Happy with the Skin I'm in: Part Two

You know that old, cliche, fortune cookie proverb, "the grass is always greener on the other side?" Yeah it's so true it hurts. 

Being biracial I've always had darker skin than most, if not all, of my friends. When I was younger I felt that I couldn’t dress up as a Disney princess because I was too tan, I didn’t have blonde, straight hair, or sparkly blue eyes. Instead, I was permanently tanned with frizzy corkscrew curls and plain brown eyes. Someone told me I “looked like a crazy girl,” because of my hair. I was 6. This majorly affected me. Another person recently told me something, that I was basically a “caramel frappuccino”. Still others, my hair "looks better straight," and looks "like a mop," when curly. Things like this have affected who I am and how I react in certain situations. 

Someone once told me, “racism is a immaterial issue. We are all one race, just different ethnic backgrounds. When it comes down to it, we are all children of God.” God created us uniquely and beautifully. People are going to be rude and insensitive. Letting it bother you is like letting breathing bother you.  You can’t change the color of your skin anymore than your need for oxygen. Yes, easier said than done, and yes, I do still struggle with the “jokes” and feeling like I don’t look beautiful, but society doesn’t dictate that, God does. Psalm 139:14 says, "Praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know." 

At the end of the day God created the galaxies, the oceans and the vallies, but He decided the world needed a beautiful you.

Peace out Cub Scouts!
Rachel

Happy with the Skin I'm In: Part One

Hi guys!! So we've posted and talked about accepting yourself in different posts before, but today we wanted to talk about accepting a different part of yourself that we've personally struggled/struggle with, and that is skin color. I (MK) am very pale, and Rachel is very not 😄 so we're gonna talk about it from two different perspectives, me on the pale side and Rachel on the other. 

For most people, summer is a time of fun, hanging with your friends, going to the beach etc. and for a lot of people, it's a time of something I hate. Tanning. I've tried multiple times, and I just don't tan, I burn. (only downside of being Irish 😜) Most of my siblings come like the Italian side of my family, and tan really easily and are naturally darker then me. I never really noticed or cared until the summer I turned 13 when someone commented that they were pale, then noticing me, proceeded to put their arm next to mine and exclaimed that they were actually tan compared to someone. Since then, there has never been a summer where someone didn't do that. It just recently happened the other day, someone told me they should hang out with me so they would look tan, and while it was said laughing, it did sting cause it's something I've struggled with for the past 4 years. 

Our society glorifies being tan, EVERYONE wants to be tan, and it's hard when you are exactly the opposite of what everyone wants to be like.  So while I still struggle with it, when I start feeling down or wishing I was tan, I stop and remind myself that God made me pale. He did. And he made you exactly whatever skin color you are. And if that's good enough for the creator of the universe, then that should be good enough for us. We are perfectly made. He knit us together in our mothers womb as pale, dark, or whatever. Just because we're not what society wants us to be, doesn't mean we're not beautiful or perfectly made. "You are beautiful in every way, my friend, there is no flaw in you." Song Of Songs 4:7 God Bless 😘 -MK

A Heart Worth Protecting

Ladies, I know we're all searching for love. There's a reason we have the stereotype of watching "The Longest Ride," "The Vow," and "The Notebook." (Honestly anything with a romantic subplot is great literature when we start bingeing on Ben and Jerry's XD ). We want that all consuming love that only comes from the one God has made for us. We want to be held, protected, cherished, and deeply, incredibly, (did I mention deeply?) loved. But now we're willing to settle for who we think we want rather than who God has for us, who we need. We don't want to, but we're almost, not quite, but almost convinced that we have to. God will give us someone patient and kind. Give us someone who completely accepts our habits that we hate, and our horrible hair days. Give us the kind of love that will bring us to heaven. The kind of marriage with him at the center, a love so strong it imitates the Trinity, true love itself. We are told we have to take what we get and what we see. So, so not true. We call men to a higher standard, we have a power inside of ourselves that men are drawn to, that they will chase after, fight and compete for. We are awesome. We are beautiful, kind, funny, smart. We are worthy of unimaginable love. We deserve men who will protect our hearts, keep us emotionally chaste. We need to remind our sisters in Christ that we deserve a heck of a lot more than what we're getting, and remind ourselves that we are worthy of love that would die for us, and He did. So please don't ever forget, whether you're on the "hot list" or "not list", whether you're the one all the guys chase after or you're never asked to a dance, you are awesome and you have a heart worth protecting. Don't forget it.

~*`~*`Check out the video title and creator below for a great video by a fantastic company~*`~*`

Who You Are - A Message to All Women by The Anima Series

Love with a Capital L

We all have that moment. The internal battle at each passing. Do I smile? Say Hello? throw a head nod? Avoid eye contact all together? The result tends to be a graceless combination of all the above in one distressing gesture of weirdness.

Guys tend to do this to us girls, ESPECIALLY the "One." The thing is, how do we know he's the One? We don't. Plain and simple. We can have as many crushes as we like, plan as many "Chapel-on-a-hill-baby-in-three-years" lives, as we like. But what if he isn't the one God has planned for you? Good luck with that one, sweetie.

And we've all seen it before; in movies, books, TV shows, even that picture on EVERY social media site there is. "80% of all people marry their 7th to 12th grade love." But what happens after the marriage? If he's not the one God intended, then keeping it together will be impossible. Fact of the matter is, unless you met him in a good Catholic college, a youth group, church, pretty much ANYWHERE that has God at the center of it, you can find the "ONE." Not the "One", "The ONE."

