Posted by Posted in I was thinking..., words

Keeping Words of Beauty Beautiful

In this day and age, people use words of beauty flippantly. Lightly. Nonchalantly.

What is a word of beauty?
Words of beauty for me are descriptive words that show your love and pleasure for something. Words like beautiful, pretty, amazing, awesome, wonderful, good and great.

Today though people use these words all the time. We exchange words of beauty for slang terms and make beauty something cheap.

Now we introduce words like ‘hot’ to refer to beauty.

Now I can’t say “I’m so hot!” (hot- weather wise 🙂 )without being misunderstood.

Now people use words like awesome and amazing to refer to things that really aren’t.

We always grew up reserving the word ‘awesome’ for referring to God and the phrase “Only God is awesome” could be heard whenever we used it another way. Our family jokes about our little brother, when having a woman over she used the word ‘awesome’ in another context and young William corrected her “Only God is awesome!”

The story was funny but I can’t help but look deeper and say ‘where did that respect for words go?’

How many of us automatically respond with ‘good’ when asked how we are doing? I too am guilty of this. It is grammatically incorrect for one thing and it is an automatic response that doesn’t show sincerity of heart in our answer.

Lets save words of beauty for the things that truly are beautiful!

Posted by Posted in Children's Poetry, God, words

A New Day- A poem

I jump out of bed
Wipe the sleep from my eyes
Get dressed, brushed and ready
I feel like I could fly!

Dive into the Word
Find a nugget of gold
Get caught in the story
Jesus never gets old

My feet in the grass
My face to the sun
The breeze through my hair
Gods great day has begun!

Posted by Posted in Bible, faith, God, Jesus, Living for God, words

Remember Your Freedom

Sometimes we can forget the true extent of our freedom in
Christ. The reality is that if you have turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus you are free from sin, forever. I want you to convince you of this incredible truth through Bible verses. Lets embark on this search about freedom in Christ together.

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
John 8:36

Freeindeed. I think this is key. It doesn’t say just free, it says free indeed or really, truly free. If Jesus sets you free you are really free. It is not the superficial freedom the world offers us, it is true, real freedom.

“Now the Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”
2 Corinthians 3:17

When we are walking with the Lord we have peace, love, and freedom! The Lord is all of those things.

So this freedom is not everyones. It is only if you trust in Jesus for your sins. Before you do that you are a slave to sin, you are under the burden of sin and you are a captive to it. Every unbeliever lives with a burden, just like Christian in “Pilgrim’s Progress”. Only when you reach the cross will you become free from that burden.

“For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1

You never think about it that way do you. If you forget the freedom you have and feel guilty and ashamed you are bending to the yoke of slavery! Christ paid the price for your freedom. He gave it to you!

“There is therefore now no comdemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:1-2

Notice the words “in Christ Jesus”. We need to make sure that we keep our eyes on Him and remember that He is the only one that we can go to for that freedom.

Now I wanted to post the bridge of a song called “Man of Sorrows” by Hillsong. It explains the truth of this freedom in a very joyful, thankful way and I love it. Here you go.

Now my debt is paid
It is paid in full
By the precious blood
That my Jesus spilled

Now the curse of sin
Has no hold on me
Whom the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed

Isn’t that truth amazing? Lets keep going.

Once we place our trust in God we are actually still slaves…..but to God and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom, right?

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”
Romans 6:22

So we are slaves still, but to God and that is a even better than being free by ourself.

“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil but living as servants of God.”
1 Peter 2:16

So living as a free people is the same thing as living as servants of God! Anything with God is better than anything else that isn’t.

Our freedom really has some power. This isn’t just like a ‘yeah yeah I am free, woo hoo!’ Its more like….

“I shall walk in a wide place because I have followed your precepts.”
Psalm 119:45

“You who were once alienated, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you, holy and blameless and above reproach.”
Colossians 1:21-22

“Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
Romans 8:21

Yes, you heard me right, this freedom makes us children of God, above reproach before Him and walking on wide ways!

However, we must be careful with this freedom and gaurd it closely. We must not use this freedom that was freely given to us for wrong.

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an oppurtunity of the flesh but through love, serve one another.”
Galatians 5:13

“Out of my distress, I called on the Lord and He set me free.”
Psalm 118:5

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has annointed me, to bring good news to the poor, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”
Isaiah 61:1

We are to use our freedom to love oneanother, proclaim liberty (Jesus’s liberty) to the captives and in our distress, call to the Lord and He will make us free.

I hope that after hearing these amazing truths from the word of God you would see that if you are in Christ you have freedom. Freedom with power.

This freedom keeps you from condemnation.

This freedom makes you a slave to God, not sin.

This freedom gives you the boldness and power to go proclaim that liberty to those still in bondage.

This freedom is God’s power in you.

So don’t keep quiet, shout it from the rooftops, yell it through the mountains, proclaim it from any high place.

YOU ARE FREE!!!

Freed by Christ,
Priscilla

Posted by Posted in 100 Hard Things Challenge, abortion, challenges, do hard things, Living for God, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things, the rebelution, words

#33- Took Steps At Abortion Clinic

So I have not been keeping up with my hard things as much as I would like. Sorry! But yesterday I did a couple hard things while at the abortion clinic (hard thing #2) with my family. I talked for the first time with a mother going in. I was standing by the driveway trying to hand out booklets when someone actually rolled down the window. My mom was right there and together we talked to her. She ended up going in and getting an abortion but it was cool to see how God can use your holding up a booklet to open a conversation.

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in Friendship, stuff to do, words

The Love of A Letter

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How many of you have listened for the mail truck? When you hear it, you run down to the curb to meet it and see if there is any mail for you. There is quite a bit of junk mail, some bills and maybe a catalog for clothing. Doesn’t your heart jump when you see an envelope addressed to you? It could be a birthday card, a postcard or a letter from a friend.

According to the Huffington Post, teens now send over 60 texts a day. Everytime you get a text is it as special as receiving a letter in the mail?

Some might argue that writing letters is a waste. It wastes paper, money (for stamps), and time (who wants to sit and write letters?). But receiving a letter in the mail, is a special experience. It lets the other person know that you care about them, you took the time to make and personalize a letter to them.

As I write this, my sister is sitting across the table from me. For the last hour or so she has written four letters for friends. She has a letter box which contains stamps, envelopes, address labels, pens, cute stationary and her friends addresses. She personalized each of them, adding hearts and smiley faces to the envelopes. Carefully, she cuts stationary and scrapbook paper and writes a nice letter that sincerely inquires how her friends are doing. It makes me smile to think about the young girls who will recieve those letters. Letters bring a smile to peoples days.

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”
Proverbs 16:24

How can you share love through letters? -Application

Who will you write to?
Some suggestions…
1. Someone elderly. (a grandparent or elderly neighbor)
2. Someone who needs encouragement. (a young mom, a person who is sick)
3. Someone you want to get to know better.
4. Your friends.
5. A penpal. (you can probably even get a penpal overseas)
6. Someone you don’t see a lot. (a cousin, friend who moved away)

What should I include in my letter?
Some suggestions…
1. a Bible verse
2. a brief update on how you are doing
3. a sincere inquiry on how they are doing
4. a question to have them answer
5. a game (my sister plays tic-tac-toe with her penpal through letters)

A couple tips…
-make it personal! (stickers, drawings and small gifts)
-if writing a birthday card try to send it off at least a week before the birthday
-try to respond as soon as you can after you receive a response

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. Mother Theresa

Thank you for reading.
Priscilla