At bible talk tonight, we really focussed a lot on prayer, which I think is something we all struggle with from time to time. I know for myself, as much as I love God, and as big of a part of my life he is, I totally don't take enough time out of my day to spend praying and talking with him. Sometimes, I go days without praying and I just completely forget that prayer is so essential. I get so caught up with all of these temporary pleasures that the world has to offer and I forget all about Jesus. It seems as though there's always a television show to catch up on, a game to play, a party to go to, or something "more important" to do than spending time with Jesus and it totally separates us from his love.
When I reflect on this, it upsets me so much. I mean, God listens to each and every one of us, every minute of every day. He doesn't forget about us, or put us on the back burner for bigger, better things. He's always ready to talk, and ready for us to ask for his guidance.
I think that prayer is important for so many reasons. For starters, how can you have a relationship if it's only one sided? Imagine being in a relationship with someone, who just coexisted with you, didn't really speak to you, didn't listen when you asked them anything, or didn't answer any of you questions. How would you feel? When we forget to pray, and forget to spend time with Jesus, or neglect to listen to what he has to tell us, it's the same thing. It's as though Jesus is in a 1-way relationship with us, and we're not reciprocating his love.
Prayer shouldn't only happen when you need something, or you're in a bind. You know how it goes, "Oh God, please don't let me fail this exam, or please help me get out of this terrifying situation, or please help me find a boyfriend.". But then, when God answers our prayers, we forget to thank him and praise him for all of his mercy, grace, and unconditional love. We need to pray more, just to talk with him, and ask for guidance, wisdom, strength, patience, and the same unconditional love for others that he has for us, instead of just seeking God when we need or want things.
I know so many people who struggle with their faith, and struggle with prayer because they feel as though God doesn't listen to them, and neglects to answer their prayers. This is totally not true. I think in so many instances, we pray for things WE want, and we pray that things work out in our favour, and when they don't, we associate it with God's lack of answers. What we have to remember is that God has out whole entire life planned out, from the day we are conceived until the day we make our journey to Heaven.. He knows the bigger picture, while we just know what we want at a given time. Sometimes, awful things happen that only strengthen us and reinforce our relationship with Christ.
When I pray, I pray for God to show me where he wants me to be, and to use me as he desires. I pray that he will use me as a disciple to both encourage others in their walk with him, and to lose my selfish ways, and completely surrender to him. I pray that his will be done, but that he creates an outcome in my favour. I trust that my Saviour won't lay on me more than I can handle, and that he has a bigger plan for my life than I can even imagine possible. And that's why I know that in order for God to use me, I need to spend more time in prayer, and more time getting to know him and strengthening our relationship.
Recently, my parents began praying together, every night. They began truly relying on God for answers instead of taking matters into their own hands. When things get rough, sometimes they slip, but usually one is there to encourage the other to seek guidance from God or one of the many wonderful pastors who have helped my family grow in our faith. Since then, their relationship has strengthened so much, and their faith in Jesus has also grown much stronger.
This is something I think every couple should do. I know that we don't do it, and after tonight, I challenge myself and Chris to take time every morning or every night to spend with The Lord, together. If we can't pray together, than how can we encourage each other to grow in our faith and include God in our relationship? In order to grow as a couple, we need to grow together in Jesus. And in order to grow together in Jesus, we need to spend more time with him, and one way is through prayer.
Pray. Even if you don't think you have the right words, or you're not sure what to say, or what to pray for, just pray. Start small. Even just stop to acknowledged God on a beautiful sunny morning, or when something positive happens, thank him. Every relationship with Jesus is unique and special. Don't feel like because some people pray more than you, their relationship is better or God is going to love them more. God love each and every one of us with a love that is so immense he gave his son for us. He knows our intentions, he knows when the prayers are real, and all he wants is for us to love him as much as he loves us.
So pray.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Is food the cause of Cancer, or is it Capitalism?
http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2013/09/top-10-most-unhealthy-cancer-causing-foods-never-eat-these-again.html
At this point in my life, I don't know what they expect us to eat... Every time I turn around, there's another article about how this food causes cancer, this food causes liver failure, this drink causes breast cancer, etc. It just doesn't end.
Let's be honest, when you're a student trying to get by, or you live in a low/middle class family where you shop sales because that's basically what you can afford, I don't know how you are supposed to avoid everything that is in the food we eat today. As a university student, do you think that our cafeteria service is buying organic products and reading ingredient labels? probably not.
Unfortunately, we don't even know what we eat, and we're harming out bodies every single day with all of the crap we keep putting into it because the alternatives are not as simple as people want to believe they are. And another thing, if I sat around worrying about everything that I put into my mouth, I'd be on narcotics. Because it's not feasible for me to eat all organic, I can't spend my days reading the packages, and watching videos about what they do to genetically modify everything. I'd never want to eat again. The sad thing is, instead of companies using healthier alternatives, foods keep getting worse and worse, and the only other alternative is "organic" food which is not exactly organic in all cases, and is usually much more costly and does not go on sale like most food does. for instance, broccoli comes on sale for a dollar sometimes, while the competitive organic broccoli is still somewhere around the $3-$4 mark. And understandably, local organic businesses need to make a living and survive, and it IS the healthier, better choice, but Economically, i can't do it.
