The Danger of an Imaginary Life

I was reading different parts of the GirlTalk blog today and came across a quote that I needed to hear. Nicole Whitacre was talking about her courtship with (her now, husband) Steve. While telling their story, she talked about some doubts she had about Steve. She'd always wanted to be either a missionary or married to a pastor, and Steve wasn't sure that either of those were God's will for his life. She said, "Pause. If I may be so bold as to offer a word of advice to single women everywhere: beware of creating an imaginary life around an imaginary man so that when a real man comes along you can’t see him for the imaginary life you’ve created."

This was a good reminder to me, and probably to any other girl who reads it, that we can't think of what we'd like our lives to look like when we're married and decide that anything different would be less than ideal. As Nicole said, it's dangerous to have some made up fantasy and compare any future life partner to that. Because what we want or think we want may not be what God wants for us. And His way is always better than ours. We need to trust Him with who our spouse will be and not worry about it so much.

Nicole ended her post saying that she'd had to learn to trust God and that she had to marry (or not marry) Steve based on who he was, rather than what he did. Then she said that he now was a pastor at a Sovereign Grace church. But she's glad he wasn't when she married him, because now she doesn't have to wonder if she'd only married someone because he was a pastor.

Such a good story, and a good reminder that it's God we have to follow and trust, not ourselves and our made up ideas of what we want in life.

A Good Reminder

Today our college Sunday school class was led by Victor, who is one of the students. The lesson came from Ephesians 2:1-9 and overall it was very good. But something he said near the end really got me. It may have been a quote from the book The Cross-Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney or it may have been something he came up with, I'm not really sure. But he reminded us that "the cross-centered life is built up by cross-centered days." Wow. If that's not encouraging/convicting, I don't know what is. It was a great reminder to be faithful in even the little things every day. If you can't be faithful in the little things, you won't be faithful in the big things. If your days aren't centered on the cross, of course your life won't be characterized as Christ-centered.

Learning to Thrive at College - Desiring God

My college group at PBC, called Foundation, posted this link on its facebook page. I read it and was really challenged by it. I hope you enjoy reading it and are challenged like I was. That's part of why I am posting it. The other part is so that I will remember to go back and look at it from time to time, preferably when classes are back in full swing.

Learning to Thrive at College - Desiring God

Taken from GirlTalk

I love to read the GirlTalk blog that the Mahaney girls (C.J. Mahaney's wife and daughters), who are part of Sovereign Grace Ministries, write. I love the blog because much of it is about biblical womanhood but a lot of it is just about living the Christian life in general and loving Christ more. It's such an encouragement to read, and many of the stories and articles posted are such a blessing. Here are two things that I really enjoyed reading on it lately:

This quote by Paul Tripp on waiting is from a post written by Nicole Whitacre-

"Waiting on God isn't about the suspension of meaning and purpose. It's part of the meaning and purpose that God has brought into my life. Waiting on God isn't to be viewed as an obstruction in the way of the plan. Waiting is an essential part of the plan. For the child of God, waiting isn't simply about what I'll receive at the end of my wait. No, waiting is much more purposeful, efficient, and practical than that. Waiting is fundamentally about what I'll become as I wait. God is using the wait to do in and through me exactly what He's promised. Through the wait He's changing me. By means of the wait He's altering the fabric of my thoughts and desires. Through the wait He's causing me to see and experience new things about Him and His kingdom. And all of this sharpens me, enabling me to be a more useful tool in His redemptive hands" (emphasis hers).

The second post I'd like to mention came from their archives and was written by Carolyn Mahaney. The actual post was written about motherhood but can really be applied to all walks of life. She talks about the first answer of the Shorter Catechism, which says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." Then she takes a point from J.I. Packer's book Praying the Lord's Prayer. Packer said that this statement uses the word "end" and not "ends". So both glorifying and enjoying God are the same end - they go together. To glorify God is to enjoy Him, and to enjoy Him is to glorify Him. [Though she does clarify that this doesn't mean that obeying God is always going to be the easy, joyful thing to do.]

The links to the actual posts are here: first post and second post.
Hope you enjoyed :)