The “Plight of the singles”? Think again.

I’m tired of reviewing singles books. As some of you know, we at Generations of Virtue have read through every book we carry, and for each book we choose you can count on us having read at least 3 along the same lines before deciding to carry that particular one. We read every new Christian book that comes out on the market regarding relationships, parenting, dating, courtship etc.

For singles books, it’s safe to say that 97% of them are depressing, negative and are full of the victim mentality (the other 3% we have on our website). I’m tired of it! I’m single, always have been, and I can’t identify with these sentiments. OK….not anymore, at least.

We as singles need to put our time and energy into being productive, finding out what God’s will is for this season and DOING IT. One of my favorite stories is one of many shared by Elizabeth Elliott in her book Quest for Love. The story centers around a woman living on the Canadian east coast, and a man living on the west coast. God had placed on both their hearts the desire to spread the Gospel in Africa, but they initially hesitated because they both were single. Each made the decision to do the will of God – even if it meant serving alone – and went. A year later the woman was driving in the Sahara Desert when to her dismay she had a flat tire. The first person who stopped to help her was the man from her home country, who had been working on the opposite side of the desert. Would they have found each other had they decided to wait in Canada?

There is so much to be done to build the Kingdom of God in the world. But when we’re so caught up in “looking”, we honestly can’t see what work God has for us. That’s because our focus is inward, centered on ourselves, instead of being centered on God. Something I’ve noticed in my life is when I stopped looking, stopped expecting that the next guy I met would be the one, my life really began to change. I started asking God to open my eyes; I’m convinced they were practically shut from being self centered. Even my thought patterns began to change. For the first time in my life, I’m beginning to believe that if God calls me to be single, that’s ok. I never dreamed I’d feel this way. The reality is there is work to be done and very few people who will actually look beyond themselves to do it. I’m tired of being the kind of person who’s so self centered they can’t see the bigger picture. The flip side has been so avoided and ignored because it’s uncomfortable. It doesn’t feed your flesh, self life, or necessarily make you look good to anyone but God, which is the most important anyway. One of my favorite quotes, one that I’ve spent a lot of time pondering is something Julie Hiramine says: “If your heart is motivated out of love to Him instead of a bunch of rules, it will be so much easier to follow what He says.”

Think about this: if you’re intent on finding the person God has for you, and God is calling you to Southern India, you’re better off there than here. And if you ever start to wonder about trying something along the lines of match.com, watch this video and you might want to go ahead and re-think that idea.

 

Katherine

 

Body Building the Holy Spirit’s Way

One thing the Lord has been trying to show me lately is the way He designed our consciences to work. The Bible makes it clear that our consciences are designed by God to be “prompted” by the Holy Spirit: “I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying; my conscience [enlightened and prompted] by the Holy Spirit bearing witness with me.” Romans 9:1 (AMP)

God’s given us consciences to show us how to make good choices, and when we choose to listen to His Spirit communicating to our consciences, our sense of right and wrong becomes stronger. Let me use a word picture here to illustrate my point: Pretend your conscience is a muscle, say, your bicep. And let’s say the Holy Spirit is the blood flowing to that bicep, bringing it all the nutrients and oxygen it needs to continue functioning properly while also flushing away any waste materials that could potentially become toxic. And finally, listening to your conscience is like doing a set of bicep curls.

Ok, now let’s put this analogy into action….

Let’s say you have a choice in front of you: you find yourself one evening with nothing to do. You have about 2 hours before you really need to go to bed. Your bicep says: “I think you should spend your time praying. You felt a little discouraged today and frustrated at so-and-so. It would be a good idea to take those feelings to God right now and see what He has to say about them. He can help you work through them and give them up.” You decide, “You know, that’s a really good idea. It sounds like Wisdom. I’ll do that.” Good job: you just did 1 set of bicep-curls, all the while the life-blood of God’s Holy Spirit is flowing to your biceps, helping them grow and get stronger.

But let’s say you made a different choice: Instead of spending the time in prayer, you decided to watch a movie instead. You justify your choice by saying: “It’s been a long day; I’m tired and worn out, and I just want to relax.” Now, please note that watching a movie isn’t inherently bad. What’s bad is the fact that you chose to ignore your conscience. So now, not only did you pass up the opportunity to exercise your bicep, but the more you make choices like this one, you might as well place a tourniquet on your arm and completely stop the flow of blood to that muscle. Soon, your bicep won’t even be able to function at all. When you need to use it, it will be wasted away to nothing.

This is exactly what happens when we ignore the Holy Spirit. Pretty soon, our sense of what He’s telling us is gone. It’s been starved and suffocated to death because we’ve refused to listen.

