Religion

Before I start this, I want to make one thing clear. I believe in God, I pray every single day, literally thank Him for waking me up that morning, I have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. However, being 16, and dealing with some issues from my past that can't just be "forgotten" or pushed aside, sometimes I'll slip away from my Faith. Not in the sense that I question it or anything like that, my beliefs are the same, my actions don't always match though. What bugs me is that I've tried talking to people about the actual situation I'm dealing with, and lately I just feel like people too loosely say "oh just pray about it". As I just said, I pray every single night; of course I'm going to pray about my struggles. But sometimes we do need to deal with our situations. I understand that God works miracles, and that he can answer our prayers. But sometimes we need to seek Counseling, someone to vent to, or just an outside opinion. People are constantly saying "I don't have time" let me just say this: if it's something you care about, you make time for it. As Christians, it is our job to help each other out, not just say "oh just pray about it" and push the person away. Maybe we just don't know how to help someone, or we don't have a lot of time IN THAT MOMENT, we can say things nicely. I've heard the saying "say what you mean, and mean what you say, but don't say it mean" I feel like more and more these days, people just say things without thinking and/or caring how the other person is feeling with their issue, or after you say things. It's not always WHAT we say to people, it's HOW we say it. People know when you're being genuine, and when you're faking a smile. I know for me, there's been people I had the upmost highest respect for, and they go against everything they've said, they yell, and say things without thinking. Instead of making me feel better like the ADULTS they physically are and should act like, they make me feel like crap. And I just end up being angry and then I once again, get bitter.
Another thing that goes along with this topic, is that I feel like so many people like to throw God and Religion into all of their BS. Really. "I can't do this because God has me doing that." "I don't have time because God...." No. Reality is, you "can't" because you don't WANT to. There's a difference. Yes, God gave you the life you have, he may have blessed you in so many ways, doing so many things. But you're in control of what you do with that life. Don't blame God for these ridiculous things that you're too immature to admit.
What bugs me A LOT is other Christians act like they are sooo much better than me because they go to church. That's not my fault. I've always wanted to go to church for as long as I can remember. Physically I'm just not able to. And people try to hold that against me, and stick their nose up at me. If it was up to me, I would go to church every Sunday in a heartbeat. I really would. And when I get my license, you best believe I will! Maybe I don't read the Bible like I should, or could. But I do know a lot of important things that are said in the Bible. One of them is that no matter who we are, what we've done or haven't done, according to God's standards, we've all fallen short. We were all born sinners, we all are sinners, and we will all die sinners. No, I'm not perfect, but no one else is either.
Instead of blaming God for stupid things that we are in 100% control of, acting like we're better than everyone else, and looking down on people, lets try to help each other, be patient with each other. Jesus calls us to LOVE one another(John 15:17) Yelling at each other to get our points across and being rude and judgmental is NOT going to solve anything or make anything better.
One last thing, I don't care who you are, who you THINK you are, always remember: There is ALWAYS someone, somewhere that has a situation way worse than us..

Prayers&Positivity
Becka

Mistakes

We all make mistakes in our lives. But we're also left with at least one decision. We can choose to move on and learn from a mistake, or to dwell on it. If it was a person who maybe told us the cold hard truth about our mistake, we can choose to get bitter, or get better. I've made a lot of mistakes, just like every single one of us. But I've made a lot more than "normal" lately. No matter what it is I've done, there's always at least one person I can trust to talk to about it. Sometimes I don't like what I'm told. Sometimes the truth really does hurt....a lot. And for a couple days, I've usually gotten bitter. But I've gotten to a point where I'm sick of saying "I'm sorry" or feeling bad about my behavior, and feeling like people are frustrated with me, while I'm also frustrated with them. Like I said, it's happened to me more and more lately, and I hate how I handle situations. I've realized that instead of trying to "prevent" things from happening in the future, and dwelling on past mistakes, you just have to move on and go with the flow. Cross the bridges when you get to them, instead of planning a detour ahead of time. We don't always get our way, or hear what we wanna hear, but that's okay. That's life; and a lot of times, life is not fair. We learn to roll with the punches. I always just felt like I was wasting people's time, and instead of feeling "better" after talking to people, I felt worse in a way. I used to think that talking to people about problems was good because I didn't wanna seem fake. And yes, If you have a problem you need help with, you definitely need to seek someone to talk to. But I realized that once I get the help I needed, I DON'T need to tell "everyone". By then it's old news. I got sick of getting yelled at and being talked down to. Most of the problems I had, came from worries and fears. And most of our worries are NOTHING. And a lot of the things I worry about mean NOTHING. Because they're all things I can control. Well most of them. Lately they are. I realized I was pushing God away from me, instead of closer to me. I needed him to guide me in the right direction, instead I was going in the direction that I THOUGHT I wanted. Looking back, I don't regret what I've done, I regret that I know without a doubt, God was speaking to me, TRYING to guide me down the right path, and I ignored him. I can't do anything now except pray for forgiveness, and pray for that guidance that I need. I don't want to keep talking about change, I want to actually CHANGE! No more apologies, no more excuses. I'm ready!