Hi Girls,
I think it's important that we take time to talk to Jesus. We talk to our friends or family a lot right? But how often do we talk to our God? Why is it that it's easier for us to have a long heart to heart with a close friend but seem to go days without talking to God or with very brief routine prayers only? Sometimes, I think we lose sight of how close God really is. Our close friends are easy to find because we can see them, hug them, visit with them in person. Yet with God, it's different. We may feel like we're talking to empty space because we don't actually see him or physically hear him. We don't actually feel him sitting next to us. That makes conversation difficult doesn't it?
Yet just because we can't see him or hear his voice doesn't mean he isn't right with us. Sometimes you can feel God's presence in the room with you and I know that some people have heard his audible voice. We aren't separated from God because we have his Holy Spirit with us. So, somehow, we have to overcome our mental blocks with talking to God. We need to fully believe and accept within us that God is with us, he is closer to us than any friend because he dwells within us. So even though you may feel like you're having a one sided conversation, you're not. God can speak into your heart, into your circumstances, communicate through a friend. He does hear you! And even if you can't hear God respond right away, you have the Bible. All his words are in there. He left an entire book for you so that you can read his words to you.
Talking to God is important for more than personal growth in our faith. It's also has practical implications for our relationships. Couples who take the time to pray together, expressing their hearts to God, end up becoming closer together. People can pray separately but if their in a relationship together, they really need that joint prayer or their relationship won't be as strong as it could be. Why you may ask? Well, I think it's because prayer is a form of submission. Two people are coming to God, recognzing someone greater than themselves, both showing vulnerability and humbling themselves. God sees the obedience of the couple as both members seek him. This is radically different than two people just relying on themselves. Joining together in prayer, allows God to join the two people together, binding their hearts in mutual obedience and love to him. When the couple seeks God's will instead of their individual selfish desires, than the relationship will flourish.
It's also important to pray, not only with your significant other, but with your friends, your family because stronger relationships and bonds flow out of that too. It's important that we just don't rely on ourselves but that we join with others, recognizing God as above us, in control of us, and submitting to his care. This is what will keep relationships lasting and strong.
And the topic doesn't always have to be really serious either. God likes to hear what's on your heart, even if it's just expressing your excitment about an upcoming sports event. He doesn't mind hearing about the mundane or boring things. For God, it's all interesting because he loves you so much. You can't bore God. You interest him way too much for that. Plus, even if you're upset or angry, go ahead and talk to God about that. He created you; he created emotions. He can handle your anger. Actually, he can handle your angry better than anyone else can! So honestly, it doesn't matter what you want to speak to God about, he's listening and there to help.
So the challenge for this rainy Saturday is to express yourself to God before picking up that phone to pour out your heart to your friend.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Oh Wedded Bliss!
Hi Girls,
I haven't posted lately due to the busyness of my sister's wedding. She was married on the weekend and then we had a bunch of relatives visiting too. Weddings are a lot of fun but really busy with so many people to talk to, to greet and so many plans to make.
So I hope to be back blogging more regularly soon. I hope all is well with you girls reading this and once again, I always welcome your comments and ideas regarding the topics on my blog!
I haven't posted lately due to the busyness of my sister's wedding. She was married on the weekend and then we had a bunch of relatives visiting too. Weddings are a lot of fun but really busy with so many people to talk to, to greet and so many plans to make.
So I hope to be back blogging more regularly soon. I hope all is well with you girls reading this and once again, I always welcome your comments and ideas regarding the topics on my blog!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Love Life Lessons
Hey Girls,
God is an expert on love but we, well, we seem to have trouble sometimes grasping the concept. In one way, we know about love because we know we love somebody; we love our family. We know it as a feeling of attachment. Yet we also can know feelings of being 'in love'. We have different experiences of love. We change so the way we love people can change.
Yet what I'm getting at is a form of continuious love. Lasting love, not rushing emotions like the rollarcoaster deal but love as effort. Think about long term relationships for a moment and they don't have to be with a guy, it could be with your parents or a sibling. You know deep down that you love them. That doesn't change but the daily acts of love are what demonstrate those feelings. It's these daily acts that sometimes become difficult. Yet they're often what make the person feel loved. As we get to know someone better, we get to know their likes and dislikes so we can use that to show love to them better. When we stop trying to love, that's when relationships can turn rocky.
