To the Singles from the Single

This post as titled above is to the singles from the single (me). While it's directed more at girls, I think guys can get something out of it too. The goal of this post is to encourage those of you who are single to use the singleness God gave you wisely and to focus on Him.

       As a single Christian the big goal in your life shouldn't be just to one day get married and "live happily ever after." Your major goal and focus as a child of God should be to love, glorify and serve the Lord with your whole being. Singlehood is the prime time for developing a good and strong relationship with the Lord. You have the time. I know you may be thinking that you don't have the time, but if spending time with God is important to you then you will make time for Him no matter how busy you may be. If you can make time for other things that may not even really matter (you may be thinking of some things right now), then you can set aside some time to spend with your heavenly Father. Now I know we all have everyday things that we do but when it comes down to it, we're not so busy that we can't. At least, we shouldn't ever be that busy.

      I may not know a whole lot about being married; I only know what it says in the bible about it, what married people tell me and what I observe. But I do know a lot about being single because I am. I know it can be hard, VERY hard to be content. Especially when it seems everyone around you is in a relationship, engaged or married. You feel left out. But that doesn't give you the excuse to mope around wishing it would hurry up and be "your turn." I've been there and done that many times. But I've come to realize that wishing for something I don't have right now isn't being grateful for what I do have right now: singleness. It's a gift. A precious gift that we really only have once. Just because most everyone is in a relationship doesn't mean you have to be. You don't have to do what everyone else is doing. God placed you where you are; you can do what He put you there for or you can do what you want to do. Wait on Him. Seek Him. Lamentations 3:25, "The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him."  

       An ideal marriage is when a man and a woman who have been faithfully serving the Lord while being single become a team with their main goal being to serve Christ together. Psalm 34:3 says, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." In that ideal marriage both parties seek to please God FIRST and the other party second. I know some married couples who are shining examples of that. But I also know some who aren't. If the Lord has me marry I want to be one who is. But I'm not going to just sit around hoping and dreaming when I can do something NOW that will benefit me in the present and in the future.

       A married person has to take care of their spouse and children if they have some and all the other responsibilities that come along. A single person really only has to take care of them and therefore has a lot more time to spend time with God and for God than if they were married. In 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 it says, "32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: 33 but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. 34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. 35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction."

       Whether you have never been with someone or have been in a previous relationship this time of singlehood you have now is something that should be cherished and used wisely. Don't waste it! You don't know how long you will have this time. Maybe it will be short, maybe it will be long. Or maybe you are meant to be single for a lifetime. The apostle Paul was and look how God used him! Why, we probably wouldn't have half the New Testament if he had sat around wasting his time whining about being "forever alone". But he was content single, Philippians 4:11, "...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Whatever the case may be, you are single at this time. Embrace it. You may not want to at first, but once you do you will be happier. It can be a blessing if you let it. You probably won't be single your whole life so learn to enjoy it while you can.

       "So what am I supposed do while I'm single??" Use this singlehood to glorify God. Go on a mission’s trip. Go to bible college. Get involved in some of your church's ministries. There are nursing homes, children, jails and others that need you! Don't just sit there twiddling your thumbs daydreaming your life away! DO SOMETHING FOR GOD!

       In heaven, I don't think there'll be anybody that says, "Boy, I wish I would've gotten married!" But there will be those who may say, "If only I had used the time I had on earth for God!" Single or not, you will regret not doing your best for the Lord. 

He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

-Jim Elliot

       So why not start at this moment and strive to do your best? Can you think of any good excuses? I mean some real legitimate reasons why you shouldn't or "can't" try to do your best for Christ? It doesn't matter if so and so always seems to do better and be better than you. If YOU are honestly doing YOUR best God will use YOU!

The first verse of an appropriate hymn says,

 Give of your best to the Master;

Give of the strength of your youth;
Throw your soul’s fresh, glowing ardor
Into the battle for truth.
Jesus has set the example,
Dauntless was He, young and brave;
Give Him your loyal devotion;
Give Him the best that you have.

