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coloradobecca24
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Name: Becca
Country: United States
State: Colorado
Metro: Colorado Springs
Birthday: 10/11/1984
Gender: Female
Interests: I enjoy hanging out with my friends and doing lots of fun and random stuff (hmm...sound familiar??). I also like to shop (when I actually have money), eat (yeah, Ashes), and sleep. One of my favorite things to do is talk to my family online or on the phone (until my annoying calling card runs out of credits). :)
Expertise: Certified Athletic Trainer, baby!!! That's Rebecca Lynne Phillips, ATC! ;)
Occupation: Certified Athletic Trainer
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  leave a comment if ya wanna know!
MSN: leave a comment if ya wanna know!
Member Since:
2/16/2004
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| Over the past few weeks, I have been slapped in the face with the same lesson several different times. I guess my skull must be particularly thick in this area or something because I just can’t seem to get the hang of it no matter how easy it sounds! It started out about 3 ½ weeks ago while I was on my way back out to Ohio. ¾ of the way through Nebraska, I hit a patch of ice, fishtailed, and spun my truck off the interstate into a ditch. I was alright, and the truck was fine (yay for 4WD), but it was the beginning of what turned out to be a veerrrrryyyyyy looooooooonnnnggggg week FULL of trial after trial! Ever read the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Multiply that by 7 days, and you have my week! I experienced everything from craziness with the softball girls to loss of sleep to a mechanic backing my truck into a pole and cracking the back fender! Each day more and more was piled on my plate, and I quickly became overwhelmed and quite bitter about the way the week was going. After all, with the way things were going, I had the RIGHT to be bitter, frustrated, and upset….right? It was while I was sitting in the waiting area at the auto shop that God brought to my mind the first few verses from James. Ironically enough, I have been working on memorizing this book for the last few months. James 1:2-4 says:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Ouch. That lays it out pretty plain and clear, huh? We are to consider it PURE JOY when we face trials! Why in the world would we do that? Well, what does it say? Consider it pure joy when you face trials because you KNOW that the testing of your faith, even just the little tests (i.e. the hard or annoying little inconveniences you go through in your day-to-day life) are developing perseverance which then leads to your maturity as a Christian (and as a person too, really). Stop for a second and think about the last “bad day” you had. What all happened that made it bad? Bad hair day? Forgot you had an exam in science class? Car troubles? You ran late for a meeting? Poodle ate your homework? Do you realize that each one of those things, whether big or small, were tests of your faith in order to help push you towards maturity? How did you do with those tests? In my case, I let those little tests get the best of me. My mood was affected, I was frustrated and short-tempered, and I spent each day engrossed in a self-pity party. Pretty easy to do, isn’t it? Take a look at someone who had even bigger troubles than anything we’ve just described…
Paul was a man who dedicated his entire life to serving God and spreading the Gospel. What did he get as a result? Thrown in prison (dark, damp, rat-infested), flogged (the flesh on his back was left torn and bleeding from the blows), beaten (with no one to care for his wounds), shipwrecked, mocked (huge crowds of people hurling insults at him), persecuted all throughout his life, abandoned even by those he loved…sounds pretty rough, huh? I’d say Paul sure EARNED the right to be bitter, frustrated, short-tempered, and upset! BUT, take a look at his response!
2 Corinthians 4:1: “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.”
2 Corinthians 4:8, 17-18: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. For our fight and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Philippians 3:13b-14: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Hebrews 12:2-3: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
How are YOU doing with your tests? Are you responding with a bad attitude, frustration, and self-pity? Or are you following the example set by Paul (and also by Christ)? Friends, I encourage you: do not grow weary and lose heart! Only a God who truly loves you would care enough to push you towards maturity! Make those trials worthwhile: rejoice and find your joy in HIM! | | |
| I was listening to the radio tonight, and a song came on that I have heard TONS of times before, but never really paid much attention to. For some reason, the lyrics and meaning of the song really hit me tonight, and I thought it would be neat/encouraging to share them with you:
Never Alone I waited for You today
But You didn't show
No, no, no.
I needed You today
So where did you go?
You told me to call
You said You'd be there
And though I haven't seen You
Are You still there?
