Remember?

Today is Memorial Day. It's the day that we are to remember all of our troops who have served and are continuing to serve our country. Sons, daughters, dads, moms, friends, brothers, and sisters who all have dedicated their lives to protecting a country full of people that they don't even know. I am so thankful to these people who have sacrificed themselves for us. 

Doesn't this sound awfully familiar though? I woke up earlier than normal this morning to spend time with God. I watched the sunrise out my window and thought of how beautiful God's creation is. What a gift...he has given me another beautiful day. Why is it that God feels like he should bless me with such a perfect gift?

What is the perfect gift? Memorial Day always makes me think...why is it that we don't take to heart the precious gift that God has given us every single day? Not only does he give us a brand new day every morning when he tells the sun to rise, but he has given us something even more precious. Eternal life. He sent his One and Only Son to die on the cross for you. For me. He went through hell, a hell far worse than anything on earth could never even compare to, so that we don't have to. He sacrificed himself so save people that he didn't even know. People who he knew would betray him, hate him, crucify him. That's love. Remember that. 

Thank you to all the troops who are serving our country. Those who have fallen. Those who have given their lives for us.

Thank you, Jesus, for giving yourself so that we can live forever. Thank you for our second chance at life.

Thank you.

"Don't Be Ugly"

When I was around six (I really don't know how old I was, but for the sake of the story, I was six), I was playing with my older sister, seven and a half at the time, and her best friend, Kelley. I guess I was displaying my attitude to the world at this very moment, being a bossy little six year old. I really had no right to be bossy, especially since I was the youngest of the three of us. I didn't care. Kelley I guess had gotten fed up with little miss me and told me angrily, "YOU'RE BOSSY!" This comment would have most likely made the average little girl cry...but oh no. I came back with, "I'M NOT BOSSY...I'M BEAUTIFUL!" I had ruined Kelley's day because of my attitude. And in the end, my day was ruined as well because I got in trouble for my actions.

My mom always reminds me of this story. My attitude definitely isn't how it used to be, even though it could always use some help. I feel bad for Kelley because I showed her an attitude that didn't reflect who I was. Yes, I realize I was just a little girl and this is actually a very cute story. But think about it...how many people do you affect simply by your attitude?

Every time I have attitude around my mom, she always tells me, "Don't be ugly." She's not meaning physically, but she means internally. We live in a world where physical appearance is everything, or so the media says. But what about who we are? What about our personalities, our actions, or our attitudes? Shouldn't we try to make those things beautiful as well? Shouldn't that be more important that physical beauty? It seems to me that the world today is belittling the human, making appearance and materialism more important than the heart and soul of the person.

God doesn't care about what we look like or what we have. If he did, don't you think he would've sent Jesus as some high roller with the big bucks? Well let me tell you...he didn't. And I don't know what Jesus looked like, but he didn't even have an actual home during his earthly ministry. He was here and there and everywhere. He didn't have fancy clothes or nice things. All he had was the clothing on his back and the hospitality of people around him. 1 Peter 3:3-4 says:

"Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God."

Even though physical beauty attracts people's attention, it's the inner beauty that holds onto it. The most beautiful and wealthiest people in the world could be the loneliest if they have a bad attitude. It kills me when non-Christians refuse to go to church because they don't respect people around them who call themselves Christians. They say that they are hypocrites who don't live a Christian lifestyle. They don't have "the attitude that a Christian should have." You know why this kills me? Because in many cases, it's one hundred percent true. 

God didn't put us on this earth to turn people away from him. He put us here to draw people in, to draw people closer to him. How are we supposed to do this if we have a bad attitude. God isn't appealing if his followers don't reflect him. He didn't send us to be ugly. Not physically ugly, but like my mom said, I'm talking about the heart. We, as sons and daughters of God, are meant to have hearts for God. With these hearts, we are supposed to reflect the love of God to those around us. It's not a difficult thing to do. A simple smile. A friendly note. A wave. A phone call. Anything to let people know you care. 1 Peter 3:8 says: 

"Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted and keep a humble attitude."

Be who God meant for you to be. Have a heart for him and show that heart to others. Have a good attitude. Don't be ugly.

Scars

My past. Yuck. Hate it. It's funny how your life can make a one-eighty so quickly. I was thinking...why does God let you be stupid? Why does he let you make the worst possible decisions ever and sometimes even let you get away with them. This is part of a song called "Take Me As I Am" by the Sugarland. Sorry if country isn't your genre of choice, but I love it:

"They keep starin' at my tattoos.
We all live with the scars we choose.
They might hurt like hell
but they all make us stronger."

Do you ever feel like, even though you may be a different person than you were in the past, that people can see right through you? Like there's a huge tattoo on your forehead saying, "Sinner." In reality, your past is sort of like a tattoo. Like the song says, its something you choose to get, it may hurt really badly, but in the end you're a stronger person because of it. 

We all have a past. Good. Bad. Happy. Sad. There's no losing it. Sad to say, every bad thing that's ever happened, you most likely are going to remember it throughout your life. God has a reason for everything. We may not see it in the heat of a crapy situation, but God does.

There's a church called Ethos that I went to for the first time this past Sunday. Dave Clayton was speaking and he read from Genesis. He talked about the first four words of Genesis..."In the beginning God." Yeah we know that this is not the full sentence, but just think about these four words. In the beginning God. What does this mean? It means that when something horrible happens, like a loved one dying, or you flunked out of college, or you went bankrupt, God is the only one who understands you at that very moment. You may be surprised, but God isn't. He knew it would happen all along. 

I'm not saying that God wants us to suffer, because that is not the case. But He lets these kinds of things happen for a reason. He lets us choose to make stupid decisions so that we can live with them. We may not want to live with them, but maybe God wants us to do something with our scars. Maybe your scars can bring someone who just went through the same thing to God. Use your bad past for good. Rock the scars. Let your past make you stronger.