I think I've posted about thankfulness before... yeah, pretty sure I have. But that's okay, because it's one of those topics that doesn't get old quickly.
Anyways, I was nominated to do the 5-day gratitude challenge, or whatever the official title of it is called, but instead of doing the challenge over 5 days (I did day #1 yesterday already), I decided to just combine the last four days into a blog post... because I want to write about thankfulness, and that way y'all don't have to see stuff from me every single day. This is just easier. :)
Now, you can be thankful for the little things in life and you can be thankful for the big things in life. I personally think it's important to appreciate BOTH - the little things can bring us so much joy, the big things are great too. We never know when something may be lost and we won't have the chance to be thankful for it any more.
I think that being thankful is a mindset. It's a mindset of not taking things for granted, appreciating what things you do have even on hard days, and taking the time to enjoy those little moments in life that we never want to forget. (p.s. this mindset lasts for longer than a 5 day challenge).
Guys, we live in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - do you know what that means? It means we're some of the most blessed people in the whole. wide. world. And you know what? I think that despite that, we still complain more than any other country in the world (I could be wrong, but that's what it seems like). Don't get me wrong, I complain too... sometimes a lot, but that is not something that I want to be known for or something that I am proud of.
When I take a step back and look at the big picture, there is no reason for Americans to be so ungrateful about everything. C'MON EVERYONE-- when I look at the news going on around the world, I can't help but be amazed at how blessed I am. I can worship God freely, I can proclaim my agreement or disagreement with politicians, I don't have to worry about leaving my house and getting blown up, any citizen 18 & up can vote (regardless of race or gender), we all have food on our tables, we have soldiers who fight to protect us and our rights, most of us have parents who care about us, people have the ability to choose to educate their kids how they want... ALL OF THESE THINGS (the list goes on and on)... and yet, people still complain or point out how they don't have the newest phone model, so their life is just really terrible, or they're just soooo tired of going to school and they wish they could stay home all day. That is lame. We take so many things for GRANTED here, things that other people in other countries would be so grateful to have (like education, food, a family, protection, a government that isn't openly terribly corrupt and goes about killing all its citizens, etc. (guys I know our government isn't the best... but it's still way better than governments in other countries)).
We are so focused on getting MORE that we forget what we already HAVE. We somehow look past all of the things that we have been blessed with and instead all we want are things that we don't have, and we think "oh, well if I had that, then I wouldn't want anything else because that thing would make me happy". In the words of one of Jake Owen's songs... "We all want what we ain't got".
Things are SO flipped around in the world. We have everything but complain as if we have nothing, and people in other countries have nothing and still are so thankful for even the littlest things in life. That doesn't make sense.
Closing thoughts: Be thankful for what you have, because... someday you may not have that stuff any more. Be grateful for the friends that you have now and your loving family. Right
now have the ability to speak up about your beliefs and to talk to
people in power about why you think they should change their ideas or
what you like about what they're doing - not everyone has that in other countries. Take full advantage of your education, because even though a lot of people in my generation don't enjoy it or care about their education, we are so blessed to even be able to take the classes that we do and go to colleges and universities and gain knowledge.
YOU have been incredibly blessed where you are right now, understand that. Now go forth and be thankful in your life for the little things and the big things, and if somehow you lose everything in life, still be thankful that you serve a great God who has given you life on this earth. Finally, make being thankful a mindset, not just something that you do occasionally or for a 5 day challenge.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 "... give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
Monday, September 8, 2014
Sunday, August 17, 2014
I believe in equal opportunity, but I'm not a feminist
Feminism seems to be a popular topic these days. I have friends that are feminists, and I have friends that aren't feminists... and I respect them all. I believe that men and women should all have equal opportunities in the world, and if a woman wants to go out in the world and accomplish great things, she should totally go for it. But when people ask me if I am a feminist, the answer is no, for a few reasons.
A lot of people tell me, "Oh, you should be a feminist. Some feminists have liberal ideas, but not everyone is like that." Of course not everyone is like that, but in my experience, and from speaking to several feminists that I know, it seems that actually... most of the feminist movement is like that. In fact, I would say that about 95% of the feminists that I know do support the liberal principles that the feminist movement as a whole has set forth (things like women should be allowed to control their bodies, which means that abortion is okay). I find it very hard to sympathize or side with a group of people that, for the most part (in my experience), are advocates for many ideas that I disagree with.
