CrazyGirl observes Perspective

So, lately I've been thinking. About our society, and their views on Jesus and Christianity. And to be 110% honest, society has it all wrong.
First and foremost, society (for the most part) seems to think that the Holy Trinity is this loving, teddy-bear-like, wish-granting thing that Christians use to have an oh-so-happy life. FALSE. Our God is indeed loving, but that love comes right alongside a wrath. I mean, think about it, God saw all the evil on the earth, and the evil intentions of man, but he didn't sit down and have a heart-to-heart with man. He didn't say "No no. Go in time out." No. God wiped out the Earth. *BAM* Huge flood, no people left except Noah and his family (and of course all the animals). Or look at Sodom and Gommorah; you know, where the people were living in sin and had turned away from God to fulfill their earthly desires? God didn't give them a little smack on their hand and hope that would do the trick; he wiped them out. And when Lot's wife didn't listen and looked back? She became a pillar of salt . . . salt. God also states in Romans that "the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people . . . For although they knew God they neither glorified him nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened . . . Because of this God gave them over to sinful lusts . . . Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but approve of those who practice them." I'm sorry, but if that doesn't shatter this "teddy bear," "let's-all-just-live-in-peace" idea of who God is, then I can't really help you.
The other thing I've noticed is that when Jesus was here on the Earth, in the flesh of man, he was NOT afraid to step on toes. You didn't agree with his theology? Too bad. He was getting his wisdom from the Most High, and that kinda trumps your flawed, human theology.
The thing is, a lot of people think that if you're a Christian you are supposed to be this little, goody-two-shoes, who goes to church every Sunday and is basically perfect. Either that or you are the most raging hypocrite they have ever crossed paths with and you just need to go to You-Know-Where and usually a few other choice words follow those statements. But, God didn't send his son so we can sit in a pew on Sundays and judge the other people in our church. Jesus didn't die on a cross so we can have potlucks and gossip-fests. Not that fellowship isn't important, because it definitely is, but we've reached a point where our fellowship is our faith. God called us to be fishers of men, not back row baptists. We're supposed to be out in the world, sharing the Good News, even if we step on some toes along the way. Now, as a church, I think we tend to focus on these HUGE issues, like war, gay marriage, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, etc. But, at the risk of stepping on a few toes, maybe we ought to start closer to home; literally.
You see, I think we could combat these issues more easily if we started admitting we have issues of our own. It's so hard to let others know you are struggling, but that's why God wants us to fellowship. And the thing is, so many Christians have lost touch with the Biblical idea of marriage. One man. One woman. The man is to be the head of the household. Wives are supposed to submit to their husbands. I don't mean that women get no say and we need to go back to the "old" ways. But, as a body of Christ, we need to start looking at the flaws modern feminism presents to a Biblical standard of marriage.
God designed us differently on purpose. He created women with a natural tendency to nurture. He created men with a natural desire to provide. Woman came out of man's rib, so that she could be a partner and supporter to him in his life. I'm not saying women are lesser than men, but simply that we are created with a different purpose in mind. God gave us the abilities needed to care for a home, God gave men the role of provider. But lately we have pushed this idea that women have equal rights and women need to be exactly equal to men so much that the idea of a woman caring for the household is considered absurd. But, if the woman is working equally as much as the man, and neither can be "lowered" (I don't actually mean that, but I've heard the term used before when referring to being a housewife) to the task of child-rearing, where does that leave the children? If the children of this generation have no backbone at home, no example of marriage built on partnership and God's ideal for marriage, then they will suffer greatly when it comes time to build a marriage of their own. The less structure these children have, the more loose their morals become, and when the generation as a whole has loosened morals we end up in a world with some crazy ideas of normal. To quote one of my favorite bands, where the singer is talking about writing to the President of the United States to address some issues he sings "Same sex marriage in a state where they don't care, murder is wrong, but the jail time's not fair, not to mention date rape, felony, and car theft, break it down and tell me what we got left." Think about how normal some of these things are. And their normalcy will just continue to grow if we don't give children a structured home life, which again starts with a biblically based marriage. Later, in that same song, we come to the bridge where the singer brings up "Take a good look at Tommy, he's a track star, good role model, has a chance to go real far. Then the school made a budget cut, cut out the track team, now instead Tommy is a crackhead." As a junior higher, listening to Hawk Nelson, I thought this was a rather clever line and it made me giggle. But, as I've grown older and began my studies to be a teacher, I realized the very heavy truth behind it. Not only are our children suffering at the expense of us and our government, but what about the fact that the only stability in "Tommy's" life was school and track? Where are the parents of this generation? Why is the school system being depended upon for the raising of your children? There are so many flaws in thinking that the school should be raising your child for you. (But I won't get into those now, I could write like three blog posts about that.)
Anyway, to summarize what I've just babbled at you; we have crept away from the biblical standards for marriage, it's affecting the quality of marriages, it's affecting children, and it's affecting our society as a whole. We can start to fix a number of problems, but it needs to start at home, a Christ-centered home.
Til Next Time,
CrazyGirl♥

