Friends

"Just as iron sharpens iron,
a person sharpens the character of his friend."

I've been meaning to write this post for awhile. But I couldn't put into words what I needed to say...

After my post yesterday, I knew a lot of people would disagree with me. But you know what? I'm not always going to agree with everyone. Even the people I love the most are going to have a different opinion sometimes. And I don't think a difference of opinion should keep one from sharing one's opinion.
I love that I could talk to a couple people about what I wrote, and we gave each other our opinions. Talked about it. And we're still friends. ;)

Because, just as iron sharpens iron, a person sharpens the character of his friend.

That's what it should be like... Of course, I love agreeing with people, too. I'd rather not ever disagree. Peace is awesome. And people can DEFINITELY 'sharpen' each other through agreement, too... (Just yesterday, one of my closest friends and I discovered, we've never disagreed. oh no! What's going to happen when we do?!)

But when disagreements happen, and they will happen... the people that will honestly tell me where they think I might be wrong, or where they might be wrong, and the ones to whom I can say the same. The one's I can talk to, and who will offer me advise. And vise versa.

THESE people matter.

And I feel so blessed to have these friends.

"Just as iron sharpens iron, a person sharpens the character of his friend."

Some thoughts...

I find, in our society, everyone flirts. A lot. Not that flirting is totally a bad thing, but I think a lot of the time, people don't realize that they're flirting. And often, they don't even 'like like' the person they're flirting with.

Like, really?

See, I have a hope that my future husband and children would be able to go back to when I was 15, 16, 17, 18 and look at my facebook profile, any other social network, even text messages... And I wouldn't have to try and hide... Especially with how I interact with guys...

Even stuff that seems so small, or so 'normal' just cause everyone does it... Like hugging, for example...

You know, like, walk into a room, see everybody, hug everybody?

That makes me uncomfortable.

And I know, it sounds SO silly. Because that's what everyone does. I'm not saying it's wrong. But to me, even just a hug... It seems like a little bit of physical intimacy that I'm giving away. Maybe, a tiny bit of my purity... I know... Maybe that's a strong word, but I don't want to give that to just anybody.

My mom always says to listen to that, when you have a little moment of conscience...

I hug my girlfriends all the time. I love hugs. But its different with guys. Highfive? haha

Or even, what about texting hearts?

Like, yeah. I have a lot of awesome guy friends... But I'd feel uncomfortable sending hearts to them.

***For the record, I don't have a boyfriend. Just throwing that out there. And I feel really weird writing this post. :P ***

See, it's just something that feels wrong to me. Maybe it doesn't for everybody. And I'm not saying that that's wrong, either...

But I want to be able to have something to give to the person I do end up being with. And I don't want to hand it out freely to everyone.

If I tell someone I love them, I want them to believe me. I want it to be real.

If I was on facebook commenting on everyone's (guys') stuff, "I love you!" "You are my favourite." etc... or hugging every guy at youth group... Whatever...

I would worry that when I actually MEANT those things... The person I was saying them to wouldn't take them seriously. Because they had heard/seen me saying them lightly to someone else...

Maybe no one will read this. Or maybe everyone will read it and no one will care. Or maybe everyone will read it and be really offended and I won't have any friends next week.

But maybe... Someone will read this and think, "huh. I've never thought that way before..."

I guess we'll see. Deep breath. *post*

service projects - my own little world

This Friday, our youth group is doing service projects. I get super excited every time we do these events.

 

It reminded me of one of my favourite events last year. So, here's the story.

I left out names, just in case. (Not like anyone reads my blog, but you know...)

But if you were there that night, you'll know who I'm talking about ;)

----------------------------

"In my own little world it hardly ever rains, I've never gone hungry, always felt safe. I've got some money in my pocket and shoes on my feet. I'm in my own little world, population: me."

And sometimes, I just want to stay there.

I was with friends, and we were having fun. We drove downtown to deliver supper and hot chocolate at the homeless drop in center.

There, standing on that street corner, these were real people. That's when a woman approached me and my friends. She didn't look nice, but we were there to show God's love, so we weren't about to run away.

"Hey, you guys Christians?"

I'm sure we all had the same thought process going through our heads... "What if we say the wrong thing and she gets mad? She doesn't exactly look like the kind of person who would appreciate a handful of christian high school students... Aaron and the other leaders are close enough to make eye contact."

"Yeah, we are."

"You from a church?"

"Yeah, we're the youth group from Mckenzie Towne Church."

"That's cool. That's really cool."

 

Relief.

 

"Do you know what it says in James 5:16?"

We were caught off guard. Before we can answer, she answers her own question.

