Avalon - The Greatest Story

Free To Be Me

I was driving Lili to the eye doctor yesterday when the previously posted song "Free To Be Me" by Francesca Battistelli came on te radio, and it was love at first sound because for as long as I can remember I have depended on God to free me from the bonds of peer and societal pressure as I moved through this life as an awkward and imperfect girl/young lady/woman. I can still remember the encouraging self-talk speeches I gave myself before incidences of public speaking, or walking through the hallways with a heinous zit on my face,"God loves you just the way you are, and he's the only one that matters!" This empowering, over-coming statement is true for all of us. As simplistic as this thought is my belief in it is the foundation from which I face each day as a awkward, imperfect, and noticably disabled 30- year-old woman today. I won't deny that there are unfortunate moments when I get a glimpse of myself through the lens most the world likely uses to view me, and I feel incapable and useless, but in these moments God picks me up, places me on his shoulders, and reminds me that he loves and values me just the way I am, and through him I have a productive future. How can I but love a God like that!? 2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down , but not destroyed. We are weak vessels like jars of clay that contain the treasure of Jesus, and our weaknesses makes us more desirable to use in God's eyes because when we are able to arise victorious from the ashes of life in our weakened state, everyone who witnesses it has to know it was from no power of our own, so they are forced to question then,"Who?" This line of thought opens the door for God to say, "Me," and just like that our weakness proves useful for the creator of the universe. If you are weak today, don't view yourself from the world's perspective, but rather peek through the hopeful and clear lens of God into the productive and purposeful future he wants to give you as you walk along side him borrowing his strength, and as you walk hold your head high and claim those dents! They are a beautiful, interesting, and unique part of you..the you God adores:) Francesca Battistelli refers to them as dents in her fender, but I preder storm damage in my case, since much of my weakness is damage sustained in the storms of my life, but whatever we call them, let's see our weaknesses through God's eyes as useful attributes rather than deficiencies! The most encouraging words I heard on a down day during my previously mentioned storm were, "Don't consider your disability a subtraction from who you were, but rather an addition to who you are,"- Cheryl Smith, OT (I love you, Cheryl!) so if you are weakened by physical or emotional disability or just character flaws, see your weaknesses for what they really are attributes that ADD to the person you are if you team up with God in this life and allow his strength to work through you:)

Francesca Battistelli - Free To Be Me

Don't Be A Hater

Despite the influence of my union-minded father, I have never been too ingrossed by politics. Mostly political talk bores and irritates me much like the Obama-smear-campaign I have witnessed taking place bit-by-bit on facebook, not that he's attempting to smear anyone, but he's getting smeared and what irritates me is that in some haphazard, ridiculous manner its being done in the name of Christ. Evidentally, some supposed Christ-followers are so inscensed over Obama's stance on certain moral and ethical issues that they feel the need to twist and contort half truths into total untruths in an attempt to defame our current president. An anti-Obama post that was being passed around last week alerted me to this unfortunate political measure. It stated that Obama had canceled the National Day of Prayer and expressed great displeasure that Obama was supposedly trampling on the religious rights of Christians in this country. I was tempted to repost it because as a lover of Christ myself, the wording and accusations raised my hackles a little, but something caused me to pause and question the validity of the statement, so off to www.snopes.com I did go to find that the entire claim was bogus. In fact, any truth that existed in the words of the posts were twisted bits and pieces of misunderstood and unrelated non-events. Call me naieve, but the idea that a person would tell complete lies to anger the public against another human-being dumbfounded me, and the underlying tone that this individual was angry because Obama had offended her Christianity frustrated me because I truely love Christ, and do not desire for him to be midrepresented in such a way because down the road when an unbeliever realizes what has happened, he will fault Christ as not being who he said he was when it would never have been Jesus' desire to lie about or to disrespect the President of the United States in such a way whether he supported his views or not. I'm not attempting to sway anyone to become an Obama supporter because as I earlier stated, I don't do politics and know very little of what he intends to accomplish as President, but I do hope to encourage my Christian brothers and sisters to refrain from being haters because that poorly represents Christ to the public! If you doubt my doctrine here, check out these scriptures: Romans 13: 1-2,6-7 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority exept that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. So, what, then, are we to do when we disagree with our governing leaders? This, I find beautiful being that all this hulabaloo was over the National Day of Prayer, read Matthew 5:44 But I [Jesus] tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. I expect to see and hear all my fellow lovers and followers of Jesus Christ respecting, honoring, and praying for Barack Obama on the very uncanceled National day of prayer(May 6th).

I hope this does not come off too snarky because such an attitude doesn't honor God either. We are all, most definitely, including me susceptible to getting caught up in waves of our humanity. What I mean by that is that it is an entirely normal human reaction to get into a fighting stance when you feel something you love and cherish is being threatened, and having a leader in place who does not necessarily share our moral and ethical views seems to be such a situation, but if we truely want to honor and love God with our lives, we often must fight against those waves of humanity with the strength that Christ provides in order to behave in obedience and respect to God's word.

Join me in showing the world who Christ really is by living out as well as speaking out the word of God!:)