Business

It's been a while, hasn't it?  It seems like every time I tried to sit down and write something, whether for this blog or my other stories, something comes up.  Homework, sports, friends....brothers, there are a million things that drag us away from things that we want to do.  Even now, I'm trying to study for a Physics test (seriously?! I'm in 8th grade!) while writing this and listening to music.  Both of my brothers won't get home until around seven, and they have to go to bed at like 8:30--now where do we fit God in on all of this?

God says there isn't anything wrong with being busy, since he says in Titus 2:5, "to be self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."  In fact, he encourages us to spend our time wisely.  The key word there, however, is wisely.  It gets really easy for us to spend a lot of our time just laying around when we should be doing homework or reading the Bible--something that will help us in our lives.

Try to set aside a time, no matter how short or long, to be with God.  Whether you're currently working through a devotional book, reading the Bible a chapter or two at a time, or just praying, anything works.  God isn't picky!  It's still time that you're choosing to spend with God, and it's bound to help your relationship with him immensely.

One of the hardest things, though, is to FOCUS!  Right when I was about to fall asleep, my dad loved to come into my room and scream "SLEEP!" Basically, all it did was make me jump out of bed and run after him, completely defeating the purpose of his words.  Just like that, my telling you to focus isn't going to help you any if you don't choose to listen.  Maybe this is the time when you are trying to do your Devo time.  If so, please return!

Every night, I set my timer for fifteen or thirty minutes (because my mom yells at me if I spend too long before I go to bed) and I read my Bible and then write in my Prayer Journal.  It's kind of replaced my diary, and I've really loved keeping it.  I still write it kind of like a diary, but I add in the whole ACTS shebang: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.  It's really helped my relationship with God, because I've learned to talk to him as a friend and a God, rather than just the latter.  Before, I'd always thought of God as the one to be feared and very formal with, and even though God is like that, he's also supposed to be a friend to us.  If you don't have a prayer journal, I highly recommend it.

So as long as you don't squeeze God out of your life, being busy is a good thing!  If David had been busy and had gone off to war like most of the rest of the Israelite men, he never would have had an affair with Bathsheba.  When we have too much spare time, our sinful minds will tend to wander places where they shouldn't, thinking about people in bad ways or other mean and terrible things.

Distractions

      Living in today's media, it's hard not to get distracted.  When I get home, I instantly turn on music before I do my homework.  This simple action can turn five-minute homework into five-hour homework.  Music is also what seems to wake me up in the morning when I have to go to school.  Now that I'm on Spring Break, I can finally write again, so here I am.  Even while I write this I am listening to music!

     As an obsessed *dedicated* fan of One Direction, it seems that it can almost take over your life.  Even when I know that I should be doing one thing, I find it hard to turn off the beautiful voices of perfection and concentrate on praying or doing my homework.  The same with magazines, movies, TV shows: sometimes they just seem so incredibly impossible to put down once you pick it up.  After I've scoured through the same magazine twenty times, I'll finally get sick of it.  

      However, when it comes to reading the Bible, there's quite a different reaction.  Sometimes I find it hard to pick up the Bible!  I have my Bible time every night, but it's difficult to enjoy it when I'm really tired.  I'm getting better, but it can still be a struggle.  If school is stressful, it's hard not to just fall into bed and doze off into dream land.  

     Almost all of the movies for teenagers (besides Disney movies.. I love those!) have some kind of sexual content, whether it's making out, implying something more, or even showing something more.  It's hard not to get a warped worldview after watching all of these things!  And trust me, I took a quarter-long class about world views, so I know how easily they can be impacted by what we do.  

     There's a line between loving something and having it become your idol.  Sometimes, though, that line can get a little blurred.  We don't think that there's anything wrong with loving the people that sing our favorite songs or write our favorite books, but when we start getting impacted for the worse by whatever it is that we love so much we can tell that something's up.  Most of the time, though, it's not even that obvious.  We don't really think much of the fact that something is practically controlling our lives, because we don't even care.  I actually like when I have something to constantly do when I'm at home and bored.  While I'm writing this I'm even listening to music!  Even though I haven't let it fully take over my life and start making it make my decisions or something, my idol's still there.

     Another way to fend off bad idols is to censor what you listen to.  Before I buy a song, I have to make sure that there isn't anything bad in it that would affect me in a negative way.  Even though I really like a song, sometimes I have to choose not to buy it because of even just one word.  Now granted, I'm not exactly listening to music that has cursing in it, but sometimes even the cleanest group has a song with a hidden meaning or two slipped in.  So really just think about what you're putting into your head.  Earlier this week, I heard that song "Locked out of Heaven" on the radio, and even though it's a terrible song, I had it stuck in my mind for two or three days.  I tried to get it out, but it kept coming back.  We need to guard our hearts and protect our minds, because the devil will do everything he can to corrupt them.  

More than 'Hot'

     Okay, now just as a pre-warning for you boys, this may not apply to you very much.  You're still welcome to read, and maybe this is what you need to hear right now.  I just know that if I told all of this to my brothers, they would probably laugh in my face.  

     To begin with, a great Bible verse: "³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. ⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. ⁵ For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves."  That was 1 Peter 3:3-5a.  This verse is great when you realize that you don't have the latest brand names or don't have prettily braided or fashioned hair.  For me, at least, my form of 'pretty hair' is a ponytail and, if the day is good, a bow.  I chopped all of my hair off this summer, so it's too short to do anything else.  

     After I decided that I wanted to talk about beauty, I googled it.  Isn't that the reasonable thing to do in every situation?  But anyway, guess what the first result is!  The very first thing I see when I ask about beauty is "beauty.com-BareMinerals, Origins, Urban Decay, NARS, and more..."  Am I the only one that sees that as very warped?  Scroll down a bit, and you'll see more and more and more advertisements, cosmetic and hair tips, and other 'beautifying' helpers.  

     That is the first picture that I found on Google describing 'beauty.'  She's being attacked by five makeup brushes, and wearing a dress that looks like it was made out of saran wrap!  That image is what our culture considers 'beautiful!'  The saddest thing: I went to link of the picture, and it was a 'natural beauty' website.  

     If you go to dictionary.com (another useful tool in homework/writing), beauty is defined as "the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind,whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest)."  Just let that sink in, and actually think about it.  Intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind?  Beauty is used to describe someone truly gorgeous, or a car that some teenage boy is obsessed with, or even a view.  The word beauty is so overused.  Now does it strike anyone as odd that it is so rare that people themselves are called it?  
     Finally, Romans 12:2.  "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."  We shouldn't be obsessed with buying the newest jeans or losing weight... even though there's nothing wrong with them in and of themselves.  Being healthy and looking our best should be important to us, just not too important.  I know that I can get caught up with trying to look 'cool,' and I know that it's all too easy for each one of us.  So, we shouldn't worry about our nation or culture's definition of beauty, but God's: to show our gentle love for others and live as an example of God's love.