Saturday, March 13, 2010

Changes

Hey there,
Took some time but the blog is updated now. Check it out and tell me if you like it. I'll probably post again soon. Went out hiking in the rain today! Ha, it was pretty intense and cold at the end. Anyway, I'm going to start a new blog about everything camping but I'll still update this one. Here's the address to check out: http://trickytrips.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 12, 2010

What Sin Has Stolen

Hey Girls,

Ever think about how the world was meant to be? Before sin happened and everything was corrupted? Well, even today when people sin they miss out on a lot of good blessings.

Think about how people chose to live together before their married... It's a corruption of what marriage is supposed to be. Marriage is an adventure and when you actually say the vows and move in together for the first time, you experience a whole bunch of stuff- good stuff. It's a first time for everything and although there are struggles that come with it, God blesses everything because you are following his direction. When people who live together get married, not only do they have the sin to contend with, there is nothing new anymore, they've already messed everything up. They've already touched the forbidden fruit so to say.

Or what about when people have sex before marriage? That's a corruption too. Ya, they still get to experience it but they don't have God's approval on the relationship. Only when you're married do you really understand fully why we're supposed to wait for marriage to have sex, and move in together. It becomes very clear then because you realize what a special gift you have. You realize the blessings and how you are bonded to someone for life. This bond just becomes more complete through sex, and through the daily adventures of life.

Sin is attractive. Otherwise people wouldn't participate in it. It looks fun but it isn't until you've done it that you realize how bitter the fruit is. It's easy to think that having sex outside of marriage is not that big of a deal (especially when you're in high school or college and see it everyday amongst friends) or that even trying to date a non-Christian would be okay...it's tempting but will lead you into sin, away from God. All sin will hurt you in the end and rob you of the blessings God wants to give you. That's the whole point of sin, to steal the blessings that's rightfully yours! To corrupt you. To ruin you.

Look at abortion for a second- it's an obvious example of sin. Women think a quick fix will take their trouble away. So they murder their child. And their trouble never goes away... Women who have abortions end up dealing with a entire boatload of emotional, physical and spiritual trouble. Maybe not at first but abortion never goes unnoticed. They're haunted and tormented for life because of it. And they miss out on the blessing of having a child (or rob someone else of the blessing to raise it). God can take a unwanted pregnancy and make it into something beautiful and he can always heal and forgive a woman who commits abortion.

I guess I was just thinking about how much sin has stolen today because I know that God has a plan of blessing and wants to bring a ton of joy to the lives of his children. We screw it up. We make bad choices and lose out on what God wants to give us. God doesn't bring evil onto the world- we do. We've already done it. Fortunately for us, Jesus died and rose again, eliminating the power of sin and death over us. We can seek his forgiveness and ask for him to restore all that sin has stolen. We are daughters, princesses of our Father King and we need to learn to live in what that means. In total and complete love for God and rejection of sin. It has no power over us because Jesus defeated it.

Anyways, I hope you can make some sense of that. I encourage you to look for God and seek him in all things. Don't let yourself fall into the temptation that sin provides and rob you of the treasure God wants to give you.

(BTW, my blog looks a little messed up now because I'm trying to remodel it).

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Talk-Talk-Talk

Hey Girls,

How often do you have really great girl talk? Now compare that with how often you talk to your boyfriend/husband? More or less? Hopefully your best conversations occur with your significant other. It's so important to have good communication between the two of you- I can't stress it enough. I think a lot of the fights people get into are because they don't talk enough, and as a result, don't understand each other.

Communications issues are so common in relationships and that's understandable because it's something that's so easy to forget. Life happens. You're busy, he's busy and talking sometimes just slides off the to do list and you end up disagreeing and getting angry because you just cannot understand each other's lives anymore. It's also a hard thing to do sometimes. You have to create the time to talk but then the talking part is sometimes even more difficult.

