Maturity is not when we start speaking big things. It’s when we start understanding small things.
(Source: scripturientdreamer, via deeperroutes)
Women in the Workplace
Cultivating our hearts is something of an art. The practice of any art, according to philosopher Erich Fromm, requires discipline, concentration, patience and supreme concern.
1. Discipline. Within the art of cultivating your heart, the practice of discipline is as simple as focusing your thoughts on what is right, true, honest and good (you are your thoughts, never forget this – Philippians 4:8).
2. Concentration. Concentration implies living fully in the present, engaged in what is noble and right, rejecting false ideas implanted by the media (lust, sexuality as the basis of intimacy, individualism and false standards of womanhood) and also rejecting today’s greedy corporate culture that preaches entitlement above all else. When you feel you’re entitled to something, it’s easy to get caught up in emotional wrong-doings. For instance, if you’re lonely and feel you’re entitled to romance, then your heart will make up excuses if you find it in the wrong place.
3. Patience. If we fall, we get up, forgive ourselves and try again, knowing that God, our biggest fan, roots us onwards.
4. Supreme concern. The condition of practicing any art is supreme concern with its mastery. This means we must be diligent, considering the art of cultivating our hearts to be of supreme importance.
You have heard it said, “you are what you eat.” A very wise nutritionist said once that this is not actually the truth. In actuality, you are what you metabolize. If your body does not absorb what you eat, it passes through and has no impact on the building blocks of your physiology.
The same can be said of the words, actions, and various other messages that bombard you daily. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that “…as we believe in our heart, so are we…” We are bathed daily in a world of people and their various responses to and interactions with us. Somewhere in those interactions we become what we allow into our hearts. This in mind, we should learn what it means to “guard our hearts above all else”(Proverbs 4:23).
Boundaries are those invisible dividing lines whereby I maintain myself as separate and distinct from anyone else. My emotions are my own. My desires and goals are my own. My values are my own. My body belongs to me and I am responsible to maintain everything that belongs to me.
(via symphosanna)
(Source: yimmyayo, via symphosanna)
so true.
"If we remember that we are a beloved child of God, and that he has given us everything we need to be who he created us to be – we are freed up to truly love and serve others. We are free to be patient and forgiving, because we are not demanding anything in return. And we are free to mourn the loss of something special, appreciate it for the gift it was, and move on to better things for us."
—
Megan Odegaard
(via goodwomenproject)
(via symphosanna)
"Within this Christian vision for marriage, here’s what it means to fall in love. It is to look at another person and get a glimpse of the person God is creating, and to say, “I see who God is making you, and it excites me! I want to be part of that. I want to partner with you and God in the journey you are taking to his throne. And when we get there, I will look at your magnificence and say, ‘I always knew you could be like this. I got glimpses of it on earth, but now look at you!’"
— Tim Keller (via blakebaggott)
(Source: asinglethread, via of-the-lost-and-weary)
I would add that this is also true for masturbation and other forms of sexual addiction. It’s not what’s permissible, it’s what’s beneficial that matters. [click through.. it’s worth reading!]
I wish we’d step away from the “is pornography okay/not okay” and “is watching porn morally acceptable or is it morally offensive.” At the end of the day, one person’s moral verdict isn’t helpful or practical when held up against what it’s scientifically doing to individuals and relationships.
If…
(via kerapackage)
If we were to say of the local church, “The primary tool for God’s will in the world is when God’s followers humbly submit themselves to His dream for humanity and to each other in the power of His Spirit,” then I completely agree.
But if our idea of the local church means, “The primary tool for God’s will in the world is any 501(c)(3) organization that calls itself a church, and anything outside of its walls is important but secondary,” then I absolutely disagree.
When church leaders are believed to have the most important job in the universe and everyone else is secondary, that is religion at its worst.
