Library interactions

My eyes moved along the books quickly, searching for a specific title. I found the title quickly and a brief smile ran across my face. My joy of finding the title caused me to spin quickly, but I did not expect to come face-to-face with a woman. My surprise caused me to stumble backwards but I quickly regained my balance. "May I help you?" I said simply. "Yes, would you please help me find a book of baby names?" The woman spoke with a thick Nigerian accent and I took note of the baby in her arms, the toddler in her stroller and her swelling pregnant belly. I smiled at the children and said "I'll do my best" and managed to track down the section of books she was looking for. She smiled with pride at her children and I knew that this woman was honorable. Lord thank you for this woman.

A Letter to Both the "single" and the "taken" (but not so much the married)

Dear Person,
          You are precious. I know you might've heard that before, but I want you to realize how true it is. On the other hand, if you are precious, doesn't that mean everybody is precious? Yes, yes it does. "What does this letter have to do with being 'single' or 'taken' but not married?" You may ask, and I'm getting to that. I'm a teenage girl, and I'm going to talk to you about love, I hope you choose to keep reading.

Good! You've chosen to keep reading.

By this point you may have questions; certainly most of you are bewildered at what a teenager is going to tell you about love... Maybe nothing I have to say is good, maybe my lips are enfouled in absence of wisdom, but maybe you can take my flaws in words and take something from them to help you. Maybe, I'm crazy, but maybe, to some of you, I'll make sense.

I'm in love.

I'm hopelessly, endlessly, head over heels, senselessly giving all of my heart away without reserving one piece of me from the most perfect one I know. He's perfect, I know this to be true.

Oh by the way,

He's God.

Prolly should mention that part.

Yes, I'm in love with God.

I didn't start this blog post intending on talking about my relationship with Christ, but it seems only appropriate to talk a little about that because of what I really wanna talk about, and that is love.

God is love, but in the race of humanity, we also have to learn to love. We learn to love family, friends, and -oh crap!- the opposite sex...

Yeah I'm not ready for this.

I'm a teenager, dating is outlawed in my house... Til we are like... Twenty... Or thirty... Or something. I'm really not sure when I'm allowed to date, and my parents are doing their best at trying to guard my heart, but I have had to learn some things on my own because there's no way around it: you will have to interact with the opposite sex. (Insert motherly gasp here) there's no instruction book about a magic formula of interacting  with the opposite sex in a way that's appropriate for everyone, and indeed, you may even develop a crush here and there, I mean let's be down to earth here, we can't always control our emotions. So today I thought I'd share with you a few of my observations in dealing with the opposite sex, and some things you need to keep in mind when you interact with them as well.

1) Stop. I'm not telling you to stop interacting, I'm saying that, save for a casual interaction, you need to step back and examine whether or not the relationship is healthy and God-glorifying, or if its just downright wrong. (Note: common sense required for this step. If you don't posses common sense or are simply confused as to what to look for, consult someone older or that you really, really trust, and you know they have a good relationship with God.)

2) look. Pretend you were just a casual observer of your relationship with this person, what do you see? Read the signs, don't be blind.

3) Listen. Listen to the people around you. I understand the teenage circle can be vicious and people say stupid things, but I'm talking about listening to people who have experience in this area, have your best interest in mind, and have a good relationship with God.

4) Be selfless. If your relationship with this person of the opposite gender is deeper than just a casual friendship, you need to keep a lot of things close to mind and graven on your heart. The person you are interacting with is somebody's spouse, not necessarily your own. Even if you like them, and they like you, there's a huge chance you may not end up getting married. You need to keep in mind that this person is somebody's spouse, and you need to respect them as such. They aren't your property, you don't have claims on them, and above all they are a brother or sister in Christ and it is your job to protect them from stumbling and do your best to guard their hearts. The rest is up to God.

5) Pray. If you don't listen to any other advice, please heed this one. ABOVE ALL you must pray about this relationship. You need to ask God to make it clear if this is a good relationship yo maintain, you need to ask God to guard both of your hearts, and convict you of things that are not right if there are such things.

My advice is not without fault, however, the greatest thing you must realize is that the other person is God's creation, you need to treat them as such. They are precious, they are not yours to control, they're not yours to claim. Treat them with respect as brothers and sisters should treat each other.

1 Timothy 5:1 "... In all purity."

Put Down the Electronics, Pick Up Your Life.

We are a generation obsessed with being entertained. (I say this as I just completed level 317 of candy crush -YAY ME!) But in all honesty, I think it's sad. I sit in the waiting room of the dentist's office where 5/7 of the people waiting are on some sort of electronic device. (iPad, smartphone, etc.) What used to be a place to sit quietly and wait, maybe thumb through a magazine or two, has become a place, not of waiting, but of constantly doing... Something! Its called a waiting room, but maybe it should be more appropriately called the "sit down and catch up with your email, facebook, twitter, text random people you don't care enough about to have coffee with, take a selfie or two, update your blog hypocritically bashing electronic users, while the doctor takes his time to get to your appointment because he's so very thoughtful to let you catch up with everything on your electronics" room. Sound accurate? How long does it take you to become bored while seated? How long can you hold a conversation with someone without looking at your phone? We are a generation drowning in a beautiful world full of wonders we will never experience because our faces are glued to a screen unnecessarily. Take my advice, put down the phone, soak in the soft tones of the music, and look at the beautiful fountain and examine the miracle of water, the miracle of being alive. Put down the phone, pick up your life.

