Please and Thank You

Hey player haters. Just kidding, y'all aren't player haters. I don't even know what that means; I got it from a Chingy song. 

Anyway, this week we have a special guest writer....my sister! You won't want to miss this! She's the best!!! :))

Okbye.

A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way

  I will keep today's post on the shorter and sweeter side. I just have small, but hopefully powerful, thought to share. Lately, I've been thinking about the importance of showing each other kindness and encouragement. Life is so busy and demanding; it can get anyone down. I stumbled across this quote the other day, and it reminded me of what a HUGE difference a few kind words can make:

I can only speak for myself, but all too often I find myself getting overwhelmed with whatever is going on in my life and becoming unbearably bitter and cranky (friends, roommates, and sister can all attest to this.) And when I think about that...well...I really don't like it about myself. If I am so overwhelmed, it is likely that people around me are, too. (Like...duh, Becca.) They don't need my bad attitude hanging around like garlic breath after lunch. In fact probably, what they need more than anything, are a few words of kindness. 

Okay....the FREAKIEST thing just happened...literally as I'm writing this, my mom opens up her mail.....and one of her sweetest and best friends had written her a little encouragement card. .....WHAT?! 

Okay, well that tied in to this post perfectly...

...because what I was going to say next is that I challenge all of us women to send out a little bit of encouragement and kindness to each other every time we notice someone who especially needs it. Or maybe even call each other out (in a good way) when we deem it necessary. 

I, personally, vow (okay, "vow" is a little strong,) but I am going to try to, at least once a week, send out some little bit of encouragement to someone. Whether it be a card, a nice note, whatever. I am going to try to let the people I think are great know how much I appreciate them. Yes, it will feel a little awkward at first, because sending a heartfelt message is not really a "thing." But what if it was? I challenge us to make it the norm. There is no harm in a few nice words. So let's do it. It might just make someone's day.

While We Wait

 Hi everyone! First of all, I'm sorry this post is a little late. I'm not starting off so well as far as consistency goes.... :/ BUT I was out of town! At the most beautiful place:



Our cabin! (Cue angel chorus)

We had a HUGE flood last summer, so my family had to go up to check on the work being done. It is the first time EVER I have gotten to see it in the snow!!! Ahhhh so magical.

Anyway, that's my excuse for being late with my posting. Also, note that I am very tired writing this post. Bear with me if it is slightly incoherent. 

All of that being said, I have read all of the posts on the Facebook group (I'm so happy to see so many people involved and being such an awesome support group to each other!), and I noticed that many of them center around the topic of "waiting" - waiting for a job, or maybe for the right guy, or even just waiting to see how God's plan for us pans out. Many of us are in a season of our life where this topic is just especially relevant. Many times, at least for me, it seems like I'm waiting on everything. Because we are young adults, and so much is unknown and undiscovered. 

Remember when you were little and your mom put you down for a nap? If you were anything like me (or...ahem...my sister), you wouldn't go without putting up a mean fight! I don't know why, looking at it now, but naps are the worst things in the world to kids. Ugh...so painful. But moms are going to get a nap out of you, whether you kick and scream or not. It's inevitable. So why waste all that energy and frustrate the both of you?

That's how I've been looking at "waiting" lately. 

In my opinion, God has a perfect and beautiful plan for us. That plan will be fulfilled in His perfect timing. Whether we choose to be patient and happy with that or whether we choose to be uncomfortable and squirmy like a child at nap time is completely up to us. 

I think we can all vouch that being patient is really hard. It can be difficult for several reasons. It is personally hardest for me in that sometimes I can't tell if I should wait (meaning, take no action in my current situation, leaving it completely in God's hands) or take affirmative action (make a choice, and have faith that God will take that choice and still lead me where He wants me. For example, in my unemployment I often wonder: "Should I just take it easy and let God open the right door for me? Or should I take more steps - place matters into my own hands a little more - and see where God leads me that way? 

That's my personal battle with patience, but it is different for each person (I assume.) 

