Counted Righteous in Christ

MckMama's post today reminded me of something I wanted to talk about on here.

A few nights ago I was reading Counted Righteous in Christ by John Piper. On a side note, John Piper is my absolute favorite author ever, even a bit over Jane Austen (whom I am in love with). Anyway, this book is about Christ's imputation of righteousness to us. That's a big thought, so let me break it down:

The word "justification" is a fancy term for the fact that when we are saved, 1. our sins are transferred to Christ, who has already paid the penalty for them by dying on the cross, and 2. Christ's righteousness is "imputed" (or transferred) to us, which means that when God sees a saved person, he doesn't see our sins, as he did before we were saved, but he sees Christ's perfect life. This is the doctrine of justification that Christians have believed since Paul's Letter to the Romans. Piper explained this to his 6 year old daughter with a story about two men who were being tried in court: one man was declared innocent by the judge and set free (and thus treated well by society, as he was innocent), but another man, who had committed the crime, was told by the judge that even though he was guilty, he would go free and that not only was he forgiven for the crime, but no one could ever treat him as if he had committed it. (This is an important distinction because many criminals are treated poorly by society, even though they have perhaps "paid for" their crime by doing what the court has punished them with.)

All that to say that John Piper made an amazing connection for marriage: if we are to treat our spouses like we should (i.e. as God treats us), then we have to consider them fully justified. That means that even when they have done something wrong or haven't done something that we needed them to do, we should see them as having done it right, as Christ would have done. It's hard to get mad at someone so perfect!

When I get upset with Jonathan, he'll often tell me, "You can't get mad at me! I'm perfect! I've never done anything wrong." What a truth that is (even though he doesn't realize it when he's saying it)! With Christ's righteousness imputed to him, he is perfect.

This is also important for me to remember about myself, since I can tend towards seeing myself in a very negative light. I have the righteousness of Christ and no one can condemn me!

How to relieve cramping!

Okay, dude. This deserves a post in and of itself. Someone random in the hallway just showed me how to stop cramps (of the menstrual type) by putting some pressure on these spots on your hips. You find the spot by putting pressure on different locations until you find this spot that hurts (it's on the inside of my hip bone, it feels like the same hurt that you get if you push on your temple) and then hold it for two minutes and voila! No more cramps. I'm not even kidding - it totally took them away. I'll let you know how long it lasts.

UPDATE: It's wearing off now... I'd say about 5 hours of relief? Nice!

OOOOWWWWWW

Okay, the name of today's game is "How Long Can Abbie Live Without Advil Because It's Ripping Apart Her Stomach But Her Cramps Are So Bad That She's Going To Pass Out Without It."

Appointment on March 18 at 11 to check out that cyst o' mine. Hopefully the sucker is gone.

No hope, but still a future (and a future hope).

Yesterday, a friend, in the comments, mentioned a possible scenario in which this month could turn out with a pregnancy. And then my mind was off running, full of hope again. What is it about hope that we so desperately cling to it as long as we possibly can? Even I, who have gained the nickname "Pessa" (short for pessimist) from my husband because of my great pessimism, cling to the possible good things that could happen. But, alas, my temp was down again this morning and I am merely waiting for the fun times to begin.

A short story that will hopefully make you laugh and illustrate my pessimism:

My alarm clock had lost its settings when the power went off, and I reset the first alarm, but didn't want to set the second one. This is a seriously annoying clock to set.
Jonathan: "Why don't you set the second alarm?"
Me: "Because it takes forever to set. I don't want to have to set it to only use it once! The power will probably go off before I need it, and I'll have to set it all over again!"
Jonathan: "Why don't you just set it? You need it now and you will probably use it again before the power goes off."
Me: "See, you're looking at the bright side, but there probably is no bright side."

Bitter-sweet

by George Herbert

Ah my deare angrie Lord,
Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.

I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve:
And all my sowre-sweet dayes
I will lament, and love.

24 weeks today, and I've now (by every count) been without my Max as long as I had him with me. That is overwhelmingly sad to me.

Hope doesn't mean you get what you want.

Last night I had the most wonderful dream. It was so vivid, as real to me as if I was actually experiencing it. Someone, I don't remember how I knew this person, gave their baby to me for a day. He was so sweet, I smelled his little head, stroked his cheek, tickled his toes, kissed him all over. I fed him a bottle and just cuddled him. And then he was gone and I was awake, and I felt like someone had taken my Max away all over again. It was awful. But, I still had the hope of a new pregnancy.

Until I temped. 97.92, which at 10 DPO is not a good sign. Oh, that and the cramps and backache that I then realized were what woke me up so early.

If my period comes today (which I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that it might), that means a 9 day luteal phase. Which is not anywhere near enough to sustain a pregnancy.

I think my body is flipping me off right now.

Schtuff.

Okay, pink it is! I'm in agreement with all of you - the pink is much better than the purple. Phew, problem solved.

It's the blizzard of the century outside, and I'm at work. I think that if a nuclear bomb were dropped on Boston, MIT would still say that their policy on Excused Lateness was in effect. Oh, excuse my lateness, it's just hard to crawl in when your legs have fallen off. (Sorry, I'm just sore that they DON'T HAVE SNOW DAYS in the FROZEN TUNDRA. I hate the Northeast.)

But the weekend was nice! We didn't have Sunday School yesterday so Jonathan and I were bad Christians and stayed home to listen to the church service via the Radio. Jonathan's a bit worried that we're going to have to teach Sunday School for the rest of our lives to make sure that we end up going to church ever. But that's what evening services are for!

I don't really feel like doing a Not Me! Monday today. Oh, well.

Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying
Planning and dreaming...

Oh, Max. I love you, sweet baby boy.