Two Anniversaries

Hey guys! Yesterday was by blog's 3rd birthday! I wish I could have posted on the exact day, but I was away at a camp. But anyway, here are a few things I'd like to say...

First of all, the reason why this is the first time that I've actually 'celebrated' my blogaversary is that I've always just missed the day and not thought about it in the past. But this week I was reminded that it was my blog's birthday in a few days! So, I thought that since I'd remembered the day I may as well celebrate it. :P

It's going to sound false and religious, but I want to praise God for my blog anyway. It's He that teaches me (often hard) lessons and gives me stuff to share, and enables others to get something out of my posts. And it's He that brought me to the point where I had something to say about purity in the first place!

I thought I'd commemorate three years of blogging by picking my top five posts. (Yes, it would be more suitable if it was three, but I don't think I could pick only three.) So, in no particular order, I present my Top 5 Blog Posts of the [3] Year[s]!

1. Set an example... in purity
2. "Mission Modesty: Revive Our Actions" {Part 2}
3. Thought Life - Arrgh! 
4. Daily Dignity: Dress 
5. Encouragement 

AND I'll even put on a fireworks show for you!

Ta-da!!! :P


Now, in my title I promised to tell you about TWO anniversaries. Well, the second one is even more important than, and is indeed the forerunner of the first. {Drum-roll please!} Saturday the fifth of October 2013 marked... the fifth anniversary of when I had a change of heart and ended my crush (see the My Testimony page).

{Moment of deep and important silence}

Five years. Five years of wonderful, insightful, often very intensive training and learning. Five years of facing struggles and temptations and learning to press into God. I ain't done yet! Still a very, very long way to go.  Let me tell you something ironic. The very day of the anniversary I was wrestling with my thoughts over a guy. The next morning I got a 'slap in the face' about my selfish attitude towards marriage. The day after that I meet a guy I'm attracted to but haven't seen in months and have to carefully watch my mind. See? I still struggle. But even though I struggle, I still have a lot to praise God for!


Your thankful and still imperfect sister in Christ,
Cassie xoxoxo

Idols

 'Idols in our life.' We've all heard the concept before, and the lecture that goes along with it: don't let anything in your life be above God. But can you relate? I couldn't until about a month ago. I used to nod my head in agreement, but, to be honest, nothing was really interfering with God in my life. Then that changed.

 When we moved, God quickly gave me friends, who are amazing. I am so thankful for them. BUT, because I had been staved of the constant, every-day kind of friendship (sure, I still emailed and valued my old friends, but there was an element of frequency that was missing) I started to idolise my new friends. They became "objects of my excessive and superior adoration." (My variation of The Concise Oxford Dictionary's definition of 'idol.') True, I did not live to please them, and I believe they were a 'mild' idol; but they were an idol nonetheless, I had to give them over to God.

 Unknowing of my situation (nice one, God!), the mum of a friend shared the 'open hand' concept. Instead of pulling our hands into a fist, and holding tightly to what God has given us, we should let them lay open, alowing God to do what he wants with his blessings. (While it's true that God can take them away, even if our hand is closed, we still need to make a conscious decision to release them to him.)

 So in my personal devotion, I physically laid my hand open, and pretended to place in it my friendships. I told God that He could have them and do whatever He wished with them. I told Him I wanted Him to be in the highest place in my life. After praying, I felt a shift. I knew my friends weren't an idol any more.

 However, after a while I realised that this would be a continual process. Satan keeps trying to shove friends onto the top of my life, and I have to pray to get them back down and God back up. I don't know how long this will go on for. But I do know that I must always watch for signs of idols, and be willing to give them over to God.


With sisterly love,
Cassie xoxoxo

"Mission Modesty - Revive Our Actions" (Part 2)

 Thanks for your thoughts guys! They were great!

OK, you may or may not remember my post "Mission Modesty - Protect Our Brothers! (Part 1)." If you haven't read it, go and check it out. Any way, you may (or may not!) have wondered, "where's part two?" Well... Ta-da! This is it! (And just to warn you, this is gonna be a long post! And sorry about the funny text. It kept mucking up, so there's variations within the post.)

OK, first I want to define what I think modesty in actions really is. Then I'll go on to give some examples of what it looks like. But for now, here's my definition: modesty in actions is a quality that comes from the heart-desire to let Jesus shine through one's actions, is spurred on by prudence and results in discretion, selflessness and control of one's behaviour. 

Let's unpack that a bit more. (I'll try hard to balance my descriptions between explaining thoroughly and not over-explaining and repeating myself, and so confusing you. Bear with me.)

