Prayer… again… :)

Hello everyone! I’m so sorry that I haven’t been updating recently! I have been busy for a while now, but that’s not exactly the reason why I haven't been posting. For one thing, I have been trying to balance my time a little better, and also for another thing, and this one is the bigger one, I just haven’t been that inspired. But the other day, inspiration finally struck!

About at the same time I wrote the last post, one of my friends, who moved out of state a little while ago, talked to me on the Facebook chat thing (I’m not sure what to call it! I don’t do it very much.). She told me that was engaged. That was a total shocker to me! I mean, I’d seen pictures of her and this guy, but I didn’t know how far things were going. But whatever happens, I was very happy for her, and knew that I had something special to pray for now.

But as I thought about the whole situation, and later I hear that she and her family had called a few days before she told me, I realized that God had been giving me little hints to pray for the two of them. I can’t remember the precise moment or the exact way it came up, but I remember thinking of her several times over the last few weeks for no reason whatsoever. And on one occasion, about a month or two previously, I had actually dreamed about her getting married.

I know all of this sounds a little odd, but what I mean by it is that God uses our scatterbrained thoughts to remind us of the people we need to pray for. I don’t know all the details about my friend’s engagement, but I do know that all marriages, new or old, need God’s blessing to be successful. He decided to tell me that I should pray for them threw my unclear, scattered thoughts and even through a dream. And unfortunately, I only prayed for her a few times, since I thought that it was only my mind being a little silly again. But, readers, please remember that God speaks in a still, small voice. Even if it seems like you don’t have the time, just shoot up a quick prayer every time you remember that co-worker, or that cousin, or that old friend or acquaintance, or even those people that you look at particularly in the store the other day. That’s how God works sometimes. And it’s up to us to follow Him in His mysterious ways.

 

Shalom

A letter….

Ok, so this is going to be a slightly unusual post for me… I guess I don’t know what a usual one is, so never mind.

A little while ago, some friends of mine went to a purity conference and they said that they really enjoyed it. I really wanted to go, but due to some complications I ended up not going. But they brought back a letter that I felt I should show to my readers. It’s a letter that an unknown young man wrote to his future wife. It is a good challenge, and reinforces some godly principles that need to be heard in this world of ours.

To my future wife,

This may seem a little weird. I don't know who you are, what you look like, or even your name. I don't know if I've met you yet, or if you are someone I'll meet in the future. I do know this, you are God's gift to me; you are a treasure and you will be the love of my life. You are my future wife. Because of everything that I know you will mean to me, there are some things that I want to talk to you about right now. First, is that I love God with all my heart and I'm keeping myself sexually pure for you, despite the very real temptations that are there. The things I want to discuss with you are your purity, your modesty, and your self-worth.

I want you always to remember that you are God's. You are God's before you are mine, and you are God's even before you are your own. Because you are His, everything in your life is a GIFT from God, including your purity. I have been keeping myself for you. I want to be the man that God has for you: His gift for your patience, and I know that you will be that same gift for me. The value of that gift lies in its completeness. Your purity is so much more precious the more that lies untouched. It may be easy and even somewhat fulfilling to give yourself to the boys around you for a temporary love, but God will bless you for keeping your gift of purity for me because of your unconditional love for Him.

Next is your modesty. Boys can be taken away so easily by the lusts of their eyes. The more of your body you show, the more lust you draw to yourself. My desire for you is that you keep your body as a temple and treat it as a temple. Tight clothes, low cut shirts, and short shorts just give other boys a preview of what God intends to be mine and mine alone. Your worth comes not from your body, but from you character and your relationship with God. If you have to show yourself to boys to attract them, then you will not be attracting the right man. The man I am, and the man I desire to be, will be attracted to you because of your love for God, because of your character, and not by how much of yourself you are willing to show.

The last thing I want to talk to you about is your self-worth. You are a treasure and you are a gem. You are a gift from God. That is where your self-worth lies; in knowing that you are God's. Your worth doesn't come from love that I or any other person can give you, but your worth comes from delighting in God. I can tell you that your worth comes from God, but you have to feel and know that for yourself. That is the big deal about your purity and your modesty. I want you to not be ashamed when you give yourself to me. I want you to be able to proudly give yourself to me after our wedding day. Knowing that you kept yourself pure, as I have, and that because of your love for God and your love for me, we can give each other the gift of our purity; wholly intact. I want you to know that you are my love, you are my treasure, you are my gift from God, and I can't wait for the day that I can see you face to face and say "I do."

With Love,

Your Future Husband

There it is! I hope it encouraged you and challenged you the way it did for me! God may or may not intend all of you singles to marry, but this is a good letter to keep in mind, because you never know what God might have planned for you! It’s an exciting adventure, this life of ours, but it will be all the more exhilarating if you hold on tight to the hand of God.

Shalom

Wind and Thorns

How hard it is to keep a firm ground on something! Like headcoverings… or modest clothes… or generally trying to live better. Unless you really hold on tight to the things God tells you, then it is the most impossible thing in the world to stick to. It’s just not in us to be able to stand the winds and thorns of sin.

Yesterday, I went on a morning walk with my sister and rambunctious dog. I did not want to go on the walk, and only went on it because I like hanging out on Sundays with my sister, who is two years younger and who has always been very close to me. On the way out and to the park that we walked to, I complained and griped, getting more and more frustrated at Annie, since she was pulling extra hard at the leash and making it very difficult to walk. I was so mad. Everything seemed to be going wrong; I wanted to wear another dress, but had to change into walking clothes; I had to put on my hat (the one in the picture); it was extremely winding outside; it was Sunday, and I wanted a laid-back day! Everything was against me. I got a little happier when I got there… until I sat in a patch of stickers and a huge thorny thing. I was about fed up then… And then my hat blew off in the wind, and got several stickers in it too. As I pulled them out of my hat, it made me think (or should I say, God made me think) that it was sort of like me and my headcoverings. When I took headcoverings on in my life, I took a few thorns on too. And like yesterday’s stickers, some of them wont go away so easily. I have to deal with them in a real and painful way.

And there are many other times in my life that I need to take care of the spiritual thorns. And other times when the spiritual winds hit me like they did yesterday, with grains of sand ramming into me like tiny bullets. But I can’t do this alone. I’m not saying that, after the Lord brought that thought to me yesterday, that immediately afterwards I was all better, but I did feel a little less eager to loose my temper.

I’ve recently been going through some struggles, some spiritual thorns. But you know what really helped me—just to go to a good ol’ fashioned worship service. I went to one on Saturday instead of on Sunday this time, but it was great! It was a good sermon too, all about marriage in the way God intended it to be. But the worship was what really woke me up… and I needed it! I really just needed to talk to God. And I haven't been doing that as much recently as I should. Sometimes its good to just be forced into something like that. And even if that sounds a bit strange, I would suggest doing the same—see what happens next. You might be surprised!

 

Shalom