Okay ladies and gents today's blog is going to go in a different direction. Its gonna have two parts. First for the ladies we will go over true beauty. Next the guys, we will be talking about how to find a girls true beauty.
Lets do this.
Ladies
How many times have we as girls felt insecure about the way that we look to those around us. When the magazines, T.V shows, and commercial only tell us that beauty is a size 0 with clear skin with models who are so air brushed they themselves don't know what they really look like. What makes that beautiful though? We focus on what the world thinks is beauty but, why don't we ever look at what Christ thinks is true beauty? 1 Peter 3:3-4 " Do not let your adorning be external-the braiding of hair and the putting on of the gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear- but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quite spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." See what we are called to do is strip away all the of these things that create distraction in our life and in our walk with Christ. "the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry" This doesn't mean that you can't dress nicely but what it does mean is don't let the things that you wear allow you to become vain. " let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quite spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." See God isn't focused on what we look like from the outside, He wants to see you. Not the you that you put up to hide what you think your flaws are but the real you, the heart that He has given you and to God that is the most beautiful you will ever be. When we as young ladies who are Christians stop focusing on our cultures idea of beauty and start focusing on God idea of beauty we will be able to stop having such a struggle with our insecurities they won't go away right all of a sudden but slowly we won't be as focused on what the world thinks is beautiful.
Guys
Now obviously I am not a boy, but most of my friends are guys so I do hear what they say and how they talk about girls around me so I will not biased on what I say. Now with that being said I feel bad for what the guys have to go through in our culture. Sex is pushed on to guys at a young age and for that I'm sorry. We as Christians guys and girls need to remember what we each struggle with in our culture and for guys it's lust. But guys when you look at a girl don't let the first thing you notice about her be physical. Let it be something deeper. Her personality or her humor or her passion. I know that sounds crazy but especially if your thinking about dating her build a God centered relationship with her first. My best friend and his girlfriend actually went through book in the New Testament together before they even dated. They are still going through Paul's' letters together. So with this in mind if your thinking about dating a girl or even starting a friendship with a girl try and keep it God focused. And guys if you are in a relationship make sure that the most important thing in your eyes is God. Allow God to direct your relationship. Guys don't focus on physical things when looking for a girl and with that being said the girl you look for does not need to be ugly either.But don't let strictly physical beauty shape who you want to date.
Ladies and Gents
We need to remember that each of us struggle with something. So do not become a stumbling block for each other. Guys find another guy who you can talk about your struggles with who will lead you to Godly answers. And Ladies we need to do the same. We all need to find people who will help us with our struggles. Find someone who you talk to on a deeper level. Build deep and meaningful Christ centered relationships with the people who God has placed in your life. It has taken me a long time to see how important having a friend who can understand what your going through and help you work it out when it comes to the idea of beauty because God doesn't focus on the outside.
I love all you guys who read my blogs even if I don't know :)
Once again shoot me a Facebook message or a Tweet. I want to pray for you guys if there is anything you need prayer for and if you just need someone to talk to let me know I am always here. Until next time boys and girls.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
3 Little words
Sunday was Easter the day Jesus Christ rose from the grave victorious and triumphant.But before He did this He was crucified, beaten, mocked, and hated. Even while He was hated He still found time to cry out to God on our behalf. "And Jesus said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Matthew 27:46 Even when the beard and flesh were ripped away He still loved us. We all act like love is easy just saying the words and going with through the motions. But can we honestly say that we love people as much as we should.
Showing this love hurt Christ because for the first time He could not feel the Father. "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying "Eli Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" This is the first time that Christ is separated from His Father. We feel this separation from birth we have no connection to God because of sin. No one will understand the amount of pain Christ felt during this separation. Yet He still loved us.
After being on the cross and barring the weight of our sins He needed a drink. "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." John 19:28-30 When I read this I always notice 3 little words. "It is finished" are the most amazing words ever spoken. This statement tells me that I can not do anything without Christ because he finished it for me. I love you is a statement that people say "It is Finished" is a statement that Christ did. His actions on the cross show me how much he loved me. People don't understand that love is more than words. Its an action.
This Easter has been the most amazing one of my life. This is the first Easter in which I fully understand the love and compassion that Christ has showed me. He laid his life down for me and I can't even lay my pride down for him when it comes to sharing my faith. "It is finished" shows me that I don't have to work for my salvation Christ finished it all for me. I can now stand on his word and share that same amazing truth that He loved me and now I can fully love another person. I now know how to say I love you the same way Christ said it. By understanding "It is finished" and I did nothing to earn it or deserve it.
