To Love

"Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.

If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, 

not even an animal. 

Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; 

avoid all entanglements. 

Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. 

But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. 

It will not be broken; it will become 

unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. 

To love is to be vulnerable."     

~ C.S. Lewis

Ah, C.S. Lewis, you've done it again. Thoughts that I've never quite been able to get from my mind to my lips he said so eloquently. This is such a true quote. To be able to love anything, you must give something of yourself. It is your choice. To either live inside a guarded tower, with heart completely guarded, and never love; or, to step beyond fear and take the chance to open your heart and experience love or even rejection. 


My friends, let's go beyond our fears and learn to love.



[I saw this quote by C.S. Lewis on my friend's blog (Binding the Main) and it was too good to pass by. If you have the time, you should seriously check out her page.]

"Faith never knows where it's being led, but it knows and loves the One who is leading." 

-Oswald Chambers

Graduation is coming up a lot sooner than I expected. I can hardly believe I've been in college for two years already... It's gone by fast. I wish it would slow down. One reason being, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Better yet, I have no idea what God's plan is for my life. Several friends already have a general idea of what they want to do, what God is calling them to do. When people ask what I want to do after graduation, I panic a little, my palms become sweaty, and my heart pounds in my chest. How do I answer them? Can I only say, "I don't know"? That's not the answer people want. But, I don't want to just conjure up some wild idea and use that as my story to please their curiosity. I want give them the truth.

... So, here is the truth:  I don't know what my future holds. But I do know a God who does. Whatever He has planned, that's what I want. His dreams are my dreams. I want to always be in His will, following Him wherever He leads. When He opens a door, I'll go through it; when He closes it, I will wait. That's why I like the quote above by Oswald Chambers. 

That's where I'm at right now.

Shalom :]

"Say What You Need to Say"

Have you ever wanted to tell someone something, but were too afraid to actually tell them? 

You were afraid of what they might think of you, so you didn't say anything? 

You figured that they accepted how you were already, so if you said anything contrary to how they already thought of you, it would 

make them question whether they really wanted to get to know you after all? And because of all of this running through your head, you couldn't be yourself around them?

Ugh... Isn't it frustrating? Why do we care so much about what others think of us? 
D o e s    i t    r e a l l y    m a t t e r    t h a t     m u c h  ? 

I'm sure if you were to go around the room and ask several people, the answers would be similar. Everyone has dealt with this in one way or another.

       "What will they think of me if I say this?" 

                     We tend to put ourselves into a box when we do this.  

                Limiting 

                                      ourselves and those around us too.

I've never really thought about that before... But really. 

You are not only limiting yourself when you don't speak up, but you're also limiting those around you by not sharing your thoughts. 

You're building a wall around yourself that others can't get through.


So my charge to you is this:

Don't worry about what others may think of you. 
If you have something to say, share it with them. "Just do it." 

   

Be bold.

We need to encourage one another in this. Build each other up, and not tear down.
 If someone needs cheering up, be that person who goes out of the way to lift them up.

This is something I have to work on too, so you're definitely not alone in this. ;)