Hope With No Shame

Recently, I've had to completely stop listening to some of the news podcasts I listen to. The message is the same.

"America is going to crap unless Americans wake up and do something about it."
"American's are stupid. So, therefore, we are all doomed."

And that's the basic "jist"
of hours of talk radio. So if you don't listen to talk radio, you aren't missing much.

The whole thing sounds very similar to a Psalm I just read:

Psalm 12:1-4

Deliver, Lord!
For the godly have disappeared; 
people of integrity have vanished. 
People lie to one another;
they flatter and deceive. 
May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
and the tongue that boasts!
They say, “We speak persuasively; 
we know how to flatter and boast. 
Who is our master?”

In fact, we sound a ton like the Romans as Paul describes them in chapter 1:28-32

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.

So then why should I have hope in the future? People that I talk to about human trafficking, abortion or any other major issue in our society don't seem to want to respond and take action against all that is going on.

Well, thankfully, Paul gives us an example of what we can do through Abraham in Romans chapter 4.

Abraham was asked to leave his home and go somewhere were he was a stranger. I identify with this because sometimes I feel like a stranger to my generation. Then God made him a promise that he was going to have a son, despite that biologically, it made no sense to him or his wife. Yet Paul says that Abraham "In hope, he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, 'So shall your offspring be.'" We see that Abraham was "fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised."

So the question for myself is, when I feel like a stranger in my own generation with a promise that God has given me, do I hope against all hope that when everything is stacked against me that God will provide all that is necessary for His promise to come true?

You see, I can come up with all the programs and ideas in the world and work really hard for them to work. Yet nothing is going to be able to happen if I do not have faith that God will work everything out in his timing. It's not going to be easy (just look at Abraham's life...not comfy!) but his faith was counted to him as righteousness. Not his works.

Paul continues, "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Many people might think we are foolish to look at all that is happening in our world and pin all our hopes to God. He doesn't seem to be here with all of the evil that is happening in our generation. But what people don't see is all the times we have put our faith in God in our personal lives and the times he has come through for us. Every time I try to make something happen, it fails and God brings the same result around another way. EVERY TIME.

So while we live in a season of our generation where we are lost, let's continue to have the faith that God desires us to have so that we can learn to trust in him more and more. Our hope isn't in vain. It's so that God's love for us can be manifested in a way that allows us to love him more!

I am a Princess. Treat me like one.

 

Hi everyone! It feels so good to not be packing or cleaning and get a break to write!

So a thought that I have been mulling over in my head has been inspired by this video:



I love that. It takes the idealized, distant Disney princess that many girls of my generation have grown up with and transcends it into daily life.

I think this is important. Let me tell you why.

I recently told a friend that I was at an anti-human trafficking conference. I was actually told a joke in reply later that if I wanted to help human trafficking, people needed to be told to stay on one side of the road or another. Let me say, this made me laugh so hard because I told myself the same thing everyday I was in high school and had to fight to get to class! The sad part of the joke is, however, that some of you might not realize it's a joke. When I say, "Human Trafficking," what comes to your mind?

Some of you might have seen the movie, "Taken" and that's what comes up in your head.

Some of you more educated on the issue might have visions of people in far off countries that are being kidnapped after being lured into the the false promises of jobs and then are forced to be prostitutes. That kind of stuff, in your mind, happens in Greece, the Philippines, Vietnam. Third world countries where people are desperate for jobs and are therefore, more vulnerable to being manipulated.

Some of you might even see a prostitute and say, "Well, she's desperate to make money and if there's a demand, then she can support herself and that's her choice."

My question is however, if you were posed with that situation, where you had no money and no one to support you, would you really WANT to sell your body to strange men over and over?

The problem is, I work with women who are born American. They are girls that you and I would go to school with growing up. We could have been on the same soccer team, the same dance class, the same debate team. We could have been friends. What happens is they find themselves in circumstances, not by choice, where no one loves them. Many times, they are even abused as kids. They are then exposed and vulnerable to people who see a demand for cheap labor or see the demand for "no strings sex" (as if that exists) and exploit these women to make them do what they want. These girls (they are my age for crying out loud) are forced and coerced into this. They trust someone that no one has taught them to distrust and find themselves in a situation where they fear for their lives or their family's lives if they don't do what they are told.

