The Parking Spot

     One day when we were in the McKinney area, mom and I decided that we would go get our favorite drink from Quick Trip. When we first pulled up, I looked over to the right and there was this HUGE truck shading us from the sun. We went in to get our black cherry smoothie drink (it is one of the best drinks ever), but that is beside the point. When I walked back to the car and went to sit down, I felt the heat beating down upon me. I looked over to the right and I noticed that there was a tiny car there. It looked like a bug in comparison to the huge truck that was in the same parking spot a couple of minutes ago.

     I know you’re probably thinking, “Okay, the car changed so what?” Well let’s try to relate this to our lives, friendship wise. We parked in our life parking spot, and the people on either side of us are our close “friends”. The fact is when you mature and get older your friends are going to change. Also some friends that you have may be good Christian influences and strengthen you in your faith. They might help protect and support you, just like the huge truck blocked me from the sun. Your Christian friend might have to move away and you become close to another person who is not a good influence on you, and they allow the sun to hit you with its full force. Whenever you allow people to be your friend make sure that if they are not a Christian that you are the one influencing them, and not allowing them to influence you.

     The point is God allows different kinds of people to be a part of our lives. We might have friends who are awesome and block the sun for us, and yet we need to understand that we might have to step up and be a good Christian role model and block the sun for someone else. Don’t be discouraged if friendships don’t work out or you draw apart from each other because that might be God saying, “I need you to focus on this person who needs a friend at this moment, someone who needs you to block the sun.”

Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

     God will use you to be a witness, and He wants the best for you. Trust Him to give you the friends that you need to have at this moment.  

Matthew 6: 25-27 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

     Don’t worry about who your friends are or who they are going to be. God wants you to trust Him and don’t worry, because when you worry Satan is distracting you from the awesome plan that God has for you! Trust in God and He will provide for you!

 

Love Part 2

      In today's culture we say things like: "I love my new phone!" The term "love" has been stripped of its true meaning and purpose. Would you die for your phone? Love is not just an emotion, or a joy ride. Love is sacrifice. Love is work. Love is not simply gained. Love is serious. Love is important.
      God allowed his son Jesus to die for all of the sins that you and I have committed. That is the upmost example of love and sacrifice. Love is a lifestyle. My mother loves me and cares for me, but at times she hasn't always liked me. She doesn't just give up on me because I haven't been obedient or respectful, at times. She sticks through it, and loves me with the love of Jesus. If she followed the world's definition of love - she would have said," Well my child's being a brat so I don't want her anymore." She loves me the way Jesus loves the world. She sticks beside me through thick and thin, and I don't always deserve her love but she has never stopped loving me.
      Often in marriages, one of the partners gets upset with the other and begins to doubt how they had ever begun to love their spouse. In those relationships, often times the outcome is divorce. Divorce is not something that needs to be sugar coated and accepted in our culture. Divorce is terrible and it hurts everyone involved. Most people (not all people) involved in divorce don't see "love" as being a lifestyle. They see love as: someone making them happy, giving them things, or making them feel good about themselves. Love is so much more than that.
      Strive to love others with not the world's love but Jesus’ love!

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 - Talks about how we cannot fully serve God or be successful in life, if we don't have love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a - Talks about the awesome characteristics of love.

Look up these two verses and LOVE with Jesus’ love!! God bless you. God loves you and wants you to accept His awesome love!

Love - Part 1

Many people "fall in love" and start dating, get married, or simply have friends with benefits. Many people today throw around the phrase "I love you." I personally don't think that those words should be thrown around like grains of sand in the wind. You can never take back those words or the way you made that person feel, if you really don't love them in the long run. I believe that many people use the word love to be described as a term that describes their hormonal attraction towards the opposite sex.

Divorce is common in today's culture because we have allowed it to become acceptable. Many people allow their physical attraction towards each other take the front seat in a relationship, and this could be one of the main reasons why abortion is quite popular and accepted in this day and age. When you don't understand what love means, you allow the world to implant you with its interpretation of love. The world says that you can have as many boyfriends as you have time for and or care to have in your lifetime.

We can't fully understand what LOVE means because we can't see the whole picture! God understands what love means, because He sent His son to die for us!! He created love. He is love! We can learn more about love and how to love others with the love of God by reading the Bible. The Bible is full of true stories of love and if you want to understand what love was created for and how beautiful it was destined to be, you need to study the Bible diligently. Discover what real love looks like and embrace God’s love first, because He loved you first!

God

What are words that remind you of God?  What words come to mind to me are: awesome, wonderful, breathtaking, indescribable, and the list continues.

Some people say that God is a god of anger. That’s true to a certain extent, because He does become angry about sin.

Others say that He is a God of love. That’s true as well, because He loved humans so much that He sent His one and only son to die for our sins. God loves us but he hates sin.

Some people say that He is a jealous God and that’s true in some ways. I believe God has a right to be jealous. Look at it this way: He made us, He sent His son to save us, and He loves us far more that we could ever imagine!

Try to understand God better and when your relationship with God strengthens you will be able to understand His wonderful characteristics better! God bless you!

Act like Jesus

My mother and I went to Ozark Christian College for the Preaching and Teaching Convention. We had arrived early to set up our booth for Expressions of Emmanuel. Once we arrived at Ozark Christian College, we began to unload our display. I was carrying two really heavy boxes, and I was struggling to carry them.

There was this college guy who was working out on the nearby basketball court. As soon as he saw me struggling under the weight of the heavy boxes; he stopped and asked me if he could take those for me. As soon as I said yes, he stopped what he was doing and ran to me and took the heavy boxes out of my arms.

