Why I think the Oregon Bakers are wrong.

One of the things that has been in the news a lot lately is the bakers in Oregon who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same sex wedding. Most people are up in arms and think they are being mistreated by the government for being Christian. That may be possible, but I think they made some very simple mistakes and were irresponsible. So here are three simple points about why I think they are in the wrong.

First off, Paul writes very clearly that we should be good law following citizens. This means that we should be following the laws that are in place. If the law says you should only drive 70mph down the I-95, the fastest you should drive on the I-95 is 70. If the laws says that you should be in bed and asleep by 10pm, guess where you should be at 10pm. If the law says you shouldn't refuse service to anyone for any reason, you probably shouldn't turn people away. In order to be a good law following citizen, we must then know what the laws are. I find that being unaware of what the laws are is irresponsible. Now should we follow the law blindly, No. However we do need to be aware of the laws and know what they are. So saying we had no idea about the law is failing on their part.

Now secondly, if you choice to say the law is conflicting with what my religion teaches me, you should be prepared to face the consequences. We see two good examples of this in Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego decided not to the follow the law and were throw into the furnace. They didn't whine and cry about. They didn't say that the government was being harsh. They faced the consequence and hoped for the best. Daniel also when through the same thing. Daniel refused to follow the law and was thrown in the lion's den. The king had more issues with this than Daniel did. Daniel didn't get on facebook and update his status to say something along the lines of that King is awful, and I don't understand why I am being thrown into the lion's den. I'm just doing what my religion teaches me how dare he follow the laws and punish me in the fashion the laws says it will. Daniel went into the lion's den and hoped for the best. These 2 stories teach that it is ok not to follow the law when the law of the land conflicts with God's laws, however be prepared to suffer the consequence. A few years ago, I went to India on a mission trip. In order to get a visa into India part of the application has you sign that you will not be spreading the Christian Gospel while there. I was going on a mission trip but I signed it anyway. It also that if I was caught doing this I would get sent back to my country of origin. At the time of this trip, I was living in Korea, my life, my job, and my money were in Korea, not the USA. If I got caught, I would have been sent back to the USA. I had brought enough money with me so that if I did get sent back to the USA, I could buy a plane ticket back to Korea. I was aware of the law, and prepared to pay the consequences. If you choice to say I can't follow the law because of my religion you need to be prepared to pay the consequences. These bakers aren't prepared for the consequences.

Lastly, we are suppose to look at Christ as our example. When we interact with people, we should look at how Christ did it. Christ didn't turn anyone away. Everyone that came to Christ go what they were asking for. He didn't look at anyone and say, "Sorry you've made bad life choices and I can't heal." He didn't look at the guy who lowered down through the hole in the roof and say, "I know your friends just put a hole in someone's ceiling, but you are sinning so greatly, I can't do anything for you." After everyone left the one caught in adultery and pick up a stone. If Christ turned no one away then we should turn no one.

So these bakers made the wrong choices. 

My pregnancy

If it were up to me, I wouldn't have announced that I was pregnant. One reason is that everyone in the world now thinks that it is their "right" to give me advice. The only thing worse than being pregnant and high school is unsolicited advice. Most people will say that it comes out of love. As someone who is told regularly that I love and care too much, I don't give unsolicited advice. This reason is for this is because I can't fully understand another person, I don't know all they have done or tried. Also the place where most unsolicited advice comes from a place where the advice giver thinks that they know more and know better. I'm very much against pushing things on people and that is what unsolicited advice is. I don't push my thoughts views, opinions and advice on you, so why should you do it to me.

I've had it confirmed by other women being pregnant isn't always wonderful. I've had someone tell it's not their favorite. Being pregnant is very overrated especially in the beginning. I know. I've spent the last 10 weeks waking up half an hour early so that I puke before I start day. This really sucks and gets old real quick. I get drained of energy real quick. There is nothing tangible about what is going on the inside. There is nothing tangible about the life inside which makes it hard to think about it. It is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you haven't experienced it. If we are being real and honest, there times are when being pregnant are just awful and miserable.

Something that makes being pregnant harder is when it is something you didn't want. I didn't marry James and think oh now I get pregnant. I honestly never wanted to put myself through something uncomfortable, miserable and painful. I make choices all the time to avoid things that cause this to me. I have never dream of the day when I would a full term pregnancy. It wasn't what I wanted for my life.

I know very well that this is blessing. I still have joy. I am honest with how feel about things, and I think that sugar coating is wrong. I think that telling people how they should feel or respond to things is also wrong especially if you don't know everything. I've seen God shower blessing on people and they couldn't be happy because of their life situations, however I've seen them still have joy.

