:)

love

There is no such thing as conditional love. Love is either unconditional or it’s no love. You might like someone conditional on their personality or behavior or circumstances. But love accepts no boundaries. So never say ‘I love you because’, for love has no cause, love comes from God.

I got this this morning on an application from facebook :)

True Life: I’m impatient.

love
WAIT
In “Emotional Purity” By Heather Arnel Paulsen


Desperately, hopelessly, longingly, I cried:
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I plead and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said,
“Child, you must wait.”

“Wait? You say, wait!” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is Your hand shortened? Or have You not heart?
By faith, I have asked, and am claiming your Word.”

My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me to WAIT?
I’m needing a “Yes”, a go-head sign,
Or even a “No” to which I can resign.

And Lord, You promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
“I’m weary of asking! I need a reply!”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of m fate
As my Master replied one again, “You must wait.”
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taught
And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting…for what?”

He seemed, then, to kneel
And His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be,
You would have what you wanted~
But, you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint;
You’d not know the power I give to the faint;

You’d not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You’d no learn to trust just by knowing I’m there;
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me;
When darkness and silence were all you could see.

You’d never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You’d know that I give and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of my heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.

You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
Yes, your dreams for your loved one
Overnight would come true,

But Oh, the Loss! If I lost what I’m doing in you!

So, be silent, My child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft’ may M answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, “Wait.”

Finally understanding what it means to "die to self"

christianity, testimony

I think that in the back of my mind, I always knew the definition of “dying to self”. We hear it all the time. My absolute favorite scripture (as seen in the heading of my blog) talks about it. Here’s Mark 8:35-38:

35″For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
36″For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
37″For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
38″For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

A few weekends ago, I asked the middle school girls of a discipleship-now weekend what “losing your life” means. To die to self, deny yourself. We read this passage and they were stumped. I proceeded with this explanation: Before we know Christ, we have a set way that we talk, act, look, etc. We roll with who we roll with, and we act how we want to act. But when we come to Christ, we change all that. We start acting like Christ, and this permeates every part of us. So we are denying our old lives and “dieing” to it. That is why baptism is such a great symbol for us… it symbolizes that not only have our sins of that old life been washed away, but our life itself is renewed, thus our “rebirth”. It makes sense…it’s pretty simple.


I’m going to tell you about the life I died to and why this is so real for me.

Growing up, I dealt with a lot of crap. Life wasn’t easy for me at all (and it’s never gotten much easier). Now I know that most feel the same way as me, but I’m going to explain myself. I grew up in a very secular house; love, especially the unconditional love of Christ, was not present at all. My parents got married because they got pregnant with me. Living in the hood, I got picked on all the time at school. I was beat up every day until I finally fought back. There was a lot of anger harbored in me for quite some time (and still even harbored, I’ll get to that).

Even though I accepted Jesus into my heart, my culture still was a part of me. I grew up in a place where if someone so much looked at you the wrong way, you were expected to fight. And I did. When someone said something that displeased you, you would have to go off on them and curse them out. It was the only socially accpetable way. So the first 17 years of my life, that is how I dealt with things. My senior year of high school, I dramatically changed. I realized that it wasn’t profitable for the kingdom of God. And now that I go to a Christian school, I am better at keeping my cool. It’s weird to think about how different I am from my old self…and I think that people who knew me growing up would agree.

Lately, I’ve seen a bit of my old self, which has sparked this blog post. There was something that happened earlier this week that caused me to behave completely out of my character; I resorted to telling someone off. And every time something has been said to me this week, I have really struggled with not doing the same. I grew up in a culture where this behavior was expected, but I don’t want to be bound by it. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”

♥Heather

What is Love?

love

What is Love?


When I think of “Love”, the first thing that comes to my head is Christ. And although this is true, it’s incredibly corny. The Bible tells us countless times about how Christ is the perfect exmaple of love, that we should love others the way that Christ loved us, that love is serving others, putting others before ourself.

Okay, I get that. Duhhhh.

But what does it mean to be IN love? Personally, I have never been in love. I don’t think. I mean I have had crushes. I have been infatuated. I’ve been sprung. And, of course, I have been in lust.

Here’s a cool excerpt from a blog on the difference between love and lust:

I found that Love is patient, but lust wants what it wants immediately. Love is kind, but lust is a mean and demanding slave-driver sort of fellow. Love does not envy, but the thirst and hunger of lust know no limitation of desire. Love does not boast, but lust is proud of its accomplishments and conquests. Love is not proud, but lust is aggressively self-exalting. Love is not rude, but lust pushes through appropriate social, interpersonal and personal boundaries to have its needs met. Love is not self-seeking, but lust is only self-seeking. Love is not easily angered, but lust and anger work together often as partners to try and tighten the chains of destruction. Love keeps no record of wrongs, but lust is naturally petty in its insane state of self-consciousness. Love does not delight in evil, but lust is evil. Love rejoices with the truth, but lust hides in the shadows and will do anything not to be caught. Love always protects, but lust as the embodiment of impotence, always surrenders. Love always trusts, as lust always creates distrust. Love always hopes, as lust always blocks the possibility of hope. Love always perseveres, as lust always saps the strength of perseverance. Love never fails, but lust never fails to disappoint.