First off, maybe this one isn’t as important, but it’s important to me. Let’s just take a look at the word “feminist”. Nothing about that word, in and of itself, speaks “equality” to me. All other words similar to this word value one thing/person above another. For example, a sexist is someone who values one sex above another. A racist is someone who values one race above another. A socialist or capitalist is someone who values a certain kind of government or economic system above another kind. This leads me to believe that the word "feminist" really doesn't have anything to do with equality, it honestly just sounds like a word that means that some people value women above other people. Sorry, just what it sounds like. It's not a word that tells me anything about the feminist movement being all about equality.
Secondly, the feminist movement claims that their main goal is equality, but equality isn't something that you can force. For example, there is an unequal number of men and women in Congress, and I really don’t have a problem with that. There could be so many outside reasons for that, and I don’t think we should ever reach the point where feminists are so passionate about things being equal, that they insist that an equal number of men and women work in Congress. I think everyone should have equal opportunity (the idea that everyone should have the same chance to do something), but you should never force there to be equality simply by comparing statistics of the number of men to women in certain things.
I also don't like or appreciate how the feminists focus so much on how unjust things are for women, how unequal things are, etc. The problem is that they fail to acknowledge how many rights and freedoms women have in the United States compared to other countries. Compared to women in a lot of other countries around the world, we are doing SO WELL. We are actually treated as human beings. Personally, I’d rather focus my time and energy into helping other women around the globe get the point where we are now, I'd rather help those women be treated like human beings, instead of worrying about the fact that right now, there are more men than women in Congress, and women make a little bit less than men. It’s really not that big of a deal, compared to problems that other women face around the globe. I am so thankful for the freedoms and rights that we as women, DO have today.
The whole idea of feminism, from what I’ve seen and read, is focused on the idea that women don’t want to just stay at home, they want to get out there and do things, they want to run for political office, they want to be CEO’s, etc. Now there’s nothing wrong with having big goals, but I do have a problem with the idea that staying at home and working is somehow “not good enough”. My mom used to teach at a university, but she gave that career up so that she could raise her kids (one of which is me) at home. I have NEVER seen her as being “lesser” than other women, or her job somehow being “unequal”, simply because she chose to stay home instead of going out and teaching or doing something that is supposedly greater. In fact, I would argue that all jobs are equally important, all are necessary, including the job of just being a mom. Moms raise the children up to be good citizens of the country, they have the ability to teach them life lessons, good morals, etc. That is a noble job. I know that I have the ability to someday do something like run for a political office, but I’m not entirely sure that that’s what I want to do with my life. I’m actually strongly considering raising a family, as a job. I wouldn’t get paid for that, but by no means would I think that I am somehow on an unequal level for men. I would be more than happy to spend a part of my life raising children, and then maybe later in my life I could do something in politics (like when my children get older, be a lobbyist or something). Again, don’t get me wrong, if you want to go to law school or run for president or whatever, GO FOR IT. That’s awesome that you want to do that. But I don’t like the way the feminist movement seems to think that men somehow get more important jobs than women, when in fact, I believe women have been given the wonderful opportunity to raise up the next generation. We don’t all have to do the same thing, we’re all different, and that’s okay. I’ve come to accept that guys are probably just better at some things than girls are (like guys are generally better at carrying heavy stones and building big buildings than girls are), and then girls are better at some things than boys are. That’s just how we are. AND THAT’S OKAY. Women should never feel obligated to do something that a man is doing, just to feel equal.
I realize that what I said is a generalization of the feminist movement, but that is how I see the movement as a whole, and it's why I won't call myself a feminist. As I said, I believe in equal opportunity for men AND women, but the feminist movement promotes so much more than that, and I can't bring myself to support them.
A lot of people tell me, "Oh, you should be a feminist. Some feminists have liberal ideas, but not everyone is like that." Of course not everyone is like that, but in my experience, and from speaking to several feminists that I know, it seems that actually... most of the feminist movement is like that. In fact, I would say that about 95% of the feminists that I know do support the liberal principles that the feminist movement as a whole has set forth (things like women should be allowed to control their bodies, which means that abortion is okay). I find it very hard to sympathize or side with a group of people that, for the most part (in my experience), are advocates for many ideas that I disagree with.
