Thoughts: Friendship

Cause thoughts posts are fun, thought provoking (for me to write anyhow ;) ), and just random. :D And this blog is about randomness after all.

So for thoughts today, I thought I would do a post on friendships. You may want to grab a snack before sitting down to this lengthy discussion :) I've been learning a heck of a lot this year about friendships.

We'll go down the list shall we?

Number one would be that people change. They can change for better or for worse (one of the reasons that's in the marriage vows...) They can change for the benefit of your friendship or for the decline. You have to expect change. Nothing on earth is constant. Only God is constant, and that is why our hope is in Him. That's why we look forward to the day when we will stand in His courts, before His face and we'll sing to Him. Because He alone is constant and sure. You don't have to worry about God changing for the worse. That's why our faith is such an anchor in changing times, because it's something that stays constant.

Number two would be to give people time. Now by time I don't mean to give them of your time. I actually mean quite the opposite. I'm very good at giving people my time. I'm too good at it. I want them to tell me what they're doing, I want them to share what I've been doing, I want to open up to them, I want them to open up to me. And that's where the tension usually comes. Not everybody will want to open up to you right away. Some people take a while before they feel close enough to you to talk about things that affect them. This is especially true of quiet or shy people. They take longer to share their feelings. They don't want to tell you what's bothering them. They just tell you they're stressed and then when you ask say "nothing" or "I don't know" or "it's complicated" or "I don't think you'd understand". Well, maybe I wouldn't, but then again, maybe I would. I'd at least care! So really, whether they tell me or not doesn't make a difference for them. I'll say the same thing either way "It's alright. Don't stress. I'll pray about it for you. You've been praying about it right?" lol That sort of thing. So don't forget to give people time to open up to you. It makes a world of difference and means so much more when they do voluntarily.

Number three is encouragement. It's an important part of friendship. Encouragement can come through a lot of different forms. Sometimes we may not even realize that's what we're doing. By the way, the same can be said for discouragement, it comes in a lot of different forms and sometimes we don't realize that's what we're doing, so be careful. I'm not sure which of these I do more often. I think encouragement (wouldn't we all like to think that! lol) But really, I think I generally encourage people. That's my aim anyway. I have some friends that encourage me without even trying, so that's what my aim. Is to be like them!

Number four would be... Pull back. Sometimes people need you to pull back and give them space. They need time to live their own lives, if you know what I mean. People don't always want you around (except for me. I pretty much always want my friends around!)

Number five would be... Tell them how much they mean to you. I haven't in the past and when "friendships" dissolved, I sort of wondered if I had told them some things if they would have understood me better and wanted to keep being my friend. So I have taken to telling my friends how much they mean to me. It makes a difference. I like it a lot when people tell me that I mean a lot to them. It makes me happy :)

Alrighty. That was lengthy. It was important. It was hopefully thought provoking. Let's sum it all up in a paragraph if we can :)

People change and we need to expect that. Try to work with the way they change and encourage them to change in a positive way. Give people time to open up to you and to come to you. Don't always be the person that makes contact. Sometimes it makes a huge difference if you let the other person come to you. It also can make you feel special. Encourage your friends through difficulties and change. It shows what you're made of. If you give them good encouragement, then they'll see that and be like "oh yeah, she's really an encouragement." Pull back some and let your friends live their own lives. They're busy. They may not have as much time on their hands as you. Be considerate of their time frames. Tell them how much they mean to you. It means so much to you when your  friends tell you how much you mean. So do the same for your friends. It will really help your relationship.

So, I hope that helped you if you've been having trouble balancing or understanding your friendships etc. It's been hard for me to learn so I'm just putting it out there for you to read! Hopefully you learn by advice :)

On a side note, I now have an "About Me" page if you don't know me and want to see some random things about me. I had fun making it, I hope you enjoy reading it :)

Love and prayers,
Ruth

Girls' Meetup and Flowers

So.. last Thursday, my really sweet, really awesome, really fun girlfriends from Charlotte came up and paid me a visit!

Left to right is: Ann Marie, Yours truly, Theresa, Bascha, and Caroline

YAY! We had a blast. We made fans, we talked, we joked, we giggled, and we laughed (so much that Bascha's mom thought the glue fumes got to us! But we had the window open so it wasn't that)

Theresa looking very pretty :) Her fan is very period looking!

We went outside and we fed baby goats (Theresa insisted on staying indoors due to not wanting to get dirty! :O What kind of country girl are you Theresa?!)

Bascha with my adorable "Anthem"

Then we went back inside and worked on fans again.. giggled some more.. sang some.. played music.. generally talked about what we had been up to. We only get together like twice a year, so it's always an amazingly fun time when we do get together!

