Here's to you

 Here's to you, my wonderful friends. You have stayed by my side through this hard time in my life. Who are these friends? None other than Bethany Butler, Hayli Boren, Rachel Shallow, Michael Tapee, Syman Lau, Joshia John, Sidrah Shah, and anyone else who has taken the time to talk to me and just be there for me.
I know that one of these friends, Joshia, is following this blog, not officially, but on her own, and I would like to dedicate this blog to her. Joshia is one of those friends you find very rarely. Friends like her, are a dime-a-dozen. I have only a few like her, and I am lucky to have any at all. What are these friends? These friends are what I like to call "the Spiritual Sharpeners," these are the friends that love Christ more than you do. The friends that you call on the phone crying because of some random tragedy that has befallen you. But anyways today i would like to talk about a specific quality Joshia has.

      She never settles for mediocrity.

 In our daily relationships we have to do several things to keep the relationship moving forward, because a relationship that stops moving forwards and ceases to progress will begin to move backwards and regress. What are these things: 1) We hang out and talk, 2) We learn about each other, 3) We go over to each others houses. Well not only do these things help us keep relationships in our daily lives moving forward, but it also helps our relationship with God moving forward. What do these three simple things evaluate to?
1) Pray.
   When someone is going through something in their lives, or even if it is just a small predicament, the first things I always tell them to do it pray. Prayer is not us talking at God, it is us talking To God... see the difference? We talk to him and he talks back, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. It is our "date night with Jesus" so to speak. Don't say all these memorized prayers-- pray from your heart and speak as if he was right in front of you, and another thing-- don't go down a list.
2) Read the Bible.
 Every answer to every question is there. So why do people seldomly ever pick it up. People say "I want to know what Jesus was like!" Well then open up your bible and read about him! This is a personal time for you and Christ. People say that the Bible is outdated, but that my friends is a lie. Every story and every analogy and every verse-- we can apply them to our daily lives. Reading the Bible, and really reading, not just skimming, but whole-hearted reading, can really drastically move our relationship with Christ forward.
3) Go to Church.
 People say that "Church is full of hypocrites, so I don't go, I don't want a pastor telling me how to live my life" Well to the first part: if your church is full of hypocrites, then find a new one. The point of a church is to take part in fellowship. When we do this we are supposed to be encouraging people, and lifting each other up, but if that's not whats happening in yours all i can say is... frankly... talk to the pastor or find a new one, because that's not what Christ intended the church to be. To the second part unless the pastor or priest isn't reading from the bible, then its not him telling you how to live your life--- its God. Pastors who can't back up their message with the bible, then its probably not a good message.

These things help us to keep the relationship moving forward. We can't settle for meritocracy with Christ, never, our relationship is designed to stretch us, not make us comfortable. When you get comfortable in your relationship, you need to get uncomfortable and step out of that comfort zone of yours. Something that will keep your relationship with Christ a continuous and life long thing.

Joshia never gets comfortable, and i hope that I can be more like her... No matter where you are in your relationship tonight, step out off your plate and evaluate it. You might decide to make some changes.