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Sunday, September 28, 2014

Love


Everyone is different. Some people share their love with the world very openly. Some love everyone. Some people hide their love away. They lock it up in their hearts, never to see the light of day. For if they let it out they may experience pain and that pain may burn them badly.

The best idea is to share love carefully and use it a a resource. In other words, you can love someone with just a small amount of kindness without letting it overwhelm your life or your heart. For example, you may have a friend who is down on their luck. Instead of taking them in, sheltering them, paying for their food, their phone bill, their medication - you can opt for only paying for their medication. Let someone else pay their bills, someone else take them in. You do not have to do everything, nor should you be expected to. This may be different if we are talking about a family member, but in all cases taking on someone else's responsibilities completely just because you are trying to be a good Christian may end up ruining your day, month or year.

Similarly, start each new relationship with friends or romantic interests with great care and caution. There are heart breakers out there. I say this because usually I am the one breaking hearts. It is not on purpose, but I have in the past rushed into things, only to decide later that it was a bad idea. This blog examines several areas of love.

Expressions of Love


You can actually take this online quiz and learn what your priorities are as far as romantic and friendship love are concerned. This focuses on romantic love, but it is also helpful for understanding friendship love. I highly suggest taking it just to know what your priorities are.

Three Kinds of Love

Adapted from info taken from UBDavid

AGAPE LOVE -   What is agape love? Agape love is that love which gives and sacrifices for the highest good of another person. It is the kind of love that caused Jesus to sacrifice himself completely in order to die for all of our sins. Without it there would be no "sacrifice".
Agape love has two main characteristics: (1) It is completely unselfish— it seeks that which is best for the one it loves, and (2) it is committed love—it keeps on loving regardless of what happens.

Agape love is not just a wonderful feeling; it is definite choice. One of the amazing things about agape love is this: When you choose to love a person unselfishly and act lovingly toward them, in time you will have the feeling of love toward them.
God has given us a wonderful place in which we learn agape love. That place is the home. When you live at home you learn how to act and love unselfishly. Remember, you do not have to wait until you feel love to be loving. You can choose to love them and begin acting unselfishly toward them. This is excellent training for life!
Any person can act lovingly toward someone of the opposite sex. It is in your interest to do so. However, once you are married and the routine of daily living sets in, you'll both see each other's true nature. You can not be selfish and self-centered and be successful. Look at how they treat their family members. Are they unselfish to their family?
One of the biggest mistakes young people make is rushing into marriage. Before considering marriage you need to know that you have agape love for that special person and that he or she has the same kind of love for you.  A happy marriage is not a marriage between two “perfect” people. There is no such thing as perfect people. A happy marriage is a marriage between two imperfect people who love each other with unselfish, committed love. Agape love is not blind—it sees the faults of the other person, but it covers them with love.
When you really love someone, you don’t try to change them. You accept them and love them as they are. Agape love says, “I love you, no matter what happens, and I always will.” You can see why this kind of love is so essential in a happy and successful marriage.
Agape love is not just for marriage. We should develop agape love for all people. Every person is the object of God’s love. Every person is exceedingly precious to God. His love includes all people, and ours should also.
God has given us the perfect example of agape love. He gave His Son to die on the cross for sinful people like you and me. The Bible says,“God shows His [agape] love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

FRIENDSHIP LOVE - This is the warm love and affection we have for good friends—people whom we like and enjoy. We should have such friends both from our own sex and from the opposite sex.  Christians should develop unselfish agape love for all people, but we cannot be close friends with all people. The pyramid illustrates how the objects of our affection begin to narrow when we get to friendship love. It is greater than Sexual Love, but less than Agape Love.
To have a successful marriage, you need friendship love for your mate so that you enjoy being together, talking and sharing things with each other. A marriage without respect and tender affection between husband and wife will be unsatisfactory, even if there is a lot of passion in the bedroom.