Left to right: Caroline, Ann Marie, Me, Bascha, and Theresa

We had such a fun time! It was rainy and chilly, but still definitely Spring! It was awesome!

Now, in the spirit of spring, I have some pictures for you!

Lots of fun and Spring. And now its homework hour so I have to go!

Love,

Ruth

This Week's Question: Where Does My Strength Come From?

Well, more than likely, you know the answer to this one ;) "My strength comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and of earth."

But do we act like it? Do we freak out and lose control of ourselves when life isn't going easy or the way we want it to? I do sometimes, but nobody knows because I don't want them to. So in a way, I don't completely lose control of myself, I just give way to feelings for a while.

When life turns crazy and unexpected things/problems happen, the only way I can keep myself from losing it is to lean on Jesus. That's all anyone can do. This is not saying I have crazy emotional issues ;) Just if I didn't have Jesus to lean on, I'm sure I would! Because life is stressful. Life is heartache. Life is uncertain. Especially if you're a caring person, life is heartbreaking. I know.

Our hope, our lives, our focus, our hearts, our thoughts, our actions, need to be centered in our faith. In Jesus. In our hope to come. In God's will for us. In God's will for our friends and people we know. It's the only way you can submit to the things that happen in life. It's the only way to keep from losing it sometimes.

I've got a few really great songs I love on this subject that I want you to look up.

"Shoulders" by For King & Country (I have this music video on my G+)
"Busted Heart" by For King & Country (on my G+)
"Lord I Need You" by Matt Maher

and of course.. THE song... "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman

Praise be to God, I have Jesus! Never get "used" to having Jesus or His forgiveness! It means so much, especially in hard times.

Love and prayers, God bless!

Ruth

P.S. Don't forget to keep me in your prayers. Life's been crazy with people I know. It's hard. Thanks!

"Pray for one another" James 5:16

How Far I've Gotten On My New Year's Resolutions

Shall we start from the top?

1. Try not to talk peoples' ears off. I'd say I'm working on it. Getting better, obviously cause now my pastor's son doesn't hate talking to me! :D
2. Think about what I'm saying. Is there a point, could it hurt someone's feelings? Getting better at this, too, though sometimes I still think a second too late :/ Thankfully I don't think I've hurt anyone's feelings yet. 
3. Try to find out what on earth I'm doing/want to do with my life. I think I've narrowed it down to a general purpose. Encourage people. This looks like its consisting of a degree in nursing and possibly a minor in music. What I plan to do with that pretty much is help veterans and military personnel :D
4. Practice singing a lot. I'd say I've done this! haha I've been writing songs, too, if you follow me on Google+ you may have seen my latest "You Will Be With Me" I'm currently working on a better recording and rewriting the chord progression.
5. Get my hair healthy. I am proud to say that instead of being put at 0 on a scale of 1-10, I am now at a 5 :D
6. Workout. Yeah I've been doing this too :D
7. Sense when people want help, or need to talk about what they're going through. Yeah, this one has happened already. I've accomplished this one.
8. Keep up with my "This Week's Question" series. Yup. As you can see! :D
9. Finish my costume. It's finished folks!
10. Bring my grades up. I actually am. YAY! lol As well as adding Advanced Biology which seems like I'm going to be able to do well in!

Maybe I should make a new list of resolutions? My quarter resolutions maybe! :D

1. Learn the technicalities of music. I really need this for my songwriting.
2. Write five songs (please remember this is for the next quarter of the year) good enough to send to my actual pro music friends lol
3. Make a thousand dollars (personally) in fundraisers for my youth to go to camp! :D Can't wait this is going to be so fun! And really, I don't see how this is going to happen. But.. this is sort of a... I'm hoping God will help me make this much! Going to ask Him to! It's gonna be cool.
4. Form a game plan for helping veterans in my area. I'm really hoping to do this soon.
5. Get A's in my Advanced Biology and Advanced Mathematics!

Okay, I think that's good for a quarter? Three months? Yeah, I think I can do that! :D Have to be realistic with resolutions, you know ;)

Let me know what ya think!

Love,

Ruth

Thoughts

I heard this thing, I think it was a movie review? And the question was... "If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence for you to be convicted?"         ........Just wow. I never thought of that before.

If I was on trial for my Christianity, would I be convicted? I think the answer for me is yes. I have openly stated so online, to friends, in public. Most of the things I do are related to my faith, so yes, I think I could be legally convicted.

Now let's switch that question. If you were faced with a penalty of death, would you deny your Christianity? Would you deny your Lord? the One who gave His own life for you? the One who you love because He first loved you? the only One to ever love you perfectly? Would you deny Him in fear?  I honestly do not know if I would. I definitely hope and pray I wouldn't. If it were by my own power, I know I would. But, God tells us that Jesus will strengthen us. He never lets us go if we are truly His. I think that is such a beautiful promise. It quiets me so many times when I'm scared because of things going on around me.

