I have had this a while. But today we were talking about Bucket lists...aka things we want to do before we "kick the bucket." Here's mine. It grows (and shrinks due to accomplishing things) daily.
Abbie's Life List:
-Get my education paid off and eventually get enough money to pay my parents back for what they have given me to further my education.
-Be able to show my community that you can make something of your life even if you are from a small town in the middle of no where.
-Gain more confidence in all areas of my life. **2009
-Write to somebody famous, and get a REAL reply **Jonathan Safran Foer 2007 (writer of one of my favorite books.)
-Save somebody's life **2007
-Take a road trip with a few friends and document the whole thing. **2006
-For somebody who doesn't know me or anyone i know to know my name.
-To step foot in every state in The US
-To throw out the first pitch at a major league game
-Ride on a passenger train.
-To attend the Olympic games
-Go to every continent
-Dance in the streets of a major city **2006
-See one thing that is the “world’s largest"**2007 Drove on the world's longest bridge
-Stay out all night and go to work the next day without having gone home **2008
-Drive across America from coast to coast.
-Find a job I love. **2007 CAMP!
-Overcome my fear of failure.
-Give a phenomenal speech in public **2004
-Make myself spend a half-day at a concentration camp and swear never to forget.
-Run to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
-Catch a ball in the stands of a major league baseball stadium **1994
-See the Northern Lights.
-Go to top of the Empire State Building
-Visit Mt. Rushmore
-Walk every stair up and down the Eiffel tower
-Own a laptop **2007
-Drive down route 66
-Cook something for a celebrity
-Fall in love....a real love beyond just some high school romance **2008 and more and more everyday since... Oh man do I love that boy! :P
-Get painted like a statue and sit in a park and shock people all the while filming every moment of it.
-Make a dream come true for a friend
-Make a comedian laugh**2008 Mark Lowry
-successfully do a stand-up comedy act **2007
-Learn to do “the worm"
-To meet a really famous person and to pretend I don't know them
-To ride in a limo for a cross-country trip
-To read the Bible cover to cover
-To go Scotland, and sleep in one of those old castles
-To walk down the red carpet at one of those famous movie premiers
-See Angel Falls in Venezuela
-Kiss the Blarney Stone
-Take a cruise
-Teach somebody to read
-Teach somebody to ride a bike **2007
-Take a martial arts class **2009
-Drive at more than 140mph.
-Have my name spray painted on the side of a railroad car **2005
-Get my name in the "thank you" section of a CD
-To be able to say....in everything...whether success, or failure...I Tried
-For somebody to dedicate a book to me **2008 (discovered it in 2008....)
-To have a song dedicated to me on the radio **2000
-To Sky Dive
-To sell a soda at a pro baseball game
-To be a person with a nick name **2007 Bagels...long story. lol
-Crowd surf at a concert **2007
-To sleepwalk somewhere in public **2002
-Fly in a glider
-See every movie that ever won an oscar for best film
-Go to a major league baseball game **1994
-Have my photo taken with a leg on each side of the equator
-Design a video game
-Do something that no one expects of me **2007
-Break a really large plate glass window
-Tip a waiter with something other than money **2008 "Movie Bucks"
-Kick open a door **2006
-Spend a night in a "haunted" house **2004
-Swim with dolphins
-Fly a plane
-Learn to play an instrument well.
-light a match with a gun (my grandfather used to be able to do it with a .22)
-make a movie
-Fly first class
-Jump off of a bridge(into water...duh) with some friends to prove to everyone that “yes I would jump off of a bridge if my friends did."
-Perform an Anonymous Favor **2006
-be on national television for something I have accomplished **2007 Operation Purple Camps
-Work for a cause I believe in. **2005
-SING in the rain! **2002, 2006
-Be able to send my parents on a 2nd honeymoon
-get a tattoo **2006
-Save up $5,000
-Learn to drive a stick shift **2004
-Go to a drive-in movie
-See the ocean **2006
-Go sledding on a food tray **2008 (@Tech! lol)
-Watch the sunrise/sunset from the roof of at least one university-owned building.
-Throw a huge party **2003
-Watch the launch of a space shuttle
-Receive a dozen red roses…just because **2009
-Be a member of the audience in a well known TV Show
-Send a message in a bottle
-Ride a camel in the desert
-Learn a new dance **2006
-Get passionate about a cause and spend time helping it, instead of just thinking about it. **2009 MCH
-Experience weightlessness.
-Learn to juggle.
