God Bless America

There are a lot of things happening in America right now that I am certain my God is not proud of. There are definitely a lot of things going on that I am not proud of! It saddens me to see the state that my country is in and the blinders that people wear. I wish that I could show them, but they refuse to listen and it turns into a debate rather than a discussion. When I get too frustrated, I turn to my God and my Bible for comfort and guidance in my situation. I find peace in one particular verse, which I would love to share with you all.

 "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)

There are a few things I would like to point out with this verse. First, 2 Chronicles was written in the Old Testament, but that does not make it obsolete. Just as God is timeless, so is His Word and it applies to every day and age. Second, I believe that "My people" has become Christians, rather than just the Jews, but the verse still applies to God's people. Third, regardless of how sinful or wicked people are, God is eternally merciful if we truly seek forgiveness. It gives me hope for America, because I know that if we will humble ourselves and pray (and truly seek His forgiveness) then He will heal our land.

Knowing this, I have made it a personal goal of mine to pray for America everyday this year. I am humbling myself and asking Him to take control of my country and save it. I am doing what I can to help restore and revive America. At this point, I believe that all I am capable of doing is praying. I would, however, like to take it a step further and challenge my friends, family and readers to pray with me. The bible also says that:

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."Matthew 18:20 (KJV)

I know that without God, it is impossible for my country to be healed. I also know that Jesus said where two or more gather in His name, He is there with us. So I would like to ask for your participation in prayer! I want to challenge American Christians to make time at about noon to pray for this country. Pray for Christian leaders, who will allow God to be the true ruler of our nation. Pray for the blinders to be removed from our friends and family. Pray for the restoration of our former Christian nation. Pray that God will heal, inspire and revive America (to borrow words from Ben Carson). Just pray for America. 

I say noon because I figure that is lunch time, and most people will have a momentary break from school or work. This provides the perfect opportunity for a talk with God. But, if you do not usually have a break at noon, feel free to pray whenever you are given the opportunity. Please do join me and my family in prayer for our nation. 

May God bless America, as He did when we served Him! 

Maintaining Focus

I promised to share with you all my aspirations for this year. So here is one of them!

I want to maintain focus on what is truly important. 

Let me tell you what I mean by that: 

• What is truly most important is God. He comes before all else--family, friends, relationships, church school, job, self, etc. He deserves my affection and attention, and this year I will remember that He is first. That is not to say that the other things are not good things, it is just that God does not want competition in my life, and I will refuse to allow any of those things to be competition. (The people in the examples ought to want me to put God first, and they ought to understand why I do that. If they do not, then they should have a talk with Him about it--not me.) 
• Maintaining focus on God means totally surrendering my life to Him. (I am a saved Christian, but I am beginning to see total surrender in a different way.) For me, total surrender is realizing that He owns my life, so I am doing with it as He pleases rather than as I desire. Literally speaking, wherever He wants me to go and whatever He wants me to do, I will obey. That is what I want to give Him, because that is all I can give Him. He knows what is best for me, so I don't ever want to be somewhere that He is not. 
• In order to totally surrender my life to God, I must listen to what He tells me. That means a lot of time spent with Him, so I can recognize His voice when He calls me. Bible time daily, and a lot of prayer. Both of those ought to be important in the life of a Christian, because that is how He speaks to us and also how we speak to Him. I don't want to do this out of duty, but rather out of devotion. My faith is more about a relationship with God than about anything else. In order to have that relationship, I have to spend time with Him. It's that simple. (Something I would like to add: knowing the Bible is quite different than knowing it's Author. I don't want to just know the Bible--I want to have a close relationship with it's Author.)
• Knowing God and knowing what He wants me to do is one thing. But being a Christian and putting Him first means that I actually have to do what He is calling me to do! That isn't always easy, but I trust that He can handle everything we go through. I will follow His lead without question or debate, (to borrow some words from a friend of mine) because I have read Jonah and I don't want to be swallowed by a big fish. I know He has pretty big plans for me, so I intend to allow Him to work in my life. 

It is important to maintain focus, and I had recently forgotten how important that was. It was a painful reminder. This year, I am living in total surrender and I am going to focus on Him. That doesn't mean that I can't have fun or that I can't enjoy life, but I will remember Who I have to thank for that. I intend to follow wherever He leads me, happily and without question. 

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.

God Gave Me You.

