A Beautiful Heart
The Goat: not one of the zoo's most beautiful animals, though it is one of the most docile and friendly animals on exhibit. You can actually go pet them. But which animal is deemed "beautiful?" Many would say the Tiger, or the Lion, or maybe even the "Liger," and yet you can't go near them; they're too dangerous.
Now I'd like to consider "reality makeover shows". Women are told that they are physically unacceptable, and the process of mechanically altering their appearance begins, with the end goal of manufacturing a sense of self-worth. SHAME ON US. How have we come to this point?
LOS ANGELES -- A woman is suing ABC's reality show "Extreme Makeover" for unspecified damages, alleging its decision to cancel her appearance contributed to her sister's suicide
http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=202238>1=6955
God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart -1 Samuel 16:7
We have forgotten (or just flat out don't believe) that God has created us in His image, and so we tell people that they need to have that image altered in order to be lovable, teaching them that their hearts are worthless. Now I think this lawsuit is a weak case, but barring the pending lawsuit, look at the bottom line of what happened: A woman is taken and made to have all of the pain of her heart exposed to the camera crews, then she blindly believes that it is because of her physical appearance that she was abused, and finally, she is sent home. Talk about traumatizing. Still, the worst of all of these shows was probably The Swan, whose marketing slogan was "which one of these ugly ducklings will become....the swan?" Not people, not living, breathing human beings, but "ugly ducklings."
People who love someone only because of their physical appearance do not love the person at all. If you know someone who is giving away their body before they are demanding that their heart be loved, please sit down with them and help them to reconsider what their doing. To quote the Counting Crows, "we all want someone beautiful. Man I wish I was beautiful." But what is beauty? We see with our eyes and make quick judgments, and attribute beauty to a spiteful, wicked heart, but deem "worthless" those people whose hearts God treasures and loves so dearly.
posted by Jonathan @ 10:46 PM
19 Comments:
Consider the goat...
And while you're doing that, I'll be over here going through your stuff.
"Which one of these ugly goatlings will become...
THE RAM!"
Well, this reminder was to myself as well. I also need to spend less time plucking and waxing. :) J/k
Very encouraging Jonathan...i have always loved that verse from 1 Samuel 16...nicely put. Your wife (current or future) is blessed to have a man who sees her through the eyes of Christ!
And here I would refer Morgan to my post, "attn: Young Singles" ... the comments haven't carried over, because I pasted the posts from my retired blog, theophany316.blogspot.com, but that particular post on my other blog brought up the question, what if there IS no "future wife" for me? ... although I know there is, and others just differ in opinion, so I'm not going to waste anymore time on debating that one.
If I wasn't at a school with a ratio of 97 guys to every girl, things would be different.
How do you know there is a future wife out there?
There is a difference between "knowing" and "hoping."
I know there is a future wife out there for me because of my faith in the scripture as God's word, and it's based on Gen 3:18 and Matthew 19:10-12.
Gen. 3:18-- This is about Adam being cursed by God to toil in the fields, and those fields would produce "thorns and thistles" (not very good to eat). In other words, people will have to spend their lives working and while they will produce life or food or sustenance, it might not be exactly what you wish for.
So far, I don't see what that has to do with knowing that you have a future wife.
And Matt. 19:10-12-- These verses are about Jesus discussing people who think it is better not to get married. He says that for certain people, it is better to not get married, and these people are: if you are born a eunuch, if you someone makes you a eunuch, or if you choose celibacy in order to devote yourself more fully to God. Jesus says that, other than men in these circumstances, it is better for a man to get married. He says that if a man believes that it is better to be married than not, then he should get married.
However, he does not say that everyone WILL get married (or that everyone is destined to get married). He is saying that if you believe that it is better to be married than not, then you SHOULD get married. He says that it is better for a man to get married, not that every man MUST get married, or even WILL get married. Jesus does not guarantee marriage for every person in this passage; he simply says that marriage is a good idea because the people he's talking to were just saying that marriage may not be such a good idea.
So, again, I don't see what these verses have to do with you thinking that God has a definite plan for you (as far as marriage is concerned). I can see how you think that they're telling you that God thinks you should get married, because marriage is a noble institution. But it is not a guaranteed institution.
