God Has A Plan

Weekends are a time for me to post whatever's on my heart. Well there's a lesson I need to hear myself so that's why I'm putting it into words.

God has a plan. I can say that a million times and still not get the message through my thick skull. God has a plan. For me; for you; for the world. And yet, I don't ever get the message. I make my own plans and get my hopes up, then get discouraged when things don't go my way. But God has a plan.

Emily's plan was to go to Freed-Hardeman and major in journalism so she could become a news anchor or reporter. God's plan was for Emily to go to Freed-Hardeman and meet Robert in her communications classes, marry him, and move to a small town where she could use her journalism classes as a background for editing videos for the Gospel Broadcasting Network. Not my plan, but God's was better.

There are a million other instances like that, where God's plan has proven so much greater than my own. In my every day life I need to remember that He is in control. When I get upset about the outcome of something, or get anxious over something that hasn't even happened, or get upset when things go differently than I want--God is in control. God has a plan for my future just like He had a plan for my past.

(ESV) Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

How We Treat The Opposite Sex

Romans 12 is said to contain a list of Christian virtues. Starting in verse 9, we are given a list of attributes Christians should possess and ways they should act. While most people use 1 Corinthians 13 to define love and how we should treat our spouses, I like to use Romans 12:9-18. I especially like verses nine though twelve. Here's what those verses say:

"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;"

There are so many ways to apply these sentiments, but there's one area I want to zoom in on today.

First and foremost let me tell you that I am by no means a perfect wife. After all, I've only been a wife for a little over 8 months. Still, I have seen a problem with wives of my generation and I really think it needs to be addressed. Lately, I am seeing more and more women talking about famous men on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. While most do so in a playful way, I can't help but feel a sting for their husbands. I'm not saying it is wrong to talk about celebrities or prefer certain ones over others; I have my favorites, too. But here's a sobering question: Do you get upset when your husband talks about other women? Why then do we go on and on about other men?

I think it is just as hurtful to our husbands when we talk about certain celebrities and how "hot" or "attractive" or "great" they are. Not because our husbands are insecure or weak or anything of the sort, but because they're human beings. They need to feel wanted and appreciated and loved. How are we making them feel by praising worldly men based on their appearance? Do we give our Godly husbands the same kind of public praise?

If, as a Christian, I am supposed to give preference to others, and be kindly affectionate to others, how much more so am I supposed to give those things to my husband? Should I not prefer him, even in the silliest and most superficial of ways?

Ephesians 5:33 says, "Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."

There are many different ways to show respect to our husbands. I think one way that we could do that is by only praising OUR men. Sure, I can like certain celebrities. Do I have to go on and on about how gorgeous or great or amazing they are? Do I have to plaster pictures of them everywhere? Do I need to try to make my husband jealous?? Of course not. I should spend as much if not more time praising my husband and building him up. Out of respect for my husband, I shouldn't go on and on about other men in the same way that I would feel bad and insecure if he went on and on about how attractive other women are. It's not that I don't know other women are way more attractive than I am, but I don't want my husband to think so. In the same way, we shouldn't act like other men are more attractive than our husbands. They are ours, after all.

Robert and I both share a love for Michael Buble's voice. I'd like to think, though, that Robert knows I'd much rather have him singing to me any day. I may like certain celebrities, but my husband knows that I am completely smitten by and attracted to him above all. That's what it's all about.

Wives, try hard this week to compliment and praise your husband publicly, especially when you feel like complimenting or praising some wordly man. And if you're not married--practice this concept. Stop objectifying men. We get so upset when men do it to us, yet we excuse the behavior for our gender.

Titus 2:3-4 says (ASV): "that the aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children.."

Apparently, loving our husbands is something we need to be trained to do. It might not always come naturally. Let's work toward training ourselves to love our husbands in the way God intended for us to love them.

All I want out of life is to go to heaven, be a Godly wife and mother, and have my family get to heaven with me. The purpose of this post and all others is to consider myself first so that I can be right with God. It is never intended to attack, condemn, or anything else. I only want to get to heaven, and help others get there.

(Wordless Wednesday)

http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=3522

Tough Stuff Tuesday: Immodest Clothing

I couldn't start a post on immodesty without linking you to some amazing stuff written by Jennifer Gerhardt. Scroll back through her old posts and read all about modesty. It's some incredible stuff.