Now knowing that it is obviously a difficult virtue to develop, we can say that because of its difficulty, it builds our spiritual character. ....and that's really awesome. God doesn't ever give us anything we can't handle, but He does give us some character-building challenges. Because He wants us to grow in Him! Isn't it awesome that he cares about us enough to want us and help us to grow stronger, more solid?? Sorry, I just got a wave of excitement when I thought of that....wow. YEEYUH. 

So...how can we develop our patience in Christ?

1. First of all, it's good to know that every (stinkin') bad experience we go through is actually used to build virtue within us. So bad things we go through are actually awesome. It's all in the way we look at it. ( <--- Jedi mind tricks? No? Ok.) Seriously though, the more we wait... the better we get at it AND the stronger we get. That's why James says:

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." -James 1:2-4 (MSG)

He knows that only good things come from the situations God hands us. He knows wassup. 

2. Another thing we can do to help develop our patience is....
.....work on our physical patience! It kind of sounds silly at first, but I truly believe in a strong connection between character and virtue. If we practice patience in everyday life, well....it's kind of like muscle-memory in dance - it'll just come more naturally to us in all aspects of our lives. There are many opportunities to practice patience, daily. Let's start seeing those opportunities in a positive light and use them to make us spiritually stronger! (I'm excited to do this...like really excited.)

3. The obvious: PRAY! Praying is like spiritual Windex - it can fix anything! ( <--- If you get that reference, I love you.) Seriously, I overlook this all too often. God listens to and helps us through any and all of our problems. This problem is no exception. In the Bible, many people prayed about patience. Heck, some of those people were frustrated and let God know! Psalm 44:23-26 says:

Get up, God! Are you going to sleep all day?

    Wake up! Don’t you care what happens to us?

Why do you bury your face in the pillow?

    Why pretend things are just fine with us?

And here we are—flat on our faces in the dirt,

    held down with a boot on our necks.

Get up and come to our rescue.

    If you love us so much, Help us! (MSG)

Pray to God for help, and He will help you, period. He loves us and wants us to grow stronger as Christians. Next time we find ourselves especially impatient, let's pray about it right then and there and just see how much it helps! 


Hopefully this post was helpful. I'm glad that I have an awesome support group of Godly women that are going through some of the same things as I am. The thing is, we are going to wait on God no matter what. We get to choose whether we will do that either uncomfortably or patiently. Let's choose patiently. Together. 



BTW, I didn't proof-read this. Too tired. I apologize if there are any blaring grammatical errors. Okay. That's all.













DEUCES.

Gossip HURL.

Okay, okay... the title of this post....might be...a little LAME-O, but it'll stick with you. So ha.


I know I said I was going to post once a week, but I got too excited! What can I say?! Plus, I have a really good topic for this one. So double ha. This is a topic that I feel is relevant to any woman, no matter what stage of life she is in. Whether she struggles with this herself (and I'm talkin' to myself, here) or she is a victim of this, GOSSIP affects most women.

Let me start with an illustration:

(Based on a true story)

A few months ago, my family and I were visiting my grandma (Gaga) at the assisted living facility where she lives. It was "grandparents day," so there were some...ahem...light hors d'oeuvres - oatmeal cookies and diet Coke. So naturally, we took some to nibble on while the Seniors reminisced.

Flash forward to that night:

Our stomachs...were...mmm let's just say.. IN SHAMBLES. I'm serious, we could not figure out what was wrong; we were SO sick! Then it dawned on us (via my sister.) The "oatmeal cookies" were laced with Metamucil---- I KID YOU NOT. It was not normal. Or fun. Our stomachs were TOE-UP.

You guys, gossip is the Metamucil cookie. It will tear anyone that "eats" it into shreds.

My serious point in all of this is that gossip is so destructive. I know from personal experience. I've been on both ends - the gossiper and the gossipee. I grew up in a small town church where gossip was the first language. It hurt, devastated even, a lot of good people - including my own family. I don't mean to bash the church or the members of it, but I know - I have seen with my own two eyes - that nothing good ever comes from gossip.

That in itself is no big news. We know that gossip hurts people. We get that.

So what are some more powerful reasons to stop gossiping?

Firstly, God hates gossip. That in itself should be enough to make me want to stop in my tracks. Proverbs 20:19 reinforces this:

" Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler."

