What Girls Get Wrong

We all live under human authority. Many of us are blessed to live in countries where even if our candidate didn’t win, elections allowed us to voice who we wanted to be in charge. Some of us don’t get that choice, and have leaders who weren’t voted into office, but gained their power through other means. However these leaders ended up in their positions, regardless of whether we think they should lead our country or not, we have a God-given responsibility to pray for them. But for some reason, Christians (including myself) often seem to forget this. I have even seen memes* where people agree to pray for the person running their country, but it’s either that the leader would go to hell or that their years in power would be few. This is the wrong attitude. It is imperative that we pray for the men and women in charge, even though we might prefer they not be representing our towns, cities, states, provinces, and countries to the rest of the world. Here are some of the reasons why these ...

Despite doctors’ differing opinions, the controversies and conspiracy theories, and the differing stories fed us by our governments and media, we can all agree on one thing: because of COVID-19, many people are suffering. For many, their suffering is caused directly by the virus. They’ve lost friends and family to it, or have seen their loved ones get ill, or have contracted the virus themselves. For many, their suffering is caused indirectly by the virus. They’ve lost jobs, had to postpone weddings, weren’t able to attend funerals, had graduations canceled, because of government policies enacted in response to the virus. For most of us on this earth, our lives have been affected in some way, ranging from inconveniences to devastation. There’s an old question, asked by many before, and I’m sure many are asking it even as I type these words. It’s a question which many people, not getting the answer they want, have used as an excuse to turn away from God, or doubt His e...

A few months ago, I found myself struggling with jealousy toward my siblings. I’m not quite sure how to explain what I mean. I wasn’t jealous over what they had in their lives compared to me. There wasn’t a specific thing either of my brothers or my sister had that I wanted. Rather, I was jealous because their lives seemed to be going better than mine, that they escaped the struggles I have faced, the ones I still deal with (such as food allergies and health issues). This sounds horrible, like I want my siblings to suffer, to not have good lives, but I don’t. I mean...why can’t I just not suffer the things I do? Why can’t I have more good things in my life? It’s a struggle to write this, because I hate admitting it. I don’t want you to think I hate my life. I don’t. But at that time, I found myself upset that my life didn’t look as “good” as my siblings’ lives. I found myself asking why God had let this happen. What had I done that my life was so different from theirs? Di...

Things always happen at the “worst” possible time. Ten days before Christmas, I got sick with the worst cold I’ve had in years (I’m just a few days over the aftermath). Seven days before Christmas, a new cat happened to pop into my life. A very young, very ravenous, very energetic, very curious, very messy male cat. I still had shopping to do, deadlines to meet, and projects to finish. One night, exhausted, having spent the day scrambling to get what I could done with my limited energy and time, the cat made a new mess for me to clean up, despite my best efforts to minimize the amount of messes he could make. I almost had a meltdown. I was so tired, so done, and struggling with the loss I’d sustained near Christmas years earlier. All I could ask was why was all of this happening all at once? At the worst possible time? The story of Joseph and Mary looks like a case of bad timing one right after another. Mary gets pregnant right before getting marri...

One day I thought God didn’t care about me, and I almost died. Okay, that might be a little melodramatic. But I almost got into a bad accident. I was going through a rough time. God felt distant, like He merely observed what was happening to me, but didn’t care enough to do anything. I started to think that maybe He didn’t care. I was in zombie mode getting ready for work. I had slept fine, but everything just seemed meaningless. I got in my car, and headed down my street. I reached the stop sign, and turned on my left directional. The guy coming from my right stopped, his directional indicating he wanted to turn onto my street. I waved to him, and eased up on the brake. I looked just in time to see the car coming 50 mph from my left. I hadn’t pulled into his lane yet. The car went by without any issue, the other guy turned, and I pulled out onto the street on my way to work. But I was shaken. And to this day I’m convinced God let that happen to jar me out of thin...

“LORD, You alone are my portion and my cup; You make my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” ~ Psalm 16:5-6, NIV Sometimes, I have to beat that verse into my head. I have to repeat it over and over, insisting that I accept it, forcing myself to believe it. Because there’s a lot of times when I don’t.   When bitterness and hopelessness threaten to take over. You may be feeling the same way.   You may struggle with chronic health issues.   You may have lost all your earthly possessions.   Your life may not be going at all how you planned it, or how you would like it to go.   And yet that verse still stands. But you find yourself questioning, like I do, “Are my boundary lines really in pleasant places?   Do I really have a delightful inheritance?” Yes. If nothing else, all of God’s children have the promise of eternal life with Him in Heaven  ...

