Words Experiment

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

    be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

~ Psalm 19:14

With Valentines Day just behind us it leaves me in particular wonder.  Valentines day is a day focused on love.  For our family, and many others I am sure, it's focus is on words of love and acts of kindness.  It's a day that puts others first by love.  As I look back over this holiday I am amazed.  How joyful the day can be when we use kind words.  I look back at how happy everyone was, just because it was a day spent on building people up.  Imagine that! 

I while ago I ran across an experiment done, well two in fact. One down with rice and another with water.  In the rice experiment, rice was cooked and placed evenly into two identical jars, and were kept next to each other.  The only starting difference between the two was that one had the word, Hate written on it, and the other one had the word, Love written on it. The experiment lasted for 30 days. During those 30 days, as people passed the jars the would say loving words to the jar marked, Love. Words such as, "Your beautiful", "I love you", "You're so sweet", "Happy".  When people walked by the jar marked, Hate, they would do the opposite, saying words such as, "Your ugly", "Stupid", "I hate you", "Dumb".

After the course of 30 days one jar had become moldy, gooey, soupy, and rotten, while the other remained significantly more preserved.  Can you guess which one was which? The Love jar had remained almost the same as when it had been placed in the jar. (However I would not recommend eating it!) :)  The Hate jar had grown just as disgusting as the word, hate, itself. 

This is just one experiment on words...
In Japan there is a man named Masaru Emoto. During the 1990's Emoto performed experiment on the power of words with water. The result was amazing!  He showed water's reaction to words such a, "Thank you", "I will kill you", "Love and appreciation", "You make me sick", and many others.

                                  Before Prayer                                     After Prayer

 You Fool

Love and Appreciation

It is amazing isn't it, what affects simple words can have.  Just imagine then how powerful your words can be to others.  You may not be able to see people rotting as you can the rice, but hateful words have the same effect.  Love on the other hand transforms, particularly God''s love.  If He loved you so much He would send His son to die for you, can you not love others? 

For those of us who are visual people, such as me, remember this the next time you open your mouth. Or think bad of others.  Both your words and your inner thoughts should be full of  love. The same experiment of rice was done with thoughts instead of words and do you know what the out come was?  The same as the experiment with words.  Bad thoughts=Bad rice, Good thoughts=Good rice.  This means it is not just about changing your words, but about changing your heart.  Do you want to know the great thing about that?  It's not impossible.  It's not impossible, because Christ first loved us.   

I encourage you to try this experiment.  I plan on trying it myself.  Some have done it with three jars, hating one, loving one, and just ignoring the other.  I may try it with three as well.  It will be a wonderful visual for me.  And if I ever need to get some of my anger out I can go talk to the rice!  

Ringlet Memories

"As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

~1 Peter 4:10-11

As a dancer you are called to do many different hairstyles. From messy bun, to french braid, to half-back, curly, to straight, tight, to loos. You name it I have probably done it. The most recent one I have been called to do is curly, pulled half back. Last night as my dear, sweet, mother rolled my hair in sponge rollers to accomplish this hairstyle, my mind began to wander to past memories. 

You see when I was little I had naturally curly hair, little ringlets were everywhere. Now at age fifteen I also have curly hair, but there was a time when I didn't. Between the ages of five and thirteen, my hair was not curly at all, it had plenty of spastic puffiness (Especially from ten through thirteen!), but no curl! 

Let me give you a visual.

Before (I am in the purple)

Awkward

Now

 

I loved my hair when I was little and when I lost my curl I was quite disappointed, but I wasn't the only one. I have many fond memories of  sitting on my parents bed on Saturday night and getting my hair rolled in sponge rollers for church the next morning. Literally we did that every Saturday for as long as I could remember, probably for about four-six years. We were so consistent that people thought I had naturally curly hair at that time, and when they saw me during the week, they were shocked! I loved it though, quite honestly I did. And as mom was rolling my hair last night it brought back these sweet memories, but I must confess it brought back another feeling as well...

I loved it when mom would take out the curlers in my hair on Sunday morning and these little ringlets would frame my face, it was one of my favorite parts, but then she would proceed to do something dreadful. She would take her fingers and run them through ALL of my ringlets, until all I had was, in my mind, a head of immense swirl, not curl. In my mind this is what had happened.

In reality that is not what happened, I know because I have pictures to prove it, but this is how I felt. What I really looked like was something more like this.

