Not what I originally intended (part 2)

So here is part two of my continuing blog posting. It was going to be a great happy one with a mixture of emotions about the future and possible changes but things have changed within the past 20 minutes that I feel like I need a perspective about so I am blogging. Whether this is a good idea or not is probably up for debate.

So within the past hour I have been notified that I am basically a negative person and cut down my family every chance I get and cannot have a conversation where I don’t cut this person down. Now the person that said this to me was someone whom I have had problems with before, ( they say because we are too much alike, I say because we are too different). Thinking back on the past few weeks I do not see what this person is talking about. However I must be doing something for this person to say something in front of the family and then stop eating and dramatically drive away.

I have always tried to be a person who is the same with everyone, friends and family alike. I try to hold my irritation in when this person does something that they know irritates me to no end, and still does it. However every once in awhile I try to bring it up to them and they dramatically make it more obvious. Now tonight I admit I could have been more nice about it, but once I’ve said something for the 300th time, I’m not as nice as the first time I’ve mentioned it. I try to be myself and not someone who puts on a front that say that they are perfect all the time, if you have perceived this from me, I am sorry. I am most definitely not perfect and have a lot of opinions and get irritated and angry like most people. However, I do try to go with the flow and try to see things from other peoples perspective. Although in this case I don’t see it. We have definitely had conversations this week that weren’t cutting down or even today I hadn’t said one bad word, except “can you wait til you are done chewing”, and I don’t know why that was a problem because I had told this person many times before.

Family.

sorry this was a depressing post. Maybe once the situation gets settled I will have a clearer perspective on it and maybe it wasn’t me at all. Here’s to hoping!

Life Plans ( part 1)

Hello!

Sorry I have been away on holiday for a few weeks and haven’t written a post in awhile. Many things have been happening and I would like to share them with you. They are not significant changes, but just subtle changes that have changed my way of thinking in the past few weeks that I cannot get over. Please bear with me as this post may jump from one topic from another, I will try to have some good segways. 😉

1. Tattoos. This is a totally unrelated topic to myself as I do not have any tattoos on my skin, and don’t know if I would ever get one, not because I don’t like them, just because i would be too indecisive and like them too much and would probably end up with a sleeve or two 🙂 However I do realize that many people in this generation have tattoos and either get them in remembrance of something or someone, to remind themselves of something, or because they like the way that they look. Many people in the generation before us are cautious about tattoos because they come with a stigma.This wont be a post bashing or defending tattoos, just a post thinking outloud what i have heard and learned and wonder what others’ opinions are.

I happened to be listening to a song this morning while cleaning and the song stated something about the artist advising her kids against getting tattoos because spring break should last forever. This happened to make me chuckle because that is our generation. We sometimes get permanent things because its a trend. However tattoos are a permanent trend, unless you want to get them surgically removed. I was listening to the talk radio the other day and there was a tattooed pastor and a un-tattooed pastor talking about this same topic and it caught my interest. The UTP ( untatted pastor) was saying that you have to think about when you are a child of God your body is not your own anymore, It is God’s. the question was brought up saying that when we get tattoos are we in this mindset, or are we in the mind set of this is my body and I’ll do what I want with it. He was explaining how unless you prayed about getting this permanent mark on your body and if you felt God’s peace about getting it, that then it was okay. He also said that are piercings the same way as tattoos? This then brought about the question whether how permanent tattoos are if they are going to mark our spiritual bodies when we are called up on judgment day.  This then brought up the topic of Cain and his mark that God placed on him. Was this is tattoo? We don’t know, but it did have some of the effect that some stigmas are felt today about tattoos.  The other pastor them spoke about how our tattoos can be used a witnessing tools and can either help you tell your life story or help relate to unbelievers. I wish i could remember more about the tatted pastors explanation but there was a caller as well who’s story I only can remember.

So what are your thoughts on tattoos? If you have one, why did you get it and do you think that it is just a trend that will fade out or do you think that it will grow in the generations to come? Also does it really matter concerning our faith?

Again, I have no issues with tattoos and think they are pretty sweet sometimes, but these songs and the radio program got me thinking 🙂

Sorry I decided to make this a 3 part post because I got a little chatty 🙂

Thanks for reading, and love to hear from you!