I really with as communities, we could go back to farming, and actually together, own and maintain vegetation and crops, animals, and so on. Farming is tough, and can be costly for one family if they're trying to support just themselves, keep up with the barn work, harvesting, watering, feeding, cleaning, and so on. Communities need to come together and find a more healthy, cost efficient way to eat REAL food, and I believe multi-family owned farms are the answer. Now I totally understand that we also have to work to make money due to our economically devastating community that has about a 5% millionaire to middle / lower class ratio. The wealth is definitely not divided and definitely doesn't "Spread" very far.
I just look at our Capitalist market where everything is about MAXIMIZING PROFIT, which in turn, means boxes and packages of food get smaller, price goes up, healthier ingredients are replaced with whatever is the cheapest and will glue it together, animals and vegetation are ALL genetically modified to be bigger and grow 20x as fast to meet our insane demands for food. Health has completely gone down the toilet because of these capitalist views and companies who are OBSESSED with money.
I truly applaud those in my community who create local homegrown, and organic products and I try to support them as much as possible. I believe organic is the answer. But I also believe that small local shops that have products that cost 3x the amount at shelf products, are not creating as big an impact because it then becomes a status problem. Only those with money can afford to buy these products.
I think we need to take a bigger stand, and come together as a society and fight back against these corporations and capitalism, and create competitive priced organic products, but like I said, the only way we can do that is by doing this as a mass. I know I would feel much better knowing that what I put into my mouth isn't activating another cancer cell with every bite.
I started this post about food, but I think with all of the sociology of Capitalism I have been doing, it really hit me that it's not just the food that's the problem, it's actually Capitalism. If people weren't so obsessed with Money Money Money, if wealth was more equally distributed, if we ALL had the financial ability to afford organic products, and help those who don't a little, I mean, we could actually make a difference. People survived just fine years ago before all of this GMO BS came out. What changed? Capitalism did. Insatiability did. MORE MORE MORE did.
In the end, I kind of think Capitalism is a cancer. It keeps spreading, growing, and affects everyone. Only a few benefit from it, the rest, they're just victims of the system.
At this point in my life, I don't know what they expect us to eat... Every time I turn around, there's another article about how this food causes cancer, this food causes liver failure, this drink causes breast cancer, etc. It just doesn't end.
Let's be honest, when you're a student trying to get by, or you live in a low/middle class family where you shop sales because that's basically what you can afford, I don't know how you are supposed to avoid everything that is in the food we eat today. As a university student, do you think that our cafeteria service is buying organic products and reading ingredient labels? probably not.
Unfortunately, we don't even know what we eat, and we're harming out bodies every single day with all of the crap we keep putting into it because the alternatives are not as simple as people want to believe they are. And another thing, if I sat around worrying about everything that I put into my mouth, I'd be on narcotics. Because it's not feasible for me to eat all organic, I can't spend my days reading the packages, and watching videos about what they do to genetically modify everything. I'd never want to eat again. The sad thing is, instead of companies using healthier alternatives, foods keep getting worse and worse, and the only other alternative is "organic" food which is not exactly organic in all cases, and is usually much more costly and does not go on sale like most food does. for instance, broccoli comes on sale for a dollar sometimes, while the competitive organic broccoli is still somewhere around the $3-$4 mark. And understandably, local organic businesses need to make a living and survive, and it IS the healthier, better choice, but Economically, i can't do it.
I really with as communities, we could go back to farming, and actually together, own and maintain vegetation and crops, animals, and so on. Farming is tough, and can be costly for one family if they're trying to support just themselves, keep up with the barn work, harvesting, watering, feeding, cleaning, and so on. Communities need to come together and find a more healthy, cost efficient way to eat REAL food, and I believe multi-family owned farms are the answer. Now I totally understand that we also have to work to make money due to our economically devastating community that has about a 5% millionaire to middle / lower class ratio. The wealth is definitely not divided and definitely doesn't "Spread" very far.
I just look at our Capitalist market where everything is about MAXIMIZING PROFIT, which in turn, means boxes and packages of food get smaller, price goes up, healthier ingredients are replaced with whatever is the cheapest and will glue it together, animals and vegetation are ALL genetically modified to be bigger and grow 20x as fast to meet our insane demands for food. Health has completely gone down the toilet because of these capitalist views and companies who are OBSESSED with money.
I truly applaud those in my community who create local homegrown, and organic products and I try to support them as much as possible. I believe organic is the answer. But I also believe that small local shops that have products that cost 3x the amount at shelf products, are not creating as big an impact because it then becomes a status problem. Only those with money can afford to buy these products.
I think we need to take a bigger stand, and come together as a society and fight back against these corporations and capitalism, and create competitive priced organic products, but like I said, the only way we can do that is by doing this as a mass. I know I would feel much better knowing that what I put into my mouth isn't activating another cancer cell with every bite.
I started this post about food, but I think with all of the sociology of Capitalism I have been doing, it really hit me that it's not just the food that's the problem, it's actually Capitalism. If people weren't so obsessed with Money Money Money, if wealth was more equally distributed, if we ALL had the financial ability to afford organic products, and help those who don't a little, I mean, we could actually make a difference. People survived just fine years ago before all of this GMO BS came out. What changed? Capitalism did. Insatiability did. MORE MORE MORE did.
In the end, I kind of think Capitalism is a cancer. It keeps spreading, growing, and affects everyone. Only a few benefit from it, the rest, they're just victims of the system.
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