I, along with a friend, will be reading through the entire Bible this year. I’ve tried a couple of times; was so eager to do it once that I attempted (and failed at) a 90 day plan. After awhile it became more and more ridiculous to talk about Christianity without having read the book. So…here…goes…everything…
PS: You can be a Christian and not read the Bible, right?
“I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food” (Genesis 1:29)
That was God’s instruction to Adam and Eve, the first man and woman according to the Old Testament. So, in a perfect world, people didn’t eat animals? At least, up until the flood, everyone were vegetarians? As many times as I’ve read Genesis, I’ve always missed that.
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
I read an article today that woke me up to a very stark reality…I’m am a recovering people pleaser. Sure, I knew that I like to make others happy or comfortable, but the wake up call was when I started assuaging others to my own detriment. Nodding along with the co-worker taking credit for something she had no hand in, pretending that the joke thinly disguised as a insult was no big deal…There have been more times than I would like to remember where I held back because I didn’t want to make someone feel bad or because I was too embarrassed to say something. My family would undoubtedly find it hard to believe, but in my outside relationships (platonic and otherwise), I was selling myself way too short. Crazy to say this now, considering that I’m in my 30s, but I had no clue how to speak up for myself and still be a good Christian. I was stuck in scripture that taught me to turn the other cheek, that celebrated self-control and doing onto others as you would have them do onto you, but at what cost? My self-esteem? I am much better than I was, but I am haunted by ghosts of years’ past, the things I should have said and done; I find myself reliving moments like if I was in a time machine, maybe I can go back and do things ‘right’. But these ghosts are dead, only occasionally revived by by twisted need to torture myself. And for what? People-pleasing doesn’t please me; it doesn’t please God; it doesn’t even please the people I’m trying to please…so now what?
USELESSLYRANDOM 