Why You Should Never Wait Till You Have Time Later To Live Your Life....

After all, this one life is all each one of us has been given, we need to live in it, and live in it well. God created us all for a purpose, not just a purpose that we'll eventually figure out in the future, but a purpose for each and every day. I'm not saying that you have to know what your life plans on earth are immediately (some of us kinda have to fish around for that for a while), just know that there is a goodness and purpose for each day. Today is the only day we are guaranteed, and so live each day with purpose.

What is the legacy you wish to leave behind should you die tomorrow? What brings you true joy in this life? That you were a good student? Worker? Traveled a lot?  Whatever it is, choose well because unfortunately you can't be or do everything. For me, I want to have time in my life for God, family and friends. That's what I enjoy, do I want do other things? Oh yes!

It makes me sad when I hear someone say, "I'll do that later when I have more time." From where I am in life, I don't have more time in a day, but less. As you get older, you get more responsibilities, and thus less time to do the things you enjoy. So don't wait until you have time later, you won't, I guarantee it. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes you will have more time in the future to do the things you would love to do.  In college for example, you don't have much time to do anything, except school, at least I didn't.

So here's my wish for you: take time to figure out things you enjoy, or would enjoy learning how to do, and make a list... a Bucket List or whatever else you'd like to call it. Add big things, small things, and really ridiculous things. That way you can look at your list weekly and see what wouldn't take very much time to do, but that you could say you've done. For example, I have a bucket list, and on it are some pretty silly things, but still things I'd like to say I've done, and are very easy to do. One thing is to run into a department store and ask the cashier "What year is it?!" and when they say "2014" I'll yell "IT WORKED!!!" and run out of the store. See that doesn't take but 2 minutes to do, but I'd check it off my bucket list and be done and move on to the next silly thing, until I have the time and funds to do the bigger things on my list. But I will confess I've not been taking my own advice. I had decided in the spring that if I would do 1 thing a week on my bucket list, I could get a lot of things done. I realize some of the things take courage and gumption to do, while others require you to become incredibly embarrassed. Be okay with that. For me, it took months before I called up a studio to ask about taking dancing lessons. I had wanted to do it for several years, and finally bit the bullet, made the phone call, and honestly had the time of my life learning how to do some dancing. I also learned, but wasn't surprised, that I'm a terrible dancer, but hey I've checked that off my list! I proceeded then a year so later to take some other lessons that I wanted to take, and now I've checked that off my list.

See there is something that you can do now, that you really want to do and that will give you the courage that you will need later to do the big things.  I know it is said so frequently, but live in the moment and live now, because seriously it's all we have.

This very much applies to being a Christian as well. If you would like to improve in some areas, discover those areas, and find small ways to achieve that goal. Because if we wait till later to become a better Christian and to serve God, I'm sorry  but it's not going to be easier later either. Also, why wait to have a deep relationship with a God who loves you and can help you through the rough times. I've waited and then the rough times came, and I called on God, He heard me, but yet if I had been seeking Him the whole time, I truly believe those hard times wouldn't have been so hard.

Maybe this will help a little to put God's love into perspective: would you be willing to give your one and only son to die for something he did not do, so that a guilty person could walk off scot-free? That's what God did. So why wait to trust and love Him? No one else on earth can love you like He does. Find a way to serve Him now, and try and discover your talents, you do have them. Don't compare your talents to someone else's, God created you differently for a reason. There will be things you are good at, find a way to use that for the Lord. There will be things you will be terrible at, grow and try to be better at these things.

I just don't want my friends to suddenly find themselves too old to do the things they were planning on doing when they had more time. Live now, be who you are, and let God take care of the rest. :-)

About Me

I am American woman with strong Christian and political views. I am first and foremost, a child of God, cleansed by Christ's blood. I try to follow God's Word, and try to remind myself of the Greatest Command "To Love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, all thy strength and all thy mind" and to "love thy neighbor as thyself." Matthew 22:36-40

I have a B.S in Dietetics, and am currently finishing my M.S in Food Science.

My Christmas letter....