It may be difficult for your guy to communicate with you and you might get frustrated why he never shares his feelings with you. Do you give him the chance? Often us girls are prone to interrupting or interpreting his feelings for him. When you want your significant other to really speak to you, you have to let him speak and you have to openly listen. Don't disregard what he has to say or downgrade its importance for whatever reason, if its important to him, than it's a real issue. Respect him by respecting his feelings and opinions. He may want you to offer advice, he may not. That's not the issue- listening is. The same goes for the way the guys treats us. Isn't it often the case that girls complain how he just won't listen? Sometimes guys just want to fix your problems for you when you don't really want a solution, you just want someone to listen and understand, sympathize with you. You have to tell him that. Don't expect him to know what you need, just like you do not always know what he needs. Communicate to him how you want him to treat you when you're talking and how you want him to respond. If you want him to offer advice, than ask. If you want him to just listen, understand and pray with you- just let him know.

I think we often are under the impression that our significant other should know what we want and what we're feeling without us having to ask. Suffice it to say, if you think that, you're gonna be disappointed. Only God knows us that completely. Don't expect so much out of your guy. He's trying his best to make you happy- or at least he should be but if he says it's his best, believe it. You cannot fully understand everything he goes through, just like he cannot enter your head and fully know what you go through. We have to just try to understand the best we can and know that complete knowing will evade us because we cannot live the other persons life.

The key to good communication is to talk- verbally! Non verbal will only get you so far, physical communication, through demonstrations of love, does not substitute for the other and vise versa. I think couples often fall back on their physical communication to demonstrate how close they are and how much they understand each other but that's incomplete. And going on like that for too long will create conflict. Some thoughts, feelings, just have to be expressed using words. At the same time, there are those couples who talk a lot but don't touch- and that's not healthy either. There needs to be a balance. After all, for all you married couples, maybe you've heard that the key to having a great physical relationship- great sex- is to talk about it!! That's like with everything in your relationship. If there is an area you want to see improvement in or make changes, discuss it, what you like and what you don't and compare your thoughts to your boyfriends/husbands and then you can agree on what to do.

So talk as much as you can together and then listen to each other, really listen. Try to see from the other person's point of view as much as possible. It will help you understand the situation far better. Be open to each other, allow yourselves to be vulnerable, trust the other person and express your desires. After all, you're always communicating with people even if you don't realize it. Isn't 90% of communication (or some really high percentage) subliminal? Be careful what you read into others subliminal messages because they may not mean as they seem and try to be aware of what your body language is saying when your voice is quiet.

Communication takes practice. It takes time and effort. It's not always easy. But in the end, it's always worth it!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Beautiful Summer Days

Hi Girls,

This is a kinda strange post today. Happy thoughts day. What's your favourite memory? Sweet smelling wildflowers, bright sunshine, warm breeze...being in love and feeling completely happy... surrounded by family, laughter, joy.. as if the whole world was perfect for a moment and you're completely content. Ever felt like that? It's one of the greatest feelings in the world. Peace... serenity, like a full moon on a still night with stars sparkling everywhere. A time when you are so aware that you have purpose in this life; you can feel God so close to you and just know inside his realness to you. Moments like that are priceless; it's like in moments like that we see into what God wanted when he original created the world. Like a moment of perfection still able to shine through all the sin.

And we're not gonna think about how quickly those moments last or how rare they sometimes are. Right now, we're just gonna remember. The joy and happiness we experience in times of our utmost contentment is something that we can rely on God for everyday of our lives.

When you imagine your perfect moment, what do you see? Who is sharing it with you? Often times our most wonderful times are spent with someone we love. We think about laying out in the sun, close to the guy we love, and feeling loved back- it's dreamy and real at the same time. And we know that this is what life was meant to be. (The Psalms are filled with beautiful moments)

I think that it's good to think about these thoughts during the day because they bring us hope and a dream to hang onto. I read this good quote in a novel I was reading the other day, whereas the male character tells the girl he loves "My love is strong enough for both of us. Let me love you...If I could take away all the pain of your suffering I would, but I can't. All I can do is suffer it with you, help you carry it....let me love you." (Jamie Carie, Snow Angel). When I read that, it hit me, that's what God tells us! He warns us that we will have trouble in this life, be persecuted and our pain won't go away until we are with him in Heaven, where he wipes away every tear. Until then, we can be confident that he is carrying our suffering, helping us through it (bringing healing) and loving us through it all. We travel with scars from the wounds inflicted on us but God loves us through everything and that never changes.

God brings us those joyous days of peace, those beautiful summer days where we just feel his love shinning down on us. Accept his love. And accept the love that those around you offer- everyone extends love in different ways and I hope that our eyes are always open to recognize it.

