It's Not Neat to Cheat...

You might've seen this title and thought I was going to go off on a tangent about cheating at school. While that topic is equally worthy in importance, I'm actually focusing on a kind of cheating you might not ever have realized you were doing: Cheating on your future spouse. I know, I know. Again, my posts can seem really extreme. Need I say, again, that these posts really aren't to harp on you or make you think you're sinning or something? It's brain food. So, as I've said before, just bear with me.

I've always been one to struggle with lust. I think alot of people are. That might sound odd to some people, but have any of you people seen a shirtless male? They make me stumble so fast and it's so difficult to keep a pure mind when you have that all up in front of you. The Bible says that when you look upon a woman lustfully, you're already committing adultery with them in your heart. (Ok, that sounded super wrong. I don't have that problem. The context was Jesus was talking to a MAN....so obviously idea can be applied to women about men.) And the 10 commandments say not to commit adultery. My point was this: Looking at someone you're not married to in a lustful way, isn't right. That's such a big struggle for me, and it's something of which God's convicting me on like a daily basis.

I think here's a good place to put that I think there's a GIGANTOR difference between "lust" and "desire". Lust is wrong, it's looking at someone in a completely objectifying way. Desire (in the context of physical stuff, as in NOT desire for money, or whatever) is what married people have for each other, and is not wrong at all (in my humble opinion). Here's something to chew on: Think about your future spouse. Ok, ok, you love them and all that. Does it make you happy to think about someone else checking YOUR man/woman out and obviously not thinking about Daniel and the Lions' den? Exactly. So keep your eyes on the prize (aka Jesus) and do your best to think about people in a pure light. Heads up, you'll fail. But try anyway.

Matthew 5:28
"But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Be Chill. Don't Kill.

I'm sure many of you saw the title of this post and thought to yourselves "Gee, I can't wait to read this because that's one of my top sins! I really struggle with controlling my murder sprees." Relax. While there might be a select few of you who have squished one too many bugs in your day, (That is not a confession of any kind on my part...) I'm actually not referring to physical murder. That does not in any way mean I'm advocating man slaughter, because that's wrong too. I'm simply offering a new way to look at one of the commandments God gave us. I already had one post on words and their effect, but those were negative ways to use words. This post is focusing on lifting people up, how our words can affect people and actually kill a part of them, and using our words for good and not bad stuff.

All of us have heard at least ONE "Mom saying" from our relatives. For example, "Say that again and I'll wash your mouth out with soap!" "Our words should lift each other up, not tear each other down." Or my personal favorite, "If you can't say something nice, dont say it at all." While all of those little phrases may seem kind of cheesy, and believe me they are, I never really thought about the serious meaning behind the cheesiness. The reason our moms tell us to watch our mouths, is because they know how powerful our words can be. Our words are ridiculously laden with strength! I don't know about you, but when someone randomly says "Wow, Jessica, your hair looks freaking GOOD today!" to me, I'm on cloud 11 for the next couple hours or maybe even the entire day! On the other hand, if someone says something mean to you, it's ruins your day and it's difficult to forget for awhile. Have you ever wondered where the phrase "I was stabbed in the back" came from?  Usually, the person saying that is alive (unless it's one of those survival shows, where someone was literally stabbed in the back, which is horrifying and certainly not what I'm referring to) and was simply referring to someone who was betrayed (often words are used to do so). Words have the incredible ability to lift people's spirits. However, when you are not careful with what you say, you can end up squishing someone's spirit just like those poor little bugs you stomped on when you were five. (or eighteen...) Deflating someone's spirit like that, in my opinion, is a kind of murder. So...be chill; Don't kill. Just my 2 cents.

Proverbs 16:24
"Encouraging words are like a honeycomb; Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."