There is no guarantee of marriage. That's part of what makes it so special, because not everyone is able to find someone that they want to spend the rest of their lives with.
The previous post was so inspirational. I think I'll go get castrated now.
Sure there is no guarantee of marriage, but I think it safe to say that I know there is someone out there for myself.
anonymous #1 (2 comments up) - I'm sorry that you "don't see what that has to do with knowing that you have a future wife." There is no reason to think that the verse only applies to the labor in the field. If you read the WHOLE Passage (at least to v24), you will see that God brought each animal, which he'd made out of the ground, but none were suitable, and then he took the rib of Adam to create a woman. Still, for the sake of brevity, let's just remove that verse as though it is not applicable to this discussion.
But the verses from Mt: well I don't know about you, but I'm NOT a eunich, nor have I committed to celibacy. So therefore, according to Christ, it's better for me to get married, and where God guides, He will provide. He wouldn't tell you that you SHOULD do something and make it impossible to do it.
Now, tell me your intentions in coming to my blog to be destructive to some simple hopes of a future marriage, a hope that many many people hold out for? You're being nothing more than a troublemaker and a discouragement, and I don't think you're edifying the readers who come here.
By the way, no more anonymous postings if you guys don't start at least signing your "controversial" comments. Remember, this is my blog and I will delete comments if I have to.
Own up to your words. It's real easy to hide behind anonymity, isn't it.
"Anonymous #1" - I bet you'll never get married.
Also the Gen verse says NOTHING about thorns and thistles. Did you even read it?
Why are you trying to bring people down?
Gen. 3:18-- "It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field."
And, by the way, I am married.
man, c'mon quit arguing, people. this is so stupid. if your gonna argue about something at least make it something good like whether or not pizza is tasty. cause I think it is.
okay, this argument may be over now, but i posted my opinion on the other blog...so i'll post it again. i don't think God would give you a yearning to get married unless you were meant to get married. i believe in God's faithfullness...
Oh, right, I referenced that wrong, it's GENESIS TWO EIGHTEEN (2:18) not 3:18, and thanks to "recent anonymous" for figuring that out.
2:18 says nothing about thistles, thorns, etc, but does say that God designed for it not to be good for man to be alone, and reading through v24 says "a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife".
Again, thank you recent anonymous for realizing my error and figuring out what I was getting at; I have a bible with very small print so chapters 2 and 3 are on the same page.
C'mon guys. Can't we just all get a-wife...I mean along.
I haven't checked out this post since I left the very first two anonymous posts.
Holy crap.
But, anyhoo... to kind of hit some of the high points of the argument...
Jonathan, you may be convinced that there is a wife out there for you, but what you're doing is hoping. It's not knowing. But that's not to say that hope is a bad thing. It's a beautiful thing. Hope is just another word for faith. And faith is a wonderful thing.
While you may be convinced that there is a future spouse out there for you, that doesn't mean there is (although, I do have faith that there is one out there for you, J-Man). For instance, Sara (my wife, for those of you who don't know) told me of a friend she had when she was younger. This friend, also named Sarah, incedently, was convinced that God had her a husband out there, that this man was just waiting to be with her. She prayed about it everyday and was certain that she had this future husband "lined up." But, sadly, Sarah was in a car accident and was killed when she was about sixteen. She never got married or met her future husband.
While this is an extreme example, I think it speaks to my point. Was there really a future husband out there for Sarah, and now since she's gone he has no purpose or other future wife? Or was Sarah wrong? Or is God wrong?
My point is that there is a difference between knowledge and faith, but they are equally strong and equally valid.
Plus, Jonathan, if you don't get married by the time you're 35, remember our pact? I'll get divorced and you and I run off to Germany...
Jonathan, what a beautiful post... and one that speaks to my heart. I can't tell you how many times I've wished that I could be on The Swan or thought my worth was based on nothing more than what others could see. It's only when I came to truly accept that God loves me as I am that I became able to deal with my outward appearance and know that I am loved. Thank you so much for sharing that. If you have time, I have another blog www.christianswthrt.blogspot.com Thank you so much and God Bless You :)
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