Chorus
I cried out with no reply and
I can't feel You by my side
So I'll hold tight to what I know
You're here and I'm never alone.
And though I can not see You
and I can't explain why.
Such a deep, deep reassurance
You've placed in my life oh
We cannot separate
'Cause You're part of me
and though You're invisible
I'll trust the unseen
Chorus
I cried out with no reply
And I can't feel You by my side
So I'll hold tight to what I know
You're here and I'm never alone
We cannot separate
You're part of me
and though You're invisible
I'll trust the unseen
Chorus
I cried out with no reply
and I can't feel You by my side
So I'll hold tight to what I know
You're here and I'm never alone Take a second to read those words again, even if you’ve heard them before. This person is crying out to God saying, “I KNOW I’m never alone, but I just don’t FEEL like you are here with me! You’ve promised to be here with me, but why can’t I FEEL you here? Why won’t you answer me?” Ever been there? I know I sure have. Some of the hardest times to have faith in God are the times when we feel like we are crying out and asking about something and feeling like we are getting no response. It is during those times that we need to follow what is said in the chorus: “I can’t feel You by my side, so I’ll hold tight to what I know.” What exactly do we know about God? Well, check this out: -Joshua 1:5b: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” -Hebrews 13:5: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you’.” -Psalm 46:11: The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah.” -1 John 5:14: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” -Romans 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities (demons), nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sounds to me like based on these verses we know that God IS with us always, that He hears us when we call to Him, and that absolutely nothing we can ever do could take away the love He has for us (which is the REASON He listens to us and is with us in the first place)! Can you relate to the singer of this song? Do you feel like you’ve been crying out to God over and over, but just aren’t getting any response? Are you having trouble seeing Him in your life? Are you struggling to feel His presence? I encourage you: hold tight to what you know about Him! Why not take some time and go through some verses that deal with what YOU know about God and what He means to YOU? Make out a list of those things, as a reminder to yourself of the things you KNOW about God. Then, keep praying! He hears you, loves you, and will do what He knows is ultimately the best for you! Don't give up...that's exactly what Satan wants you to do! | | |
| I have really been trying to think of an object lesson for this week, but haven’t really been able to come up with one. Then, this morning, one finally fell into my lap….quite literally, actually! As a graduate assistant, I am responsible to help in the labs with the undergrad Athletic Training students. This morning we taught the first-year students how to ace-wrap hips in order to prevent certain motions. In order to demonstrate, I had my partner, Katie, stand up on a table so that everyone in the class could see clearly. Now, it is important to explain that when applying an ace wrap to the hip, you have to put a bit of tension on the wrap in order to actually make it effective. Well, when I stood in front of her and went to apply the tension, I pulled a little too hard, catching Katie off-guard, and before we knew what was happening the side of the table was on the ground and poor Katie was in my arms! The entire class erupted in laughter as Katie and I stood there, in a completely stunned embrace, wondering what in the world had just happened! After Katie and I regained our composure, the professor, with a huge grin on his face, looked at us and said, “Let’s try that one again, shall we?” Do you ever feel like your life is careening out of control? Do you feel like the way things are working out just doesn’t make sense? Do you feel like nothing is working out the way it is supposed to? Do you feel like you are in completely over your head, and there is no way out? If you answered yes to any of these, you are not alone! We all feel this way at one time or another. It is during these times we need to remember that our lives are not in our own hands. There is One who is there, watching over us, who has EVERYTHING in His hands and under COMPLETE control. Grab your Bible and check out Philippians 4:19: “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Wow! What a promise! Do you notice that it doesn’t say, “He MIGHT meet all of your needs”, or “He will meet SOME of your needs”, or even “He may CHOOSE to meet MOST of your needs.” What does it say? “He WILL meet ALL your needs”! He knows the needs you have in your life, and promises to meet them when they need to be met. It won’t always be in the time frame you would like it to be in, but HIS timing is more