First off, maybe this one isn’t as important, but it’s important to me. Let’s just take a look at the word “feminist”. Nothing about that word, in and of itself, speaks “equality” to me. All other words similar to this word value one thing/person above another. For example, a sexist is someone who values one sex above another. A racist is someone who values one race above another. A socialist or capitalist is someone who values a certain kind of government or economic system above another kind. This leads me to believe that the word "feminist" really doesn't have anything to do with equality, it honestly just sounds like a word that means that some people value women above other people. Sorry, just what it sounds like. It's not a word that tells me anything about the feminist movement being all about equality.
Secondly, the feminist movement claims that their main goal is equality, but equality isn't something that you can force. For example, there is an unequal number of men and women in Congress, and I really don’t have a problem with that. There could be so many outside reasons for that, and I don’t think we should ever reach the point where feminists are so passionate about things being equal, that they insist that an equal number of men and women work in Congress. I think everyone should have equal opportunity (the idea that everyone should have the same chance to do something), but you should never force there to be equality simply by comparing statistics of the number of men to women in certain things.
I also don't like or appreciate how the feminists focus so much on how unjust things are for women, how unequal things are, etc. The problem is that they fail to acknowledge how many rights and freedoms women have in the United States compared to other countries. Compared to women in a lot of other countries around the world, we are doing SO WELL. We are actually treated as human beings. Personally, I’d rather focus my time and energy into helping other women around the globe get the point where we are now, I'd rather help those women be treated like human beings, instead of worrying about the fact that right now, there are more men than women in Congress, and women make a little bit less than men. It’s really not that big of a deal, compared to problems that other women face around the globe. I am so thankful for the freedoms and rights that we as women, DO have today.
The whole idea of feminism, from what I’ve seen and read, is focused on the idea that women don’t want to just stay at home, they want to get out there and do things, they want to run for political office, they want to be CEO’s, etc. Now there’s nothing wrong with having big goals, but I do have a problem with the idea that staying at home and working is somehow “not good enough”. My mom used to teach at a university, but she gave that career up so that she could raise her kids (one of which is me) at home. I have NEVER seen her as being “lesser” than other women, or her job somehow being “unequal”, simply because she chose to stay home instead of going out and teaching or doing something that is supposedly greater. In fact, I would argue that all jobs are equally important, all are necessary, including the job of just being a mom. Moms raise the children up to be good citizens of the country, they have the ability to teach them life lessons, good morals, etc. That is a noble job. I know that I have the ability to someday do something like run for a political office, but I’m not entirely sure that that’s what I want to do with my life. I’m actually strongly considering raising a family, as a job. I wouldn’t get paid for that, but by no means would I think that I am somehow on an unequal level for men. I would be more than happy to spend a part of my life raising children, and then maybe later in my life I could do something in politics (like when my children get older, be a lobbyist or something). Again, don’t get me wrong, if you want to go to law school or run for president or whatever, GO FOR IT. That’s awesome that you want to do that. But I don’t like the way the feminist movement seems to think that men somehow get more important jobs than women, when in fact, I believe women have been given the wonderful opportunity to raise up the next generation. We don’t all have to do the same thing, we’re all different, and that’s okay. I’ve come to accept that guys are probably just better at some things than girls are (like guys are generally better at carrying heavy stones and building big buildings than girls are), and then girls are better at some things than boys are. That’s just how we are. AND THAT’S OKAY. Women should never feel obligated to do something that a man is doing, just to feel equal.
I realize that what I said is a generalization of the feminist movement, but that is how I see the movement as a whole, and it's why I won't call myself a feminist. As I said, I believe in equal opportunity for men AND women, but the feminist movement promotes so much more than that, and I can't bring myself to support them.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Feminism
Spending an entire week in Washington DC with 97 other girls from all over the United States was quite the experience. I really enjoyed the company of some of the girls, but one thing I did learn while I was there was that… basically everyone was a feminist, and if you weren’t a feminist, then you were super weird…. Which means that I’m super weird.
Here’s what I heard all week long:
“I am SO ready for Hillary Clinton to be president. It’s
about time we had a woman president.”
“Women are the only ones whose healthcare decisions are
being made by men in the work place”
(asked to me): “Doesn’t being a Republican women make you
feel oppressed by all the men?”
“I’m so happy to be in a room of feminists!"
