Can you smell it?

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I read an article from the NYTimes and got caught thinking about the similarites we have as Christians to the problem P&G had selling Febreze.  Read for yourself:
 
“The first ad showed a woman complaining about the smoking section of a restaurant. Whenever she eats there, she says, her jacket smells like smoke. A friend tells her that if she uses Febreze, it will eliminate the odor. The cue in the ad is clear: the harsh smell of cigarette smoke. The reward: odor eliminated from clothes. The second ad featured a woman worrying about her dog, Sophie, who always sits on the couch. “Sophie will always smell like Sophie,” she says, but with Febreze, “now my furniture doesn’t have to.” The ads were put in heavy rotation. Then the marketers sat back, anticipating how they would spend their bonuses. A week passed. Then two. A month. Two months. Sales started small and got smaller. Febreze was a dud.      
 
The panicked marketing team canvassed consumers and conducted in-depth interviews to figure out what was going wrong, Stimson recalled. Their first inkling came when they visited a woman’s home outside Phoenix. The house was clean and organized. She was something of a neat freak, the woman explained. But when P.& G.’s scientists walked into her living room, where her nine cats spent most of their time, the scent was so overpowering that one of them gagged.      
 
According to Stimson, who led the Febreze team, a researcher asked the woman, “What do you do about the cat smell?”      

“It’s usually not a problem,” she said.      

“Do you smell it now?”      

“No,” she said. “Isn’t it wonderful? They hardly smell at all!”      

A similar scene played out in dozens of other smelly homes. The reason Febreze wasn’t selling, the marketers realized, was that people couldn’t detect most of the bad smells in their lives. If you live with nine cats, you become desensitized to their scents. If you smoke cigarettes, eventually you don’t smell smoke anymore. Even the strongest odors fade with constant exposure. That’s why Febreze was a failure. The product’s cue — the bad smells that were supposed to trigger daily use — was hidden from the people who needed it the most. And Febreze’s reward (an odorless home) was meaningless to someone who couldn’t smell offensive scents in the first place.      

The article’s focus is on the habits of people and our internal reward system, however I thought about how sin in our lives can be exactly like the overpowering, gagging effect of 10 cats, or that sin can be SO OBVIOUS to everyone else around us.  And yet, we can be blind when we have lived with it so long we have no idea it’s there.  At first it might bother us and occasionally, like the cat lady it can be a problem, but on a day to day basis everything smells great.  With constant exposure, we start to desensitize our hearts to what should be righteously disdainful.  The line that strikes me the most is: “the bad smells that were supposed to trigger daily use — was hidden from the people who needed it the most.”

Is your daily life in desperate need of “febreze”?  As Christians, we have a much more infinitely potent CHRIST who will expose the bad smells that we’ve hardened our hearts to.  So take a moment-examine your heart, ask a good friend, plead with Jesus and freshen up what was never meant to stink in the first place.

M.A.D.E. 3: SAY WHAT!?

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I am both slightly nervous and excited to invite you all to our next M.A.D.E. seminar on February 5th at 1:30pm after church (my apartment, please “contact us” for the address).  Nervous because I’ll actually be teaching this time, excited because I love what I’m teaching about and am praying that it will be helpful for all of you as well!

Essentially, we’ll be focusing on communication skills or rather the unintentional habits we have as women to MIS communicate with one another and how we can be more effective within our relationships- all to the glory of God.  Take a moment right now and think about the phrases you say that actually come with a hidden meaning, or the unspoken things you say with your eyes and your mouth and that slight raise of the brow.  We are constantly communicating something and as Christians we should be aware of how we’re presenting Christ in every situation.  So JOIN me in TWO weeks to explore this topic that affects every area of your life.

**It’s also a TEA party!  So come in your church clothes, bring your favorite mug, and be prepared to eat scones!

Feels like…..blank, blank, blank, and emotional roller coasters

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When are emotions good and profitable? Can they be? When are emotions sinful? When and how should they be curtailed?

There are multiple examples in the Bible of good and bad emotional responses. For example, Jacob’s sons who sold their brother Joseph into slavery are written to have hated Joseph and to be jealous of him (Genesis 37:5, 8, 11). This hatred and jealousy led them to deceive their father and consign their own brother to a cruel standard of life. On the other hand, we read about Jesus weeping when Lazarus died (John 11:35) and His holy anger in the temple when He saw how it had become a den of robbers (Matthew 21:12-13).

