign of something deeper?

Trials, testing, and hope - How hope is tested and proved by trials.

Singleness - Wise reflections.

How to vote as a Christian - Helpful tips from John Dickson.

8 conversation rules - For parties, bores, anyone!

A prayer for the forgotten church of Syria - Read, pray.

"Emotional sins" to raise your kids to avoid - A great list.

20 awesomely untranslatable words from around the world - Fascinating.

Teach us to place our happiness in thee,
the blessed God,
never seeking life among the dead things of earth.
Valley of Vision

Tips for sharing Jesus:
1 Say you're a Christian straight away
2 Love the person more than the relationship
3 God talk
4 Pray for your friends and the opportunity to share
5 Memorize Romans 1:16
From my friend Belinda

To see more links and quotes, click here (Facebook) or here (Twitter)

a letter to my readers...

To all my lovely readers,

As you know, I've been trying something new on in all honesty: linking to some of the blog posts I read and enjoy each week in my online meanderings. This is a 6-month experiment, the question(s) of the moment being, "How long can I keep this up? Will it drive me completely crazy?? Just how long does 6 months take???"

Well, it's only 2 months in, and it's driving me just a le-e-e-etle crazy (can you tell?). I'm a black-and-white person, and I find it hard to do things by halves. When I see "57 unread posts" in my RSS folder, what do I do? I read (*cough* skim *cough*) them all!!! Not good for my mental health - or for my poor neglected family. (Actually, they're not neglected, but it is doing my head in.)

So here's Stage 2 of The Grand Linking Experiment. I've pared down my RSS folder and put the must-reads at the top: blogs by friends, women's blogs I love, and some from the wider blogosphere. I'm going to post the links I like on Facebook and Twitter, and put just my favourites in my online meanderings (yes, Jean, you can do it!).

What does this mean for you? If you want to see the blog posts I like, here's how. Just click on one of these links, and like/follow me there:

• in all honesty on Facebook


• jeanhonestly on Twitter

I post links on Facebook and Twitter most days. I'd love to have you join the conversation. Can't wait to see you there!

Love Jean. xxx

image is by MrBG from flickr

what I'm reading: time-wasting on the internet from The Picket Fence

I've been wondering recently just how much time it's possible to fill up with online meanderings and Facebookings and Tweetings and such, so this is timely.

I wonder if we added up, collectively, how many hours mankind currently wastes on social networking sites rather than real-life doing good to others, or learning a new skill, or reading a good book, or performing Noble and Brave Acts, we would be amazed and apalled. Such a generous way for the devil to make us all completely dull and ineffective as human beings...

If every social networking aspect of the internet were to crash, we would get on, we would make do, we would still have friends. Maybe more genuine friends. And maybe more time to love our neighbour, too.

I discovered this gem in Cath's A rant about the black hole of social networking from The Picket Fence, recommended to me by Leila and Maddi. Thanks girls!

image is by Write From Karen from flickr

...and speaking of facebook

"You are invited to put me in your top friends!...rate your friends!...rate my personality!...guess my IQ! (are you smarter than me?)...describe me in two words!...compare me to my friends!" Is it only me, or do you sometimes feel uncomfortable with the facebook applications sent to you?

Yes, I admit it, I'm a facebook junky. After only 3 weeks on facebook, I challenge any of you to have more applications than me.

I've done the IQ test, the 10 second interview (always wanted to do one of those), the personality test, the "which female super hero are you?" quiz (Wonder Woman and Princess Leia, if you're wondering.) I've listed my favourite causes, movies, and music, and displayed quotes and pictures from the best films of all time. I've joined all the groups with the coolest titles: "I'd marry the Beast if I could have a library like that..."

I've even asked friends to "join my pirate army", one of the more annoying and pointless facebook applications (where are you, me hearties?)

I've decorated my profile with every garden, aquarium and room out there, and I've got my very own art gallery (250 paintings so far - I'm a little obsessive.) I send myself (or my kids) hatching eggs and growing seeds so I can have my favourites on my profile (would someone please send me the grow-a-gift pile of books, by the way, so I look less pathetic?)

Rearranging my facebook profile is the only craft this mother of 4 has energy for at the moment.

Facebook is seriously useful for making and maintaining connections (I've made new friends and rediscovered old ones on the other side of the world). It's quicker and easier than email. It keeps me in touch with how friends, relatives, students and graduates are going (I'm not much good with phone calls.) It enables me to encourage sick and lonely friends with a message or gift. It keeps us mothers from feeling isolated when we're at home all day with young children.

And some facebook applications are wonderful, like the ones which allow you to share books. My 1 year old son now performs death-defying mountaineering feats on the pile of library books recommended by my facebook friends. Unfortunately, I've got no time to read them, I'm too busy facebooking.

But I find some of the applications a little disturbing.

Apparently, a very lovely friend thinks I'm "most likely to kick it with Jesus some day" (the facebook version of salvation by grace?) and some kind and forgiving person (you know who you are) described me as "wise" and "godly" in the "define me!" application (I hide that one down on the bottom left corner of my profile, to remind me what I have to live up to.)

I have my very own entourage ("Jean rolls 71 deep!"). I squirm every time I see it, but it's handy how it shows the photos in alphabetical order. One day, I may even "rate my friends", so I'm not so overwhelmed by the large number of faces on there (I got a bit excited asking people to "be my friend!" when I first went on facebook.)

My facebook profile is an opportunity to display my inner self (or at least the parts I want you to see): my favourites, my top ten, my personality, my mood, how you define me, how you compare to me. Harmless fun? - perhaps, but appealing directly to the self-absorbed egotist in all of us.

That said, I'll "define you", "compare you" or give you a "superlative" any time you ask.

Enough about that, gotta go now, someone's asked me to do a facebook quiz on my top 10 pet peeves...