Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

Follow Your Arrow

This week my daughter was super excited to watch the Grammy’s.  I wasn’t really but as all Mama’s understand, I did it for her.  Turns out I wasn’t super excited to listen to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.  I actually thought they were dead.  Anyways I have to admit, most of the time I was ignoring the TV and browsing Pinterest, until one song came on.  This song left my mind reeling and my mouth hanging open.  I just could NOT believe what I had just heard.

If you’ve ever wondered, for even a second, what is wrong with the world…why our young people are being led astray…what teens are buying into the lies…why God’s voice is being drowned out…just read the lyrics to this song.

It’s basically about whatever you do, do it because it makes you happy. Don’t follow after others, but go your own path. Basically telling you to follow your heart, which the Bible specifically says is deceitful and lies (Jeremiah 17:9).

I believe in pointing my arrow in the direction of Jesus.  There are aimless, longing souls out there looking for a place to land. Each of us should paint a big red target on our character so that we attract those wandering arrows.

If you save yourself for marriage
You’re a bore
If you don’t save yourself for marriage
You’re a horrible person
If you won’t have a drink
Then you’re a prude
But they’ll call you a drunk
As soon as you down the first one

If you can’t lose the weight
Then you’re just fat
But if you lose too much
Then you’re on crack
You’re damned if you do
And you’re damned if you don’t
So you might as well just do
Whatever you want
So

Make lots of noise
Kiss lots of boys
Or kiss lots of girls
If that’s something you’re into
When the straight and narrow
Gets a little too straight
Roll up a joint, or don’t
Just follow your arrow
Wherever it points, yeah
Follow your arrow
Wherever it points

If you don’t go to church
You’ll go to hell
If you’re the first one
On the front row
You’re self-righteous
Son of a-
Can’t win for losing
You’ll just disappoint ’em
Just ’cause you can’t beat ’em
Don’t mean you should join ’em

So make lots of noise
Kiss lots of boys
Or kiss lots of girls
If that’s something you’re into
When the straight and narrow
Gets a little too straight
Roll up a joint, or don’t
Just follow your arrow
Wherever it points, yeah
Follow your arrow
Wherever it points

Say what you think
Love who you love
‘Cause you just get
So many trips ’round the sun
Yeah, you only
Only live once

So make lots of noise
Kiss lots of boys
Or kiss lots of girls
If that’s what you’re into
When the straight and narrow
Gets a little too straight
Roll up a joint, I would
And follow your arrow
Wherever it points, yeah
Follow your arrow
Wherever it points

PS…I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this song!  Tell me what you think in the comments section below.

Getting Over It

I have spent the last few months walking around in sadness.  I’m sure you’ve read my posts about losing joy and finding my Christmas.  I’m sure y’all could have guessed I was walking through a valley.  It’s true, I was.  I had lost a friend, someone I had left into my inner circle of circles.  Someone I trusted, wholeheartedly.  Someone I thought was the sister I never had, sent directly to me by God.  Our families were woven together.  Losing that broke me more than anyone, even myself, could imagine.

I love having lots of friends. After growing up an only child, my friends are my siblings. I especially cherish close friends. You know what I mean, the ones who know you in-and-out and the friendship just feels comfortable and familiar. Asking me to get rid of a friend is like asking for a vital organ. And that’s exactly what this has felt like…like a part of me was taken. I’m sure a few of you have just rolled your eyes and thought “oh she is sooooo over-exaggerating”. I wish you could see my heart.

The loss of a valued friend is a harsh reality…it hurts! When the ties of a super close friendship are severed the results can be devastating, as I’ve found out. Emotional anguish is often complicated and confusing.  The feelings of rejection, bitterness and resentment threaten to take over.  
This girl has licked her wounds long enough.  I am tired of the sadness, the lingering questions I ask myself over and over, the bitterness and the overwhelming void I feel.  I’m done.  My heart is ready to have some happy times!!
It’s time for closure y’all.  Wow, does it ever feel good to say that!  
So once that was decided, I had to figure out HOW to move on. How to get closure.  I surely didn’t know how, if I did I would have done it long ago.  So I turned to the person who created friendship, God 🙂  If He created it surely He knew how to move on from a broken one.

