Finish Your Recipe

Growing up, I absolutely hated sloppy joes.  First of all, who in their right mind wants to eat something that brings to mind a big, sweaty man who might change oil at a gas station (at least that's the image that came to my mind)?  I had tried them a few times and just really didn't like them.  However, I married someone who does like them so I had to find a recipe that I liked.  It took a while, years in fact, but I finally found one (and of course it happens to be this one by The Pioneer Woman, I just love her recipes).  I will now openly admit, I LOVE sloppy joes!  I often make them a couple of times a month now.  Nothing beats some of these sloppy joes on a toasted bun with some melty, shredded cheese.  However, it takes the right combination of ingredients to make a sloppy joe that I will eat.  

I started thinking last night while I was cooking about the magic of a good recipe (I know sometimes the strangest things come to my mind, give me a break I spend my days with humans age 4 and under).  You can take several ingredients that by themselves are not particularly something good to eat and turn them into something delicious.  For the sloppy joes for instance, I hate mustard but the recipe would not taste right without it (I use regular mustard instead of the ground kind by the way).  I would never dream of sitting down and eating a plate of raw meat or a spoonful of chili powder.  However, when you put them together in the right amounts, and put them to the right amount of heat for just the right amount of time, something magical happens.  The same is true of one of my favorite sweets; hot, fresh chocolate chip cookies.  Flour is not appetizing on its own, and who would eat a couple of teaspoons of baking soda?  But, when mixed with all the right ingredients and put in a super-hot oven for just the right amount of time, they are heavenly.

I feel like we experience some of the same process in our lives.  God is crafting a "delicious" life for each one of us, but just like a good recipe, we must get all the ingredients mixed together completely and it needs time in the oven or on the stove to taste right.  If you gave up on a recipe because you tasted it before all the ingredients were added, or decided not to put it in the oven because it was just too hot, you would never enjoy the fulfillment of a delicious, fresh baked cookie.  Day by day and experience by experience, God is making us into what he has created us to be.  However, if we chose to quit because we are going through something hard or give up because our situation seems hopeless, we will never fully walk in what God created us to be.  Just like any recipe, some ingredients in life can stand alone as be good by themselves. For instance, getting a promotion at work or maybe celebrating a new baby are wonderful things.  However, some ingredients of life are just plain gross on their own (for me the mustard in the sloppy joes), but when combined with the rest of our life experiences can be crafted into a wonderful part of our testimony.  We must take the good with the bad and keep the end result in mind when things get tough.  

I truly believe that there are far too many people in this world that live unfulfilled, disappointed, and miserable lives because for whatever reason they didn't allow God to finish the recipe.  Maybe they hit a tough situation and got bitter and just never got over it.  Or perhaps they gave up because it seemed like the vinegar that they were dealing with would never make anything taste good.  Whatever the situation, we are called to persevere and allow God to use those things in our life to bless others.  Some of the most influential preachers I know have had to deal with some horrible life situations, whether their fault or not.  Some have been victims of childhood rape or maybe have come out of a drug addiction.  Many of the bad situations that we deal with in life are simple because we live in a sin-filled world.  However, God can take any of those situations and turn it around for His good, if we let him.  You never know 10 years from now, which of your "ingredients" will come in handy.  Don’t stop God before he’s done with you.  Some of the most delicious things in life take hours and hours to cook, don’t stop because it seems like God is taking too long.  He is the perfect chef and will pull you out of the oven at the right moment.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” James 1:2-4 NLT

Bible Basics

Ever since I became a parent nearly 5 years ago now, I often think about how I will instill Christian values into my girls.  As a school teacher, I saw first hand what kinds of things at earlier and earlier ages kids are exposed to.  I saw kids as young as 7th and 8th grade get involved in drugs, end up pregnant, or just become followers of whatever way the wind of the current culture was blowing.  If I think too hard about it, it terrifies me that I will eventually have 3 teenage girls.  I pray all the time that they will make wise decisions, they will not fall into the lies of this world, and even that their future spouses are being raised in a godly home and will be wise.  We live in a crazy world now and I want my girls to be a light in the darkness.

