Friday, July 25, 2014
Just eight more days...then FOREVER!
As the wedding approches just eight days from now, my emotions are starting to run a little high. I am so excited and anxious, maybe even a little nervous. What is funny though, is that Brent told me a few days ago that he was nervous but that he is not nervous because he is marrying me, but because he will have to stand up in front of 200 people and do it! That is not why I am nervous though. I am nervous because THIS IS HUGE! This is so much bigger than we imagine, so much bigger than us...this is a FOREVER thing! Especially lately, I have been trying to get my hands on everything I can about being a Godly wife, extending grace to my husband, caring for him, creating a loving, Godly home, making it last FOREVER, like it is supposed to. I have learned a lot, not only about him and the right way to communicate with him and love him, but about myself. I have learned that I am really far from perfect...like really far! All that I have learned though, is starting to really sink in...It is also starting to sink in that although I have studied and worked to understand my role as a Godly wife, I will never fully grasp it. It is not a role that can be perfected, only practiced. While I come to grips with the fact that it cannot really be perfected and I cannot be 100% ready, I realize that this is where God's strength is made perfect in my weakness and that His grace is sufficient for me! (2 Corinthians 12:9) Even though Brent and I are beginning the most challenging, important, glorifying journey we will ever embark upon...HIS GRACE IS ENOUGH! Yes, this is HUGE! Yes, we will mess up, because we are human. Yes, this is permanent! Yes, this will be the most drastic thing we will ever do to glorify God..it needs to be done right! In spite of all of that, the really scary stuff, when you step back and think about it, because I am willing to submit to him and he is willing to love me like Christ loved the church, Jesus will do the rest. He is willing to be the grace that sometimes we won't be able to extend to each other, or the peace that sometimes we both need, or the rock when maybe neither of us are strong enough to be. It won't be easy but if we trust him, it will be do-able! And it will be right! I cannot wait to marry my best friend, the man that God built for me! I cannot wait to attempt to put all that I have learned into practice. I want our marriage to be one that people admire and look up to. I want people to feel God's love just oozing off of Brent and I, and for them to know that something is different...I want that! So my prayer for this week is: Jesus, I come to you knowing that I am so far from perfect. Knowing that what Brent and I are about to do will be the biggest decision we ever make. Jesus, I want this marriage to glorify you, I don't want it any other way. I want you to wrap us up in your love, even more than you already have and just seep into our souls and use us to show other people that love. As much as we love each other, Lord, this is not about us, but about you. Help us to remember that as we start our journey and help us to remember that in every circumstance, your grace is sufficient, and your strength is made perfect in our weakness. Jesus, help me love Brent like he deserves to be loved and help me serve him as you would have me to! I love you, Lord! xoxo, -Em
Monday, July 7, 2014
Who Are You? What Are You Doing? You Are Worth SO MUCH MORE!
Recently I have noticed a trend, it is not a good one, teenagers posting pictures of themselves with hardly any clothing on, making the duck face; adults with children creating posts full of filthy language and obscenities; both teens and adults posting things like, "truth is, inbox only" or "date or pass." This is extremely concerning to me. I was scrolling through my facebook and as I passed several of these posts back to back I started to think about it. Are these people trying to find their worth? Are they trying to get somebody, just anybody, to tell them they are pretty, or funny, or popular? What is happening? The sad thing is that these people are so concerned with what everybody else thinks about them that they have forgotten who they really are. The thing that is even sadder is that this mentality is being passed down to our teenagers and pre-teens.
When every single picture posted by a teenage girl is posted by her because she thinks she looks "hot" in it; THERE IS A PROBLEM! Of course every girl wants to feel pretty and wanted, even desired, and that desire is there for a reason. God created us that way! He created us to ultimately have a relationship with a husband that is unlike any other relationship, where we feel wanted and loved and through that relationship we feel closer to God because that relationship acts as a vehicle to worship and glorify him together with our husbands. The problem is that these girls do not know who they are and because of this they are turning to what other people think about their outward appearence to form their opinions of themselves and in turn they are not saving themselves for their husbands, heck, they aren't even saving themselves for a significant other, instead, they are plastering almost nude pictures of themselves all over the internet because they want that feeling...This is a problem.
Girls, I'm going to be real frank with you for a minute...YOU ARE WORTH SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!!! You are worth so much more than that picture of yourself you just posted, with the shorty shorts and belly shirt; you are so much more than that private message you received five minutes ago as a response to the "truth is" status you just made...YOU ARE WORTH MORE! You are not a sex symbol, stop acting like it! God created you! He formed you, he knew you before anybody ever did. You are HIS! The same God who created the entire universe created you and he loves you more than anybody can ever even try to love you. Accept who you are, take your place as a child of the one true King and stop searching for this vain popularity that will bring you nothing and is not even real. You have so much more waiting on you than that but you have to accept it, and want it, and own it! Be royalty, that is who you are!
