Walking It Out

Without getting into the intricate details, I feel like God's been dealing with how I end up compromising my values/feelings/needs and let things slide out of a desire to not be rude, to be nice, to be accepted, and to not rock the boat.  At times it is good to be careful and thoughtful when dealing with difficult situations.  However, part of my scars carry the automatic response to compromise myself for the benefit of others and not wanting to upset them.  Not wanting to be the "bad guy".  AKA the problem child.  This might be a bit of a shocker because people around me might not think this is true.  I speak my mind pretty freely, set and assert boundaries and all of that.  It's not to a great extent by no means that this compromise is occurring. But, it's still there none the less.  I can't speak too much about men, but I can speak about women.  I believe all too many of us compromise regularly.  We deal with the sexual jokes ...

There were undeniable times of my life when I was consciously disobedient.  I completely knew what I was suppose to or not suppose to do, yet I continued to do as I wished.  As I've aged and grown, disobedience looks a bit different.  There are a few different ways this plays out. First and foremost there are the areas that I struggle with.  To name a few: overindulgence in food, using foul/destructive language, and having a critical attitude.  These are things I do that are disobedient but I don't want to do them.  It grieves me when I end up doing these things.  Paul speaks about this in Romans:   Romans 7:14-25 New Living Translation (NLT) Struggling with Sin 14  So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.   15  I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.   16...

In marriage counseling I find myself talking a lot about choosing to intentionally turn into or away from your mate.  Our actions are either or.  There isn't a neutral position in relationships.  Same is true with God; we are either for God or for Satan.  There isn't an in between like many try to act like there is.  However, that's the subject of a different post. In our day-to-day lives we are constantly choosing if we will turn in towards one another or turn away.  There are many opportunities for being offended, hurt, annoyed, etc. if we chose to focus on the negative.  Likewise, there are plenty of opportunities to find connection, healing, love, etc.   I truly believe that God uses all of the bad and good situations to grow and heal us if we are standing close to him.  When we are standing close to him we are better equipped to follow his lead through the path and find the healing he wants.  However, many times our own hur...

It's so easy to ask this when we're going through difficult times in our lives.  I see many people who aren't believers yet ask, "If God is real, where is he?  How and why would he let all this horribly bad things happen?".  There isn't an easy way to fully explain it.  It's a layered answer that believers of all walks struggle with.  One the most basic level is it because he gave us free will so we could have authentic relationship with him.  Due to free will we make poor choices and so do others and all of this has natural consequences.  However, sometimes God does heal, delivers us from the consequences and or shields us from the world's evil.  It can be so difficult to understand because we are expecting to understand something that's beyond us.  We innately think we are so brilliant and that if we don't understand than it must not be true. Then there's the other side of this.  When we seek shelter in him during these trials an...