Embrace Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)
"4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails...."

Ok so here is a challenge that was presented to me and the other members of Awaken. Take this passage about love and everytime the word love is mentioned replace it with your name.
See how you feel at the end and take what you now see in yourself and where you lack haveing a ture love and change it.

Suggestion: Print this passage up with your name replacing love an put it in a place you will see daily to remind you what TRUE LOVE is.

Embracing Life
Nikki Boyd

Embracing being Single

This is a recent Blog from The Ramp Amazing everyone should read it!!

Relationship Run
This is some incredibly practical material - with Valentines Day looming in the near future I thought I'd share some thoughts with you guys. For all of you who spend way too much time wondering who "The One" that you're going to marry is, here are some things I have learned recently:During Winter Ramp Damon said something kind of as a side comment that really impacted me. (And I'm sure every one who was single in the room picked up on this as well) He said, "If you want to find your spouse just run as hard and as fast as you can after God, and then look over and see who's running next to you." That is such a powerful word! Well naturally the single minds start to think, "Hmm...well who is running next to me?…" And as I was pondering this the Holy Spirit interrupted my thoughts and said, "Julie, are you running as hard and as fast as you can?" After I thought about it for a minute my honest response was, "Well...no." And His response to me was, "Well then don't look."Wow. What a rebuke. But what a freeing word! In a moment I realized that my only responsibility is to focus on running as hard and as fast as I can after God. To lay aside every weight that hinders. To stop settling for a "normal" walk with God instead of a supernatural one, and to really press into God, growing up into spiritual maturity. Like Mrs. Karen says, "Where you stop is where you stop!"Being single is a time in your life to treasure. It's the only time in your life that you have where it's just you and God - where you don't have to worry about the responsibilities of a spouse, or kids, etc. It's a time where you can so easily put all of your attention on Him. And if you're feeling lonely, just realize that loneliness is nothing more than an invitation to find a deeper security in God. Most people get so busy trying to fill the lonely times with distractions that they miss the Divine "Come up here."
All of that to say, let's set ourselves this year to cut out distractions and run as hard and fast as we can - to run in a way as to receive the prize of encountering Him.
Julie

Embracing The Hard Times

Everybody has those times where everything seems to hit you all at once. Its in those times when you are your weakest that God's Strength comes into play. When you are felling as if you are all alone it is the time God can comfort and embrace you the most. It is a good thing to go through hard times because when you do it is just God putting you through the fire. John (My Pastor) once said that so many times we ask for God to pour out his Fire on us but once God dose we start complaning. Do we not thing that reciving God's holy fire isn't going to burn? The fire is a place we need to be so God can refine us and make us into that pure and spotless bride. While I was going through a really ruff patch not to long ago a wise and respectful man told me "Greatness is forged in the Fire, You are destined for greatness." Just remember going through hard times just puts you one step closer to our Lord God Almighty!

Embracing Him
Nikki