CrazyGirl observes Older Sisters

How many of you have older sisters? Yeah. I have one too. And the truth is, we didn't have the sugar-coated relationship that people seem to assume happens when you and your sister are close in age. In fact, for most of my childhood we fought. I can remember countless games of Barbie dolls where Lauren wanted something I had and she threatened to quit playing if I didn't give it to her. And I was definitely the MASTER at pushing her buttons (but only I was allowed to do so; you messed with her, I'd kick your butt.) I so wanted to be the opposite of her. She started wearing make-up? Fine. I wanted nothing to do with the nasty crap. She liked back to school shopping? I hated it. She spent time curling her hair before school? Cool. I was going to roll out of bed and throw mine into a ponytail. We would not be alike. I was determined. 

I figured that when she left for school, we would just eliminate the copious amounts of fighting that went on through junior high and high school. But, then I started noticing the other changes. I lost the person who knew the most about me. I lost my closest friend and strongest ally. I quickly began to notice the gigantic hole that had been left. 

Amazingly, through God's plan, we ended up at Simpson together for this past school year. It was like realizing I'd had a built in best friend all those years, and I had taken her for granted. The thing is, after those three years where she wasn't right down the hall (or now down the road), I'm realizing just how amazing a woman God has placed in my life. She's smart and beautiful, and funny. She puts up with all of me (which is an amazing feat in itself), and still will call me up to hang out. She's got a strong relationship with God, and an inner beauty that reflects it. Everyone who meets her is endeared by her. And I am thanking God everyday for giving me the opportunity to be her sister and the honor to be her friend (FINALLY). 

The thing is, God only gives us the siblings we have. Sometimes they might be annoying (I'm the master at that). Sometimes they hurt our feelings. But, all in all, they're our family and God blessed us with them. Don't take that for granted. 

Til Next Time,

CrazyGirl♥

I'm BAAAAACCCK!

Hey lovely followers♥
I apologize for my silence. I had some, er, technical difficulties (AKA my computer didn't want to connect to the internet) which kept me from my blog. In case you didn't know, I MISSED YOU GUYS. I love this blog and all my wonderful followers. And, that's what brings me to the point of this post.
As I may have mentioned before, I can check my "stats" or see how many times what post has been viewed by people other than myself, or where my followers are reading from, etc. It's pretty nice just to know that since I've been silent, people have continued to read my blog. Whether they stumbled across it by random happenstance, or read it because they know me and wanted to be supportive, or just wanted to know if someone out there was as crazy as them, I don't know. But, my numbers have gone up. Now PLEASE do not mistake that for me being all about the numbers. I honestly would probably continue to write this blog even if no one was reading regularly.
Twice in the past week, I have been told by friends that they read my blog and it made a connection. I couldn't ask for anything more from my blog. It's not famous, it's not fancy, and I know not everyone agrees with me. But to make a connection with someone, for something I wrote to strike a note with someone else, well, it's humbling. Here I am, sitting at a laptop, typing away about my random thoughts about WHATEVER, and somehow, someway, it's making a connection. I never could have DREAMED that for this blog, and yet, God knew it would happen, He orchestrated it perfectly so that my posts could connect with not one, but TWO different people. I can't begin to express how happy that makes me, and how much your prayers and continued readings of my randomness means to me. So, thank you all, so much. Here's to many, MANY more CrazyGirl♥ posts!
Til Next Time,

 CrazyGirl♥