To My Single Friends on Valentine's Day

Well, the dreaded wonderful dreaded day has arrived - Valentine's Day.  The day that couples look forward to and singles dread.  In all honesty, the singles dread the day outwardly, but kind of like it inwardly - it's the one day they are actually 'allowed' to bemoan their single state and commiserate with their friends and still be considered normal and not a desperate, whiny single.  Admit it.

I want to challenge that.  Let me start by saying I have always been single on Valentine's Day.  I have had my fair share of being grumpy, whiny and full of self-pity on this momentous occasion.  We have gone out to dinner as a family on Valentine's Day before (I think it was about 3 years back) and my mom (who loves any holiday) requested that we wear red to be festive - ooh, the self-pity and proclamations of the day being 'Single Awareness Day' abounded!!  Not my proudest moment.  (In case you're wondering - my mom won and I wore a nice red shirt...)

My challenge is this - why are we allowing ourselves to throw away an entire day on the pretext of 'I'm single'?  A day that God has been gracious enough to give us.  I hate be a 'downer' but we don't know how many days God is going to give us.  We shouldn't allow ourselves to waste even a single moment, much less an entire day!  Besides, if we wander around bemoaning our single state, we are honestly questioning God and His plan for what is best for our lives.  According to Matthew 7:11, "If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  God isn't currently withholding something from you because He's mean, He's doing it because He loves you and has a different plan for you than you do for yourself.  Yes, I have done my fair share of complaining about my singleness, but as I look back over the last few years and see what God has been able to do in my life that He wouldn't have been able to do if I hadn't been single, I have been humbled and left in awe.  And I'm going to pray for strength to stop complaining.

Anyway, so here we are, it's Valentine's Day and everywhere we find pink and red hearts, delicious chocolate and gorgeous flowers that you are either longing to receive or desiring to give.  Well, it's kind of weird to give them to yourself (although according to this poll conducted by date.com, 80% of women has sent themselves something on Valentine's Day.  However, I don't think the women polled on date.com are an accurate representation of women-kind as a whole...), but why don't you give them to someone else?  There's always the old stand-by of giving flowers or candy to your mom or siblings, but usually that comes with it's own self-pity: "Here I am buying flowers for my mom because I don't have anyone else to give them to."  How about stepping out a little bit?  What about taking flowers and a sweet card to the lady at your church that was recently widowed?  Or better yet, the little old lady across the street who has been all alone for a few years.  What about the family you know who recently lost a family member?  I can guarantee you that they are feeling much more lonely than you are and you can make their day.  What about the lonely little girl you know who desperately needs love and who's year would be made by a small bag of chocolate, a pink rose and a card letting her know Jesus loves her and so do you.  The teen girl who has been looking for love in all the wrong places and who just needs some encouragement.  They would be blessed immensely.  The benefit to you?  You're pulling the attention off of yourself and going out and serving God's people!

Also, sit back and dwell on all the ways God has shown His love for you.  Start with the obvious ones (you know, paid for your sins, rescued you from eternal death), but then get creative.  Start really thinking about the wonderful things God has lavished His love upon You.  Take your time: you were just complaining about not having anything to do today, right? ;)  Rejoice in that love and those gifts and that grace!  Then share it with the world!

I'm sure there are many things you can do today that I have forgotten (please leave your ideas in the comments because I would love to hear them!).  But my point, dear brothers and sisters, is don't allow yourself to be miserable today and take away the joy of everyone around you.  You have been given this day from your Heavenly Father and need to make the most of it - you have no idea how many more you are going to get.  I can't think of anything better than to take a day that I don't always look forward to and changing it into something that I can look forward to and bless the people around me with!

Well, I'm going to go put on my pink Snoopy Valentine's Day shirt, make some Red Velvet brownies for my family and start spreading some pink and red love.  Anyone else with me??

Blessings in Christ,

Goals and Plans: January Recap

Well, January 31st has arrived!  Wow, did that go by quickly!  So my grand goal of blogging once a week didn't quite pan out, but how many of my goals and plans did survive the first 31 days of 2012?

To be honest, most of them did survive.  I have been faithfully getting up at 5:30 almost every morning and only allowing myself to sleep in if I did something late the night before that was beyond (or semi-beyond) my control.  I wasn't going to leave early from my birthday dinner, for instance, neither was I going to leave at intermission when I went to go see my younger sister in 'Hello, Dolly!'  But for the most part, up I got!

