rebelling against low expectations
Ashamed. Unlovable. Damaged. Have you ever felt this way? Like you’re just too flawed or make too many mistakes to be loved? We all long for love and we look for it in so many different places – parents, friends, and significant others. But somehow, all of those people fall short. They disappoint us and fail us. Their love isn’t always as unconditional as they claim. They never fill our...
As Valentine’s Day approached one year, God moved my heart. I desired a boyfriend and romance—what I got instead was a taste of eternal, everlasting love. Halfway around the world in the African country of Uganda, there were imprisoned children who needed hope and a ministry called Sixty Feet with a heart to serve them. This birthed a project called, “The Valentine Card...
It’s February. I always feel a little down in February. Why? Because it’s “the month of love” and I’m single. The subtle feeling I have all year suddenly becomes more prominent in my mind. That feeling is longing. Ever since I was a little girl watching Disney movies, I’ve waited for my prince (or in the case of Aladdin and Tangled, my thief) to rescue me and carry me off into the sunset. It may...
Love. We see it everywhere. Honestly, sometimes I’m not sure if love is the cute movie version with all the flutters or if it’s that passionate feeling that comes across when watching weddings. There is romantic love, family love, friendly love, and for Christians, there should be loving your enemy. But what is love? Do we even know? We hear the word so much in songs, movies, and books it’s hard...
The world is ripe with brokenness. Natural disasters rage, conflicts ensue, and bitterness stirs within. Death is rampant and suffering is widespread. Around 690 million people go to bed hungry every night, and approximately 150,000 people die daily. Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, thus separating families, and suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Where...
I laid on my mat in the dark, crying my eyes out. I remember actually choking as I sobbed as silently as I could. Simply praying that the wind in the tent would silence whatever noise I was making. This experience is a perfect example of how I interacted with my tears. I thought of them as something to keep hidden in a dark tent, ready to wake up the next morning and pretend like nothing happened...
John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love is not a debate. Sometimes we, even as Christians, can get so caught up in being right, that we forget what really matters. This is especially evident on social media. It saddens me greatly when I think of the way so many of us treat each other on the internet, so many sides...
I want to make my position and background clear: I am a white, female teenager, and I live in Minnesota’s Twin Cities—Minneapolis and St. Paul. When I was born, I unknowingly had privilege others would never have, simply because of my background and skin color. Racism is a human construction, founded in sin. From the biblical era, forms of racism have existed as one people group prejudiced...
I was crying and screaming. “God, where are you?! Why have you left me when I need you the most? Why have you abandoned me?” I have severe anxiety. It wakes me up at night, gives me nightmares, and when my body doesn’t know what to do with all the built-up anxiety, it shuts down and makes me pass out. The panic attacks I experience make me want to just lay down and never get up...
With Valentine’s Day coming up, we usually see cards, candy, and red and pink hearts everywhere–all representing this thing called love. But what is love? Google defines love as “an intense feeling of deep affection.” That’s a powerful description, isn’t it? However, Valentine’s Day celebrates romantic love, and many of us teens don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend at this stage of our...
rebelling against low expectations