-Stay in a penthouse apartment in NYC
-Win a contest of some sort **2002
-Buy a house
-Drive in a car race
-meet my heroes of comedy: Ellen DeGeneres, Dane Cook, Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, among others...
-Graduate High School **2004
-Graduate College **2007 Associate's
-Pull a prank on someone I just met **2006
-Ride in a horse drawn carriage
-Help my dad quit smoking
-stop procrastinating...now....well...maybe later... :D
-exercise more
-lose 20 or more pounds **2006...25 over the summer! woo!
-get an iPod
-run in a marathon
-Learn a new language....fluently
-Attempt to climb Everest.
-have a newspaper story, other than in my small town, with my name on it **2006, 2007, 2008
-spend new years eve in NYC
-be a motivational speaker that travels across the US talking to youth and kids
-get my passport and start filling it up with adventures I have taken...
-have something to show for my life by the time I am 25
-own a horse
-learn to ballroom dance
-make a positive difference in a child's life **2007, Camp
-try sushi **2007 in California! I like it!
-eat a piece of food for every letter of the alphabet
-tell the people that mean most that I love them everyday...and mean it everytime
-go somewhere besides prom that requires a formal gown
-visit an orphanage and become really involved in helping **2009
-not be afraid to step out on faith and do something**2006(roadtrip and camp)
-be completely carefree for a day**2006
-show my friends, who have truly been there more than anyone could have imagined, that I really care for, love and appreciate them then help them make a dream of theirs to come true...
-Buy a sportbike
-get back into riding dirtbikes and race a bit
-Learn to surf
-Get my PhD
-Sleep under the stars**once a year almost every year
-Kiss in the rain
-Write a book
-Change the world for one person**2007, at least he made me feel like I changed the world for him. RIP
-become something great
This is pretty much what my Life List consists of...I encourage ya to write one of your own...if you write it down then you are more likely to actually do the things on there! later yall!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Ongoing struggle to talk to the Creator of the Universe...
I don't know how many times I have sat on a pew within a church and watched as the preacher proclaimed to me that prayer is as much about listening for God's response as it is about speaking to God. And that my words are merely half of a dialogue with God. Still, I continue to struggle—I'm talking major struggle—with the notion of prayer.
I, however, refuse to apologize for this. After all, even the disciples were all about failure to pray... Whatever do I mean?! The disciples?! NO! lol. Ok, well check it out:
Like us, they had Jesus himself as a model. They saw him go off by himself to pray. They listened to him pray publicly. They overheard those seemingly weird private yet public prayers of his in which he told his father stuff like, I know you’re already doing this, but I am just saying this for the benefit of those listening. And yet, they didn’t pray enough—or perhaps the correct way—to cast out demons on at least one occasion. And they fell asleep instead of praying in Gethsemane. And, most importantly, they questioned Jesus about how to pray. They were, in other words, just like me. They were worried about prayer. They decided, or feared, or fantasized, that there might be some right way to pray—the way John the Baptist prayed, perhaps, or Billy Graham, or the way some dorky self-help book on morning devotions described what the author did each day, or the way some preacher told them was how prayer was supposed to be done—and they weren’t doing it that way. They thought their prayers were inadequate, somehow. I know they did. This is how I perpetually feel about prayer.
Don’t get me wrong. I pray. I prayed as a child. Nowadays, as then however, I pray on mostly an as-needed basis. I worry on behalf of others, a kind of intercessory prayer, I think. I also get great relief, many nights, from silently talking to God, so to speak, and knowing that he’s listening. In my few years years of being a bit agnostic, the prayers of my abandoned faith were what I missed most. Asking. Complaining. Being comforted. Feeling heard.
Yet... really... I don’t know what to say here. How did I come about a transition from this obviously knowing how to pray that I have had from childhood—and there is this sense that we all, deep down, actually do know how to pray without being told—to the conviction that my “prayer-life” is somehow faulty in the eyes of God and of men?! Is it just the influence of the sort of people who use such terms as “prayer-life” that devalues my habits? Or is there really some better way to pray, some more mature way of praying beyond the crying out like a newborn and being comforted?
I keep thinking about this, toying with it. It’s a deceptively easy subject, it seems to me. Maybe I worry about it too much? A lot of people tell me this about a lot of things, and they are surely right. Every one of those Fear-not!’s in the Bible was intended for me, I think. The preacher, whoever the preacher may be, says, "Prayer is just talking to God. Like in a normal conversation."