perfect than ours could ever be! So what do we need to do? Flip over to Matthew 6 and read verses 25-34. What does this entire passage talk about? Worry. God takes care of clothing even the flowers of the field, and still we worry that we won’t have clothes to wear. God takes care of feeding the birds, and still we worry that we might not have food to eat. We find so many things in life to worry about, but what does verse 33 tell us to do? “Seek first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness…” Now flip over to 1 Peter 5:7: “Cast all your anxiety (your cares, your worries) on Him because He cares for you.” Do you see? Even when you feel like your life is careening out of control, you don’t understand what is going on, and things just aren’t making sense or don’t seem fair, God is there, holding out His arms to catch you. Take it all to Him, and let HIM carry it for you instead of worrying and trying to carry it on your own. He knows your needs, and He cares for you more than you will ever know. | | |
| Lately I have been working on memorizing the book of James. It’s a really great book, and I would encourage each of you to take some time to read through it when you get a chance (don’t worry, it’s really short). Every verse is filled with practical truths for Christians to live their lives by, and I get something new out of it every time I read it! Today I’d like to focus on two of those verses that really hit me. Flip your Bible open to James 1 and take a look at verses 19-20: “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” This passage mentions three things I think nearly all people have a hard time doing: being quick to listen, being slow to speak, and being slow to become angry. Let’s start off by taking a look at the first two as they kind of go hand-in-hand. Let me ask a question: Why do you think God gave each one of us TWO ears and only ONE mouth? Because we would look funny walking around with only one ear and two mouths? Because there was no more room for a second mouth? Because the two ears keep the head balanced? I would argue that God gave us two ears and one mouth as a reminder of what should be important to us. Take a look at the verse again. What does it say? We should be quick to listen, and slow to speak. Why is it that so often we have these two reversed? We are usually so quick to blurt out our opinions, quick to spread gossip, quick to yell out cuss words, and don’t spend very much time really LISTENING to others around us, or even to God. So what would it look like to do things the Biblical way (being quick to listen and slow to speak)? I believe that we need to discipline ourselves to stop and think before we speak. Think about the words you are about to let out of your mouth. Ask yourself: are these words going to be helpful in any way to the people around me? Are they going to demonstrate God’s love? Are they going to hurt someone or cause damage in some way? If the words aren’t going to help/encourage someone in some way, is there really even a point in saying them? Secondly, we need to discipline ourselves to honestly listen to the people around us. Instead of just asking how they are doing and then moving on, really take some time and LISTEN to what they are saying. It will open up many opportunities for you to share God’s love and to encourage those around you. The third thing we are told to do in this passage is be slow to anger. This is a big one for us today. It seems like it only takes one tiny little thing to get us all riled up and angry for the rest of the day. What happens when we do this? We end up lashing out at anyone around us. We blurt out hurtful words (hmmm…sound like something we just talked about???), and we take everything out on anyone or anything that we can. Then, later on, we end up having to go back and apologize. Let me tell you something, hurtful words, angry actions, damage caused by anger…those are things that cannot be fixed by “damage-control” apologies. Once you have lashed out in your anger, the damage is done, and even the most sincere apology cannot take back the effects of your actions. This is why this verse tells us we need to be SLOW to become angry. If we rush into anger, we end up doing things that we regret, things that hurt others, and things that do not please God (see the last part of the passage). So, the challenge for this week: Check yourself. How are you doing at being slow to speak? Quick to listen? Slow to become angry? I challenge you to pick one of these and focus on working on it throughout this week. Ask God to help remind you to work on it. When you feel yourself beginning to blow it, stop and think about the consequences, then pray and ask God to help give you the strength to resist Satan’s temptation. | | |
| I hope everyone is doing well! This week’s challenge is going to be a bit….different. Stick with me, and read all the way to the end, and I think you will understand what I mean by that. Let’s go ahead and get into it!