My oldest has reached an age of asking "why?" about everything.  She is learning at an exponential rate right now and I have been looking for ways to teach her about God.  I am pretty excited to share something with you that I ran across and was able to get a preview copy of to look over and review.  It is a book called "Bible Basics A Baby Believer Counting Primer" by Danielle Hitchens and illustrated by Jessica Blanchard. I have looked it over and love it!  It is a counting book that uses many of the foundational truths of our faith as the items that are being counted from 1 to 10. For example, some of the things that are counted include the 3 parts of the Trinity, the 6 days of creation, and the 9 fruits of the spirit.  If you have followed my blog for long, you know I don't typically do this kind of post.  However, I feel like this is a great tool for my little ones and I really encourage you to look into it as well.
This book is a great asset for both young children and older children.  Some of the concepts will be above the understanding of a young toddler, but will serve as a good foundation for conversations about things like the Holy Spirit, creation, and fruits of the spirit.  I am giving away a copy of  this book starting now and ending 12/31/16! If you would like to enter for a chance to win, there are two ways to enter.  You can either comment on this blog post, or share a link for this post on Facebook.  If you want to enter twice, do both! Good luck! In the meantime if you are interested in purchasing this book click here. GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED.  Congratulations Tatiana Amundson for winning a copy of this book!!!

What Are You Thinking?

Our minds are incredibly powerful things.  It's amazing how a simple thought has the power to bring us joy, cause us stress, make us angry, or make us cry.  If you think on something long enough, it will even begin to mold your belief system.  If you think you are unworthy or a loser or that you deserve bad things, you will begin to walk that out.  If you are constantly negative and complain about everything, you will not only drive others away because no one wants to be around a complainer, but you will also be miserable because you cannot find anything to be grateful for.  However, if you think not about what you don't have, but instead choose to think about all of your blessings, you will be able to live an abundant life regardless of your circumstances.

I love The Message translation of the Bible.  I don't always read that version, but it is such a good translation when you just want to get a good word in a more conversational, modern day way.  I was using The Message as a reference last night when I was reading, and I just loved 1 Peter 4:1-2. "Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want." I love that.  We must learn to think like Him.  We need to cast out those thoughts that don't line up with scripture.  We aren't going through anything tougher that going to the cross.  We have got to get away from expecting to always get our way.  I still struggle with that.  I want comfort and ease.

I grew up on a cattle ranch, so the first thing I think about when I see that term "weaning" is when we would wean calves from their mothers every fall.  I remember that for several days after separating those calves from their moms they would bawl and carry on.  However, it was time for them to move from milk to solid food.  After they finished their fits for a couple of days and got a taste of good grain and hay, they never wanted to go back.  They would actually nearly knock us over when we would feed them each day trying to get that good grain.  

We go through the same thing as Christians.  We whine and carry on wanting our way.  If we always get our way though, we may miss out on what God has for us.  Sure, we can keep taking in the "milk" forever and get by, but if we really want to experience God we need to "wean" ourselves from the milk only diet.  It may not be fun or easy right away, but it will be worth it.  I want to move on from milk and get a good steak dinner.  I want to stop being held back by wanting my way.  I want to desire more "to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what I want."

That is an incredibly hard thing to do, but so incredibly worth it.  I know that the times I have finally given up my desires and simply submitted to what God's will was, it wasn't easy but there has never been a time it wasn't worth it.  We had to do this a few years ago in the form of house shopping.  We kept hitting dead ends and finally realized we were trying to force something that was outside of God's will.  We had expected to just get our way, because after all we were Christians and everything should just work out, right?  We realized that we needed to set that aside until God wanted us to have it.  It was so hard setting that dream aside, however, when we finally did, we were blessed (after a time of patience, praying, and trusting) with an open door that was far better than what we were trying to force.  It wasn't easy but it was definitely worth it.  I pray today that both you and I will have the discernment and the strength to allow God to "wean" us and help us to pursue His will rather than our own.