"It says, 'confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.' I've sinned a lot. I'm not a good person. I smoke crack, I drink alcohol. A couple days ago, I was struggling so much, I was inviting demons into my body."

Her friends got involved at this point. "Don't be telling them all your problems and issues, they're just kids. You're scaring them, just leave them alone."

"No, no, it's fine. We're here to share God's love with you - You know, God can forgive your sins."

"I don't know if He can, but I need Him. I need Him to help me. I need to confess to Him, and I need to ask Him to help me, cause without Him, I can't do anything by myself. I need to squash my demons, but I can't do it alone."

"No, you can't. But if you pray to God, He will help you and He will forgive you."

"Will you pray with me?"

So there, on the sidewalk, we formed a circle, arms around each other and we prayed. 6 highschool students, 2 university students and 1 drunk, high, homeless and repentant woman.

"Thank you. God can forgive me, and He'll help me squish my demons."

We were just about to leave, when a tired looking man with tear filled eyes came up to our group.

"Can I ask you to pray for me, too? Can you pray for someone, for me?"

With trembling hands, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture. He handed it to us, and we saw it was of a little girl, about 3 years old.

"That's my daughter... My little girl. She lives in Manitoba, and she's four. I haven't seen her in three years. She was just a baby last time I saw her."

His voice shook. "I just pray, every single day, that one day, I'll get to see my little girl again."

So once again, we gathered in a circle. And we prayed.

My bessty offered to pray, "God, I pray for these people. I pray that they will both feel your love and peace. I pray that this little girl would know how much both her earthly father and he heavenly Father love her."

And he broke down in sobs.

And our hearts broke. (And I'd be lying if I said we didn't all cry, too.)

And on that night, in that moment, the population of my own little world skyrocketed, as I know it did for my friends that were there.

Because it was weird. We were out of our comfort zones. We didn't know those two people. We weren't expecting to experience such a spiritually moving moment together. But we did. Because we, together, allowed our hearts to be broken for what breaks His.

Psalm 107:1

In my mom's words, this verse is kicking me in the butt.
Thanks, mom.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.

After leading worship at youth and church this past weekend, and singing this song... Quite a few times...

I go into work Sunday afternoon.

And I really don't want to be at work. Like, I really don't want to be at work.

But I noticed, my manager had written on the white board on the back wall, "Give thanks to the LORD for He is good. His love endures forever! Have a wonderful and blessed day! :)"

Uhh, you know you have a cool boss WHEN. ;)

It kind of made having to work worth it.

Then yesterday on my Bible app, the 'verse of the day' is... Yep.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."

I TOLD you this has been happening a lot. It just appears everywhere!

I worked again last night, and my managers note was still on the whiteboard, too ;)

Yes

The speaker at Tehillah this week said, "If you have a 'yes' in your heart, then you can believe that God wants you to succeed even more than you do."

I want to make every right decision.
I want to do everything right.
I wish I could go through life making no mistakes at all.

And God? He wants it even more than I do.

All I have to do is keep a 'yes' in my heart. A 'yes' to whatever He has for me.

And He'll help me make the right decisions. He'll help me do things right. He'll help me make less mistakes.

And highschool is just a long list of decisions and mistakes waiting to be made. ;)

You know what I was thinking this week?

God, is kinda on 'my team'.

On the way to Tehillah, my friends and I were rocking out to Chris Tomlin, "And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us? And If our God is with us, then what could stand against?"

Then at Tehillah we sang, "You are for me".

"I know that you are for me
I know that You are for me
I know that You will never forsake me in my weakness.
I know that You have come down
even if to ride upon my heart
And remind me of who You are."

Yeah. He is for me. That is why I can keep a 'yes' in my heart. Because He is for me. He wants my success even more than I do.

For the sake of the world

I feel like I should have taken notes or something, cause now I don't remember exactly what was said. Except that I liked it and wanted to write about it. hmph.

We were talking about our relationships with God.
And we talked about the danger of living your life, and living your walk with God in a kind of mediocre way.

Taking God for granted? Not making time to spend with God? Just not having that 'connection'?

Anyway. This song kept running through my head. Burn like a fire in me.

Let my life

Feeling this joy, and knowing it comes from knowing I'm loved, makes my heart ache for the millions of people that are suffering from deppression or are just SAD. Cause guess what? God loves them just as much!
Do they know that?

And when I think of this amazing love I've come to know personally, I NEED to share it!

I loved this song the first time I heard it. I like how its about searching and questioning the worth of anything without love. "If I give to a needy soul but don't have love, then who is poor? It seems all the poverty is found in me."

I like how its like a prayer. A prayer for my life, that it would reflect Him, and what He's done through His life and death.

How cool is that? Let my life be the proof of God's love in the world. Let my love look like Him.

Awesome.