~M

Music again

Hey guys,
I know I write about music a lot and I hope you won’t mind one more post from a musician that really inspired me about today’s future of music. tylers story
Sorry that u hafta go to the page I cannot figure out how to copy and paste in my phone hah

Love

I feel like we talk a lot about love in the average American culture. We love this movie, we love this type of food, we love this type of nail polish color. However, I think we really overuse the word so it really doesn’t mean what it is supposed to anymore.
Personally, I do admit to saying ” oh I love this actor, musician or material thing” a lot. However, when it comes to people I have a harder time saying ” I love you” possibly because either I don’t really know what the true feeling of love is supposed to be and categorize it into the same category as food or maybe because it holds a bigger meaning to me subconsciously, or maybe both.
Everyone wants to feel wanted, cherished and loved. How are we showing Christ’s love to others? Not the ” I love Big Macs ” kind of love but the ” I want the best for you ” type of love.

-Mel

Busy busy

This here post relates back to Val’s last post.

It’s already the end of August, and I keep forgetting to post. Recently life has be stressful and busy as last weekend I had a wedding and concert, this weekend I’m visiting a friend in Indiana and next weekend I am in a wedding. Summer is just flying by. I do have a lot of topics to write about however I will go back to just one that we also talked about at our bible study that I have on Thursdays.

finding the good in the ugly. “What a rude statement ” you might say if you are thinking about appearance and such. Makeup artist do this exact thing in their jobs. They find that one thing about their clients face that is beautiful and them make everything else point to that. For example if someone has great eyes, they line them and use makeup to draw your attention to that persons eyes rather than their hook nose or thin lips that they may be disguising. I feel like us humans do that in every day life as well. We see something that we like about ourselves and flaunt that , hoping that people won’t see our flawed life.
Finding the good in the ugly world is what I was referring to though. Of you go on YouTube and find the most popular videos they may be new music videos, people on drugs after the dentist or a funny cat video, but how is God seen in these videos? We need to look past our worldly view and see people as God sees them. We need to watch that ranting video and see that person as someone who is hurting rather than some idiot who is spouting of nonsense.

How are you going to see God today?

I’m with you

” I’m with you” have you ever said that to anyone? or has anyone ever said that to you? Doesn’t it make you feel like you can do anything and everything? It seems like each time I’ve had this said to me I either was doing something really stupid or making a huge decision in life. But whoever said that to me was my backup, my support even if things went awry. God says this to us. He gives us opportunities and sees if we go for it, if we do then he’s with us, if we decide not to then he’s with us. Isn’t that amazing?

Sometimes i feel like life is so busy that we we aren’t “with God”. we seem to forgot to pray or spend time in daily devotions or in the Bible. We use the excuse that we are busy and its so hard. Well maybe you should quit something.. We need to quit things to make room for Jesus. but make sure we pick the right things to quit.

So here’s a challenge… Who have you stuck with through out life’s hard times? who stuck by you? and What bad things are you going to quit to make room for Jesus time?

Recently..

It’s crazy how things work out when we take risks in the name of God. 

As many of you know or for those who don’t know, I am someone who doesn’t like to do something repetitive. I find it boring Doing the same thing day after day week after week. I like to stay busy but have some down time as well. This is why right now I am doing many things to earn money and why I am kind of happy in the multi- career position that I am in right now. However, recently I felt that I was frustrated with one of my jobs and felt like it was just time to quit among other factors. I was a little bit worried if this was the right decision to make as I kept on saying ” ok I’m gunna put my two weeks in today” and then I would have a good talk with a customer or with my co-worker and then I would question whether or not I should or shouldn’t quit. However I didn’t end up just writing up my letter or resignation one day and finally handed it in. It was surreal because I had been working there for 4 years so it was weird ad I was a little worried about if I was going to be okay money wise. However a few weeks later one of my clients recommended me to their friends and their friends recommend me to another friend. How crazy is that when I just trust gods timing it will all work out, even if you have to go thru some rough times. 

-m

The industry and all it entails

Hello people of the internet!

Here I am again, your music loving, movie going, tv watching junkie.. Now idk if that is really what I was to be know for… and hence the post I am about to bring to you because I know that I have struggled with it.