Learning to love is sometimes easy, sometimes hard. It's easy to love someone who loves us back. But it's hard to love someone who couldn't care less about us, who annoys us to no end, who may act mean to us on purpose or just be plain indifferent. It's those folks who are harder to love but who we have to love nevertheless. God loves everybody and so we should do the same. After all, Jesus ate dinner with society's cast offs and even when they killed him on the cross, he still asked God to forgive them. That's love. Even though it's sometimes the hardest to love someone that our personality just clashes with, it's important to try. We don't have to go all out and send them presents or do a big gesture but just speaking kind words, trying not to get defensive or offended, acting friendly- all that can speak of effort to love.
Everyone loves in different ways too. You've probably heard how everyone has a different love language (quality time, physical touch, words of encouragment, gifts/gestures...etc)? What's yours? Think about it for a moment because you're top love languages are the telling method of love you use to love others. People love how they want to be loved. It's just natural that way. Yet as we learn to love someone more, we discover their top love languages and if we make the effort to love them in their language than that will mean even more to them. In marriage relationships, that's an especially good thing to do. When couples step out of their 'natural' love language to love each other using their spouses preference, than good things will happen; their love for each other will deeper because they are reaching out in the way the holds the most meaning for the other person.
Although, none of us learns to love overnight. We aren't born with an inate ability to love all the time in all the right ways. We mess up. It's a process like any other. We have to learn. The more we study, the better at giving love we become. Our relationships will deepen and grow over time as we continue our efforts to love one another, continue learning on how best to do that. When people stop making effort, that's when things fall apart. So keep the effort up, at least do your part even if you don't recieve love back- God doesn't always, and yet he keeps on loving everyone anyways.
God is an expert on love but we, well, we seem to have trouble sometimes grasping the concept. In one way, we know about love because we know we love somebody; we love our family. We know it as a feeling of attachment. Yet we also can know feelings of being 'in love'. We have different experiences of love. We change so the way we love people can change.
Yet what I'm getting at is a form of continuious love. Lasting love, not rushing emotions like the rollarcoaster deal but love as effort. Think about long term relationships for a moment and they don't have to be with a guy, it could be with your parents or a sibling. You know deep down that you love them. That doesn't change but the daily acts of love are what demonstrate those feelings. It's these daily acts that sometimes become difficult. Yet they're often what make the person feel loved. As we get to know someone better, we get to know their likes and dislikes so we can use that to show love to them better. When we stop trying to love, that's when relationships can turn rocky.
Learning to love is sometimes easy, sometimes hard. It's easy to love someone who loves us back. But it's hard to love someone who couldn't care less about us, who annoys us to no end, who may act mean to us on purpose or just be plain indifferent. It's those folks who are harder to love but who we have to love nevertheless. God loves everybody and so we should do the same. After all, Jesus ate dinner with society's cast offs and even when they killed him on the cross, he still asked God to forgive them. That's love. Even though it's sometimes the hardest to love someone that our personality just clashes with, it's important to try. We don't have to go all out and send them presents or do a big gesture but just speaking kind words, trying not to get defensive or offended, acting friendly- all that can speak of effort to love.
Everyone loves in different ways too. You've probably heard how everyone has a different love language (quality time, physical touch, words of encouragment, gifts/gestures...etc)? What's yours? Think about it for a moment because you're top love languages are the telling method of love you use to love others. People love how they want to be loved. It's just natural that way. Yet as we learn to love someone more, we discover their top love languages and if we make the effort to love them in their language than that will mean even more to them. In marriage relationships, that's an especially good thing to do. When couples step out of their 'natural' love language to love each other using their spouses preference, than good things will happen; their love for each other will deeper because they are reaching out in the way the holds the most meaning for the other person.
Although, none of us learns to love overnight. We aren't born with an inate ability to love all the time in all the right ways. We mess up. It's a process like any other. We have to learn. The more we study, the better at giving love we become. Our relationships will deepen and grow over time as we continue our efforts to love one another, continue learning on how best to do that. When people stop making effort, that's when things fall apart. So keep the effort up, at least do your part even if you don't recieve love back- God doesn't always, and yet he keeps on loving everyone anyways.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Intimacy???
Hi Girls,
When someone mentions or talks about intimacy, what do you think about it? What does intimate entail?
The Free Dictionary online defines intimate as:
1. Marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity.
2. Relating to or indicative of one's deepest nature
3. Essential; innermost: the intimate structure of matter.
4. Marked by informality and privacy
5. Very personal; private
6. Of or involved in a sexual relationship.
n. A close friend or confidant
Kinda broadens the thinking when put in an order like that eh? The only physical aspect of intimacy actually turns out to be last on the list- surprising?? Well, not really actually because in order that the physical/sexual stuff has deeper meaning, there needs to be a established basis of intimacy already, built from emotional and spiritual closeness.
