So You Think You're Independent?

Getting sick at college is up there on the list of things you wouldn't wish on even your worst enemy.  Mommy isn't there to take care of you... and neither is anybody else.  Your R.A.'s, friends, and roommates are busy.  Your professors keep on piling on the homework without a clue whether you're dead or alive.  And then there's the sickness itself.  Your whole body hurts.  You can't move, and if you do, it's to run to the bathroom (which is entirely too far away!).  You can't keep anything down for more than twenty minutes.  You're so miserable, you want to die!


But that's not all you've faced in a week's time.  Just a few days ago while playing softball, you got popped square in the kneecap with the ball and got banished to crutches.  During this week you figure out that it's impossible to carry your book bag and purse while hobbling around on the wretched things.  Getting to ride the elevator is kind of cool, but mooching random people into carrying your stuff isn't.  Your fiance is getting tired of everyone commenting on how your purse matches his outfit every time he holds it.


Yes, this was me this week, and no, physical infirmities are no fun!  However, I did learn something through it that I never really thought about until now.  I'm a "get it done yourself" kind of person; you might call me independent.  Having to depend on someone else for almost anything kills me (or at least my pride).  Being on crutches and bedridden for a week has taught me that I'm NOT a one-person-show.  People were created for other people, and we all need each other.


Within ten seconds of getting hit by a softball, I realized that I couldn't walk off the field by myself.  After two ladies helped me off the field, I began wondering how I was going to make it up the hill to my dorm.  Thankfully, another friend took me for a ride in her Jeep.


The school nurse told me to use the crutches in her office, but how could I use them if I couldn't even walk to her office?  Tim agreed to bring them to me.  Then I had to figure out how to tote all of my stuff around campus!  Asking people to carry your purse...how lame is that??  Talk about humbling!


Someone took me to the hospital, where I got an x-ray on my knee (no broken bones, by the way... yay!).  The wait in the ER took so long my friend had to miss a church activity.  I felt so bad!!  Am I the trouble-maker or what?


Within a few days I was off the crutches, much to my excitement.  But don't get too excited, because then I woke up with a stomach virus.  I was banished from polite society, accompanied only by my pillow and a trashcan!  At college, even though you may slow down due to illness, the rest of life does not!  


My roommates did what they could and donated water bottles and crackers to my aid.  Tim brought me Gatorade.  Another friend brought me a Route 44 cup of ice from Sonic (aaaah-mazing!).  Mom might not have been there, but she would have been proud of the hard work everyone put into keeping me alive!


I am back in the land of the living now, but still feel the effects of the past week.  I am also convinced that we aren't as independent as we think we are; we rely heavily upon others whether we know it or not.  It took me a week of weakness to realize it, but I won't quickly forget it.  Don't live like you don't need anybody.  Wanting to accomplish something big on your own is admirable, but if someone wants to help you, let them.  We are not self-reliant beings; God created us to relate to and help each other.


Let me encourage you to be sensitive to others who need a hand.  Also, don't be so controlling that you won't let someone assist you.  Quite a few people went out of their way to help me this week, and it changed the way I think about life; have you stepped outside of your "bubble" to help someone today?

Quotes on Forgiveness

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.     -Unknown


He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.     -George Herbert


Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.                  -Unknown


Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it.
     -Mark Twain

Nails in the Fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.  His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.  The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence.  Over the next  few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered 20 daily  gradually dwindled down.

 He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.  Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all.  He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. 
 
  The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.  He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.  The fence will never be the same.  When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.  You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.  But It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound will still be there.  A verbal wound is just as bad as, and often worse than, a physical one."


Author Unknown 

Real Pearls

The cheerful little girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them, a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. 

"Oh mommy please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please?" 

Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face. 

"A dollar ninety-five. That's almost $2.00. If you really want them, I'll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday's only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma." 

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace. 

Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere, Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green. 

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night as he finished the story, he asked Jenny , "Do you love me?" 

"Oh yes, daddy. You know that I love you." 

"Then give me your pearls." 
"Oh, daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess, the white horse from my collection , the one with the pink tail. Remember, daddy? The one you gave me. She's my very favorite." 

"That's okay, Honey, daddy loves you. Good night." And he brushed her cheek with a kiss. 

About a week later, after the story time, Jenny 's daddy asked again, "Do you love me?" 

"Daddy, you know I love you." 

"Then give me your pearls." 
"Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll.. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper." 

"That's okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you." 

And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss. 

A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian style. 

As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek. 
"What is it, Jenny ? What's the matter?" 