On our end, we need to constantly evaluate whether our responses to situations are either godly or sinful. Our responses reveal idols in our hearts.

I read about emotions and idols of the heart in the book Excellent Wife by Martha Peace where she gives great insight to how the heart, idols, and emotions are connected. A heart is filled with many longings and desires such as beauty, success, health, the approval of others, good grades, nice clothes, money, friends, a career, and having a boyfriend. These may be good things to want but when you don’t receive or achieve these things what is your response? If your emotional response is characterized with anxiety, frustration, or fear this may be an indicator that these things have become idols of your heart. When everything is the way you would like things there is joy, but when you get low grades, your friends don’t come through for you, your parents continue to push you into a career that you don’t want to be in, and to top it off you get the flu; the emotions may easily kick in.

Another way to identify idols of the heart is by asking yourself, “What is my heart SET on?” Pastor Stuart Scott said that what your heart is set on is what you, “serve, speak about, sacrifice for, seek after, spend time and money on…what’s on your mind, what you love for–wish for.” Is your immediate answer Christ? Is your heart SET on pleasing your Lord? What are the idols in your life? Let’s be sure to fight hard against these idols and keep John’s word close: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21)

Are we instilling truth into our hearts so that when the trials or the unmet expectations come we will not be ruled by sinful emotions?

Don’t be overwhelmed by the need to bring under control your emotions, and remember: “old habits of sinful thoughts and responses do not just disappear. They have to be replaced with new, godly ways of thinking and responding…the Holy Spirit supernaturally enables us. Eventually the godly response becomes the automatic response.” (Martha Peace)

Our responses can both please God and bring Him honor or not. How we respond can be marked by trust in God, patience, and self-control; or anxiety, frustration, and fear.

 

Tastes like hot apple cider, Christmas cookies, Momma’s cooking, and …. PW Cinnamon Rolls!

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Here’s the next post in our Christmas Break Series (Smells, Sights, Tastes…..)I love cooking. Need I say more? After a long day of class back at school, I always look forward to coming home to my apartment, changing into comfy clothes and unwind my mind by cooking dinner for my apartment mates. It’s a joy to cook delicious savory foods and even more of a joy to be able to serve my dear sisters in a very practical and necessary way.
Coming home, there’s no longer any “cooking rotation” but still plenty of opportunities to serve my family by cooking. I’ve been having an itching to make cinnamon rolls from stratch for a long time and I finally got around to doing it yesterday. I chose a recipe from one of my favorite “Western” food bloggers– Pioneer Woman (PW)! NOTE: These rolls are neither low fat nor low calorie, but they’re delicious… just saying: Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Some personal notes on the recipe:
Because I couldn’t quite bring myself to use so much butter and sugar, I cut back on it a little bit. But here’s the rule: put what you think is enough for you- then add a little more…. no kidding! Also for the frosting, I didn’t use nearly as much as she did. Try not to use fat free or 1% milk– the recipe asks for whole milk. And most importantly– baking these requires patience. You have to make the dough and allow it to rise appropriately. I actually let them rise (twice) for longer than the time asked for. Baking them prematurely will cost you the fluffiness and overall texture of the rolls. 
As with anything, I’ve learned that baking and cooking not only takes a desire to, but a joy and patience throughout the process as well.If you have time, these rolls are actually a great gift to give to those you know. Take a look at her related posts about giving them as gifts.
Here are some pictures. Can’t you see the deliciousness of them??
After the dough rises (it nearly doubles in size):
After they’re baked and glazed:
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Looks like Christmas lights, snowflakes, mistletoe…and holiday hair?

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Having two older sisters has instilled in me a not-so-secret love to play with hair, makeup, and play dress up just for fun.  This includes hours of french braiding Barbie doll’s hair and experimenting with makeup palates from the dollar store as a child.  One hair style that I’ve fallen in love with after seeing it online and then looking up some “How To” videos on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkUo6JQud_o) is the waterfall french braid.

It’s super simple, I haven’t practiced on myself yet but basically you do a regular french braid along the crown of the head and drop the bottom strand each time and take up a new one as you go along.  To finish it off I twist all the strands together and bobby pin it, if she has bangs then they hide it nicely but either way it’s usually not very noticeable.  This hair style works best on people with thick and heavy hair and when the braid is hair sprayed when finished.  In the video the woman likes the hair straight, but for nicer occasions or if you just like it, you’ll see below I curled the strands that fall from the braid and then curled the under layer.