But here’s the thing. In most of the conversations I have with anyone else but God, the person responds. Out loud. In audible words. In my language—or at least in a language which I can understand and recognize as language. Which is not how God does it. .....Unless, of course, my experience of God really is far more limited than I know about. I mean we say that God doesn't speak audibly anymore... but... why not? I mean is that biblical "I shalt no longer speak to thee audibly."?! Don't think so... Yet when we do hear someone say "I heard God speak... I mean ACTUALLY speak to me." We just stare at them and wonder if we should contact those people that will come and give them one of those jackets that makes you hug yourself...
I have decided to consider the way those other conversations I have had—the ones that did not involve the other person audibly responding in recognizable words—to see what might be found there about the nature of prayer. Aside from mental telepathy, which I can't seem to make work the way it's supposed to... LoL, and talking to the radio, which poses similar difficulties, these one-sided conversations fall into two categories for me. Well, three. Conversations with babies. Conversations with animals (mostly dogs, but also hurt birds I have found in the yard. And conversations with dying people who are able to hear and process what I am saying but are not able to respond.
In all of these instances—with babies, with animals, and with people rendered mute as a result of disease—I held conversations, first of all, by paying attention to nonverbal responses. Eye rolling. Smiling. A look of gratitude. Wailing. Those ridiculous conversations I have with my baby nephew that cause me to wonder if people think I am nuts... “Is Christian wanting Abbie? Does he have a poopy diaper? I'm going to change it. Yes, I'm getting rid of that old nasty diaper. Oh, what now? Does Baby want the keys? Here are the keys. Here they are. Yes, Christian likes the keys, doesn’t he?”
Also, as you can see with that baby, I asked a lot of questions. Similarly, a “conversation” with a dog was usually a series of questions too, followed by a few reassuring answers, or, better, the thumping of that back foot when I scratch the "sweet spot" on their belly...
Finally, I typically supplied answers for my silent conversation partner. The best example is with the mortally sick person in the hospital. When a friend's mom lay dying, she couldn’t keep her mouth closed because she wasn't able to get enough oxygen simply through her nose and her mouth STAYED dry. I knew she was desperately thirsty. She panted heavily. Every time I caught her eye, she directed her gaze meaningfully at the table by the bed, where we had kept a cup of ice chips to give her. “You’re thirsty,” I told her. “There, you like that. That feels good, doesn’t it? That’s enough now. You’re wondering where your husband is. He’s gone to get something to eat. Yeah, that’s good. He had your Jell-O at lunch. That was all. He wasn't hungry. Too worried about you. You don't want him to worry, I know. You want me to tell him that. Yes, he doesn't need to worry, does he? It's going to be okay.”
These are inadequate examples of conversations with God, I know. God’s not a baby or a dog or a dying person. And He’s certainly not incapable of responding in my eyes. He's not incapable of anything, except maybe NOT loving us... I mean, He can't help that... God is Love. And God is crazy about us. But what I get from thinking about these conversations with the mute is something relevant, I think, about how we talk to a seemingly silent, invisible, conversation partner like God.
First off, in praying, we have to pay attention to non-verbal information rather than direct responses. Events. Preexisting evidence of truth. Divine gestures, like awe-inspiring weather conditions, a potted plant suddenly blooming, or an auto accident involving the child of friends that suddenly thrusts one’s pettier complaints into perspective. I say we have to pay attention to these things, but, in truth, I think we often do it unconsciously. Sometimes, even, to an obsessive degree, resulting in superstitions and misguided notions about how God works, or ought to work, in our lives. Nevertheless, I believe God does respond to us in such gestures. This idea especially bothers a non-believing friend of mine, who makes much mock of Christians’ egotistical notion that God would cause rain or redirect the attention to a car wreck or orchestrate a bright pink sunrise just for one person praying. Absurd, yes, but, I think, true.
Second, prayer, like conversation with a mute partner, inevitably involves questions. Lots of questions. Sometimes nothing but questions. Questions one is forced to answer oneself, usually with a reassuring offer to take some action. I’m coming. I’m here. I’m ready to do what you want me to.
Finally, if engaging in more involved discussion with God than the prayer-equivalent of reassuring a baby or offering to wet a dying woman's tongue, one has to be ready to supply both sides of the conversation. Supplying another’s unspoken response is possible only to the degree that one is familiar with that person and can recreate what he or she is likely to be thinking. The ability to predict another’s thoughts is, of course, dependent on some degree of previous interaction with that person. Knowing what the person likes and despises, what topics are important to the person, what the person has said in the past.