I will not being posting anything about my pregnancy from here on out. If you want to know you'll have to ask me.

Why I'm not a Christian.

I've quit professing that I'm a Christian. I will say things like I have a relation ship with Christ or I follow  Christ, but I'm not a Christian. The thing is that this word has started to mean something I don't like, or that it should. Some how being Christian has come to mean that you can now mistreat, you can no longer care about human rights, and we can judge and condemn. You can suddenly start doing things that lead to mistreating people and it should be ok and we should all stand behind because you are Christian.

This isn't Christ. I remember lots of people coming to Christ. I don't remember him turning people away. He never said to Mary Magdalen, "Sorry, you've made poor life choices, I can't help you." Christ didn't say, "I know your friends just made a hole in someone else roof, but your gay and I can't heal you." Jesus spent time with people who were in the greatest sense a sinner, and never told them He couldn't help. If you are a "Christian", isn't this the example. I clearly remember Him saying he came in the world to save it, not to condemn. Where did we get the idea that we could condemn it?

It doesn't make sense that we have a clear example of love and serving, and somehow we think that in the name of religion we can mistreat others. What happened? I understand that we aren't suppose to ok with sinning. I'm pretty sure there is only person who never sinned. It isn't Christlike to turn people, it just isn't something he did. If we are going to say it's ok to turn away someone who is gay because they are gay, they we need to star turning people away who view porn, we need to start turning away people who've been divorced, we need to start turning away woman who've had an abortion.

Until being Christian is something more like what suppose be, something that reflects Christ, I'm not one.  

Handle with care

So of lately, I've noticed that I seem to be a little fragile. I can start crying with very little prompting. On the radio they will start talking about Christmas and how this Christmas might be hard on some people. That someone one may be missing around the tree. I cry. I go two days without any word from James and I cry. You look at me with too much empathy, and I cry. This not the picture perfect image of an army wife. I am fairly certain that he will come back to me, on time is in question, but he will be back.

One reason it is so hard to keep in together at time, I'm very aware of how much a blessing this man is to me. God has done 2 things for me that there is no way I could repay. I could be perfect, do every act of service, show love to everyone, and never sin again, and this 2 things would still out weigh what God has done for me. Number 1 and the most important is that He died on the cross for my sins. The next is that He gave James to be my husband.

One thing that I'm trying to say here is this: being an army wife during deployment sucks. He is gone and in harms way and you have to pick up everything and carry on. Not only do I have to remember the things I did for the running of our family, but I know have to remember the things he did too. It is almost like a having a cart that takes 2 people to move, and the other person is gone and you still have to move it. Sometimes others can come along and help, but they can't do everything. Like when the car battery died. I knew it needed to be replace before he left, but I was too busy trying to make those last few weeks special, that we didn't do. Then I go out to the car on day to dead car battery. This is one of those times when I can get on the phone and find someone help pull the 2 person cart for this job.

Things I don't need to hear right now are things like, you picked Stewart, you knew the band deployed there. You are right I picked Stewart, however it doesn't make the situation suck any less At least he isn't in harms way, it's not like he out shooting the other guys or out patrolling. Right, but he is still in the middle of war zone. My favorite, he is only going to be there for a little while, it could be worse he could have to be there for a year. How about we send your husband away to somewhere that contact will be sparse and one sided, for a little and see how you like.

It comes down to this I love James a lot. The only thing I love more than James is God. He is special to me, and I wouldn't want to live my life without him.

So when one of those things about happen what can you do. Let's start off by not looking at me with too much sympathy. If I'm standing there talking to you, I know you care. Next hug me. For me, you have no idea how much a hug warms me. Lastly remind that it will all be ok.

Why I can't be a feminist.

Emma Waston recently spoke about starting a campaign called He for She. That ugly word feminist came back. I find that what is going on and being asked to be done isn't really right. I don't think people truly understand the meaning of equal. I feel that asking for equality is bad thing mainly because it won't take into account the difference between women and men. I am not the same as my husband, I am different and I want those difference to be acknowledged and looked at. I would rather have justice. Justice looks at those difference but still makes sure that I am treated fair based on those difference.

Now first I want it to be understand I don't think women are weaker, and should hide behind men. Neither gender is better. However we are not the same and anybody who thinks that we are the same and should be treated the same is just wrong. To prove these difference let's start with my favorite place to look for differences, the Bible. In Ephesians 5, it talks about how wives should respect their husbands and husband should love their wives. Does this mean that wives don't need to love their husbands or husband don't have to respect their wives?  No way. You don't have to tell someone to do what they naturally do. Women have an easier time loving and show love, they need to be reminded about showing respect. Men need to be reminded to show love. We aren't the same. Another place that shows our differences is in the army pt standards and weight standards. If we truly the same and equal wouldn't these standards be the same, they wouldn't need a male chart and female chart, they would just have one. Women are allowed to have more body fat than men, simply because we are different.

