What Matters More?

God has a funny way of bringing me back to Him. Every time I'm struggling to keep up with my life, He reminds me that putting Him first makes everything else fall into place. 

There is only so much time in a day. We are given 24 hours to do whatever we want. However, when we keep adding things to our plate, we quickly fill up those hours. At that point, we must decide what we like best and keep making time for those things.

Keyword here: making time. 

I play many different roles in my life. College student, Christian, sister, daughter, tutor, employee, friend etc. I want to do my best at preforming those roles. It takes time to do those things!

Let me put it this way. If I have twenty-four hours in one day, let's take out the time required for the things that I need to do. I'll start with absolute necessities. So, eight hours comes out for sleeping time (although I could sleep for probably ten hours if I had a day off). Now I have sixteen hours left. I have to take at least three of that for eating time, so now I have thirteen hours. I spend on average four hours daily doing some kind of school work, so we can subtract that from my time. That leaves me with nine hours. I easily spend two of that doing something with my dog--playing outside, giving her a bath, going for a car ride, whatever. (Once again, this is on average.) So I can take that out of my time, giving me seven hours. I can spend up to three of those hours on my computer doing something, unfortunately. Usually I am doing homework of some kind, but I like to play TERA and listen to music. I can eliminate three hours from my day, giving me four hours left. I am supposed to help my sister with her math, but lately I haven't made enough time for that. I can eliminate one hour for that chore, leaving me with three hours left in my day. Notice that I have yet to include any time for God? Unfortunately, by the time the rest of that is finished, I don't want to do anything but relax for those few hours. I end up talking to friends or doing extra-curricular activities. The One who deserves all of my attention has just been put to the bottom of my "to-do list."

The problem is, God shouldn't be included in a to-do list at all. We ought to focus our attention on Him because we want to, not because it is just another thing on our list.

I have an entry in my journal from about a month ago. It deals with this topic directly. In it, I made a list of what the world had to offer me. Well, what the world had to offer me when I didn't put God first. It goes as follows:

• I have lost my sense of self. 
• Depression. 
• Loss of desire for God. 
• Poor decision making. 
• Other such things. 

 I wrote this Bible verse along with it:

"But I myself said: I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and futility;
yet my vindication is with the Lord,
and my reward is with my God." (Isaiah 49:4 HCSB)

That last line there really hits home. "My reward is with my God." That reminds me that if I put Him first, then everything else will fall into place. Let me put it another way...

What matters more? God, or _______________?

 It doesn't matter what you fill the blank with, the answer is the same. "My Reward is with my God," and I trust him to take care of me. In all 24 hours of the day. But I need to prove that by putting Him first, and actually making time in my day to give to Him. He deserves all of my attention, not just what I have left to give. I have to remember that He gave me everything. So all of those things I spend my time with/on/doing are gifts from Him. I was reminded by that verse at that point in time to "stop putting the gift above the giver." 

Since then, I have been putting God first in my life. And, as expected, everything else is falling into place.

Benevolence > Beauty

I have come to the conclusion that boys are evil.

Well. Okay. Maybe not all the time. But they are definitely evil when it comes to playing with young girls' hearts. I guess some young girls do the same thing to boys, though. So maybe just teenagers are evil.

I was having a hard time with my breaking heart, so I (naturally) turned to my Bible and God for comfort. Sitting in the the church parking lot on a Monday morning, just me and God, I had an epiphany. I would like to share it with my audience.

God talked to me that day about considering a soulmate. He gave me a few guidelines to go by (things I hadn't been considering). I started like I usually do-- I opened my bible to a random page and began reading. I feel like God is in complete control this way, as I don't really choose what I read.

I opened my Bible to Ruth. I've read this book many times before, but it hit me different this time. It's always been a go-to book for considering a husband. I had been looking for the "Boaz" God has picked out for me. The problem was that I wasn't acting like Ruth. To get a better understanding of what this means, let us take a little walk through the beginning of the book.