It is not nearly as awful as I believed it to be, but that was my confession. I loved it then, and I love it now. I appreciate so much every curl that was broken and every hand that was cramping in order for me to walk into church with a head full of pretty little curls. I appreciate my mother who did it endlessly every Saturday night, despite how late the hours may have been. Little did she know at the time what fond memories she was making with me. Little did she know what an amazing role model she was being to me. She was being a servant, and she was taking the time to care for me. That may be what mothers are for, but she was being completely selfless, and totally loving! I am thankful that I have her example to follow, even if I am still slightly partial to the ringlets. :) 

Happy Sweet Sixteen?

"Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days."

~Job 12:12

A week ago I realized that this year I would be turning sixteen.  Since last week I have began to bombard pinterest of my ideas, and I must say I have a lot!  My dream party is being planned on pinterest, while my birthday is still six months away.  I guess I better slow down, but it is so much fun. As I have been scoping out idea, I have ran across some.....well how should I say this, some interesting ideas for a sweet sixteen.  Let me show you what I mean.  

There is one major thing I have noticed while looking at ideas for my sixteen. Almost every one thinks their sweet sixteen is their wedding, with a little bit of pink, or in most cases a lot of pink!

What would you consider the perfect sweet sixteen?

Would it be being carried in like barbie in a box?

Or how about being carried in like a foreign princess?

Are you not the carrying type? 

There is a fix for that. 

You could be brought by way of pink over the top limo!

Would your dream be to be royal for a day?

With your own crown?

Or would it rely on the way you were treated?

Or on how many balloons you had at your party?

Or how many lights?

Or better yet, just how pink!

Would your perfect sweet sixteen be based upon how extraordinary your candles are?

Or what about your cake(s)? Is that what would make your day truly special?

Would you base your opinion on your friend's enjoyment? You could easily score some points by sending home cakes as your party favors.

Or by just having a very SWEET sixteen.

May I make a suggestion. Don't look for enjoyment in any of the things I just listed. All of this is only temporary.  And if you are like me, your sweet sixteen will look something more like this...

You know what though, I wouldn't want it any other way! <3

Waiting On The Lord

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

-1 John 4:8

Waiting on the Lord. What is waiting on the Lord? Pause your thoughts; let me put this in simpler form. How much of your future do you know? Your only know one thing for sure right? Some day you will meet God. This is also known as Judgment day. We certainly know our past, but everyday until meeting God, and everyday after that remains in the unknown for us. So what must we do until then? We must wait, wait, and wait. We fall victim of patience, or rather the lack there of… called impatience.

 

Unfortunately we often suffer from the illness of impatience. Few of us have that age-old virtue. Patience isn’t the thing we have lost however; the thing we have lost is the drive to obtain patience. We do not desire patience anymore, because everything has become instant, instant Internet, instant food, and instant gratification. We see no need for patience anymore.

 

James 5:7 says,

“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.”

Just as farmers wait for the rain, we are called to wait on the Lord. Why do we wait? We wait because we love.

-1 Corinthians 13:13

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

 -1 Corinthians 13:4 

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.”

So, what does the bible say love is? It says love is patient. Though we may not have much desire for it in our culture, you cannot deny we do desire love, and therefore need patience as well. If we love each other, we are patient with each other. If we love the Lord, we wait on the Lord.   

We may have our whole life planned and ready, but unless God has approved it, it’s not going to happen. And what do we do when things don’t happen the way we thought they would, we get upset and angry and the situation that we are in. We mess things up and God sends us a fix. His fix is to rely and trust in what He has planned.

But, we can’t do that now can we, because that requires patience and waiting, and we don’t like that. We like to have things our own way. If we give things to God then we are trusting in an unknown future.

Trusting is waiting on what He has planned. We fear that after all that waiting we will be disappointed in what finally happens.

Corrie Ten Boom puts it best. “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

I promise you, you won’t be disappointed.  What is holding you back, is it the fear of taking a risk in the future God has for you. That is no risk. The true risk is not in the Lord’s future, it in the patience to wait on the Lord. Having patience is the biggest risk, but it’s a risk worth taking. Take a God risk. The Lord loves you, and His love is patient.

As we go through out our lives remember what God says in Ephesians 5:1-2.

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us…a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

One thing people miss understand is just because you are waiting and sitting still, does not mean God is waiting and sitting still. As we wait, God is building. He is building you a future. His design has been specifically drawn for you and your life.

Waiting on the Lord however is so much more then waiting for Him to reveal His plans for tomorrow. It is a patient action to be taken now, an action to love others. Love is an action that can be taken while waiting.

So when your parents, siblings, or children start pushing every buttons possible, choose to love. And remember that love is patent. Choose to be like God, for God is love. Wait on the Lord and His timing for the future He has planned, but remember to always love.