The Divine Vending Machine

      Sometimes our biggest blessings can come out of our times of waiting.  That is a very hard concept for me to grasp sometimes.  We live in such an instant gratification world.  Hungry? Don’t worry about waiting for something to cook, grab any of millions of prepackaged snacks.  Lost? In 5 seconds on your cellphone you can pull up directions to where you are going.  Wanting a brand new car?  Why wait to save up money to pay cash when you can finance everything from cars to Christmas presents, as long as you can afford the monthly payment, that’s all we tend to care about.

      It seems like the more advances we make in technology, the harder it gets to wait for things.  Not only do we not want to wait, we feel like we need to be entertained every step of the way if we do have to wait.  Our longevity wanes when things aren’t fun or engaging.  As a school teacher I saw this every single day from my students.  If the subject is hard (and for a lot of students especially when I taught math this was every subject) and they are not being entertained throughout the whole lesson, they disengage.  Even churches lose membership if they don’t have the coolest rock band style worship and most dynamic speaker.

      It is so hard, even as an adult, to not want things to be easy and even fun.  That’s our comfort zone as humans.  If we can just go on auto-pilot and not have to think too hard, we feel like life is good.  However, sometimes when we feel comfortable we start feeling like we are the ones in control.  We can get prideful feeling like maybe we are better than others who are going through hard times.  We can also fall into a trap of depending on ourselves rather than God.  I know I often find my relationship with God gets a little lax during those comfortable times.  Maybe I don’t study the Bible as much or pray as often if things are going well.

      Sometimes we treat God as if he were a vending machine.  We approach him with our prayers when we need or want something, but if we don’t need anything we often allow ourselves to get busy with other things and not focus on him.  Just like a vending machine, we put in our payment (the "I need ..." prayer), then expect to immediately receive what we prayed for. I find myself even doing that.  When I am in a really difficult season, it is easy to “pray without ceasing”.  However, during the comfortable, easy seasons of life, prayers often become hollow and out of obligation.

      The Bible refers to God as our heavenly father.  As a parent myself it would break my heart if my children only spent time with me when they wanted something from me.  I want to be a part of every facet of their lives.  I love hearing about all the exciting and fun things going on in their lives, as well as the struggles they are going through.  I believe God is the same way with us.  He wants to hear about our joyous times, and our depressing times.  It warms his heart to see us smile and to hear us say thank you.  He also feels our pain when things aren’t going right. 

      As a parent, when your child is learning to walk you have to allow them to fall to develop their muscles to get back up again. God, as our heavenly parent, sometimes allows us to “fall” by going through times of trials to help us develop our muscles of trust and endurance in him. He sees us struggle and get frustrated, but he resists the urge at times to immediately lift us out of our struggles because he knows how important the lessons we will learn in those struggles are to our growth as Christians.  As hard as it is to admit in the midst of a discouraging or hard time, in my experiences, once I have gotten through the trial I can see what a blessing it was.  We have to remember during difficult times that we see only what is directly in front and behind us.  God is all-knowing, he not only sees in front and behind; he sees all of eternity.  

Do I Really Have to Wait?

When you are in a transitional phase of your life, it is incredibly easy to think that maybe you took a wrong turn and are on the wrong path. Sometimes you may feel determined that you heard from God and have done everything you can do to stay within His will, and yet you still haven't had your breakthrough or haven't seen your dreams or goals come to fruition. It's during those periods of life that it can be easy to just give up and settle for less than what you know God has for you. Many people do just that.  Many people settle in and live in the grind that they hate because stepping out in faith is not only scary, it is often hard. Even after you step out in faith, or simply do what you feel led to do, there can be a waiting period before you finally step into your calling. However, we must learn to not despise the wait. We must not quit in the middle of the wait. If we do, we will likely never see the fulfillment of our dreams.

When I started thinking about waiting, two of my favorite Old Testament characters came to mind: Joseph and David.  Joseph received a dream at the age of 17, however, that dream didn't come to fruition until he was 30 (see Genesis 37-41). He went through a 13 year wait that took him to a pit, sold into slavery, and even landed him in prison. I am sure he went through some incredible mental struggles from time to time, thinking about that dream and how it would probably never come true. It must have been incredibly discouraging. My little struggles are nothing compared to being a slave or getting thrown into prison. David was anointed to become king around the age of 15, however, he didn't come into power until he was around 30 (see 1 and 2 Samuel for his story). He had approximately a 15 year wait from the time he was pulled out of a pasture until he sat on the throne. He went through some tremendously scary years of running for his very life. Some of his struggle and anguish are recorded in many of the Psalms that he wrote. However, even in his struggles he stayed true to his faith and kept his focus on God.

