New Years Walk

Looking back on the year there has been a lot of ups and downs, but I would have to admit this year I have learned the most about myself. My personality for instance what I like, not what my friends or family like but what truly appeals to me. The relationships I have with people are these the ones that will last me a lifetime? When it came to my family we have had lots of new additions with all of my siblings having children now, life became a bit more hectic. I felt myself either having not enough time with them so I would have to bail on my friends or vice versa. I feel like the biggest jumps that have happened over 2011 would be my relationship with my sister. You see when I was going on this walk I was looking around taking pictures of things that I saw but nothing really had seemed to grab my attention, I was trying to think of something deep and meaningful I would be able to share. Instead my mind kept wondering off to certain people that I have had memorize with when I saw certain places. The most important part of my personality is relationships I love my friends and family more than anything so when I tend to do these types of walks the only thing that seems to come to mind are the people I care about. So, while I was walking I saw the old house where I had grown up with my family. All of these memorize coming back to me. That’s when my sister came in my head all of the memorize I had with her at that house are not the best, but I remember something always being wrong I was so little at the time I didn’t understand all of the pressure she was under. I am so incredible thankful I have Gillian as my sister you see even though we never really got along when I was younger these past few years we have become more than just sisters she is the best friend I have always wanted and the girl I can tell everything to. I was praying that God would give me someone I know would understand and I could count on. All along she was right there, and had gone through pretty much the same thing I have. Further along in this walk my mind of course started wondering to random things that have happened throughout this last year; getting to experience another new country with amazing friends, making old friends again and spending all my time with them, doing yoga in the excruciating heat with a childhood friend every Saturday morning, adding yet another nephew to my list and becoming an adult, spending my last summer playing basketball with the best team ever, and taking another trip to Montana where I got to experience more and more of Gods amazing plans in life. There are so many more things that have happened. As I begin to end my walk I get to my drive way and look up I see my home this was the last year I will live there full time that. The thing I will probably miss the most, coming home every day to my amazing Dad who has done everything he could to support me. So, thank you 2011 for another great year.

This picture is of the lake when it is down, deffinatly not as pretty when it is down but its nice because you get to explore and find new things! 

Feelings come and go

“No one can promise to continue feeling a certain way” and I strongly agree with this statement. In our society today people change their minds continuously with what they like and dislike, so how could this not be the same with love? Well I believe that this is why so many marriages today have ended in divorce. C.S. Lewis states; “ love in this second sense- love as distinct from ‘being in love’- is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God.” Lewis goes on to explain that if you were to feel the same way you did the night you got married for fifty more years that would get pretty old. Even we do not like our selves all the time but we still have to learn to love our selves, and shouldn’t that be the same with a spouse. This relationship thing is not suppose to be easy it is far more than loving another person just like it says in the vows you take, you have to love every part for better or for worse. In today’s society once we feel that “spark” go away we think oh okay this is not working he/she must not be the one and that’s when thoughts of cheating come into play. We need to learn to work in a relationship and realize that “feelings come and go” and those times that the feelings are not present is when we should be trying our hardest to make thing work.

The most important actions to all of these steps, is where does Christ fit into our relationships with others? Even as “Christians” people say that they fall in and out of love with Jesus, loosing feelings for people comes in every aspect of our life nothing is consistent EXCEPT Jesus Christ’s love. His love will always be consistent for us, even when we are not. C.S Lewis says in the Marriage chapter of Mere Christianity that, “knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go.” I said part of this statement earlier but it is so true. We can never be consistent with a feeling, in the book it shows an example that promising to have feelings for someone is like promising to never have a headache or to be hungry it just is not possible. Unless we keep Christ in the center of a relationship it will fall apart. This is why so many relationships have fallen apart today. In my life with my parents I have seen this happen, granted when I was little I had no idea what was going on but now I know why and it was for this main reason you fall so called “out of love” and look for other things in life to full fill you and it’s a bunch of garbage, not only does it effect you but it effects so many around you. We need to keep Christ at the center of our lives and relationships or they will fail because we cannot be consistent with our feelings.