Category: Wisdom

This is an excerpt from my latest read “Counsel from the Cross” by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson…It completely challenge me! Please take a couple minutes and read this section (and consider reading the entire book!!!):

1. I go to bed before midnight and usually before 11, preferably at 10. 
2. I can make a healthy breakfast. 
3. Free laundry is not a drive away. 
4. I wake up in the early morning not the early afternoon. 
5. I can go to a coffee shop and read for my own enjoyment and not feel the pressure of homework. 

Last year around this time, I posted a blog. It was entitled “Things that were and will be. Thankful.” click there and read it. It still makes me tear up!

I remember sitting in the Starbucks off of California Street in one of their comfy leather couches, sipping on an iced caramel macchiato because it was so dang hot outside. I remember people from my school came at sat at the table beside me. I remember holding back tears while typing out the words in fear that they would see and ask me why I was crying. I remember writing the blog because I wanted to avoid the loads of homework I had to do and focus on all the emotional weight and burden that came with a break up. Well, sort of, because the break up was going to happen later that night but with anything of that sort, the anticipation looms over you – you know it’s coming.

I was thinking earlier today that the ‘me’ from a year ago seems so foreign. The person I am now is no longer the person I was then. The person I am now has been shaped and molded by the grace of God. The person I am now has been broken and perfectly placed back together by my sovereign and holy God.  I sat there then thinking how the heck I had learned so much in just one year. I sat there reminiscing on all the Lord has brought to my life and how he was continuing to change me and shape me.

Today, I am doing the same exact thing – minus Starbucks and the caramel macchiato. I am packing up my room, looking through my big box of memories and adding to it, organizing drawers, throwing things away, shedding a tear or two, and looking back on ALL the Lord has taught me this year.

Who knew singleness could continue to teach you a year later!? Well, it has and I am thankful for that. This year has been crazy, emotional, strengthening, damaging, extremely fun, lonely, communal, joyful, depressing, anxious, faith-building, relationship-building, convicting, challenging, maturing [and a little of the opposite seeing that I lived with 23 freshmen girls :)], etc. I have cried myself to sleep. I have laughed till I cried. I have been so angry I cried. I went on California Screaming at California Adventure and “cried” because it was soooo fast it made my eyes water. I have cried because I was so thankful. Basically I have just done a lot of crying… HA!

This year as been full! I was looking at my journal from last May and I saw just how much the Lord has used this last year to change me and grow me. God is good and he is always faithful! He always provides and he always protects. That has probably been the biggest theme of my year. He always provides, is faithful, good, and always protects.

I have seen his goodness cover my life this year and my whole life. He has shown me grace in countless ways – most in freeing me from my bond to sin and death and giving me life. He has provided me with comfort, encouragement, sweet sweet friendships, correction, a beautiful community, the GOSPEL, a job, a roof over my head, food to eat, options after college, life-lessons….

He is so GOOD!!!!!!!!

So as I end this chapter in my life and move onto the next, I am grateful. It is crazy to think that I finished college. I’m sitting in my room on 1C where it all began and in awe of everything he has taught me since I began here as freshmen in room 142C as a young 18 year old uncertain about what the next four years of my life were going to look like: who my friends were going to be, if I’d be single or married out of college, if I would have a job, what my major would be, what type of person I would be, if I would continue to follow the Lord or not, if church was important to me, etc.

Now I KNOW all of those things. I have a great group of friends coming out of college. I am single. I have a job starting in a week from today (!!!!). I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Behavioral Science. I am an extrovert who loves people, lover of truth, enjoys deep, challenging conversations, love dresses and skirts and anything girly, loves anything outdoors – hiking, swimming in a lake/ocean, loves friendship and thrives off of my community. I love the Lord and desire to serve him with everything I have. Church is so important to me because I have seen the value of living in a close, intentional community that is seeking after Christ. Now, I know all of these things. In four years, the Lord has completely changed who I am.

