Social Norm

Social Norm. 

You need to be: Tan, on a diet, wear name brand clothes, contour your makeup, be thin, have every hair in place, be on “fleek”, & you have to perfect in every way. The media puts so much pressure on girls to look a certain way, but guys feel the same way as well. 13 year old girls are worried about their makeup, 8 year olds are on diets, and by the age of 16 girls and boys develop some type of eating disorder. Why can’t we see ourselves as prefect the way we are? Why can’t we see our self worth? We go to the gym to lift weights & do cardio because it helps us be thin. We eat a handful of food only, because to many calories won’t fit into our pre numbered food count. We run/walk 3 miles a day; and we are told “don’t sweat- because it’s not necessary or beautiful.” Why do we conform to such torture? We search for someone who understands us. We take & post Selfies to be seen and liked, but are they selfish? We check how many likes and followers we have from them and if we don’t “gain a follower” – we begged to be “#FollowedBack”. 

We cry alone, because your not supposed to cry in public. We mainly cry over things we thought we could handle in our own or pre-planned events in our lives. Do you hear yourself? I wonder what God thinks about our society…. Does He cry? Does He resent us? Why does He love us? 
It doesn’t matter how many followers we have or likes we get. Hitler had millions – Jesus had 12. Jesus was hated, beaten, and mocked… Why would you think our lives would be any different? We are told to think of only ourselves. We are the “Me” generation. How does this benefit me? How does this make me look? We are defined by our Facebooks, Twitters, Instagrams. We are looking for something that we think will “push us up to the top”. We search out fame, fortune, and likes so we can be fulfilled. We think if we surrender ourselves we loose our worth….but in reality it’s the other way around. We would gain so much. 
In Philippians 1:21 it says, “For to me, to live is Christ, & To die is gain.” Why? What’s the point? “If we can’t post it, tweet it, or like it, did it even happen?”. 

Even though I’m a Christian I am not perfect. I’ve questioned my walk with Christ. I’ve asked, “Is is worth it?”. That is our human nature. We can’t see God’s plan for us. It’s never easy, but if we just let go of our stress, of ourselves; that is when we will understand why we are living for Christ. Is it easy? No… Is it worth it yes. 
You know this world is going crazy. Everywhere you look there is evil. It seems that there is no good in the world at all, but there is…. Where? It’s hidden in you & me. We are the light in the dark. We are the good in the evil. We are the hope in all of the hopelessness. Why? Because if we are truly Christians – than we will show love to the unlovable. We will feed the hungry. We will cloth the naked. You see there’s a passage in the bible in Luke 11:10-13, “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, & to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from ANY father among you, will you give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?!”. 

If you give them a rock when their hungry, what good does that do? Everyone knows the answer to that. I don’t have any children, but I know my family wouldn’t have given me a rock to chew on if I was hungry. And you probably wouldn’t either. If you see someone in need and all you do is say a prayer, is that feeding them if there physically hungry in front of you? I love that he said, ” If Any father among you.”- meaning anyone. Anyone who sees this, anyone who is asked these questions, anyone who knows the answer to these questions…..Anyone…. 

At times yes, God will send someone to them- but what if that someone was YOU? You are the “anyone”, I am the “anyone.”. We have to stop passing your duties to the next Christians, because we say, “Oh I prayed for you- someone is coming to help.” Why can’t you help them? Because we would have to be different and we can’t do that. 
I guess I’m speaking out about this, because our society thinks that this is ok. Our churches thinks this is ok. Our Christians think this is ok…. I’m not old, I’m not wise, & I’m not rich… But I know this isn’t ok. I’m not bragging or trying to place a guilt trip on you, but if I can pack one shoe box to send overseas to help a child in need , why can’t you? If I can clean out my closet and find someone in my town that needs clothes, why can’t you? If I can pray for an opportunity to share Gods love, than why can’t you? You see if we don’t share the gospel of God through love , than how is anyone in the lost world going to know what a true Christian is? We can say- “God is love.” All day, but if we don’t show it- we are doing everything in vain. 
It’s time we get up off our rumps (even me) and stop waiting on “Dr.Phil” to fix the problems of the world. I’m sorry, but Dr.Phil, Dr. Oz, Judy Judge, or Oprah isn’t going to fix this world. We can… If we choose to. We have to wake up and work together in the church. We have to stop beating each other up and start helping each other through this. We are a family and families have fights, but we also love each other. Isn’t that the golden rule? Isn’t that how we are to show the world that we are truly Christians? In John 13:34-35 it says, ” A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this they will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – If we can’t show love for each other, than how can we show love for the lost? 
In the Old Testament in Isaiah 8:19 it says, ” And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums & wizards, who whisper & mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on the behalf of the living?”. Even back then there was a problem with Christians seeking out God. Yes even in the bible there were wizard, but God told his people to stray way from that and to seek him. They still had troubles with that… We may not seek out a medium ( some do ), but we may follow our own thoughts, our own rules, our own way; because we want it now. 

Isn’t that like us? Instant, now, today…. We can’t stand to wait in line for more than 5 minutes. If someone doesn’t text us back within five to ten seconds, we assume they don’t like us….? That’s what the world of today is coming to…. God may not give you his answer in a an hour, a day, a week, or a month…. It may take 1 year, 3 years, 20 years, or never. We get impatient and rude if we have to wait. God told us to be patience and kind. – Wow what a difference.- It’s not societies normal thing to do so. 

Doesn’t that make sense then? If you haven’t caught on – we are to be different than the normal! I bet your looking at your screen thinking, “But if I’m different they will look at me weird or make fun of me….” . Jesus was beaten & killed (for you & me) because he was different. Stephen was stoned to death because he was different. If your still alive and living for Christ- your doing good! Yes, we will get made fun of, our trust in God will be tested, we will be beaten down emotionally, but we live in a place (as of now) that allows us to tell others about Jesus. There’s going to come a day where we can’t do that…. (Like many countries around the world.) What will you do then? Will you pray more than? Read your bible more than? Attend church more than? Sorry to say this but probably not. If your not doing it now, why would you do it then? 
As Christians we are not to conform to the ways of today- meaning “Be Different”. As a kid I use to sing, “This little light of mine.” & it says – “Hide it under a bushel? No! I’m going to let it shine.”. A simple song that means so much. We should be a city on a hilltop, with the lights on, and people can see us & know where to go. 

Instead we are the city that is in hiding. We turn all the lights off by 5 o’clock and lock ourselves inside, because we are comfortable & do not want anyone new to come into town. 
I know this blog maybe hard to read, but it’s something I felt heavy on my heart to say. It’s taken me a few days to write this, and each time I start on it I feel like I’m being to harsh, but if we don’t stand up now, then look at what we are loosing…. Lost souls who don’t know Jesus. You’d be surprised at how many in our nation don’t know Christ. Christianity can be gone & wiped out in one generation….And I won’t stand on the sidelines and allow it to be my generation that wipes it out. Take a stand, live differently, & live for Christ. 

Thank you for reading, liking, & sharing. 

It means so much, 

– Marli