I had an epiphany the other day. I was thinking about all of the people that are very dear to me and about how I describe them. I'll introduce them to others as "my" mom, "my" sister, "my" best friend, and so on. But then God reminded me ever so gently that these people do not "belong" to me. He has given them to me, or let me borrow them, while I am here. Let's take a little walk through scripture so I can show you how God reminded me of this.

Genesis chapter 2 is a good place to start. After God had created everything--the earth, the sea, the animals, and man-- God saw that Adam was lonely. Verse 18 is the first example of God giving a human a companion. "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.'" (HCSB) God saw that Adam needed another human to be his "helper" and his "complement," so God let Adam have Eve.

Later, in chapter 22, God reminds Abraham that people are a precious gift. "'Take your son,' He said, 'your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.'" (Genesis 22:2 HCSB) This is quite the challenge! I don't honestly know how I would react initially if God told me to offer him my little sister, as she is the one that I hold dearest. I trust my God, but that would be a very hard command to obey. He is reminding Abraham that Isaac belongs to Him, but He has let Abraham borrow Isaac.

Moses' story shows many different examples of God's generosity.  The fact that God spared Moses' life, so he could fulfill God's promises to the Hebrews shows how God gives us people. Actually, one might even notice from this story how God gives us places as gifts. He gave the Hebrews their promised land, but perhaps He gives us a church or someplace to go home to. A comfort zone is a gift on many different levels.

The book of Ruth provides a powerful example of love, but it also shows how God blessed Ruth and Naomi with each other. Ruth 1:16-17 says "But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you, or go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (HCSB) This woman followed God's commands, and God had commanded her to be with Naomi. God gave Ruth to Naomi, because He knew what would happen in her life that she would need a loyal companion.

The disciples had each other, but God brought them together. He gave them to one another so they wouldn't be lonely in the ungodly world. They served as "accountability buddies" as well. Basically, they were each blessed with people to keep them grounded in their faith, and to help them spread the gospel of Christ.

Paul was given a multitude of people to bless him in his walk with God. Silas, Barnabas, Timothy, even Stephen. He was never allowed to be lonely while ministering. God always blessed him with companions, but they were God's gift to give. Paul had no real control over what God chose to do with those people.

These were some things that crossed my mind when considering "my" family--my blessings from God. He gently reminded me that the people I hold dearest are given to me, because of how much He loves me. They are proof of His love for me. Now every time I think of them, I think of how grateful I am for a God that loves me enough to let me borrow some of His treasures.

The best way to describe to you "my" mom and "my" little sister is to say that they are my inspiration. They are pretty much the reason I get out of bed every morning. I can honestly say that if I didn't have either of them, I would not still be here. They save my life everyday in more ways than they even know. But God knows. He knows everything, so He knew that I needed them. He knew that they would be what brought me to Him. In fact, He knew that they would be what brought me to myself.

God let me borrow His Michelle and His Autumn, so that they could give me the best example of what His love looks like. I will be forever grateful that He allowed me to have them while I am here, and every time I think of them they will remind me Who's I am, and Who's they are. It takes a pretty generous God to give such precious gifts.

Priorities

Everyone has select people or things that give their life meaning or worth. Most people have someone that they love dearly, who makes them feel appreciated. Everyone has someone that is important to them.

Who is most important to you? Who in your life do you feel that you couldn't live without? Have you ever considered this before?

I want to challenge everyone reading this to choose those people. Next, I want you to do everything you can to let them know that. Not just once, or even once yearly. I want you to let that person feel loved every day.

Apart from God, my family is top priority in my life. My Mom, Dad and little sister are most important to me. Extended family, church family, and friends too. But immediate family comes first. I make it one of my daily goals to let them know that. They come before everything else, including myself. As I grow, I make it a goal to always be close with them. Other people I love are put in that category as well.

I make this challenge because I was recently put in my place by one of the people I had chosen. Evidently, they did not return that feeling and they did not want to be on my list. That's fine. I can take a hint. But if they had chosen what they found important and shown that, no one would be hurt. This person actually gave me this challenge not long ago.

"Choose the people who are important to you, who matter. Keep everyone else at a safe distance. Life is easier that way." That is what I am doing, and it is the best advice I can offer anyone. Please do choose the people or things you want on your list. Make sure you let everyone or everything on that list know they are appreciated. Set your priorities and stick to them! Life really is easier that way.