I could tell you all the things Redeemed does to help these women once they get out. I probably will some other blog. The problem is though, once they come to us they are already traumatized. They are already scarred and will carry that for the rest of their lives. What they need, is to not be abused in the first place.

So you may be asking, "How do you get from a Disney Princess video to sexually abused women?" Great question.

The thing is, we live in a culture where women are objectified. Men (and women. Yes, we are guilty of buying into the idea sometimes. I include myself in this statement.) see a women on a billboard or a magazine and they are selling something using sex. You look at the model in the window at Abercrombie. You don't think, "Oh, what a pretty girl. I wonder if she is nice and has dreams and aspirations of being a doctor." No. You think, "Wow that top looks really cute. I'm going to buy it." The women in the photos or on commercials become objects, not people.

This can be taken a step further into pornography. This isn't just a male issue, it's a women one too. It's so pervasive in our culture. We glorify it and call it, "The Twilight series." "50 Shades of Grey." "Cosmopolitan." "The sex scene of a movie." "The love story of a TV show." Honestly, if I wanted to eliminate it completely from my life, I would have to not have a TV or have a Netflix subscription, never go to the mall or drive on the street, never buy a magazine and keep my head down as I walk.  That's how engrained it is in our culture. We buy into it. I include myself in this, like I've already said.

What normally happens is this mentality then begins to go just from fantasies in our head to realities in our heart. As humans, we like to make dreams become reality. In some cases this is good. Dreams are what drives us. What is bad is if those dreams are destructive and lead us to do destructive things. That's what happens when we objectify women in fantasy. We then escalate to making it true in our lives. That's why human trafficking will probably always exist unless something happens to stop the demand.

What I love about this Disney video is I look at these girls and I see them as GIRLS. They have hopes and dreams. They are into music, friendship, gardening, race car driving, archery. You can see they have feelings and love dancing with their Daddies. They like swimming with friends. What would happen to our culture if we saw women in our advertisements like THAT. What if we realized that it could be our daughters and sisters in that photo plastered on the wall of a mall. We would treat them totally different. It brings me to tears to think about that. I would be so joyful if I never had to work against human trafficking again. If I never had to see a girl and know the pain they have endured.

If I ever got the chance to meet Princess Kate, I don't know if I would have adequate words to say to her I'd be so starstruck. I mean come on people. She is idolized for being so poised and graceful, and she is. She is the quintessential of every girl's dream. She grew up in a non-royalty family and became a princess after falling in love with the man of her dreams! What girl doesn't want that? If I met her, I would treat her with the upmost respect and courtesy because she's ROYALTY.

Thing is, what if we treated everyone like that?

The Bible says in Romans 8:16-17a

"The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ..."

God created all of us. He values all of us just like we are his children. If God is the king, that makes us princes and princesses. All of us. 

I'm a Princess, a daughter of the King. Treat my brothers and sisters like one too.

Musings

Hello everyone. Happy Monday (and yes, that is a legitimate thing to say. You CAN be happy on a Monday)!

I am lacking in any one big thing to share so I instead, am going to expound on a couple of small things I've had rolling around in my head. I hope they help you. :)

1. Life is always going to be crazy. What changes is the type of crazy and how much. What we can do however, is learn to keep it at a minimum or embrace it for it's fullest potential. Take Bilbo Baggins for example. He was offered a choice to sit on his behind in Bag End or to go on a journey. No matter what choice he made, we find out what kind of hobbit he was. But with the latter, we get an inspiring story of perseverance, loyalty and courage that has inspired generations. Imagine the Hobbit if he would have stayed. We would have had a short book and none of the Lord of the Rings.

