Self Respect And Slut Shaming Another One Of My Rants, Because You Know I Can't Resist Giving My Opinion

Terrorism is terrorism is terrorism is terrorism. Hate is hate is hate. There is no variation in form of terrorism or hate. They exist as independent phenomena - free floating entities. They are darkness and evil and depravity. They cannot have any religious affiliation, because no religion deals in hate. Anyone who truly believes in a higher power also believes in love and grace and compassion and altruism. Terrorists and hate groups worship the powers of hell, not of heaven. So whether it’s Hitler, the KKK, the Westboro Baptist Church, or ISIS, they are not religious organizations. They are hate groups. They are terrorist groups. But never religious organizations.

Some good news for y’all right now Missouri has overturned their abortion ban!!!!

My dear beloved friend:

 - No one really has it all together yet. We force so many self-pressuring parameters on our performance that most of us are neurotic, twitchy, over-productive busybodies with no real destination. In a culture where we celebrate only victory and are scared to talk about defeat: please don’t measure yourself on an impossible grading scale. Don’t measure your private moments with everyone else’s highlight reels.

 - Mistakes are how you learn. Everyone is afraid of failure: so we protect ourselves by bargaining with the teacher or begging for extensions or ensuring we never get a scraped knee. Such a pampered coddled culture will keep you feeling safe for a while, but it’ll also keep you sterile, shrink-wrapped, and cold. It’s a lifeless journey. It’s okay to make mistakes, and occasionally it’s even better. Scrape a knee, brush it off, get up and move on. Learn from the past and laugh with it too.

 - You’re doing better than you think. You’re in the middle of your motion, so it’s hard to see where you are. But so long as you’ve been taking one heavy step forward after another, no matter how awkward your stumbling, then this is worth celebrating. Every moment you’ve done right is a miracle in itself.

 - Be willing to pursue a new dream. Sometimes we try so hard to grab our old dreams that we’re not open to new ones. We look too long in the rearview instead of what’s ahead of us. I’ve missed a lot of opportunities this way. But keep your eyes open for open doors, and be flexible enough for a new vision that will be even better than the last.

 - Dear Christian: Your confidence is in Him. We are works in progress looking towards the work finished, Jesus. We believe in a God who knew we couldn’t ever reach perfection, so perfection came to us. If you feel like you’ve failed today, the very reason Jesus came was to take on your failures, your ego, your pride, your pain, your sorrows, your sin. And He’ll keep working on you until glory. Everything good in you is God in you: and anything bad in you, He’s working on that. 

This is His grace.

– J.S. from What The Church Doesn’t Talk About

I’ll return to Biblical womanhood gladly. Because Biblical womanhood is Deborah being called by God to lead the nation of Israel into victory. Biblical womanhood is Jesus choosing a woman as the first person to whom He revealed His identity as The Messiah and making her the first evangelist. Biblical womanhood is Jesus revealing himself first to women after His resurrection, trusting them with the task of telling His disciples. Biblical womanhood is Jesus inviting Mary and Martha to sit at his feet to be taught as disciples, valuing their presence there with Him instead of busying themselves with meal preparation and “women’s work.” Biblical womanhood is Paul calling Lydia and Priscilla his coworkers in Christ. Biblical womanhood is Priscilla teaching Apollos (a man) and her name being listed before that of her husband, Aquila, when the couple is mentioned in scripture. Biblical womanhood is Paul referring to Phoebe as a minister and a leader. Biblical womanhood is Lydia founding the church in Phillippi. Biblical womanhood is countless other examples of women, valued and empowered by Christ, teaching and leading right alongside men. 

Biblical womanhood is not a few taken-out-of-context verses, written to specific audiences and wrongfully universally applied, about women remaining silent in church and not having authority over men. 

Insignificant?

I know you didn’t just apply that word to yourself. Seriously? Insignificant? If you only knew.

I composed the melody of the universe and choregraphed the dance of the stars. I am the architect of the cosmos, the weaver of the fabric of time and space, the maker of heaven and earth. I am the surpreme master of the universe, I tell the stars where to go. I can stop and start the orbit of the earth at a whim. My whispered commands brought forth the blazing supernova of the sun’s power, and the sun is just a small star. Imagine the immense power in my very breath. In my very thought. And yet. And yet, I care if a sparrow falls from a tree. My child, how much more do I care about you? Do you know how much I care about you?

I know how many grains of sand cover the earth, how many droplets of water make up the ocean, and how many stars are in the sky. I don’t even have to count, I just know. Guess what else I know. I know exactly how many hairs are on your head right now, and that number changes constantly. In fact, I know everything about you. Because I care about you. I know what your handwriting looks like, I know what you got on your last math test, and every math test before that. I know your favourite food. Do you know how much I care about you?