Jenny didn't say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver, she finally said, "Here, daddy; this is for you." 

With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny's daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny ... 

He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her the genuine treasure. So it is, with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us beautiful treasures. 

God will never take away something without giving you something better in its place. 

Don't Hang Yourself... Hang Around

³ Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

⁴ Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What [is that] to us? see thou [to that].

⁵ And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

-Matthew 27:3-5

Consider for a moment the similarity between Peter and Judas.  Peter denied Christ, Judas betrayed him, but both of them were guilty of basically the same offense.  Peter did it to avoid embarrassment and possible persecution, and Judas did it for money.  Both men did despicable wrong against their Savior.

Now consider what makes them so different from each other.  When Judas saw that he had made a horrible mistake, he committed suicide.  The End.  Peter, on the other hand, had a talk with Jesus about it and received forgiveness, restored fellowship with the Lord, and the chance to preach at Pentecost.

There comes a time in every young person's life when you feel like you've really blown it.  At some point after you mess up, you ask yourself, "What was I thinking?!"  No doubt both Peter and Judas thought the same thing.  Now you have two options.  You can go out and ruin the rest of your life (Judas) or you can hang on long enough to get it straightened out with the Lord (Peter).

If you've had a "Peter moment," hang on a second!  Jesus is there for you, ready to help you out of that sin.  Just be humble enough to repent, submit and move on with life.  Even though Peter's denial must have hurt Jesus deeply, He looked past Peter's faults and saw Pentecost.  When we screw up, He doesn't say, "Look what you did!"  He says, "Serve Me!"

Judas didn't have to hang himself.  He could have talked it out with the Lord like Peter did in John 21.  Just think, we could have a book of Judas!  He could have lived the dream that Peter did!  But no... 

When the time comes that you feel like you've made the biggest mistake of your life, do what Peter did. Repent, submit, obey, press on, and move on.  You don't have to live a defeated Christian life just because of one mess up.  God has a future planned out for you.  Get back up, get it straight and keep on serving the Lord!

Heavenly Persuasions

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things that are unseen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

-II Corinthians 4:17-18

What keeps us going when nothing else does?  Heavenly persuasions!  God tells us here that the hurt and rejection we feel in life is light affliction.  Imagine how heavier it would feel if you carried the burden all by yourself.  God is the One carrying you through, and He keeps you going when the going gets rough.

All pain is temporary.  The Bible expresses it as "but for a moment" (verse 17).  Although suffering seems to last forever, it doesn't.  To a child, a bee sting is traumatizing because he's never been stung before; we as adults know from experience that the pain will pass, therefore we calmly dress it with baking soda and wait it out.  Every trial we face terrifies us because it is uncharted waters, but we must remember that each one is only temporary.

Remember, for every cross there is a crown.  Any affliction we might face "worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (verse 17).  In other words, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus!  What a good deal: our affliction is actually relatively light; it won't last forever; and by enduring with patience, we lay up treasures that will last forever!

Psalm 4:5

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.
Psalm 4:5

Have you ever had to give up something you wanted very badly, for the sake of another or for the greater good?  I was thrust into this my freshman year of college, and I was not happy about it.  I had something very dear to my heart taken from me, a little at a time at first, and finally altogether...for an entire summer.  I knew this happening was God's will, but it didn't make the sacrifice any easier.  Near the end of the summer, I stumbled across Psalm 4:5, and it totally changed my perspective.

Unless you're a new reader, you've probably figured out what scenario I'm talking about.  The sacrifice I was called upon to make was Tim.  After our school asked him to be on GloryBound, he traveled every couple of weekends to churches in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas.  Soon enough the real test came, and he traveled the entire East Coast with GloryBound.  That summer was one of the hardest times in my entire life.

We are all asked to make difficult sacrifices.  Why does God always ask us to sacrifice our most precious possessions?  Abraham must have thought the same thing.  Perhaps it is to bring us to the realization that those things we call "ours" aren't really ours to begin with -- they are God's.  Perhaps it is to teach us to rely on God for joy and strength, instead of leaning on the spirituality of another.  Whatever the case may be, God assures us in Psalm 4 that even though offering sacrifices of righteousness is never easy, it's always worth it.

At a youth conference I heard a simple quote, "Brag on God, do what's right, and things will get better."  Even if you are in the middle of a painful circumstance, you have the capability to honor God in your speech and actions.  It is a sacrifice, but God calls it righteousness (Psalm 4:5).  That's motivation enough for me to at least try to do obey Him in the middle of a trial. 

