Do You Have A Savior?

Jesus Christ is the savior of us all.  Emmanuel means ‘God with us’.  That is exactly who Jesus was and is and will be, God made flesh to live among man and lead them to the Father.  Without God there is no life, and separation from God after an earthly life is called Hell.

People think that you go to Heaven simply be being a “good person”.  But however harsh it is, the nicest, most generous person in the entire world cannot get into Heaven without Christ.  If you’re reading this, please don’t be upset.  Eternal life is a gift from God, not something that can be earned through works.  God’s grace saved us.  He sent His son to die on the cross, to suffer and die for our sins, because that was our only chance of being with him.

God wants to know you.  He loves you.  He saved you.  Once you accept that salvation and enter into a relationship with Christ, it’s forever.  No one can take it from you, if you truly believe it in your heart.  God judges our hearts, and He knows who lives Him.  So love Him fully, and love Him truly, because He loves us like that, and so much more.

Do You Have A Valentine?

Today is Valentine’s Day.  How many of us are alone today?  I’ll be the first to raise my hand.  I’m 20 years old, and I have never had a valentine.  Well, at least a male one, that is.  I have no problem getting together with my girlfriends to eat ice cream, watch movies and make fun cards.  This year, I’m babysitting actually.  I don’t Love-day.  I think it’s wonderful to have such an easy opportunity to share your love with people you care about.  Whether that is romantic or not, shouldn’t really matter.  Why should people feel pressured to have a “valentine” (meaning a romantic interest for the day).  Unless you are already dating someone, or married, or are very soon to start dating someone, just have fun with your friends tonight.

Love is a very serious thing.  It shouldn’t be thrown around lightly, and romantic love should be very carefully placed.  I’m a Christian woman, and when I fall in love it will be with a Christian man.  That’s just how it’s supposed to be.  I have hurt someone because of that.  There is a guy, J, who cares about me a lot, and he likes me for me, which I think is great.  I also feel a connection to him on some level.  I can completely be myself when I talk to him.  But he’s not a believer, and it’s upsetting that someone so great could be so lost.  J gets angry and confused when we talk about my faith.  He tends to turn to insults, and tries to cut me down, make me question myself and my relationship with God.  It’s funny actually (although I would never, ever tell him that) because someone on earth couldn’t possibly destroy that relationship.  It’s solid, it’s there, and it’s never going away.

Now T is another guy.  He goes to my school.  He’s friends with my friends.  I guess I would say that we’re friends.  I guess I would also say that I have a teeny, tiny, itty, bitty crush on him.  He’s funny, musically talented, and he’s striving for God.  It’s amazing to see him develop just over the past few weeks of this semester.  To hear him openly talk about doing things for God, and to see him attending worship and small group is really fantastic.  It makes me so happy.  On top of the funny, musical, Christian thing….T is also really, really cute.  His whole family is very attractive, so that’s pretty intimidating.  I’m not getting any hopes up.  The attraction/crush or whatever, is really just that, a passing crush that I’ll get over.  I know God doesn’t want us together, and that’s why we’re not.

I also now that God knows exactly who and when I am going to marry, so there’s no point in worrying about boys at all.  I’m proud of myself, who I’ve become with Christ, and how I’m continuing to grow.  Honestly, the last thing I need is a man right now.  But it wouldn’t hurt, right? haha

Anyway, enjoy your Feb 14

Bye for now!

Do You Have A Book?

I know, I know: two posts in one day, in less than an hour, in just a few minutes of each other.  But I really wanted to write about this, and it didn’t exactly fit in the “Do You Have A Cat?” post…

Yesterday I read “The Last Song” by Nicholas Sparks, and I haven’t cried that hard over a book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a few years ago.  It was a beautiful story, somewhat frustrating at times.  But every character was developed so well, and the story line was smooth and emotional.  It was easy to fall into it, and take on the emotions of the characters and feel the tenseness of each situation, or the lightness of it, depending.  Sparks really makes you want to be in the story.

Anyway, I wont give away details, but the father-daughter relationship in the book was what hit me the hardest, and the circumstances surrounding the relationship just broke me down.  I’m so glad it was 3AM and no one else was awake, because I was bawling.  I realy recommend reading it, because it’s really fantastic, and it has depth, which is hard to find in some books.

I’m probably going to see the movie, which stars Miley Cyrus, in March.  I’m very curious to see what the add in and what they take out, because there are so many things in it that would be great in a film.  If you get a chance to read it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Do You Have A Cat?

I love animals.  I really do.  They are wild, natural, powerful, and beautiful.  I love dogs and cats and hamsters and birds and horses.  I especially love tigers ad giraffes.  And if you can find it in ‘The Lion King’, well then you know that I think it’s incredible.  I had a dog growing up.  Cutest thing ever, really wonderful dog.  And I had a cat.  He was great too, cuddly and warm.

