SweetRain

We are not married yet but we have noticed that our spending could be a problem once we are married. So we have been trying to get use to trust each other with our money so it won't be too awkward to fork over money. Though we would like good advice on budgeting. We both have separate homes and our own set of bills. Though lately we are both hit hard financially and struggle to have enough to stretch out our paychecks long enough until the next pay period. I think a bigger issue is the recent need of supplying others needs in our families aswell. I don't mind giving money to family if they are in need, bust its really crippling my bfs ability to save. This month we both had to be late on bills because of it and both of our houses are nearly out of food. :-( we are both constantly open about the spending so I know any advice I get he'll be willing to try. I just want to find a way for us to manage our money, especially knowing that we r in a possition to have to give money every time we get paid.

Paster John Beveres book "relentless" would really encourage you right now. A lot of people in my church, including myself had that attack experience all at once. Its the spirit of infermity. God is with you, he doesn't create trauma to kill us, its satans job. If satan can keep you from confidentally live and speak Gods word over yourself then he will seem to reign more over ur life than God. I remember itgot so bad for me that I was afraid to step outside, but remember that God did not give use a spirit of fear but a clear and sound mind. God wants to give you not just peace, but peace that surpasses all understanding. That means when the devil tries to kill u at all angles, you have joy in your heart because you know that this season will pass and God is in control. Speak life over your situation and dedicate it all to God. The devil is forced to leave when the holy spirit is in charge. "Greater is he that is within [you] than he is in the world" ! Praying for you!

I grew up self concious about my own version of weight and body image. So I. Always avoided looking at weight and just learn to accept my size. On the otherhand, its terribly hard to know how to motivate someone you love to accept themselves and change their size because of their health risks. I feel evil when I cough him not to eat too much because I get flashbacks of how people hatefully tried to control me to think I wasn't a "normal" looking woman. We both love each other so there isn't a awkward. Hesitancy of telling the truth and opening up about things. But this area is very senitive so it have been a topic I avoid to say. I love what he looks like now cuz looks isn't everything btwn us and I'm use to complimenting his looks, but he's telling me that he's on the verge of diabetes or other risks so I feel like I'm complementing him straight into sickness.... any advice on this??? n

I wonder if I scan myself, I could get a twin???? Then my sister and I could duplicate ourselves and then ther would be four of us!!!! Hehe I'm excited for the future now. ^.^

This year is my first official attempt to cook for christmas... *scared* lol! My parents are going to be gone for the holidays so I'm going to try to cook for my siblings. Any easy recipe ideas you could give to a newbie at this?? Thanks! ^.^

There are womens groups at my church its just taking me forever to go... its wierd because I can't really pin point whats making me so sluggish. I know most of it is because I don't have friends I could spend my days off work with but I dont see why it would bother me that bad.

I agree on the points made here, especially of both making sure to have self control as well as good alone time. I kind of went through a phase where I had to be socially isolated so my alone time outside of church was more of a focus I needed to devote to God. But in the reverse, when i was surrounded with friends and family who took up most of my attention, going to church was important so that I wouldnt lose the importance of setting aside time for God amongst my busy schedule. My concern within the past few months actually ran deeper than just my lack of wanting to go to church. Its like my life went numb and I didnt realize how bad it got until it was drawn to my attention. I had gone through a brief bad start when i moved out on my own which kind of crippled my confidence. I didn't know anyone out here when i moved so I relied on God alot on company and sanity when things got rough. but sometimes when I notice that I can't really change my situation, I lost the urge to take care of myself or do much of anything. Like for example, my biggest struggle I have is affording stuff like food. it would be murder everytime i had to go grocery shopping because I wouldnt have enough to last for a few days, not alone a week. Then on top of that, my appartment has bad bug problem so i would have to spend on making sure i don't get too much of them. I felt embarassed whenever I thought about wanting friends because i feared that htey would come over one day and see my appartment and think bad of me. I work alot and come home super tired so I already dont have a desire to fix something to eat for myself so sometimes I don't eat at all, my appartment is never clean because all i want to do is sleep. And then I wonder why I'm always tired at work. I have a church that I go to but I haven't connected to any group because I'm too tired to go and I don't really have the drive to as I use too. So for months I would work and sleep. The only time I really ate was on my break at work and probably did small shopping on my off day. The only reason why I found out how far I was getting in neglecting myself was because my bf warned me about it when he realized how thin I was compared to a pic of me several weeks before all this. This past week is the best improvement I have made in a long time. Though its awkward trying to force myself to do everything, I do take better care of myself. My biggest struggle I have right now is getting involved in my church, or anything beyond just sitting at home. Theres alot of ways for me to not be such a loner but everytime its time for church i just dont go. I had this problem before because I would just get tired of going to church or events by myself, and normally I could just force myself to get over it and move on. but its a miracle to motivate myself to go unless I can go but not have to talk to anyone while im there.

