What are you watching?

The last few months I have been watching a lot of tv. I've been definitely getting my money's worth out of my Netflix account. I've sat through season after season of shows like Grey's Anatomy and Family Guy, very entertaining shows. But what I realized was that this entertainment was having a negative effect on me. I think that people try to think that they can watch or listen to whatever they want and that they aren't affected whatsoever. I would say think again. Even if you think you are listening to a song just because it has a cool beat or you don't pay attention to the dirty jokes and sex scenes in a tv show or movie, your are letting this stuff into your mind and after a while it is going to affect you whether you think it is or not.

In the course of about a week I think I watched 3 or 4 seasons of Grey's Anatomy. I told myself that I watched it for the medical stuff, cause believe me, even if it is unrealistic, the medical stuff on that show is awesome! But along with that, I watched 2 or 4 seasons full of sex scene after sex scene, and though I said I wasn't watching it for that reason or paying attention to that stuff, I was just lying to myself. Pretty soon those images that I were watching were getting stuck in my head and I began fantasizing about myself in each one of those situations.Though I watched it for the medical stuff, I got the garbage too, and it definitely affected me. My mind was constantly on impure thoughts and I fell back really deep into some of my struggles. Finally I decided to quit watching that show and after that my mind was a little purer. It was easier to fight temptations and impure thoughts were less common when I wasn't constantly feeding myself garbage.

A similar situation happened to me with watching Family Guy. This past week I have watched 3 seasons of Family Guy. I watched it because I needed a laugh, and most people would admit that Family Guy is pretty hilarious. Well a lot of the humor that is used on the show is crude jokes. Lots of bathroom humor and sexual content. I told myself that I am a good person and I won't pay attention to any of that, but over this week my mind has been full of very impure thoughts and I have been going back to the dirty humor that I used to have. I have quit watching this show and now my thoughts are definitely heading back in the right direction and I no longer have the urge to say inappropriate things.

I'm not trying to tell people not to watch Grey's Anatomy or Family Guy or that those shows are bad. I'm giving up those shows because I feel that they impede my walk with God; they may or may not be bad shows, that's for you to decide on your own. What I am saying though is that we need to be on guard for what we let into our minds. I believe that the entertainment choices that we make do have an affect on us, lingering effects. If they didn't then why do advertisers put so much money and effort into coming up with their images and slogans? So we need to be careful what we watch and even what we listen to.

You need to communicate with God and look at your life and use your wisdom and discernment to figure out what media choices are affecting you negatively. Pay attention to what you are watching and what thoughts or ideas or images it is bringing up in your mind. If it's something that is not godly, I would highly suggest that you limit and even cut out whatever song, tv show, or movie that might be. Be honest and true to yourself and don't use the excuses that so many people try to use. A wise person and a person who is wanting to grow closer to God will notice the areas in their life where things aren't quite right, and they will fix them, no matter how difficult it may be.

So pay attention to the images whether verbal or visual that you are letting into your mind. If you keeping letting in garbage, that's what's going to start flowing out of you after a while. If you discover that one of your entertainment choices are affecting you negatively and keeping you from moving forward and growing in your faith, then you need to cut it out.

That's all I have to say about that. Later dudes! :)

Encouraging others in their faith

Somewhere I've heard a quote that went something like "God loves you so much that He doesn't want you to stay the same" or something close to that. What it was referring to was that God loves us so much that he wants us to change for the better, he wants us to grow closer to him and develop into the masterpieces that he has us planned out to be. That's why God is constantly teaching us lessons and shaping and molding us. He loves us and  he wants us to experience growth and develop a closer walk with him.

Growing is great thing. We ought to want to grow, we ought to want to be shaped into the person that God wants us to be. We ought to be submitting ourselves to Him so that we can be molded by His hands. Our ultimate purpose in life is to be Christ-like and that takes a lifetime of growth, so we should be constantly seeking to become more like Christ. So I love that God loves us so much that he is constantly wanting to help us grow in that purpose. But shouldn't we show that same kind of love to our friends and family and loved ones? We should love them that much that we help them along this journey as well.

I'm not suggesting that we set out to change our friends and family. We can't change people, that's God's job. No, what we should do though, is make sure that we are looking out for our friends, that we encourage them to grow, that we point out to them when they are heading down the wrong path. Let me give you an example:

One of the things that I love the most about my boyfriend is that when I am straying off the path or when I am becoming stagnant and not really growing closer to God, he comes in and calls me out on it. He reminds me that what I am doing is not right or he reminds me that I need to be spending more time with God. He loves me so he looks out for me and wants to be sure that I am on the right path.

I think that when someone close to us is doing something that they shouldn't be doing or aren't on the right path, it's a loving thing to bring that up to them. There are ways to point things out to someone, you just have to be careful, doing it with love and not condemnation. I don't think we are called to condemn people or judge their hearts because that's God's job. But I would feel bad if I knew a brother or sister in Christ was doing something wrong, and I let them continue down that path without saying something to them.

