Beautifullystillalive - Cottage Core Ish

So many churches are raising young people to see the Holy Spirit as a force that primarily exists to make you “feel things” in worship. That you know you’ve been Touched™ because you have goosebumps and feel like crying or whatever.

I’m not downplaying the emotional impact an encounter with the spirit can illicit. That’s real. But when we place such an emphasis on our human response, we can make people who don’t experience these heightened emotions feel like they aren’t being filled with the spirit.

I’ve seen it happen before. “I felt nothing in worship”, “I’m in a spiritual rut”, “Why aren’t I being filled?”. The spirit is so much more than what you feel on a Sunday. Look at your fruits, look at God’s work in your life. That’s where you’ll find evidence of the spirit.

Hating children isn’t normal:

I’ve noticed a trend in recent years of people genuinely hating children. No, I’m not talking about people who just don’t want kids. That is completely fine. What is not fine is the people who truly think children should not be allowed in public. People who think children should not be allowed to behave like children.

Personally, I think this has ties to iPad kids issue. People hate when children act like children in public. So, parents have started giving their kids cartoons and games in public. If they don’t, they get judged and harassed for simply being in the space they are in.

Children are a part of society. People seem to have completely forgotten this fact. Children are people too. They have real feelings that are deserving of respect. Yes, that baby is crying. If you were hungry and physically could not feed yourself, you would cry too. Yes, that toddler is crying, that is the age stage where children are being taught emotional regulation.

“Kids need to be banned from public spaces.” Do you hear yourself? Do you hear how insane that sounds? Replace “kids” with any other group, I dare you.

This also expands to people hating parents. People get called selfish for having kids. For doing the very thing human bodies are designed to do. (No I am not saying everyone has to have kids. I’m saying from a biological standpoint your body is made to procreate). I’ve seen people make comments about parents essentially saying they must be miserable because they “have to” watch their kids activities. Because they go to sports games, they go to school talent shows. Like okay, it’s not for you. But I would do anything to get to give a child the happiness of their mom watching them participate in the things they love. And so would so many other women. And that’s okay.

Mothers are not miserable. Fathers are not miserable. If they love their child they are happy with getting to do these things. They don’t view it as “I have to go to my kids soccer game tomorrow” they view it as “I get to go to my kids soccer game tomorrow”.

Don’t start with the “what about ism” that constantly gets thrown into these arguments either. Yes I’m aware there’s people who have kids who don’t love their kids. That does not mean nobody does. You are taking a minority and generalizing it to the whole group. Another thing I would love for you to replace with any group other than kids and see where you stand.

You are allowed to not want children of your own. Of course you are. That is a personal decision. However, you do not get to choose for the entire world whether they have kids or not. You are entitled to a child free life not a child free world. People are allowed to do things you personally would not do.

Children aren’t even old enough to have done anything to hate them for. They are perhaps the strangest group to hate. Children are the very definition of innocent. Yet you still hate them.

If you hate children, you are the problem in that equation. Children have hardly even existed yet. You don’t have a real reason to hate them. You just hate seeing people be happy with choices you wouldn’t personally make.

Cinderella could fight someone as well as the Strong Female Character if she had to but the Strong Female Character wouldn’t last three hot seconds in Cinderella’s place

x

Enjoy these affirmations brought to you on a fine Monday afternoon 😀

oh, how I love being a woman 💕🧺

I just found out yesterday that I am pregnant. Please pray that I have a healthy, full term pregnancy and a healthy baby!