Now I sit in 147C and as I look into what I am going to do in the future I know with certainty that the Lord will shape me and mold me because he has been faithful to do that the last 22 years of my life. I will look back on May 7, 2013 at this year that lies before me today and think, “WHOA, how did the Lord teach me everything he did in this last year?!”

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment from Saturday’s graduation:

10. A man’s place is in the army.

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.

8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do other forms of work.

7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.

5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.

4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, change the oil in the church vans, and maybe even lead the singing on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.

1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

23 days until graduation…. WOW!

In just 23 days, I will be graduating from college. Crazy! Where did the time go?

The saying “time flies when you are having fun” definitely applies to the last 4 years of my life.

Here are some (well, a lot of) examples:

To Be Continued… 🙂

With an hour and two minutes left of my birthday, I sit here thankful for all the beautiful people that are in my life and the wonderful activities that occurred in the last 22 hours and 58 minutes of the 27th of March 2012, and in the last year since March 27, 2011.

It has been a whirlwind of a year. This year has been a year of shaping and growing and changing. Even though at points, it was difficult and painful, it was beautiful all the same.

Here are some of the things that have changed and that I have been shaped in/by:

• In a relationship to single and spent the last 11 months in this stage of life!
• Transitioned from a junior in college to a senior
• RA in the upperclassmen apartments, now to the freshmen dorms
• prideful and harsh, to a more gentler, moldable me (still could use some major improvements on this one).
• lonely and friendless to deep, intimate friendships
• more active in my church body
• scared of even a conversation with the opposite gender outside of a “relationship,” to great, God-glorifying friendships with many brothers in Christ, which I am so thankful for by the way
• through church, various members, and pastor, through different classes and the challenge of my professors, I am better able to articulate what I believe and the new things I am learning
• also through those classes, I understand the point of education and am excited to extend that long after my college graduation in a month (on MAY 5!!!) and broader than a single subject or major
• Began to understand what it means to be an adult and independent, but also have learned how to be interdependent and to lean on my community to lead me closer to Christ as I lead others closer to Christ through honestly, love, discipline, and encouragement 
• changed from a person with lazy habits in studying and knowing scripture to an understanding of the urgency and importance of deeply knowing scripture and the Word of God
• been more deeply challenge in understanding the unsearchable riches of the gospel
• and many, many more!

So, this idea might come very strange to a lot of people and maybe even controversial, but these ideas have been spinning in my head for the last year (-ish) prompted by my different classes and time spent in the Word. Please, sit tight and give me a little room to work out my thoughts. =)

So, here I go…

The recent Christian trend I have noticed is people are extremely quick to compliment someone and extremely slow to critique/criticize someone (if they even do it at all). The term ‘criticize’ is now even negative and if you say criticize, you must add “positive” to the front of it to make it acceptable or politically correct.

Let me give you an example.

Girl A: “I can never do anything right.”  

Girl B: “No, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.” 

The problem with this is that Girl A does do most everything wrong and she was correct in stating that she does everything wrong. Girl B throws God in the picture to make Girl A feel good about herself, but it’s done based on lies. And, instead of using that statement as a gentle, loving chance to change and grow girl A, it is now used to solidify the character flaw and poor choices that she has made. Does this example help to explain my concerns?

I am so guilty of this. If a woman complains about her body or appearance, I was always the first one to tell her she was wrong and say my common phrase: “now, say 3-5 nice things about yourself” in an attempt to boost her “self-esteem.” Disclaimer: I know some girls have an unhealthy view of themselves and do need to reevaluate what they are saying and thinking, but I do not need to puff someone up in the process and fuel the pride that was already there.