I never knew her name.   I didn’t even realize she was in my class until we stood outside the classroom doors, waiting to enter for our final exam.   I don’t even remember now what she looks like, although I want to say she had her dark hair pulled up in a bun and wore glasses. All I remember was that she gave me a mechanical pencil. It was the end of the fall semester of my senior year.   I was in a lot of pain from Lyme Disease that day.   I’d just come from an internship meeting which had soured before it began.   I was doing all I could to keep it together. I’d been so focused on the meeting before that I’d forgotten to bring any pencils with me.   And when I saw the few girls studying outside the classroom doors, I realized my mistake.   But it was too late to go back and get a pencil.   So I asked if I could borrow one. The girls looked at each other, and one of them finally checked the lead in her mechanical pencils, a...

You may be familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11-32 .   Basically, the younger of two sons asks his father to have his inheritance now, and then goes and wastes it.   When he is broke, eventually he repents of his foolishness and asks his father to take him on as a servant.   The father, being overjoyed that his son returned, throws a party for him.   There’s a lot of food, and everyone’s having a good time. Except the older brother. When he hears of it, the older brother gets mad, and won’t go in to the party or greet his brother.   He’s angry that his father has thrown a party for his foolish, sinful, wasteful brother.   Here he has been good, well-behaved, hard-working, and yet his brother’s getting a party, not him.   It doesn’t seem fair. Instead of rejoicing that his sinful brother has come to his senses, that he’s repented and reconciled to the family, the older brother feels cheated. He’s so much bett...

A lot of us want to do something big for God.   We feel like we’re not serving enough, not doing enough, and we want to push ourselves to do more for God and His kingdom. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with that.   It is good to desire to serve God.   But I think we get it wrong with what exactly it means to serve God in a big way. Sometimes, serving in a big way means serving in little ways.   Sometimes doing great things for God means doing the small things. Take Ruth for instance. She is called a virtuous woman ( Ruth 3:11 ).   Her praises are sung by the local women.   These women call Naomi blessed to have such a daughter-in-law, better than “seven sons” ( Ruth 4:14-15 ).   Ruth is one of the most highly-praised women we read about in Scripture. What was this marvelous thing she did?   Surely she served God in a mighty way.   She must have had a three-album deal while being the soloist of her chur...

I've been thinking again about how much God loves us. His love is so strong, so pure, He's willing to watch us suffer. Let me explain what I mean. When things happen to us which are painful, we tend to beg and pray that God will resolve the problem quickly, or make it go away. The situation will be really difficult.  Someone we love will be dying.  We'll be down to our last ten dollars, our last rent money.  We'll be struggling with a health issue. We'll be in agony over it, and we let our human perspective blind us. We begin to doubt God, that He is good, that He cares about us or our situation. But the amazing thing, if we take the time to consider, is that God never stopped loving us, or caring about what we're going through.  The Bible is full of verses declaring His love for us. God loved us so much: 1. He sent Jesus to die for us ( John 3:16 ; 1 John 3:16 ).* 2. He calls us who have accepted Christ's sacrifice and Lordship His child...

Some time ago, I wrote a post about how dangerous it is to compare ourselves to others .  Whether your comparisons make you feel bad about yourself, or whether they cause you to feel superior to someone else, the comparing game causes pain. At least, when we're framing it in a me versus you format. Why did God include so many stories of people in the Bible?  If we shouldn't compare, why did He write of Esther and her courage, of Ruth and her diligence, of Tamar and her seduction, of Mary and her obedience, of Naomi and her bitterness? The Bible is ultimately the story of God, His creation, the first man and woman's betrayal, His undying love and sacrifice, and His rescue of mankind from their sin and complete victory over evil.  But along the way, we read of many people, both good and bad, both repentant and in denial. What was the reason for all of these stories?  Was it just to make the Bible longer?  Did God have a word count He wanted to hit, and so ...

We are quick to judge people. We're fast to look at someone who's overweight and think they're a glutton, without considering that while they could overeat, it could also be they suffer from a medical condition that makes their body gain weight easily. We look at someone who is sickly, and think they're living an unhealthy lifestyle filled with junk food and devoid of exercise. And while that could be true, we rarely acknowledge that they could also be suffering from food intolerences yet undiscovered, that they could be trying their best to take care of their bodies to little or no effect on their condition. And I'm sure all of us girls have had that friendship with a girl who looked pretty and maybe was even popular, who seemed kind and likable, the perfect friend. But we soon found out that, while she might be a good friend for someone, it wasn't a good friendship for us, either because she was a horrible person or we had nothing in common. Some of u...