Okay- I don't know if any of that made sense to you- but ah well.. Hopefully you can gain something from it's randomness. I also wanted to add that if anyone has any specific ideas or things they'd like me to talk about, let me know. I've gotten feedback that some like the relationship stuff but I'm curious what exactly you want to discuss because what I think about relationship issues may not necessarily be what you're looking for- so let me know! And always feel free to post you're own reactions/thoughts. After all, it doesn't just need to be me talking all the time..haha...

Sunday, March 7, 2010

God

Howdy all,

Ok...so, jumping to a different topic again today, talking about God and us. Proverbs 8:34-35 says "Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD." So if we are waiting daily for God, we will receive life and favour. How many of us actually spend time each day to give God our burdens and listen to his voice?


Christians always advocate spending time with God. But what does that mean- exactly? Reading a few passages of the Bible when I wake up in the morning? Praying briefly before I begin my day? I think that everyone can figure out for themselves what brings their hearts fulfillment from time with God and how that time needs to be spent. 


Luke 9:23 says "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Everyday we must humble ourselves before God, ask him to lead us and follow him. We need to give God control over each day so as not to control our lives ourselves. Time with God is so important- we all know the Lord's prayer- Give us this day our DAILY bread- and so on. We need to pray that God will provide for our needs of that day and totally and completely surrender to him. Time with God helps us!


Yet I think it's so much more than just asking God to do a bunch of stuff for us. It has the function to bring us closer to God and demonstrates to God how we want to experience him more in our lives through the sacrifice of our time. We are busy- it's hard to sometimes set apart even 15 minutes for God. But it's worth it. If you want more of God, and want to experience radical things with him (visions, dreams, supernatural stuff...) than the more time you spend with him, the more your heart and mind become in tune with the Spirit of God. Time with God can alleviate stress, comfort us, help us feel loved by God, give us direction for our lives and give us answers. God can do whatever he wants with the time that you give him. Just give it to him and let him take you places.


Okay, maybe you're thinking that this sounds nice and all but whenever you've spent time with God, it's been, well, boring. You pray and then you hear the silence, than you start thinking of the stuff you need to get done and God kinda fades from the picture. Or you really try to concentrate on God but nothing happens. Personal time with God becomes disappointing or boring. Ya, this definitely is how time with God sometimes seems but it doesn't make it any less important because God sees your efforts.


And it also makes me think that, perhaps, you're not spending time with God how you should. He created us all different after all! There isn't one rule of alone time with God. Some people find praying for a long time riveting to their soul, others, just can't concentrate on it. But prayer isn't only one way of communicating with God, it's important, definitely but there are other ways. Everyone has different talents, so use them when spending alone time with God- it will make it way more fun! Sing to God, write songs to him that express your thoughts, paint out your communication to God, journal your prayers, thoughts and whatever else (that's one of my personal favourites), even things like baking can count as personal time with God because you can do it for God! You can talk to him while you stir the dough or praise him while it's in the oven. Whatever we love doing, do it with God! 


Do something different all the time, journal for awhile but then take some time to study the Bible (we can never neglect the Bible!) or listen to praise and worship music and just concentrate on sending your own praises to God. It doesn't have to be the same thing all the time. Yet, what you should do every time is listen for God's voice. He may speak audibly to you (I've never heard him) but you never know how God wants to reach out to you. Other times, his voice may be thoughts that pop in your mind and over time you may be able to actually recognize those thoughts apart from others and know him speaking. It's difficult to say the least, confusing and sometimes frustrating but something I keep in mind is that if I am hearing something positive and uplifting- it's from God. If it's something that will encourage me, help me grow, it's from God. Sometimes it won't even be words, God can speak using pictures in your mind or sending you a random Bible verse to look up. Sometimes, as you go through your day, someone may say something to you that strikes you in a particular way and you just know inside that God is using that person to communicate to you. Or maybe even a certain event occurs during the day that points us towards God. It's important to always try to keep listening! The Holy Spirit is there inside of us to point out God's direction and truth to us so we better try to listen.


Anyway, sometimes I just feel that we'd fare a lot better if we just made some time for God- alone- no interruptions if possible. So I just encourage you girls to make it a habit and don't get discouraged when not much seems to happen, keep at it, perseverance brings more of God.