What Girls Get Wrong

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...

It's almost Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A., and while I don't want to do some cheesy post to tie in with it (I think giving thanks is something we should talk about all year long), I did just want to say that I'm thankful for all of you. I'm thankful that you take the time to read my musings. I'm thankful that you ask questions. I'm thankful when you point out something you disagree with (let's face it, I'm no where near perfect). Some of you I know personally. Some of you I don't know very well. Some of you are my closest friends. Some of you I've never met. But if we had a few minutes, where we could sit and talk together, before we left, there's a few things I'd want you to know. That I pray you realize through the craziness of the season ahead of us, and all year long. So as we rush into Thanksgiving, and into Christmas, please...remember... You are a beautiful woman. Your worth isn't in what you wear. What you lo...

So I have many interests (it's easy to fascinate me, to be honest those sparkly sun catcher things kind of fascinate me). One of those interests is health and wellness. I read a couple newsletters on the subject, and lately I've seen a lot of articles on loving ourselves more. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like this has become an ever increasing focus of the health movement. Loving ourselves. Putting ourselves first to better help others. Doing what we want to do. But I wonder if that is really our problem. When John the Baptist's disciples came to him, concerned over the ministry Jesus was doing because it was leading people away from John, he replied that was the way it was supposed to be (John 3:25-36). He told them that, through this ministry "He must increase, but I must decrease," (John 3:30, NKJV). I may be taking this a little out of context here, but I think this verse applies to our lives as well. Jesus has given each of us a ministry, to ...

Let me tell you about one of the times* I failed to make Resident Assistant at my college. You see, my college had several hoops you had to jump through to make the cut. First, because it is a Christian college, we had two Bible tests to pass. Of course, because I can skunk an elephant at his own game, I passed those. Then was a super long, dreadfully boring and probably kind of useless application to fill out (I wonder how much they actually used any of the info they asked for in their decision, and how much they just wanted to see who'd be willing to sit the tortuous hours to fill it out). Me being me (by which I mean I usually don't know when to quit) of course spent who knows how long filling it out, then rereading it and reworking it until I got sick of it and decided it was good enough.** Then came the fun part. If you filled out the application, and weren't judged to be totally inadequate for the job, they put you through the ringer. Also known as RA Qualif...

So I get songs stuck in my head constantly (well, okay, not when I'm sleeping). It doesn't matter what happens, I'll probably be reminded of a song. Like when I finish a task, the song "Looks Like We Made It" by Barry Manilow runs through my head. Or at least the first line of the chorus does ("looks like we made it..."). Same with when I finally get a point someone's trying to make. Only then it's usually "And at last I see the light..." from TANGLED's "I See the Light" .* The annoying part of it is, I don't always remember the entire song. It's usually only the first or second line of the chorus that runs through my head, and then I usually find myself wondering what the rest of the song is about, and sometimes that leads to an internet search. Which is what happened today. This time, the song was  "What is Love?" . And after reading the rest of the lyrics, I can tell you one thing: love is N...

I have pet birds. Cockatiels, to be precise. And if you happen to have any sort of pet, bird or otherwise, you know it can be a love-hate relationship at times. Don't be fooled, he's not as innocent as he looks. Birds are flighty. The smallest little thing (such as leaning back in a creaky chair) can send them swirling around the room. Birds are noisy. They'll chatter and shriek and squawk no matter how you plead, beg, threaten (just kidding, or am I?) or otherwise talk to or not talk to them. Birds need constant care and attention. They squawk and shriek for you to notice them, feed them, talk to them, just to be in the same room as them. Birds aren't very smart. Mine flew away from me once just because I was wearing nail polish (ahhhhh! attack of the killer colored finger nails!!!). Time and time again, when I have them out of their cages to play, I have to bring them back to their play-stand after a frightened flight around the room, repeatedly having to say ...

Some people just have all the luck. They get up every morning, raring to go, and get straight to work on their long list of things-to-do (yeah, they're so awesomely dedicated they have an actual, written list, not one that's merely floating through brain matter). Then they go to work or school, put in the time there, quickly getting everything done (those people, you know, the ones doing their homework during lunch while you're hanging with the posse, or who work through their lunch so they don't have to stay late and finish that account). Afterwards, they come back home, and barely shed their backpack or briefcase before they're back to work on their to-do list from this morning, barely taking time out for dinner. By 8 pm, they've finished everything on that list, but instead of enjoying a quiet evening, reveling in the knowledge of their awesomeness, they start on tomorrow's list. Only to go to bed in about an hour and start the cycle all over again, nev...