If you are not familiar with this book, I'll explain the characters a little. Naomi is from Bethlehem, and she traveled to Moab with her husband and two sons. Both of her sons married Moabite women-- Orpah, and Ruth. Soon, Naomi's husband died, followed by her two sons. She is left with two daughters-in-law who adore her, but a country in which she does not belong. When Naomi decided to leave Moab and return to Bethlehem, her daughters-in-law wanted to accompany her. She knew that she couldn't provide them with another husband, so she commanded them to return to their mothers so they could marry again. Orpah left, but Ruth was determined to remain with Naomi. She wanted to take care of her, because she knew that Naomi had no one left to do that job.

Boaz (Naomi's kin) was first attracted to Ruth's hard work (see verses 4&5 in chapter 2). The Bible tells us that after discovering her origin, he was attracted to Ruth's compassion and benevolence toward Naomi. My epiphany came from this knowledge. I feel that it is incredibly important to note that a good man will be attracted to a woman who takes care of her family before herself.

Boaz told Ruth not to go harvest in another man's field so he could keep an eye on her and protect her. He had respect for her, because of her compassion for her mother-in-law. That is where a proper relationship starts: mutual respect.

Ruth remains in Boaz' fields. She harvests food for herself and Naomi--following Boaz' servents-- everyday. Meanwhile, Naomi masterminds a plan to get Boaz to marry Ruth. (The details are all found in the book of Ruth, but I won't go over them here.) In the end, Boaz marries Ruth and takes care of her and Naomi. My main point: Boaz was attracted to Ruth's benevolence before he even noticed her beauty.

Ruth accompanied Naomi anticipating an empty life. She gave up any chance she had of marrying again, because it was more important to her to make sure that Naomi was alright. Ruth's story teaches us an amazing story of selflessness, as she 100% put Naomi's needs above her own.

Can anyone tell me what is more attractive than that? Who would not want a spouse that takes care of your needs before his/her own? 

I am not married, so I am not an expert in this topic. But I try to listen when God is speaking to me, and I like to share what I learn. My advice to young women seeking a mate is this: don't search for your Boaz if you aren't willing to be Ruth. If you are ready to find your soulmate, then you must act like it! Put aside the heartbreak games and take things seriously. When you begin acting like the Godly woman you are supposed to be, then God will show you what He has in store for you.

Reflections on Freedom

It's July 4th. This is the day that our nation celebrates it's freedom. This is the day we can say "Happy Birthday, America!" On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was finalized and approved. Because of that, I would like to reflect on what "bought" us our freedoms.

America's desire for freedom was brought on by unfair treatment from the British Parliament.

"For more than a decade before the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, tensions had been building between colonists and the British authorities. Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies (notably the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Tariffs of 1767 and the Tea Act of 1773) met with heated protest among many colonists, who resented their lack of representation in Parliament and demanded the same rights as other British subjects. Colonial resistance led to violence in 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists, killing five men in what was known as the Boston Massacre. After December 1773, when a band of Bostonians dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, an outraged Parliament passed a series of measures (known as the Intolerable, or Coercive Acts) designed to reassert imperial authority in Massachusetts." (History.com)

Basically, Great Britain was taxing the colonists unfairly and they demanded a change. When that argument escalated, it turned into a war. American's ought to know about the American revolution, so I will not restate much of what happened here. What I would like to point out is that our freedom was purchased through blood. Many people had to die for the idea of America before it even became a nation. Statistics say that there were 4,435 total American deaths during the Revolutionary War.

Another thing I want to briefly point out is that people are still dying for American freedoms. In 2010, a total of 1,485 military men and women were killed trying to protect your freedoms. In 2014, a total of 2,352 people were killed in the "Operation Enduring Freedom." In addition to that, 20,065 were injured. In 2014, a total of 4.412 military men and women involved with "Operation Iraqi Freedom" were killed. An additional 31,949 were injured. Each of these deaths and injuries were because these people wanted to defend you.

My point is that freedom is not "free," but we like to live like it is. I think that people choose not to think about the people who choose to die so that we can live. Thinking about that can have a somber affect on one's mood. Naturally, people don't like to be sad; therefore, they try to avoid things that make them sad. It's logical.