"THE ONE", would be Jesus Christ. We all want Prince Charming to come in and sweep us off our feet and ride of into a sunset. But Love is so much bigger. Love came down to earth, became Man and died. Not for Himself. Not just because He Loves me. Not just because He Loves you. He died, because He Loves EVERYONE. He died, FOR EVERYONE. Because that's what God is. Love. With a capital "L". For in order to Love your spouse, you must first know the meaning of Love.

Love is being betrayed (by a kiss, no less) by one of your twelve closest friends. Love is being spat upon, lashed until your body is the same color as a stop sign. Love is being mocked, crowned by thorns, beaten with reeds.

Love is carrying the very thing that will kill you up the hilly roads of Jerusalem.

Love is slowly suffocating, hanging up in the air, only supported by the nails in your wrists and feet.

Love is taking on the sins of the world, past, present, and future. Bearing them your whole life.

THAT, is Love. Until we understand Love, we cannot fully Love our spouse. Because God is the center of every marriage. A woman should be so lost in God, that a man has to look up to God to find her. (One of Layna's favorite quotes.) And God. Is. LOVE.

~R.A.

The pink paragraph is a paraphrase/excerpt from Katie Hartfiel's book, Woman in Love. I would recommend all girls 12+ to read in. Though, the last few chapters are some that your mother may wish to read with you.

Good Friends and Faith Life Pt. 3

Good Friends and Faith Life
Part 3.

 Love: an intense feeling of deep affection.
The fact that we've sunk so low that we define love by feelings is depressing.

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Love isn't just a feeling. Those butterflies you get when you see Catholic Cutie are great and all, but it's not love. Loving your spouse is knowing you'll pass that exciting honeymoon stage and go into times of contentment and joy, and times of hardship. Loving your friend is even when they're having a bad day, not judging them and listening. It's sitting there, not having to talk, but just be together. Loving your family is not killing them😂. Jk. Loving your family is spending time with them even when they're driving you crazy. Love is an action.

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We choose to love. Especially those who we think least deserve it. We need to choose to love the bullies. We need to choose to love the people who abandon us, the people with SSA, the people who are abortionists. The people that seem to be the most damaging are often the most damaged and in need of love.

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We all need God in our lives. People who run around getting drunk or taking drugs are looking for a sense of contentment but that can only be found in love. This desire for love exists because we exist to fill a desire. Not a need, a want. We are wanted. Because like we want love, God wants us. He wants us to choose him, he doesn't want robots. No one wants to be with someone who doesn't want to be with him. Love is mutual. Love is work. Love is a choice. It's patient, and kind, it doesn't boast and it isn't envious. Faith, hope and love remain, and the greatest of these is love.

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Bible verses

1Cor 13
Lke 6:35
Romans 12:9
Mark 12:31
Romans 13:10

Good Friends and Faith Life Pt. 2

Good Friends and Faith Life
Part 2.

Trust: the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
Trust is the second part of a relationship, evolving from respect. If you do not trust a person to tell you the truth, it becomes difficult to respect them. But trust is more than believing in one's secret keeping abilities.

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Trust is almost like handing someone your heart, and knowing they won't break it. It's telling them your deepest secret and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that they won't tell anyone. It's hard won, but easily lost.
Trust isn't easy. You have to prove yourself to be trustworthy. If you haven't, how can you expect people to tell you anything?

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When someone trusts you with something, they believe you won't go behind their back, or make them regret it. Say or do anything to lose that trust, you'll have a hard time winning it back. Don't throw it away over something stupid. Don't do anything you wouldn't want someone else to do.

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Our relationship with God is built on trust. With religious matters, it's often called faith😜. We trust God has a plan for us. We trust that everything he does is to better us and push us towards sainthood. We trust in his love and forgiveness. We trust in his existence through what he has revealed to us. If we don't trust him, we feel empty. Trust is crucial to  relationships. Are you trustworthy?

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Bible verses
Matt 7:12
Jeremiah 17:7-8
Isaiah 43:2
Psalm 56:3
1Jhn 5:14

Good Friends and Faith Life Pt. 1

Hey everyone!
This week I'll be writing articles/devotionals on how to be a good friend and how it relates to our faith lives. I hope, if you're having friendship issues, this helps and maybe you and your friends can read it together.
Enjoy!

Good Friends and Faith Life
Part 1.

 Respect: a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their qualities of abilities.
That is how the New Oxford Dictionary defines respect. But if you were merely friends with someone because of their popularity or their looks we'd call you shallow. Without respect for ranks, age, wisdom or titles, society would crumble. But before you even get to know a person you respect them, right? The foundation of any relationship is respect. If that means listening when your friend needs to talk, or honoring the fact that they may not want to talk about something at all, you respect it. It's their business and they'll share when they're ready. Same as they'll respect you and listen when YOURE ready. Your friend may never be ready but you have to respect that.

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God created us in His image. He is the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and knows everything. If you can't respect yourself and love yourself, you push yourself away from God. You run to things of this world, like self harm or eating disorders. You're trying to build a relationship with God. Relationships only work with respect and communication. These things work both ways. Sometimes things won't go your way and you have to respect God's plan, and instead of talking to Him about it, listen to what he has to say. Respect is everything.

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We define respect as a mutual understanding and trust between two people and their needs, regardless of social or economic standing, or race.
Do you really respect those around you?

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Bible verses
1Cor 6:19-20
1Peter 2:17
John 13:34
Matt 7:12