I needed to realize their brokenness. I had been playing the victim when really they were the ones hurting. God softened my heart and helped me to see the ways in which this former friend suffers and struggles in life. In fact, it was those very insecurities or wounds that often caused them to treat me the way that they did. By leveling the playing field and remembering that we’re all broken humans clumsily trying to follow Christ, God helped me to see these ex-friends the way He does: Sinners desperately in need of grace. It didn’t happen over night, but it happened.  Thank goodness because this girl right here is tired of being sad!

As Christians, we are called to live a life that sticks out and looks different from the rest of the world.  Being angry, throwing my hands in the air, walking around in sadness and shutting them out was the obvious answer.  But did that answer make me look different?  I have decided to let Jesus’ words be true of my life and love in a way that is shocking, radical and irrational to the world around me.  I am choosing to forgive, pray for and keep the option of reconciliation there (if it’s Gods will).  No more anger, sadness and pity parties here!  Woo!
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 
Colossians 3:13


Happy Wives Club {Book Review}

I use Grammarly – the best plagiarism checker out there – because orange just isn’t my color.

Happy Wives Club
One Woman’s Worldwide Search for the Secrets of a Great Marriage
By Fawn Weaver
About the book:

One woman undertakes a worldwide search to learn the secrets of a great marriage—and finds one foundational truth that could change everything. 

Fawn Weaver was a happily married woman running a successful business—and then something happened. Maybe it was divorce rate reports on the evening news, The Real Housewives of Orange County, or any daytime talk show where husbands and wives dramatically reveal their betrayals. Everywhere she looked, Fawn saw negative portrayals of marriage dominating the airwaves and dooming everyone to failure. 

Looking at Keith, the love of her life, she knew that wasn’t true. She was determined to find and connect with women just like her—happy and optimistic about marriage, deeply in love with her spouse, and committed to building a strong marriage that stands the test of time. 

On a whim, she started the blog HappyWivesClub.com and sent the link to a few of new friends. What started as a casual invitation to five women exploded into an international online club with 150,000 members in more than 100 countries. 

Happy Wives Club is Fawn’s journey across the world to meet her friends and discover what makes their marriages great. Join her on this exciting, exotic trip across six continents and through more than eighteen cities. Walk the streets of Mauritius, the historic ruins in Italy, and the vistas of New Zealand and Australia. Go from Cape Town to London, Manila to Buenos Aires, Winnipeg to Zagreb. 

Along the way, you will meet everyday women whose marriage secrets span cultures. You will hear their stories, witness their love, and be inspired by the proof that happy, healthy marriages do exist—and yours can be one of them! 

It turns out great marriages are all around us—when we look for them. Go on a trip with Fawn and learn the best marriage secrets the world has to offer.

In a time when the world basically hates marriage, this book was a breath of fresh air! Actually, this book was awesome! It was interesting to read through each individual woman’s story and see her marriage through her words. I found myself nodding in agreement as she brought me into the lives of many different couples.

This was a well written book each chapter, every country that she visited, and every wife she interviewed I clearly was able to take something away about marriage.  Isn’t it amazing that, all around the world, women have the same outlook on marriage!

I realized how blessed I am and how happy I am in my role as wife to my best friend. I would recommend this to anyone, especially those who are tired of “self-help” or “improvement” books. This is fantastic and truly inspiring!

Want to check it out for yourself? The book is now available in stores and on Christian Book Store. What a perfect bridal shower or wedding gift for a friend or family member!

This book was provided to me free of charge by booksneeze.com in return for my honest review. The opinions i have expressed are my own.