And guys....Stop chasing after girls who don't know who they are! You are royalty, as well! You are also a child of the one true King! Stop posting obscene, profane things that don't make you look cool, but instead make you look desperate. Take your place as God's adopted son and don't have anything other than what God has planned for you; and I promise he has BIG plans for you! Would you walk right up to the daughter of a king here on earth and in front of the king himself, tell his daughter something completely obscene that focuses on her sex appeal...I sure hope you wouldn't. Every time you say something like that to to a girl, not only are you completely saying the wrong thing to get her attention, but remember, God hears it all! He might as well be standing right there beside of you and you just spewed that ridiculous stuff out of your mouth right in front of God...and if you posted it on Facebook, you spewed it in front of God and everybody and you look like a fool! Don't be a fool, you are royalty; act like it!
So in conclusion, just as Mathew West sings, you are a "child of the one true King," act like it! Whether you have a personal relationship with Christ or not, maybe you don't even know him, remember that God created you, and he sent his son Jesus to die for you because he loves you just as much as he loves his son. God gave his perfect, blameless son for you, so that he could call you his! No, you're not perfect and you don't have to be. God even loves your imperfections...he DEEPLY loves you and it hurts him to see that you don't know your worth. Be confident in who you are in him! Because you are so much more than you allow yourself to be!
If you don't know Jesus and you would like to, feel free to message me and I would love to talk with you! :)
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
When every single picture posted by a teenage girl is posted by her because she thinks she looks "hot" in it; THERE IS A PROBLEM! Of course every girl wants to feel pretty and wanted, even desired, and that desire is there for a reason. God created us that way! He created us to ultimately have a relationship with a husband that is unlike any other relationship, where we feel wanted and loved and through that relationship we feel closer to God because that relationship acts as a vehicle to worship and glorify him together with our husbands. The problem is that these girls do not know who they are and because of this they are turning to what other people think about their outward appearence to form their opinions of themselves and in turn they are not saving themselves for their husbands, heck, they aren't even saving themselves for a significant other, instead, they are plastering almost nude pictures of themselves all over the internet because they want that feeling...This is a problem.
Girls, I'm going to be real frank with you for a minute...YOU ARE WORTH SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!!! You are worth so much more than that picture of yourself you just posted, with the shorty shorts and belly shirt; you are so much more than that private message you received five minutes ago as a response to the "truth is" status you just made...YOU ARE WORTH MORE! You are not a sex symbol, stop acting like it! God created you! He formed you, he knew you before anybody ever did. You are HIS! The same God who created the entire universe created you and he loves you more than anybody can ever even try to love you. Accept who you are, take your place as a child of the one true King and stop searching for this vain popularity that will bring you nothing and is not even real. You have so much more waiting on you than that but you have to accept it, and want it, and own it! Be royalty, that is who you are!
And guys....Stop chasing after girls who don't know who they are! You are royalty, as well! You are also a child of the one true King! Stop posting obscene, profane things that don't make you look cool, but instead make you look desperate. Take your place as God's adopted son and don't have anything other than what God has planned for you; and I promise he has BIG plans for you! Would you walk right up to the daughter of a king here on earth and in front of the king himself, tell his daughter something completely obscene that focuses on her sex appeal...I sure hope you wouldn't. Every time you say something like that to to a girl, not only are you completely saying the wrong thing to get her attention, but remember, God hears it all! He might as well be standing right there beside of you and you just spewed that ridiculous stuff out of your mouth right in front of God...and if you posted it on Facebook, you spewed it in front of God and everybody and you look like a fool! Don't be a fool, you are royalty; act like it!
So in conclusion, just as Mathew West sings, you are a "child of the one true King," act like it! Whether you have a personal relationship with Christ or not, maybe you don't even know him, remember that God created you, and he sent his son Jesus to die for you because he loves you just as much as he loves his son. God gave his perfect, blameless son for you, so that he could call you his! No, you're not perfect and you don't have to be. God even loves your imperfections...he DEEPLY loves you and it hurts him to see that you don't know your worth. Be confident in who you are in him! Because you are so much more than you allow yourself to be!
If you don't know Jesus and you would like to, feel free to message me and I would love to talk with you! :)
Psalm 139
1 You have searched me, Lord,and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
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