Self-esteem is such a common thought in the American culture, but I would venture to challenge that idea and say that biblically and even just within humanity, the wiser option would be to think lowly of yourself and disregard ‘self-esteem’ altogether. In Philippians 2, it explains how Jesus’ life was a life lived in humility and how he emptied himself and humbled himself even to the point of death, then commands us to do the same; it reads:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8 ESV)

On another note, when we spend all of our time worrying about our own self-esteem, we spend our time looking inwardly to simply boost our own pride. This is so anti-christian and anti-human. Humanity was created for community; Eve was created for Adam, woman created for man. The creation of community assumes that we need each other. When God created Adam, he said to him that “it is not good for man to be alone” then proceeded to create woman.

If we need each other, we also need each other to help us to see the blind spots that we are unable to see. 2 Timothy 3:16 explains this so well. It instructs us to use scripture for correction so “that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” We do need each other…we need each other to help us to learn and grow. If we lived on a deserted island with no one around, we would have no need to live peaceably and healthily with others. We would have no need for the “one another’s” given to us in the New Testament. We would have no need for scripture. Scripture was written with community in mind from the beginning in Genesis to the end in Revelation.

Christians, let’s use opportunities to help grow and teach our fellow brother’s and sister’s in Christ following his example of correction in gentleness founded and fueled by love. Let’s learn to live honest lives with others. Let’s continue to understand that lying to fellow human’s is doing them a disservice. You are building and fortifying their mistakes into their character rather than correcting it in gentleness and love and helping them to look more like Christ.

I am mostly writing this as a invitation for those around me to correct me and spur me on in love. Of course, I am very emotional, so gentleness is important, but I truly do value honesty in my friendships and relationships. I desire to grow and learn and become more like Christ. Help me to live this out and I promise to work at doing the same thing with you!

Job 5:17 – “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.”

To Be Continued… =)

Struggling through what my future marriage should look like, wanting to be deeply involved in ministry within my home and outside my home. This video showed a huge problem among Christians and those involved in ministry, but looking to find deeper biblical solutions. In the near future, I will be researching this problem further.

As of late, I have really been learning the lesson of the importance of reading scripture. I mentioned in my last post about the new reading plan I have started. Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System (found at this link) has been an incredible system for me. I have learned so much and it has been so encouraging.

As I have been discussing how this system is changing my life, people have brought up to me different verses that have completely encouraged me and solidified to me why I am loving this new system.

Philippians 2 is one of those passages. It reads:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
(Philippians 4:4-9 ESV)

I have written about this passage before and how it has challenged my thinking on worrying, but I realized something while talking through this tonight…As I have always looked to this passage to help me to not worry, I did not realize how it impacts every other aspect of life. In everything, I always find myself anxious about something. In school, getting all of my work done; in driving, avoiding traffic or getting out of traffic; in relationships, making sure I am being a good friend; in my outward looks, that I meet up with societies “norms”/trends; in happiness, that I see myself a certain way or that others think of me a certain way; etc. In everything, I find myself anxious because I am not fixing my mind on Christ or things of Christ. I am relying on the world’s standards to rule my mind. Even today, I found myself getting so upset at the traffic on the freeway. Why? Because I was focused on myself.

The more and more I have spent in the word, immersing myself in scripture, the more I find myself with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding (Disclaimer: I do not think this is a magical, mystical feeling, but an understanding of my hope in Christ and my ultimate needs being met [sin]). My mind is on things not of this world so my first inclination is not to be anxious, but it is of Christ and how I can glorify him and know him more.

Psalm 119:11 – “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Proverbs 3:1-8 – “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
(Proverbs 3:1-8 ESV)

I re-looked at this passage tonight and realized that I always overlook verses 1-4…but they are crucial. Basically this verse is encouraging us to not forget the law or commandments (the Word) and to bind them to our necks and our hearts. The writer is encouraging us to trust in the Lord rather than our emotions (our own understanding) and our own eyes.

Realizing the last year of my life (since last May) has been so refreshing and healing to my flesh and bones. I have learned so much this last year and have been rejuvenated; I have been learning how to trust in the Lord. I have a joy for life because my goal is to trust in the Lord and not man.

I am thankful. 

To Be Continued… =)