So can a dating couple share intimacy? Why sure! In fact, couples on the pathway to marriage (which is what dating is) should definately be establishing intimacy with each other. They should be familiar, comfortable and secure together. They should start to understand each other's personal thoughts, dreams, desires, and life experiences. They should be each other's confidant. All this stuff, sets the stage for the future. If you can't trust your boyfriend or fiance with every single thought in your mind or feeling in your heart, even telling him of difficult experiences that happened to you- than you won't be able to trust him as a husband and that makes for an unhealthy marriage. There comes a time in a relationship where this deep level of intimacy is necessary to moving forward, so if you can't trust him with everything- than there are some issues you'll have to sort out before continuing on.
Yet life continually happens and things continually change within us, so even when we're married, we have to continue to work on intimacy. We have to continually evaluate our level of trust. Can we open our hearts again to our husband? Confess what we've been dealing with? We have to. It's the only way to have a continually healthy relationship. Couples who can't confide in each other like that need to seek help from others and turn to God, otherwise they're going to destroy their marriage. We have to know what the other person is thinking and feeling on the deepest levels. That's how closeness is maintained. After all, I think for many people, the physical/sexual part of a relationship is easy compared to the emotional/trust part. Both have to do with intimacy.
Often us girls have our close female friends who we find it is so easy to share our personal thoughts with because we're relational like that and know that they probably understand pretty well. Yet, some girls struggle with relating in the same way to their significant other. In a relationship, your man has to be your bestest best friend, first among other people, the closest person to you (besides God that is; God needs to always be number 1 in the relationship, and in your life). Sometimes it's so easy to allow a bit of distance to form but we can't let that happen. Girl friends are wonderful but they cannot take the place of your husband because he has to know you the best, be closest to you and you have to confide in him first. That will make for a healthy, intimate relationship.
Although, I think it is important to note that intimacy doesn't happen right away; your boyfriend may not become your closest confidant right away. It takes time to build that level of intmacy but eventually, it should happen where he just becomes the most important person in your life, the closest person to you. Learning intimacy is not always easy, and sometimes not even fun, but it's worth it, and definately rewarding in the end.
Yet we can't forget about having intimacy with God either. That should be first in our lives because it paves the way for all our other relationships. I once heard someone talk on the definition of intimacy with God and how it just means 'in to me' which we have with the Holy Spirit living in us. We have that close connection. God already knows all our feelings, thoughts and concerns even before we say a word. Yet it's still good to talk them out with him because we need that release of whatever we're dealing with and he loves hearing from us. God loves to communicate with us. So, remember, before intimacy can come in other areas of our life, we need to work on it with God first. Allowing him to see every area of our heart, giving all over to him because inviting him to take over, take control, is essential to our well being.
When someone mentions or talks about intimacy, what do you think about it? What does intimate entail?
The Free Dictionary online defines intimate as:
1. Marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity.
2. Relating to or indicative of one's deepest nature
3. Essential; innermost: the intimate structure of matter.
4. Marked by informality and privacy
5. Very personal; private
6. Of or involved in a sexual relationship.
n. A close friend or confidant
Kinda broadens the thinking when put in an order like that eh? The only physical aspect of intimacy actually turns out to be last on the list- surprising?? Well, not really actually because in order that the physical/sexual stuff has deeper meaning, there needs to be a established basis of intimacy already, built from emotional and spiritual closeness.
So can a dating couple share intimacy? Why sure! In fact, couples on the pathway to marriage (which is what dating is) should definately be establishing intimacy with each other. They should be familiar, comfortable and secure together. They should start to understand each other's personal thoughts, dreams, desires, and life experiences. They should be each other's confidant. All this stuff, sets the stage for the future. If you can't trust your boyfriend or fiance with every single thought in your mind or feeling in your heart, even telling him of difficult experiences that happened to you- than you won't be able to trust him as a husband and that makes for an unhealthy marriage. There comes a time in a relationship where this deep level of intimacy is necessary to moving forward, so if you can't trust him with everything- than there are some issues you'll have to sort out before continuing on.
Yet life continually happens and things continually change within us, so even when we're married, we have to continue to work on intimacy. We have to continually evaluate our level of trust. Can we open our hearts again to our husband? Confess what we've been dealing with? We have to. It's the only way to have a continually healthy relationship. Couples who can't confide in each other like that need to seek help from others and turn to God, otherwise they're going to destroy their marriage. We have to know what the other person is thinking and feeling on the deepest levels. That's how closeness is maintained. After all, I think for many people, the physical/sexual part of a relationship is easy compared to the emotional/trust part. Both have to do with intimacy.
