Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Great Sermon Series!
http://www.southlandchristian.org/series/serial-dating/man-and-woman/ .... This series I've been looking at online is amazing! The link above is to the second sermon in the series. It's very inspirational. My friend, a woman I know, encouraged me to look at it. :) I'm just passing it along! :) Enjoy!
Thursday, October 6, 2011
TV (Click!)
So I'm excited! I started something new after realizing a behavior of mine that was not good. This behavior I believe many can relate to me on, watching TV! I literally watch TV like it's my job sometimes. I can watch it allllllllllll daaaaaaaaaaaaay looooooonnnnng and waste a whole day just watching TV. It's not even like I'll have a show on either that I want to watch. I mean sometimes, yeah, I will, but mostly it's just something to watch to fill up time. Time where I could be mediating with God, praying, doing devotions, working out, serving others, working on homework, so many more valuable things! Yet for years I've filled my time with watching TV! .... Why do I do this? I asked myself this recently and then I realized why it is I watch so much TV. I do it to try and ignore how I really feel about things. I use TV to ignore my problems, because when you're watching TV you can forget about what's going on around you and just numb your mind to what's going on in the fantasy TV land or focus on reality TV stars problems. I've let TV become such a big thing in my life it has wasted so much time I could have used for God. I started cutting it out just this past Monday (my new rule for myself is not to watch TV whenever I'm alone), already I can see results! My homework is getting done faster, my devotions are going better, when I cleaned my room earlier today (deep cleaned, lol, this took a few hours) I listened to praise music instead of watching TV and it changed my whole day around and just made me happier and feel better! I can't believe I didn't realize all of this sooner. I can't believe I didn't realize how much I was letting something rule over my life! I can now focus on the things I try and numb myself to not thinking about by watching TV and really find real solutions! Pray for me please! There are already times at night before bed where I just want to watch something to put me to sleep, or I want to watch 'Glee' or 'The Office' because there such funny shows, but for now 'No TV,' when I'm on my own, is my commitment to God up until a date, I think, He put on my heart (I'll keep this private). I want to watch it also when I'm having rough times in my day and wanting to just forget about what I'm thinking about, but I'm not..... It's crazy maybe for some of you to think, "Really cutting out TV is going to be this big of a deal?" But YEAH! It is!..... I didn't notice this, like I said, for years and it's not like I read something or heard a sermon that woke me up to this revelation. I know it was God who woke me up to it, because I've been earnestly wanting to know His Will for things and situations and I didn't know but a lot of time I was blocking out what He was trying to teach or show me by filling my time and energy with watching TV. He pointed this out to me and revealed that it was what was keeping the truth hidden from me and keeping me from Him.
Maybe there are things you numb your feelings by doing? Maybe it's shopping, playing video games, playing/watching sports, being on the computer, focusing only on work, focusing only on school, whatever it may be? We HAVE to have that time for God! We HAVE to let Him be our focus and what has most of our time! You can spend time with God by not only doing devotions and prayer (which I know, inexcusably though, can be hard to keep up with), but we spend time with God when we're doing things that He, Himself would do or are showing Him to others, or just are daily things really. Things like helping the homeless, volunteering, going to church services, listening to praise music, exercising while listening to praise songs, talking with God while walking around at a park, praying to Him for help on a homework or job assignment that is hard, reacting to others in a Godly way instead of what our flesh wants to say or do. There really are so many ways to make and let God have most of our time!...... Help me to do this, please! Pray for me! I'm so excited that God has corrected me and I know this will draw me closer to Him :)!
Maybe there are things you numb your feelings by doing? Maybe it's shopping, playing video games, playing/watching sports, being on the computer, focusing only on work, focusing only on school, whatever it may be? We HAVE to have that time for God! We HAVE to let Him be our focus and what has most of our time! You can spend time with God by not only doing devotions and prayer (which I know, inexcusably though, can be hard to keep up with), but we spend time with God when we're doing things that He, Himself would do or are showing Him to others, or just are daily things really. Things like helping the homeless, volunteering, going to church services, listening to praise music, exercising while listening to praise songs, talking with God while walking around at a park, praying to Him for help on a homework or job assignment that is hard, reacting to others in a Godly way instead of what our flesh wants to say or do. There really are so many ways to make and let God have most of our time!...... Help me to do this, please! Pray for me! I'm so excited that God has corrected me and I know this will draw me closer to Him :)!
~AMEN~
Below is a story a friend of mine shared on FB. It's REALLY good and insightful!
Below is a story a friend of mine shared on FB. It's REALLY good and insightful!
--------
A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small Tennessee town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later. As I grew up I never questioned his place in our family. Mom taught me to love the Word of God. Dad taught me to obey it. But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours each evening. He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bill and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars. The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn't seem to mind, but sometimes Mom would quietly get up - while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places - and go to her room read her Bible and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave. You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our house - not from us, from our friends, or adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four-letter words that burned my ears and made Dad squirm. To my knowledge the stranger was never confronted. My dad was a teetotaler who didn't permit alcohol in his home - not even for cooking. But the stranger felt he needed exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages often. He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (too much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I know now that my early concepts of the man/woman relationship were influenced by the stranger. As I look back, I believe it was the grace of God that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time he opposed the values of my parents. Yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave. More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Morningside Drive. But if I were to walk into my parents' den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name? We always called him TV. And now TV has a wife named internet.
(author unknown)
A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small Tennessee town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later. As I grew up I never questioned his place in our family. Mom taught me to love the Word of God. Dad taught me to obey it. But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours each evening. He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bill and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars. The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn't seem to mind, but sometimes Mom would quietly get up - while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places - and go to her room read her Bible and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave. You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our house - not from us, from our friends, or adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four-letter words that burned my ears and made Dad squirm. To my knowledge the stranger was never confronted. My dad was a teetotaler who didn't permit alcohol in his home - not even for cooking. But the stranger felt he needed exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages often. He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (too much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I know now that my early concepts of the man/woman relationship were influenced by the stranger. As I look back, I believe it was the grace of God that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time he opposed the values of my parents. Yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave. More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Morningside Drive. But if I were to walk into my parents' den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name? We always called him TV. And now TV has a wife named internet.
(author unknown)
Monday, October 3, 2011
Updates!
No Africa :/ I will not be going for now, but hopefully will go in the future! :) .....
.....
Another update! I've realized a HUGE thing Satan was using to pull me from God and to hide me from dealing with things in my life. I'm going to begin a fasting this thing and a few other different things in my life! I ask for your prayers as God opens my heart and eyes to what His will is.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)