deciphering the days

The third commandment, or second depending on the denomination, is written in the King James under Exodus 20 verse 7 as: "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." Growing up in my household that particular commandment meant that the children shouldn't say, 'oh my god' outside of prayer. As I got older, youth groups focused on 'matters of the heart' and 'deliberate thought.' The commandment came to mean that one should be so often focused on God that whenever one thought of or heard mention of God or Jesus Christ, one's thoughts immediately focused on holy things. I learned important qualities in both of these situations. First, I practiced monitoring my speech, and later I was challenged to reflect on what the name of God meant to me. And sometime after that, I heard an interesting perspective concerning the rest of this commandment. Sadly, I do n...

"I have a naturally peaceful nature," I tell myself. I am calm. I always do really well with the 24 or 48 hour 'technology free' days; my college psych/education classes assigned these and they're exactly what they sound like. Some people really struggled with the assignment, but not me. I don't struggle with technology dependence or multitasking. So I tell myself. In psych class, we talked about multitasking and how people say it's a bad idea and it diminishes their productivity, and yet everyone thinks they are an exceptional being who is good at multitasking. I probably do that too, but I'm not dysfunctional about it. So I tell myself. I don't think I even multitask that much. I don't often listen to music while completing homework nor do I work on my computer while talking on the phone. Therefore, I must be good at limiting my multitasking. Go me! So I tell myself. As many know, I am having recent struggles with Bible reading and pray...

Over the last couple of years, the vast majority of my prayers begin with the words, "Kind Father." A friend of mine prayed like that and I picked it up along the way. It is a nice reminder of two obvious things: 1) God is kind and 2) He is my father. Simple enough. Perhaps that is one of the first times God intrigued me with the idea of kindness. Since that time, almost every time I am concerned about bringing my thoughts before God I hear: But I am kind. These constant reminders of God's kindness has left me to ponder what kindness is, and how I should be kind to others. I am reading 'The Love Dare.' The second devotional is focused on kind love. According to this source, kindness consists of gentleness, helpfulness, willingness, and initiative. A dear friend of mine recently said something to the effect of, "Marry someone who is kind to you. If he is kind to you and kind in his heart, then it will be easier to be kind to him, and your marriage will...

It's not uncommon for me to watch animes. Some are great! Some are less than great... I just started one called "Your Lie in April." It's one of the so-so animes. I'm not finished with it yet, but currently I wouldn't really recommend. It's kinda slow... But anyway. I didn't write to tell you I watch animes that I think are boring because I have no life. I'm writing because there was an interesting concept in this show which went something like the paraphrased comments below: A woman in love is beautiful. She was beautiful  a nd she was in love. ...she was in love with music... ...she was in love with dessert... ...she was in love with kittens... ...she was in love with painting... ...she exists within spring... I don't really have anything else to add. I am not saying that we should worship material items, or place idols before God or people. However, our God deeply cares for his creations, us most of all. I believe that...