I love stories like those. I love to see how others have had to wait for their dreams to come to pass, it encourages me. There are so many lessons to be learned in those times of waiting. Those periods of waiting are what season us to be able to flourish when we do step into our destiny. The struggles we go through keep us humble. They ensure that we don't trust in ourselves. If Joseph would have given up and just become negative and depressed when he was sold into slavery, he would have never been put in charge of his master's household. That would have probably kept him from being in a position that landed him in prison. That sounds great, except for the fact that the prison was the very vehicle that brought him to the throne. Joseph kept his eyes on God and chose to serve wherever he was placed. Thirteen years later, that faithful service brought his dreams to fruition when he became second in command of an entire kingdom. There are examples over and over of similar times of waiting in the Bible. I often find myself struggling during times of waiting. Just like everyone else, I want to get all the blessings without having to exert much faith or trust. We all live in a microwave world where we hardly have the patience to wait from one window to the next at a drive-thru restaurant. However, God is not in the business of instant gratification; he will use the moments between a revelation and its fulfillment to develop in us the skills that we need to operate in our calling. Our job is to make the most of those moments and keep our faith grounded in the one who placed those dreams within us.

Cast Your Cares

I am a natural worrier.  Many people may not know that about me because I am selective about who I talk to about my worries.  The majority of my worries revolve around my future, typically around things like my kids, finances, jobs, and my life's calling, just to name a few.  If I don't keep my mind in check, it is incredibly easy to go to a place of worry, frustration, or even depression.  If I allow myself to go to a negative place of worry, typically I find more things to worry about.  It can be a vicious cycle if I allow it.  I have had to learn, and continue to have to learn, to redirect my thoughts when they start to go to that place of worry.
I was reading a verse today that I have often gone to when I am worried, many of you may know it as it is something that is thrown around in an almost cliche way in Christian circles.  It is 1 Peter 5:7, which is the verse about "Casting your cares".  I love the Amplified Version's translation of this verse.  "casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]."  I love that version because it refers to your anxieties, worries, and concerns.  Who doesn't have some of those?  I certainly do.  It seems like as soon as one of my concerns or worries has been taken care of, another one always pops up.  However, we are supposed to cast those cares.
I did a little digging on that word "cast".  Just like you may think, its root is a fishing term.  It comes from the Hebrew word ṭûl.  It means to pitch or reel.  If you think about fishing, when you cast your line you never drop it right in front of you.  The whole goal of casting your line is to get it as far out as possible.  I think it's interesting that this is the term used in this verse.  We are not only to drop our worries and anxieties, but we are to "cast" them on Him (this is referring to Christ).
The second part of this verse is also incredibly comforting.  It says He cares about us.  If you reread the Amplified Version it says with deepest affection and watches over you very carefully.  He knows what we are going through, he loves us with a deep affection.  You would never allow someone that you have a deep affection for (think your kids or spouse), without knowing that it will be for their benefit.  For example, when my girls were learning to walk, and the youngest is working on that right now, I allow them to fall from time to time.  They get so frustrated sometimes and may even cry and throw a fit, however, I know that every time they try and even when they fail they are building the muscles necessary to be able to walk.  If they don't build those muscles, they will never be able to step out on their own and walk.  It is the same way with us.  Every single time we want to grow into the next stage of our journey with Him, we may fall and throw a fit or two.  But he has a deep affection for us and knows exactly when to let us fall and when to come pick us up.
I struggle with the casting part.  I may set those cares down for a few minutes, but if it isn't fixed in the few moments that I have the patience to wait, I reel it back in and continue to carry that burden on my own.  I recently heard someone said "take care" as I was leaving.  I have decided that I am going to quit "taking care" and I am going to start "casting my cares".  Every time I start reeling that care back in, I'm going to focus on casting that care back out as far as possible
rather than picking back up that worry, knowing that God will take care of me.
"Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall." Psalm 55:22 NLT.
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Foundations

