Are you content in your "season of life?"

I think I speak for all young people when I say that there is almost nothing more frustrating than the opposite sex. And there is absolutely nothing more frustrating than other peoples opinion on your liking of the opposite sex. When I am single, guys frustrate me. When I am dating someone, guys frustrate me. There's no getting around it. So why do I find myself wanting to be in a relationship?

Don't know? Well I suppose I'll answer my own question.

Here's why:

Genesis 2:18, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a suitable helper for him.'" So God made all the animals, birds, etc. (all the things I don't like) to be Adam's helper, but none of them were suitable. So God made woman from Adam's rib and Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man." God dug that idea and said, "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."

Translation: Adam is no good on his own. God creates Eve. Things are good.

According to God's Word, we are to find someone we like a lot, leave our parents house, get married, have some babies.

The End.

Just Kidding.

Side-note: To any 14 year old girls reading this... Just because the Bible says we should get married, doesn't mean that you should find some punk and and be his girlfriend. You are too young to date. Song of Solomon 2:7 says, "I adjure you, Oh daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases." Meaning don't date until the time is right. That time is after you graduate high school.

But I digress.

Somehow, somewhere, it came about that if you're single, you're supposed to not want to get married; to be content in your singleness. That it is somehow more glorifying to go against how God wired you than to fulfill His plan for you (being married). What you get from that ideology is a bunch of liars; a bunch of young, single girls lying about being content. We're told that when we are content, God will send us a man. So we run around going, "Okay, God, I'm content. I love being single!! Now where is he? Send me a man!"

And our young, single guys interpret "being content" as "I'm just gonna wait for God to put the right one in my path."

So girls are waiting for God to send him and guys are waiting for God to send her. Meaning no one is doing anything to find the other.

But in what other area of our life do we just wait around for something; for God to send it? Nowhere!! Guys don't wait for dinner... they tell a woman to make it for them. But theres not going to be a woman if they just sit on their lazy butts.

And I don't wait for my nails to paint themselves!

That being said, you CAN be content in your season of life- being single- but still want to be in a relationship. I enjoy being single, but I don't want to be single forever. I want God to finish what he started... I'm single but I want to be married eventually.

*I am not implying that I want to get married ASAP. I'm not the girl to get married at 21. But 3, 4, 5 years from now, I'd like to see some progress.

I write all this to say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be married. There is nothing evil in wanting to find a husband or be in a relationship. So next time someone tells you to be content in your singleness, tell them to shut up... just kidding.

Getting Naked, Sex, and Why You Should Keep Your Clothes On

As a young Christian woman, I've noticed that teaching on the topic of sex is almost always approached one of two ways. The first being not teaching on it at all. The second being the use of scare tactics or what I like to call the "Mean Girls" approach. (You know? "You WILL get pregnant and die..."???) Neither of the above mentioned seem to be effective.

We are given the "no's" without the "yes's". The rules without the explanation.

Telling a 3 year old not to touch the hot eye on a stove is going to make the kid want to touch the stove. Telling a 15 year old to not have sex is going to make her want to have sex. More than likely, not because she is burning with passion, but because she is curious. Like the 3 year old, the 15 year old is going to get "burned" by her curiosity.

Being the profound and wise (almost) 20 year old that I am (sarcasm), I have taken it upon myself to elaborate on why saving yourself for marriage really is what is best for you. And more importantly, it is what God wants for us. You can thank me later... :).

We are called not only to virginity, but also to purity. Not having sex isn't just about avoiding intercourse. Plenty of people are getting physical with someone, touching each other, and doing things to one another that aren't actually sexual intercourse, but sure are sexual. They're getting together in intimate ways and trying to pretend theres no intimacy or connection.

God wants you to wait. He wants you to wait because He cares about you. He wants you to say "no" to something that He knows you want now because He knows that sex now- this way, this time, with this guy- holds short lived fulfillment and satisfaction. He knows that sex within marriage- a lifelong commitment- is so much better and so much more pleasurable. He wants you to wait for that kind of sex; he wants you to experience that. He wants you to know that sex outside of marriage is bad, but sex within marriage, the way God intended it, can be amazingly fun-filled and purpose-filled hot crazy sex.

Sex outside of marriage is, more often that not, awkward and nerve wracking. Your head is probably filled with self-concious thoughts and wondering if you'll get pregnant or an STD. But when it comes to sex within the walls of marriage, there doesn't have to be those kind of thoughts. If you married a good, Godly man, you are his standard of beauty. You married a man who should treat you the way that makes your friends jealous. You married a man who sees your body as his wonderland, and those 5 extra lbs. that you are self conscious about, he sees those as more acreage to roll around on :). In Song of Solomon 4:7, it says that Solomon tells his new bride, "All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you." Can you imagine someone telling you that? Someone who saved himself for you and you for him? That's enough to melt my heart!

Its easy to get naked and have sex. People do it all the time!!! But opening up your soul to someone, letting them into your spirit and thoughts and dreams and hopes and fears... that is being naked. That is letting go of all inhibitions and truly being with someone. That is what and how God intended sex to be.

Sex before marriage ruins relationships and prolongs bad ones. Don't let sex ruin you. Be a young woman or man of dignity and honor. Don't give up the amazing sex you can have with your future spouse for sex with some tool bag that you met at BAR.

God invented it, culture corrupted it, it is ours to reclaim!!!

Camp Paradise 2011

This is way way way overdue. But I've been too busy taking showers and eating real food since I got back from camp to blog. (My schedule is very demanding... obviously)

Camp Paradise. What a week! I ate more canned fruit in 5 days than I cared to eat in an entire lifetime. I slept (or didn't sleep) on a crib mattress that they called a bed. I brushed my teeth with water from a water cooler and shaved my legs on the porch with exfoliating face scrub. I made a clutch out of duct tape! But I wouldn't have rathered be doing anything else those 5 days! More importantly than the 5000 ant bites that I came home with, I also brought back a heart totally sold-out and on fire for the Lord!

400 students, 100-something adult volunteers, and 1 awesome God showed up for an amazing week of camp in the middle of nowhere South Carolina!

I can't say enough good things about my church! I am so blessed to go to a church where the young people are loved on and prayed for like they are at Hickory Grove! God obviously heard our prayers for camp, because His presence was so apparent!!!

We spent the majority of our "family group" time in the book of Jonah. We talked about how God calls us to "ARISE" and be a leader and example of Christ to others. I definitely think that our students went home ready to share what they learned with their family and friends!

I am thankful for new friends! It is so much easier to walk in the Lord when you have Christian friends to hold you accountable and who are there to pray for you when you need it. I miss the "Dream Team"! I haven't broke out in spontaneous dance to "Party Rock" since we left! People who say Christians don't have fun, obviously haven't been to Camp Paradise.

There were so many celebrity appearances! Like Coach Snyder, Grizzly Barbasol, and the most famous of all... (wait for it) Gerald Malloy!!! Gerald and the band absolutely brought it!!! The music was on point. At the beginning of the week, very few of the kids would put their hands up during worship and by the end of the week, we had an entire room of raised hands, 200 middle school aged kids surrendering themselves to God!

I can't wait to be back! But until then, my prayer is that we are fearless in sharing our faith with others and that we are a Godly example to such a lost world! There is nothing to lose!

Until next summer :)...

PS- When they say not to eat the sausage... LISTEN! Its just as bad coming up as it was going down.