Megan Dennis: series

#HowISurvivedHighSchool Part 6: A Promising Future

June 19, 2019

Welcome back!

Today I will be wrapping up my story on my high school experience. In case you’re new, I’ll drop the links for the previous parts here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Out of all the parts I’ve done, I think I’m most excited for this one. I wanted to spend this last part talking about the future. As you probably know, I’m a daydreamer and I love to dream about unrealistic scenarios most of the time. However, I’m going to try to be a little more down to earth and not get too out of hand here. I think it’s important to separate dreams from goals. I believe goals are things you set in your mind to do and you continue to work towards them. On the other hand, dreams are merely just things you wish for but for the most part are unrealistic.

So now that we’ve differentiated the two, I’m going to start with the realistic stuff. If you don’t know already, I plan to attend community college for two years and get my associates in business administration and from there hopefully I will transfer to a state university to get my master’s degree. I feel that education is one of the most valuable assets you can have in life; so when I was thinking about what I wanted my future life after high school to look like I knew I wanted to put my education before anything else.

Aside from going to college full time, I plan to keep working throughout the school year as well as continue my online profiles (blogging, YouTube.) I have no idea what my schedule will be like come the school year, but I plan to post regularly as much as I can. I’ve learned throughout these years that there’s no point in having a set schedule because I feel like it’s important to only put out work that you’re proud of and I just can’t be proud of something I was under time pressure. So I’ve thrown the idea of schedules out the window and I’ll post when I make something that I’m proud of; whether that be once a week or once a month.

Many people have asked me about my relationship status or when I’ll have a boyfriend, get married, etc. I just tell them all that will happen in God’s timing, not mine. Society has changed over the years and relationships seem to move so quickly these days. People are getting married and having a family before 25 (which isn’t a bad thing don’t get me wrong), whereas I want more time to live and enjoy being young without those commitments. So that’s where I’m at right now and I’m also in the midst of working through a lot of personal issues with myself that I have to fix before I can even allow myself to think about dating.

I’m thankful for all the friendships I’ve formed throughout high school, with both girls and boys. I’m fortunate to have girl friends that I know will always have my back and I theirs. Girls that I’m able to talk about things I would never talk about with anyone else. I’m also thankful for the friendships I’ve formed with males. I have guy friends that are almost like brothers to me, who show me how real men are supposed to treat girls (my only confidence that the entire male population is not totally screwed.) It’s been a blessing to get to know so many amazing people over the years and I’m excited to meet many more throughout my college years.

People always laugh when they ask what I want my future life to look like and I answer with “well honestly I just want to do what I love, have a healthy God-honoring relationship and raise a family. Oh and can’t forget the house with a picket fence.” It’s the classic American dream. Not anything fancy; I have no desire to be a millionaire or have expensive clothes and expensive cars. I really just want a low-key life. That’s all. I dream about it every single day. For right now, though, I’m content with the life I have now. I’m enjoying my time being young for as long as I possibly can before I’m supposed to grow up and have everything together.

As I wrap up this chapter of my life, my heart is filled with gratitude. I’m thankful for all the memories I’ve made, people I’ve met, and experiences I’ve been able to have in high school. Some of them are happy, fond memories; others not so much, but there’s not much I would change about any of it. In other words, I can confidently close this portion of my life. I’m filled with hope for my future and all the new experience I’ll be able to share with you. I’ve never been more inspired to create and share the memories of my life and I’m forever thankful for every single person I’ve been able to reach through my writings and videos. Thank you for everything.

#HowISurvivedHighSchool

#HowISurvivedHighSchool Part 2: We're Not All the Same

May 22, 2019

Hey there, welcome back to my blog!

In case you haven’t heard, I’m in the middle of a series called #HowISurvivedHighSchool. If you clicked on this post and saw the title, you should already know. So this is going to be part 2, but if you haven’t read part one, you can read that post here.

In the last post I made some “rules” about this series. I’m going to post them again in every post just so we’re all in the same understanding. Today I’m going to talk about some pretty heavy stuff so feel free to click out at any point.

1. This is a 6 week series and a new part will be posted each Wednesday (so mark your calendars.)

2. I am NOT here to call anyone out or speak poorly of anyone I’ve encountered throughout my High School career. That’s not my vibe and my intentions of writing these posts are to encourage; not to bring anyone down.

3. I will be talking about certain people I’ve encountered and things I’ve experienced, but please know that NO NAMES will be mentioned; if a name has to be used it will be changed.

4. All the things I am going to tell you are true and are my stories that I have a right to tell.

5. Please read/listen with open ears and hearts.

6. Some of the topics I will be discussing are mature and very series at times so if you can’t handle the intensity, please feel free to click out at any time.

Today I want to address something that is becoming a huge issue in our society: the fact that teenagers are gaining such a bad reputation in society and how I avoided being “one of those kids”. I want to speak mostly to my younger audience, but I want the older ones to listen with open ears so that maybe you’ll understand that we aren’t all the same.