I don't have much time right now (library computer) i'll post more later, but in brief: I was wondering if its normal to have periods when your not really motivated to go to church anymore. not saying I lost my faith in God or anything. Actually its kinda the opposite. I just find myself kind of just not fully myself when I go. I spend more time talking to God than really listening to what is being said at church. Or I feel more interested in staying home and just waiting for him to talk to me than really going. Its kinda like i'm wanting specific stuff to talk to God and so I really just daydream in church. So I kinda skip...

I pray that God will protect those in Nigeria and all around the world who face tragedies such as this.

This was my favorite worship song growing up.

Ditto! I've been somewhat better, somewhat backfiring. I don't fear dying anymore since its not in my control, though I think about it sometimes. When my friend past away who loved God alot it was the first time I didn't actually fear death. It didn't seem like something learking behind me at any moment. And if I did feel that way I wasn't scared because I knew that if I died Jesus was going to be the one who takes me home. At the funeral when I saw her for the last time was the strangest because I felt completely happy. She finally got to see the face of God, the one who loved me and only could be around in a limited point. I had to admit, I was a little excited to finally have my funeral day. God has been helping me to not let fear eat me and fester on me. Because thats pretty much what it came to. And now that I'm more excited about seeing my savior, satan seems to put other obstacles of fear in my way. Because of the possible depth of what God is calling me, it could say either way on how much satan tries to tear me down. I'm holding onto God so that each time a new fear pops up, God will give me a new level of strength to not be afraid...

Hey I'm not a kid!! I am a certified adult, with a capital "A". I know when I was younger I would play my favorite games at certain levels of urgency: If the game was ugly and difficult I would only watch my siblings play and waste the whole day away; if the scenery in the game was beautiful and the characters where cute then I would waste a whole day. Now if the characters in the game were designed attractive, had beautiful scenery and I got irritated everytime a enemy character hurt my favorite character.... I would play that game all week, barely sleep or eat until I made sure my enemies didn''t mess with my precious character! The sad part though is that I usually played video games because of the pretty colours and the cute storyline. So I never really finished levels.. Atleast until something made me mad lol. And therefore the cycle of gaming never ends. Lol, though I got over playing games really quick when it started to interfer with my new coveted hobby. (saving money lol) I love looking at games but it better be free or I can care less. lol, I don't really watch tv much because I know I could be doing something else with my life... though computer is a complex situation... some days I dont care and be on for two minutes, other days I'm on all the time. Though recently I've been on during scheduled occations aka job searching.. so really its more about improving myself rather than watching a pretty tv screen.

First off I want to say in response to your long researched post...... HI ISAIAH!!! *WAVING* ^.^ I think that is why the wii and "connect" is a better choice for games. Your whole body gets tired, therefore the urge to stop playing the game is higher. Except when I'm playing against my rival on the dance revolution game..... I refuse to lose!!!! Lol

My dream one day is to aid the chinese churches over there. I pray that God will give us strength to not give up. In all things, through Christ, it is possible to overcome. I know that God will rise up and bring his message to his hungry people. And I can't wait until a revival and a great break through accures over there.