Equality isn't a bad things, and there are some areas where men and women should be treated equally. A man should not receive more simply for being a man. Now if the man is more qualified and doing a better job than yes pay him more, but if qualifications and job quality are the same the pay should be the same. Justice and equality are different things. Equal is the last thing I want.  I came across this picture a few years ago that explains why equality isn't always a good things and shows why most often it isn't what we really. When the feminist start asking for justice and they realize that men and women are not the same and that it is harmful to treat us them, I'll become a feminist. What makes me different is too special, too important, and too wonderful to sacrifice.

It was the biggest lie I was ever told

When I was going through high school, I was constantly being told "These are the greatest years of  your life. These are the best years of your life." Honestly, I contribute these phrase to be a cause of my depression. High school is not the greatest years of life. They may be for some, and I feel sorry for those who that statement is true.

Your late twenties is when life starts to get good. At least it is for me. I lot of things happened to make this time in my life the best years. I have figured out who I am, and wear it so well. I'm comfortable with who I am. I am a little loud, a little crazy, and passionate. I'm a child of the One True King. I know this because that is what Siri calls me when I talk to her. I am me to the fullest. I'm pretty sure I'm a pretty awesome too. Another thing that makes being in this time of my life so great, is that for the most part, I spend my time around people who like me. I'm not forced to spend day after day with people who are stuck up and down right mean. Now when it comes to working every once in while I get that one person who doesn't like me. I limit my interaction with them. If my job doesn't have doing it than I don't. Now don't think I'm cold shoulder mean to them either. I smile and say hi and I am nice, but I don't spend 2 hours after school sitting in their classroom chatting with them. That's for sure. It comes down to this I like myself, I mean I really like myself. It's not this self obsessed kind of thing. I know that I'm not an awful person, so I spend time with people who feel the same as I do. You don't have think I'm all that, but there's a difference between people who like me and people who don't like me.

Another that makes my life so great is my husband. I'll admit it hasn't been rainbows and butterflies. It's been life. When the day is done and over, he loves me. I get to spend time a lot of time with him. I get to do things with him. Sure, he gets mad when I open my stupid mouth. We have our inside jokes, we flirt and play around. Even though I've gained 50 lbs. he still finds me attractive. Are we perfect? Far from it, but we made the choice to be married to each other.

My life is adventure. I can't tell you where I'll be in 5 years from now. I find this to be really great. I've gotten to live in lower AL, three years in AK, and now I am in coastal GA. I find this to be a great part of life.

Do your teenagers a favor, quick telling them they are in the best years of their life. They may not be there yet.

Why Facebook isn't evil

I've heard comments like "There's a lot of drama on Facebook," "It's just for people to whine about how awful their life is," or "It's just a place to waste time." I, however, feel that this is very untrue. Facebook is what you make you make of it. Sure, I admit I waste a lot of time on Facebook. There is pretty much no drama on my Facebook. How is this possible? First of all in real life I'm not friends with those drama queens, negative Nancy, and you must pay all attention to me, so there is an absent of these in my news feed. Also, I don't follow all 367 of my friends. There are just some people I don't see them everyday and they didn't have this huge impact on my life or all the post is sharing stupid things and don't really have status updates they aren't in my news feed. Now there are people who aren't in my life and every once in a while, I check out their page and make sure their life is going well. Now I don't what you think my news feed is full of roses and sunshine it isn't.  I've had friend announce their divorce, their husband's deployment, their miscarriages, and their needs as they struggle with depression. This is life. As long as we are on this side of heaven, it will be messy, broken and ugly. I also got to take part in weddings, births and other excitement.

It comes down to this, Facebook is what you make of it. I can't see your news feed and unless we have the same friends, I don't see what you see. You don't have to follow all your friends.  Unfollow those drama queens and negative Nancys. Stop by their page every once and while, but don't let them fill your news feed.

I try to be uplifting. In real life when I get to be face to face with you, I try to be uplifting and encouraging. So that's how I try to be on Facebook. I'm not a new age type person, I don't really believe in Karma, but I do believe you get back what you put into things. If you throw out a bunch of negative thoughts and are just jaded and upset  all the time that's what you'll get back. Pretend to be happy and that things are good and you might change your mind about things.