One Word Heals, BELIEVE

Just one word heals what's broken inside. 

I heard that today while listening to worship music. 

We're ALL broken inside. We all want to feel heard, seen, validated, ... (use your best adjective here).

Let God... Let God do His work IN YOU!

I hear and see (on Social Media posts) people say what all is wrong with them. "I have this ailment", "I don't feel good, I need a doctor appointment", "I'm depressed", "I have social anxiety", ... etc. whatever the case may be.

We've brought up a generation that thinks everything about us is wrong. 

Friends, we all have brokenness. 

It Is Normal! And we're all looking for what's NOrMal!

Yes, we're all special, also. But...

My ailment, whether inward or outward, is no bigger, better, or worse than yours. 

It makes my heart hurt to hear so many young people medicating for anxiety, depression, ADD, abc&xyz. 

You say you have severe anxiety? ...

Me too! ...

Depression? ...

Me too! ...

Negative thoughts (suicide, anger, resentment, guilt)?? ...

Guess What? ME TOO!!! ...

All those things are part of being a human. It's OK! We're OK. God made us that way. 

You know why? To make us seek Him. To get us to search for Him. To find Him. 

Satan tries to plant those lies in our minds to deceive us into thinking we are not worthy or good or "normal". BUT GOD...

Is bigger, better, stronger, more...

Encourage your children and share with others the reality of "normal". None of us are perfect. 

We all struggle with thoughts of oppression. Our minds are a battlefield. 

Be honest with your kids and friends, and let them know you're not perfect. 

Social Media makes everything look like life is one big happy place. (And it can be!) Social Media makes it look like we're perfect with filters. 

We all have problems. We need to let that be normalized. 

Don't be defeated by sickness, disease, addiction, and bondages. 

Don't let the "world" make us feel like we're "not right" or "unwell". Because we are!

By God! By His Resurrection Power. By the blood. 

Live in the blessing not the burden

How many times do we do something we know will result in negative consequences, yet we go through with the "pleasure" of the moment?

This weekend, I had a wonderful time. As I considered the "guilt" of my pleasures, I am reminded how sinful we are in inconspicuous ways. My "guilty pleasures" were no more than eating "bad"- for -me foods, but it could be related to how easy we get tripped up over small sins. 

I even made a social media post about how we should "throw caution to the wind" sometimes and enjoy the little things. Life is too short. 

I was attending a funeral out of town for a family member. Since I was in that mode, that was my mindset. Life is too short. Eat the cake- (in my case, donuts, pizza, coke float--these are not allowed in my diet for health reasons. I get migraines- dairy, sugar, and MSG are all triggers).

It reminded me how we let little pleasures lead us to bigger mishaps. If we let ourselves have the "donuts" are we setting ourselves up for eating a dozen donuts in the future? If we allow ourselves to dismiss the small voice of reason every time, eventually we don't listen to the voice of reason - our subconscious, the angel on our shoulder telling us right from wrong. 

Now, my message was originally about how to lighten up a bit on yourself from the rigid rules we apply to ourselves when it comes to eating and "enjoying" life. We're all too busy. We're all "watching what we eat" because the doctor or our health tells us we can't eat whatever we want all the time. 

Our food industry has traded good, healthy foods for junk full of chemicals and harmful ingredients. It's not like it was in the "old days" when there was no "high fructose corn syrup" and "artificial sweeteners" or "chemical laden" crap. 

My thoughts migrated to looking at how that very thought process compares to making wrong choices in general. How little lies, little sins lead to bigger lies or sins. When we are conditioned through social media and other outside resources to think about ourselves all the time like "self care, self love, self...fill in the blank..." we are training our inside voice (inner spirit) to stop focusing on what is right or wrong (from God's instruction) to listening to our flesh and changing what we see, think, feel to what we want it to be according to our flesh.

So, when we change the situation from the little things like just eating pizza and taking some "me time" to lolly gag around with friends or loved ones to indulging in junk food all the time and being lazy and skipping out on doing the important jobs that need doing, then we have missed the point. 

God wants what is best for us. He gives us parameters to go by. We need to keep that little angel on our shoulder to keep us in check. Don't let the innocent fun of grabbing ice cream with your husband turn into thinking it's okay to skip out on eating wholesome foods and just eat ice cream and not work. An occasional treat is quite alright, but the binging is where it becomes a problem. 

When we become negligent to the healthy boundaries and remove the boundaries altogether - that's when the lines become so blurred that the once innocent thought of having lunch with a friend could turn into drinks after work with a coworker that is married. That's a pretty extreme example, and my thoughts have gotten pretty far from the original thought process of a happy time compared to how we quickly let things get out of hand. 

My message was simply this: live your life, enjoy it, have fun, just don't let it get out of control. Keep a check on where you let your boundaries be stretched. I know it's easy to fall into the traps Satan sets up for us. That ole devil just loves to lead us into temptation. He is cunning and makes temptations seem so innocent. That's what my thoughts were. Just how simple "asking for forgiveness is easier than asking permission." Don't let little "happies" ruin what God has in store for you. 

The grass is not greener on the other side. It is only greenest where you fertilize it. 

Go have a donut, some pizza, and some ice cream. Just don't commit a carnal sin in the process....

This ended up being different than how I was thinking it in my head. I don't think I conveyed my thoughts as good as I wanted. Oh, well. I hope you got the message. Be careful out there. It's a mad world we live in. 

What's your thoughts? Tell me what you think about letting yourself have guilty pleasures.