Friday, November 22, 2013

Respecting Your Body

     We live in a world with ridiculous expectations for beauty. Once, I was watching this video on how people edit photos of models, and it probably took them 30 minutes. Making them taller, thinner, their eyes bigger, hair longer, skin shinier, etc. And that is what beauty is perceived to be. Super thin, tall, tanned skin, no wrinkles, perfect teeth, no scars, no facial acne, and large curves (but not too large). And it's not wrong to want to look pretty. There's nothing wrong with a little makeup, just as long as you're not wearing it because you think you're not beautiful without it. Girls who are pretty are pretty on the outside, while girls who are beautiful are pretty on the inside, and it shows through on the outside. But I am so tired of seeing or hearing about these girls who are starving themselves just to look pretty. 

     If you are starving yourself to please society, then who are you living for? I mean, when you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, whose body do you see? Probably yours. And who created that body? God. So who do you think you should be trying to please? The world is a very critical place. The world tells you, "You will never have a perfect body, you cannot be beautiful without being able to see your ribs through your skin, you cannot be beautiful without starving yourself, you cannot be beautiful without tons of makeup, you cannot be beautiful unless you have perfect skin, you cannot be perfect unless you are a model or are famous or follow all the social standards." That is the society we live in. But you know what God says about being pretty? Literally NOTHING. God doesn't care if you have a thousand zits on your face, a unibrow, or aren't a size 0. I mean, yes He wants you to take care of your body because it's the temple of God. And there's nothing wrong with makeup, or fixing your hair, or trying to eat a healthy diet in order to help you lose needed weight, or gain muscle, stay healthy, or even gain needed weight. In fact, in 1 Timothy 2:9, it says not only to dress modestly, but if you look right before that, it says that we should dress in respectable apparel. I mean, some days you just want to stay home in your sweatpants and fuzzy hoodie and watch movies and eat tons of chocolate. Nothing wrong with that (as long as that's not every day ;) ). But what this is saying is that when you go out in public, change out of your pj's and throw on a pair of pants, brush your hair, put on a shirt that doesn't look like it hasn't been washed in 100 years because of all the stains, and don't look like a zombie. Look respectable, but don't care so much about how you look that that becomes what your whole life becomes about. Life isn't about pleasing everyone else with your body, it's about pleasing God with your actions. 

Monday, November 18, 2013

Why Dress Modestly?

     The last article I worte on modesty was about what modesty is. But today I'm going to be discussing why we dress modestly. Okay, so it's pretty much to the point to where if you go out into public and don't want to see a woman's thigh, cheast, entire back, or stomach, you're going to have a tough time. I mean, it's ridiculas. But why should we dress modestly? I mean, what's the big deal?

     Okay, so say you go to a beach and see a bunch of girls in bikinis. I tell you that one of them is a Christian and tell you to point her out among the croud. How easy would that be?? Not very. Why? Because she's being like the world around her. That's one of the reasons that women should dress modestly, so we can set ourselves apart from the world. 

     The second reason is because, what kind of men do you want to be attracting? I saw this video one time where a nonchristian guy was giving advice to girls about what kind men they're attracting. He said that he's tired of girls constantly posting on Facebook that they always have the worst luck with men because they're "all jerks and idiots", and then he looks at their facebook page and all he sees is pictures of them showing off their bodies. If a nonchristian can understand this without it being taught to him his whole life, then why is it so hard for a lot of girls to? I'm not saying that this is every girl, but it's getting more and more rare these days to see someone dressed modestly. If we dress in a way that shows off our bodies, then do you think you'll attract the guy who wants your body, or the guy who wants to keep his mind and actions pure? 

     The third and final reason is to keep the minds of our brothers in Christ pure. Girls and guys think very differently from each other. Girls can look at something and not think anything of it, while a guy can look at that same thing and have all these impure thoughts flood into their heads all at once. Now yeah, they can fight those thoughts, but wouldn't you much rather not give them the temptation to lust? I mean, if a boy lusts after you because you're not wearing enough clothes, then that's on your hands. You just caused someone to stumble. So please, it may not be the "in" thing, but dressing modestly doesn't become less important because it's less popular. 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

How Much Do We Talk About God?