God’s past utterances, of course, are helpful here. And luckily, lots of them are recorded where we can check and make sure we’re right about them. We can look them up and cross-reference them and read them in all kinds of translations, get down to the word level. That, then—our reliving, if you will, of God’s side of the conversation, of his gestures, the history of our relationship with him, his words on the pages of our Bibles—is what, for today, I have decided that my more experienced Christian friends must mean when they say that prayer is “just being quiet and listening to God.”
I have begun a prayer journal to help me on my journey to a better relationship with God. I am going to begin writing down my prayers in the form of P.R.A.Y. (Praises, Requests, Admitting of sins, Yourself) Then I leave the back of the page open so I can eventually record how and when God answered my prayers.
One last thought. Interestingly, one doesn’t make many requests of babies, animals, or dying people. But prayer does involve requests of God. Or, at least, all of Jesus’ recorded prayers to our Father did.
So, conversely to everything I have written here, perhaps, in praying, it is we who are the mute ones—the babies, the animals, the one who lies dying on the raised bed. We think we are doing the speaking when we pray—casting our thoughts out to some invisible, silent troller of words—but actually we are the ones lying awake and voiceless, listening, trying to respond, wanting to cry out and make our needs known, but, ultimately, silent, while God leans over us and speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks...
I, however, refuse to apologize for this. After all, even the disciples were all about failure to pray... Whatever do I mean?! The disciples?! NO! lol. Ok, well check it out:
Like us, they had Jesus himself as a model. They saw him go off by himself to pray. They listened to him pray publicly. They overheard those seemingly weird private yet public prayers of his in which he told his father stuff like, I know you’re already doing this, but I am just saying this for the benefit of those listening. And yet, they didn’t pray enough—or perhaps the correct way—to cast out demons on at least one occasion. And they fell asleep instead of praying in Gethsemane. And, most importantly, they questioned Jesus about how to pray. They were, in other words, just like me. They were worried about prayer. They decided, or feared, or fantasized, that there might be some right way to pray—the way John the Baptist prayed, perhaps, or Billy Graham, or the way some dorky self-help book on morning devotions described what the author did each day, or the way some preacher told them was how prayer was supposed to be done—and they weren’t doing it that way. They thought their prayers were inadequate, somehow. I know they did. This is how I perpetually feel about prayer.
Don’t get me wrong. I pray. I prayed as a child. Nowadays, as then however, I pray on mostly an as-needed basis. I worry on behalf of others, a kind of intercessory prayer, I think. I also get great relief, many nights, from silently talking to God, so to speak, and knowing that he’s listening. In my few years years of being a bit agnostic, the prayers of my abandoned faith were what I missed most. Asking. Complaining. Being comforted. Feeling heard.
Yet... really... I don’t know what to say here. How did I come about a transition from this obviously knowing how to pray that I have had from childhood—and there is this sense that we all, deep down, actually do know how to pray without being told—to the conviction that my “prayer-life” is somehow faulty in the eyes of God and of men?! Is it just the influence of the sort of people who use such terms as “prayer-life” that devalues my habits? Or is there really some better way to pray, some more mature way of praying beyond the crying out like a newborn and being comforted?
I keep thinking about this, toying with it. It’s a deceptively easy subject, it seems to me. Maybe I worry about it too much? A lot of people tell me this about a lot of things, and they are surely right. Every one of those Fear-not!’s in the Bible was intended for me, I think. The preacher, whoever the preacher may be, says, "Prayer is just talking to God. Like in a normal conversation."
But here’s the thing. In most of the conversations I have with anyone else but God, the person responds. Out loud. In audible words. In my language—or at least in a language which I can understand and recognize as language. Which is not how God does it. .....Unless, of course, my experience of God really is far more limited than I know about. I mean we say that God doesn't speak audibly anymore... but... why not? I mean is that biblical "I shalt no longer speak to thee audibly."?! Don't think so... Yet when we do hear someone say "I heard God speak... I mean ACTUALLY speak to me." We just stare at them and wonder if we should contact those people that will come and give them one of those jackets that makes you hug yourself...
I have decided to consider the way those other conversations I have had—the ones that did not involve the other person audibly responding in recognizable words—to see what might be found there about the nature of prayer. Aside from mental telepathy, which I can't seem to make work the way it's supposed to... LoL, and talking to the radio, which poses similar difficulties, these one-sided conversations fall into two categories for me. Well, three. Conversations with babies. Conversations with animals (mostly dogs, but also hurt birds I have found in the yard. And conversations with dying people who are able to hear and process what I am saying but are not able to respond.
