One Will Stay & One Will Go

Lately I've been concentrating on my faith ALOT....or at least alot for me!!

I've been buying and reading books- more buying than reading.....can't keep up actually. God is guiding me in such a way that I am finding links and interesting facts and ideas so much quicker than I can absorb them so I will send away for a book even though I have 5 others to read with the idea that I will get to them all eventually.

Stay with me here:

My little cousin came over this weekend- we planned to hang out and decorate my house for Christmas and we were going to make bread from scratch! On Black Friday I went out at 4am and got a really good deal on a Kitchen aid mixer. Something that normally would cost me $400 I got for $100- I never take part in after Thanksgiving Holiday Sales, but this one I had to try for and happily I was in and out in 20 minutes and all was right in my world. No one where I shopped got trampled and/or got in fights- at least not in the 20 minutes I was there. I really despise how people become UGLY at the holidays. Thus my never taking part, but this was a deal that made me get up and I was and am very happy with my purchase.

Well that was a bit of blabbing- wasn't it. OK back to the story. She came over and we moved furniture and decorated the tree with my Mom's decorations. This is my first Christmas without my mom and I've been having a hard time about it. All these holidays are hard for me- I'm without my family and it SUCKS!

While she was over she informed me she was sort of seeing someone and she was torn a bit about having sex with him. She said every week she goes to church makes her think more and more about these kinds of decisions. She asked me what I thought. I didn't know what to say to her without sounding like a hypocrite- I was not faithful for so very long.....needless to say I am not a virgin. I told her that I tried it my way for years and it didn't work so now I was going to try it God's way. I told her I had recently decided that from now on I was going to try and limit my dating to only Christian guys, and that if I find myself in a relationship that involves sex that the temptation must have been too great and broken through prayers for strength on both sides. I told her I thought that dating a non-christian put her into a situation where she could be the only one trying to resist the temptation.

This is all theory to me at the moment- I am not seeing anyone so I haven't had to really live with the temptation.

In the end I told her that she needed to think about how she was going to go about living with her decision. She needed to think about how God and her future husband would think about her sleeping with this guy. Shortly after this talk she received a call from a friend offering some $$ in exchange for baby sitting. She needs money at the moment so she went- knowing she'd miss church this week and wouldn't you know it when I was at mass the message seemed to perfectly address temptations of the flesh. The message stated we need to live how God wants us to live because when Christ comes again two men will be plowing in the field- one will be living as God wanted him to and is prepared and the other is not. Another analogy was given for two women. One will stay and one will go with Christ.

WOW!!!

The devil through this baby sitting job prevented my cousin from hearing God's message to her about what she was struggling with. Of course I told her all about the readings- and hopefully she received the message into her heart even though she didn't make it to church. Hopefully we will both be ready when Christ returns and go with him to heaven. This is the kind of thing that's been happening to me so much these days. I feel God's guidance and presence in my life in very obvious ways- just like this situation. It's a honor for me to be used to deliver his message!