So now I have a challenge for you. Share that amazing love with someone who needs it the way we all need it. If you aren't good with words its OK Christ does this amazing thing where he works through the willing.
Once again if you have any prayer requests let me know on Facebook or Twitter. Thank you for reading Ladies and Gents until next time kiddos...
Showing this love hurt Christ because for the first time He could not feel the Father. "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying "Eli Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" This is the first time that Christ is separated from His Father. We feel this separation from birth we have no connection to God because of sin. No one will understand the amount of pain Christ felt during this separation. Yet He still loved us.
After being on the cross and barring the weight of our sins He needed a drink. "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." John 19:28-30 When I read this I always notice 3 little words. "It is finished" are the most amazing words ever spoken. This statement tells me that I can not do anything without Christ because he finished it for me. I love you is a statement that people say "It is Finished" is a statement that Christ did. His actions on the cross show me how much he loved me. People don't understand that love is more than words. Its an action.
This Easter has been the most amazing one of my life. This is the first Easter in which I fully understand the love and compassion that Christ has showed me. He laid his life down for me and I can't even lay my pride down for him when it comes to sharing my faith. "It is finished" shows me that I don't have to work for my salvation Christ finished it all for me. I can now stand on his word and share that same amazing truth that He loved me and now I can fully love another person. I now know how to say I love you the same way Christ said it. By understanding "It is finished" and I did nothing to earn it or deserve it.
So now I have a challenge for you. Share that amazing love with someone who needs it the way we all need it. If you aren't good with words its OK Christ does this amazing thing where he works through the willing.
Once again if you have any prayer requests let me know on Facebook or Twitter. Thank you for reading Ladies and Gents until next time kiddos...
Monday, March 19, 2012
Growing Pains
Okay so to start this out let me just say this is my first blog and I debated weather or not to write one but then I realized might as well right?
So ladies and gents buckle your seat belts and get ready for the ride of your life. This first blog post is going to be about the pains we feel while we grow. Anytime as a kid that my joints started hurting my mom always told me that it was growing pains. I had no clue that even as an adult I would have these growing pains. They aren't always physical either. As a human if you are not growing you are dying plain and simple. The same goes for followers of Christ. Granted its not a physical death and no this isn't saying that if you aren't growing you aren't saved. But what I am saying is that if you are following Christ and you aren't growing you may want to look at your life and see what is happening. I have been there and it sucks. When you first accept Christ as your savior you are "born again" this basically means you are an infant in your spiritual walk. The thing is that when I was saved I started with a huge bang. I was in my word everyday and I was praying all the time and I was living the life God had planned for me. But after a while my walk started to fizzle out and after a while I was nothing more than the shell of a once devoted follower of Christ. I prayed sometimes and I read my bible on Wednesdays and Sundays so I thought I was growing. Wrong. Just because I was reading my bible twice a week didn't mean I was devoted or growing. I thought it did. But it wasn't till the summer that I started to see that I had forsaken the once bold and amazing walk I had with Christ. It took someone who I am close to too show me that I am not where I need to be. I hadn't touched my bible in weeks and not even kidding you that thing had dust on it. See what is often not told to people who receive Christ is that this can and does sometimes happen. You start out like a Champ and then your gradually begin to fall back into your old habits. I hate to admit it but sometimes its because its easier and a little less painful to quit being devoted and go back to the old you because people like the old you better.
But here's the kicker when you aren't growing God tends to put things in your life to try and start the growing process again. My process was restarted when a friend of mine was struggling on what to say to a friend who had lost someone close. That may seem weird but I have lost people who were close to me and I know that pain. But it when you look into a friends eyes and see that they really don't know what to say that is sometimes when you understand, that life is painful. With my walk I needed this "pain" in my life to have my eyes opened to the fact that I was hurting God by simply blowing of time with Him to be selfish. I couldn't help my friend because I couldn't help myself. My spiritual walk was dying because I was choosing not to grow. I choose this by making small sacrifices everyday, I would choose not to read and not to pray because something else in my eyes was more important. But the worst part of it all was that I was okay with the fact that I wasn't growing. See its when you hit this point that you finally understand how your sin nature is still there and the devil is still trying to get to you. Just because you accept Christ doesn't mean you are all of a sudden immune to the devil and the temptation put in front of you. What it does mean is that you have a way to fight the temptation. You reading and growing in your walk with Christ means that temptation gets somewhat easier to fight. It is not gone just smaller compared to an amazing God who wants you to live an amazing life.
