August 7, 2008

From Melony H. (who used to be a teen in the youth group in my church, but who is now a 20-something mom):  “Suzie, Many years ago you told me to give my mom 5 hugs in a course of a week, do you remember that? I finally gave her that hug the other day, it’s been 15 years since I’ve hugged her. It was a little weird but it’ll get better the more I do it. Thank you so much for writing The Mom I Want to Be. I would have never looked through my parents eyes and understood what they were feeling when they were raising us. I have forgiven them because you helped me see.”

 

Filed under: family, real videos

August 6, 2008

Oh first things first: I saw you on myspace and ur link..I’m a Christian and 23 years of age. Still in college and having sex problems. I like girls and they like me cause of course I’m handsome. But the problem is, they want the thing I biblically am not supposed to give. As a result I am questioning what the bible says on the subject. What is wrong in having sex? Why did God create women in the first place and give them those sexy body shapes? Forgive my for sounding backslidy. It’s just that I’m curious.

(more…)

Filed under: real advice, sex

August 5, 2008

I need a bible scripture or advice about jealousy and real beauty because I get jealous easily, especially about apearance. Like, I believe that other girls are more beautiful than me. That’s why I look for scriptures about what real beauty is in the eyes of Jesus Christ. I am having a hard time finding one.

Than you very much. =] Alyssa (more…)

Filed under: Real Bible Study, real advice, real issues, real question, real quote, real word, youth worker resources

August 4, 2008

Campus Life, June/July 2008

I Felt Useless
On my youth group service trip, I wanted to be used by God. But I couldn’t help but feel a little left out. by Becky Visser as told to Amy Adair

EXCERPT FROM ARTICLE: I dropped the heavy concrete block and brushed the sweat from my forehead. I glanced around the corner of the house and saw my youth group friends, Erin* and Sarah, talking to the house’s owner. I could tell they were talking about something important.

I was on my youth group’s service trip to help build and repair houses. I was looking for an opportunity to share my faith and impact someone’s life. But so far, all I’d done was move a bunch of junk from a rundown house.

At the end of the day, I listened as Erin and Sarah talked about John, the homeowner. He’d told them he was a Christian, but his wife, Susan, hadn’t been to church

in a long time. We prayed together that night for God to give us a chance to share our faith with Susan.

I hoped I’d get the perfect opportunity to talk with her.

But it never happened. (more…)

Filed under: Change*the*World!, faith in action, real articles, real missions, teens making a difference

August 1, 2008

~Real Word~

Then GOD ordered me, “Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who’s in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife.Love her the way I, GOD, love the Israelite people,even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy.” 

RT: Hosea paints a powerful picture in these scriptures as he shares his own painful story of an unfaithful wife. God shows Hosea how to love his wife in the same way that he loves his unfaithful children.

I don’t want to be unfaithful. I don’t want God to be anything but the most important presence in my life. And yet the truth is that things distract and pull at me. Things get more important than my time with God. Things trip me up when all I really want is to know him.

Today I went out and got alone with God. I unplugged and ditched the distractions so I could hang with him alone. I didn’t ask him for anything. I just talked to him and let him know how powerful it was to have him in and over my life.

What about you? Is he the only One in your life? If not, invite him to a one-on-one where you and God can connect all over again.

Read the scriptures again. Hear the longing in God’s voice as he speaks to and through Hosea. That’s his heartbeat.

Filed under: faith, real word

July 31, 2008

Filed under: real fun

July 30, 2008

Hebrews 11:39: They were all commended for their faith. . .God had planned something better.

Written for a friend who just lost someone very special

Filed under: T. Suzanne Eller

July 29, 2008

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something. ~ Oswald Chambers

I read this quote this morning and it stopped me. .

What does this mean? When things are tough, like when I had cancer or when my son was hurt, and things were dark, what did I need to unlearn?

Is God cruel? No. But all the things I trusted weren’t working. I wasn’t strong enough or smart enough to fix it. I didn’t have all the answers, and no one was lining up with a one-two-three formula that would make it all go away.

But I could trust God. No matter the outcome, I had something stable and beautiful and strong. It brought peace into a situation that wasn’t peaceful. It allowed me to celebrate in a time when there was nothing to celebrate. I was able to laugh, to live, and to move forward.

I remember people saying how strong I was in those times, and yet I knew that I was as weak as I had ever been. It wasn’t me. It was my faith in something greater than myself or my situation.

Perhaps what I unlearned during those hard times is my total self-sufficiency. I was strong, but my greater strength came in walking day by day, and at times minute by minute, with Christ.

Filed under: T. Suzanne Eller, faith, loss, real quote