You see, we all die physically, One thing I have noticed, more then one person in the Bible were raised from the dead. They all died again! Not one of them, at least to my knowledge is alive and kicking on earth to this day. So why worry about our physical death. The when and how we die is not as important as how we lived, and if we have chosen Jesus or not. So if we have chosen Christ, then our physical death is only the beginning of a new and eternal life with Christ. This then makes it clear why the word says This means we get to be with the Lord with 100% of our being. So does this mean that we should seek to die? To become self destructive, to become depressed and not to try to live? No! Lets look at what Paul says. For we can be fruitful in our life, as he says to live is Christ! We are to live for Christ and yet look forward to heaven. As C.S. Lewis put it Now there is hope when you are in Christ. How ever if you reject him, you have chosen the spiritual second death, known as hell. You chose this while on earth. Now to address the question of God killing or ordering the killing of people in the old testament. If its only the physical death, which we all face anyway then I do not see an issue. You see since we all die and go to the judgment seat of God, then as I stated before, its not as important how/when we die but how we lived. If we lived an evil life on earth, and God takes us off to prevent us from causing more harm, is that not up to him? If God killed a child molester who had molested several children and kept doing it unrepentantly, would anyone call God evil, or cruel, for taking a danger off the earth to the final judgment? You see when ever God did order or cause the death of people in the Bible, there was a good reason. He took them to the Judgment, where he judged them by there life on earth. So in a nutshell its this. If you don't know Christ, he wants to give you life, and life eternal. He made the way so you can join him! If you know Christ, then do not forget to think about heavenly things, to life for Christ not for yourself. I know to many people who professing Christ, seem to forget this. They only focus on selfish things and do not live for Christ but for themselves. They miss the whole point! And for those who are struggling remember we have Hope! You Post is really good! Even though it took me forever to finally finish reading it all (I blame you though for writing a novel). Other than that, keep up the good work and watch out for the monkey's.... THERE EVERWHERE... O.O LOL *hides Hey not my fault that I can talk the hind leg off a donkey as my grandma always said I could... and yes monkeys are everywhere.. they're coming to get you. Hide Isaiah Hide!!!! its the monkey apocalypse!!! Wait...... I hear that they only see you when you make sudden movements....! Oh no! It spotted me!!!! *runs in fear* O.o

You see, we all die physically, One thing I have noticed, more then one person in the Bible were raised from the dead. They all died again! Not one of them, at least to my knowledge is alive and kicking on earth to this day. So why worry about our physical death. The when and how we die is not as important as how we lived, and if we have chosen Jesus or not. So if we have chosen Christ, then our physical death is only the beginning of a new and eternal life with Christ. This then makes it clear why the word says This means we get to be with the Lord with 100% of our being. So does this mean that we should seek to die? To become self destructive, to become depressed and not to try to live? No! Lets look at what Paul says. For we can be fruitful in our life, as he says to live is Christ! We are to live for Christ and yet look forward to heaven. As C.S. Lewis put it Now there is hope when you are in Christ. How ever if you reject him, you have chosen the spiritual second death, known as hell. You chose this while on earth. Now to address the question of God killing or ordering the killing of people in the old testament. If its only the physical death, which we all face anyway then I do not see an issue. You see since we all die and go to the judgment seat of God, then as I stated before, its not as important how/when we die but how we lived. If we lived an evil life on earth, and God takes us off to prevent us from causing more harm, is that not up to him? If God killed a child molester who had molested several children and kept doing it unrepentantly, would anyone call God evil, or cruel, for taking a danger off the earth to the final judgment? You see when ever God did order or cause the death of people in the Bible, there was a good reason. He took them to the Judgment, where he judged them by there life on earth. So in a nutshell its this. If you don't know Christ, he wants to give you life, and life eternal. He made the way so you can join him! If you know Christ, then do not forget to think about heavenly things, to life for Christ not for yourself. I know to many people who professing Christ, seem to forget this. They only focus on selfish things and do not live for Christ but for themselves. They miss the whole point! And for those who are struggling remember we have Hope! You Post is really good! Even though it took me forever to finally finish reading it all (I blame you though for writing a novel). Other than that, keep up the good work and watch out for the monkey's.... THERE EVERWHERE... O.O LOL *hides

My christian life seems to dip into trials after trials. As soon as one finishes, I am being prepared to enter into a new one. Well this is happening again. So far my christian walk was to live by Gods word and be reserved and pure before God. And I have done my best with the grace of God aiding me along the way. What is put to the test is how far would I go when it comes to a job or career task. Recently I have been assigned to portray myself as a half dressed woman along with others in a musical number for a play. The actress in me does not associate myself with the character and would be able to adjust to the role, yet my christian side is screaming that this is a bad idea. Part of me says that since its a play people would understand that I am only acting, yet I'm worried that this will dampen my witness as a christan woman. I'm thinking about calling off the role tomorrow, yet its not as easy as just saying "this part doesn't make me feel comfortable". Our rehearsals are run on a tight schedule and began already on the same week as the auditions. And they really wanted me in the dance so they added me anyway before the auditions. I'm just really stressed because I haven't told my parents or barely any of my christian friends about what i have to do because I fear that they will think of me as a dirty person. Pray that Gods will can be set in place in this situation. And please pray for me, I've been severely stressed over school and, of course, over this situation. Thank you.