You will hurt and you will fall and when you do fall if you strong in your walk you will see these failures as growing pains. Chances to learn and grow in the right direction. God isn't some kid in heaven with a magnify glass burning the little ants. He is a teacher, a healer, a mentor, a father, and He is an amazing God who has plans for you but only if you are willing to grow and have a little pain in the process.
I know this blog is all over the place and for that I say sorry. My thoughts are a little all over the place tonight I feel like I can take this blog in 15 different directions but honestly I only want to take it in the direction God wants it to go in. So with that being said if there is anything in here that you read and don't like tell me. Shoot me a tweet or facebook message and I will talk to you about your concerns there. If there is anything that I can pray for you about let me know and I will pray for you and your needs. That is all I have for now and hopefully you gained something from reading this other than seeing that I have the attention span of a 5 year old :) till next time ladies and gents.
So ladies and gents buckle your seat belts and get ready for the ride of your life. This first blog post is going to be about the pains we feel while we grow. Anytime as a kid that my joints started hurting my mom always told me that it was growing pains. I had no clue that even as an adult I would have these growing pains. They aren't always physical either. As a human if you are not growing you are dying plain and simple. The same goes for followers of Christ. Granted its not a physical death and no this isn't saying that if you aren't growing you aren't saved. But what I am saying is that if you are following Christ and you aren't growing you may want to look at your life and see what is happening. I have been there and it sucks. When you first accept Christ as your savior you are "born again" this basically means you are an infant in your spiritual walk. The thing is that when I was saved I started with a huge bang. I was in my word everyday and I was praying all the time and I was living the life God had planned for me. But after a while my walk started to fizzle out and after a while I was nothing more than the shell of a once devoted follower of Christ. I prayed sometimes and I read my bible on Wednesdays and Sundays so I thought I was growing. Wrong. Just because I was reading my bible twice a week didn't mean I was devoted or growing. I thought it did. But it wasn't till the summer that I started to see that I had forsaken the once bold and amazing walk I had with Christ. It took someone who I am close to too show me that I am not where I need to be. I hadn't touched my bible in weeks and not even kidding you that thing had dust on it. See what is often not told to people who receive Christ is that this can and does sometimes happen. You start out like a Champ and then your gradually begin to fall back into your old habits. I hate to admit it but sometimes its because its easier and a little less painful to quit being devoted and go back to the old you because people like the old you better.
But here's the kicker when you aren't growing God tends to put things in your life to try and start the growing process again. My process was restarted when a friend of mine was struggling on what to say to a friend who had lost someone close. That may seem weird but I have lost people who were close to me and I know that pain. But it when you look into a friends eyes and see that they really don't know what to say that is sometimes when you understand, that life is painful. With my walk I needed this "pain" in my life to have my eyes opened to the fact that I was hurting God by simply blowing of time with Him to be selfish. I couldn't help my friend because I couldn't help myself. My spiritual walk was dying because I was choosing not to grow. I choose this by making small sacrifices everyday, I would choose not to read and not to pray because something else in my eyes was more important. But the worst part of it all was that I was okay with the fact that I wasn't growing. See its when you hit this point that you finally understand how your sin nature is still there and the devil is still trying to get to you. Just because you accept Christ doesn't mean you are all of a sudden immune to the devil and the temptation put in front of you. What it does mean is that you have a way to fight the temptation. You reading and growing in your walk with Christ means that temptation gets somewhat easier to fight. It is not gone just smaller compared to an amazing God who wants you to live an amazing life.
You will hurt and you will fall and when you do fall if you strong in your walk you will see these failures as growing pains. Chances to learn and grow in the right direction. God isn't some kid in heaven with a magnify glass burning the little ants. He is a teacher, a healer, a mentor, a father, and He is an amazing God who has plans for you but only if you are willing to grow and have a little pain in the process.
I know this blog is all over the place and for that I say sorry. My thoughts are a little all over the place tonight I feel like I can take this blog in 15 different directions but honestly I only want to take it in the direction God wants it to go in. So with that being said if there is anything in here that you read and don't like tell me. Shoot me a tweet or facebook message and I will talk to you about your concerns there. If there is anything that I can pray for you about let me know and I will pray for you and your needs. That is all I have for now and hopefully you gained something from reading this other than seeing that I have the attention span of a 5 year old :) till next time ladies and gents.
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