I Nerds

This is the T-shirt I found at Wally World on Saturday morning.



I might wear it on date #4. The new guy, like me, is a passionate and omnivorous [but discerning] reader. Not to mention bespectacled.

The fourth and final Twilight book was not-bad. I was a little tired of wrangling the doll sweater, where I had gotten off-track [a-GAIN!] with my decreases and also mislaid DP needle #5, so I cracked the book open after church and was sucked into the vortex. I stood outside the courtroom after we were dismissed yesterday and read the last couple of pages.

What I liked: Carlisle is a righteous patriarch. Esme is a loving and loyal wife and mother. Bella stops whining! and begins to discover her talents and strengths, using them to bless the people she loves. She also learns to bridle her passions. Edward, always moral but somewhat dull, acquires a sense of humor and therefore a bit of personality. Jacob (my favorite male character) comes into his own, and finds peace. The holy fire which is maternal love is movingly portrayed. As is the joy which comes from having respect for marital intimacy sufficient that one waits until one is married, to experience it.

This book is very much about diversity and inclusion, but in Heaven’s way and not the current tepid politically-correct counterfeit. The men respect the women. The women respect the men. Jacob’s tribe finds true peace with the vampires, and vice versa, as they see how they are interconnected. Love and loyalty and honor win out over lust and selfishness and secret combinations.

And it is two women, Bella discovering her latent strengths and Alice doing what she knows she does best, who ultimately save the day.

Sisters, do not underestimate the power of one righteous woman in this sad and decaying world. And when we are true to ourselves and true to the Father who sent us here to succeed, when we support one another in love and faith and prayer and mutual acts of service, it shakes the foundations of Hell.

Do you wonder why the Adversary is seeking to destroy us through unchastity, distraction, depression? Do you wonder why he is working so hard against the family?

But our Father loved us so much that He provided a Savior for us. We cannot save ourselves. We can only improve ourselves incrementally through our own efforts; lasting change requires Divine intervention. And ultimately, since all Creation belongs to the Creator, the only gifts we can give Him that are truly ours to give, are our heart and our will.

I still struggle with this, because He made me smart, and sometimes I am too smart for my own good. But I can give you a metaphor. Recently the new guy and I were serving together, and at one point it was necessary for my hand to be enfolded in his. And my only, semi-coherent, thought was, “I know my hand is in there somewhere.” It was a moment of profound spiritual intimacy rather than physical intimacy, and some of you will know exactly what I am talking about, and for the rest of you I can’t explain it better because there are some things for which mere words are inadequate; you have to know them by the Spirit.

But when I trust my Father and put my hand in His, I can still feel my hand. I know it is in there somewhere. And I feel safe, and protected, and known.