A Prayer For Our Wayward Nation

Oh Lord hear this prayer,

Jesus, as a mother, as a wife, as an American citizen, I am honestly scared.

As this country seems to spiral out of country, Lord I cry out to you in desperation. Help us. 

I feel as though we are literally falling apart at the seems. Between this terrifying excuse of an election, to the complete chaos on the streets, I go to bed at night and lay awake thinking "What's next? What's life going to be like for my child?"

Lord, I first and foremost pray for my own heart. I need help realizing that in order to see change I first need to be that change I long to see. I pray from this day forward that you banish any feelings that come directly from the enemy, including but not limited to: hate, ignorance, hostility, jealousy, anger, impatience, and unkindness. 

I pray Jesus that you allow nothing but love, kindness, tolerance, patience and pure joy to settle into my soul, heart, spirit. I pray that you allow me to see others how YOU see them God. That I can stand up for what is right and true in Your eyes and settle for nothing less. Do any work through me as You wish. Place me in the right places at the right time, allow good, wholesome conversations to happen with Your people, God, that only point them straight back to You and Your goodness. Give me the words to say and the things I need to do for You and for this country. Any way that You need to work through me Jesus, I am ready and willing.

Rescue this nation God. I pray for the current leaders of this country and that they feel convicted of any and all wrong doings. That they can change their ways and turn straight to You. I pray for this upcoming election and beg of You to place the right leaders into office.  That you make them honest and righteous people that can start to pick up the pieces of this broken nation.

Jesus, I pray for the people of this country and that You soften their bruised, broken and hurting hearts. Lord please have the fighting against each other stop and have us come together as one nation. Please Jesus, have us all accept each others differences and allow us to see others as You see them for You love every single person that walks this earth. I pray that more heads and hearts can turn to You and Your gift of salvation. That more dead hearts can come alive because of You. That Your salvation can reach the ends the earth.

Lord, allow those that already love and believe in You to set Your example. That we show love and kindness regardless of how we are treated or any anger we may feel inside. Allow us to show this country Your glory and goodness. Allow us to let Your light shine so bright. 

It's all these things I pray in Your name Jesus, Amen.

This is a prayer I wrote out in my journal yesterday morning after turning on my local news station to see what's been happening in Charlotte, NC. I felt myself reaching for my journal to vent and complain when it then dawned on me:

We must pray for this nation and for each other as much as we want to complain about it. 

We all say how much we can't stand what's going on around us but yet sit back and expect it to become somebody else's responsibility to fix it. (Trust me, I'm preaching to myself here!)

NO MORE!

WAKE UP!

If the ONLY thing we are able to do is to show love, smile at somebody who walks past us, pay for somebody's gas or groceries, help a mom you see struggling at the store (the list seriously goes on and on) then we are contributing to the change more than we realize.

I love you all. Seriously, I do. This is a super great nation and I am so proud and honored to be considered an American. I want nothing more than to see this country thrive.

Be kind souls today and every day.

Much love <3

Modern Day Christianity

From the moment I started this blog to this very post that I am typing right now, I've prayed about each topic I blog about. I choose my words carefully, truly hoping to not offend or hurt anybody. I've never wanted to get into politics or any topic that was too heavy.
But today, with this post, there is something I want, scratch that, NEED to address.
And that is how much the culture, that todays Christians have created, deeply bothers me.
I'll start by saying that I, myself, am not perfect and if you have been keeping up with my blog faithfully, you'll know that I am the first to call myself out. I'm messy and every bit as much a sinner as Joe Schmoe over there. I promise.

2015 felt like a CRAZY year. So much happened across the globe including but not limited to, the entire ordeal with Planned Parenthood, legalization of gay marriage, racial hate crimes, terrorist attacks and so much more. Everyone had something to say about each of these events but the opinions that I noticed the most were those of Christians. (In reference to articles, posts, statuses, etc. on social media/news)
And man oh man was I disappointed.
I understand completely and totally get why there are so many people out there that are absolutely opposed and turned off by how we portray Jesus, turned off by the church and turned off by Christianity. Sometimes we really don't make it appealing!
We take modern day blessings and allow Satan to help us use them for evil.
How DARE we hide behind a computer and spew hate! How dare we hide behind our bibles and judge so loudly and so boldly? Who in the world do we think we are to judge so.darn.much??!
Because the Jesus that I follow, love and worship would never say or preach such ludicrous and hurtful things. He loves His children way more than that.

I also think about this culture that has been created. Where did this weird vibe and pressure come from that we need to dress, act and talk a certain way to be accepted by fellow Jesus followers? That we need to feel the need to constantly post pictures of our Starbucks sitting next to our Mac Book which is sitting next to our bible on a pallet made table and post it all over social media, to make sure others know where we stand? So that they know we are reading our bibles?
(Side note on this: I've totally been guilty of this and I am by no means talking about sharing scripture, etc. to spread His love and news. 2 TOTALLY different things.)
That we need to journal a certain way, give back a certain way and even worship a certain way?
I truly feel that Christians as a whole need to get back to basics. We need to rewind and rethink the reasons why we do church, community, have social media accounts, even why we get out of bed in the morning. Is everything we do, post, say, think, love, giving glory to our Savior? I mean come on, I absolutely struggle!! But it just seems this is really getting out of hand.