-Howard B. Grose

       Instead of waiting for the "perfect one," work on becoming the one God intended YOU to be. NOW is the time to discipline yourself to read the bible every day. NOW is the time to be a serious prayer warrior. NOW is the time to be a good witness for Christ. NOW is the time to use your time of singleness for the glory of God! Now is the time to seek Him! Deuteronomy 4:29, "But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul."

You only get ONE LIFE on this earth and only that which you did for Christ will matter when it's over. What will you do with yours?

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,
If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee

-Charles Thomas Studd

Here is a list of a few good books that you may find helpful (click on the titles):

Preparing To Be a Help Meet by Debi Pearl

Created to Need a Help Meet: A Marriage Guide for Men by Michael Pearl

I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris

Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship by Joshua Harris

His Chosen Bride: Applying Proverbs 31 as a Single Young Woman by Jennifer J. Lamp

(If you have any book recommendations please let me know!)

Spiritual Quotes

Below are some spiritual quotes and verses that I love and thought you'd enjoy.

"Take the world, but give me Jesus,
All its joys are but a name;
But His love abideth ever,
Through eternal years the same."

-Frances "Fanny" J. Crosby

(I took this picture and added the text.)

 (I also took this picture and added the verse.)

Feel free to post or pin these images onto Pinterest or wherever! =)

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What I Believe

So I've never really told you plainly what I believe exactly. To be honest I was kind of scared. Scared that you might stop following my blog or not want to be my friend anymore. Scared that some of you may try to argue with me. Scared that you might get mad. But I've realized that even if that happens I know I did what God wants me to do. Just so we're clear, I'm not trying to bash any of you that believe differently I'm just telling you what I personally believe. If you agree with some of my beliefs or none at all is between you and God. 

Now here is what I believe...

    I believe that the Authorized King James version of the bible is God's word and final authority (click here to see why I believe that). It was written by men whom God inspired and is His revealing of Himself to man. It is perfect because it has God for its author, was inspired by God, was preserved by Him, and is truth without any error. Psalm 12:6, 7."The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever."

    I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and that they are God in three persons. 1 John 5:7, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."

    I believe that you must be saved by faith. Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."

    I believe that once we are saved we are always saved. John 10:28, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

    I believe that baptism is what we should to do AFTER we are saved. Mark 16:16, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." 

    I believe in the second coming of the Lord. Revelation 1:7, "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they [also] which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."

If you have any questions or would like to know how you can go to heaven please comment below or email me at: hotpinkgirlie@gmail.com

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P.S. I updated my "About" page and also added what I believe to it: http://ahomebeyondtheriver.blogspot.com/p/about.html

"What Has Happened To The Girl?"

What happened to the girl that used to blog AT LEAST once a week? What happened to the girl that thought about blogging so often? What happened to the girl named Chasity?

To answer those questions in detail would take a while and frankly would probably bore you to no end so I will briefly tell you what has happened "the girl".

She lost her motivation for writing.

She took a break from blogging.

She made new friends.

She spent more time with God and His word.

She led a lady to the Lord.

She spent more time with her family.

She became a senior in high school.

She turned eighteen.

SHE CHANGED. And for the better.

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She's Arrived!

Piper Ann McGuffey arrived safely from God on Saturday night around 9:00 PM to my sister Rebekah and her husband Isaiah. She weighs 8 lbs. 2 oz. and is 20 and a half inches long.

Mother and baby are doing great!

My dad is once again a proud grandpa.

My mom loves having a another granddaughter. 

My brother Kirk likes being Piper's uncle.

Kirk's girlfriend Jeri will one day be her aunt.

My sister KayleeBeth thinks it's cute when Piper sticks out her tongue.

My brother Ryan didn't quite know what to do with the little baby.