When you are building a new home, the absolute most important thing you must do is build a good, solid foundation.  You can't even start building walls until that foundation is laid and has passed numerous, sometimes frustrating inspections, where the inspector nit-picks every little thing until it gains his approval.  It can often be a costly and time consuming process.  Even after completing construction on a new home, you may have to come back and do foundation work as time goes by and the ground shifts.  In the part of the world I live in we have pretty sandy soil, ground shifting is pretty common and shows up in the form of cracks on the walls.  If your foundation requires repairs it can be both a costly and invasive process.  Repairing a foundation requires digging, lifting, and inserting concrete or steel for support.  However, although it can be costly, it is sometimes necessary to ensure the integrity of a building.  Without a strong foundation a building cannot stand.
The same can apply to our spiritual foundations.  There are at least 75 references to foundations in the Bible.  As a Christian, there is only one option for our spiritual foundations: Jesus. "For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:11 NLT.  Before we can build anything we must have a solid faith in Jesus and in what he has done for us on the cross.  If we have a solid foundation, even when a storm comes (and unfortunately they do) we will be able to stand.
Just like our homes, we may need a little foundation repair in our spiritual lives from time to time.  When we go through a trying time in our lives we may see some shifting and changing.  There may be times when we need to dig down and focus back on that foundation of Jesus.  If we start trusting too much in ourselves and we let our focus get off of Him, that could cause some cracks in our walls that will eventually need to be addressed.  Just like with a house, when our foundation is being fixed it can be a frustrating, timely, and sometimes painful process.  We want to be comfortable and just ignore the cracks on the walls sometimes.  It's easier to just slap a new layer of paint over them and pretend they aren't there.  In our spiritual lives this could come in the form of putting on an overly religious facade or maybe passing judgement on others to make ourselves feel better.  Been there for sure.  I have probably fallen on both ends of that spectrum from time to time.  However, the cracks will always eventually show through.  You must dig in and deal with those foundation issues if you ever want to have the strong structure God intends for us.
Not all foundation work is because of a problem, however.  If we wanted to add on to our house (which would be nice now that my 3rd kiddo is here), we would have to start from the bottom up.  You cant just start slapping up walls without first having a foundation to attach them to.  In our spiritual lives we should always strive to grow.  If  God is trying to move us to a new level in our faith, he may need to do a little foundation work first.  If he is going to build another room we have to have a foundation that will pass inspection.  God will never start putting up a new wall if our foundation isn't ready.  He will do whatever work is necessary and take as much time as He needs to to prepare that foundation.  We must not lose heart during those foundation-building times (easier said than done, I know).  “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” 1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT.

Don't Create An Ishmael While You Wait On Your Isaac

I am an extremely impatient person, as many of you may be.  I remember a particular Christmas as a kid when I actually tiptoed out of my room with a flashlight before dawn just to see what Santa had brought, then went back to bed and pretended to be surprised in the morning when I could finally get up (sorry mom).  I hate having to wait on things, especially if it is something I really want.
Over the years, I have really had to learn how to be patient.  One of the many areas I have had to learn the lesson of patience, has been in my finances.  When I first got married I knew nothing other than simply throwing things on a credit card or loan.  In my first few months of marriage in the process of building a home, my husband and I acquired one of the things many married couples do: debt.  We wound up with the Home Depot Card, Furniture Row Card, and a few other cards and debts.  Of course, we could have saved a little money by buying used, but hey we were married now so we deserved to buy new; regardless of whether we could afford the "things" or not.  Thank goodness, about 9 months after we were married, we wound up going through Financial Peace University (a class that teaches about finances from a Biblical perspective by Dave Ramsey) through our small group at church.  This course opened our eyes to see how important getting and staying out of debt was, and really revolutionized our thought process when it came to money.  We have had to make some tough decisions in order to not go back into the debt we use to live under.  It has not always been easy, but has always been worth it.
If you know the story of Abraham in the Bible, you know that there was a little bit of dysfunction in his life.  God had promised him a son, but time was ticking away and still he had no son.  His wife decided that since she couldn't have a son that they could "rig it" and he could have a son through her servant Hagar (what wife in her right mind would do that???).  It worked, Hagar became pregnant and had a son she named Ishmael.  However, that was not he son God had promised.  Abraham and Sarah had jumped the gun and ended up with less than God's best for them. One of my favorite things about this story is the fact that even though Abraham and Sarah had royally messed up (and we still feel the affects of this mess up all these years later, just look at the middle east), God continued to hold up his end of the promise.  The real blessing was Isaac who would be born from Sarah 14 years later. "The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would." Genesis 21:1-2 NLT.
So many of us create our own Ishmael in the process of waiting on our Isaac.  It is so hard to wait, especially if things look impossible.  Things looked impossible for Abraham.  After all, he was 86 when Ishmael came along and 100 when Isaac finally arrived.  Talk about a long wait!  I honestly don't blame them for trying their own way to make things happen.  However, had they simply waited and trusted in God, they could have avoided a lot of heartache.
So what is your Ishmael?  Have you entered into a bad relationship simply because you didn't want to wait on who God has for you?  Or have you gotten yourself into insane amounts of debt because you didn't want to wait and save up?  Or maybe you tried to force God's hand on another thing you feel you have been promised and have made a mess of it.  Whatever your Ishmael, remember that God is true to his promises.  He has an Isaac in store if we can simply wait on His timing.