Alright, now because I'm me and I have the freedom to include my religious beliefs, there is one more thing I want to point out. My freedom to live and be happy came from the death of my Savior, Jesus Christ. My freedom to choose to follow Him, or to deny Him, came from His willingness to live the life of a poor man, and be murdered in the most humiliating way possible. He did that for me. He chose to so that I would recognize, if only on a small scale, how much He loves me. If you think about it, the punishment for sin is death. Jesus never sinned, and therefore He did not have to die. He died to give us the freedom of eternal life with Him. That is something that even my life will not pay for.

The cost of freedom is always blood. That is human logic. In order to maintain our freedoms, people have to die or be tortured. There is no other way to obtain it. History proves this to be true over and over again. So, when you watch fireworks on the 4th of July--Independence Day-- please remember to be thankful for those who laid down their lives to give you your freedom.

Sukidesu

I wrote a while back about meaning what you say and what you do. This post is going to accompany that one in a way. This time, however, I am going to be discussing only the phrase "I love you." With Valentine's Day in the near future, I think this is appropriate.

I recently began noting how often I say the words "I love you." Although I know what I mean each and every time it is said, others may not. Most of the time I mean that the person is special to me, but not exactly that I am in-love with them. I mean that they are very dear to me. I say this to my best friends a lot, and to my family of course. At any rate, it has come to my attention that I definitely overuse the phrase. By overusing the phrase, it has lost it's meaning. I never meant to do that, so I am correcting my actions immediately.

How often do you say that you love someone or something? What does the word "love" mean to you? Would you die for everyone and everything that you claim to love? To me, love mostly means respect. The words are interchangeable. Everyone that I claim to "love," I could easily tell that I respect. That way I would be saying what I meant, while at the same time not diminishing the meaning of the "love" word. This would also eliminate misunderstanding.

Something that my sister discovered recently gave me a new perspective on this topic. In order to eliminate any misunderstanding, the Japanese use separate words for the varying meanings of "love." There are meanings everywhere from "I love cake" to "You are the love of my life." This sounds rather complex, but it is about the same thing as saying respect instead of love.

Sukidesu is probably the most commonly used Japanese love-phrase. It can be used for a variety of things as it means "I care for you." I like this translation! It is very useful and it can't really be misinterpreted to mean something more. I have started using "I care for you" when talking to my friends, because that is exactly what I mean to say.  It has become a favorite phrase of mine.

Aishiteru is the Japanese phrase for "I love you" on a more serious level. It is probably used for family, significant others, and perhaps very close friends. I don't have many people that fall under this category. If I were to use this, it would literally mean that I love you enough to give up my life for you. This phrase should be reserved only for those that deserve it.

The third category (if you want to call it that) is "you are the love of my life," or  watashi no isshoo no koibito. That one is kind of long, but it definitely cannot be misunderstood. The meaning is clearly stated in the phrase and no one can twist it. This phrase is another one that should be spoken only to those that deserve it. Actually, only one person should ever hear this phrase from you. The true love of your life.

There are some other love-phrases, such as "you make me happy" (kimi ga ite shiawase), "I am passionate about you" (kimi ni muchuu), "I adore you" (kimi no koto sukide tamaranai) and so on. But the three I have mentioned are (in my opinion) the most meaningful. They depict exactly what the person is feeling without misconception.

I will be altering my words from now on to say what I mean. Especially when it comes to such a strong and over-used phrase. I probably won't use the Japanese words, but I can use their translations. "I care for you" is very different from "you are the love of my life." I challenge my readers to do the same. Find a phrase that fits your feeling, and stick with it. Does the cake make you happy, or is it the love of your life? You know the answer, but make sure that the world does too. Set a good example for those watching you and choose your words carefully.


**Side note: If you are interested in learning some more Japanese love phrases, you can check them out at this website http://www.learnalanguage.com/learn-japanese/japanese-phrases/japanese-love-phrases.php **