(my personal favorite): “Women will and should rule the world someday”
(When we met up with Boys Nation):
A White House reporter, who was a woman, decided to let us
ask her some questions. She answered a boy’s question first, which several of
the girls got upset about…“I can’t believe the boys were allowed to go first,
we should have been allowed to go first.”
When President Obama was shaking hands with some of the Boys
and Girls Nation senators: “He shook more boys’ hands than girls’ hands!”
The general stance on men: They’re all mostly misogynists.The funny thing about this is that if you ask them about it, they will deny that they "hate men"... and maybe they don't actually hate them, but seriously, that's how they act quite a bit of the time.
^That went on the whole week. Yeah. Now maybe it’s just the
fact that I’m a homeschooled-republican-Christian from Nebraska, but never have
I heard so many extreme feminist statements in one place in one week. To my
knowledge, it was only myself and the other Senator from Nebraska who did not
identify ourselves as feminists.
Don’t get me wrong – I do firmly believe that yes, women
should be respected, and that yes, women should be treated equally. But I also
understand that men and women can both play different roles in society, and that’s okay. WE DON’T ALL HAVE TO BE
THE SAME. Women don’t have to serve in men’s roles. And I don’t think that just
because a woman is capable of something that she should do it or that she
needs to feel obligated to do it.
The main problem that I see with the feminist movement today
is that women are demanding to be respected and elevated to the highest of
positions, just to prove that they are as capable as men. Annnnnd… that seems
like a really dumb reason (that we’re only doing it to “prove” something to
other people). In addition to demanding this respect, a lot of times the
feminists show little or no respect for men, because they blame them for all
the “problems”. Men, on the other hand, try to show respect to women, but I
feel like a lot of times women reject it. Men try to do nice things for women…
like opening doors, giving compliments, etc. and they always take it wrongly
(like with the opening a door thing… women seem to think that because a guy is
doing that, he doesn’t think she’s capable of doing it on her own… seriously?
Maybe the guy was just trying to be nice and respectful. None of the guys I know offer to open doors for girls because they think girls are incapable).
Personally, I’d rather spend my time and effort into fixing
problems in places of the world where women really ARE suffering – like, you
know, the Middle East, or India, or some place like that… where women are
actually commonly treated as animals, where abuse is not uncommon (and isn’t
punishable), etc. It seems to me (and maybe it’s just me…??) that spending time
helping those women gain self-respect, help society to view as human beings,
and help them gain rights, is a much more worthy cause than me marching around
saying that the world is an unfair and unjust place, because in America, we don’t
yet have a woman president and women sometimes get paid a few cents less per
hour than men do.
We really don’t have it as bad as some people say we do.
And, let’s be honest, in just 100 years, we’ve come a LONG way… we have the
right to vote, we can run for offices, we have women governors, women
representatives and senators, and women are serving in job positions that men
used to hold exclusively.
Don't get me wrong here, everyone. If you have great big aspirations and dreams, and you want to run for a big political office or whatever - go for it. That's totally cool, and I admire you for doing that. But I won't vote for you just because you're a woman - if you have good ideas on the other hand, that's a reason for me to vote for you.
Basically I think that: 1) It’s not as big of a problem as
everyone thinks it is, and it’s waaaay worse in other places. 2) If you
want to focus on this problem, then be kinder about it, and please, please, don’t
come across as someone who hates men and thinks women are far superior. 3) If you're good at something, by all means try to get a high position in a company or whatever... good for you if you can do that. But don't demand that you receive the position just because you're a woman.
The End
P.S. Yes, I know this post was a generalization. I know that not every feminist/woman is like this, but that's the general feeling I got from this past week. :P
Saturday, July 5, 2014
After a While
"After
a while you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and
chaining a soul and you learn love doesn't mean leaning and company
doesn't always mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't always promises and you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and and your eyes ahead with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers
And you learn that you really can endure, that you really are strong and you really do have worth and you learn and you learn...
...with every good-bye you learn."
-Veronica A. Shoffstall
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't always promises and you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and and your eyes ahead with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers
And you learn that you really can endure, that you really are strong and you really do have worth and you learn and you learn...
...with every good-bye you learn."
-Veronica A. Shoffstall
Thursday, May 22, 2014
= this is a rant =
As the title already warned you, this is a rant. If you don't like those, you don't have to read it. Bye.