Being the first day of spring, immodest clothing season is rapidly approaching. I think it's important for us to purpose from the very beginning that we want to be modest this year, in every way. I will be focusing on the "usual" modesty topic---you know, the one that talks about covering up. Jennifer addressed so many amazing things in her posts and I think you should take the time to read her thoughts on what it means to be truly modest. I'll just be focusing on this one way.

Every year tells the same tale: girls who are Christians don't clothe themselves with Christ during the hotter months. That's a blanket statement, and in no way do I think that all girls dress immodestly. However, I know it is a struggle for even the girls with the purest of motives. Manufacturers don't make a lot of modest clothes. So even if you want to, it's difficult.

Still, some girls don't seem to want to. Tank tops and cleavage and thighs and bikinis abound from March through September. There isn't much left to anyone's imagination. There definitely isn't a lot left for their future husbands. Now I know that the overwhelming majority of people who read my posts aren't teenage girls, but I know some moms read it. I know some dads read it. I know some college-aged singles read it. And guess what? Modesty is for all of us.

While I'm not a parent, I can assure you that you hold so much power in how your child dresses and will continue to dress. I can remember going shopping with my mom when I was young (maybe 8 or so) and she wouldn't let me buy tank tops. I thought, Mom, that's crazy! And yet, when I was a teenager, I wasn't tempted to wear spaghetti strap tank tops or tube tops (though that doesn't mean that I didn't go through my rebellious stages at times). My mom had instilled in me that it wasn't appropriate to wear things like that. Had my mom let me wear things like that until I was 12 or 13 and then one day say, "well I don't think that's really appropriate", I might have gotten mixed signals. Having boundaries at an early age helped me stay away from those things that would hurt my influence when I was older. I can also remember an instance when I was in high school, perhaps a freshman or sophomore, and I came bustling down the stairs in something that was too short. My mom immediately sent me upstairs to change. I can't tell you where I was going, what I was wearing, or anything like that, but I can tell you that I remember the lesson. I was irritated at the time because I wanted to "fit in", but looking back, I'm thankful that my mom taught me to be separate. After all, that's what being holy really means.

Really, though, modesty starts in the heart. If your heart is right with and close to God, you will try to clothe yourself with Christ, not the world. Instead of trying to impress the boys or girls at school, you will try to live in a way that God wants you to, constantly trying to please Him. If your heart isn't close to Him, why would you be expected to alter the way you dress? That would be going through the motions, wouldn't it? It is only when we give our hearts to God that we give Him our entire body as well.

Are you a Christian? Think back to the time you were baptized. That wasn't a flippant thing. When we are baptized, we put on Christ (Gal 3:27). You read that right, we "put on". What other kinds of things do we put on? Right--apparel. When we wake up each morning, we should put on Christ first. Before we walk to our closet, before we mentally start checking off which things are clean and which are dirty, we should pray to our Father that we will act like Christ. When that is our mindset, the rest will be easy. We won't wear clothes that draw attention to ourselves--we'll want people to see Christ in us. We won't wear clothes that are too tight or too low cut or too short--we'll want others to know that Jesus lives inside of us. We won't make excuses for why we're being immodest (nothing fits me right, my ___ is/are just too big)--we'll be seeking God first, self second.

There is so much more to modesty, and that's why I linked you to Jennifer's blog. I do think it's important, though, that we all prepare for the warm weather we're about to experience by first putting on Christ, then selecting our summer wardrobe accordingly.

I want to leave you with the wise words of Paul, specifically addressing the ladies:

"...that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works." -1 Tim 2:9-10, emp. added. 

Don't think of it as having restrictions because you're a female. Instead, think of it as a way to outwardly express your godliness every single day

Why I Loved This Weekend

If you read my post from yesterday, it's no surprise to you that I am now the owner of a new iPad. I'm still getting adjusted to not having a laptop, but I don't think it will be a very difficult change. I have already fallen in love with dictation, iPhoto, the resolution, and everything else about it. That's reason enough to have a great weekend, right? The thing is, there is SO much more.

It all started Friday. I worked Friday morning until lunch, then had to take off and head toward Lawrenceburg to...wait for it...you can totally judge me for this...officially change my name. I'd been putting it off (for 8 months?!) because you can't do it right here in Pulaski. Who wants to go to a neighboring county to do it? Not this girl. Finally, though, I purposed in my heart that I couldn't put it off any longer. So, on an unseasonably warm March day I got in ole Julius and rode with the windows down all the way to Lawrenceburg.