We have a new dog now and he’s just great.  He’s soft, friendly, energetic, and just comforting.  I’ve cried to him about a lot of things, and I miss him hugely when I’m away at school.  At school, my roommate has a cat.  He’s really cute, but not super friendly, and sometimes I get really annoyed at him.  Just this morning he was really hyper and wouldn’t stop freaking running around.  He’s constantly jumping on the counters and tables (gross!) and takes pleasure in knocking all of my framed pictures off my dresser.  He has peed and numerous things in the apartment, and he loves to scratch the couch.  He cries all the time, and spills every cup or mug he sees.  Sometimes I just don’t want him here anymore.  When I can’t sleep because of him, or wake up early because of him, I get really mad.  He isn’t declawed, and he’s very loose with the sharp things.  He also likes to bite.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes he’s really cute, and cuddly, and nice.  But those times are few and far between.  People like him, and come over to see him.  He’s afraid of boys though, and he has actually scratched peoples faces.  He bit my neck once, and I wanted to smack him.  He just gets irritating.  I don’t think my roommate should ever have gotten him honestly.  But he does provide entertainment sometimes.  Can I live with it for the next year and a half?  I don’t think I have a choice.

Do You Have a Voice?

How do you use your voice?  I, for instance, mostly use it for talking, and singing.  Generally I’m classifies as loud.  My normal volume just happens to be a few decibels higher than everyone else’s.  And I have come to term with that.  However, since my voice tends to reach a lot of people, I’ve had to watch a lot of what I say.  As a leader with my campus church and a sort of well known person, I have kids looking to me as a guide and I must set an example.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out

of your mouths, but only what is helpful for

building others up according to their needs,

that it may benefit those who listen.” – Ephesians 4:29

You see, in once minute, you can give a compliment to someone, or hurts someones feelings.  You can make yourself into a fool, or earn respect.  Everything that comes from your mouth is judged by others and usually used against you.  That is why Ephesians 4:29 is such an important verse.  Who wouldn’t want to spend time with someone who always spoke positively and used their voice for good, building others up, and praising the Lord?  I’m telling you, that’s what I want to be.  I want to be the person people enjoy listening too.  I tend to sarcastically tease people, and usually I get a few laughs, but occasionally I upset people, because they don’t know when to take me seriously.

All in all, if you need to, stop talking for a minute and use the sixty seconds to decide whether what you’re saying is constructive or just unnecessary.  Basically, thank before you speak.  That goes for me as well.

Do You Have A Car?

I live in an apartment building (let’s call it the B’s) that does not require any payment for parking in the outside lot.  As you can probably guess, everyone and their mom, fifth cousins and step-uncles brings their car from home (especially the college kids).  It makes it basically impossible to find parking anywhere in the lot after 5:30PM.  Oh, you have to babysit until 10:30PM?  That’s a shame.  You have two choices, a. park down the street and walk in the bitter cold muttering angry phrases to yourself about the B’s lack of parking spaces; Or b. squeeze into an illegal spot and hope that you wake up the next morning before 9AM so you can (hopefully) move it to an empty spot.  In case you don’t know, and illegal spot is anything painted over with yellow lines.  Technically these are fire lanes, but really, parking in them does not obstruct traffic at all, so the 4×4 spaces I’m sandwiching my car into shouldn’t even be illegal.  So yes, I chose option b.  I usually do.  Sometimes I have to choose a, like when all the spots (including the illegal ones!) are all taken.  So option b is the most popular.  So I parked last night around the little curve that is over by the dumpsters (delish).

Anyway the point of this post is that I can move my car to a new spot in less than two minutes.  It probably normally takes between 1-5 minutes to complete his wonderful task in the freezing AM (25 degrees, real feel 19) morning air.  Today I was lucky and found a spot right near my illegal spot, but sometimes I have to drive all the way around the building.  So I was happy today.

Today is the first day of classes, so I’ll be doing some things in under a minute I’m sure.  Like 1. writing my name, 2. saying hello, 3. walking between rooms in the business building (where all my classes are this semester).

In case you don’t know how to spend your minutes, here are some suggestions:

1. Pray.  And when I say pray I mean pray to God.  For He knows you, and wants you to know Him more, and the only way of doing that it to spend time with Him, and His word, which brings me to my next point.
2. Read the Bible.  In one minute you can get through quite a few verses.  I encourage you to just pick a few and really think about them.
3. Write and E-mail.  Get in touch with your mom, dad, only friends, siblings, distant family, just about anyone.  Reconnecting feels great and let’s you share a little of yourself.  You also might discover something about how you as a person are changing and growing.

Until next time/

Do You Know The Song?

I’ve heard somewhere (okay, Seasons of Love, from RENT: The Musical) that a year has 525,600 minutes in it.  I know that this cannot be exact, because of the leap year situation (which is looking to be a good movie by the way.  probably not movie theater ticket price worthy, but I definitely see a rental in the future).  Anyway, of those 525,600 minutes, I’m going to estimate that about a third of them will be spent sleeping.  So, let me get my calculator out and we’ll make that 350,400 waking minutes left for people to do with as they please.  Each minute is promising and hopeful.  Let’s discuss what we’ll do with them!

I’m fairly certain that I’ll spend a few of my 350,400 minutes eating, or performing hygienic activities (as any normal human does).  Upi.com told me that people on average spend up to 8 days a year in the bathroom, which is roughly  11,520 minutes.  According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics about 26,273 minutes are used for ingestion of nutritional things.  That leaves only 312,607 minutes to spend on leisure activities and the like.  While you ponder what you have done, and will do with those minutes this year, I’ll do the same and get back to you with an update.