Let me start out with how I came up with this topic because it is of importance I am sure. As I was cruising down my news feed on facebook ( yes I still have one of those, twitter hasn’t taken over the world as of yet), I saw a post from one of my favorite artists.If you know me I love my music and my youtube artists. I love to see them start off and get big ( even if it is still kind of sad because they aren’t “my little secret band” anymore. Although the thousands of views suggest I’m not the only one who has seen him or her or them. ) Anyways let me have you read the post, it’s a little long, just an fyi.

“The only time we ever talk is when our clothes are coming off. A dear friend of mine just sent over a Pandora screen shot followed by, “this is not real life. I’m officially homeschooling my kids and moving to the middle of nowhere” – My reaction was, “Wait, what is this song?!?” Out of curiosity I googled “Wasted” by the successful DJ, Tiesto, featuring up-and-comer, Matthew Coma. My reaction, “Oh my! That song.”  Released off the back of the recently successful film, 22 Jump Street, this new track “harmlessly” sings the lyric, “I like us better when we’re wasted, It makes it easier to fake it, the only time we really talk is when our clothes are coming off, I like us better when we’re wasted” YIKES. Now, I don’t have a problem with honesty or speaking your mind. But this unbelievably selfish statement got me thinking. Why did you have to couple a super catchy song with this HORRIBLE message?

Music is SO POWERFUL. Call me weak, call me a follower, but young Tyler’s thinking used to be incredibly malleable. Thinking childishly, I often made the opinions of my favorite artists my OWN truth. I would justify my actions because of their advice. But now, being in the industry, working with some of the top professionals and seeing how the music business works…most industry folks DO NOT care about your well-being. I repeat, they DO NOT care about you. They care about getting that “SMASH” as opposed to what message is being delivered. So…being a little older, hopefully a touch wiser, and being hit by the consequence bus of reality. I look back and think…OHHHHH MANNNN. If there is anything I can do to prevent someone from making the same mistakes I have, I will do my best. hence: this post.

Truthfully, I’ve been there. Embarrassed to say, but more important to admit, I’ve been in those relationships where alcohol and/or being physical was my way of communication. Do you know how long those relationships lasted? Sometimes a week. Sometimes a month. Do you know how much damage that caused me? Many, many years of unnecessary damage. It changed me. And not for the better. It has chiseled away at what REAL LOVE is supposed to look like. It has postponed my growth as a REAL man and has potentially caused future pain in the one relationship I will cherish forever, my wife (she’s out there somewhere). I bought into the lies that, “this is normal, everyone does it” – Thankfully and graciously, I had good people around to pull me out from that dark time. But there are still consequences and it ain’t worth it. I repeat, IT IS NOT WORTH IT. I’ve know people stuck in it. I know people who’s souls are dying because they are still stuck in it. And it’s not just a FUN, SIMPLE, CATCHY POP SONG. It’s real life. Real people. Real emotion. Real heartbreak.

So…to my young people of the internet, please be aware of what you’re consuming. TV shows / Music / social media / your best friend’s opinion / etc… Don’t blindly swallow the garbage without asking the question, “where is the truth is this?” “why is this good for me?” “how is this affecting my thinking?” Our minds, our thoughts, what we focus on is so important and so powerful. If you consume this stuff, just be careful not to let it consume you. Good luck out there.

I love you. Tyler”  

THIS is CRAZY! I thought, I totally feel the same way. I cannot tell you how many times i am listening to a stores music or the radio and am like whoa what did they just say?? It seems like the music industry especially is all about sensuality. Like how many songs can we put out that that talk about sex without ever saying the word. This is crazy. This world is crazy. I remember when I was younger and at least 80% of the movies playing in theaters were pg-13 or below. Now 80% of the movies are rated R. When did this happen?

I just read another blog by Matt Walsh about the new 50 Shades of Gray movie coming out. When i first heard about the books ( whenever the came out i am not sure) I was astounded that they were so popular among people I knew. I couldn’t believe that they were being sold in every day stores like target or meijer. I can remember when Victoria’s Secret came to the local mall and my mom and other people from our community boycotted it because of the revealing pictures and stuff. However over time people got use to seeing those naked ladies on pictures and commercials in the mall and on tv and we all got immune to it.