God specifically states how he hates gossip and even goes further to say how we shouldn't associate ourselves with people who do! Whoa. That's pretty humbling. Do I do either of those things? (Yes.) Or maybe both? (Also yes.) God does not put up with gossip, and neither should we.

Have you ever been in a situation where you found yourself in the midst of an argument, or maybe someone simply didn't like you, because of hearsay? I have. It's not fun. It's really not fun when people who don't know you are automatically at odds with you, because of something said that wasn't true. Cool. Gossiping causes a lot of unneeded fights between people who might otherwise get along.

Proverbs 26:20-21 actually addresses this exact issue:

"When you run out of wood, the fire goes out; when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down. A quarrelsome person in a dispute is like kerosene thrown on a fire."

Even if for no other reason, we should stop gossiping because it will stop a lot of fighting and a lot of hate - the fighting and hate that gossip itself created.

I was sketching the other day, and I created this little dude. ^ I thought it would be a good illustration to go with today's thought, because it looks very tangled and jumbled up - much like gossip makes us feel. At first, gossip seems harmless, just as this drawing looks very bright, happy, and harmless. However, when we become woven into the gossip web, it is near impossible to get out. It is so hard to stop. As I looked closer at this drawing, it kind of sucked me in. I found that it went from sweet to almost wicked very quickly. I felt that if I were in this drawing, I would never make it out alive.

To me, gossip is the same way. It is so dangerous to us, because it is near impossible to escape from it. Take it from me. It is something I continue to work on every single day.

Let's be each other's Gossips Anonymous support group. Let's help each other get over this bad habit. Because I don't think that any of us, who are trying so hard to become stronger women of God, really want this. We don't want to hurt God, and we don't want to hurt each other, do we?









Here are some great scriptures that talk about gossip, if you are interested:

Leviticus 19:16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD.

Proverbs 11:13 Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.

Proverbs 20:19 Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.

Jeremiah 9:4 Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, or every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

2 Corinthians 12:20 For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

Let me know what you think of this, and don't forget to comment! :))
And remember, let's be the Pepto Bismol to each other's Metamucil cookies. ( <----- data-blogger-escaped-i="" data-blogger-escaped-just="" data-blogger-escaped-m="" data-blogger-escaped-of="" data-blogger-escaped-proud="" data-blogger-escaped-really="" data-blogger-escaped-reference.="" data-blogger-escaped-sorry="" data-blogger-escaped-span="" data-blogger-escaped-that="">


XOXO

First Post! Gnarly dude.

 Hi everyone!!! I'm so excited for this first post! ( <--- Can you tell?) I was sitting around on Facebook the other day (normal.) and found myself missing friends - friends from high school, friends from church camp, friends from Pepperdine - and I wanted to create a place where we could all interact with each other and talk about God! I want this blog to be a place where we can all connect/ reconnect with each other, share with each other where we each are spiritually, and get together to lift each other up in a place that studies God in a unique a creative way. 

That brings up the next point: 

Is it just me, or does anyone else long for creative and thought-provoking Bible studies? Don't get me wrong, there is something to be learned with each sermon, lesson, or devo we attend, but I've often noticed the same lesson being taught over and over. I want this specific study to be all about 1. Things we are all going through, so that we can relate to each other and encourage. 2.) New, fresh, and interesting topics that energize us spiritually. 

So:

I have a loose curriculum we can go off of, but PLEASE feel free to let me know by email, text, FB, snapchat.... if you have an idea for a post, and I'll give it a go! P.S. If anyone wants to take the reigns one week, I also don't mind that. If you have wisdoms you want to share, DO IT. This isn't about me being the head honcho, it's about all of us...and the kewl bond that we have (pssst! JESUS!)

Did someone say curriculum? 

I DID.

Finally, for the first week, I found a really cute and interesting study. It's called "A Bad Cup of Coffee," and really, who can't relate to that? So without further ado, here is your first small group lesson! Enjoy! And don't burn your tongue...

http://www.juliabettencourt.com/dev/coffeedev.html

I'm sorry, for this first one I had to send you a direct link; technically I am not allowed to repost it onto my blog. And that's cool, because I'm not about that plagiarizing lyfe. 

Don't forget to leave comments, so we can get this party started! 

Hang loose. Deuces.