Month: February 2011

General

Love is a Verb

Karen

This was published on my blog last year. I thought it might be worth another read. 🙂

I Love You This Much

So, how was your Valentine’s Day? We? Did absolutely nothing.

And I’m absolutely okay with that. Not to sound cliché or sickeningly sweet, but every day is Valentine’s Day in my marriage. And that’s mainly because we MAKE it that way. It’s a conscious decision and most times, it’s hard work, but it has paid off in spades over the years.

We’re still together (nearly 20 years) and going strong, so we must be doing something right. Which is sort of funny considering neither one of us has a clue what we’re doing. 😀

Kevin and I woke up yesterday, kissed, said “I love you,” and went about our day. That was the extent of our Valentine’s Day to each other. Actually, we do that every day and that’s my point – we show each other we love each other every day. We not only say it, we SHOW it.

Did you know that love is not just a feeling? It’s “an unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another.” And when you love someone, it’s important to SHOW them how much you love them.

Personally, I think the whole concept of love has been diluted over the years. The concept of love has been thrown around so much that people have become immune to what it really means.

“I LOVE her hair.”

Well actually, you don’t. You LIKE her hair, a lot.

“I LOVE chocolate.”

Really? Don’t you mean you LIKE chocolate more than many other kinds of sweets?

“I LOVE winter.”

How can you love a season? Don’t you mean you LIKE winter perhaps more than the other seasons?

“I LOVE my car.”

Does your car LOVE you back? (If you answered yes, then you might seek professional help). Don’t you really mean, you LIKE the car you’re driving more than the other cars you’ve driven in the past?

Love is in relationships, not things. When people say they love someTHING, it actually demeans the meaning of pure LOVE. I know it’s just a saying, but the more we hear how people LOVE things, the more we become desensitized to what love really IS.

I was lurking on Twitter yesterday, just idly watching people update their statuses, and it truly bothered me the number of women who were all, “What did you GET for Valentine’s Day?” And then they went about comparing the material value of such-and-such gift.

Or worse, the women who bemoaned the fact that they didn’t GET anything, or what they GOT was ONLY such-and-such.

Have we really reduced love to material things? Do we really equate the dollar value of a gift to how much someone loves us?

I find that incredibly sad.

Now granted, some complained because their husbands (wives?) didn’t even acknowledge Valentine’s Day and yes, that’s sad and aggravating. But I’d like to pose a question to those that complained – did THEY themselves acknowledge the day with their spouse? You have to give love to receive love.

What’s that famous quote by Tolstoy?

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

If you want to be treated a certain way, then you must treat the people around you the same way. And that goes doubly for your spouse.

This lesson has taken me YEARS to learn. I used to get so irritated with Kevin when he didn’t make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day. Like I expected him to stuff that one day with every possible feeling of love he’s ever had for me in the past year to the point where his feelings would nearly explode from the pressure. Somehow THAT would prove to me that he loved me.

When in fact, he had been showing me the other 364 days of the year that he loved me, I was just too stupid and clueless to see it. He showed me by mowing the grass, by cooking dinner, by loading the dishwasher, by taking me to lunch, by listening to me, by giving me the last bite of cake, by …

You get the picture. Love is about SO MUCH MORE than feelings, it’s about DOING.

I think my marital expectations changed whenever I learned that valuable little nugget.

Oh sure, it’s great to have that ONE day to show your loved one how much you love them, but I think we all need to adjust our expectations and only view it as a reminder, a gentle nudge not to take each other for granted, an excuse to go out to dinner and enjoy each others company as opposed to the be-all-end-all definition of how one feels for each other.

And it’s certainly about so much more than flowers and/or fancy gifts and then bragging about the monetary value.

I think, and this is just my opinion of course, that some people are so bitter about Valentine’s Day because they truly don’t understand what love really is.

Love is a VERB.

Think about it.

Make it a goal to turn every day into Valentine’s Day in your relationship. You’ll LOVE the results, trust me.

Monday Stuff

Monday Mingle: I’m a Nice Person, Honest

Karen

Questions:

1. Which decade do you think would have been most fun?
2. On what TV show would you like to have a guest starring role?
3. What’s the strangest/weirdest thing you’ve ever done?
4. What is your favorite ride at an amusement park?
5. Whats the nicest thing you have ever done for someone?
6. What do you like best and least about your life?

P.S. I just thought of something else that Kevin thinks is weird about me – I have sharp elbows. We’ll be sitting on the sofa, watching a movie, and he will reach over to rub my elbows. “I can’t believe how sharp your elbows are,” he will say. “You could injure a person with those things.”

Ha! And don’t you ever forget it, buster. 😉


Sunday Stuff

SOC Sunday: Let the Light Shine

Karen

Isolation.

It’s bad.

This is what we learned in Bible Study today – that when Christians don’t mingle with other Christians, then their spiritual lights dim, or even possibly go out.

The man teaching this lesson today told us two analogies:

1. A man was upset with his pastor and wouldn’t go to church for several weeks. The Pastor, noticing the man wasn’t in church, showed up at his house one day. He found the man sitting in front of his fireplace. Without saying a word, the Pastor pulled up a chair and sat down with the man. Several moments went by and the Pastor finally got up, went to the fireplace, took a poker and separated one ember from the rest of the fire. The ember glowed brightly for a few seconds but soon began to fade. Still not saying a word, the Pastor then pushed the ember back into the fire where it soon began to glow brightly. The Pastor didn’t say anything and made preparations to leave. As the Pastor was leaving, the man said, “I get the hint, Pastor. I’ll see you in church next Sunday.”

2. The moon, Earth and Sun. When the moon is fully facing the sun, it’s a New Moon. This New Moon is bright, so bright, in fact, that the night is quite clearly illuminated on those nights. But when the moon is away from the sun, the night grows dark and it’s hard to see. Facing the Sun (Son) allows people (Christians and non-Christians) to see your inner light.

