Honesty and Truth

Proverbs 24:26 "An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips."

This verse has shown to be true to me lately. Honesty and truth are such an important part of any relationship. This is what everything should be based on. A kiss should be so precious and sweet, so should be honesty and truth when you receive it, or give it for that matter. Telling the truth should give you just as much joy or more as hearing it.

Matthew 7:1-2 "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults -- unless, of course, you want the same treatment." The Message

7:3-5 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite (holier-than-thou part -Msg.), first take the plank out of your one eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from you brother's eye." NIV

Why should I judge others, when I have so many things in my life that need correction. I must seek first the kingdom of God, so that all of his things can be given to me.

There is no need to hold a grudge, we need to forgive others. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We all make mistakes. We all fall short of the glory of God. Thanks goodness he gave us Jesus! Amen, brother!

I am working on seeking God first so that I may inherit the things he has for me. I want the things God wants for me, not the things I am greedy for.

Why Worry?

I was walking with my mom today, and the subject of worry came up. My mom reminded me of the verse from Matthew 6:27, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" And how about 6:34, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." God has a plan for each and ever one of our lives. Wow, I kinda feel like a cheesy Sunday School teacher when I say that, but it's so true.

At times it may seem like worrying is the only option....what about prayer. Philippians 4:6 tells us not to worry. "Do not be ANXIOUS about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Here we go, not only are we not to worry, we are supposed to present our request with THANKSGIVING, or "rejoicingly." This relates back to a previous post, about how we are supposed to rejoice even in the hard times.

And lets take a look at 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptaiton has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." Replace the word tempt here with any word really: worry, work, etc. God is not going to give us more than we can endure. He knows our limits and our boundaries. In fact, the Message version of 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it." So that pretty much puts it in contemporary language...haha, the point of the Message I think. :) Yep, that's what it says on the side of the Bible. So, no matter what hardships we face, God will be there in the end to help us work them out, and not only that, he will be there during the hardship, and before it, and after it. Doesn't get much better than that.

The last couple lines in Message version of the Lord's Prayer found in Matthew 5 say, "You're in charge!" You can do anything you want!" We have to pray that everyday. Let God direct our paths, and realize that his plan is bigger and broader than we can see. The beginning of the serenity prayer goes like this, "Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." So, although it is hard to let go sometime and stop worrying, we've got to submit to God and his will. We have to "[let] God know [our] concerns" as the Message puts it in Philippians 4:6. He won't give us more than we can bare. He is our God, he is a powerful God, and I love him.

Where are you TODAY?

This morning I was on a walk when a lost dog came up to me. I run a lot and am pretty scared of lose dogs or any wild animals for that matter because I have had my share of run-ins. But lately these lost dogs have been attracted to me. This is the second time in just a few days a dog has walked beside me for at least a mile. This morning as I was approaching a busy intersection I told this dog, "buddy, you better go home or you're going to get killed." Well, I guess this dog wanted to get killed because it ran full speed into one of the busiest intersections in town. I saw a women slam on her brakes and the man driving behind her swirve to miss being in an accident. The police officer, who was waiting to turn, rolled down his window to ask me about it. I said, "I don't know, it just started following me." He laughed as the dog came over and jumped on his car. I yelled at the dog to go home, and it went on the other way opposite the intersection. Really, what was this dog thinking, and what a close call to a pile up in that intersection.

I wanted to share this story, but interpret is as you would like. It probably means something different for you than it would for me or someone else. Maybe you are the woman or man driving and something has just been sprung upon you, maybe you are the dog and doing things before you think, maybe you are the dog who is lost or maybe you are the police officer who is observing everything. Take a moment and think about where you are at in your life, but know this...a verse on my desk reminds me that God is my protector and gives me peace.

"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8

Just Relax

I help coach Special Olympics track every Tuesday and Thursday night. About 100 athletes come to participate for an hour. It is a great time. One of the women who participates, Denise, always asks questions and sometimes is very nervous. We tell her, it's ok, just relax, and she will repeat, "Just relax?" Now, when she is nervous, she will initiate the "just relax" phrase and we repeat to her, "yep, that's right Denise, just relax." I thought what a great way to think about our sometimes busy, hectic lives. We need to take a moment and just relax.