Ephesians 4:19 says “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed”

1 peter 4:1-3  Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. 2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

So here’s my suggestion. Watch what you read. Watch what you see. Watch what you listen to. Like Tyler said, it may seem harmless, after all it’s just music, or tv or movies, but it is also where people form their perceptions and views on moral issues . that’s all for now!!

❤ M

Vantage Point

No this is not the TV show that I am talking about, (for those of you who have regular tv, channel 43-3 ION television is the channel haha) it is about seeing things from a different perspective. Have you ever been in a situation or a relationship or friendship and are crying out woe is me why is this happening to me and you are crying out to God because you arent getting your way? Have you ever though that there might be a reason why you are in the predicament that you are in? Have you thought or even prayed for God to take your trials away?

Read 2 kings 4:8-37

This story is basically about a married couple who wants to have a child and finally does after seeing and taking care of a prophet. Later on in the story that child dies due to an accident or some type of brain injury.. i really dont remember the details right now. However, the mother sees her son dead, and goes to the prophet asking him to do a miracle. She knew that her son was dead, but had faith that the prophet of God would help her, and through prayer and some miraculous works her some came back to life.

This story also reminds me of the story of Abraham and Sarah. Good old Abe was pretty old and knew that without divine help he would not have a child.

Romans 4:19 says “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead–since he was about a hundred years old–and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.”

However he had to ignore the report of fear and hesitation and sure enough he had a son.We need to see our “hopeless” situations from a different perspective.We need to face the truth while facing the facts. There is new life out of painful deaths. For example: If you are searching and searching for a specific job and doors keep slamming and slamming, maybe God is saying to you that this job is not in his plans for you because he has a much better plan for you to be a difference maker. God is interested in the practical applications. He says in the Bible, whom the son sets free is free indeed. We don’t have to be worried or fearful, God has overcome all sin, all death, and in all situations He is with us.

A way to see our situation from God’s vantage point is to pick out the sermon that the devil is preaching to us and finish the sermon for him. This may be weird for us because not all the time do we want to think about the devil and his plan, because that is just plain scary! However we must take what the devil means for evil and let God turn it to good. The devil fills our heads with hopelessness and worthlessness. For example, when Jesus was taken into the desert and tempted, the devil tried to exploit his human weaknesses, such as food and power. However Jesus is much smarter than satan and used the Bible to contradict his words. ” It is written” was the key phrase that Jesus used. The Word of God is so powerful, where are you taking your doubts?

One last example: The Beatles.

On 1 January 1962, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Pete Best were auditioned by Decca staff and performed a total of fifteen songs in just under one hour. Epstein and the Beatles decided on a selection of covers the Beatles had performed in various clubs over the years, along with three Lennon–McCartney originals.Mike Smith agreed to let them record, telling them he could not see any problems and he would let the group know of his decisions in a few weeks.

Eventually, Decca Records rejected the Beatles, saying “guitar groups are on the way out” and “The Beatles have no future in show business.” This (not signing the Beatles) was known as the biggest mistake in music history. They then went and signed onto Abbey Road studios and that is now what the studio is known for. What if the Beatles quit after that first audition? How many times have we missed an Yes from God when we saw someone else’s no?

Your situation doesn’t have to change for your perspective to change entirely. What do we need to pray about and face the facts and believe that no situation is ever wasted in God’s eyes.

Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this post! Comment below 🙂 

~M

First Post!!!

Hey Readers!!!

This is 1/3 of the writing team, here 🙂 I am so excited to start this Journey with all of you! I cannot tell you how therapeutic this will be for me and hopefully for you all who are reading this.  I”l try to post as much as I can, however you all know how life is.  Well let me tell you about me for a few minutes. I am in my mid 20’s and am an adventurer at heart. I love doing random things that people don’t normally do. I am more of a listener than a talker, and love being around my friends and family, but I also love my alone time. I love reading and music and anything artsy. I love hearing peoples stories and trying to find similarities in our lives. That’s really all I can think of right now but I’m sure in the future posts I will reveal more. haha

Right now in life I’m at the point where I still have no idea what God’s plan is for my life, and am frustrated and anxious and excited about my future. There’s so many things that I want to do with my life but I have no idea if they coincide with God’s Plan for me. But then to have to be realistic about my own ideas is another story.

Well that’s all for now!

~Mel