rebelling against low expectations
“You’ll talk to my dad now?” I asked JP, heart pounding, palms sweaty against my sides. “You’re ready?” “Yeah, I’ve been preparing myself for this,” he said softly. A small smile played on his lips, as if he were mustering all his confidence. He had another mountain to climb, another step to claim this relationship as ours. “I knew I’d have to do this sooner or later.” For a split second, the...
Do you ever wonder why there’s so much drama surrounding relationships? Ever since the days of Adam and Eve, people have managed to fall in love, marry, and make things work. It shouldn’t be that complicated, right? After all, God knows who we’re supposed to marry. Can’t he work out all the logistics? Nevertheless, in the “crushing” stage of relationships, we tend to do dumb stuff that causes...
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...
I have never had a date on Valentine’s Day. Not only that, but I’ve never been on a date. Period. So as the season of red bouquets and frilly cards comes around once again, you’d think a feeling of dread would begin to overtake me. I’m as single as they come. But even though I have always been single in February, Valentine’s Day is still my favorite holiday. Here are three reasons why: 1...
I can still remember the time when I lost a very close friend. I still remember the way it hurt and the way I cried into my pillow. I still remember the sadness I felt in my heart when I thought of this friendship. I can imagine you understand those feelings too. I imagine you also know what it’s like to “break up” with a close friend. While we always hear about boyfriend and girlfriend break...
Three weeks ago, my family switched churches. Again. Going from a five hundred people church back down to a fifty people church is…different.It’s taken me three years to start unearthing the secrets of acceptance at my last church. Now, even though I’m still going to youth group on Wednesdays, all that hard work is starting to seem pointless. It’s as if another inch of sand washes out from under...
I am nineteen years old. I have never dated anyone or been in a serious relationship. Do I want to get married someday? Absolutely! Since I was a little girl, my dream has been to be a godly wife and a mommy to a house of little ones. However, during this time of my life, God has me absolutely single. Even though it is hard sometimes, God has been teaching me a lot about how he views...
The night of the last presidential election, I made a poor decision. I looked at Twitter. My feed was full of tweets and retweets rejoicing, mourning, celebrating, or decrying the situation as it unfolded, minute by minute. Praise and blame was heaped on both of the major candidates—and on their supporters. My birthday came just a year too late for me to vote in the presidential election. As I...
I’ll never forget the first time a guy asked me out. Well, at least I think he was asking me out. One mid-summer afternoon, he walked into the office where I worked. After a few minutes of small-talk, plus scheduling an appointment, he leaned against the door, quirked a brow, and remarked, “Man, that Chinese food across the street smells good.” I inhaled. I couldn’t smell a thing. “Would you like...
“Guess who contacted me…again?” My friend showed me her phone screen. I peered at the message. “Oh no. Not again. Really?” For over a year, a young man my friend knew had been randomly Facebook messaging her. At first she thought he might be interested in her, but after sporadic, odd messages with no seeming purpose to them, she was beginning to think he was just weird. Or really, really lonely...
rebelling against low expectations
