pontificating

Hi everyone.

I know it has been eons since I've even visited here. Because of the hurricanes (For those of you who don't know, Florida had 5 or so hurricanes hit pretty hard. 2 largely affected us in Jacksonvile), I have just been so back tracked. My routine has been knocked all around, and only in the last week or so have I felt like I'm actually getting somewhere with my scheduling. :shrug: Life is crazy. But, that's what makes it exciting. :)

It is comforting to know that it's not only my life that has been crazy. I have had so many friends who are dealing with rough things right now. Death, friendships, stress, life-altering decisions, divorce, their faith...sometimes I look at other people's lives and I'm so thankful how simple mine is. As Rachel and I were saying the other day-not much exciting happens in our lives. :-p Which, we agreed, is not nescessarily a bad thing because it would be better that nothing happens than bad things. However, it does get a bit dull at times. But, that is the joy of being a Christian. God's love brings new joys every morning and gives me something to look forward to each day. I just want to encourage everyone who is going through a rough time, no matter what the circumstance, to look up toward God and know that He understands your pain. And, more than that, He will comfort you through it. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:4

Today during dance at school, I started thinking about something. Allow me, if you will, to briefly pontificate.

For our exam, we're required to take these corrections that other people have given us anonymously, and do our best to fix them to the best of our ability and make the dance look as clean as possible. We're being graded on how well we correct the problems addressed. Mrs. Rose, my teacher, said something to the effect of: "I'm going to grade hard, because we've been working on this dance for a while now and I really want it to look good." Something came to my mind; it's a stretch, I know, but I thought about it all the same. When our parents correct us, in love, they expect us to change that which they've corrected. Whether it's to keep our room clean or to bring up our grades, they want us to fix the problem. They don't tell us to clean our room and as a punishment we can't go out that night because they don't want us to go out. They want us to learn to be organized and neat-most likely, unlike themselves. They don't want us to deal with the same mistakes they've made. We see the moment-"I'm so mad at Mom. She won't let me go out tonight just because my room wasn't clean."-where as they see the long term-"I don't want my kid to grow up as unorganized and messy as I am." Just as Mrs. Rose wants the dance to look it's best so she's going to push us hard to get there, our parents are going to work hard to make us be the best we can be. Okay, everyone knows this, right? Right. Moving on. The next parallel I saw was that of God's correction and love toward us. He corrects us for the same reason; because He loves us and wants us to be the greatest example of His glory that we can be. But, He also expects us to change when He corrects us. And if we don't, He will continue to show us that which needs to be changed. Perhaps things in our lives happen over and over again because God is trying to show us something that we aren't responding to. Perhaps He is trying to correct our behavior and we're choosing to deny it or ignore it, with the hopes that the correction will go away. It won't. God loves us so much that He will continue to discipline us until we change our behavior. So, just some food for thought: If you're dealing with something and it doesn't seem to be going away, try asking God what He's trying to tell you. Chances are, there's something He wants to say to you. ^_^

Well, thanks for reading my ramblings. I apologize. :shrug: I just had to say it somewhere; and what better place than here? Hope you all are having an awesome week full of blessings and surprises. :D

God bless,
lv