Lol yah.... I think a GPS would have solved a lot of headaches for me....

Thanks, this helps. It just troubles me sometimes and I wish these feelings would go away. I guess I'm use to being surrounded by people I knw who care about me and realizing that i'm leaving it behind and starting off on my own is very shocking for me.

I faced one of my fears recently: I was lost for a 1 1/2 days in a city alone. I was one a trip and it seemed like no matter how hard I got close to the road I needed to go down on a road leading to it was blocked or I get detoured for construction or i miss a turn. Though its stressful enough for being lost in a place I never been in before, what really bothers me is the fact that I'm going to have to get use to living alone and trying to do everything by myself. The sad part is that the city I got lost in was the one I wanted to move to one day.. i feel bad though too cuz I know that God was trying to talk to me during that time too.. I think mainly cuz I decided to go to this church that is the one I wanted to attend when I finally move to the city (figured since I was stuck in the city I might aswell go : P ). It was one of those moments when it seems like God sends spy's out to follow you and then speak about topics that pertains to you. I began thinking that maybe God wanted me to be lost so I can go to church there that day, but reality was setting in for me to harshly that I'm going to be dealing with loneliness that I barely enjoyed the servous as much as I wanted. Its just been very trivial for me lately, I'm trying to rely on God and not worry too much. But the process of stepping out scares me. its awkward being a stranger all the time and trying to be strong at the same time when its just me.

Personally since the time I had posted my prayer (I think beginning of this year) I have been ocassionally hesitant of talking to God about this subject. A part of me says that I need to have strong faith and just believe strongly that God will someday bring someone in my life while the other half is scared of bringing hope since I failed to have even one official boyfriend. For the most part I could handle being on the fence on believing that I could someday find someone, but honestly on the inside I felt like I was ripping in two. Not necessarily because I was desiring a boyfriend more than anything but it was really damaging my self-esteem. I remember a couple of times when I would struggle to to give my worry to God and a thought would come like "The reason why I can't find someone is because no one would want someone like me," or "Why would someone want me? I'm too wierd, unattractive, not interesting, etc.... No wonder people don't fit with me". I began feeling like there was something wrong with me or maybe everyone except me has reached sometype of level with God that they can be happy. The last thought always got me since I always felt out of place with God for feeling like I was in adequate for someone to love me. This past sunday God revealed something to me. I spend more time meditating on my own thoughts and fears that I do not realize that I have been allowing satan to speak over my life more clearly than God could speak to me. To the point that it was all I think about. But God gave me this verse: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." He revealed to me that if I believed that God is not a liar, then surrendering all my problems to him should not be a huge risk for me to take. Or even a risk at all. Which means that without knowing it, I've been telling God through my actions that I rather solve this area of my life without Gods help but he can have the rest of me. But putting our faith in ourselves will only lead to heartache and regrets... I know that there has been times when I wanted to go out and find someone to date and just ignore wither or not they were right for me, because I was tired of being alone. Yet every time i went on that first date I was torn in two because I could feel God telling me "no" when I wanted a "yes". Though I'm still a virgin, I barely made it to twenty being one. Finally I decided to cast my worry to God because I know he loves and knows me best. And like the verse states, God has brought peace. Ever so often I feel alone, but sadness is leaving me. Also I begin to build confidence and value in myself again. Daily God reminds me that there is a time and place for everything and a reason for each season in our life. For me right now, God reveals to me that I need to be single so he can use me and my time. There are several people God placed in my life right now who struggle with thier faith in Christ and remaining pure before God, and if I had a boyfriend I wouldn't be as available to pray and support them as they need. In the mean time, God met my relational need through friendships with people who I can share my personal thoughts and concerns with so I won't feel alone. I think through personal experience I spend more time fearing God and allowing him to hold this situation than needed, to the point that its draining. And the social aspect of being single can add the stress too. I know people may laugh that I'm twenty and feeling lonely sometimes but I have a friend who's 25 and still a virgin and didn't have a boyfriend and another friend who's divorced and has kids who's in her upper 40's. It seems like the older we get the less amount of faith in God we allow ourselves to have since the facts say that we are getting too old to hope for a christian relationship. I definately know that this is definatelly not true since God blessed countless of his loyal people regardless of how he made them and age. I think we just need to begin focusing on God and let him take care of the rest. That way we can no longer doubt God and believe that he has everything under control. : )