The second part of the verse instructs us to put our trust in the Lord, which isn't exactly easy when the ground is crumbling underneath your feet.  It's so easy to try and put matters into our own hands, but is that a realistic aspiration?  Even if you could control your situation, there's nothing you can do that God can't do better!  Psalm 118:8 says blatantly, "It is better to put trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man."  The greatest part about it all is, it's worth the sacrifice!  Here's how it works:

Offer sacrifices of righteousness + put your trust in the Lord = Thou hast put GLADNESS in my heart!

That's right, someday all those tears are going to come back as joy (Psalm 126:2, 5-6).  Sacrificing his beloved son was not what Abraham bargained for, but was certainly worth it.  Abraham experienced first-hand how God provides for us and he even got Issac back, unharmed!  Oftentimes God asks us to sacrifice in order to give us something better.  Tim was more prepared for the ministry at the end of the summer than he was at the beginning.  He learned countless lessons during the summer he couldn't have at home, and to me, that's worth it.

If you see yourself approaching a difficult time or find yourself smack dab in the middle of a storm, you might discover that you must make a few sacrifices.  Understand that God has everything under perfect control, and that you can rest in Him while you wait on Him.  Things will get better, and it will be worth it.

Quote: Overcoming

"The world is full of suffering. It is also full of the overcoming of it. We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world."  -Helen Keller

For more inspiring tidbits, visit IFBKJV.com Quotes and Quips

Give It to God

 ...lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 
For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. 
-Hebrews 12:15b-17


If you've ever heard a sermon on this passage, you're probably familiar with the phrase, "Give it to God."  It's hard to grasp this when you've been hurt.  It's easy to let mean thoughts enter your mind, which eventually turn into bitterness.  Anyone who has dealt with bitterness will tell you that it will destroy you.  Habitually thinking evil of someone who did you harm is natural, but destructive.  The right thing to do is to give it to God, but how do you do that when you've been so hurt?

When I had to deal with bitterness in my own life, I got sick of people telling me, "Just let it go!"  I wanted to grab their necks and scream, "I can't let it go!  It's not that simple!"  If you have experienced the same frustration, it's absolutely true that it's not that simple.  Deep-rooted bitterness won't go away by sheer will-power; there must be an outside agent working to remove it.  This knowledge is the first step to uprooting hard feelings against someone.  You must be willing to allow God to do a work in your heart.  You must first want to change, or it's not going to happen.

In my own battle against bitterness, I had to come to the realization that in trying to take revenge on the offender, I was hurting only myself.  Thinking bad thoughts about the one to blame wasn't accomplishing anything!  What was I going to do, use the force to play mind tricks on them that would make them feel terrible?  When this hit me, I was more than happy to let God handle the situation.  You must face the reality that God can handle the situation a lot better than you.  All of those vengeful thoughts about wishing the wrongdoer would (you fill in the blank) -- God can do that, you can't!

After I truly gave my bitter situation over to God, I found a place of repentance for harboring wrong thoughts and trying to take control of a circumstance only God could fix.  In the passage at the top of the post, Esau shed many tears over losing his birthright, but bitterness was still alive and well in his heart.  How sad it would be if the story of your painful condition ended like Esau's: She found no place of repentance, though she sought it carefully with tears.  You CAN have victory over bitterness, but first you must take the responsibility of revenge off of yourself and give it to God.  He is always fair and will handle it way better than you ever could.

Jesus Knows How You Feel

Doesn't it annoy you when someone claims they know how you feel, and you know they don't?  "I know how you feel" is a popular phrase to throw around carelessly, and it gets aggravating to hear when the time comes that you'd like someone around that actually does know how you feel.  Right before Tim left for his second summer on GloryBound I encountered this more times than I could count.  I heard a lot of, "Yeah, my boyfriend and I live in different states, so I know how you feel," and "He and I only see each other at school, so I know how you feel."  The truth is, very few of them actually knew how I felt!  It drove me crazy!

Well, for everyone who shares this sentiment, I have good news for you.  Whether you've been through the mildest or worst of circumstances, there is One who really does know how you feel.  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15a).  I know what it's like to suffer loneliness, so I can relate to someone who has suffered the same pain.  I don't know what it's like to have parents go through divorce, so I can't feel the infirmities of someone who does.  However, Jesus can relate to anyone, because when He was on the Cross, he not only bore our sins, but all of our pain, guilt, bitterness, suffering, and infirmities.  Any sin or by-product thereof, He put upon Himself.  Whatever your case may be, Jesus has already been there, and He knows how you feel!