     Okay, so I was talking to my best friend about baptism the other day, and we were talking about it for like, an hour or so. It was a long time. Anyway, I have been friends with this girl for over 6 years, (which is a real long time for me because I've never lived anywhere that long, so 6 years still staying in contact with someome is something that never happens. Like, ever.) and she's practically my little sister, but I didn't know that 1, she had been thinking about it, and 2, I didn't know hardly any of her thoughts on the subject. And she's been my best friend for 6 years!! So then I thought, "How much do I REALLY talk about God in my daily conversations?" Like that song, "He is My Everything", that part where it says, "Some one may ask me, some one may say, 'Who is this Jesus, you talk about everyday?'" Will they? 

     I mean, it can be so easy to get caught up in talking about politics, movies, boys, actors, or just about anything, that we forget to talk about the Bible. But let me ask you something, and I have a hard time with this too; but if all we talk about is our daily lives, and God is not incorperated in that, then what are we doing in our daily lives? Now, you don't have to talk about everything you have ever done for the church or for God. I mean, that can be kinda braggy. But what are we filling our daily live with? What are we telling our friends? I mean, there's nothing wrong with not talking about God 24/7. But we should at least talk about it more than none every day. So I want to encourage you to do so. To talk to at least one person about the Bible every day. You never know the impact it can have not only on their lives, but on yours. :)

Monday, November 4, 2013

Take Advantage of Today

     Okay, I have moved around my whole life. I have lived in 10 different places, because my parents were missionaries for a while, and it took us a little while to finally get settled down somewhere. And one thing that I have learned is to make the best out of every situation. I have lived in large cities, small towns, I've had tons of friends, no friends, or only one friend. But one thing I've learned is that you don't really have a whole lot of controll of your situation. Especially if you're still in school. I mean, you can controll some things, but things happen that are unexpected. So what do we do in these situations? You simply make the best of them. 

     Yesterday, I saw this web comic. It started out with a little boy saying, "I wish I could be older." Then when he was an adult, "I wish I was younger." Then the next slide you him in a wheelchair next to a grave saying, "I wish I had appreciated the times more." It was kind of really depressing, but it was true. Every different stage in life comes with a different set of opportuneities, and a different set of limits. It can be easy to think about the limits, but it's best to think of the possibilities. What does this have to do with the Bible?

     It can be easy to think, "I'm too young to do anything for the Church." But in our youth, that's the best time for us to study. The habits that you set when you're young are the habits that you will most likely keep for the rest of your life. The things that we learn when we are young are the things that stick with us our whole lives. Of course we learn a lot later in life as well, but the things that you are taught in your younger years are often the most important. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it." So even if you're too young to teach a Bible class, you can still talk to your friends about the Bible, or just plain study so that you can use this knowledge to make sure you're on the right path, and so you can have all this knowledge so you can later be a Bible class teacher, or speak at ladies days, or whatever you want to do. 

     As you get older, the opportuneities to teach will become more and more frequant. Just because you're not an adult, that doesn't mean that you can't teach. I have several friends, and I do as well, who teach Bible class to the younger kids. You'd think that the kinds would just think they could walk all over you, but as long as you have a strong backbone, the kids will think that it is so cool that one of the teenagers is teaching their Bible class. Also, you're closer to their age than the adults, so you can connect with them better, as you remember that age better, and you remember exactly what kids like. 

      The first 18 years of life, so far from what I've heard (I'm only 15, so I don't really know much about what happens after I turn 18) are the best. It can be easy to want to grow up. But I want to challenge you to, at leas for this week, look at the situation that you're in and instead of thinking about what you wish it were, think about how good you can make it. After all, that's really the only way great things happen. :)