Now that the only people left are people who like to read rants... let's get started. This is something that's been on my mind the past couple months. It's not my goal to be super critical or preachy, and if it comes across like that... sorry. But this is how I feel.
I remember back in the day when if I heard a bad word, it was either in a movie I was watching or from some person who didn't know any better. More recently however, I've started hearing people cuss more and more... and it's not because I am suddenly hanging out with a bad crowd. I'm hearing a lot of bad language coming from homeschoolers. Christian homeschoolers. That's not cool.
Before I keep going, I want to point out two things:
1) I understand that there are certain situations where swearing or whatever may be appropriate. For example: if something really terrible happens to you or if you're a soldier in war or something. But if someone is being a bad driver, or if your day isn't going 100% how you planned, that is not an acceptable reason to start throwing out f-bombs.
2) Don't get me wrong here... I'm not saying that if you swear regularly I think you're a terrible person and I won't ever talk to you again. That's not what I think. And also understand that I also don't always have the best choice of vocabulary, but I use bad words rarely and if I do use them, it's in private... like, to myself. Not to other people.
Ok, now let's keep going.
From my experience, and what I've seen in the past couple years, or even in the past months, it seems that most people take on the mindset of "if you swear, you're mature and cool". Let me get something straight here... swearing = immature. When I hear people cuss other people out, what DOESN'T pop into my mind is "oh wow, they're so mature and cool". Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind is, "Wow, they don't have enough class to know what's appropriate to say".
That leads me to my second point... swearing is not classy or respectable. It's just not. Get that in your head and let it stay there forever. If you want to have the respect of people, then it's not necessary to start swearing for no good reason at all.
It seems to me that another reason for people choosing to swear is because their parents don't want it and kids these days just like to be rebellious. Several times now, I've heard someone say a bad word, quickly followed up by "oh, don't tell my parents I said that." This is never said in a sorry way, like "oh no, I shouldn't have said that...", it's always more of a "I don't care about what I just said, just don't let my parents know." Whatever happened to having a bit of respect for what parents wanted?
One of the times when swearing disappoints me the most is in speech & debate. Now you would think that Christian homeschoolers who are in a Christian homeschooled league with a focus on communicating in a way that glorifies God would have learned by now how to communicate in such a way so as to get their point across in a loving manner. But apparently not. Now I know that debate rounds can be frustrating... I've been annoyed multiple times, but several times this year, I've had different people come up to me after their round and say something along the lines of, "Wow, that round was so bad... I just wanted to kill the other team. I got so mad during their last speech that I had to write f-bombs all over my flow pad." Um... really? You had to do that? I'm not impressed. At all. In fact, I find it embarrassing that that is what happens in a Christian, homeschooled debate league. That is not an acceptable reason to swear, no matter what you think, so get your act together. That seems to defeat the whole purpose of being in a speech & debate league, if the only thing you can think to do when you don't agree with someone is start cussing them out. Yeah, people make us mad... that's still not a reason to cuss them out, sorry. It's only a debate round, people.
Outside of speech & debate, I've heard this example a couple times too, "So I was with my friend, and we were walking, but there was this bad driver... so we gave him the middle finger and cussed him out." C'mon guys... really? I'm sure what the driver thought was "Wow, what nice Christian kids".... not. What if the driver was just having a really bad day? I'm sure you didn't make it any better. Maybe I'm the only one who does this... yeah, I probably am... but I always make it a point to smile at drivers like that... yes, they annoy me too sometimes, but who knows? Maybe they just need someone to be a little encouraging.
And finally...
>>>>if you read nothing else in this post, read this part<<<<
I'm pretty sure that God doesn't look down on his people when they throw out f-bombs and say, "Wow, them saying that is so honoring to me." Nooope. I'm pretty sure that God did not give you a mouth just so that you could cuss other people out.
I'm just gonna throw a couple verses out here:
Ephesians 4:29, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."
Proverbs 15:2,4 "The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly... A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit."
Ephesians 5:4, "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving."
I think you get the point. (btw, if you want more verses.... I have more, haha).
Anyways. Guys... when you swear for no good reason, that is not honoring to God. As I mentioned before, there may be some instances where swearing is acceptable.... like if you're a soldier in a battle. That's different because the soldier is fighting against extreme evil. But we're not soldiers, we're all homeschooled Christian high school students, and the other debate team in a debate round is not an extreme evil, no matter what you may think. The driver on the street is not extremely evil. You don't have a good reason to cuss them out, you just don't.
