Meditation Monday

Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

This is one of many promises in the Bible, that God works all things together for good. Sometimes, in my life, it’s very hard for me to believe this. I get side tracked and look to the left or to the right and see what other people have that I am missing. Maybe they have more money than I do, maybe their college education is paid for, or they have a boyfriend, a job or some part of life figured out. When I look around me, I see so much of what I think I don’t have. Then, I begin to wonder why God hasn’t blessed me with these things.

The other day, I was really blessed by an idea: do I really believe that God is working all things together for good? Do I believe that in my own life? Sometimes God’s greatest blessings can be in withholding something that I feel that I am entitled to. Blessings often come in hardships, because that is where we experience the most of God’s love and the end reward is coming to know God in a greater way: as a rock, as a savior, a deliverer, etc.

Maybe blessings come in strange packages. Today, my prayer is that God would show me what my unexpected blessings are.

Tough Tuesday

I don't think I am the only girl to say that this week makes me feel like I am drowning in the amount of work that I have.

Therefore, I want to leave you with beautiful words that will hopefully inspire you, fuel you, and remind you of who you are.

Even a beautiful God-scripted love story can never satisfy the way Jesus does. Even the most heroic and Christlike man on earth can never fulfill the longings of our heart like the true Prince and lover of our soul (Jesus Christ). And until we are able to truly make Him our first love, until we are willing to give up our dream of an earthly love story for His sake, we will never know the fullness of Him who fills us all in all. We will always be looking to a mere man to meet the desires of our heart, rather than to the One who created us, who knows us better than we know ourselves, and who gave His very life’s blood to rescue us. - Leslie Ludy

Only when self moves out of the way can His spectacular glory come cascading through your life. When Jesus is in His rightful place, all insecurity will fade away and His lasting loveliness will become the mark of your life. - Leslie Ludy

In order to learn what it means to be a person, let us start with the One who made him. - Elisabeth Elliot

“Loving yourself and loving your character; that is the charm of being a woman. Understanding who you are, running with it and loving it. It’s not being charming all the time like 1950s movies. It’s truly being confident on how God made you, taking hold of that and running with that. Charm and elegance comes from knowing yourself and loving yourself because of who God made you to be. A guy can only love you so much if you don’t life yourself. It starts in you, THROUGH Christ.” - An indirect friend

Today, you are loved. You are beautiful. You are a daughter. Believe and walk in that truth as you face the things that God has given you this week.

Meditation Monday

Happy Monday, all!

As Thanksgiving gets closer, we all start to consider the things we are thankful for, the things we say when Grandma passes you the basket of rolls at the table. Thinking of things to be thankful for should be easy, yet we often find ourselves struggling to come up with something worthwhile to say.

To be honest, one of my biggest challenges is loving people who get handed things they don’t even want or appreciate when I have fought to achieve those same things. I believe I deserve them more and so I get angry when those who I find less deserving get them.

I feel like the brother in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The prodigal son takes his inheritance and runs away to a foreign land, where he blows it all and ends up broke. He is then forced to feed pigs in order keep from starving. Finally, the prodigal son realizes what he left behind - family, food, clothes, a warm bed - and decides to return home. Upon returning home, the prodigal son’s father forgives him and throws him a huge party. However, the prodigal son’s older brother is pretty aggravated by this.

In Luke 15:25-32, it says:

“All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’ The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’ His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”

Right now, I feel exactly like the older brother - I’ve been dedicated, responsible, done everything I was expected to do - but where’s my party? Where is my time of rejoicing and feasting? I have followed my Father, I have stayed true to my beliefs; I have done all of these things and I feel entitled to a reward or a pat on the back. I want some happiness in my life, I’d like some romantic success. All of these people around me don’t seem to be trying as hard as I am and yet somehow they are blissfully happy. It just doesn’t seem fair.

The problem with this type of thinking is the sense of entitlement at its root. We are imperfect, we screw up. We are definitely not automatically entitled to happiness because we tend to make a mess of things and hurt each other. But still, God loves us despite that. I have no right to judge who is “deserving.” I am a whiny, faulted human. I am undeserving of anything, really. And that is the beauty of grace - loving and forgiving those who are undeserving. In my “me-me-me” all the time perspective, it’s easy to lose sight of grace, it’s easy for me to begin to view grace as a currency and begin to believe that I am more deserving of grace than another child of God. It’s easy for me to start thinking that the harder we work, or the “better” Christians we are, the more grace God should be offering us, because we are somehow owed it now.

The truth is that thinking God should do anything for us is ridiculous in itself - as if the God who gives us the very air we breathe owes us anything. But He chooses to show us grace, to love His faulted creation, because to Him we are all equally beautiful and worthy of love. Just because I may pray more than the next person does not mean I should be entitled to favors from God to show He appreciates how much I’m doing (which is, in all honesty, very little). Just the fact that I am alive and I am generally in good health and my family is safe should already be enough proof of His grace.

Thankful Thursday

In the spirit of all the "30 days of thankfulness" posts I see on Facebook/Twitter and the fact that Thanksgiving is two weeks from today (crazy, yes I know), today we're talking about gratitude and thankfulness. All throughout scripture we find people giving thanks to God and for his many gifts. Psalm 100 is all about giving thanks, "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name." But just in case you need some more motivation to be grateful here's one interesting study.

