Thief in the Night...

We read throughout the bible that Jesus is going to come back like a thief in the night.  Well tonight I was reading 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 and they say:  "¹ Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ² for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape".  These verses terrify me a little.  I know that part of faith, grace, and being saved is about trusting God and not doubting.  I'm just so worried that God is going to come and I won't be ready.  Spiritually I feel like I am ready, but its the worldly pleasures that have me wanting God to wait.  I want to get married and have kids someday, I want to finish grad school and actually start the career I've been working on for forever, I want to see my little sister get married, etc, BUT then I remind myself that these are pleasures of the world and that I am called to be in the world, but not part of the world.  The song that we sing in church that says, "Lord come quickly" also brings about these same thoughts.  I want to go to heaven, but I want to accomplish so much on earth first.  I want to die peacefully in my sleep at the ripe old age of 120.  Its very selfish and wrong of me to have these thoughts, but I can't seem to stop them.  I guess the main thing on my mind tonight is that I will learn to sincerely mean the words Lord come quickly and I will realize in my heart that when God does decide to return that I've accomplished everything He intended for me to accomplish in life.  I want to have inner peace with living for today and not planning tomorrow.  Just some stuff to think about...hopefully ya'll's faith is more mature than mine and you aren't so consumed with worldly pleasures, but if you are like me to a certain extent then just know you aren't alone.  I decided to share my thought of the day, but feel free to share advice!

Our lingo...

What is dating?  I have asked myself this question several times over the past couple weeks.  What is dating? What is talking?  What is being in a relationship?  What is the difference?  So today before curiosity could kill the cat, I decided to investigate these labels.  I decided to go to the only reliable source out there for defining modern terms...urbandictionary.com.  Here are the results:

Friends with benefits: two friends who have a sexual relationship without being emotionally involved.  Typically two good friends who casually make out (I tweaked this one a bit) without a monogomous relationship or any kind of commitment.

Talking: when two people are not exclusive with each other nor have established what they are as a couple, but have some sort of relationship or when two people like each other and are getting to know each other better, but are still single and not "going out" yet.  Even better: Stage in which you are still single but interested in another person and vice versa.  This ends when the dating stage begins...

Dating: Of a couple, to be in the early stages of a relationship where they go out on dates to find out what each other is like, as a prelude to actually being a fully fledged couple.  Next: To see someone, be with them, to be "together", the action of doing any sort of various activities to gain acquaintance with someone romantically.

Relationship Dating:  Dating for a relationship as opposed to dating for casual fun or hook-up.  Relationship dating as in dating for long-term relationship.

Relationship:  the ability to put up with someone else's bull of the opposite sex for a long period of time.  Next:  a bond between two people

Courting: Dating is for fun, but courting is for marriage.  Courting means no sexual activity.  

So basically that isn't any more clear than is was when this blog started.  I officially know the definitions of these words, but there is a lot of grey between each one.  Oh well just something on my mind and I thought maybe the older generation might want to know what we're talking about when we throw out all these terms.

Are we there yet...

So how often do you remember being a child and going on road trips?  I don't technically remember going on pointless road trips, but I remember the (what felt like at the time) FOREVER long trips to Grandma and Jido's which was actually only a 4.5 hour drive to White House, TN (about 30 minutes outside of Nashville).  I also remember from these trips asking constantly, "Are we there yet?".  More specifically I remember a game my wonderful Daddy used to play with us kids...He would pretend like he forgot how to get to his parent's house and he'd say phrases like, "Man I'm tired of this road, I think I want to go on a new one and he'd turn".  Being a young child I was always scared that he didn't know where he was, but somehow we always managed to end up at the Makool "White House".

So here's my point with this blog... how often are you asking God are we there yet? More specifically am I there yet?  I know indirectly its a question I ask daily! "God is it time yet? Have I been patient long enough yet?" I feel like at times he is looking at me and saying..."Um...come on dummy you STILL aren't being patient!!!"  Anyways I guess this is on my mind because I'm ready for this semester to be over on Wednesday and I keep asking am I there yet... and even though I'm SUPER close...it's not quite time.  Also sometimes God might take us down a side road/different path and we might feel completely lost, but He still knows exactly where we'll end up.  (Just making it more applicable to my previous story).  Ok it's time for class.  3 more days and I'm 1/5 of the way done!!!! Wooohoooo!!!