Hmmm, interesante. I know plenty well what it means to fall in lust, I’ve only done it like a bazillion times. A lot of people think that they are in love when they are truely in lust. The idea of “romantic love” permeates everything we say and do–this idea that a prince will come and sweep us off our feet, and as long as we love each other we will beat the odds and live happily ever after. Someone who believes this is on CRACK. But for some reason we, especially girls, believe this. God never said that ANYTHING was going to be easy, and that especially includes our relationships with others.

I know that God has created a special place in my heart to be filled by a husband. And I know that love is extremely important, but it’s the type of love we have for each other. According to Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Love (http://www.intrapsychictaxonomy.org/sternberg.htm), there are three parts of love–Spirit (Committment), Mind(Intimacy), and Body (Passion). What we need to strive for is the mux between the three–a pure, balanced view of love. I know that it takes the “romantic” out of everything… but if we can just “fall” in love, what’s going to stop us from falling out?

♥Heather

Random Late Night Babbling…take one

Blogs about Heather

So, I was in the shower, and I was wondering… Who decided we should shower? Did Man just make it up? Or did God say to Adam, “Dude, you need to go dip your self in the river over there. And take some leaves and scrub. Don’t forget behind the ears and the belly button.”


And… who invented the towel? After a while of getting sick from being wet with clothes on, did someone just say, “Hey, I’m wet. And my clothes are wet. This is unpleasant.” Then decide to wipe themselves with leaves? Or other clothes??? Hmmm…. I should get some sleep. But I don’t know how I CAN sleep with all this in my head!!!

Weird.
Heather

PS– I couldn’t sleep, so I did research (ha, don’t quote me):
The Greeks invented the shower in 300 B.C. complete with plumbing.
The French invented the bath towel?
Joseph Gayetty invented toilet paper in 1857


I’m still confused. So is Towlie. As always.

What a Great Monday!

love

Today has been a FANTASTIC day, and it’s not even 4 pm! I can’t say really point out anything in particular, just the fact that it’s been beautiful out! I really super love this weather, it’s my favorite–after a week or two of cold, cold weather, when it gets in the 50s. And this is not diffferent! There has not been a day in the last two weeks where there hasn’t been snow on the ground! Most of it is all melted, but the spots where there is snow makes me smile :) I decided that this is the kind of day that is the most romantic. I can’t really explain it, but every time there is this kind of weather, I think of love. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of how there in my life, there is a lot of cloudiness and rain–crappy weather in general. But then God does something that blows my mind, like opening up the skies and showing me some sunshine. And even though it might be temporary, for a while I can just glorify Him and not think of all the worries I have. Who knew that on January 18, it would be so pleasant out!

(PS–When the Lord gives me a man, I want him to propose to me on a day like today. Jus Sayin :) I wouldn’t want anything fancy, just to dance around in the sun, crunch a few leaves, and then vow my life to someone. bahaha! I’m cheesy).

BTW, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Here are some quotes:

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.


History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

My top three heroes: Jesus, MLK, and Alberto Pujols. :)

♥Heather


Two Decades Old…Today! The start of a new Blog:)

new years resolutions

I’ve had diaries since I was a little girl. My deepest, most vivid memories are recorded in these kitty-themed, sticker-covered diaries with locks that I could pull off without a key. Sometimes when my mom and I get into an argument, I’ll bring up something from my childhood, something that she did to me. She tells me that I “rewrite my childhood,” but then I look in my diary from first grade and I can clearly see that she DID in fact take out my lightbulb for a week once when I kept forgetting to turn my light off (and not just once, too. ha!).

I guess what I’m saying is, writing is important, especially when its purpose is to preserve memories…and more importantly, truths. I’ve had blogs before, but I was never fully satisfied so I’d delete them. And I haven’t had a “diary” since middle school (oh boy is that one colorful). I think that it is important to keep my thoughts organized… well as organized as I possibly can. Because let’s be honest, I’m not an eloquent speaker/writer. I talk circularly. I probably have A.D.D. (no joke). But I ask questions. I ask a lot, a lot, a lot of questions. Because without asking questions, I won’t get answers.
I turn 20 years old tonight at 9:59 pm! After 2 decades of being alive, I am deciding to do something crazy–believe dangerously. I want to ask the tough questions, explore the elusive parts of life, and live my life by all the truths that I encounter along the way. This is my year, my turn to change the world. It’s amazing how one person can! Martin Luther King Jr. sure did. Michael Jackson did. Were they perfect? Heck no, techno! And neither am I.
ps–Jesus Christ ROCKED this world with His perfection.
So, I guess the purpose of this is:
To organize this head of mine out. I am a female. Females think a lot.
For people to read, and hopefully find something I say useful.
For people to get a greater understanding of moi.
♥Heather