I was prepared for a wait. I packed a book and my fully-charged iPhone in preparation. When I arrived at the social security office, there were no other cars there. I thought they were closed for lunch.

False.

I walked inside and was greeted by a precious security guard who told me the wait was five minutes. Ten minutes later I was in my car and on my way to the driver's license place.

I walked in the driver's license place expecting it to be like Huntsville--rude people, long lines, etc. Not so! Good old Lawrenceburg surprised me again with a two minute wait and a very helpful lady who officially welcomed me to Tennessee (though she wouldn't give me back my Alabama license and I was sad). By the time I got back to Pulaski, I'd spent 40 minutes driving and 20 minutes actually changing my name. This was a much easier process than I'd expected.

So, I decided to go and get my car tag. Easy-peasy again. The last thing on the list was changing my name at my bank. Blah. To do that, I had to go to Huntsville. You can't exactly call the bank and say, yeah I changed my name! Put a brand new name on my bank account that has a gazillion dollars in it (ha, funny). Making the day all the better, Robert decided to join me on the jaunt to Huntsvegas. I had warned him along the way that there was no way my luck could last in Huntsville. Any time I'd gone to the bank on a Friday afternoon in Huntsville the wait was atrocious. Anytime I went to the bank at ALL in Huntsville the wait was pretty bad. And yet, we rolled up in the parking lot, got out, asked the lady at the front where we needed to go, and she said she'd take us back and take care of it. 8 minutes later and we were out of there, too! The final remnant of Lauren (the old middle name that I dropped) was gone. I was no longer an Alabama resident. I no longer went by my given name. Nope, I was a new person from a new state with a new tag and a new license and a new social security card. AND IT WAS THE EASIEST PROCESS EVER.

I even got to meet my family at Rosie's (my all-time favorite place) for dinner, capping off a perfect day.

Let's move on to Saturday shall we? (As if this post isn't long enough already!)

Robert and I had planned to go to the Green Hills mall in Nashville, so we got up, got ready, and headed toward Franklin to get something to eat. It was another gorgeous day, traffic wasn't unbearable, we found an amazing parking spot within seconds (which, if you've been to green hills, you know how amazing this is). We had a productive shopping day, too. I got some new (incredibly discounted) pants from Loft, some practical items from the Container Store, had some cheesecake from--where else?--The Cheesecake Factory, and I got to spend all of that time with my amazing, wonderful husband. Oh, and then we had the best experience ever at the Apple Store. Just an all-around perfect day. As we were leaving I even used the phrase, "There's a rainbow in my heart." Who am I and what kind of perfect day possessed me? I don't use phrases like that. And yet, it was so befitting of that day.

Yesterday was also incredible. We got to worship with the saints at East Hill, which is always a blessing. We had an amazing Bible class on giving, then a great lesson on unity/fellowship. I had a nice lunch date with Robert, and then he went back up to the church building and I did the Sunday usual--Wal-Mart. Continuing my good luck streak, I didn't get stopped by any lights on the way and found an incredibly close parking spot the very first go-round. As I was leaving, the buggy guys even stopped and waited for me to finish unloading my groceries so they could take my cart for me. Like I said, good luck.

Next, I headed to the dollar tree to get wreath supplies. My sister texted me Saturday night and said she'd made a wreath with supplies from the dollar tree, and I decided to try it out. 15 minutes and 6 dollars later, I had all of my supplies. 20 minutes after getting home and unloading all of the supplies, my wreath was finished and hanging on my door.

Another perfect weekend in Pulaski if I do say so myself.

This is only a test

On Saturday, I got the new iPad. My wonderful husband took me to the Apple Store at Green hills and we decided that instead of getting a MacBook air, I would just get an iPad in the place of my personal computer. I'm pretty excited about it, especially because there is dictation on the iPad. That's exactly what I'm doing now--I'm talking to my iPad and it's typing. So that's why I am calling this a test. I'm testing the dictation on my iPad; I'm testing the new way I'll be blogging. I hope you enjoy all of my upcoming posts as much as I will.

So that's it then. This is only a test. Hope you enjoy all my posts and I hope you will tune in and comment. Thanks!

(Wordless Wednesday)