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; whom my eyes shall behold for myself, and not a stranger."

God be praised it isn't by our strength, but by God's perfect love for us! We aren't worthy, but He chose to show grace and mercy.

Love and prayers,
Ruth

This Week's Question: Am I Showing Christ to the World?

First of all, I'm going to say that it is positively impossible to perfectly show Christ to the world. No human lives without sin, but Jesus. And Jesus only could because He was perfectly God and perfectly Man at the same time. So, let's first of all get ourselves a realistic idea of how to show Christ to the world.

We should want to show God to the world, so I won't even list that as the first necessary thing (which really is the first necessary part, but we'll assume you know that and want to do it! :) )

One of the first steps, is to admit that we aren't perfect. I've noticed that a lot of Christians seem like they want everybody to think they have their lives perfectly together and don't stress or anything. That's not realistic and by acting like that, some people are pushed away. Especially those who are really struggling with something. They come to somebody like that and the Christian is like, "Well, you know, I don't really stress about things yadayadayada" and the struggling person is just like.. "Wow I'll never be able to be like them. I guess I'll just hang it up." You know? I know I'd feel like that! So first of all, we need to be realistic.

Secondly, we need to realize that through God, we can be effective witnesses for Him. If we allow Him, and listen closely for His voice, God will work through us to show the part of Him that particular people need to see. Get what I'm saying? If we allow God to work through us, He will work through us in the way He needs us to for that particular person.

Thirdly, we need to, as my youth pastor says, walk the walk of death to sin. Which in essence means, we need to be constantly putting sin to death in our lives. I really need to work on that more ;)


Alrighty, so in conclusion, we need to; admit we are not perfect and don't have our lives in control, be sensitive to God's leading so He can use us in the most effective way, actively war against sin in ourselves so we can become more like Jesus.

Now for a little update :D I have started Honours Advanced Biology, it is very interesting. I like it, though I'm not one for mathematics and chemistry, I enjoy biology. I'm hoping I can get an A in it! Also, I took the SAT on Saturday, so we'll see how that turned out! (pretty sure I'll be marked down for spelling behavior as "behaviour" but whatever) I've redecorated my room, and I've been feeding baby goats, and enjoying this BEAUTIFUL spring weather!

Love,
Ruth

Hillsong Church

It was recently brought to my attention that there was some confusion about Hillsong Church's doctrine. I want to publish what their pastor's actual statement was, in order to help them correct the error in the media. Here's a link to his actual statement, and here is the copy of his statement.

http://hillsong.com/media/statement-re-recent-media-comments-on-homosexuality

"Statement from Brian Houston - Senior Pastor, Hillsong Church

Re: recent media comments on homosexuality

I encourage people not to assume a media headline accurately represents what I said at a recent press conference.

Nowhere in my answer did I diminish biblical truth or suggest that I or Hillsong Church supported gay marriage. I challenge people to read what I actually said, rather than what was reported that I said. My personal view on the subject of homosexuality would line up with most traditionally held Christian views. I believe the writings of Paul are clear on this subject.

I was asked a question on how the church can stay relevant in the context of gay marriage being legal in the two states of the USA where we have campuses. My answer was simply an admission of reality – no more and no less. I explained that this struggle for relevance was vexing as we did not want to become ostracized by a world that needs Christ.

I made the point that public statements condemning people will place a barrier between the church and the world (and I note that Jesus came to save and not to condemn), which is why at Hillsong, we don’t want to reduce the real issues in people’s lives to a sound bite."

This Week's Question: Is My Friendliness Unfriendly?

..."But how can that be?!" you're probably asking. But.. well, it can be. Take it from me, I know! ;)

I am so friendly, that I inconsiderately don't think about how somebody else may not want to talk/hang as much as me. Being inconsiderate of others, is unloving; even if that inconsiderateness is caused by a want to be with someone.

I am personally aware of this. More than once I have been overpoweringly into talking to someone and it fries their circuits. Big time! Not everybody likes to talk as much as me. Some people dont like to talk as much as me, and I should be considerate of that because love thinks of other people, not just myself.

I've always loved socializing. Strange that I can be so shy when I first meet people, or am around strange people.

I need to find a balance. Everything in life should be balanced (Read Ecclesiastes for further knowledge on this subject!) including my talking. I need to figure out what is a good time, and what is overdone, and what is too little. I'm working on it!

Thankfully for me, I have some very loving friends! :) They're putting up with me while I figure it all out. I thank God continually for my sweet friends! They're all wonderful, loving, caring, patient, and best of all, Christians! So we really are more than just friends, we're siblings!