I was able to stay on top of the Bible reading I wanted to do, the prayer time, the exercise and finished reading the books I wanted to before the deadlines I had set.  Without having to take anything out of my schedule, I was able to crochet three scarves, a baby blanket and get going on the next blanket.  All of the bigger goals I had put down on paper were complete and I was feeling great about that, but I started letting regular things that needed to be done (dishes, trash, bathroom cleaning, dusting, laundry, vacuuming, etc.) fall by the wayside or at least procrastinate a few days.  The first two weeks I didn't have a problem and really kept to my schedule.  But the next two weeks proved to be a bit difficult and I couldn't figure out why.  Until it came to me yesterday after the whole thing blew up in my face.

I ended the year last year with a lot of prayer.  I made my new schedule and goals with a lot of prayer and my focus was totally on God.  I knew some things were going to be difficult (not watching movies during the week except for under special circumstances, waking up at 5:30 every morning...), but I knew it was what God was calling me to do and He was going to get me through it.  That's why those first two weeks went so well - I was relying on the strength of my Lord to help me achieve all the things I wanted to each day and that made everything pretty easy!  I had joy in my heart when I was taking care of the dishes and cleaning up after myself every step of the way.  It wasn't drudgery, it wasn't something I was doing to just check off my list (although that was an incentive, to be sure!), I was doing things that needed to be done and enjoying the feeling of completion and the satisfaction it gave me.

The next week hit and started out really well with my first time on a full day water fast.  However, that Tuesday turned into a pretty bad day health-wise and then things got a little bit scary the following two days (it had absolutely nothing to do with the fast and everything is perfectly fine now) and I lost my focus.  The 'ease' with which I has been able to accomplish everything the past two weeks had disappeared and instead of being able to get everything done that I needed to with a joyful attitude that naturally flowed from my reliance on my Heavenly Father, I started trying to be joyful and cheerful in my own strength to just cope with what I was dealing with on the health level (that's a whole other story for a whole other post).  And it doesn't work like that!


Charles Spurgeon said it well, “Those who serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His strength, or He will never accept their service. That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casteth away; He will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love. God will empty out all that thou hast before He will put His own into thee; He will first clean out thy granaries before He will fill them with the finest of the wheat. The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in His battles but the strength which He Himself imparts. Are you mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give thee victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up."


And that's the lesson I'm going to take into February - if I am to get anything done, be it for myself or others, I have to stay focused on God and allow Him to work through me continually.  I can get things done in and of myself (sometimes), but if I want peace and joy to be manifest in my life despite my circumstances or extra stresses that I may have that day, I have to be abiding in Him, allowing Him to give me the strength to accomplish what He has set before me or what He has allowed me to set before myself.  And if I want to do anything that is worthy of the kingdom of God, I must, must, must allow Him to work through me and not try to do things on my own.  And, seriously, why would you want to do something with your feeble, finite brain and body when the God who created your brain and body as well as the entire universe wants to give you the strength and and desires you to allow Him to work through you??  


"Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." 
   ~Isaiah 41:10


Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
  ~I Chronicles 16:11


The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
He is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
  ~Exodus 15:2


I know that February will bring its own challenges, its own struggles, its own lessons, but in the words of Moses, "The Lord is my strength and my song." So I desire to start February off with a song in my heart, knowing 'the joy of the Lord is my strength!' (Nehemiah 8:10)  And as long as I am finding joy in Him, joy and strength will flow into my life in ways I cannot even imagine!

Blessings in Christ,

Are You a Violet?

I read this story in my devotional, Steams in the Desert, this morning and just loved it too much not to share!


"A story is told of a king who went to his garden one morning, only to find everything withered and dying.  He asked the oak tree that stood near the gate what the trouble was.  The oak said it was tired of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine tree.  The pine was troubled because it could not bear grapes like the grapevine.  The grapevine was determined to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and produce fruit as large as peaches.  The geranium was fretting because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac.


And so it went throughout the garden.  Yet coming to a violet, the kind found its face as bright and happy as ever and said, 'Well, violet, I'm glad to find one brave little flower in the midst of this discouragement.  You don't seem the least bit disheartened.'  The violet responded, 'No, I'm not.  I know I'm small, yet I thought if you wanted an oak or a pine or a peach tree or even a lilac, you would have planted one.  Since I knew you wanted a violet, I'm determined to be the best little violet I can be.' "

Are you being the best large oak, tall pine, fruitful grapevine or peach tree, fragrant lilac or brave little violet you can be?


"...for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  ~ Philippians 4:11-13


Blessings in Christ,