In all of these instances—with babies, with animals, and with people rendered mute as a result of disease—I held conversations, first of all, by paying attention to nonverbal responses. Eye rolling. Smiling. A look of gratitude. Wailing. Those ridiculous conversations I have with my baby nephew that cause me to wonder if people think I am nuts... “Is Christian wanting Abbie? Does he have a poopy diaper? I'm going to change it. Yes, I'm getting rid of that old nasty diaper. Oh, what now? Does Baby want the keys? Here are the keys. Here they are. Yes, Christian likes the keys, doesn’t he?”
Also, as you can see with that baby, I asked a lot of questions. Similarly, a “conversation” with a dog was usually a series of questions too, followed by a few reassuring answers, or, better, the thumping of that back foot when I scratch the "sweet spot" on their belly...
Finally, I typically supplied answers for my silent conversation partner. The best example is with the mortally sick person in the hospital. When a friend's mom lay dying, she couldn’t keep her mouth closed because she wasn't able to get enough oxygen simply through her nose and her mouth STAYED dry. I knew she was desperately thirsty. She panted heavily. Every time I caught her eye, she directed her gaze meaningfully at the table by the bed, where we had kept a cup of ice chips to give her. “You’re thirsty,” I told her. “There, you like that. That feels good, doesn’t it? That’s enough now. You’re wondering where your husband is. He’s gone to get something to eat. Yeah, that’s good. He had your Jell-O at lunch. That was all. He wasn't hungry. Too worried about you. You don't want him to worry, I know. You want me to tell him that. Yes, he doesn't need to worry, does he? It's going to be okay.”
These are inadequate examples of conversations with God, I know. God’s not a baby or a dog or a dying person. And He’s certainly not incapable of responding in my eyes. He's not incapable of anything, except maybe NOT loving us... I mean, He can't help that... God is Love. And God is crazy about us. But what I get from thinking about these conversations with the mute is something relevant, I think, about how we talk to a seemingly silent, invisible, conversation partner like God.
First off, in praying, we have to pay attention to non-verbal information rather than direct responses. Events. Preexisting evidence of truth. Divine gestures, like awe-inspiring weather conditions, a potted plant suddenly blooming, or an auto accident involving the child of friends that suddenly thrusts one’s pettier complaints into perspective. I say we have to pay attention to these things, but, in truth, I think we often do it unconsciously. Sometimes, even, to an obsessive degree, resulting in superstitions and misguided notions about how God works, or ought to work, in our lives. Nevertheless, I believe God does respond to us in such gestures. This idea especially bothers a non-believing friend of mine, who makes much mock of Christians’ egotistical notion that God would cause rain or redirect the attention to a car wreck or orchestrate a bright pink sunrise just for one person praying. Absurd, yes, but, I think, true.
Second, prayer, like conversation with a mute partner, inevitably involves questions. Lots of questions. Sometimes nothing but questions. Questions one is forced to answer oneself, usually with a reassuring offer to take some action. I’m coming. I’m here. I’m ready to do what you want me to.
Finally, if engaging in more involved discussion with God than the prayer-equivalent of reassuring a baby or offering to wet a dying woman's tongue, one has to be ready to supply both sides of the conversation. Supplying another’s unspoken response is possible only to the degree that one is familiar with that person and can recreate what he or she is likely to be thinking. The ability to predict another’s thoughts is, of course, dependent on some degree of previous interaction with that person. Knowing what the person likes and despises, what topics are important to the person, what the person has said in the past.
God’s past utterances, of course, are helpful here. And luckily, lots of them are recorded where we can check and make sure we’re right about them. We can look them up and cross-reference them and read them in all kinds of translations, get down to the word level. That, then—our reliving, if you will, of God’s side of the conversation, of his gestures, the history of our relationship with him, his words on the pages of our Bibles—is what, for today, I have decided that my more experienced Christian friends must mean when they say that prayer is “just being quiet and listening to God.”
I have begun a prayer journal to help me on my journey to a better relationship with God. I am going to begin writing down my prayers in the form of P.R.A.Y. (Praises, Requests, Admitting of sins, Yourself) Then I leave the back of the page open so I can eventually record how and when God answered my prayers.
One last thought. Interestingly, one doesn’t make many requests of babies, animals, or dying people. But prayer does involve requests of God. Or, at least, all of Jesus’ recorded prayers to our Father did.