There's ways to go away doing this correctly. Listen to the Holy Spirit's promptings, make sure that you have the right motives, make sure you aren't judging their hearts or condemning them, make sure you're speaking the truth with love, and make sure that you are aware of the sin that's in your own life first.

I wish that more people in my life were looking out for me, and calling me out when I am doing something wrong. To me that speaks volumes of love because it tells me that instead of letting me continue down the wrongful path of sin, you love so much that you want to help me get to the right path, and grow closer to God

James 5:19-20
" ¹⁹ My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰ let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." 


Luke 6:41-42
" ⁴¹Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye."

Ephesians 4:14-16 
"so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. ¹⁵ Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,"

Real pleasure comes from serving God

Sometimes sinning is just fun. Am I right? If it wasn't, it there wasn't something pleasing about it, why would we continue to do it? Of course, there's the whole sin nature thing, but we never do anything that we don't want to do. I read a devotional post with that title once and I realized that is pretty true, even when it comes to sin. Sin feels good sometimes. It appeals to our fleshly nature, a side of us that we still have, and that if we don't keep in check, we will get ourselves in trouble.

It may seem like fun at first, or it may seem like the best thing to do, or it may feel good. Lying to get out of trouble feels good, masturbating is fun, stealing seems like the best thing to do at the time, but how long do these seemingly good feelings actually stick around? And are they actually real pleasure?

No, they aren't real, and those feelings aren't going to stick around for very long. This week I got sucked into the pleasures of sin. But then I realized that what I thought was pleasure comes back to bite you, and turns out to be not so enjoyable at all. When you realize and experience the consequences of what you've done, when you realize that you have gone against the God who loves you and who fills your life with blessings each day, you feel pain and you feel guilt. Sometimes the consequences are that you hurt yourself or someone else, whether physically or emotionally, sometimes you get in trouble by the law, sometimes the consequence of sin is even death. None of this is worth the fleeting moment of pleasure that you might have had.

Real pleasure comes from serving and obeying God. It is only then do we find real joy, that we truly have fun, and that the good feelings last. If you are caught up in a sin because you are enjoying the moments of feeling "good" remember that's not what true good feelings are. That's not true joy, true pleasure, and it doesn't last long at all. Remember the consequences of your actions.

We need to look to God for joy, for pleasure, for our desires because only by doing His will can we truly find these things and that they will last. Going out into the community and bringing the love of God to others is an activity that I find extremely pleasing and joyful. It is something that makes me feel very good inside, and it is a good feeling that will not quickly fade into guilt and negative consequences. Living for God and serving Him brings great feelings that will last.

I needed that reminder. I hope this serves as a great reminder to one of you too.

What am I Most Thankful For?

There are a lot of things in my life  that I am so thankful for. My family, my friends, my home, my dog, my roommate, my boyfriend, food, and the ability to sleep in a warm cozy bed just to name a few, but there's one thing that I am most thankful for, and that's God's love and grace.

It just overwhelms me how much God loves me. How could God love me, a sinner, who on a daily basis turns away from him, hurts him, and disobeys him. I am nothing but dust, and I do nothing for God. Looking back just on this week I lose count of how many times I have knowingly and willingly sinned against God. And I'm sure I did even more sins that I didn't know about. How many times have I told God that I am going to get right with him, only to turn around 2 seconds later and sin again. How many times have I failed to communicate with God through reading His Word and through prayer? And yet, God still loves me, and that just overwhelms me.

God is our Father, and like a parent, he loves his children unconditionally. Even though we may disobey him and turn our back on him, he is still standing in the doorway, holding his arms out, ready to receive us again. Though we may break His heart over and over again, He still has much love to pour out on us. Isn't that crazy amazing??
God will never leave us or forsake us. That's powerful for me to hear, especially as I am someone who has witnessed several people close to me just walk out of my life. I live in constant fear that one day I am going to unintentionally press the buttons that will make the people close to me not want to have anything to do with me. It's crazy wonderful knowing that I don't have to worry about that with God. That God, the One who is the most important, the One who provides the most love, is not going to ever have that button pushed.

What's even more amazing is how much grace God shows us! Grace is getting what we don't deserve. We don't deserve to wake up each morning, we don't deserve the next breath we will take, we don't deserve anything but burning in hell right now, and God has saved us from that. Not only that, His grace is shown with the blessings that he has poured out in our lives. To sit here and count the blessings of just today, I would run out paper and time!

To me at least, I feel God's love and grace through some of my friends too. I'll be the first to admit that I am not the best friend in the world. I don't love and care for my close friends as much as I should. I annoy them from time to time. I've done things that would probably make a good amount of my friends walk away from me, and yet they haven't. My best friends are still by my side, still loving me, even after I have hurt them, frustrated them, or turned away from them. Now that's gotta be the power of God!

So as I am thinking about the things that I am thankful for, I am definitely making sure to send up lots of praises and thanks to God, for his everlasting and abundant love and grace!