Today is the Day...

The Lord has made!  I choose to rejoice and be glad in it!

Hello everyone, in "Jesus Calling" this month the theme seems to be trusting God through trials or hard circumstances...

Today's entry said to thank God for my problems...  Whenever I get distracted with something hard, I should bring it to God with thanksgiving... 

I don't know about you, but that is not an easy pill to swallow...  I don't want to thank God for my problems... That just doesn't seem right.  God loves me.  He shouldn't want me to have problems, so why should I thank Him for them?...  I don't truly mean it, if I thank Him for a problem... Cause I'm obviously not happy that I have the problem... Right?!

Well, after a little bit of family discussion, this is my new way of thinking...  I am going to thank God for the opportunity(s) that the problem is bringing into my life.  For instance, someone makes you mad/upset and talks down to you like you don't have feelings...  I can thank God for the new opportunity to walk in love, the opportunity to be humble, and thank Him for being here for me because I cannot handle this on my own.  Problems, trials, etc... they all bring us out of our comfort zone.  Out of our little bubble of "self".  In order to survive we need to trust in God and lean on Him more.  This keeps us grounded.  We need things like this so that we don't become like the men at the Tower of Babel(Genesis 11:1-9).  They felt like they were as great as God because everything was going so well for them, they were united, no one could stop them...  We don't want to be like that... Look where it got them! 

Staying grounded and understanding that we couldn't do anything without God's help is a very important life lesson.  Pride goes before a fall(Proverbs 16:18)...

So even-though I want to quit, or throw something back in someone's face, I'm not going to.  God told us that the greatest (and really the only commandment) is to LOVE. I'm trying hard to love others, and to treat them the way I want to be treated.  What are you doing?  Are you looking at things from their perspective? Or yours?  Is it all about me, me, me?  Or am I willing to sacrifice my time and energy for someone else?  I'm not just talking to you here, I am talking to myself too.  I have a lot to learn and apply to my life, but I am going to continue to ask God for wisdom on how to grow in His LOVE.  What are you going to do???

Blessings!
~ S*

True Love Waits!

This Week's Scripture:  Songs of Solomon 2:7, "Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field:  Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." (NIV)

Many of us have heard or even spoken the phrase, "true love waits."  I have a purity ring that says that very thing.  But what does it really mean?  Some of you might say it means exactly what it says.  Yes it does; however, let's examine each word closely.

True.  In the dictionary* true is defined this way: 1. real; genuine; 2. faithful; loyal; 3. right; proper; correct; exact; accurate; 4. rightful; lawful.  If you say "true love waits" by replacing true with one or all of the words above, does the phrase take on a new meaning for you?

Love.  Love is defined like this: 1. warm and tender liking; deep feeling of fondness and friendship; great affection or devotion; 2. have such a warm liking or deep feeling for; 3. a strong liking; 4. like very much; take great pleasure in.

Waits.  Wait or Waits is defined as follows: 1. stay or stop doing something until someone comes or something happens; 2. look forward; be expecting or ready; 3. delay or put off.  In other words, do not progress forward until you know it is God's will and timing for you.

Putting this all together may make it sound somewhat as follows:  [True]Genuine, faithful, and proper [Love] deep fondness, affection, or devotion to others [Waits] is expectant, ready, and looking forward to what God has planned for their life.  In other words, to truly love someone, you must wait for God's "yes" to move forward in that loving relationship.  A good way to do this is to listen to what the Bible says in Songs of Solomon 2:7b, "Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." Or you could say it this way, do not allow love to wake up in you until God says it is the right time!

In the first part of that same verse Beloved (aka the girl in this book of the Bible) is charging (or placing under oath) the other women of Jerusalem to do this very thing.  In the same way we should not artificially stimulate love before God's perfect timing.  Flirting and the dating game are just a couple examples of "fake love" that many people participate in which really hinder their following God's path and plan for their future.

I hope that this has helped you ponder whether or not you are truly loving others by waiting on God's plan.

Feel free to leave questions and/or comments about this entry below.  If you have a private question you would like us to answer, feel free to e-mail us!  Please check back often for more polls, quizes, forum questions, and devotions. We would love to hear from you!

Blessings!

~ S*

Fruit of the Spirit

Over the next few weeks I am planning on studying each fruit of the Spirit individually, but today let's talk about all of them!

Galatians 2:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (NIV)

The New Living Translation says this, "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!" (Galatians 5:22-23)

Whenever I think of the fruit of the Spirit I think of a song that I learned when I was little:
"The fruit of the Spirit is not a banana, the fruit of the Spirit is not a banana. So if you want to be a banana, you can't be a fruit of the Spirit, 'cause that's not what it's all about. The fruit of the spirit is: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self control..."
As the song went you replaced "banana" with a different fruit each time you ran through the song.

Did you learn the fruit of the Spirit in a song when you were little? Seems so simple right? But it isn't always that simple to practice the fruit of the Spirit in our every days lives. How can we apply them? Which fruit is easiest for you to practice? Which is the toughest? In the upcoming weeks, I will give scriptures pertaining to each of these. Which would you like me to talk about first? Let me know; I look forward to hearing from you!

Blessings!
~ S*
If you would like to see a similar version of the kid song check it out Here!