I can only conclude that obeying the Holy Spirit all the time, whatever He asks you to do–whether it’s difficult or painful or humbling or requires you to give up fleshly comforts–will never be as difficult or painful as NOT obeying Him. Time and time again, when I choose to ignore or disregard what He’s told me to do it only creates more problems for me. Furthermore, when I find I need direction, it’s harder to hear His instruction because I’ve tried to break that connection by ignoring Him.

~Megan

Pleasure Island By Ron Luce

“Pleasure Island is a fictional amusement park from the Pinocchio canon. Located in the fictional land of Cocagne, Pleasure Island serves as a haven for wayward boys, allowing them to drink, smoke, and vandalize without recrimination. However, the truer and more sinister purpose of Pleasure Island is eventually revealed as it’s curse begins to physically transform the boys into donkeys.”  (From wikipedia.com)

Now, we might laugh this off as some kind of crazy Disney fiction.  But how much different is our own world from Pleasure Island? No longer only for wayward boys, but now also for  straight and narrow girls. And we’ve all bought the lie that we have the right to remain in Pleasure Island…even when it kills us.

This message struck me as both timely and uncomfortably accurate; especially the part about “having the right to be happy”. Why did we ever buy this ridiculous lie? Where in the Bible does God EVER say “I would rather you not sin, but if it comes down to your happiness or My Word, well, I’d rather you be happy”. SERIOUSLY. We need to hop on a life boat, or, THE Life Boat, and 86 this hamburger stand.

Ron Luce is also the author of Battle Cry For My Generation. Check it out here.

Kelsey

A Teachable Moment

While cruising with our families in the Caribbean, we happened upon a few unexpected circumstances. We left the comfort of our ship one day in search of a previously advertised “family beach”. The grand total in our group of families was 23 people, most of them children, so it promised to be a good time. The beach looked beautiful and the water was a magnificent shade of blue. As I took a swim I turned toward the beach and casually surveyed my surroundings – It was then that I realized with unease we shared the beach with many topless women. Moments later an affectionate lesbian couple seated themselves next to us, one of them topless.

Let me put it this way: for the first time in my life, upon seeing a woman in a bikini thought with a breath of relief “wow, so modest”. I guess nude beaches, er, pardon me, family beaches aren’t my thing. It’s a good thing I don’t live in Europe…

The reason I share this story is because it’s a classic example of a surprise and unwanted situation. Sure it was sad and uncomfortable, but I cannot imagine how much worse it would have been had not each of the parents already discussed with the kids how to respond to a situation like that. As Generations of Virtue Founder Julie Hiramine often says, ignorance does not equal innocence. We by no means endorse the “spare no details from the cradle” policy, but age appropriate Biblical standards shared during teachable moments. A key to remember for parents is the truth sets you free. So sharing with your children (using discernment based on age, situation, etc) won’t hurt them. Out of all the messages and influences in the world bombarding your children on a daily basis, yours as loving, God-fearing parents is the one they need to hear. Don’t be afraid to talk to your kids!

 

Blessings,

 

Katherine

Valentine’s Day: a Tribute to True Love

The history of Valentine’s Day offers some insights into the nature of true love. St. Valentine was a Christian during the reign of Emperor Claudius in Rome. The Emperor decided unmarried young men made better soldiers than married men with wives and children to worry about, so he decided to outlaw marriage for this demographic. In the Bible, God tells us that marriage is a holy covenant, an institute that He created and a beautiful thing between man and woman. Marriage represents the relationship we are to have with Christ as we submit to and become one with Him. Because St. Valentine believed in the sanctity of marriage and because he cared more about what God says about marriage than what the Emperor had to say, he performed marriage ceremonies in secret. St. Valentine was imprisoned and martyred for his actions. While in prison, one account claims that he loved his jailer’s daughter and left her a love letter signed “Your Valentine”. Valentine’s Day gives us an opportunity to teach our kids about love that is worthy of sacrifice and hardship.

Need ideas for Valentine’s Day gifts? Check out our website for some great purity jewelry.

Adventures at Sea

Do you see that little blip in front of that huge ship? Thats us. Yes…my life was flashing before my eyes. They call it a “banana boat”.

Basically, they attach a huge rubber float to the back of an old speed boat and go as fast as possible until you fall off into the middle of the ocean, at which point the drivers are laughing so hard they have to stop because they are no longer capable of steering. The water is completely clear, and even far out, only about 30 feet deep…most of us fell off just because we could, and once because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hold on. Luckily, Sara was behind me to break my fall. What are friends for?

Not only did we make fast friends with the crew, but also a few of these…

(Kelsey with a starfish that we stumbled upon in St Thomas)

We’ll see ya’ll in a few weeks! Be sure to check out our website at www.generationsofvirtue.org to see when we’ll be in a city near you.

Many blessings,

Kelsey