SEXUAL  LOVE - This is that special, most intimate kind of love between a husband and wife. We should have sexual love for only one person—the one to whom we are married. The pyramid illustrates how our affections should narrow to one person when it comes to sexual love.
In the beginning God created one man and one woman. They were committed to each other for life. This is God’s design for marriage and sexual love—one man and one woman committed to each other for life.
God gave sex both as a means of producing children and as a source of pleasure. Through sexual intercourse a husband and wife are able to express to the fullest their love for each other. This is one of the great blessings and privileges of marriage.
To protect this blessing of sexual love within marriage, God gave this command—“You shall not commit adultery.”
This command forbids all sexual impurity. Fornication is sexual intercourse between an unmarried man and woman. Adultery is sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her marriage partner. Both fornication and adultery are forbidden by God, along with all other sexual sins.

God is not against sex. He is against the wrong use of sex. After all, sex was God’s idea in the first place. Within marriage, it is one of the most wonderful blessings we can enjoy. That’s what God intended it to be!

As wonderful as sexual love is, it can never be the foundation for a successful marriage. Many couples try to build their marriage on the foundation of physical or sexual love. The marriage may last for a while, but when the storms of life come, their marriage fails. They discover too late that you cannot build a happy and successful marriage with sexual love as the foundation.

 

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Prov 6:16 ~ Being a Christian

A short opinion based on Prov 6:16: "The Lord detests haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness that pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family."

1. Haughty Eye: A lesson for Americans. Pride Comes Before the Fall. Do not condescend - ever. Have humility in your requests with friends, family, and the public. Never ask others to do those difficult labors that you would not do yourself. Delegation is good, but you should never "use" people for your goals. Do not buy people with compliments, money or treachery. I have seen good Christians use people - sometimes without knowing they were doing it. No matter what your cause or your work is, the result is never worth the means - if your means were not admirable. Your work should be highlighted by true appreciation of your friends, family and supporters. Teach by example and live by example.

CALIFORNIA-FAMILIAS INMIGRANTES
Definition of Haughty Eyes:
Having or showing the insulting attitude of people who think that they are better, smarter, or more important than other people.

If you would like to see haughty eyes, look no further than the faces of the men and women protesting the arrival of migrants from Central America.  The woman who screamed, “we don’t want you; nobody wants you!” may have believed she was speaking for the entire nation. She wasn't.

We are no better than the folks who viewed lynchings as celebratory events . .
 (more here)
2. A Lying Tongue: There is no benefit in a lie. In your life you will pay for each sin and none is so hard to live with than a lie. Even if a person believes your lie, you know what you did or said. It will stay with you forever. It will hurt you more in the long run than if you just told the truth. This kind of mistake tends to come back to bite you in the bum. Lies are easily found out. Small lies are not so small when they end up hurting everyone. It's best to tell the truth and ask forgiveness if you did something wrong or were shortsighted. No one is perfect! It is better to show your humility than to proudly lie about something that is untrue.

Great read on this here: http://yougottaserve.blogspot.com/2010/04/we-are-culture-of-deception.html

3. Hands that kill the innocent: The largest indicator of someone's true spirit and nature is how they treat pets or animals. If you see a child with an animal nurture that impulse to do good - to treat all creatures well. It will help that child throughout their life. There were some boys here in my neighborhood watching a praying mantis. I told them praying mantis are supposed to be good luck and that they should not touch wild creatures or animals because the oils on our hands can hurt them. Last time I saw them they were still pointing at it and staring in wonder. I don't think a child's first impulse is ever violence. They must be taught that.

Facts about animal abuse and domestic violence:
  • A child growing up in the U.S. is more likely to have a pet than a live-at-home father. 
  • Pets live most frequently in homes with children: 64.1% of homes with children under age 6, and 74.8% of homes with children over age 6, have pets. The woman is the primary caregiver in 72.8% of pet-owning households. 
  • Battered women have been known to live in their cars with their pets for as long as four months until an opening was available at a pet-friendly safe house. 
More here: http://www.americanhumane.org/interaction/support-the-bond/fact-sheets/animal-abuse-domestic-violence.html

4. A heart that plots evil: This is not just about you plotting against someone in a wicked way. It may also be that you are just so tied up in yourself and your own goals that you do not see those you hurt along the way. People need encouragement, as you do. Do not push other people out of the way on your own way to wealthy, success and victory. Otherwise your victory will feel empty. There are some people who are driven their entire lives to achieve more .  and more .  and they can never be satisfied. You never will be as long as you are so wrapped up in your own goals that you miss the forest for the trees. Appreciate where you are and what you are doing. Make sure that the people around you are also enjoying their lives and if they are not maybe take some steps to help improve that for them. It is very easy to improve the life of someone else on this planet, even if it's just a simple deed or a kind word.

