Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

 "A certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked." ~ Mark 14:51-52 This quarter in Sunday School, we are working our way through the gospel of Mark, and this Sunday's lesson covered chapter 14. That chapter covers a few different events from the last week of Jesus' life and ends with His arrest, His trial, and Peter's betrayal. However, between the verses about Jesus' arrest and the ones about His trial, we find the two verses quoted above about a young man who followed Jesus that night, was grabbed, ran away naked, and was never mentioned again. For years I wondered, who was he? A sermon I heard years ago theorized that the young man was none other than the author of the gospel himself, he was the son of the man whose house held the upper room, and that the linen cloth was actually a bedsheet. The more I think about it, the more I think that this makes a lot of s...

 This past Sunday, I was working and missed the morning service at the church my husband and I attend. Usually, I just attend the evening Bible study and church service, but things were different this Sunday. On the first Sunday of every quarter, our church does a special Communion service instead of regular Sunday evening activities.  The first 30 minutes of the service are devoted to prayer and Bible reading, which I thought was nice. I spent the majority of that time praying for my husband and our relationship. I know that prayer is a great basis for any marriage, and I figured some dedicated time to do so would be quite helpful. I also read Song of Solomon, since it is a book solely about love and a marital relationship.  While I was reading, I noticed a verse that didn't make much sense to me, so I looked it up in another version on my Bible app. Our church uses the King James Version (KJV), so that's what I was reading, but the church I grew up in used the New Revis...

 Admittedly, it's been a while since my last post. The truth is, the last few months have been a bit busy. I got married in June, and most of the last few months have been taken up with wedding prep, and I've spent most of the time this last month laying down a good foundation for my marriage. I was surprised at how long it had been since my last post when I logged in to write this one. Five months is a long time between posts, especially when I was writing about once a month before that.  I've been thinking a bit about how to change my approach to writing this blog. I love writing long pieces where I dive deep into a specific spiritual issue, but as the last year has shown when that's my only focus, life can easily get in the way, and I don't end up posting to the blog at all. I'm not going to give up writing them all together, but I'm going to add in some shorter posts as well. I plan to write at least once a week, and most of the new posts will be reflect...

 There have been several situations throughout the past few years where a communication breakdown has led to a misunderstanding that has caused hurt feelings or worse. Following those issues, here are a few things that could have been done in those situations to make the conversation go smoother. Apologize early, apologize often:  Early in 2021, there was a remote learning day that I was not aware of until I showed up at work and no one was there. For some reason that school year, calls and text notifications were not going out to all of the employees. I checked, and I had gotten an email, but it had come late enough that I was already getting dressed by the time I had received it. I sent a reply to the notification and the sender apologized and assured me that she had sent out the email as soon as she was told she could. Unsurprisingly, I was not the only person who had shown up at work not realizing we were remote. We received an email later that week from someone else telli...

 "So let go of your plan Be caught by my hand I'll show you what I can do When I dream for you" ~  " Dream for You "-Casting Crowns     I recently became engaged, and even though I absolutely love my fiancee, the experience isn't exactly how I dreamed it would be. I'm older than I thought I would be when I got married, my fiancee's not like what I pictured my future husband would look like, and I met him online instead of in person. However, other aspects are the way I dreamed. We share the same faith and political views, and very quickly developed inside jokes that leave those around us shaking their heads. We have been very good for each other these past seven months, and we get along so well that some people thought we were married long before he even proposed. I fully believe that God knew what he was doing when he brought us together, even if it didn't happen quite the way I imagined.      As I mentioned in some earlier posts , this is not t...

 Okay, my name isn't actually Karen. However, Karen is my mother's name and the name of other important people in my life. Unfortunately, Karen has also become a neganym, a derogatory name for any woman who insists on doing something that the user disagrees with, from refusing to wear a mask to cleaning up a mess left by the user's children . The meme originated because of one man dissing his ex-wife , but it has now morphed into a widespread insult.  In my post Don't Be Like Judas , I mentioned that his worst act was his last one, and that's all he's remembered for now. The same is true of Benedict Arnold, and now these two names are widely used neganyms for anyone who betrays someone else. These neganyms are perfectly acceptable while using Karen as a neganym is not. The first reason is because what Judas and Benedict Arnold did is universally seen as wrong. Almost everyone has felt the sting of betrayal at some point in their life, although for most of us it...

I saw a post earlier this year about choosing your hard. It said: Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Pick wisely. I thought the post was good and appreciated the sentiment. Then shortly after I saw this post, I saw another one where these words were crossed out and others were added underneath. They said: Marriage is hard. Staying in an unhappy marriage is harder. Obesity is hard. Because it's stigmatized. Fit is not always accessible to everyone. Being in debt is a complex socio-economic phenomenon often related to privilege. It is not necessarily related to "discipline". Communication is complex. Learning to communicate is a lifelong experience. You don't always get to ...