Luke 10:38-40 illustrates this quite well.
"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'"

Here is Martha nervous about getting everything done when JESUS CHRIST is in her house, pretty important guy if you ask me. When he says, "Martha, Martha," he is saying "just relax." We ought to relax and revel in the fact Jesus is here. Sometimes our worrying is for not, and we miss the only thing that we need....Jesus Christ. Sometimes when some worrying may be necessary, we must not forget to lift up our worries to God. This song we often sing in our church is based off of Psalm 121.

I lift my eyes up unto the mountains,
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from You, Maker of Heaven,
Creator of the earth.
O how I need You Lord, You are my only hope;
You are my only prayer.
So I will wait for You to come and rescue me,
To come and give me life.
©1990, Mercy / Vineyard PublishingWords and Music by Brian Doerksen

So, busy day, busy week, busy month, busy year? Take a moment and "just relax." And remember God made this earth and won't give you anymore than you can bare.

Giving God the Glory

So, I just ran the Illinois Marathon. It was a blast. The first one in Champaign-Urbana. It was such a great race. It was well organized, fun, good route. And because I'm from Urbana, I knew tons of people who were cheering on all the runners. I ran with my best friend, Chelsea...thank God for her or I wouldn't have made it through so many of those training runs! :) But,...two days after the marathon my knee started killing me. I could barely even walk for the first couple days. So needless to say I have not been running for almost the last three weeks. I have had x-rays and an mri, and will finally find out on Wednesday what is wrong. Possibly a torn meniscus or it might be i.t. band syndrome. One requires surgery, the other just a lot of therapy. Either way I'm going to be out for quite awhile still. It is so weird going from running all the time to not running at all! All you runners out there definitely know what I mean. Anyways that has been pretty frusturating lately, and I have definitely learned some patience.

Me and Chelsea after the marathon.

Romans 12:9-21 talks about love. It talks about how love should look and what it means to love. 12:12 says, "love is patient in affliction." I was like wow, I need to be patient right now. Although I am hurt, trying to rush the process with just make things worse. Not only did this verse leap out at me, the entire passage had a good message. To highlight a few things, love must be sincere, hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Honor one another ABOVE oursevles. Be joyful in hope, faithful in PRAYER. Here is a hard part: BLESS those you persecute you. It is so hard to love those who are mean or talk bad about you.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. This part stuck out to me also. My friend Tara, who I have known for about 2 years now, has a brother who got in a motorcylce accident about a month ago and has been in acoma since. Her family has gone through a lot of ups and downs during the process, and they have made a website that updates everyone one her brother, Ben's, progress. Here is the link: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/benjaminmiller. There are days when I am reading and praying about Ben, and I am just like God, WHY? would this happen, but then I have to realize that God is in control and we must rejoice even in the hard times.

This is Tara and her family. Her mom, Becky, dad, Tom, and Ben.

Another thing I am rejoicing/mourning about are my grandparents. My granpa was diagnosed with cancer about 2 years ago and has been on a rollercoaster through that. He has good periods and bad periods. Right now he has been going through a hard spell, and my grandma and him decided to go on sort of "one last trip." They stopped at my uncle's in Iowa last week, and my grandma, who has been caring for my grandpa very deligently through all of this, fell down the stairs. She got pretty banged up and has been in the hospital since it happened on Saturday. She broke some vertabre, a bone in her shoulder, cracker her head open, and had a concusion. She still has a terrible headache, and is not getting better at a very fast rate. This has caused a lot of stress on her I'm sure, especially with my grandpa the way he is. Each day is a new day, and one step forward at a time is about the rate everything is going right now. Sometimes it is like GOD, WHAT THE HECK!? and sometimes its like THANKS GOD! Its hard to be like God, whatever you want. But, this is what I have to remind myself of each and everyday.

So the rest of the passage just talks about not being conceited and loving everyone. And how as much as we can we should live at peace with everyone. God will take care of everything. 21 says, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome with good." This isn't just evil like I'm gunna kill somebody evil, this is like gossip evil and making fun evil also. It's like you better turn the other check (Matthew 5:39), and give God the glory.

First Post!

Basically, I have been really bored at school lately and following a few people's blogs. This kind of inspired me to write one. I came up with the name 3 schools 1 sport 1 life because I have been to 3 colleges in two years, and all of the transferring has been because I want to play soccer. And I only have one life to live, so I decided to follow my dreams. There have been a few bumps and bruises along the way but also many rewarding experiences. This blog will address what's going on throughout my journey, talk about past experiences, and hopefully inspire others through my reflections.