Before you sigh and say "Oh good gracious not another Christmas letter to read!", I have decided to put reality back into those horrible things. So instead of saying things like "I climbed Mt. Everest without any oxygen tanks, cause my lungs are just that good. And I ran the whole way up, and the whole way down, it only took 30 minutes!" I give you the following:

My 2013:

1. I finished my master's research! I also, came close to getting a concussion, having my car stolen, and winding up in the looney bin in the process.

2. I'm still writing my thesis! Does this paper never end? How many times have I analyzed my data? 20? 30? Ohhhh and it's still not right?? SPSS will be the death of me.

3. I got to spend the summer with 3 year olds who, bless their little hearts, threw rocks at each other, had daily accidents on the carpet, overflowed the toilets, and consistently made bad choices.

4. I next got to have several awkward encounters with men, that would make even the least squeamish of you, squirm. My favorite song is now this: .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s_hvNFRlXY .

5. I didn't go to jail!

6. I received no parking or speeding tickets!

7. I'm paying back my student loans because I have fallen below being a part-time student, and I don't qualify for a deferment since I am currently not actively job searching. Go figure! Only in Grad school do the poor get poorer.

So there you go: the truth about my 2013. Did it make you feel better about your 2013? I sure hope so! If not, I hope you got a good laugh out of it anyways :-).

The reason I hate Christmas letters is that it seems like a brag fest, and a competition. Shouldn't we be encouraging each other, instead of trying to top on another?! I think a little reality might go a long way to showing love for the brethren.

I'll add a few positives to round out the above:

1. I got to live with a wonderful couple who treated me like a daughter.

2. I have a family that loves me.

3. I was reminded time and again about God's love for me, and how He'll never forsake me.

4. I have some of the best friends in the world.

And so with 4 things like that, it makes the other negative things pale in comparison, and turn them into funny little tales to share.

Life's Stages and Their Purpose

For my first actual post I'd like to spend some time writing about Life's stages, and more importantly about the stage of marriage or rather what people view as the absence of it, when you've reached that time in your life. There is SO much information out there today about it, and what you should be/shouldn't be doing, and I realize one more article will most likely just be one more article. There will be no earth shattering revelations here, just hopefully some common sense, and some insight.

We all have those friends who met their "one true love" the first year of college, got married, and in today's most common words, "settled down." Then there are those of us, that went to college, left college. went to work, went back to school and then back to work, and our marital status has not changed. Then comes the phrase I have heard the most, "Just wait until you get settled, and done with school, you have no time for a relationship right now." My question is, when did having time for a relationship ever equate to having a relationship? And those friends in college that got married, did they have time? From what I remember about college was that it was an incredibly hectic 4 years, you had a paper due like every day, if not 2. Then there were those pesky things known as tests; if there ever is a time in your life when you simply don't have time for a relationship it's college. But somehow, those friends managed it, so getting to that marital status must not have to do with having time for it. Because unless you make time for the important things, "there's no time, Never any time!" haha. However, there is the fact that as you get older, your time fills up so much faster with other things. Suddenly you have bills to pay, an apartment to clean, church friends to see all throughout the week, watch parties to host, and all sorts of movie nights, game nights, Bible studies to attend, preparing to teach Bible classes on top of a job or grad school. The list sometimes doesn't stop there, so basically your time for other things becomes less and less, because no matter what your stage in life, your responsibilities are usually always increasing. So basically, I've said all that to say, that the argument of having time later, just isn't a valid one. I'll write a different article about time later but for now back to the topic at hand.

As a nation, I believe we are very much a work society, for example “Get better at your job and you’ll get a raise.”  (Though it may have a few flaws, and may be far jump, play along with me here). So basically, if you want a better life, you have to work for it. Now if you do better work at your job, but don't get a raise, that must mean you did something wrong. So let's apply this logic to the situation at hand, to the unmarrieds out there.  The world would say that if you aren’t married, the only right conclusion you can come to is that you aren’t good enough, that you are doing something wrong, but that just may not the case.  Being good enough may have nothing to do with it. (I say "May Have nothing" because sometimes yes, what you do, may in fact have everything to do with it).

