Anyone Here Speak Greek?

         I go to youth group every Tuesday night. Currently, we’re working through a series on prayer, which has really challenged me on a couple of points: one, that praying is one of the hardest things I will ever wrestle with in my walk with God; and two, I need to spend less time doubting my ability to hear God’s voice and more time learning to hear Him better. These two growing revelations led to me sitting on the couch in an empty room reading through the gospel of Mark, wherein I found the story of the woman (identified as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus in John 12) who anoints Jesus with perfume during the Passover. When the disciples chastise her for “wasting” such a precious product, Jesus defends her, saying “‘leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.’” –Mark 14:6, ESV
         A beautiful thing. Other versions translate this as “a good deed” (NASB) and “a good work” (KJV). The original Greek word used in this verse is kalos, a word translated by Strong’s New Testament Lexicon to mean: “good, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends” and “beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, and hence praiseworthy”. This word, which is used to describe an act of absolute devotion, of giving everything to Jesus out of love and faith, is the same word that is used in 1 Timothy 6:12, which calls us to “fight the good fight of the faith”.
         Good. Kalos. Beautiful and pure. We spend all this time looking for beauty in our lives; there it is! Fight the good fight. Fight the beautiful fight. We are being actively chosen and called by God to participate in a lifestyle that is in and of itself beautiful. What other form of beauty do we need?
         So my personal challenge to myself is this: focus on living this beautiful lifestyle, instead of trying to have a beautiful reflection, something that can only be accomplished through prayer, constant involvement in God’s word, and encouragement and support from people who share my commitment. So I’m going to spend the next two-ish weeks going all the way through the gospel of Mark, one chapter a day. That’s my commitment; feel free to check in and ask how I’m doing. If you would like to make a similar two week commitment, leave a comment. I’ll be over on Facebook (see the “Contact Me” page for my Facebook link) posting my favourite verses from each day. I’d love to see yours up there as well!

~Sheridan

Thanks, Siri; I Love You, Too

Me: Siri, do you love me?
Siri: you're looking for love in all the wrong places

No joke; this actually happened. It was possibly the most hysterical moment of my week, and I immediately decided to share it with you all. Aside from being funny, I think Siri actually has a very excellent point: we're looking for love in all the wrong places.

I don't like Siri. We are not now and never will be friends. But--for possibly the first and last time in my life--Siri said something that I agree with.

"Looking for love" is a phrase most of us have heard from one place or another, and it's very relevant and very true. We, as young women, often spend a lot of time looking for love.
The word "love" has always fascinated me. I speak a fair amount of French in addition to English, and I've always found this to be interesting: to say "I love this dress", I would say "j'aime cette robe", using the word "aimer" meaning "to like". To say "I love you", however, I would most likely use the word "adorer", meaning to love. Two different words in French, but the same English word covers it all.
In Greek, there are actually four different forms of the word "love": eros, storge, phileo, and agape. Each word means something different. I'm not going to go into all of that right now, but you can look it up if you want. But consider this: if they went through all the trouble to have four completely separate words, the concept of love must mean a lot to them. What does it then say about our culture that "I love you" and "I love pizza" both use the exact same word?
Looking for love is dangerous. I know, I've tried. All it does is turn your life into one gigantic mess, and I know that for a fact, but I continue to do it. Why?
Maybe because I'm human, or maybe because I'm just extraordinarily dumb; you can offer your opinion on that later. :) But I think the key may lie in this verse:

"Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field;

do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires."

-Song of Solomon 2:7

You know the theory that sometimes it's better if you don't know what you're missing? Maybe whoever made that up was on to something. I never really went "looking for love" until that first encounter. Was it love? No. But the point stands that until that time, I was content, and now I sometimes find myself trying to attract attention because I'm no longer satisfied with where I am.

Don't get me wrong; I'm currently single and I have every intention of staying that way. My goal is to make it through all of high school without once being actually asked on a date. I like being single. But people--and especially, I think, women--are created with a unique need to feel loved. But if we go looking for it, we're not going to find "love". We're just going to end up getting hurt.

If you're my age and you're not "single", please don't feel like I'm trying to tell you that you're all wrong and you should dump him here and now. But I encourage everyone--myself included--to analyse our relationships and our behaviour, and see if we really are trusting God to bring the right person to the right place at the right time. It's hard. We all struggle. I've been told it's worth it; anyone feel like testing that with me?

What do you think? Do you find yourself "looking for love" sometimes? Do you think waiting is worth it? Why?

Sheridan