August 30th, 2015

Music

Google defines music as, "Vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and an expression of emotion."

It's interesting how music and worship are related. Often times when you hear the word "worship" you immediately think of music. But music isn't the definition of worship.
 Well, worship is defined by Google as, "The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity."

Now let's take a look at the word reverence as defined by Google, " A deep respect for someone or something."
And adoration," A deep love and respect."

Now that we have our definitions out of the way we can piece together what exactly worship is. Putting these two definitions together,

Worship
 "The feeling or expression of deep respect and love for a deity."

So with this thought, we can obviously see that when we worship God, we are expressing our respect and love for Him. We are doing more than just mumbling a song in church. I'm sure you've heard people say that everything we do, as long as it's for the Lord, is worship. Now this may be accurate but our intentions play a huge role in this situation. Just because I am a Christian does not mean that I am worshiping Christ whenever I babysit, write, sing, etc.

For us to honestly worship God through our actions, we must change who we are, and not just for a specific action. If we plan to worship God in everything we do, we cannot stay the same. We must change our intentions, they must be for God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come."

This verse means that if we are in Christ, we are no longer the same; therefore we must not act like our old selves because we are changed - we represent God now, unlike who we were before. Yes I realize this seems dramatic, and for some people it is dramatic.

Now let's go back to the topic of worship. How does worship relate to the renewing of ourselves? Well whenever we are worshipping we are showing God deep respect and love, which means that we are performing our action for the glory of God in everything that we do.
Yeah, everything we do. Lounging on the couch, binge watching Dr.Who isn't really glorifying God, is it (I'm talking to myself here)? Now that you understand that we cannot simply stop doing things for the Lord whenever we change ourselves, because as 2 Corinthians 5;17 said, the old has passed away. It no longer exists.

We simply cannot go back to being our old selves because it is gone. Poof. No longer there. In order for us to fall back into our old ways, we must create something new. There's no such thing as a revival of the dead, Jesus being the only exception. We cannot revive our old selves, we must create a new self.

 We need to reach out to those who need the help. We need to show them that the renewing of their mind is magnificent, and that it is a lifestyle change. It isn't a "spiritual high," it is forever. So let's worship God with everything we do - not just whenever we are in church listening to music, not just whenever we are witnessing, not just whenever we are with our Bible study.

With everything we say, everything we do, let's glorify our creator. Let's do what we claim to do, and show Him we respect and love Him. 

August 29th, 2015

Buenas noches!

Goodnight everyone! Wait - not like that!
Well this late night post was inspired by my current feels. Y'know those feelings you get over something. Yeah I guess they're considered feelings, but I'm referring to them as feels, ok?
Very well.
Well in these past few days I've realized that I need to reevaluate a friendship that I've had over the past two years. We met in a play, immediately kicked things off and became wonderful best friends, there for each other through whatever either of us needed.

In the past few months a lot has surfaced in our friendship - something that I truly thought would make it stronger than it was before. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Instead I believe it ruined our friendship because we only talked on and off for these past months. What I got out of this friendship drama is that I have been blaming myself for these issues as long as I can remember.

I've been holding on to something that she's let go of.

As hard as it is for anyone to realize that a friendship is dying, it is truly necessary. I believe that God places people in our lives for certain jobs and once they finish the job they graduate to someone else's life. Maybe that's just my own way of shining a light in the darkness. Either way I'm pretty sure that this friendship is over, which I'm okay with. I was tired of feeling unwanted, hurt, alone, and more.

I still love this girl with all my heart and would love to be there for her when she needs me, but that's just it - she doesn't really want  me right now. Or so it seems. I've been praying hard about this subject lately and it's been on my mind all week, which is why I feel so confident about this decision. I've been reaching out to her for a long time and have received nothing in return. I'm okay with that, though, because I think my best friend needed me to reach out to her because she refused to reach for me.

The Bible lists many verses about friendship and how important it is. Here is a good example:

Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12
"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

I love this verse because it proves that friendship is deep and that we were meant to never be alone because with one another we are stronger.Letting go of a friendship, whether a good one or a bad one, is something that we will all face in our life. Sometimes we are in a relationship that causes so much heartache and pain that we are blinded by the manipulation of our friend to ever imagine doing what's best for ourselves. What's best for ourselves is letting go of those people who drag us down, even if they need us. It's never a bad thing to tell someone that you need to take a step away from them - even if they need you. If that person is causing you pain than you have every right to rid them from your life. However most Christians don't rid themselves of the bad seeds so smoothly. Typically we like to break things off with harsh and hurtful words, which doesn't help fix anything.

