Emma Woodhouse

I went off hiking today with a group from Clayton's BCM.  I'm very glad that I went and my legs are very mad at me right now. 

On the way back, I struck up a conversation with a girl about Jane Austin (and of course Jane Eyre), and we were discussing favorite JA novels.  Mine is still Pride and Prejudice, with Persuasion as a second.  (And of course, I'll always love Mr. Rochester but would never end up with someone like him in real life.) 

Then I sat and thought, sometimes, I really identify with Emma Woodhouse from Emma.  Both P novels had sweet girls surrounded by snooty men and women.  Emma is one of the snooty women but she has a heart of gold, always wants to help her friend Harriet Smith, but always ends up meddling.

Thinking of her now, I know am figuring out why I obsess over people so much.  I want to fix them!  I want to convert them to Presbyterianism and the GOP and at least agree with something Calvin said because it's actually what Paul said.  And then I forget that I'm not the Messiah, that I can't change their hearts, and that I can only love them as they are and try to focus on other friends and activities while not neglecting them in the process.  So instead of all the things I have in common with them, I go around and talk about what makes us different.  Celebrating diversity at its finest. 

So now I greatly have to pray that God shuts my mouth and only opens it when I have positive things to say about what I believe, not negative things about what they believe.  Maybe this could transfer over into Refuge, too.