She likes to be all bundled up.

Isn't she so beautiful?

P.S. I took all the pictures except for the one with me in it (KayleeBeth took that one).

So Far This Month . . .

I've been doing good at keeping the few resolutions I've made (particularly the exercising).

I've read three books already: Embers of Love (Striking a Match, #1) by Tracie Peterson, Petticoat Ranch (Lassoed in Texas #1) by Mary Connealy, and Michal (Wives of King David #1) by Jill Eileen Smith. I'm currently reading A Bride in the Bargain by Deanne Gist.

I won the book The Tutor's Daughter  by Julie Klassen in a giveaway on goodreads.com and Season 3 of Downton Abbey. Sooo excited about them!

I got sick with the flu last Saturday and Sunday and then on Monday and Tuesday I had a cold. =/

I went ice skating last Monday with some family and a few friends. I forgot to take off my skate guards before going on the ice and slipped and fell. Twice! It was sooo embarrassing (but now it's just plain hilarious)  and I have nasty bruises on my knees! Some guy there told me it happens to him at least once a year. But still, I rarely ever fall and always tale my guards off . . . except this time I wad distracted by one of my nephews and totally forgot I still had them on. That won't happen again I can tell you that!

I went snow shoveling today and made some money for missions and to send one of my friends a late Christmas present. =)

I put up some polls on my sidebar for you to vote on.

What have you done so far this month? Anything exciting (or embarrassing)?

Gift Exchange - What I Got

My friend Kari had a gift exchange a couple weeks ago over on her blog. I'm linking up to her with pictures of the gifts I received from my gift exchange partner Sadie. 

These three candy bars were gobbled up in two days (I have absolutely ZERO self control when it comes to Snickers)! o.O 

It was torture to take a picture when all I wanted to do was eat it!

Sadie made this adorable ruffled scarf!

Isn't it cute? =) 

Little notes inside the package . . .

. . . and then a week later (today) I got what she promised!

Haha! Okay so funny story, my mom was looking at the back of the cd case and was like, "None of them are even cute." I laughed sooo hard! 

I've been listening to them this whole evening. =)

♥ THANK YOU VERY MUCH SADIE!!!!!! I LOVE MY GIFTS!!!!!! ♥

The Pearl of Great Price

    If you've looked at my blog recently you will have noticed that it's recently been redesigned. I decided to redo it the other day. Normally I've had Britt do it but this time I felt like doing it all by myself this time (though I had her make some new buttons for me). It was fun to do and I think it turned out pretty well, how about you? There's a poll on my sidebar that you can vote on if you'd like to. =)
    Also, what do you think of the header (I took the pictures) and the verses I chose to go along with it? Here are the verses I chose to use: Matthew 13:45-46, "[45] Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: [46] Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." 

Many people are like that merchant man in verse 45 who are looking for "goodly pearls" -good things that will make them happy and rich. But there is only one pearl that can do that fully which is "the pearl of great price." 

    The pearl of great price is Jesus Christ and indeed He is! In verses 46 we see that the merchant man found that "pearl of great price" I've searched through many "goodly pearls" but never have I found any like "the pearl of great price!" He is the most precious and rarest of all! If you have found "the pearl of great price" (talking about salvation here) but haven't yet fully "sold all that you have, and bought it" (completely given your life to Christ) I fiercely encourage you to do so! I spent many years knowing where to find that "pearl of great price" and indeed I held it in my hand but only a few months ago did I really grasp it and took it and "sold all that I had, and bought it." Isn't funny how we trust God with our souls but yet we cling to our lives. Don't be like me and wait, telling yourself that you are okay by yourself and don't really need give your whole life over to God. He's been waiting so long for you to surrender yourself to Him. He's given so much for you that the least you could do is give your life, stock, and barrel to the Lord. If you want to make Him truly happy you'll do just that.

Snow? Already??

It's the end of October and here in Montana we got snow! 

