Good morning lovelies! We're back. With a bang. It's a beautiful sunny April day today (finally, cause God's somewhat sarcastic and likes to play april fools jokes with the weather.... "HA, IT'S NOT SPRING. IT'S STILL WINTER.") Anyway.
Hey girlies! Missed you! Sorry it's been so long since our last post. We know you've been asking. I've been wanting to put something up for a really long time and I'm finally sitting myself down and doing it!!
So ha. God has been teaching us SO MUCH since the last time we posted... Like, CRAZY STUFF. Totally changing my life and Morgan's... I'm not really sure what exactly we're going to write about today, but we know we want to touch on some of the lessons we've been learning.
Well, I recently started school at lifetime academy to become a personal trainer through Lifetime Fitness which is SUPER exciting :) I hope to graduate in December, but it will be different to have to do school all summer... so that will be interesting. I can't wait to use what I'm learning to help any of you or your friends who have any health or fitness questions. :)
I've been learning a lot about prayer and it's power. I took my prayer life from asking God for things and telling him about my life to starting out my prayers with praise. I asked, "how would it change my attitude every day if I started it with praise?" And it's really given me a brighter outlook on my situation in life. When I praise Him for all that he's done I realize that I have nothing to complain about... even when the WORST has happened to me or to others in my life. God is still there and unchanging and he still takes care of us so well...Praising God makes me see how powerful and gracious he is and gives me peace and assurance as I go about my day and I am able to rely and trust in him more than I was before, knowing that he always has my best interests in mind. And the same goes for everybody else.
The other thing we've been learning is about our identity. How we are princesses to a king and how we don't need to succumb to the culture. I've been learning how I don't need to go around telling people that I'm a Christian because my actions speak for themselves. I don't need to prove to anybody that I am a Christian because I just am one, just as I am a princess. But because I AM a Christian, I have the responsibility of drawing others to Christ, and that's opened my eyes to see how I dress, interact with my family and friends, how I view myself, and how I think...
In this culture, our identity has so much to do with what you wear or how you adorn ourselves. But reality, it's not about what's on your skin at all. It's about your inner light and how you present yourself and how you love and care for your soul. Then, you respect yourself and watch what you say and do, realizing that you have value in your womanhood in this culture where our value is found in the eyes of scrutinizing men and women.
I'm going to summarize what Morgan just said to me out loud :)
She listened to a sermon on 1 Peter 3. As a princess and a servant of the Lord, she has realized how her daily focus should change. When she wakes up to get dressed on a Sunday morning, she used to spend so much time thinking about her outfit and what kind of shoes or what jewelry she wanted to wear that day... but upon pausing to think about what that passage says, she realized that her inner self was SO MUCH MORE worth attending to. And that translates to every day as we live our lives worshiping the Lord. God's purpose on our lives is SO MUCH GREATER than feeding the lust-driven eyes of our culture. Why do we care so much about what people think of us when Almighty God has called us his own (Isaiah 43:1-7), and we belong to Him and therefore have a purpose set on our lives (1 Peter 1). Are we living lives focused on that eternal purpose or on something else (Colossians 3:2)?
So the other day, I was talking to my mom about the family and God's purpose for the family. During that conversation she mentioned how men are being devalued and demeaned in our culture, even more than women. Now, the feminist in me stopped and was absolutely horrified that she would speak such blasphemy... but upon listening to her words (a learned habit...) I realized that in many ways she was right. Men are not encouraged to lead, succeed, love authentically, live respectfully, or be creative in masculine ways in our culture at all. Instead they are encouraged to be masculine versions of women (chew on that one, and if you have any questions, just ask :) ). So, if women are so precious to God, and created as a prize, then if men are encouraged through media and social culture to demean women, then not only women are loosing value in culture's eyes, but so are men. So, ladies, I urge you to live as dignified daughters of the King in order to protect the honor and value of men and women alike. We are God's precious creation meant to be treasured and loved, and we ought NEVER SETTLE for less.
Please, don't take our word for it. Compare everything that we say to what you see in Scripture. Hold our words up to the Word of God which we honor far above our own words, and see for yourself what the Truth is.
Seek God in His Word and you WILL find Him. Period.
Love love love,
Mo and Jewels
"But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my eyes,
and honored, and I love you,
I give men in return for you,
peoples in exchange for your life.
5 Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
6 I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
Isaiah 43:1-7 (English Standard Version)
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