Yes but what did Paul say. "It is better to be single in the Lord then to be Married". If you are feeling condemned by God to be single you really need to work on your relationship with God. Because that should be the single most important relationship in your life. But you are so much more focused on a relationship with some one other then Christ that your Joy is taken away and God didn't do that you did. And satan helped you do it. Which is why you don't feel the love of God. In a way you have rejected Him because you FULL focus is not on Him it is on YOU. If God has a soul mate out there for you He will not be sending her your way until you are ready IN CHRIST for her and she is ready in Christ for you. And it will be on God's timing not yours When I first came to Christ I was some what like you. But praise God because I saw that what I was doing was traveling down the wrong road. So I buried myself in the study of the word, going to church, doing ministry and generally rapping my whole life around God, my relationship with God and the things of God. Unknowns to me I meet my future wife in Christ during that 8 year time of dedication. But at that time we didn't like each other very much. Two years later we ran into each other at the same church we had originally met and I asked her if she would like to have breakfast after church and the rest is history. That was more then 8 years ago and we are still together in Christ. What does the bible say? Seek FIRST the thing of the Lord and everything else will fall into place. I really like your response Massorite. Thanks for sharing, Its encouraging. : )

Awsome! I pray God will influence Obama and the government leaders towards a righteous direction.

Thank you for sharing your testimony. Right now I know I need to wait and be patient on finding someone for me. Occassionally I get confused, wondering if there is somthing wrong with my life when I notice my friends finding boyfriends/girlfriends and possibly marrying sooner than I. But I need to know that the greatest relationship I can ever have is one with God. When I can realize how wonderful it is to be in love with God, the hurt and insecurity of lacking a bf relationship dwindles. I can finally be free and live in tone to what God wants me to be while I'm solely his. If a part of my life is to find someone to love aswell, then great, if not then so what, nothing is going to stop me from enjoying life because God still love's me the same. I know it takes forever to perceive being single in a positive light because, especially for me, it seems that we never get to experience love or that no one deeply cares about us. It always silenced me whenever I saw most of my female friends always receiving flowers or being called lovely when the only time I get that encouragement is on rare occasions from relatives. So satan really had a hold on me. Then what made it worse was when I finally did get alot of complements it was from people who wanted to take advantage of me. So I felt like I may never have anyone who wants to care about me. Unsuspectedly, despite all my loneliness, God was beginning to show me what true love is. At that time, my desire of a boyfriend was greater than seeking God. Fortunately I didn't get a boyfriend (because I probably would have lost my faith in God), but God sent a few godly single men in my life who cared about me not because they saught a marriage relationship but a strong friendship in Christ. For the first time, confidence began to sink in and I felt beautiful even while being single. My closest guy friend was a real blessing because even though we were not dating, he constantly prayed for me and loved me like a dear sister. I definately saw the love of God in Him and decided to seek after the source of that love, which was Christ. I believe that God used them to reveal his love to me and helped me realize that I do have someone caring for me, and it was Him. God taught me to accept being single not as a punishment, but as a season in life. We don't have to feel odd. God created us to seek after him first, everything else follows if he wills. His love is perfect and His loyalty last for eternity. When we recognize how beautifully and wonderfully made and desired in the eyes of God, all other desires will not dictate our live's any longer. That kind of love is not optain in a spouse relationship. Many times we rush into relationships hoping that we can finally be secure in ourselves and find happyness. The problem is that the person we are with are hoping the same thing. Or worse, we may believe we are completing each other and begin to lose interest in loving God. So at this time of being single we are given an opportunity to mature in love for others. So whither or not God wants us to live totally available for God, or caring for a family as well as serving him, we can still be confident in who we are in Christ and have time to develop into the person God made us to be. And for all you singles who lack in being told how wonderful you are, God wants you to know that your not simple, not even nice.... but..... Beautiful and handsome peoplez!! God Loves You!

Your welcome. I knew there where others out there who were feeling how I was feeling, so I wanted to let them know that they are dearly loved by God and will one day find someone to spend thier life with. Just have to hold on to hope and trust in God.