Sometimes it’s not what you are doing wrong, but shock and awe, it just may not be God’s timing yet. Ever think of that? With all this “You must not be married because you haven’t learned this yet or that yet…” which in essence says, “You are in control of your married state, not God.” If someone tells you that the reason you aren’t married is because you are not doing so-and-so, they are saying we as a human race are in control - you must be doing something wrong, or else you would be married. So keep following me here, so this must also puts forth the idea that before you are married, you both have to be perfect. I'm sorry, but I'll never be perfect, it's just not humanly possible. I can learn to be better, but perfection is something that a human being cannot attain.  God, however, did not tell us we had to be perfect in order to be married, but that marriage was a blessing.  And God gives us these blessings to further His kingdom and to glorify Him. That is our purpose in life as Christians, to spread His Word and glorify Him. If God has a use for us in our “current state,” then He will keep us there until that purpose is served. After all, we are not here for our happiness, but to do His will. For each stage in life there is a purpose from God. It is our duty to find it. Now this doesn't sound very romantic, I admit, and to be honest, looking at marriage as way to fulfill God's will, and not my own, kinda seems to suck all the fun out of it, and make kind of a utilitarian relationship out of marriage. BUT stick with me, God want's what is best for us, He truly loves each and every one, so I believe there's hope for romance haha.

Too often I believe we look at marriage as an end to achieve rather than a blessing from God (as if you haven’t been successful in life until you are married).  And by blessing, I also think we have that meaning all tangled up. God’s good blessing may in fact not seem good to us at the time, but maybe just maybe singleness is a blessing, a chance to learn about and love God. God’s definition of good may in reality be our definition of bad. We think of things that make us happy as good, and those that make us suffer as bad. But if they make us grow closer to Him, then I believe that fits under God’s definition of good. I’m not saying that God wants us to be unhappy, rather He wants us, in whatever state we are in, to serve Him.

So if the next stage in our life is marriage, then God has a real purpose for that too.  It’s not necessarily to make us happy but again to bring Him glory. So if as a couple, you could bring Him more glory than you could as a single person, then I believe God will bless you with that relationship. Again, do you follow me?? It’s about giving God Glory and doing His work, and acknowledging His absolute control, rather than thinking that you must be doing something wrong, or else you’d have this.

God created us all differently, and what I struggle with may not be a struggle for someone else, and vice versa.  I read somewhere, that because of this difference some of us may have a harder time leaning on God and giving our lives totally to Him. We may have a harder time acknowledging that He is the source of all love, and all good things. I am not be saying this very well, but some personality types when they find love on earth, they put all their hopes and dreams in that one person, and give them all their love. Not a bad thing necessarily, however, if that happens before that person has developed a personal relationship with God, then that person may have a very hard time doing so at all. So for our good, and for His glory, He may withhold an earthly marriage relationship until we have had a chance to develop our relationship with Him, and put Him first in our lives. Other people may not have this problem, and thus these may be those people that married early in their adult lives.  Just remember, God has a purpose for you now, and for you in the future, and you are where He wants you to be. He after all, made you the way you are, so don’t blame anyone, not yourself, not your friends, and definitely not God. He loves and wants what is best for you, and He knows what that is. So hold on, have faith! You can conquer even the really hard times.

And so one last word about advice; God’s timing is God’s timing, and  those that are married who like to give us that are unmarried advice about how to change our state, well I’m sorry, but advice won’t change God’s timing.  Now, if you see one of us making bad/immoral decisions, by all means do your best to get that person back. But if we seem happy, and seem to be living according to God’s Word, keep your advice to yourself.  Well I hope I didn’t offend anyone, because that was not my purpose, but these things have been on my mind, and I just had to say them…..

My Intent

With this blog I intend to write about things I believe in, I’m passionate about, and things I am studying about to understand more fully. It will most likely range from the Biblical, to Political, and to life in general. I realize that a lot of what I think goes against today’s society, and will by most people, be considered harsh and narrow-minded. However, I will try my utmost to be open-minded and considerate of others, and in essence, I will try my hardest to never write before I have thought things through. If I say something that is blatantly wrong, I apologize in advance because I know I am quite often wrong. I enjoy writing about things I believe in, and I think it’s time to make a stance and say things I have long been thinking about. I hope whoever reads this will benefit and get enjoyment out of my ramblings.