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tothehilltops
Hello and welcome to "To the Hilltops!" We're so glad that you are joining us and choosing to share in this journey toward an ethics of Christian womanhood.
Please view this post as an invitation to a comfortable seat beside a cozy fireplace. Come in, kick up your feet, grab yourself a cup of tea, and introduce yourself to everyone. Who are you? What brings you here? How do you see the need for a community like this one in your life right now?
Excitedly,
the mods (Kay, Sharon, and Tamara)
Better (very) late than never
Date: 2011-06-20 11:25 pm (UTC)Four and a half years ago on an abnormally, wonderfully 78 degree day in January, I married the guy I love and SO enjoy. When people asked me how I knew I was supposed to get married, I (at 21 years old) told them that I knew I was supposed to marry this guy because I couldn't imagine going a day without his love, communication, and support (and still can't). We met in high school, and it was a regular little Christian romance novel, for the most part--cute, innocent, endearing. However, due to this aforementioned knuckle-knocking by the church, I did recognize our need for purity and desired it with my whole self but was fully unprepared for how to walk that out. Also, our dating period was so long due to our young age, which made waiting that much more difficult. My mom was very open about the beauty of sex, how God made it for our pleasure in marriage, and how deep blessings were given to those who wait. She told me this as a woman who did not wait until marriage, saying that she believed in the ultimate and beautiful redemption of God (and saw it clearly in her own life with my dad), but that she wanted me to experience blessings she believed she might have missed due to the baggage she still carried from her previous sexual relationship. Despite the warnings, we made what I considered mistakes during our courtship (I use this term because we saw ourselves as lifetime companions from early on), and I was constantly wracked with guilt over the slightest infractions (and what I thought were infractions... were they?) Therefore, this forum is so exciting to me. I want to see what you all have to say about this topic as I am currently working with the Junior High Youth at my church, have a younger (dating) sister, and may someday have my own daughters... and where does one even begin in this vast realm of dating and sex? Also, though I am so very joyful in my marriage today, I realize I do still have unanswered questions about that time of our lives together... what was right? What was wrong? What didn't matter?
Anyway, a little about what takes up my time: I am a tenth grade English teacher, but I do not pretend to be a poetic writer. I've tried and tried to be an author, but I keep finding I either do not enjoy the writing process as such or it comes out sounding pretty cheesy. I do enjoy working with fifteen to eighteen year olds on how to write research papers, on finding and applying parts of speech, and on learning how to get through entire (are you serious, Mrs. Sperlich?) books without completely giving up on tenth grade English class. It's so fun, and best of all, I've realized more than ever this year, this is my ministry. I have been placed there for a reason known only to my wonderful Father, and for that reason, I will do my best every day to show those kids how much I and God love them. Especially now after what I consider a miracle-- I was furloughed by my district and brought back into my exact same position a month later. THANK YOU, JESUS! :)
I want to leave you all with a verse that was and is healing balm to me throughout not only my dating life but my life every day:
Romans 8:1-3
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
P.S. If you've noticed my habit of throwing parentheses around, blame it all on Crystal Downing. Some of you Messiah-ans know (of) her... she is famous to me, and during my college saga, a big part of me so wanted to be her in those leather pants and high heels teaching English 101 to entranced undergrads. Her book, How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith, still intrigues me. As do her parentheticals.
Also, how do I italicize things? It's driving my grammatical self a little crazy.
Re: Better (very) late than never
Date: 2011-06-21 01:06 am (UTC)Second, italics are achieved by this means: < I > your dramatic text here < / I >, except without the spaces in between. You can also make bold text the same way, by replacing the I with a B, and I think underlining works with a U, too. The only other bit of HTML I use, which the girls here taught me to do, is inserting a hyperlink. We use it sometimes to point people handily to articles or sites we liked that are apropos to the topic, or to link back to other threads and points made in discussion. You can do that like this: < A HREF = "www.yourwebsite.com" > the actual text that shows, underlined in blue, here < / A >. (Note that there is a single space between A and HREF in the finished HTML code... it should look like <A HREF= to start out with.) Back to your gorgeous introduction---I still remember some of the conversations we had together when we were both... erm, engaged but chomping at the bit... in college. How encouraging it was to know and speak candidly with a young woman in the same stage of things! Two last things came to mind while reading: one, that hopefully you'll enjoy the rolling up of the sleeves and working out more truth together here, and that some of that will be not only an evaluation of the past and solidifying of beliefs about the before-marriage stage of life, but that some of it, too, will be truth for today: for our married selves, helping us love our husbands better. Then two was: don't feel intimidated by the sheer volume of some of the threads on here. Stick in your oar wherever you have a thought, even if you think it's "too late" and the discussion's over already. I personally enjoy every fresh new voice on here!
Re: Better (very) late than never
Date: 2011-06-21 10:27 pm (UTC)Re: Better (very) late than never
Date: 2011-06-21 11:02 pm (UTC)