Got an awesome email over the weekend from my dear friend Alex.  Part of it was too good not to share with you girls…I hope she doesn’t mind!

(As you know) I was dating God for a year.  Well yesterday was my one year!! SO crazeh but SO great. I love God so much and he is providing opportunites to encourage me and others to become more godly even when I don’t “feel” like it. This world has so many pressures but with Gods help I am slowly escaping them, like the pressure of the media, needing a boyfriend to be secure, etc. God is just teaching me to trust Him. I just encountered a struggle and all God said was to trust Him, “just trust me, just trust me” He would keep saying. and its actually insane how faithful he was to that. I couldn’t have gotten thro it without Him, and he provided just what I needed to get through! I am learning everyday and am excited for a new stage of my relationship with God. Through dating Him, I became much more confident in myself and in who I am. I am really excited to see what God has in store for me in the next few months!!

It PUMPS ME UP that there are young women who live like this. It’s totally goes against what the rest of the world is doing.  It’s absolutely counter-culture, and completely life-changing.  Alex- I’m SO proud of you, you’re (probably literally) 1 in 1000.

Has anyone else ‘dated God’ for a while?  What was the experience like?  Was it worth the time and effort?  Any tips/suggestions/ideas on how to make the best of it.

Girls don’t get the credit they deserve sometimes.  Seriously, there is still a societal expectation that ya’ll aren’t quite as good as the boys.

I had a conversation with my friend Cat last year…she was taking a college course and they were comparing salaries.  You guessed it- you people with less parts make less money.

You’re good, but not great.  You’re cool, but not the best.  You’re about 80% of us men.  Pound-for-pound, most people will hire a dude.  Talented, but not the cream of the crop.  Creative, but not revolutionary.  Neat, but not extraordinary.

Here’s a break-through idea:  Don’t even bother to prove them wrong.

It’s not worth the effort, and it only supports the assumption that you need man’s approval for who God made you to be.  You end up trying to just be more like the men around you.  How screwed up is that?!

A great example of this is in the car business.  It’s a very old-school, boy’s club, male-dominated profession.  The women are few and far between, and guess what?  The ones that do make act just like guys.  They come in here and they’re loud and they swear and they drink and they act just like dudes.  Consistently.  It’s very weird.  Thing is…you can feel the insecurity.  You can see it’s a mask.  That they have to protect themselves from (and prove themselves to) the not-so-nice men of the car business.

Try this one on for size:
God created you for something special.  Something specific.  Something great.  It might be big or it might be small, but it will be great.  He created you to be like His boy…Jesus.  He didn’t make a mistake by making you a wonderful woman.  He didn’t mix things up.  You’re not a screw-up.  He planned you this way.  So here’s an idea instead:

Prove God right.

So girl, what you got?

There’s a notion in most contemporary Christian that gives me a little bit of the heebie jeebies. Now I’m not too sure what the “heebie jeebies” are or where they originated but that’s not what I’m writing about today. So it’s better to just accept my terminology.

The reality is we all have a bit of this notion in us. It can all be summed up in a thought everyone lives on earth has had independent of ethnicity, geography, or relgion… “I cannot wait for heaven”.

Now I am quite aware that heaven’s not the bad guy here. I mean who wouldn’t be just a little bit interested in going to a place that has the credentials it does that are mentioned in the Bible. No, the fault lands in our court.

The term that most accurately reflects this situation is “Escapism”. That we just need to, endure this life. I think the faults in this way of thinking are quite obvious. If it’s just about getting somewhere then what’s the point of the journey?

It’s even more interesting when you look at what Jesus talked about in the Bible. You’d think that if the only important idea he wished to deliver was to believe in him and simply wait for heaven that it would be all over those pages.

But it’s not.

Jesus lived. I think that maybe that alone shows how much God cares about this world, this life, you. He healed, cared, cried, and spoke about something called the Kingdom of God. That it was moving. Expanding. Growing. And Jesus was giving people a chance to join it. It was here, on earth.

You see we’re not waiting for heaven anymore. When Jesus came down. He lived, died, and rose again. And he forever joined heaven and earth. We’re not perpetually waiting for God now. He is now always here.

There is no “Heaven vs Earth” to Jesus. There is only his Kingdom, which has forever joined earth and heaven together. The Lord Jesus Christ did this. How does this affect the way you live? See life? Are you helping bring heaven to earth?

Sometimes we need to restructure our thoughts. It’s part of life. We are called to be part of redeeming… everything.

Girls, redeem the term Woman. Be part of the kingdom of God.  Let us control ourselves in a world that will go to any length for gratification. Pray, you are not by yourself.

May you embrace heaven and earth
May you know the one who joined them forever
May you live in such a way that all spectators see Jesus, Heaven, and the redemption of Earth

Rich

As Easter gets closer, I have been thinking about Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Though fully innocent, He died a criminal’s death on a Roman cross.  For us.  But the part of the story that gives me shivers is when the women went to the tomb and found it…EMPTY!

Can you imagine how crazy it would be to see it all firsthand?  What would be running through your mind?  What kind of earth-shattering power raises someone from the dead?

It is the same power that lives inside of you.

“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.  And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.  Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.” -Romans 8:11,12

If you have asked Jesus to become your Lord and Saviour, the very same Spirit that raised Him from the dead has taken residence within you.  Let this sink in and ask yourself the following:

How is God’s power evident in my life?  What is my sinful nature urging me to do, and how often do I remember that I am under no obligation to follow it?  Have a wrongly assumed that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is somehow different from the Spirit that lives in me?  What would my life look like if I lived out this verse?

Ladies, if you feel like you are losing the battle, I encourage you to think of the following words by Casting Crowns as we approach Easter.

I’ll go but I cannot go alone

Until you bring the victory

By the power of Christ in me.

Michelle

I will never forget the shrieks of laughter that occurred this past Thursday morning.  We ran, giggled, spun in circles, fell head first down the drive way and haltingly picked ourselves back up for the better part of an hour.  I could give you time to guess what we were doing…but you wouldn’t!  We were chasing shadows. That’s it.  There were no dramatic events or special props we were just enjoying a beautiful spring day and the effects that the shining sun was giving us.  Playing is one of my favorite parts of my job!  For those hours while I look after these children, I get to stop acting like an adult and get down to their level.  I get to relearn life and how each small detail thrills or horrifies them.

As Sam and I chased our shadows, I began to wonder…when exactly was it that I stopped loving the simple things of life?  When did I stop being thrilled by a shadow, or awed by moth?  Children have this unique gift of taking time to smell the roses and appreciate the hugeness of everything God has given to us.  When was the last time I took time out of the busyness of life, to simply enjoy life?  I have found that when I allow the spontaneous, unplanned and sporadic moments to happen and when I have allowed myself to truly appreciate them for all they are, that God has often chosen those moments to whisper his words into my heart.

So here’s the question I’ve been asking myself.  A question that really I think we all need to be asking.  How can I begin appreciating the simple things of life again? What needs to change in my life so that I recognize the simple things as being unique God moments?  Today I took time out for a long walk in nature and a phone call to my Grandma.  Not only do I feel less stressed then I do when I am in constant high gear mode, but I also have a Grandma who was blessed that I thought to call her and made sure to tell me that she prays for me daily.

So what does it look like for you?

Andrea