1. Comes from the heart-desire to let Jesus shine through our actions.  This is all-important. We can't do a very good job of being modest if we don't truly desire to shine Jesus' character to everyone we meet. It'll just be propped up and fake. This eagerness that Jesus places within us to show Him every way we can is the foundation to modesty of any kind. Emily Grace said that we need to fill up on scripture and discover what God says about how we should behave. I agree; it'll fire us up for wanting to show Him to everyone.
2. Is spurred on by prudence. Prudence is defined as "being careful to avoid undesired consequences" (The Concise Oxford Dictionary) and "caution in regard to practical matters" (Dictionary.com). This obviously means that prudence is important to in our decisions. We are constantly making decisions on how to behave, and prudence helps us to make careful decisions that will have positive effects. Modesty in actions is spurred on by wise decision making... a.k.a. prudence. (There are some verses in Proverbs about prudence: check out Proverbs 12:8, 15:5 and 21:16.)
3. Results in - Discretion. Discretion is being discreet in our behaviour. 'Discreet' is defined as "wise in one's conduct or speech, especially with regards to respecting privacy or maintaining silence about somethingof a delicate nature," or "modestly unobtrusive; not intended to attract notice." Not being overly silly or loud and not drawing attention to ourselves, etc,  is discreet (more on this later).  Flirting is certainly not discreet (more on that later too). Just remember the base word of discretion: discreet. Oh, and I was lead by God to this Bible verse: "Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion" (Proverbs 11:22). Basically, it says you can have beauty (the gold ring), but if you lack discretion, you don't have real beauty! Ouch! If that doesn't wake me up to the importance of discretion, then, then I doubt much else will be able to !
4.  - Selflessness. This's the thing I really want to draw out. Modesty in actions is, for me, all about not drawing attention to ourselves, but instead pouring our pursuits into Christ and letting Him shine through us. And that's being selfless, right? Seriously, do you think Christ can shine though our actions if we just seek to draw attention to us, not Him? If we think we deserve attention, why should we and how can we be modest in our actions? I believe we (including me for sure!!) need to think less about ourselves and more of others and Jesus. Humility and selflessness are key.
5. 
    - Control of behaviour. Er, pretty self-explanatory. We behave with discretion, selflessness and knowledge of God's standard of behaviour. Controlled behaviour is the result.

Now you get the gist of what modesty in actions is (hopefully!!), I'll try to describe what it looks like in everyday life. There are a few things that I think we need to put on, and some we need to put off (Hebrews 12:1, Ephesians 4:22-24 and Colossians 3:8-10). First come the examples of the 'off' stuff, then the 'on' stuff.

• Flirting. "Actions designed to attract the favourable attention of the other gender," as my mother wisely said. That's about as simple as I can put it. I think we know what it looks like, and when we do it, as Bri said. However, we must realise that it's the intentions behind the acts that make it flirting. The key part of this definition is the 'designed to attract' bit. We can do things that will attract the favourable attention of others, but are not designed for that purpose. The motive is key.
   I also think that laughing too much/hard at a guy's joke/humour is a form of flirting. I guess I view it as 'leading him on.' Just to clear things up, I AM NOT telling you to quit laughing or smiling at the funny things guys say. That would be silly, and hypocritical of my belief that following God is meant to be FUN (among other things). So relax; you can still have a good time with guys. BUT... I think many of us (certainly me!) can at times go overboard in our response to guys' natural humour. While it's fine to laugh at a joke, sometimes I think we need to settle down a bit. (I really hope I got that across well. It's very hard. Feel free to just think "what on earth is she talking about?")

• Crude and inappropriate jokes/words. (Thanks again, Bri!) "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt." (Colossians 4:6a.) "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. "Nor should there be any obscenity, foolish talk or course joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving." (Ephesians 4:29, 5:4.) Simple as that. Are crude words full of grace or wholesome? NO WAY! 

• Laughing too loudly and being too silly. What? We laugh too loud? We can get too silly? Never!... NOT!! If we laugh too loud, we are just attracting attention to ourselves. I think we can still laugh hard, but just not overdo the volume. Same with being too silly. Careening around crazily sure draws attention. So we just need to watch that our merriness doesn't go too far. 

Now for the 'put on's.

•  I think we need to put effort into searching and studying how God wants us to behave, just as Emily Grace said. What's better  than getting instructions straight from God!? We need to pour more effort into seeking God than seeking attention from others... actually, we shouldn't seek attention from them at all!
  
  
• We need to remember to guard our hearts, our emotions, the inner things that need to be kept sacred. "[We should not be] haphazard and flippant with our hearts and emotions, casually sharing our most vulnerable thoughts and intimate secrets with [everyone and anyone]." ("The Lost Art of True Beauty" by Leslie Ludy; page 94.) Why would we want to 'spill the beans' to everyone around you? Sure, us younger girls may not stuggle with this a whole heap, but we sure need to keep it in mind.  This is especially the case when relating to guys. While it's OK to share deep things with your family and good friends, we shouldn't let the world (those not as close to us, including most guys) into the deepest, sacred parts of our hearts. We need to whatch what we talk about, especially with guy friends.  This is where discretion and discernment come in.

Whew! Did you really get through that post?! Round of applause for you! I hope you got something out of it. Feel free to agree or disagree in a comment. Is there anything I need to add, or take out?

Your sister in Christ,
Cassie xoxoxo

It Just Goes to Show...: A Real Life Example of Setting an Example

I'm hoping to get my testimony on this blog sometime, IF I EVER GET AROUND TO IT! Quite busy at the moment... that brings me to another post I hope to post sometime. Anyway, here's a post to tide all you wonderful viewers over; and whats better - it's a REAL LIFE story (we all love those, don't we!).



OK, so I think I've talked (somewhere!) about setting an example to others. But hey, does it really work? YES!!! I've been really encourage, because I've noticed that my younger sister is following the example that I've tried to set: When I do something wrong, big or little, even if the person that may be affected by my sin doesn't know what I did, I go and repent to them. And now she does it too! Maybe she sits on my beanbag when I'm not there, but then she comes and tells me, and says sorry. AWESOME!, right?! So it all goes to show, good example are followed (unfortunately, so are bad ones).


Hey, have you got an example of an example being followed? Tell us in a comment! Oh, and by the way, I haven't had many. So take 30 seconds to tell me what you think of my post (good or bad)!


Thanks!

Cassie xoxoxo