1. Don’t be seduced by the dark side
The dark side doesn’t look dark at the outset, but we are tempted to pursue what looks good to us on the surface because it seems fulfilling. I shared the “sexy carrot” cartoon in Donald Miller’s "Blue Like Jazz" with my daughter and we had a good laugh. The gist of it is that Don Rabbit saw sexy carrot, chased her to New York , then to the moon and finally caught her. The moral of the story: “If you work hard, stay focused, and never give up, you will eventually get what you want in life.” But then he choked on sexy carrot and died, leading to the second moral of the story: “Sometimes the things we want most in life are the things that will kill us.” Be discerning and aware of the spiritual battle.
2. Treat all people with kindness and compassion
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”
John Wesley
3. Protect your walk with God as your most-valued relationship
Keep that priority no matter what changes, hectic schedules, upheavals or joys come along in life. But remember that it is God who is keeping you, not your own abilities to be good and go through the motions of faith. Keep it alive. Keep it real. Stay close to Jesus.
"Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah."
Ephesians 2:5-6 (The Message)
4. Know you are loved
Period. Good times and bad. Difficulties and triumphs. Successes and failures. Fat or thin. Bad hair day or good. Through laughter and tears. You have tremendous value as a person and a dynamic purpose in God. Your uniqueness is celebrated.
2 comments:
Please post a "connection post" :) cant wait to discover it.
Hey, Myra!
I wasn't sure if this would be a good place to post, but I'll try it anyway. I was so excited to find your blog (what a surprise!) and I read half of it already. Your thoughts are really encouraging for me. Thanks for taking time to share them.
I hope you remember me - I was attending the Christ's Fellowship Church back in Lviv in the mid-90's. Mike was a pastor there, and Gena was there, too. We used to go evangelize on Saturdays, which I miss a lot. And our home fellowships - boy, do I miss those days!
I've been living in Connecticut since 1999 but recently my husband Jeff and I moved to Texas, temporarily (to work at Frito Lay's headquarters here), and we now live near Dallas. We'll be moving (probably to CA) in the near future though.
Boy, so many things happened since I last saw you before you went back to the States in the 90's. I've got my degree in Literature from Smith College in MA (yeah, a "worldly" women's college), declined an offer to go to Yale (post grad), got a job, wrote screenplays, etc.
It's great to hear you're back in Ukraine. I'll pray for your church and for you, guys, too. I miss you terribly!
God bless,
Svitlana
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