In 2003 Emmons and McCullough conducted a study where college students were randomly placed into one of three conditions, (gratitude, hassles, or events), each of which lasted for nine weeks. Participants were given weekly packets in which they were to write down different things depending on their condition. In the gratitude condition, students were asked to write down several experiences for which they were grateful. In the hassles condition, students wrote down annoyances they experienced in the previous week. Finally, in the events condition, students wrote down a number of events that affected them in the past week. Students also completed a series of measures assessing physical symptoms and overall well-being. Students in the grateful condition reported significantly greater life satisfaction, greater optimism for the upcoming week, fewer physical symptoms, and, perhaps most surprisingly, exercised significantly more than students in either the events condition or the hassles condition. (taken from http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org)

So what are you waiting for, what are you thankful for? Leave a comment!

Meditation Monday: Hollis

Happy Monday, everyone! Just two weeks left before Thanksgiving Break. I invited you to take some time out of your day today to read and meditate on what Hollis has to share with us about priorities, devotion to God, and remembering our purpose in this life. Next week Grace will be sharing what's on her heart with you.

"May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight. Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." (Psalm 19:14).

I know that whenever I am putting God first in my life everything seems to be better, I seem to be able to manage life on a higher level than when I am alone. When I take time from my day to do a devotional it is very similar to the experience of recharging batteries. I remember that my life has purpose and that I am supposed to be living for our God. Yet, so often I get caught in this me-centered faith and all the works and actions I am performing are to make my life better. While this is a wonderful part of our relationship with Christ, it is not the main focus.

This verse helps to remind me that everything I do is for the glory of the kingdom, not just actions to make me feel better on a daily basis. The Lord has been working in my heart to make everything I do be an action for his glory. I try to pray before I read and ask that it be pleasing to the Lord, not just an exercise to benefit me in my faith. This is also a good accountability verse to pray because truly everything that comes out of a Christian's mouth should be pleasing to the Lord. We are His and need to remember why we are here on Earth. I pray that our actions in faith are pleasing to the Lord, not just to our Christian ideals. It is easy to get caught in a web of pride if you do not remember that you are successfully doing a daily devotional to please the Lord. Let our words and actions be witness of the love we receive in Christ our Savior.

Friendly Friday!

Sorry about posting this so late on Friday afternoon! I had it all finished, but for some reason I actually had to work at work today. Who would've thought. Anyway, without further delay, I present to you: Katie Leachman!

Name: Katie Leachman

Major:Math Education and Music Performance

Favorite Childhood Cartoon: Rugrats

What have you appreciated about VT thus far? I've appreciated the fact that while as far as administration I'm just another number/incoming freshman I still feel like I'm a part of a really tight-knit community, between the BCM, my piano studio, and getting to know friends of friends.

If you could do anything without the possibility of failure and money wasn't a restraint: what would you do? I think that I would move to New York City, go to Juilliard, and be in Wicked on Broadway.

What is your favorite thing to do to rest and/or relax? I LOVE TO SLEEP. But when I'm awake, I like to make bracelets--lots and lots of bracelets.

Are you reading any books right now? I'm reading a book required for my piano studio called "Talent is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin. I typically don't like to read though, unless it's Harry Potter.

Where is your favorite place to eat lunch? Chik-fil-A.

How has God encouraged you lately? God has hugely encouraged me by giving me an eternal perspective. I've always been one who cares way too much about the grades I get and how I can be the best at everything, because I've felt like they define me and my worth. But just recently I've come to a liberating understanding that as long as I continue to glorify God with my heart and my life, the grade I get on my philosophy exam doesn't matter, and is even being used for good and the glory of His kingdom. So no worries!

It's Not About Me

Let's just be honest for a second ok? Sometimes life sucks. Yesterday was one of those days where I was keenly aware of just how broken the world we live in is. No matter what I did nothing was right. Everything anyone said was a personal attack on me. Nobody loved me. In fact everybody hated me and honestly by noon I was ready to sleep the day away.

Lately I've been reading this book called What Did you Expect? by Paul David Tripp. It's actually a book about marriage but it's been challenging me in SO many different areas of my life, sometimes a little more than I like. A few nights ago I was reading about the difference between the kingdom of self and the kingdom of God. Here's what Tripp has to say, "2 Corinthians 5:14-15 reads, For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. The apostle Paul summarizes here what sin does to all of us. Sin turns us in on ourselves. Sin causes us to shrink our focus, motivation, and concern to the size of our own wants, needs, and feelings. Sin causes all of us to be way too self-aware and self-important. Sin causes us to be offended most by offenses against us and to be concerned most for what concerns us. Because of sin, we really do love us, and we have a wonderful plan for our own lives!" Well if that's not a kick in the gut I don't know what is. Shrink my focus to only me? Check. Way too self-important? Check. Offended most by offenses against me? Check. Great, now I know why everybody hates me.

Fortunately that's not how God views things. The apostle Paul says in another one of his letters, Ephesians, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved." It is also through his grace that we have been invited into the kingdom of God. A kingdom much larger than anything we could ever create. So when we reach a breaking point and everything around us seems to be going South (like my day yesterday), Tripp says "this is an opportunity to exit the small space of the kingdom of self and to begin to enjoy the beauty and benefits of the kingdom of God." It's a hard piece of advice to accept. Sometimes I act as if my own kingdom has more to offer than his but I do truly want to believe he knows what's best for me. So the next time that pity party strikes I just need to keep saying "It's not about me" and choose to believe in his "great love for us." Because really it's not all about me.