Learning How to Ride vs. The Walk

So, this past weekend I was reading a children's book called Annie Learns How To Ride A Horse. I used to read it all the time as a kid. I decided to search for a relationship between the story and my relationship with Christ.

See, in the story Annie was crazy in love with horses. She wanted so badly to learn how to ride. Well, when she finally got started on her lessons her guide continuously told her what to do and how to do it. A lot of times she just sat there at a loss for words because she had NO IDEA what her guide was saying. "Whaaaat?" She tried to do what her guide told her to do several times and several times failed. So many times she fell off the horse or got tangled in the reins. As time went by she started to have a little more confidence in herself, even though she might have looked silly in the process. Annie still had many days where she sat puzzled at what her guide was telling her to do. Considering all the practice she was getting, she would come home sooo sore every single day. She would wake up and could hardly walk, and yet, she was still excited about her next lesson. After all these challenging lessons, she still hadn't perfected it. She still needed more practice, but she kept falling more and more in love with horses.

As I read the beginning of the book and read about her passion for horses, I thought of our desire and passion for God when we first accept Him. When we first start to really dig into the Word, whether it's our first time or our first time in a long time, we get stuck a lot. We sit there without words because we don't really know what we are supposed to be learning. We struggle to understand...but we try. When we try to do what God is leading us to do, we make a lot of mistakes. I thought of how many times she fell off the horse because she just couldn't get the hang of it yet. That happens to us all the time! We haven't gotten the hang of it yet, so we trip or make a mistake. Eventually we gain a lot more confidence in ourselves, but then again...we still have our downs. We're not perfect, and we fall all the time, no matter how much practice we've had. ...but yet, the more practice, the better we get. Growing in Christ means growing pains. The process hurts. Discipline is painful, but it is necessary. We go through so many challenging situations in our lives that are meant to bring us ever closer to Christ. They can be so painful, but they certainly give us tons of practice. We still haven't perfected it, we need a lot more practice. We need many more challenges. Yet, those challenges make us fall even more in love with our Creator! How cool is that?

So, even though I have not given the greatest nor clearest explanation of this, you can relate learning to ride horses with our relationships with Christ.
I thought it was cool. :)

First One

So, yesterday I read some in the gospel of John. Something that stuck out to me (being a Psychology major) was chapter three, verses nineteen through twenty-one.

19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see what God wants. (NLT)

I thought about how when we behave a certain way it can change our attitude. If we act out in love, we actually start to love. If we start to do what's right then we will have no fear of entering into God's presence. When we are choosing to do what He doesn't approve of, we are more likely to stray away from Him. So...my conclusion is that as we are pursuing Christ, if we have gotten into the habit of going against His will we should start to obey Him so that we are more likely to love Him and appreciate Him. I don't know if my words make sense. Please tell me if they don't. I will try to rephrase myself. I just think that our actions can lead our heart. If I show love, then I will love. If I obey God, I will fall in love with Him all over again. I will not be ashamed in His presence.

In Him.