2. Stop picking at scabs. We go through life and because of the chaos, we get hurt. We get some scabs. For example, I got scratched by a cat at my in law's house and I have a small cut on my arm now. It's been there for a week and now starts to itch. However, if I keep picking at it like I have, it will take even longer to heal much less bleed all over the place. If I do that with my mental or spiritual scars, I keep picking at them, bringing up the raw feelings again by thinking about them a lot, they will take longer to heal and will leave a more lasting scar.

3. What you put in is what you get out. What I eat is going to directly affect my performance while running. What I think about is like food and is going to directly affect my actions. When I feel something, I need to stop and think, "Why am I feeling this." Then pray. Then meditate on God's answer. The most important step is action. Why would I learn something from God and then not put it into action?

4. Don't undervalue hard work. Many people in my generation try to find the easy way to things. What they don't realize is that you often never get to the best things in life by trying to find short cuts. Some of the best places to see in the world require hours spent uncomfortably traveling. Fitness is never achieved through sitting on a couch. Without the hard work, you will never appreciate the end result or learn what you learn along the journey.

5. Don't wait for tomorrow. I just finished teaching my 5th graders who are about to become 6th graders. I had them write down their dreams and aspirations for their lives. Thing is, when you look at what they wrote down (learning a new language, helping people, learning how to take care of animals, becoming a better student, athlete, etc) I was showing them that they don't have to wait until they are "older" to do any of these. God gave them life now and they can make a difference now, no matter their age. Same goes with us. We shouldn't wait for the "opportune moments." It will never come and you will have wasted all that time that you were given.

Then I was looking through my Pinterest and I was reminded about some things that I really loved.

I think this is so true in my marriage. I hope I show Jared that I love him every day.



This is me with my friends. :)


Stop trying to be someone else. God made you, you. No one else! You never know who wants to be you!


Yes!

Our God is amazing. I hope to do this someday! Like...Alaska!

Last day booster...read Romans 5. It's my favorite!

God gave you today so let's make it amazing!

The Mental Game

Happy Saturday everyone! Jared and I started out our morning with a six mile run. It was a gorgeous morning and the air smelled like honeydew. Seriously. The park and neighborhood we run by is filled with it! It reminds me of the honeydew I used to bike by on my way to school as a kid.

Anywho. Today, my biggest challenge wasn't my ability to run six miles. I knew I could do that...I've run a 10K before. No, today my biggest challenge was my brain.

I've been reading up on marathon training with a book called "The Marathon Method" by Tim Holland. He spends a whole section of his training chapter on mental training. Why? Because half of the marathon process is mental. Do you want to win and what will you do to make that happen? He says that he has his own sayings that he just puts on repeat that help him get through a run. Things like, "You're fine" and "Push it." The question isn't will you experience pain in running. The question is instead, what do you do when it happens?

A well known scientist in brain research is Dr. Caroline Leaf. She has spent several years researching the brain and how it reacts to positive and mental thinking. The best part, her research backs up what it already says in the Bible and she openly admits it! Most people know that in Romans it says,

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:1, 2 ESV)

There is a process of renewing the mind and Dr. Leaf explains that this process starts with a choice. Will you think positive thoughts, or negative ones? Each brings their own physiological side effects. Negative thoughts bring about fear and stress on the body. I'm sure we are all familiar with stress and how significant a role bad stress plays in diseases. Positive thoughts however, literally get rid of neurons that have developed under stressful conditions and replace the neuron with a stronger fully developed neuron. It's a bona-fied real regeneration of the mind. Nothing metaphorical about it.

So I've been looking at this six mile run on my calendar for a while and I'm not going to lie, I was apprehensive about it. Add in that I was going to have to wake up early and run with only a little coffee and food for a really long run, and I was daunted. But having just read about the mental game, I woke up and decided I was gonna think positive. I could do this even if my routine was a little different. I just needed to do what I've learned and enjoy the process. When something hurt, I just told myself I was still ok and I wasn't going to die. I smelled the flowers. I listened to a really funny podcast from Breakaway. I thought about how lucky I was to do this with the hubby. It was such an enjoyable run and I am certain that it was because I did what I was taught, was prepared and thought positively about the whole thing.

So check that run off. What's next? :D