Love,
Ruth

P.S. Sorry I didn't have a direct Bible passage for this week's question, but I wanted to mention this cause it is an issue for me, and I'm sure for other talkative/sociable/outgoing people.

A Poem and a Prayer

Awake my soul and sing,

to Christ my Lord and King.

He overcame the grave,

a chosen inheritance to save.

He is my shield, my all,

He is my Helper when I fall.

Awake my God and hear my cry,

Awaken, Lord and dry my eyes.

Wipe every tear away,

draw me near and say,

You will never leave me.

Oh hold my soul, let fear in me recede.

God is my Rock and my Foundation,

the holder of the world, and King of all the nations.

Amen.

-Anonymous

Thoughts

Because I love doing thoughts posts, and because I've already done a "This week's question" and because it would be extremely hard to turn this into a question.

"The harvest is ready, but the labourers are few."

This verse means a lot to me, because I come in contact with a lot of people who aren't saved. Some of you are probably saying, "Wait, what?!" right now, but it's a fact. I always seem to hurt for them because I really don't like to think of anybody going to hell. I mean, why should I not go, and the next guy does?

In consequence of this, I find that I really really like to tell people about God. Still, I always feel like I'm not doing enough, and when someone doesn't want to hear about it, it makes me very sad. I wasn't always this way. As a matter of fact, there was a point in time when I didn't really want to talk about how I was a Christian. To be completely honest, the fear of man laid a snare for me. I didn't want people to not like me because I was a Christian.

I'm not sure exactly when the change came, but I realized that I wanted to tell people about Jesus. I think it was just realizing how many desperate, sad, depressed, lonely people there are in the world. You kinda hear stories, you know? So I started praying to God that He would use me to bring people to Him.

"Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that He send out labourers."

You can't really pray that prayer and not be willing to be one of the labourers yourself. (By the way, this is the end of Matthew 9, if you want to read the actual verses. I may not be quoting word for word) If God calls you to do something, and really, everyone is called to share the Good News, then you had better do it!

We are all called to be labourers for the harvest. Why are there so few of us? In regard to missions, my pastor always says, "You are either a sender, or a goer, there is no alternative except disobedience."

I don't want to disobey God.

I will be a sender, and a goer. I can be a missionary to those around me, and I can help encourage and support our missionaries who are out in foreign places, too.

I hope this made you think.

Ruth

This Week's Question: Am I Helping Those Who Are Weaker?

So, in case you didn't know, I've become a co-authoress on a potentially extremely interesting/crazy/awesome blog.. Girls Living For God's Glory  It's going to be a sort of fashion/talks/random blog.

I've chosen to keep out of the fashion aspect of it. Why? Here's where I tie in this week's question.

I happen to be more liberal than a lot of girls who are concerned about modesty. Don't get me wrong, modesty is a huge aspect of my life! Not to mention a great trial to me... I absolutely hate buying a shirt and getting it home just to find that it is waaay too see-through. Or.. to buy a pair of pants and find out they are way too tight! However, I feel comfortable in some things I know some girls wouldn't. For instance, I wear jeans. Not loose fitting jeans, but not skin tight either. I don't always completely cover my hips, because I don't feel it's necessary for me. A lot of girls I know always completely cover their hips if they wear pants. Or, I may feel comfortable in a skirt a little above knee-length, while another girl might not.

This is why I have chosen to keep off of modesty topics on our new blog. I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest writer, and the others being younger than me, I don't want to make them question what their parents have decided, or to make them feel I am not modest. I want to be a good example. Paul put it very well when he said, (and though he is speaking about food and drink, I believe it carries over to other things not clearly stated in the New Testament, as well) "I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.... Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died." (Romans 14:14-17)

Like I said, I believe this passage can be opened up to mean anything not clearly laid out in the New Testament. For instance, modesty. Modesty is never laid out with.. "how long can my skirt be" "How tight can my pants be" Matter of fact, pants didn't even exist back then. All the Bible ever clearly states, is that we are not to put a stumbling block before each other (see verses right before the passage I just typed), and that we are not to appear as harlots.

I have to say, sometimes I reeeally wish it was spelled out clearly in the Bible, but I guess it's one of those things everybody has to figure out for themselves. Some things are flat out immodest, while others are.. meh on you it's alright.

So, in order that I not make anyone question their modesty parameters laid out by their parents, I will abstain from posting any fashion posts on our new blog :) Not a huge issue for me anyway, because I'm not that crazy about fashion posts anyway. I love when other girls do them, for me.. I don't know, not that interesting!

To sum up... I should always go the road that will be a good example to others. I should, when in company of people I know do not feel comfortable with some things, do things their way, even if it puts me out. That is love.

I hope this post made sense... :D I never know if they do until you guys comment! SO.. leave lots of comments!

Love and prayers,
Ruth