Through my will, the pattern and rhythm of the universe is sustained, and yet with all these astronomical duties, you are NEVER beneath my notice. A sparrow is not. And how much more do I care for you, my child? I am the God of the Universe, and I love you. You have inifinite worth. I’ve loved you intimately, passionately, deeply, personally, since eternity and will do so for all eternity. You are worth more than the world to me. More than words can express. More than your finite brain can possibly understand. More than your frail human heart could possible contain. More than life itself. Insignificant? No. You are of divine significance. You matter. Very much. You matter infinitely to ME.

-God

So if you feel insignificant, stop and really think about it. Do you feel insignificant because of what people think of you? WHO FLIPPING CARES what people think? What do they know? The CREATOR, MASTER AND RULER OF THE UNIVERSE cares about you! He thinks you’re so important and precious and special! That trumps what people think, without a doubt.

Insignificant? Erase the word from your vacabulary.

Do you think God or Jesus would get mad if someone had sex before they got married?

No, I absolutely do not think that God would get mad. Because, you see, God is very consistent, and all sin is equal to God. Sex before marriage is just as bad as murder, but also just as bad as saying hurtful words. And you don’t see God smiting me with lightning every time I lose my temper. Thank goodness for that!God loves us. He knows that we’re going to screw up. And yes, our screw-ups separate us from His perfection and His glory, but He didn’t want that, so He made a way for us to be close to Him even though we’re imperfect and corrupt. That was the cross. God’s grace is infinite! It’s like a tidal wave that crashes over you and snatches you up in the inexorable current and tumbles you head over heels in it’s wake. It submerges you completely, until you don’t even know which way is up anymore. But that’s okay, because unlike real life water, God’s living water makes you feel like you can finally breathe again, and that there’s no weight pushing down on you at all. It makes you feel like you can fly, like you’re soaring high up in the atmosphere, weaving in and out of clouds, and you haven’t a care in the world! God’s grace is vast enough to handle our mistakes. He will not get mad at us for having sex before marriage. He wouldn’t necessarily be delighted with us, but I picture Him as the father who’s all like “I’m not mad…I’m disappointed." I know, that kind of makes me want to crawl into a dark hole and never come out again. BUT! Here’s the really big, gigantic, ginormous, massive, humongous BUT! When we go to God and we’re like "I know I screwed up, and I’m sorry. Please forgive me and make me all perfect and beautiful and spotless again." He does! The bible says that He will throw our sins into the "sea of forgetfulness" - that expression comes from Micah 7:19: 

 19 

You will again have compassion on us;    you will tread our sins underfoot    and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

The bible also says that He has removed our sin from us as far as the east is from the west in Psalm 103:12: 

12 He has removed our sins as far from us    as the east is from the west.

So basically, never be afraid of God if you feel like you’ve done something He wouldn’t like. Because the minute you approach Him in contrition, He is so ready to hug you and say “It’s okay, I forgive you and I love you.” That applies to any and every sin out there! Peace and love! -Katherine 

Is sex before marriage a sin? If so, why? Does the ceremony make a difference to God if you're in a fully committed relationship? Is it a sin to have sex the night before the wedding but not a sin 24 hours later? I've always believed in waiting but now I'm questioning what the difference is to God

In your question I can see that you have already gotten rid of the idea of marriage as a covenant. When you ask “does the ceremony make a difference to God if you’re in a fully committed relationship?” the answer is yes because it’s not a fully committed relationship until the ceremony that symbolizes the covenant relationship between you and your spouse before God. If marriage is just a ceremony or a social contract, then yeah, it wouldn’t make that big of a deal, but it is so much more than that. It is an image of the relationship that Christ has with his bride the Church. 

Marriage is not the small thing that the culture has made it out to be. The call in marriage is to give your life for your spouse, and when people throw their marriages away for nothing then it gives people the idea that marriage really isn’t that big of a deal and that in the end it’s basically just like any other relationship. Once you start thinking that way, then marriage becomes irrelevant. But that’s not what marriage is. It’s a covenant between you your spouse and God, and as such it should be treated with great reverence.

You don't have to distance yourself from those who speak out on behalf of you and your people group. Whether it be girls who don't identify with feminism or Pharrell calling himself "new black". You are allowed to acknowledge injustice afflicted on you. You are allowed to be outspoken. You don't have to be progressive and conciliatory for the sake of avoiding conflict. Conflict always accompanies change, but it doesn't mean that the change isn't necessary. You don't have to dissociate yourself from that.

Is your hair naturally curly or straight ?

Sighh...straight. Very straight, haha. I shouldn't complain because it's very obedient and easy to manage, and I appreciate that, but I do truly love curly hair. I'm considering a perm when it gets longer :P 

Don't be fooled by kids and their follies, you have wisdom beyond fear.

I don’t know where this came from but I like it!