So, conversely to everything I have written here, perhaps, in praying, it is we who are the mute ones—the babies, the animals, the one who lies dying on the raised bed. We think we are doing the speaking when we pray—casting our thoughts out to some invisible, silent troller of words—but actually we are the ones lying awake and voiceless, listening, trying to respond, wanting to cry out and make our needs known, but, ultimately, silent, while God leans over us and speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks...
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Walk the Walk... But not alone.
Ephesians 5:15-21
15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Galatians 5:16-26
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. 19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Our Eyes automatically blink, lungs automatically breathe, and heart automatically pumps blood... All of this without being told specifically to do so. There are a few things that we can learn to do, like singing, playing sports, or just walking and talking, and some of those things require more effort and years to achieve successfully...
There are also things that we will never be able to do as much as we may try... For instance, flying like Superman or completely stopping the aging process (sorry people... no fountain of youth...) But you know what?! That truth can also be applied to our lives spiritually. Within our Christian walk we will never be able to live a Christian life within our own power. We can stop ourselves from saying and doing things that we may regret, we can show restraint with the opposite sex, we can even read our bibles daily...
But when it comes down to it, we can't depend own our own strength to win over sin consistently and confidently. We simply can't live up to God's standards on our own... WE NEED HIM TO HELP US! To walk on through this life and make the most of it, as the verses above encourage us, we have to acknowledge that we are powerless without the Holy Spirit. We have to surrender ourselves to the will of God and actually let Him take over COMPLETELY. It is extremely hard, I must admit to do this, but in order to live a life fully devoted to righteousness, this is the ONLY way.
You are in my prayers.
15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Galatians 5:16-26
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. 19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Our Eyes automatically blink, lungs automatically breathe, and heart automatically pumps blood... All of this without being told specifically to do so. There are a few things that we can learn to do, like singing, playing sports, or just walking and talking, and some of those things require more effort and years to achieve successfully...
There are also things that we will never be able to do as much as we may try... For instance, flying like Superman or completely stopping the aging process (sorry people... no fountain of youth...) But you know what?! That truth can also be applied to our lives spiritually. Within our Christian walk we will never be able to live a Christian life within our own power. We can stop ourselves from saying and doing things that we may regret, we can show restraint with the opposite sex, we can even read our bibles daily...
But when it comes down to it, we can't depend own our own strength to win over sin consistently and confidently. We simply can't live up to God's standards on our own... WE NEED HIM TO HELP US! To walk on through this life and make the most of it, as the verses above encourage us, we have to acknowledge that we are powerless without the Holy Spirit. We have to surrender ourselves to the will of God and actually let Him take over COMPLETELY. It is extremely hard, I must admit to do this, but in order to live a life fully devoted to righteousness, this is the ONLY way.
You are in my prayers.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Ideas for youth/girls ministry
--Girls/Guys Night Out--Girls go out with the girls of all ages above youth! Guys go out with all the boys youth and older!
--Relationship Weekend followed by "Polite Night"--Godly relationships. Girls and guys will spend friday night at separate houses talking about relationships, sex, etc within the view of what God wants then Saturday afternoon the youth begin getting ready for "polite night" where they will be shown how a Godly date can look. Dress up! Make it fun!
--Daddy-Daughter Date Night--Dads show their "little girls" (ages 6-106!) how they should be expected to be treated by the opposite sex in a night of food, games, a movie (Time allowing), and Bible study! All done at the church!
--Before Prom/Homecoming dance Make-overs/After Party with Jesus--Call up local hair stylists etc, or find some willing people within your church to help the youth get ready for the big night! Then after dancing the night away, youth can spend the night at the church where you can rent blow-up games, have plenty of food, and just chillax' without worrying about the things of the world!
--JC & PJs--Sleep overs just to hang out and be kids! (of course genders are not together on this one people. duh. lol)
--Out on the Lake--Once a month during the summer months, take the kids to the lake for some Fun in the Son (yes...with an "O")--Swimming, boating, Jesus!
--Text Devotions--using twitter or other free/cheap utility
--Letters of Affirmation--(NOT EMAIL, NOT HALLMARK CARDS) But personal notes to each kid!
--"Youth" Magazine--Your own church magazine! Monthly/Quarterly, include photos from past events (church, sporting, ANYTHING YOUR CHURCH FOLK ARE INVOLVED IN!), Notes from the pastor, youth pastor, "member of the month," Q&A, Random Advice, To the Next Step(advice columns for EVERY stage in life--teens to kids, teens to teens, adults to teens, older adults to young adults, etc), Discussion starters--Questions to start conversations within small groups, the home, etc., Scripture of the Month, Daily Devos, Music of the Month. Announcements for the coming months!
