Want to cure my blogger's block?

A lot of the time if not every time, the ideas for blogs literally pop into my head (messages from God!) and then I pray about them before I write them. Sometimes, I have no idea what to blog about and no matter what I think of, nothing seems right. That's where you come in, faithful reader! Do you have something you need help with or want to know more about when it comes to faith, spirituality, God and His Son, or even me? Is there something I've said in my posts that you want me to elaborate on or talk more about? Do you have something I can pray about for you? That I'll do! Leave a comment!  It might take me a while to write about the topic you've given me, but I'll try my best to get it up here ASAP.  Hope to hear from you soon! 

<3 Warrior

Rain Boots and Jesus

This post is about a week or so late.  My bad.  I hadn't even thought of the idea until today.

Let me start out my usual way: with a lovely anecdote from my own life.

The week before Christmas, my family and I went down to Orlando, Florida for 4 days to hang out at DisneyQuest (a 5-floor Disney-themed arcade).  The second day we were at DisneyQuest, my mom and I stole away after lunch to go stroll through Downtown Disney and walk through the stores (of course, everything was way too overpriced to even consider buying).  My Disney fetish was well sated after that day, I assure you.  My mom even told me she was so glad I didn't have a thing for Disney when I was little, or she would have been in big trouble.

One store that wasn't Disney themed caught my eye.  It was called Little Miss Matched.  In the windows were mannequin legs with socks on and NONE OF THE SOCKS MATCHED.  If you know me, then you know that I also have a thing for socks.  I received 16 pairs of socks this Christmas.  I enthusiastically tugged my mom across the street and into the store.  This ultimately resulted in my mom buying me a pair of half-price leg warmers (that didn't match :D).

The day after Christmas, I found LMM's website and looked up a pair of rain boots that I loved that were $60 in the store so I could show them to a friend and I discovered that they were only $19.95!  With free ground shipping until the 31st!  Needless to say, I begged my mom on hands and knees to get them for me, and she did.

I have been tracking them via FedEx for days, and they were supposed to come on the 6th.

BUT THEY CAME TWO DAYS EARLY.

TODAY!

The excitement I felt when I found that package on our porch... well, let's just say I haven't taken them off or stopped smiling since I got them out of the box.

Once I had gotten over my initial excitement and happiness, I sat back in a chair to read a book, and when I glanced at my boots, I was reminded of Christmas.

Not like Santa-tree-presents-food-elves Christmas, but the REAL Christmas.

When Jesus was born, His people had been waiting hundreds and hundreds of years for Him to come and save them.  Some lost hope that He was ever coming, some stayed hopeful all the while.  And when He arrived, a lot of people were disappointed.  A poor boy born to an unmarried woman and a carpenter in a barn?  THAT'S our savior?  I expected a king!  A powerful man born into a castle!  Sure, He was born in a manger, but He still saved us. Hallelujah!  That God sent His Son in the humblest way possible is just one of the many cool things He does.

Even now, we are waiting for Him, in a different kind of way.  Once of these days, no one knows when, He's going to come back for us and take us into heaven with Him.  How exciting!  Is a lot of ways, if not every way possible, that's a lot cooler than a pair of rain boots.  Even if they don't match.

I hope that (even though the Christmas season is over) you remember the joy and excitement and happiness that Jesus brought with Him when He came to Earth, and you remember to stay alert and be ready for when He comes back.

He may come two days earlier than you think.  (:

<3 Warrior

Not Today, Lord...

We all have had these days.  You know what I'm talking about.  Those days where you flop out of bed and into your life, but you're too tired and exhausted to talk to or even think about God.  Those days where your brain is fuzzy and you start a prayer, but are too frazzled to keep going.  Those days where you don't want to believe in God because you're too busy.  Those days where you're bouncing from one activity to another, constantly distracted and unfocused.

For me, I have these days when I'm tired.  I have no one to blame but myself, of course.  (100 points to whoever can tell me why I still think after many years of trying I can stay up until 3am or later and still have enough sleep to get through another school day.)  It's days that I crawl out of bed and don't wake up all day where I don't seem to have the energy to think let alone spend time with my Abba (aka Daddy, or Big Daddy... whatever way helps you differentiate between my worldly daddy and my heavenly Daddy). 

I know, or at least I hope, I am not the only one who has these days.  I at least know that Starfield has these days.  These are the lyrics to their song Something To Say:

I've got something to say
It's been one of those days
When I'm finding it hard to believe in You

I've got something to say
I've forgotten how to pray
And I'm finding it hard to believe the truth

I've got something to say
Right now it feels like You are slipping away
Like I am drowning in a crisis of faith
Like I'm alone

I've got something to say
What was black and white is grey
And I'm finding it hard to believe in You

And faith might mean there won't be answers
And hope might mean enduring through the night
But help me not forget in darkness
The things that I believed in light

I've got something to say
Right now it feels like You are slipping away
Like I am drowning in a crisis of faith
Like I was found, but now I'm lost in the fray

I've got something to say
It's been one of those days
When I'm finding it hard to believe in You

Those words kind of summarize all that I feel on my days where I groan at the thought of meditation and prayer and want to push God aside for a day when I have more energy.

I can't imagine the kind of rejection He feels when I do that.  If my best friend walked into school one day and told me "I'm too tired to talk to you today.  Maybe tomorrow." but went about her life like normal, I would be a lot more than a little upset.  God wants more than a couple minutes of me every couple days or so.  No way...  I can't imagine any relationship prospering like that.  God wants to be a part of every single aspect of my life.  And your life, too.