It’s a fast and nice looking hairstyle for Christmas or New Year’s parties and a little different than just a regular braid.  Thanks Emily for letting me experiment on you!

Smells like gingerbread, cinnamon, Christmas…and convictions?

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Hello and sorry for the long delay in posting, we didn’t want to distract from studying for finals ;)   Hopefully everyone on the quarter system is enjoying the first days of rest, where ever that may be.  This year we are extremely blessed with not three, but FOUR weeks of Christmas vacation, which leads me to write to this post.

It’s easy to have the mentality that a break from school also means a break from being a Christian, or at least the kind you were at school.  You might not say it out loud, but it’s clear in your actions and in those subconscious thoughts you suppress.  To throw some out there…

Are you the girl who dressed one way for small group and would never dare wear your new holiday dress back to school?

Are you the small group leader who prays diligently before class, but now forgets altogether?

Do you say nice, encouraging things to your friends and now have only a reproachful attitude or nothing to say at all to your parents?

Are you the one who gushes about Jesus to everyone in small group and yet is suddenly a mute in front of her high school friends?

Before you feel judged, that was and is me.  At some point or another during the past four years that describes my shift in behavior while not being held directly accountable by 250 other believers and a roommate who kept me in check! My goal is not to make you feel guilty if you found truth in those statements, it’s to cause you to ask: what are my Biblical convictions on issues like modesty, evangelism, parents, church, prayer, discipline, etc and WHY/HOW did I come to that conclusion?

A conviction is a fixed or firm belief that you strive to follow and uphold in your life.  My behavior changed because I hadn’t formed true convictions, only people-pleasing modifications to build up my reputation.  I want to challenge you at the beginning of break to take your four weeks and think through the issues that are most relevant to YOU and find out- what does the Bible say about them?  Is it black, white, or gray? And if it’s gray, what kind of Biblical wisdom can be applied to guide me to a conviction that is the most pleasing to God?  Why am I choosing to believe and act in this way? And finally, do I see myself before Him first and foremost, as my audience of One despite who else is watching?

I shared from Hebrews 5:12-14 with my small group, a couple of verses that end with:

“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice
have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (v.14)

The previous verses are a rebuke for having forgotten even the elementary things and for being babes who can only handle milk.  My prayer is that at the end of this month, you will not regress and you will not remain stagnant, but rather: endure, be faithful, keep Christ in mind, and allow your heart to be like His in your sensitivity to what is good and evil, all to the praise of His glory- and live it out!

Introducing Grace

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A huge blessing and resource we have at GOC are our staffers who are older, mature, godly, Christians who help lead and counsel our fellowship.  I remember as a freshman I was intimidated to talk to them and had no idea what I would say if I did so I chose to admire them from afar instead of actively learning from their lives and the different experiences they can share.  To help bridge this gap, it is my pleasure to introduce one of our women staffers, Grace Yang, who I met two summers ago on an STM to Albania.  I have personally learned and benefited so much from our friendship.  Below is an interview with her, I tried to make it brief but everything was so wise! If you see her around on Friday’s ask more questions-she would love to get to know you!

R: To start off, give us a short testimony and a little bit of background about yourself.
G: I was born into a Christian family so I grew up knowing the Gospel, I don’t think I ever doubted God’s existence and I knew the basic facts about the Gospel and went to a Chirstian school, but it wasn’t until 4th grade, this one Thursdsay we went to Chapel and there was this puppet show and suddenly it clicked in my head and I was convicted for the first time that I personally offended God.  So that night I prayed to accept Christ.

R: Having discipled and counseled girls for years now, what are some recurring struggles that girls bring up and what advice do you give?
G: One is always making big decisions that will affect your future, grad school, work, biblical womanhood.  For example: wanting to be a doctor and mom and asking, “Can I do both?”  College students want black and white answers, and yes and no, instead of grey, but it’s different for everyone and there’s no one answer.  At the end of the day, the big picture is to obey God. Today.  And if your decision is the best way you can steward what God has given you and is not an idol, pursue it.  But if one day God changes your priorities then are you willing to give it up?  If it’s an idol now then it’ll be an idol later.  For some women grad school is the best thing to do, and for others not going is the best.  It depends, it’s a heart motive issue.