Often us girls have our close female friends who we find it is so easy to share our personal thoughts with because we're relational like that and know that they probably understand pretty well. Yet, some girls struggle with relating in the same way to their significant other. In a relationship, your man has to be your bestest best friend, first among other people, the closest person to you (besides God that is; God needs to always be number 1 in the relationship, and in your life). Sometimes it's so easy to allow a bit of distance to form but we can't let that happen. Girl friends are wonderful but they cannot take the place of your husband because he has to know you the best, be closest to you and you have to confide in him first. That will make for a healthy, intimate relationship.
Although, I think it is important to note that intimacy doesn't happen right away; your boyfriend may not become your closest confidant right away. It takes time to build that level of intmacy but eventually, it should happen where he just becomes the most important person in your life, the closest person to you. Learning intimacy is not always easy, and sometimes not even fun, but it's worth it, and definately rewarding in the end.
Yet we can't forget about having intimacy with God either. That should be first in our lives because it paves the way for all our other relationships. I once heard someone talk on the definition of intimacy with God and how it just means 'in to me' which we have with the Holy Spirit living in us. We have that close connection. God already knows all our feelings, thoughts and concerns even before we say a word. Yet it's still good to talk them out with him because we need that release of whatever we're dealing with and he loves hearing from us. God loves to communicate with us. So, remember, before intimacy can come in other areas of our life, we need to work on it with God first. Allowing him to see every area of our heart, giving all over to him because inviting him to take over, take control, is essential to our well being.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Save The Little Ones
Hey Girls,
Ever think about abortion? Or talk about it with your friends? What do they think about it? What do you think about it? I remember when abortion was a headlining issue, like becoming legalized in different places for the first time, back when I was in high school. I didn't really understand the issue then. Course, I was surrounded by all the peer pressures of high school which can really suck and definately confused my thinking back then. I used to wonder what was so bad about it really, I knew as a Christian that I should be against it but I didn't completely understand, like what about if a girl get's raped? For awhile I just couldn't figure out the injustice of a situation like that. And it didn't help that my friends were just as wishy washy about it as I was, most believing it was okay, or if they thought it was bad, they made exceptions for the case of rape. Maybe you thought like that too or still do.
I find some topics need serious thinking time before we can truly understand. After all, how can we answer someone on an issue if we truly don't know where we stand and why? Well, I took my thinking time and ended up coming to a very certain conclusion after a bit. I needed to discover the reasons why. So incase you're unsure about it, here are some of the reasons I've discovered for why a Christian can never support abortion.
Psalm 139: 13-17
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
Ok, if this isn't clear enough- I'd have to leave it up to God to convince a Christian how wrong abortion is! Every child, no matter how they are concieved, is a gift from God- their entire life recorded, planned and thought over in detail. No one was a mistake. God thought over everybody and carefully knit them together.
Yet, some people need scientific fact to convince them, especially non Christians. There is enough facts going around about how horrible it is but human stubbornness and pride is very difficult to overcome. When we were driving through the states, they had these billboards up encouraging women to not abort their babies by telling them that the baby's heart is beating 18 days after conception! Now, I'm not really up on much scientific facts about this so I didn't know that. It struck me though because 18 days after conception, most women still wouldn't know if their pregnant or not. So by the time they actually find out, the baby is far more than a bunch of cells. There is so much more to this as well, just pick up any book on pregnancy and you will see each developmental stage of the baby in detail. Women aren't just getting rid of a few cells, they are truly killing the child inside of them.
That's why the entire argument over the rights of the women is rather, well, stupid. Society dictates that women have the right to murder children if they are still inside of her. Sounds pretty ridicolous to me. So much for rights of the baby...
Plus, abortion doesn't get rid of the problem either. Some women experience physical effects after the procedure since it's unatural for their bodies, while others, are haunted spiritually or emotionally for years and years. I've also heard horrible stories of what happens during the actual abortion- which I'd rather not repeat here because I don't like thinking of such things but you can do the research if you're curious.
Why do women choose abortion in the first place? Well, I think a lot of them must be really ignorant of what actually happens or what they are actually doing (the medical industry can make abortion sound pretty innocent). Others, perhpas, they don't really care, they are selfish and just want to get rid of the problem- unaware that a baby is the least of their problems. Some want to 'save' the child from the life circumstances that they would be born into but if they really cared about saving their baby, they wouldn't kill it. And then there is adoption, people always want to adopt babies- they are in such high demand, especially from those women who can't have children of their own. Yet I can admit that the childrens services system is not a perfect system and there is a lot of abuse within it but at least putting your baby into that system gives them a chance at life- it may be rough growing up or they may get a wonderful home but eventually they will have the freedom to choose their own path. I know I'd be willing to raise any unwanted baby.
