Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Love and Service

Today is my first post!  Yippee.  My dear friend helped me create this blog almost three months ago.  Skeptical, I chose to take the first step and just do it!  I have encountered many hardships in my life so far, as we all can say, and I'm happy to say I'm still here!  Defeat is not an option.  I am holding on to hope and choosing to live a "faith-filled" life rather than a "fear-filled" one.  Not really knowing where this blog will take me, I know it will be used as a source of "emptying" of my soul and I hope you benefit from it!!

Wednesday 20, 2013

This is my second week in Nassau, Bahamas, where my dad is currently working.  It is so easy to get inspired to write in a place as beautiful as this.  I have so much inside of me that I want to say.  I keep pens and notebooks all over.  I jot down things I am feeling.  I write the lyrics of songs that may be meaningful during something I am going through.  I write down scriptures (as I read them as well as when I am reminded of them).  I love to write!  It is so healing.  I thought writing meant I had to know what I wanted to write about and make it all neat and perfect and then it would just basically write itself!  Not true!!  Someone I look up to told me the best thing I could do is just sit my butt down and write.  So that's what I'm doing.

Love and Service  

I'm nobody special.  I haven't done anything epic in my life so far.  I haven't received any special honors, medals or prizes.  That is what this world would say about me.  But, there is something really big waiting for me one day.  It is an eternal crown from a King.  I press on everyday in the hope that one fine day, God will smile at me and put a beautiful crown on my head, and say, "Well done Misty!!  You did it!"  I love God with all my heart and apart from him I am nothing and I can do nothing.  It is by is grace and mercy that I am even here today.  Saying that, I spent a large part of my life not really understanding that I have a purpose here on this earth, not for notoriety or to receive an earthly prize, but for something that is worth so much more:  To live a life of love and service for Him.  It is truly the most fulfilling thing we can all do while we are filling up space here on earth.  It is a selfless act.  It means a daily dying to self.  It means putting myself aside, along with my wants.  I may not be thanked.  It may even go unnoticed.  It is a great way to get rid of the "what's in it for me" attitude.  I know what it means to live and work so hard to obtain "things".  Don't mistake me, there is nothing wrong with working toward the things we want, but when we get them those "things" aren't what fulfills us and makes us happy.  Love in it's truest form means we put ourselves second, third, forth and so on. It doesn't mean we don't take care of or neglect ourselves.  It is a delicate balance.  When we learn to love others more than we love ourselves means living the obedient life that God talks about.  Serving then becomes simple.  And what we discover is that the things that we desire mean so much more when we get them.  We stop expecting things to make us happy and we realize the true essence in that giving is far more rewarding than receiving.  

We are born selfish.  We are taught early what we need to do to "get ahead" in life.  We finish 12 years of school and then we graduate.  If we are lucky, we go to college and get a degree in something that interests us and we get a high paying job within that field.  We meet someone who we are hopefully compatible with and eventually get married.  We want children so we do that.  We live in a nice home in a nice neighborhood and settle in to our routine.  We buy things that are pretty and make us feel good.  We take vacations.  We spend time with family and friends.  Is there anything wrong with this?  No, not at all.  But, if we aren't living a life of love and service while spending so much of our lives pursuing what we think will make us happy, all of the above is not filling the void within us.  God created us to love and serve.  How do I know?  Because it's who He was and still is.  That is why the greatest commandment found in Mark 12:30-31 (NIV) says, 'Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  The second is this:  'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no commandment greater than these.