--Christian fashion shows--Have some fun showing off the latest fashions that are tasteful and cool! Just cause we're Christian doesn't mean we can't be stylin'!
--Self-defense classes for the girls--Let's face it, there are some just plain ole jerkfaces out there who look for nothing more than to take advantage of our girls...why not teach them how to handle a situation that we hope never happens?
-- Mary Kay Cosmetics apparently has a spiritual "application" to its products...i need to check more into that but when i find it im sure it will be a great thing... includes stuff like applying foundation and how we should look at our spiritual foundations as well. etc.
--Scrapbook nights anyone?! you could just put together scrapbooks for your youth group...at the end of each year you have them to look back at all youve done!
--Creative Prayer Ideas--PowerPoint--Display Scriptures, prayers, words, pictures, etc. and have youth write in a journal what God reveals to them as they pray about what they see/read. Wifitti also has a pretty cool application where youth can text in something about what they see and it will display anonymously on a screen for the group to see.--Pray 30 minutes a day see what God reveals--Prayer stations--each station has a different thing to pray for, pray for it then move on--Prayer stations at the start of the school year to cover schools and all involved in them (teachers, principals, housekeeping, secretaries, students, etc.)
--Dinner with the staff--Youth hang out and actually help in cooking a meal with the staff rather than just ordering pizza.
--Sticky note prayers--give youth sticky notes to take home and put up, once a week, on their mirrors, etc. Just a constant reminder to be in prayer about a certain thing, people, missions, etc.
--Prayer partners--Big Sister age, parent age, grandparent age, etc. every generation to be a part!
--Adopt a grandparent--2-3 kids per grandparent or youth group take one grandparent
--Prayer bracelets--convo starters, beads, etc
--True Love Waits--each youth given a journal with a pocket in the front for their TLW ring. Youth can write notes, prayers, etc, to their future spouse, a gift to their spouse on their wedding night. (how sweet...i know...lol)
--"Show the Love" Valentine's gifts for the children's home... the kids that rarely get love can be shown it through some gifts and just hangin' out with the kids. (MAKE SURE YOU GET PERMISSION AND TRAINING FOR THE KIDS BEFORE YOU GO!)
--"Christmas for others" etc.
--Hospital Missions--food, magazines, goodies, etc to people in the hospital and in the waiting room! (ONCE AGAIN, GET PERMISSION AND TRAINING! ONE BAD VISIT CAN RUIN A MINISTRY FOR A LIFETIME!)
--Clothes Line Ministry--At the end of the school year, have a school uniform drive where people can give "old" school uniforms, take the youth to the laundry mat to clean them and just be a part of a life changing ministry. Give the uniforms to needy families!
--Bus people to church, youth to do community work, bus dem Christians to do some work for Jesus!
--City Wide Love--Shop with a cop, shop with a (whatever school mascot is at the local school), shop with a hero, etc. --Go to local school and ask about local needy families. Allow the kids to go shopping for their family for christmas and buy them some gifts too (as a surprise of course)
--Get youth to hang out with kids that maybe need some help with whatever life throws at them: school work, peers, anything!
--Get involved with the Schools!!!!--Character Counts, FCA, Pre-planning teacher breakfast (provide teachers with breakfast during the time they are at school with no kids the few weeks before class starts), New teacher breakfast, Grill week, Cinnamon Roll week, Pizza for kids coming in late from sporting events, etc so they dont come in hungry...no need to preach just give em some food and let em know ya care!
--Relationship Weekend followed by "Polite Night"--Godly relationships. Girls and guys will spend friday night at separate houses talking about relationships, sex, etc within the view of what God wants then Saturday afternoon the youth begin getting ready for "polite night" where they will be shown how a Godly date can look. Dress up! Make it fun!
--Daddy-Daughter Date Night--Dads show their "little girls" (ages 6-106!) how they should be expected to be treated by the opposite sex in a night of food, games, a movie (Time allowing), and Bible study! All done at the church!
--Before Prom/Homecoming dance Make-overs/After Party with Jesus--Call up local hair stylists etc, or find some willing people within your church to help the youth get ready for the big night! Then after dancing the night away, youth can spend the night at the church where you can rent blow-up games, have plenty of food, and just chillax' without worrying about the things of the world!