A Book Reccomendation

My family and I packed our bags, and loaded the car. I spent the morning at work, as did my dad, but we both left early to get home and pack up and leave. We had two weddings this weekend, both of which were 4+hours away from each other. I got home and quickly finished final preparations for the trip, packing a few books to read in the car from my bookshelf. I'm really proud of my book collection, it houses books that are dear and precious to me. It wasn't until I was in the car that I realized what book I packed; along with my four journals, (I'll have to talk about my four journals in another post) I had packed the book "unglued" by Lysa TerKyerst, and boy, am I glad I did. I honestly recommend this book... It is so raw and genuine and had me in tears as I read.

How often do we "lose our cool?"
How often do our eyes lose track of God?
How often do our souls seek the empty praise of mankind?
How often do we become distracted with unimportant issues?
Everyday.
Lord help us.

Familiarity (opening remarks)

Familiarity is such a problem that modern day Christians are encountering more and more. I am going to begin a series on familiarity posts that I hope are encouraging for you. I hope in the midst of the familiarity you find in your faith, my posts can open your eyes the wonder of Christianity, but most importantly, the wonder of God.

I’ve had the opportunity to grow up in a Christian home my whole life; however, it has had its share of disadvantages through it all. This privilege that was given to me by my parents, but more specifically, God above, however, I have taken this privilege for granted.

One thing in particular that a lot of Christian children who are raised in Christian homes miss the extraordinary realization of the acceptance and dependence we find in Christ. We have lived a life of entitlement, at least, I have. I have lived feeling as though I can do whatever I want and come back to Christ for forgiveness and it’ll all be okay again. I am ashamed to admit this, however, it’s something that I’m working on and it’s detrimental that I come to terms with my feelings. Sometimes, our life with lack of ever being “without Christ” makes us less empathetic but in my heart, I am broken, for I find myself so very often unable to feel love and compassion. I know I’m not the only kid out there that feels this way! I know it! For all of you kids out there that have trouble like I do, that have trouble feeling the greatness and capturing the crazy love we have received in Christ, this is for you. Maybe you’re not even a kid, maybe you’re an adult and you feel this way as well! I don’t promise answers, I’m still trying to figure this out myself, but I want you to know that you’re not alone, and maybe, just maybe, by enlightening this topic more, we can take the first steps to figuring out the solution to this problem as well!

Contemplate your life; review your week, what have you done this week that brought you closer to God? What about further away from God? I don’t know about you, but this week, for me, was tough. I feel like this week had more “drawing away” in it then “drawing near.” I recently found myself contemplating my lack of sympathy for an individual caught between a rock and a hard place, in the shadows of sin, in the darkness of individual pain. I justified my numb feelings by saying “they did this to themselves” or “its best for them to figure out this for themselves” or even, I shamefully admit, I give up on them, I lose compassion and tell myself that I can do nothing about it. Maybe you’re reading this and you say “That’s true, though.” And while, yes, maybe this is true, I think we forget that in the midst of crisis, there is never a moment where we cannot do anything. Can we change the situation? No. Can we end the pain? No we cannot end the pain or change the situation, at least, not on our own. 

Closing Remarks (familiarity series)

So, the question is, where do we go from here? The question is as simple and complicated as rededication. Every day is an opportunity to grow in Christ, to rededicate our hearts, to give him more and more of our hearts. Every day is a chance God gives you to be me more like him, to grow in your faith. Every day is a new opportunity, but if we become familiar, we miss the newness of life in every breath.

We should never stop striving for more of God. Is there ever a point where a Christian can say “I have enough of God; I don’t need to strive for him any more than I do now.”? Indeed, there should never be a time as that. Though we may never think we do that, we may do it in a different way, in a more subtle way. Indeed our heart is should be Christ’s home, we should keep no nook, cranny or closet to ourselves. We should never gain a sense of familiarity where our current faith is enough for us, where our current relationship with Christ is deep enough to satisfy us. Truly, we should be swimming deeper each day, may we be satisfied with Christ, but never satisfied with where our faith is. May we always strive to dive deeper, I hope our lives never reflect familiar complacency in Christ.

Part 7: Sincerity (familiarity series)

The next principle that is so very detrimental in our Christianity is sincerity. Sincerity of heart is something a lot of Christians don’t have, and, admittedly, my familiarity of Christianity seems to chafe off my sincerity and replaces it with obligation. When you worship with music, is it simply words on the page you are singing? Is your Bible time just another check to complete on your task list? Where is the sincerity? One second we bow before Christ saying we are the dust of the earth and but a worm of filth, and the next we are broken because nobody likes us and we ever strive for this to be true. We tell Christ “we surrender all” and we still horde corners of our hearts for our own individual lusts and fulfilments. This is not sincerity; this is trying to please God and man as well as yourself. Do you sincerely spend time with God, or is God just something you use to impress others? Do you worship Christ with your doors closed as an act of worship between you and him, or do you do it in a flaunting obnoxious manner to impress those around you with your “sincerity” or as I say, “sincere insincerity?” Our familiarity with Christ sometimes leaves us with insincere hearts, and insincerity accomplishes most nothing for God’s work on earth.