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“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,” via @MYSONGS85 via HE.brews10.24

one of my sisters wrote a song for my birthday. i think one of the best things about being transparent with each other, and living in biblical community, is the confession.

which leads to repentance, leading not just to good works, but as gill expressed,

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my former baby girl came to me during recess. did you know students teach during recess? because i def learned today.

5th grader: ms lew, i just don’t feel beautiful, like no one tells me how beautiful i am, like ever.

ME: omgosh. you totally need to walk down king dr & errbody will tell you how beautiful you are, but i guarantee that won’t make you feel better. i mean you can make fun of them, laugh and feel better, but that would defeat the purpose because beautiful people see the beauty in others.

HER: wait, does that mean loving other people makes a person beautiful?

ME: *pause* omgosh, i never thought about Jesus being the standard of perfection that way!  like flawless. you just made me love God more. you are gorgeous dahhling,

HER: huh?!

ME: i mean like, dope.

HER: na, Jesus is dope. i just look like Him. thanks ms lew!

…

im still kinda blank staring.

encouragement is filled to the rim all over everywhere.

#thankYouAbba :-)

I just saw a tweet that insinuated the only reason we see a boom in marriages is because women will settle for a man who cant lead/provide for them, just to fill their insecurity. (which it doesn’t by the way, it just carries over into the marriage via not trusting your spouse and in the past 2 years, I’ve witnessed ALOT of that. it’s really awkward.

the whole insecurity thing is another reason i dont understand why people think they’re automatically more “mature” when they tie the knot. we do realize mary was about 14 when she was betroth and preggers and her maturity was rooted in humility right?

anyways THIS HURT MY FEELINGS. not all ladies getting married now/ entering courtships, are willing to compromise a life of being married to a boy, I mean pimp, I mean boy.

several of the men I graduated with and grew up with, prioritized being able to be a provider before even considering courtship. some of whom are totally married now. YAY :-)

the same with three of my lady BFFT’s. I’m so excited for them! it’s totally cute too because the maturation of the fruit of self-control, and constantly looking for ways to build the body, overflowed into their marriages.

like, talking to these couples, I heard all the ways they served intentionally, and were so obsessed with pleasing God in their singleness, that they weren’t intentional about courtship/ pleasing their own desires, until they were able to provide for them. that makes sense.

so often we pursue these “courtships,” prematurely. we go to conferences for “fellowship, music,” and slide in the “wife,” part, when we could be spending that time building on how God wants us to be an asset to the body with the gifts we were already given. then we wonder why we’re “burning with passion,” and are then forced to marry. it’s all in the early priorities.

if you weren’t intentional about being an asset to the body of Christ in your singleness, your marriage will probably be one of self-service, all about you and your spouse.

not sure how you can honor God by trying to love Him & not your neighbor (not just your one flesh self). we all know love is sacrifice. so that’s why I’m thinking, maybe marriage is the only gift we can get that excludes us from putting the needs of others before our own… the only gift that doesn’t have to be used for the edification of the body. just the edification of two individuals. like I don’t know.

no. i do know. I also know that if you’re in a community that places a particular emphasis on anything but Christ alone, the One Whom we are all striving to be like, Whom was neither father, nor mother, nor daughter, nor husband, nor wife, if the focus is on anything but Him. people will not know their identity to be rooted in Christ and it’ll be a whole lot of re-education that must be done after God finally does revels truth to you by His grace, thru His Son alone. and a messy mess. no church is perfect, but there are some churches striving to emulate Christ as a result of the Gospel and they make much of HIM alone.

God’s gives us these gifts to build up the body. sometimes I feel like God gives me stuff, just for me to show that God gives stuff… but really I feel like it’s because I’m supposed to use it sacrificially for the building of His body, so I should probably be more intentional about finding ways I can appropriately sacrifice, rather than finding ways people should sacrifice for me huh? na, that sounds too much like maturity.

bridezilla season is among us, and one common theme is: me, us, i. sometimes I wonder if marriage is the only gift that doesn’t have to edify the body of Christ.

like two people just sacrifice for each other and stay in their bubble because its all about them, but that seems rather contradictory doesn’t it? not if your community focus on that anyways. isnt it awkward how not making Christ the center emphasis leads to idolatry and selfishness? awkward.

people who have been married for less than 10 years and people who have been married more than 20 years have different answers to this… it seems like the self-centeredness seems to dissipate with time… of course sin sways has its consequences, so that will still happen as well.

if you ask people who have been married 30/40/50 years… most of them seem to echo this mentality. so whatevs ….ladies, don’t lower your standards. IF he is a man after God’s own heart, His priority is to please God… then himself. this was advice given by a selection of “mature/ been married eons,” couples… and even Solomon’s wisdom was its’ ripest with time ;-) ciao xoxoxoxofaced

it’s been this way for over a year. I’m so tired of crying. the only time I didn’t cry was when I was on tranquilizers which chemically stopped my tear ducts from being able to produce liquid. those were probably the best few months of my life. I could…

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you know how in natural breed relationships ppl just know how to love each other then in others you have to “tell” people how to love you? & when they do it feels in-genuine & irritating bc u know they’re just doing it bc they *have* to? Is that how God feels when we’re all works based & not heart laced? Bc this feeling is really freaking annoying. Happy Monday :-)

tax season brings out a lot. I’m always reminded of the chunks I’m automatically ineligible as well as the chunks taken out as a personal “thank you” for being single & childless. anyways. yesterday when it came to the assets section.. i knew what was coming.. i get the same speech every year. when futures/ option trading & the importance of diversifying my portfolio I freaked out. I’ll take risk w my life (sky diving) but not my money. neither of which is mine btw. this is also directly correlated to my faith walk… faith is super risky, but the difference is the outcome is secure… tho the waiting period for your return is unpredictable and may show loss, significant loss, but if you can see it with your eyes it probably isnt real. that being said. there are a lot of idols here I guess. theres also prolly a really good lesson to be gleaned from the parable about talents but more importantly, theres more grace and grace smashes idols any day.

organicsoymilk:

“You have to love Thomas. If you can’t relate to Thomas, you just haven’t lived very long.” 
-Judah Smith