{"id":649,"date":"2013-03-24T18:26:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T23:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovingonme.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2017-04-09T14:18:24","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T19:18:24","slug":"proud-to-stand-firm-on-my-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/2013\/03\/24\/proud-to-stand-firm-on-my-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Proud to Stand Firm on My Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Katrina<\/a>Kindness is a gift I will never take for granted. <\/b>It’s been\u00a0a wonderful weekend of celebration! When your birthday falls on a Friday, it\u2019s almost like a mandate to spend three days celebrating the joy of just being here. I am so grateful for friends, family and random strangers who added to the happiness.<\/p>\n

Birthdays are also a point where I spend time in self-reflection. Am I where I should be? Have I accomplished what I said I would? What\u2019s in store for my future? I don\u2019t know about you, but I always find this line of thinking mostly helpful and just a little irritating.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that taking a pause to think about where we\u2019re headed is a good thing. Sometimes we find ourselves in seasons where we\u2019re just aimlessly going through the motions with no real thought to where we\u2019re trying to go. Other times we find that where we\u2019re headed is not where we want to end up. The great news is that life offers us countless opportunities to change our course<\/b>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the positive of reflection. What irritates me is when I start wondering what I should have accomplished by now. You know those lists that tell you everything you should have and have done by the time you\u2019re a certain age? Well, I\u2019m thinking we should all burn them.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s finally become clear to me is that we\u2019re all on our own path. While many things in life can be achieved by a certain age, we may not be ready for them. And for many other things, we may be ready long before others think it\u2019s time. That\u2019s why now I\u2019m spending less time searching for external validation, and more time on internal authentication. <\/b>I am absolutely and completely committed to being the one true me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s such a hard thing to grasp that we are uniquely designed, to accept that our paths are tailor-made. It\u2019s natural to judge us against the achievements of others. Yet being ourselves, embracing ourselves as we really are, is the only way to experience true contentment<\/b>. And once we offer that to ourselves, we freely give that same freedom to others.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that is why I was so taken aback last week when one of my Facebook \u201cfriends\u201d commented on one of my posts with \u201ctone down the god thing\u201d. I probably shouldn\u2019t have been, but I was really surprised. I responded with a friendly \u201cNo can do. God has been too good to me to deny Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there it just got bizarre. In the span of 5 minutes the person added four additional comments \u2013 two of which I didn\u2019t understand \u2013 and finally a post on their timeline which said \u201cKatrina.SMD.\u201d It took me half the night before I realized \u201cSMD\u201d meant suck my d*ck. Sanity must have returned sometime during the evening because that post was deleted and replaced with \u201cDon\u2019t push your religion on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking about it off and on all weekend. Not because it hurt my feelings \u2013 which by the way, it did \u2013 but because there was such hostility behind it. I mean why take the time to even comment? If my words offended you so, why not just de-friend me? Would that not be easier than trying to humiliate me, and in turn making a fool of you? I really just don\u2019t understand, and probably never will.<\/p>\n

But where I finally netted out is that I\u2019m grateful for the experience. If you notice that I have a \u201cGod-thing\u201d then I\u2019m doing something right. That means my life is reflecting my beliefs. I could not be more thrilled that the love God is pouring into me is spilling out into the lives of others.\u00a0 I have no doubt that this is the purpose for which I was created, and I am so grateful to be used in such a fashion.<\/p>\n

I am also thankful to know whom I\u2019m dealing with. Maya Angelou said, \u201cWhen people show you who they really are, believe them.\u201d There is such wisdom in those few words. Had I learned that earlier in life, I could have saved myself a lot of heartache and wasted energy trying to change people.<\/p>\n

Mostly, I\u2019m grateful that I have the courage to keep being me<\/b>. I have never been criticized for my faith before. It\u2019s an odd experience \u2013 especially when I have friends that are Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Non-Denominational. But then again, maybe I shouldn\u2019t be surprised. The truth is I haven\u2019t always lived my life in a way that clearly shouted I am a Christian. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have no room to be judgmental of any one else. Like the rest of you, I am saved by grace and working on the rest.<\/p>\n

But if I have to be criticized for anything, I am proud that it is for standing firm on my faith. God is so I am. He is my everything, and I dearly love Him. Without Him, this walk of faith would be a foolish fantasy. With God, it is an exciting adventure into the unknown but divinely ordered.<\/p>\n

I pray that as we all advance in age that we continue to grow in grace. I pray that we have the courage to be our whole and complete selves, and that we have the tolerance and good sense to allow others to do the same. I pray that we all grow in our relationship with our Creator and that He blesses us with the kind of love that radiates from the very core of our being.<\/p>\n

You are God\u2019s amazing creation. He loves you. Now it\u2019s your turn to love you. Stand firm in your faith.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Loving on Me as I Love You! \u2764<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kindness is a gift I will never take for granted. It’s been\u00a0a wonderful weekend of celebration! When your birthday falls on a Friday, it\u2019s almost like a mandate to spend three days celebrating the joy of just being here. I am so grateful for friends, family and random strangers who added to the happiness. Birthdays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sharing_disabled":false,"switch_like_status":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[204998053,114917237],"tags":[5129,922,1015062,2274055,1600408,45449,1731389],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/img_0933-1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eAxC-at","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9008,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/9008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}