And now I'm going to pull out a C.S. Lewis quote... "Don't shine so that others can see you. Shine so that through you, others can see Him." Let me just say... especially when you swear in public, or around other people... people will not see God in you. I think that the words that we choose to say and write should be chosen in such a way so that other people can see God in us, and God is honored, especially if we're wanting and trying to live our lives as Christians. If we want other people to see God in us, then choosing the right words to say is important. Just a thought.
Ok, I'm done now. Rant = over. Again, I love you all to pieces, and I promise I don't hate any of you... and maybe I'm making too big of a deal out of this, it's just something that kinda bothers me. :)
Now that the only people left are people who like to read rants... let's get started. This is something that's been on my mind the past couple months. It's not my goal to be super critical or preachy, and if it comes across like that... sorry. But this is how I feel.
I remember back in the day when if I heard a bad word, it was either in a movie I was watching or from some person who didn't know any better. More recently however, I've started hearing people cuss more and more... and it's not because I am suddenly hanging out with a bad crowd. I'm hearing a lot of bad language coming from homeschoolers. Christian homeschoolers. That's not cool.
Before I keep going, I want to point out two things:
1) I understand that there are certain situations where swearing or whatever may be appropriate. For example: if something really terrible happens to you or if you're a soldier in war or something. But if someone is being a bad driver, or if your day isn't going 100% how you planned, that is not an acceptable reason to start throwing out f-bombs.
2) Don't get me wrong here... I'm not saying that if you swear regularly I think you're a terrible person and I won't ever talk to you again. That's not what I think. And also understand that I also don't always have the best choice of vocabulary, but I use bad words rarely and if I do use them, it's in private... like, to myself. Not to other people.
Ok, now let's keep going.
From my experience, and what I've seen in the past couple years, or even in the past months, it seems that most people take on the mindset of "if you swear, you're mature and cool". Let me get something straight here... swearing = immature. When I hear people cuss other people out, what DOESN'T pop into my mind is "oh wow, they're so mature and cool". Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind is, "Wow, they don't have enough class to know what's appropriate to say".
That leads me to my second point... swearing is not classy or respectable. It's just not. Get that in your head and let it stay there forever. If you want to have the respect of people, then it's not necessary to start swearing for no good reason at all.
It seems to me that another reason for people choosing to swear is because their parents don't want it and kids these days just like to be rebellious. Several times now, I've heard someone say a bad word, quickly followed up by "oh, don't tell my parents I said that." This is never said in a sorry way, like "oh no, I shouldn't have said that...", it's always more of a "I don't care about what I just said, just don't let my parents know." Whatever happened to having a bit of respect for what parents wanted?
One of the times when swearing disappoints me the most is in speech & debate. Now you would think that Christian homeschoolers who are in a Christian homeschooled league with a focus on communicating in a way that glorifies God would have learned by now how to communicate in such a way so as to get their point across in a loving manner. But apparently not. Now I know that debate rounds can be frustrating... I've been annoyed multiple times, but several times this year, I've had different people come up to me after their round and say something along the lines of, "Wow, that round was so bad... I just wanted to kill the other team. I got so mad during their last speech that I had to write f-bombs all over my flow pad." Um... really? You had to do that? I'm not impressed. At all. In fact, I find it embarrassing that that is what happens in a Christian, homeschooled debate league. That is not an acceptable reason to swear, no matter what you think, so get your act together. That seems to defeat the whole purpose of being in a speech & debate league, if the only thing you can think to do when you don't agree with someone is start cussing them out. Yeah, people make us mad... that's still not a reason to cuss them out, sorry. It's only a debate round, people.
Outside of speech & debate, I've heard this example a couple times too, "So I was with my friend, and we were walking, but there was this bad driver... so we gave him the middle finger and cussed him out." C'mon guys... really? I'm sure what the driver thought was "Wow, what nice Christian kids".... not. What if the driver was just having a really bad day? I'm sure you didn't make it any better. Maybe I'm the only one who does this... yeah, I probably am... but I always make it a point to smile at drivers like that... yes, they annoy me too sometimes, but who knows? Maybe they just need someone to be a little encouraging.
And finally...