           What shocked me was the look of gladness he had on his face. He was not just a guy who was required to help others, but he was someone who truly desired to do so. Afterwards I thought about how kind he was, and I told my other college friend what this young man had done for me. I was so impressed.

             His act of kindness stuck with me.  I was probably so amazed because it does not seem that there are many gentlemen left in this world. I find that there aren’t many truly gracious men today, although it saddens me to say so.

I thought about how this young man reminded me of Jesus. I began to ponder this and considered the heavy boxes that I was carrying to be an example of my sin. I was struggling under the heavy load and Jesus stops and asks me if He can take that burden of sin from me. When I say yes, it's as if I accepted Him into my heart and allowed Him to cleanse me of my sins. When I accepted His offer, He simply whisks my burden away from me. When you accept Jesus into your heart you become excited and want to tell others about what He has done for you because you are so thankful! It's just like what I did when I told my friend about what this young man did for me.

            The moral of this story is to SERVE others and you might just remind them of Jesus.

Who tells us, we're Beautiful?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That is a famous quote that comes from Margaret Hungerford. I’ve said this multiple times, but I think that now I’m beginning to understand it’s in meaning in a different way.

Often in today’s culture we look at the media to tell us how our bodies should be shaped, how our hair should be fixed, and how we should act or talk.

Well, this quote always said to me, “Don’t look at yourself negatively or you’ll never be satisfied when you look in to the mirror. You’re going to be beautiful in certain people’s eyes but yet what matters most is your opinion of yourself.”

When I put more focus on who the beholders should be in my life; I automatically think, “Look to those or are important to you and see what they say is special and beautiful about you.”

In the quote above, beauty does not have to be limited to our appearance. For example some people have beautiful singing voices, according to some people. Although the same person might have an awful singing voice in another person’s opinion. Every person (beholder) has a different opinion or outlook on life. Therefore, we might rely on our friends to give their opinion occasionally – we shouldn’t rely on them fully because they are people and they make mistakes.

God, on the other hand doesn’t make mistakes. God is our creator, but yet at the same time our beholder. It is up to you whether you let Him have that special position in your eyes. When we allow God to become our beholder we become more confident and joyful about ourselves. God made you, and He knows every little detail about you. He even knows how many hairs you have on your head. He loves you and He wants you to trust Him, by calling whatever you do to serve Him beautiful. By letting God become our beholder, we don’t have to rely on humans to determine our worth and beauty.

Anything you do to glorify our Heavenly Father will be beautiful in His eyes! So sing praises to Him even if you think your voice is horrible or even if people say you sing bad. God made you! It’s that simple and He loves the way you sing and look.

By letting other people put you down by telling you in any way or form that you aren’t beautiful or can’t accomplish beautiful things, you hurt God. God made you and you are beautiful, but when you let people convince you that you aren’t – it’s wrong because HE MADE YOU and you are made in HIS IMAGE. God wants you to trust Him. Trust Him to know that and you are beautiful and whatever you do to further His Kingdom is beautiful, as well.

Let your Father, tell you that you’re beautiful. Do you let others decide your beauty or do you let God tell you how beautiful, you really are? No one can tell you you’re beautiful the way God can. God bless you and embrace your beauty.

Valentine's Day

Valentine, Valentine, you are MINE!

Will you be my sweetheart? My girlfriend?

My Love?

Will you pledge with me to my Father above?

Will you stay with me in the hours so long?

Will you choose to be beside me steadfast and strong?

Will you be patient with me when I am obviously wrong?

Will you squeeze my hand when all the tears are gone?

And I can’t cry anymore?

Will you hold me close when the torrents of pain soar?

Will you love me when I’m a parrot, just a bore?

Will you always welcome me home, and open up the door?

Will you love me even when I snore?

When I forget a chore?

Will you love when like a tyrannical lion I roar?

Will you love me whether I am rich or poor?

Will you always love me, and will you be the one I adore?

Yes! I will love and adore you to my very core!

Your heart with mine together we will soar!

Valentine, Valentine, you are MINE!

Will you be my sweetheart? My love? My boyfriend?

Yes! Surely! Affirmative! You better believe it! That’s the truth! Period! Absolutely!

The End!

Vonda Hamilton wrote this poem for her husband on Valentines Day.

Love, that seems to be what Valentines is all about on the surface. Love, flowers, mushy cards, and romantic dinners are what people say that Valentines Day is all about. Some people say that this is a day to do something special to show your lover, significant other, boyfriend/girlfriend, or spouse how much you love them.
This poem that my mother wrote to her husband is sweet, sincere, and touching. When she wrote these words down she poured out her heart. She is basically saying I love you and I want you to love and be with me forever.
I've heard numerous friends complain about how they don't like this special holiday. It makes some people sad that don't have a certain someone. In certain cases, it makes some people wish for things that they are not meant to have at this point.
For instance we all want to be loved, and so it hurts if you don’t feel loved on this special day.  
There is someone who wants to be with you on Valentines Day and every other day.  He’s the one who made us and gave us the ability to love. God is the one who loved us first, by giving His one and only son to die on the cross for our sins. God wanted us to be able to spend an eternity with Him in Heaven.
So maybe if you didn't have a good day yesterday, and you felt sad because you didn't get a card or some flowers, look around you. Look at nature in all its beauty. Go outside and let the wind blow your hair. Sit in the grass and just thank God that He made such a special place for all of us. He made the earth just for YOU! 
Embrace His love everyday, because He has given us a gift far better than any stuffed animal. Always remember that you are loved everyday by your Maker!