5. Feet that race to do wrong: This really reminds me of Oppositional Defiance Disorder. To me it is another path that depression can take. These kids are confused, forsaken and may feel misled. I think a lot of young people have this issue, especially in the US. It is an extreme desire to do what you are not supposed to, just to spite people or to get instant rewards. Sometimes it's not something that the person is in control of. Watch this video as an example:

I don't feel like any person who has: cut, done drugs, sold drugs, or committed crimes is beyond help. Most people are not compulsively evil, narcissistic or anti-social. They are just lost. When one's soul is empty, they reach out for something that they know and something that's real. You just want to do something to remember that you're alive. You may want people to notice you or spend time and attention on you and doing bad things is the only way you can get attention. You want to feel something. It is an extreme desire but there is help for those who feel empty. You just need a solid foundation. For most people without the family or friends to rely on, they use God as their foundation. You'll still flounder, but with support life is easier than it used to be. The best thing is to remember that you're not alone.

6. A false witness that pours out lies: A false witness or false prophet is the worst of all. The Lord says that those who teach idolatry and lies will have the worst afterlife of all. I believe this speaks directly to the teachings of our children. The teaching of Evolution as a "fact" and not a "theory" irks me. A "theory" has to be proven and Evolution never was. Quite the opposite. The missing link that science have pointed to as proof of this theory (Lucy) was found to be a hoax. There are several other examples of Evolution hoaxes. I assume they will keep creating lies in order to mislead Christians.

Smithsonian ,We Have A Problem
http://thearrowsoftruth.com/tag/fossilised-human-footprints

The most ironic part of this is that there is ample evidence that humans and dinosaurs co-existed. Click on the link above called "Smithsonian, We Have a Problem" to read about evidence that general science does not want you to know. Many people have hidden this information away on purpose. However, if you look you'll find the scientific evidence scattered throughout the internet, books and scientific university logs. This information has been catalogued by esteemed scientists and researchers. It is just not advertised or allowed to be taught in schools. Why? Why is it so important to Atheists to keep lying to the human race? Personally, I'll never understand it so I just make sure that I teach the children that I know that the truth is up to them.

7. A person who sows discord in a family: I don't believe that this is only a group of related people. I believe this can also refer to those groups of close friends that you grow up with or people that you trust wholeheartedly. To lie and mislead people who truly love you deeply, is just so wrong. There is nothing worse. It is one thing to backstab a person that you barely know, but when you do this to someone who loves you, it destroys many things. People who have been horribly betrayed have a very hard life trying to move on from that kind of pain. Sometimes they never get over it. It can create drama between other people in the group, not just the ones directly affected. It can cause feelings of anguish and the worst thing of all; it can alienate someone who desperately needed the support of your group. It could cause them to head into a spiral of negativity from which they may not recover...

This is not to say that we should enable people. If they have a problem with alcohol, drugs, kleptomania, or abuse and hurt others, you do not have to keep supporting them and their bad habits. They don't have to be a part of your life. You should make it clear that their behavior is unacceptable and you don't support it. Some day they might change, and seek help, but you can't make them change.

We must think about our actions before we make them. Every action and reaction is a choice,but we affect more than just ourselves. Whether or not we have much time to decide we need to make the best choice. If we always choose that side which benefits and helps others, instead of ourselves, that end result will most likely benefit all parties and/or it will be the lesser evil. This is just another opinion based on Christianity, but thanks for reading.

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I am a bit funny, crazy, sometimes serious and usually wise. I'm very creative and artistic. However my greatest gift in life is common sense.