That's right, snow! 

This was taken out my bedroom window

Taken from our back stairs/balcony -this is our backyard

Technically we got our official first snow the beginning of this month but I was on vacation in Nebraska so this is my first snow that I've seen. I'm glad that it's melting away though because I'm not quite ready for the snow to stay! I mean, I was just getting used to it being fall and enjoying it (I just did that post about taking walks in the fall with my sister you know) and then bam! It snows! At least it's pretty much all melted by now. =) My favorite song right now is Let- er DON'T Let It Snow (since we've got places to go)! =D Because if it keeps snowing now, it will be an extremely looooong winter for us! I'm just not quite ready for it to be full blown winter and snowing yet. =/ 

How is the weather where you live? Most likely it's warmer where you are and no snow in sight but who know, God could send some snow your way! Well if you live in down South that would be really crazy but you know what I mean . . . right?? ;P

If you would like to see more snowy pictures you can see them at my photography blog by clicking here.

My Crazy Day and the Happenings Therein

Hello friends! 

How was your day? I hope it was good.

 How was mine? Here, let me tell you about it . . . 

So my mom, sister KayleeBeth, brother Ryan, and I went into town today (we live about seven miles from town or the "city"). Kaylee and I had to get our teeth cleaned at the dentist so we went there and got that done which took about an hour because we also had to get a couple of sealants (see picture below).

Sealants are kind of like a filling but not quite -they help reduce the possibility of  your tooth decaying.

So that was fun! I actually like going to the dentist. Oh on the way I'm thinking it will be horrible and everything will go wrong but then I get there and I feel calm and trust that they'll do a good job and it never hurts (the numbing needle pinches a little but it's not that bad, for me at anyways)!

After the dentist my mom dropped Kaylee and I at a bookstore where we wandered around for a bit while our mom and Ryan went to Costco (which is a warehouse store kind of like Winco's) to replace a tire that a screw had got into. o.O 

Well, we walked over to Costco (on our way there we stopped by Michael's (which is a craft supply store) and got a few things there) and ate a late lunch at the cafeteria there while waiting for our car to get done. We didn't think it'd take very long but they hadn't even gotten our car in the tire place once we were finished eating because they were so busy! My dad  needed Ryan to help him with fall clean up (my dad owns and operates a lawn care business) so we grabbed our car (which is a minivan by the way) and dropped him off with our dad and came back to Costco. 

We shopped around a bit in the store but we didn't have much to get so it didn't take very long. My mom talked to the people at the Verizon kiosk for a while and even charged her phone there because it was dying and she needed to be able have it charged so the people from the tire place could call when the car was ready. 

After that we went and looked around at rug mats, some coats, and then ended up in this random aisle with Christmas decorations (already! it's annoying how everyone pretty much skips Thanksgiving and go straight to Christmas!) on one side and some hunting stuff and toys on the other. There were two hunting chairs out so you could sit in them to see if you liked them and we took turns sitting in those since our feet were tired of walking around for so long. We pretty much "camped out." People were looking at as funny as they walked by us. I guess it's a little strange to see people lounging around in Costco -er, in any other store then Walmart I guess it would be strange to see people doing that. =P

Here is my mom "sleeping" in one. ;)

This is Kaylee with a stack of boxes just about her height. =)

 And here I am squashing this poor angry bird. =D

We had been at Costco for two hours (Kaylee was calling it our new home) and we still hadn't gotten a call from the tire place. Kaylee went and ran outside two times to see if they were making progress and both times they had the tire off but no tire on. Finally, we all went to ask them what was going on. They didn't have my mom's number (the guy forgot to ask and we thought they had it already since we've had them do tire stuff for us before) and they didn't have the tire we needed. My mom had them put on a different tire and within a couple of minutes were FINALLY good to go! 

We quickly stopped by at the library to pick up some books and then came home. After running around all day it's home sweet home indeed. =)