I'm reading through the book of Ephesians (it's so good!) with one of my small groups and today was chapter 4. Paul (the author of Ephesians) writes about, as followers of Jesus, we are called to walk in a certain manner of humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance and to do all these things out of, you guessed it,
LOVE!
You guys think about it, grace was given to each of us. Every single person that has and does and will exist on this earth is given this gift. Not just a special group of people. Not just the ones who don't do drugs or don't curse or don't drink; are straight, democratic, republican, black, white, purple, have tattoos or don't have tattoos.
Jesus wanted all of us to have this gift and guess what, we ALL fall short of it too. Even you.
Definitely me.
The Lord is so forgiving and kind and loving to us and that's exactly how He wants us to be with each other. We want to build the church up, not drive people away or prevent them from coming by the way we speak or act toward one another.

One final thought.
We are getting a new president soon and, so far, this political race has been nothing short of an embarrassing circus. I encourage each of us to pray over who will be the next leader of our country. If you don't pray, then please continue to watch and pay attention. But mostly, to my Christian readers, lets not let this be an opportunity for the enemy to take over our tongues. Lets think and choose over the words we have to say to each other about any of this. Lets make sure we are not tearing others down that don't view things the same way we do.
Remember what your mama said growing up? "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Oh friends, I speak from the heart and mean all this in the most effective and positive way. I am truly just a mom and wife who loves Jesus with all she has. I promise, on my part, that I am trying super hard this year to be the Christian I am sure God instructed me to be. I am clinging to His promises and His word because that has any instruction, on who to be like, that I'll ever need.

Happy Tuesday!
Much love.

Love Never Fails

Hey friends.

I had been staring at this blank space for almost 20 minutes and I am still at a loss as to how to start this post.

Then I thought of a question that was asked of me at church yesterday, when the topic of all that has happened in this country the past week and a half came up; "Amanda, what do you think?"

Wow.

What DO I think?

I've been blown away as to all that has gone on in American in almost two weeks.

It's overwhelming to see it all over the news and social media; just seeing opinion after opinion, hate followed by more hate and country on edge with major tension in the air.

So what do think??

I think I'm sad.

I'm sad with how we treat each other, I'm sad with how much hate we show each other. This is not the world I ever imagined my children growing up in. 

After reading A LOT of blog posts (specifically Christian) about the Supreme Court's decision regarding gay marriages, I promised myself to not post another post about "now we just have to show love."
Because it's not that easy to feel it, as it is to say it.

Because some disagree.

Some don't approve and some are saddened by this decision because of what THEY believe. 

And you know what?

That's OK!

Yes I said it. It's completely ok to disagree with someone...

...and still NOT show hate.

It's ok to debate with somebody and still NOT show hate. Because the moment we (I'm talking to you, my fellow Christians) start to show the opposite of what Jesus really looks like, we lose the magnitude of our cause and beliefs.

Yes I know what the bible says about homosexuality...

but I also know what it says about judgement and love.

"Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen."

*1 John 4:20

Hey guys..it's right there! ^^ Right there in the book we so love, in the book we so believe in and in the book that we use WAY TOO OFTEN to hide behind and spew our own hate.

So yes, this is another post about love because that is what we are called to do by the One who loved us first. He had no exceptions and neither should we. 

It's hard. I'm not kidding. When I first heard the news of the shooting in Charleston, I felt anger. When I saw others fighting over the Confederate flag, I felt anger. And when the Supreme Court announced their decision to legalize gay marriage, I felt anger. BUT I, almost, immediately dropped to my knees (literally, I did!) and asked Jesus for an immediate change of heart; to let this be my chance to showcase Him through me. And, oh my, has He delivered on that request. 

I have so many opinions about a lot that goes on in this country.

And I completely believe that it is totally ok to express those opinions in a manner that shows respect and love because at the end of the day we need to all remember we are ALL children of God, we ALL are underserving of grace but it's in the end that His grace that unites us. (Thanks for the thought Pastor P!!)

You sin. I sin. We all sin. To Jesus, NO sin is greater than the other. Sin is sin and regardless of what it is we do to sin, Jesus STILL loves us! ALL of us! 

Christians, this is our chance, our opportunity to show love that Jesus places in all of us regardless if we agree with somebody decisions or lifestyle. 

Do I sound like a broken record?

Good, because I want it to sink in. Because the hate HAS TO STOP! We take complete advantage of each other and the fact that we live in the greatest country on earth! 

I challenge you all to go outside your comfort zone this week. Do something nice for someone that you normally wouldn't do. Show love to someone you normally wouldn't show love to. Ask Jesus to change the direction of your heart from hate and judgement to love! 

Love WILL always overcome because Christ will always overcome! 

Any questions, comments, or just want to chat?

gfmamaj@gmail.com :)

Much, much love to each of you!