>>>>if you read nothing else in this post, read this part<<<<
I'm pretty sure that God doesn't look down on his people when they throw out f-bombs and say, "Wow, them saying that is so honoring to me." Nooope. I'm pretty sure that God did not give you a mouth just so that you could cuss other people out.
I'm just gonna throw a couple verses out here:
Ephesians 4:29, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."
Proverbs 15:2,4 "The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly... A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit."
Ephesians 5:4, "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving."
I think you get the point. (btw, if you want more verses.... I have more, haha).
Anyways. Guys... when you swear for no good reason, that is not honoring to God. As I mentioned before, there may be some instances where swearing is acceptable.... like if you're a soldier in a battle. That's different because the soldier is fighting against extreme evil. But we're not soldiers, we're all homeschooled Christian high school students, and the other debate team in a debate round is not an extreme evil, no matter what you may think. The driver on the street is not extremely evil. You don't have a good reason to cuss them out, you just don't.
And now I'm going to pull out a C.S. Lewis quote... "Don't shine so that others can see you. Shine so that through you, others can see Him." Let me just say... especially when you swear in public, or around other people... people will not see God in you. I think that the words that we choose to say and write should be chosen in such a way so that other people can see God in us, and God is honored, especially if we're wanting and trying to live our lives as Christians. If we want other people to see God in us, then choosing the right words to say is important. Just a thought.
Ok, I'm done now. Rant = over. Again, I love you all to pieces, and I promise I don't hate any of you... and maybe I'm making too big of a deal out of this, it's just something that kinda bothers me. :)
The End.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
5.17.2014
I think sometimes that when God closes doors, He doesn't want us to just stand there and wait for a new one to be opened... I think sometimes God wants us to kick that door down to show Him how much we actually care about and want what is on the other side.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
llévame de vuelta // take me back
All I can think about since getting back from Mexico is... Mexico. In my head I am always seeing
those
precious little faces smiling up at me, and those kids speaking rapid
Spanish to me, and then their eyes lighting up when I understand them. I
miss playing with my friend Cesia in the hot Mexican dirt (we were
pretending to cook things). I miss blowing bubbles with Jessica and
Brenda. I miss Briyan's sassy attitude coupled with his sincerity. I
miss Erika's
hugs and hearing her say "te quiero". I miss racing while giving piggy
back rides and then hearing the kids say "¡Otra vez, otra vez!" each
time I set them down again. I miss the hot Mexican sun, and the wind,
and the palm trees. I miss those few days when I spoke in Spanish more than I
spoke in English.
I fell in love down in Mexico. I fell in love with the country itself, despite it's multitude of problems. I fell in love with the Mexican people and their beautiful selves and their passion in everything that they do. I fell in love with their language, and I fell in love with their loud church services, with all the clapping and dancing. I miss being able to buy Mexican pop whenever I wanted to (which is 1,000 times better than any pop America has to offer). I love each and every one of those little kids that I talked to and hugged. And while I was down there, I also fell in love with... love. God's love. I fell in love with His love and its ability to bring so much joy to people who have so little. It was very powerful to witness that during the week I was there... The Mexican people may not have much, but Jesus is everything to them, and they are passionate about it. I felt more alive down in Mexico than I have in a long time. The laughter and love of the kids that I worked with lit within me a fire-- a burning fire of love and thankfulness.
America is my country, and Nebraska is my home-- it always will be. But I left a piece of my heart down in Mexicali, and it's staying there forever.
I fell in love down in Mexico. I fell in love with the country itself, despite it's multitude of problems. I fell in love with the Mexican people and their beautiful selves and their passion in everything that they do. I fell in love with their language, and I fell in love with their loud church services, with all the clapping and dancing. I miss being able to buy Mexican pop whenever I wanted to (which is 1,000 times better than any pop America has to offer). I love each and every one of those little kids that I talked to and hugged. And while I was down there, I also fell in love with... love. God's love. I fell in love with His love and its ability to bring so much joy to people who have so little. It was very powerful to witness that during the week I was there... The Mexican people may not have much, but Jesus is everything to them, and they are passionate about it. I felt more alive down in Mexico than I have in a long time. The laughter and love of the kids that I worked with lit within me a fire-- a burning fire of love and thankfulness.
America is my country, and Nebraska is my home-- it always will be. But I left a piece of my heart down in Mexicali, and it's staying there forever.
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