These two analogies really struck home for me today. I often prefer isolation than the company of other people. I like being by myself. I have no problem with being alone. But this made me think. Perhaps it IS better, for myself, as a human being, and as a Christian, to make more of an effort to come out of my isolation and allow other people to see my inner light.

I’m not doing God any favors by staying in the dark.

*ding* Time’s up.

#SOCsunday

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spell checking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post below.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Is Salvation Secure for Christians?

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

To understand the Bible, one must understand what Scripture refers to as “administrations.” We today live in the Administration of Grace, during which those people who are born again receive a guarantee of salvation.

Throughout history, for the accomplishment of His purposes and the benefit of His people, God has changed the “rules” by which He wants people to live. Many theologians call the time period covered by a given set of rules an “administration” or “dispensation.” The systematic theology that recognizes these different administrations or dispensations is referred to as “Dispensationalism.”

Examples of God changing the rules from administration to administration are plentiful. In the Garden of Eden, He told Adam and Eve to eat plants only (Gen. 1:29), but after the Flood, God changed the rules and allowed man to eat meat also (Gen. 9:3), and He still allows us to eat meat today. Another clear example concerns the Sabbath. Before the Mosaic Law, there was no specific law concerning the Sabbath. When God gave the Law to Moses, He changed the rules, and commanded that anyone who worked on the Sabbath should be put to death (Exod. 31:14). Today, in the Administration of Grace, God has changed the rules again, and it is not a sin to work on the Sabbath (Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:16 and 17). When Christians do not recognize or understand the administrations in the Bible, the Bible abounds with apparent contradictions.

We believe God’s Word shows eight administrations. Knowing exactly when they begin and end, and the rules distinctly associated with each, is vital if we are to understand the Bible. The eight administrations are: [For a chart on the Administrations in Scripture, click here.]

1. Original Paradise (Creation to the Fall)
2. Conscience (the Fall to the Flood)
3. Civil Government (the Flood to the Mosaic Law)
4. The Mosaic Law (the Mosaic Law to Pentecost)
5. The Administration of the Grace of God, also called the Administration of the Sacred Secret (Pentecost to the Rapture)
6. Tribulation (the Rapture to the end of the Battle of Armageddon)
7. Paradise, or Christ’s Millennial Kingdom (1,000 years)
8. Everlasting Kingdom (after the Millennial Kingdom it will last forever)

The Grace Administration, in which we live today, began on the Jewish holiday of Pentecost (Acts 2), when the gift of holy spirit was given via New Birth to everyone who believed. It is called the “administration of God’s grace” in Ephesians 3:2, but we usually call it “the Administration of Grace” because now, by God’s amazing grace, salvation is guaranteed to every Christian. That guarantee did not exist in the Old Testament or Gospels, so Jesus did not mention it. Jesus taught according to God’s rules for the administration in which he lived, the administration of the Law.

Today, by God’s grace each Christian has the guarantee of salvation that was given to him when he got born again, and that guarantee stands whether or not a Christian is faithful to live a godly life. [For further study on the Administrations, click here.]

You can read the entire article here.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.

Thanks for reading.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here to inform and bless you. God granted you the gift of free will – take it or leave it).

More from Write From Karen

Life

Working on the Future

Karen

I finally finished my professional site:

screen-shot

Well. It’s not DONE-DONE, I still have some tweaking to do. But it’s pretty close.

I like it. I think it looks fun and funky and I was pleased to see a lot of people from Twitter clicked over to take a look when I tweeted it yesterday. (Thanks guys!)

I can cross that off my to-do list now.

Next, Kevin and I will be brainstorming where to place ads for his business. We’ve already listed it on Craigslist. I am also going to work on some mock up websites for a few schools that have expressed interest in buying a new website from me in the past and see if I can’t entice them to hire me.

*******

We have a scheduling appointment at the school with Jazz on Tuesday, so we feel like this would be a good time to talk to Dude about his future. We’re bringing him back to the office after school on Monday for that talk and I want him to start studying for the ACT test after school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for about thirty minutes each day. I’m scheduling him to retake the test in April. I’ve already warned him about it and have given him the option of taking the initiative and studying on his own. Since he didn’t study for the test last year, and he doesn’t seem motivated to study for the test this year, I’m going to have to step in and make sure he takes it seriously this go around. If that means physically removing him from his comfy bedroom and computer and making him study, then so be it.

We’re going to ask him what he wants to do and if he doesn’t have any idea, then we’ll make suggestions. He can either research one of those ideas, or present his own plan of action, but he’s going to have a plan of action, one way or another, very soon. If he wants to take some college classes, we need to get him enrolled and set up to go in the Fall. The kid is not going to just sit around and play his life away. Not on my watch. If that makes me pushy, controlling and a bitch mom, so be it – someone is going to need to push the boy – might as well be me.

I’m pretty used to being the bad guy.

*******

I’ve been working out to the EA Sports Active program on the Wii. I’m doing the easy 30-minute workout right now and I’m really enjoying the tennis and boxing. The baseball portion is okay, I really enjoy hitting the ball, but I suck at the catching part. There’s also an in-line skating part that I LOATHE. You have to squat, and maintain that squat (the lower you squat, the faster you go), and then you have to jump when you come to ramps. It’s HARD. But the lunges and squats in general are getting easier. I worked out last night and I’m pleased to say I’m barely sore today. I plan on taking the 30-day challenge very soon. I have no idea what that entails, but I’m sure it’s a program that will get harder over time.

Kevin says he can already tell a difference in my body – it looks more “shapely.” But he might just be buttering me up so I’ll continue working on it.

I’m not too proud to say, it’s working. 😉