--JC & PJs--Sleep overs just to hang out and be kids! (of course genders are not together on this one people. duh. lol)
--Out on the Lake--Once a month during the summer months, take the kids to the lake for some Fun in the Son (yes...with an "O")--Swimming, boating, Jesus!
--Text Devotions--using twitter or other free/cheap utility
--Letters of Affirmation--(NOT EMAIL, NOT HALLMARK CARDS) But personal notes to each kid!
--"Youth" Magazine--Your own church magazine! Monthly/Quarterly, include photos from past events (church, sporting, ANYTHING YOUR CHURCH FOLK ARE INVOLVED IN!), Notes from the pastor, youth pastor, "member of the month," Q&A, Random Advice, To the Next Step(advice columns for EVERY stage in life--teens to kids, teens to teens, adults to teens, older adults to young adults, etc), Discussion starters--Questions to start conversations within small groups, the home, etc., Scripture of the Month, Daily Devos, Music of the Month. Announcements for the coming months!
--Christian fashion shows--Have some fun showing off the latest fashions that are tasteful and cool! Just cause we're Christian doesn't mean we can't be stylin'!
--Self-defense classes for the girls--Let's face it, there are some just plain ole jerkfaces out there who look for nothing more than to take advantage of our girls...why not teach them how to handle a situation that we hope never happens?
-- Mary Kay Cosmetics apparently has a spiritual "application" to its products...i need to check more into that but when i find it im sure it will be a great thing... includes stuff like applying foundation and how we should look at our spiritual foundations as well. etc.
--Scrapbook nights anyone?! you could just put together scrapbooks for your youth group...at the end of each year you have them to look back at all youve done!
--Creative Prayer Ideas--PowerPoint--Display Scriptures, prayers, words, pictures, etc. and have youth write in a journal what God reveals to them as they pray about what they see/read. Wifitti also has a pretty cool application where youth can text in something about what they see and it will display anonymously on a screen for the group to see.--Pray 30 minutes a day see what God reveals--Prayer stations--each station has a different thing to pray for, pray for it then move on--Prayer stations at the start of the school year to cover schools and all involved in them (teachers, principals, housekeeping, secretaries, students, etc.)
--Dinner with the staff--Youth hang out and actually help in cooking a meal with the staff rather than just ordering pizza.
--Sticky note prayers--give youth sticky notes to take home and put up, once a week, on their mirrors, etc. Just a constant reminder to be in prayer about a certain thing, people, missions, etc.
--Prayer partners--Big Sister age, parent age, grandparent age, etc. every generation to be a part!
--Adopt a grandparent--2-3 kids per grandparent or youth group take one grandparent
--Prayer bracelets--convo starters, beads, etc
--True Love Waits--each youth given a journal with a pocket in the front for their TLW ring. Youth can write notes, prayers, etc, to their future spouse, a gift to their spouse on their wedding night. (how sweet...i know...lol)
--"Show the Love" Valentine's gifts for the children's home... the kids that rarely get love can be shown it through some gifts and just hangin' out with the kids. (MAKE SURE YOU GET PERMISSION AND TRAINING FOR THE KIDS BEFORE YOU GO!)
--"Christmas for others" etc.
--Hospital Missions--food, magazines, goodies, etc to people in the hospital and in the waiting room! (ONCE AGAIN, GET PERMISSION AND TRAINING! ONE BAD VISIT CAN RUIN A MINISTRY FOR A LIFETIME!)
--Clothes Line Ministry--At the end of the school year, have a school uniform drive where people can give "old" school uniforms, take the youth to the laundry mat to clean them and just be a part of a life changing ministry. Give the uniforms to needy families!
--Bus people to church, youth to do community work, bus dem Christians to do some work for Jesus!
--City Wide Love--Shop with a cop, shop with a (whatever school mascot is at the local school), shop with a hero, etc. --Go to local school and ask about local needy families. Allow the kids to go shopping for their family for christmas and buy them some gifts too (as a surprise of course)
--Get youth to hang out with kids that maybe need some help with whatever life throws at them: school work, peers, anything!
--Get involved with the Schools!!!!--Character Counts, FCA, Pre-planning teacher breakfast (provide teachers with breakfast during the time they are at school with no kids the few weeks before class starts), New teacher breakfast, Grill week, Cinnamon Roll week, Pizza for kids coming in late from sporting events, etc so they dont come in hungry...no need to preach just give em some food and let em know ya care!
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