R: As undergrads we always wonder how we will transition after college, can you describe your experience?
G: Transitioning after GOC was really hard because in GOC there are a lot of people who think similarly: a high value of the word and education with generally similar family/cultural/social backgrounds.  When I left GOC and went to Foundry, I struggled with loving people even in just a different fellowship group.  Most people were very different as a single’s, working group.  A lot of people who attended just recently became saved, so even thought they were older and around my age they were at a different stage and pursuing very different things. How do you love them, care for their soul, be cared for, when the only thing in common is your love for Christ? I thought it wouldn’t be that hard, but it was, for about half a year.  Very humbled by my own sin, and that’s when I learned that we’re both bought with the same price as sisters and brothers in Christ.  And I’m not any better or worse than this other person.  It was learning how to be like Christ: He’s the ultimate example of being perfect and yet loving us: the complete opposite.

R: Right now you are teaching math at an inner-city high school, how do you actively live out your faith at work?
G: I love my job because I teach at an urban high school and I didn’t think I’d be there after my first year.  Now I’m in my 7th year working with underprivileged high schoolers and you see so much sin.  It’s not that I’m any better, but what they’re involved in is so much more obvious: sex, drugs, everything.  There are not many Christians in my workplace, but my prayer everyday is that I’l be a light to my students and that I love them, and genuinely care for them because Christ loves me.  I can’t just share the Gospel in the middle of the class but I show them this by disciplining them and being strict but gentle.  I’m not their parent but I can have those conversations of getting to the heart of the issue.  I try to have conversations of “Why did you do that, what motivated you?” Getting them to think and showing them that it came out of a heart that was angry, and anger is wrong.  A lot of times if these conversations happen after school and sometimes I will share.  In my mind if they ask, I’ll always share if that’s where it leads.  Sometimes they are frustrated at what they do and I’ll share my experiences with anger.  And I ask them to ask for forgiveness from each other and from me.  They’ve never heard that before and I have to share with them how to ask for forgiveness.  When they ask, I always say” of course” and smile and ask, “What does forgiveness mean?”

It means: I’m not going to bring it up again, I’m not going to talk about it to other people, and tomorrow when you come back to period 3, I’m going to treat you like nothing happened today because it’s forgiven.   And those conversations can lead to the Gospel because we’ve been forgiven by Christ on the Cross.

R: We haven’t talked much about relationships on our blog before, but what can you tell us about being single and advice in being content and faithful?
G: It’s a constant work in progess, but the biggest lessons I’ve learned are:  One, fully believe that God loves me, I think if I really believe that every second of the day I won’t be bitter or resentful when my friends get married and have kids. He is perfectly sovereign, so it’s not like I’m missing out: this is the best for today.  This helps me confidently trust in Him.  Secondly, have open hands. You can have desires that God gives you but hold them in open hands in surrender and in submission to Him.  If I hold it with a closed fist then it’s an idol as if it’s my way or I’m going to be angry.  And lastly, rejoice with my friends when they rejoice.  When my friends get married then I rejoice, I’m commanded to.  And to be okay when my relationships change, like my best friend and I don’t talk everyday and she goes to her husband first and that’s how it should be.  Understanding different phases of life.

Partially why I came back to GOC, is to be a good steward of my singleness.  You have less distractions and I can be more focused on ministry and do things for the glory of God with the time He’s given me.  On the otherhand, I am still a woman and I still have a heart for the home and still being a steward of that, not just throwing that aside. I still have to cook, clean, and have people over and practice hospitality or even welcoming people at GOC on Fridays.  I can still be a single woman that way.  One example is I have my own recipe book on things I’ve tried and like and don’t have to start from zero later.  Also, don’t say yes to everything just because you’re single,  right now my roommate is like my family and sometimes I need to be at home.

R: To wrap things up, what is one last piece of advice that has been so helpful to you?
G: Learn to commune with the Lord.  There are a lot of Christians who don’t know what that looks like or feels like. I’m still learning, but it takes discipline to slow down in your day and have a real quiet time with the Lord and really talk to Him and live in His presence.  If you are living in His presence there’s much less of a chance to sin, yell, think impure thoughts, etc.  If we need to be taking time to be in the Word and worship Him. Read “How to worship Jesus Christ”.  Don’t leave GOC with a list of do’s and don’ts, a modified behavior, and no heart change.  Form biblical convictions and worship Christ more when you leave than when you first came.