I recently started a 30-day devotional called "Instant Messages from God" (and this is good for me since I unfortunately spend several hours a day on AIM, IMing friends).  Here are a couple really awesome verses and quotes I can pull from just the first 6 days:

• Be still, and know that I am God.  ~ Psalm 46:10
• Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.  ~ James 4:8
• It's a crazy world and life speeds by at a blur, yet God is right in the middle of the craziness.  And anywhere, at anytime, we may turn to Him, hear His voice, feel His hand, and catch the fragrance of Heaven  ~ Joni Eareckson Tada
• Again, this is God's command: to believe in His personally named Son, Jesus Christ.  He told us to love one another, in line with the original command.  As we keep His commands, we live deeply and surely in Him, and He lives in us.  And this is how we experience His deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit He gave us.  ~ 1 John 2:23-24

I hope that when you have those days when you're finding it hard to believe in Him, you will still look to Him in His word and in His people.  Because He loves you.  All the time.

<3 Warrior

The Great Santa Debate (for those who don't have kids)

I've been reading a lot about parents (and one set in particular) debating over whether to have Santa Claus be a part of Christmas.  Like Mollie (the writer of the blog ^), my family left out cookies for the fat guy who really doesn't need them, had "From Santa" gifts under the tree, sprinkled oats and glitter on the yard for the reindeer (seriously, what person came up with the idea that reindeer liked glitter in their oats?), and put up Santa decorations.  But he wasn't a big deal at our house.  We only received 3 presents from him, symbolizing Jesus' three presents.  Last year, we didn't do Santa at all.

But what has having Santa in Christmas meant for me?  Well, when I was younger, he meant presents, but once I was in middle school, and to this day, he means more than that.  Think about it.  He sees you ALL THE TIME (1, that's creepy.  2, that's very creepy.), he gives you gifts, he laughs when he hears what you want for Christmas, he can fly, etc., etc., etc..  Guess who else is with you all the time, blesses you with gifts, and is ecstatic when you talk to Him?  Did the capital "H" give it away?

That's right, Santa is my parallel to God at Christmastime.  God sent His son to save us, and Santa sends us presents that keep us busy so our parents can go take much-needed naps.  Santa "sees us" all the time, and God has promised to never leave us, hear our prayers, and love us.  That's a lot less creepy than some old guy creeping on me.  Especially if he's using and Elf on the Shelf *shudder*.  And I bet sometimes when we ask for things from God He laughs at us.  I would laugh at me too.  Oh, and I have no doubt that God can fly WITHOUT magical flying deer that eat glitter.  Seriously, man, He can walk on water and change matter from one element to another.  He can do whatever He wants.

One more thing...

I typed "Satan" instead of "Santa" more times than I can count.  Well no, I said Santa 7 times, so that means I almost called him Satan 7 times.  Hmm...

Merry Christmas everybody and don't forget that *insert Christian Christmastime cliche here*... Jesus is the reason for the season!!

<333 Warrior

What Is Love?

If you ever spend more than 20 minutes with me, you will discover something about me.  1) I'm very energetic and 2) I like to sing.  If you ask anyone who knows me, they can tell you that if anyone says something that reminds me of a song, I will almost always break out into said song.  So you can imagine, I sing a lot.

When someone asks me "What is love?"  I don't always say the good-little-church-girl answer, "God," and have a shining halo appear over my head while I smile innocently.  Nah brah nah...  Usually I will break out in song.  And my answer to "what is love?" is:

Baby don't hurt me!  Don't hurt me!  No more!

Ahh, yes... I am going to take you back a couple of years to that Super Bowl no one remembers... but everyone remembers the commercials (you say nothing's changed?  Huh, imagine that.  I'm not a football fan by the way. :D)  Yes, I'm talking about the "What Is Love?" Pepsi commercial.  You know the one.  The one where everyone falls asleep and then that girl walks by with a cart of Pepsi and everyone has a sip and they get a twitch.  Oh yeah!  That one!

If you still don't know which one I'm talking about, here yah go:

But love is so much more than a bottle of Pepsi, I'm sorry to say.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says that "Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

I go to a Bible study on Thursday mornings before school (aka at the crack of dawn, if not before) and this past week, our leader asked us how we wanted to be remembered once we were gone from this world.  I said that I wanted people to remember me as loving and joyful.  When I read the verse I said above, I always replace "love" with my name and see if it's still true.  Try it for your name.  Is it true?  Now replace "love" with God.  Oh yeah, it's true.

The celebrities in the video for the What Is Love commercial kept saying that the sip of Pepsi MAX gave them the energy to go on.  When I think about it that way, and replace their love for Pepsi MAX with God's love for me, I get all excited, too.  God's love energizes me to go through life as a Christ-like example to the world.

The more I focus on how much God loves me and how much He loves everyone else, I can be filled with that love and show it to others.  To do that, I need to embody the ways that God is love.  Patience, kindness, etc.  It's hard to do, and I understand that I will never ever ever ever be able to love as much as God does.  It's just not humanly possible.  Parents with children may disagree with me, but a love for a child is just a fraction of the love that God has for us.  And He wants everyone to know about that love.  And we're the ones to share it.

How are you showing God's love to the world?

<3 Warrior