As Christian people we are to show each other love and help one another. This usually gets us taken advantage of. But we should continue to love and pray for those people that don't understand the seriousness of their actions. Often times people unknowingly hurt us, too. That's where we should take a step back, evaluate the situation and not immediately start pointing fingers. We need to talk.

I cannot emphasis how important communication is in any relationship.

Matthew 12:37 "... For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

I really enjoy that verses because to me it explains that communicating can go both ways, but it's still something we need to do.
 We will never know the outcome of  our communication unless we communicate!Pretty obvious, right? Well to a lot of people not so much. I really hope that you got something out of this blog post and that you'll communicate about it in the comments.
See what I did there? ;-)

Buenas noches - and this time I mean it.

August 27th, 2015

What a time for an update! It's almost been an entire year since I last posted. My promises to keep up this blog tend to fall short, I've noticed. Let's go over some things that have happened in my life!

• February 17th, 2015 - I got my very first boyfriend, Connor. He's 18, graduated, and currently at bootcamp for the Marines until November 13th.
• I was diagnosed with Hashimoto Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease that I have agreed to go the natural way with, and try to bring back the function in my thyroid through diet.
• I went on my first mission trip to the Dominican Republic over spring break.
• Three more of my poems were published.
  
  It's so cool how things have been turning out in life. Of course this year has had it's bad days as well as its good, but I'm not writing a depressing blog post today. I mean, who really wants to read that kind of stuff, right? You're not here to read about my personal problems - that's for my diary. ;-)
  
  Besides, it seems like all you ever hear about are sad, scary, and depressing things that people of all around the world are facing. I've really noticed that lately. I can't even open my Facebook account without hearing about a murder, a kidnapping, persecution, death. We live in a world where evil is more popular than good.
  
  Why is it that this is? Some may say it's because "the end is near" or that we just live in a cruel world. I think it's crazy how drawn to bad stories this world is. And perhaps, if these stories didn't overtake our televisions, phones, radios, etc., they wouldn't be so popular.
  
  I'm sure you've heard the term "fifteen minutes of fame."
  Just in case you're unfamiliar with the term it basically means that people do stupid, evil things just for those fifteen minutes of fame that they receive on the television. They do disgusting things for that news article written about them, or that investigation that they want. People today are full fledged attention seekers.
  
  They will literally do anything for attention, which is atrocious. I'm not talking about that vain girl in class who hooks up with boys, I'm talking about that man who shoots up a movie theatre, school, or church. Our own selfishness and need for everyone's undivided attention is why these things happen. Meanwhile all of the good in the world is being sucked away because no one ever hears about it.
  
  No wonder everyone is so depressed; they see the population going to crap and when people try to help, it just makes things worse. There is unnecessary attention aimed towards subjects that were completely calm beforehand and in return create more drama and heartache. No one is okay just letting things be - there always has to be a new issue or a new scandal. In case you haven't caught along yet, I'm referring to the race issues that have been brought upon this world and the homosexuality issues that today's society is so obsessive over.
  
  Discrimination didn't exist until we make it exist.
  
  All of these problems we tag as racial- or sexuality-related issues aren't those half of the time. I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist in America, or that homophobia isn't a real thing. I am saying that if someone's sexuality or race is different than someone else's, and that person doesn't get their way, they will always try to find a way to get their way.
  
  It's usually through pleading the discrimination card. People will never be content with what they have until they realize that what they claim to be theirs is truly God's. Everything we experience on earth does not belong to us. Everything we do should be for the glory of God. Everything we own is His. When did this country every forget that? Or did they ever know?
  
  Do we really think that God just "forgot" about us. No, no. God sees us, alright; He sees our continuous sins and wrongs and our prayers and our love and our hate. He acknowledges us always, but why should a God that loves His creation remember it whenever it doesn't even remember Him?
  
  Honestly, He shouldn't remember us, yet He does.
  
  He hurts because of what He sees, yet He disperses blessings upon us day after day, even after already paying the debt of the all of us undeserving sinners.
  
  Well this post became more emotional than I ever intended it to be, but I hope it convicted one passerby. Maybe not. Either way it was enjoyable to write.
  
  Here are some happy news articles for a change:
  Happy Facebook News
  
  Gap Features Models With Disabilities
  
  Dog Saves Owners Life
  
  4 Year Old Cancer Patient Marries Favorite Nurse