Do you approve?

We all want approval.  Whether we are seeking the attention and compliments from our parents when we draw a beautiful picture as a 4 year old (my oldest daughter right now),  hoping for a good grade on a presentation we worked so hard on as a teenager in high school, or are looking to finally get the recognition we deserve at work in the form of a bonus or promotion, everyone wants to feel like they are approved.  We want desperately to fit in with the crowd, but just be slightly better so that we can always get a few compliments.  The last thing in the world we want to be looked at is weird or strange.  We don't want to upset anyone, and we definitely don't want to let people down.  The "we" I'm referring to are those of us who have a tendency to be people pleasers.

As a Christian, people pleasing can be a dangerous thing.  It can lead to us compromising our core beliefs simply because we don't want to "rock the boat".  I remember as a teenager watching so many of my Christian friends fall into that fitting in trap, leading many of them to compromise so many of the things that they believed in.  I hate to break it to anyone, but God is not interested in us fitting in with the crowd.  He has not called us to be followers of anyone but Him.  Now, that doesn't mean we should become a bunch of weirdos and act like a cult, however, it does mean that we should not allow the trends of the day to mold how we act or what we believe.

"Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God.  If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." Galatians 1:10 NLT

It's one thing to want to fit in when you are 15 years old and awkward, however, we eventually need to grow up.  We have to figure out what we really believe, and realize that sometimes our beliefs may not be popular.  Now, that is not to say we need to sit on our high horses and look down on everyone else in the world in judgement. Jesus was never condemning, but he was also not permissive.  He never veered from what was right, but wasn't afraid to shed light in the darkness.  I know that when it comes to being like Jesus in this aspect, I often struggle.  I remember being somewhat of a holy roller in high school.  I stuck to my convictions, but was definitely on the high horse judgmental end of the spectrum.  I have also found myself on the other end of permissiveness and not wanting to speak up for fear of not fitting in from time to time as well.  

So how do we remedy the two vastly different ends of the spectrum?  I believe that we need to focus on what the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 1:10 (see above) and remember that we are Christ's servant.  That's it!  We need to focus on serving in whatever capacity we are called in, and forgetting about the opinions of others.  We need to quit sitting on that high horse, and instead spend a little more time on our knees praying for the people we used to look down on.  At the same time, we need to stand up a little more, even when we know that we could lose a few friends or not fit in because of it.  Our focus needs to be on being approved by the creator of the entire universe, not some imperfect person that we think is cool.  I pray that even though I may let my parents, friends, and even my husband down from time to time, that I will always keep my focus on pleasing the one who's opinion matters more than all the rest.  I pray that regardless of  my situation and who I am with, I will remember that I am Christ's servant and that I will serve Him well.  And finally, I pray that the church today could learn to serve Christ first no matter what is going on in the society around us.