CHALLENGE:
This week, I want to talk a little bit about a pretty big issue our country is dealing with right now. I really debated discussing this topic for a while, but I trust everyone to be mature enough to handle it. I want to talk with you about homosexual marriage. I have thought a lot about this particular subject, and have done a lot of research to form my opinion on it, and I would like to present MY responses to some of the most common arguments against homosexual marriages (remember to read all the way to the end):
Common Argument #1: Marriage is an institution between one man and one woman. Well, that's the most often heard argument, one even stated in a recently passed U.S. federal law. Yet it is easily the weakest. Who says what marriage is? Who gets to define it? People who are married? Isn't that kind of like allowing a banker to decide who is going to own the money stored in his vaults? It seems to me that justice demands that if the straight community cannot show a good, strong reason to deny marriage to gay people, it shouldn't be denied. And such simple declarations with no real moral argument behind them are NOT good reasons. In fact, they are really more like expressions of prejudice than any kind of a real argument.
Common Argument #2: Same-sex couples do not provide a good environment in which to raise children. That's an interesting one when you take a look at who society does allow to get married and bring children into their marriage. Check it out: murderers, convicted felons of all sorts, even people with a history of harming children are all allowed to raise children, and do so every day, with hardly a second thought. So if children are truly the main concern here, why is this allowed?
Common Argument #3: Marriage is traditionally a heterosexual institution. This is morally the weakest argument. Slavery was also a traditional institution, based on traditions that went back to the very beginnings of human history - further back, even, than marriage as we know it. But by the 19th century, humanity had generally recognized the evils of slavery, and has since made a serious effort to abolish it. Abolishing slavery went against tradition and people were ok with it…why is it not ok to change the traditional picture of marriage?
Common Argument #4: Denying homosexuals the right to marry is a violation of religious freedom. The main reason for denying marriage to gay couples is that all major religions consider homosexuality a sin. However, the First Amendment of the Constitution clearly states that a person's religious views or lack thereof must be protected. Marriage by the state is a secular activity; the government cannot start making laws just because a religion says they should. What's next, should we make taking the Lord's name in vain a criminal activity just because Christians consider it a breaking of a commandment?
Common Argument #5: Denying these marriages is a form of minority discrimination. America was founded on the concept that the majority should rule, but the rights of minorities should be protected. It is the main reason we have a Bill of Rights as well as anti-slavery and equal protection amendments. Denying marriage to a homosexual couple is no different than denying marriage to Hispanic or black couples.
Ok, I REALLY hope I haven’t gotten myself into too much trouble by presenting this challenge in this way, but I really wanted to prove a point. First of all, let me clarify that the above opinions DO NOT reflect my true opinion of homosexual marriage at all. In fact, they are the complete OPPOSITE of what I truly believe. So why did I share them? I wanted to get you thinking about a few things:
First of all, I want to share that just because someone has a good, solid argument for something does NOT mean it is the truth! What do I mean by that? Well, I just gave you five pretty good arguments supporting homosexual marriage. So, since I gave some solid arguments, you all should now be supporters of homosexual marriage, right? I would argue that this statement is not true! There is one KEY element I haven’t mentioned yet: Scripture! God has given us the Bible to serve as our guide for life. He gave us all the instruction we need in order to tell right from wrong. It is our responsibility to USE the guidebook He has given us, and to form our opinions and beliefs based upon what God says in it! Take a look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Do you know what that means? It means that since the Bible is inspired by God, it automatically “trumps” or “beats” any argument humans can come up with! No matter how smart a person is, how much research they have done, how much experience they have, or how good of an argument they give, if what they are saying doesn’t line up with what the Scriptures say, it CANNOT be true!
Secondly, the Bible does not specifically address every single issue you are going to come across, but it DOES give you guidelines that will help you to form a Bible-based opinion on those issues. For example, the Bible does not specifically say anything about homosexual marriage, but take a look at these verses and see what it has to say: Gen 1:27-28, Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, Matt 19:1-8, Rom 1:18-32, Eph 5:22-33. See how they can help you form an opinion on the issue even without specifically addressing it?
Lastly, I wanted to show you that good, seemingly strong arguments can come from ANY source; even from someone you trust! As Christians, we are responsible to take what we hear and compare it with what is in the Scriptures to see if it is true. Take a look at the Berean church in Acts 17:11. They took what their pastor (Paul) said, and held it up to Scripture to see if it was true! That is EXACTLY what we need to do too! I want to close with one last reminder of what we need to do. 1 Thessalonians 5:21: “Test everything. Hold on to the good.”
Becca | | |
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