Who Will You Be?

What do you want people to think when they think of you?

Will they think of the shabby stinky one who doesn't really care about them or what they're talking about? The lazy one with no aspiration?

Yesterday at the science fair I saw a kid that I'd seen only a couple of times before. He's somewhere in the 13-15 age group I think. Nothing special about him just by looking at him--average height, average weight, jeans and a mountain dew tee shirt...pretty normal kid. I didn't give him a second thought. Well, I was holding Bird's hand by Lane and Moose's display, and this kid holds out a bowl of popcorn to the Bird (part of his own display). "You want some popcorn?" he asks the Bird in a friendly sort of way. She had a bite and smiled all sweet and stuff, and he grinned and put the bowl back. I kinda tend to like people who are nice to my littles, so now this kid was now not just a kid--he was a nice kid.

But he was not done being a nice kid after that! I was in charge of lunch and drinks for everybody, and many of the kids would mutter, "ummmm....root beer please" when I asked them a question. But this guy came away from his display board a couple of times to the lunch room to help I assume his little sister get some pizza. He looked me in the eye and was nice and loud with his drink choice and said thank you. He and some other kids helped us clean up chairs afterward and I heard him call my Bird by her NAME. He must have heard one of us say it or something and remembered it. I was pretty impressed and I mentioned it in the car. J-dude said, "Oh, the kid with the green shirt? Yeah, he was nice, he helped me with my drink. The juice jug was REALLY full, so he poured it for me." K, so NOW I really like this kid, right? He presented himself very impressively and gave me reason to think well of him when I didn't even know him. That's the kind of impression I'm after when I'm with people--even if I don't know them!

But there's more to being impressive than just how you appear. It's also what you think about. What your dreams are. I've met boys who didn't really care about what they were going to be when they grew up, even if grown-updom was knocking at the door. They didn't have anything they cared about doing, and weren't even after any money really. No drive or hardworkingness. Girls do the same thing. Even if you are a girl who is not career-minded at all or doesn't need money, if you're not practicing to be a wife and mom one day than you are wasting your living time.

We are supposed to be people who accomplish things and do good to others in our occupations, as a witness to Christ. Let's be alert and think about such things!

Come to the talent show tonight, one and all! :D

Walking With the LORD

It has recently been brought to my attention through several different people, events, circumstances, etc. that, well, walking with God is the best thing ever.

Of course I already knew walking with God was basically the epitome of Christianity--if you are a child of God, you walk in His steps. But just recently the full magnitude of what it means to be in the LORD has hit me like never before. If you are truly in Christ, you are constantly checking with Him. Your decisions are all based off of what He wants. In fact, the only thing you want is to do what He wants! It is very liberating to just throw everything over to a God who loves you. I can't figure out why I continue to think things will be better if I worry over my little problems myself. When the little things are in God's hands, they don't seem like such a big deal after all.

And the best thing about being in the center of God's will? You can't mess up! Whoa! Obviously it's not a "Oh, I got in God's will and now I can do whatever and nothing go wrong" thing. It reminds me of the Ultimate Balance Test on Wii Fit. On said test, you must stand on the board and keep your center of balance at 50/50 for 3 seconds. HARD man! As soon as you're in, you're out! You have to chase it down, to keep figuring out how to get in there and keep it there. It's the same way with walking in God's will. You can't do any one thing and be "in the club". It's a constant process. Most of the time walking WITH God means quite a bit of time running BEHIND God, yelling, "Hey, wait up!" :P

But you know what's awesome about staying in God's will and walking with Him? It's fun most of the time, at least for me. The more I study and read and pray, the more I know about the characteristics of my Savior and all the different things He likes. And THAT is cool stuff.

Neither

Remember when Joshua and the Israelites were FINALLY getting to go into the promised land? They'd crossed through the Jordan river on dry land, eaten some of the fruit of the land, and are getting pretty excited. But the bad guys that they were scared of in the first place are still out there. They need to be defeated. So on this particular day, Joshua was standing near Jericho. It was the first place to go. I'm sure he was kinda counting fighting men in his mind, thinking up tentative schemes on how to get over those walls and defeat those people. But then he looks up and sees a man with a drawn sword in front of him. Had to be a wee bit disturbing. He asked the man, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"

Listen to what the answer was! "Neither, but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."

Now we all know that the man proceeded to give directions about how to march around Jericho and the walls would fall down, etc. But what really grabbed me this time was that the man said, "Neither". He said he wasn't on the side of Joshua, or of Jericho! It seems he would say, "your side", especially when he was there just to give specific directions on how to defeat Jericho. Anybody agree?

And now here is my thinking. My simple guess is that Joshua NEVER thought, "Hey, hows about we march around these walls blowing trumpets for seven days these certain number of times, and the walls will fall down and we win!" My guess is that he was shopping around for grappling hooks or big ladders or bombs or whatever would come in handy. He was making his own plan. But whatever he was thinking, it is safe to assume that his plan was NOT what God's plan was. So God was basically saying, "I'm not for your plan, or their plan--check out MY plan for YOU!"

These are just my thoughts of the last 20 hours or so. Don't know if I communicated them to make any sense or not.

But God's plan always prevails. Bring it LORD! Not my plan, but yours be done!

Those Iffy Things

Ever been in a situation in which your conscience was getting pricked, but it really couldn't be helped without being rude? Like maybe eating a ham dinner at someone's house when you don't eat pork, or getting invited to a party that may not be such a good idea. 1 Corinthians 10 addresses such matters.

"Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, 'The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.'

If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake— the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved."

What do you get out of this? Is this iffy thing you're thinking about doing be glorifying to God? It's not an easy answer - if you DIDN'T eat the ham and hurt your hosts feelings, that would not be God-honoring or good for your reputation as a Christian. I found the part about "trying to please everybody for the sake of the gospel" very interesting. If I'm going about offending people in any way, what I believe in and what is important to me is probably not desirable for those around me. Just a little food for thought...