I need to go to bed early on Saturday nights so I’m not so tired on Sunday mornings. So goodnight!!!
Or maybe I should just drink coffee.. ;-P
I’m thankful for the best friend of all Jesus Christ. And I strive toward being a friend like him.
I sometimes wonder if where I’m going is the most opportune thing that I could be doing. I know I have gifts and need to use them. I just am oftentimes confused as to what to do. I have this vision for later in my life. But finding the right goals for now has been difficult. Lately I’ve just decided to do things and stick with them. I know it might not be the best use of my time. But it’s much better than sitting around and becoming stuck in the never ending cloud of indecisiveness. The one thing I don’t want is to become stuck and bury my talents in the ground.
Goal: Glorify God.
Picture of the day:
I had a glass figurine. Beautiful trophy from years ago. It was fragile, yet beautiful. When one chip appeared on it I was horrified. I learned how to fix it. I put tons of time into fixing it. And when it was done it looked just as good. Years began to pass. The trophy would collect dust. I would push it aside to put new trophies there. I would carelessly toss it around. I chipped it and at first it hurt to look at, but eventually I didn’t care. But on that fateful day when I picked it up and threw it onto my bed, I still remember how it rolled slowly toward the edge of the bed and fell off to shatter on the wood floor below. I rushed over to it. I wanted to fix it. But it was gone. The millions of shattered pieces could never be picked up and be put together perfectly. I may be able to fix it to some extent, but it’ll never look the same.
People are fragile. I’m finally starting to learn this. I tend to be fairly careless with my friends and family. Either I’m tossing them all over the place or I’m leaving them to collect dust. I don’t see people as these fragile human beings. I’m trying to treat them like a machine that you push buttons on, slam against a wall, and then expect it to work. We have emotions. We have thoughts. We have memories. We believe things. We love. We like. We trust. We fear. People sway from one thing to another. At times I’m amazed by how much people change just from week to week.
One thing that has surprised me is how many Christians are rude and cruel. I wonder why they call themselves Christians. (A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ~ John 13:34) Christ showed the ultimate act of love by dying for those that killed him. Too many people want to defend themselves up one street and down another. They don’t want to die for others. It’s about winning the debate. I understand there is a place for debates. But that doesn’t mean because you debate someone that you detest them or act in an unloving manner toward them. It’s an utter disgrace that love is not shown between Christians. It seems even the world can pull off a fakey looking love between each other, why can’t we truly love one another? We have a real motivation to love. But do we?
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:1
Several years ago I was somewhat enthralled with romance novels. (I know, really manly.. Hey, I liked to read everything……) The books that I found around my house and others were the ones through which I browsed. Grace Livingston Hill, Janette Oke, H. Rider Haggard, etc. I never read any modern Christian romance. Most of the books were written to appeal to women (shocker) and to create an image of a perfect man. Each book would create this beautiful romance. It was full of passion. It was full of love. It was filled with low lights and pretty colors. There was romance. And then they got married.
I do understand the books to some extent. You’re trying to appeal to single women(married women to some extent) who don’t have a perfect romance in their lives and encourage them to lust after it? It’s going to sell… I honestly don’t comprehend why there is anything good about them. I understand that women tend to want to have that perfect man with all the right words, the sensation of fluttery feelings, and get that handsome prince of your dreams. But I’m sorry to break it to you. It’s not all about you. I think that romance novels for women can possibly turn into the way a man uses pornography. It’s all about you. It’s about satisfying your emotions, your feelings, your desires, and your dreams. Both have a way of satisfying desires in a sinful manner. Albeit women and men have a different way that they interact with fulfilling these desires. In the end, if it’s not going to be all about you, it’s going to need to be all about God. It’s about honoring God with everything you do.
It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about God. That’s something that I have to remind myself of constantly.
God created men and women to fulfill these desires in a marriage. These desires are good things, and there is a proper place for them to be fulfilled. Romance novels, pornography, selfishness, and fornication are not the place.
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. ~ James 1:15
If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep. ~Dale Carnegie
If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want. ~Oscar Wilde