Christians have no excuse it seems to me when it comes to this issue because they have God to rely on; they can trust God with the life of their baby when giving it up. Yet even Christians can get sidetracked, confused, lost like anyone. The issue is a result of sin anyways and is sin- murder is sin. Abortion is just another area of sin, like stealing or immorality but it has huge consequences. Sin is sin, and sometimes Christians may not recognize abortion that way. This is why it's so important that we decide where we stand so that when people come to us who struggle in this area, we will know what to say to them, how to encourage them towards life, towards God but at the same time, stepping aside from judging them. Everyone is responsible for their own choices but we can do our best to represent good choices, so as not to lead other searching souls astray.
God loves all life, no matter how little it is.
Ever think about abortion? Or talk about it with your friends? What do they think about it? What do you think about it? I remember when abortion was a headlining issue, like becoming legalized in different places for the first time, back when I was in high school. I didn't really understand the issue then. Course, I was surrounded by all the peer pressures of high school which can really suck and definately confused my thinking back then. I used to wonder what was so bad about it really, I knew as a Christian that I should be against it but I didn't completely understand, like what about if a girl get's raped? For awhile I just couldn't figure out the injustice of a situation like that. And it didn't help that my friends were just as wishy washy about it as I was, most believing it was okay, or if they thought it was bad, they made exceptions for the case of rape. Maybe you thought like that too or still do.
I find some topics need serious thinking time before we can truly understand. After all, how can we answer someone on an issue if we truly don't know where we stand and why? Well, I took my thinking time and ended up coming to a very certain conclusion after a bit. I needed to discover the reasons why. So incase you're unsure about it, here are some of the reasons I've discovered for why a Christian can never support abortion.
Psalm 139: 13-17
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
Ok, if this isn't clear enough- I'd have to leave it up to God to convince a Christian how wrong abortion is! Every child, no matter how they are concieved, is a gift from God- their entire life recorded, planned and thought over in detail. No one was a mistake. God thought over everybody and carefully knit them together.
Yet, some people need scientific fact to convince them, especially non Christians. There is enough facts going around about how horrible it is but human stubbornness and pride is very difficult to overcome. When we were driving through the states, they had these billboards up encouraging women to not abort their babies by telling them that the baby's heart is beating 18 days after conception! Now, I'm not really up on much scientific facts about this so I didn't know that. It struck me though because 18 days after conception, most women still wouldn't know if their pregnant or not. So by the time they actually find out, the baby is far more than a bunch of cells. There is so much more to this as well, just pick up any book on pregnancy and you will see each developmental stage of the baby in detail. Women aren't just getting rid of a few cells, they are truly killing the child inside of them.
That's why the entire argument over the rights of the women is rather, well, stupid. Society dictates that women have the right to murder children if they are still inside of her. Sounds pretty ridicolous to me. So much for rights of the baby...
Plus, abortion doesn't get rid of the problem either. Some women experience physical effects after the procedure since it's unatural for their bodies, while others, are haunted spiritually or emotionally for years and years. I've also heard horrible stories of what happens during the actual abortion- which I'd rather not repeat here because I don't like thinking of such things but you can do the research if you're curious.
Why do women choose abortion in the first place? Well, I think a lot of them must be really ignorant of what actually happens or what they are actually doing (the medical industry can make abortion sound pretty innocent). Others, perhpas, they don't really care, they are selfish and just want to get rid of the problem- unaware that a baby is the least of their problems. Some want to 'save' the child from the life circumstances that they would be born into but if they really cared about saving their baby, they wouldn't kill it. And then there is adoption, people always want to adopt babies- they are in such high demand, especially from those women who can't have children of their own. Yet I can admit that the childrens services system is not a perfect system and there is a lot of abuse within it but at least putting your baby into that system gives them a chance at life- it may be rough growing up or they may get a wonderful home but eventually they will have the freedom to choose their own path. I know I'd be willing to raise any unwanted baby.
Christians have no excuse it seems to me when it comes to this issue because they have God to rely on; they can trust God with the life of their baby when giving it up. Yet even Christians can get sidetracked, confused, lost like anyone. The issue is a result of sin anyways and is sin- murder is sin. Abortion is just another area of sin, like stealing or immorality but it has huge consequences. Sin is sin, and sometimes Christians may not recognize abortion that way. This is why it's so important that we decide where we stand so that when people come to us who struggle in this area, we will know what to say to them, how to encourage them towards life, towards God but at the same time, stepping aside from judging them. Everyone is responsible for their own choices but we can do our best to represent good choices, so as not to lead other searching souls astray.
God loves all life, no matter how little it is.
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