So one time I was at work and just to give you a little background of this story, it was pretty early in the morning and I hadn't had enough coffee yet to get me going. It was also the day after the 4th of July and the night before I was up late working at the county fair so you can imagine how tired I was. Anyway, this lady sitting at the counter says to me “you look like you were up late partying.” Now keep in mind I did know her and knew she was only joking, but it got me thinking. I thought, “Well that's probably what most people my age did last night so no wonder someone would assume something like that.”

I think the reason my generation has such a bad reputation these days is due to the small fraction that do choose to go down the wrong paths. Those are the ones who you see in the news stories. “Local teens vandalize park equipment”, “a group of teens were found guilty in a drug case”, and so forth. You rarely ever see people my age make the news for something good. It’s depressing, really. While we’re on the topic, just a small piece of advice: don’t read the news. It really puts a damper on your potential to live care free.

So what causes kids to go down the wrong path? There are many answers to this question and it all depends on the case you’re looking at. Some possibilities can be mental health, physical health, bad influences, and family. Now I’m not a psychologist or anything but I can tell you almost every single person I know personally who has had drug/alcohol problems also has family issues at home. Which actually makes sense if you think about it; compare the divorce rate (40-50%) to the percentage of teens who have misused drugs (50%) and alcohol (63%.) This is certainly not the case with every teen, but there is clearly a relationship between the two.

Enough statistics though, I want to tell you a little bit about how this relates to my life and how it affected my High School career. First and foremost, I want to say that I have never misused any type of drug or drank any type of alcohol during my High School career. Period. Why? The short answer is frankly because it doesn’t sound appealing to me. Now let me make it clear that because we’re talking about High School there is ALWAYS the pressure to “do what everyone else is doing” and to “fit in with the crowd.”

The devil is very good at filling our minds and ears with tempting thoughts. I along with probably almost every single High Schooler in America have struggled with temptation at some point or another. It’s difficult when you’re still growing up and figuring everything out and the people around you are already dealing with adult issues. I think one of the hardest parts is being in the middle and watching someone you love destroy their life and their relationships because they gave into the temptation.

One of the biggest reasons that keeps me from being one of them is because I’ve seen this happen over and over again to people I know and love dearly. It’s heartbreaking because they get so caught up in being on this high and feeling good that they don’t realize how they’re destroying their life until it’s too late. And you can’t even help them because they’re so bound to this new lifestyle. I had someone one time trying to convince me that smoking weed is good for you. You have to be head deep in lies to believe that. I suppose it makes people feel better about themselves if they try to twist their addiction into something that “benefits their health.”

The best thing you can do in your High School career to avoid being caught up in the same lies as everyone else is to surround yourself with the right people. It only takes one unhealthy relationship to develop the same habits as them and I think that’s what happens to a lot of people in High School. Find people who will make sure you’re staying on the right path and will hold you accountable for your actions. It is much easier to go to someone and say “hey, I’m struggling with temptation again. Can you help me?” Then to try to fight it yourself.

No one prepared me for some of the issues that I had to deal with. The thing was, they weren’t my own issues but they still affected me nonetheless. People always taught me how to say no to being peer pressured into it myself but no one taught me how to help others who are struggling with it. No one prepared me for the phone call I got one night from a friend after a bad breakup saying they had one too many beers that night. No one prepared me to watch someone get kicked out of youth group because they were high. The only thing worse than dealing with the issues yourself is being a bystander and watching it happen to someone else. That will always be enough reason for me to say no.

I have too good of a life to just throw it all away for a high that’s only temporary. I’ve worked hard to be respected in society and part of that is not involving myself in things that could potentially ruin the reputation I’ve worked so hard to gain. And I hope and pray that this message opens the eyes of someone who may be struggling with one of these issues. Because trust me, once you get to the point in your life where you’re happier than any drug or drink makes you; you won’t ever want to change that.

National drug/alcohol Helpline: 1-888-633-3239

#HowISurvivedHighSchool

#HowISurvivedHighSchool Part 1: 7 Myths About Homeschoolers

May 15, 2019

Hi there, welcome back to the blog!

Today I am coming at you with a very special post/announcement: there is going to be a new series on this blog and guess what? It starts TODAY. My apologies for the short notice but I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a thing or not. I had this idea awhile back when I was contemplating on what kind of post I wanted to do in spirit of me graduating this year. I came up with a couple ideas and finally decided that there were too many things I wanted to talk about and it just wouldn’t all fit in one blog post (or it’d be so long that you all would be sleeping by halfway through it.)

So thus was born the #HowISurvivedHighSchool series. And yes, the dramatic title was indeed my own original creation. I'm super excited and also very nervous to share these next few posts with you. I feel like for the last year or so I’ve been a very private person and just haven’t shared much with you guys so I’m really going to try to be as much as an open book as possible which sounds totally scary if I’m being honest.

Before I get started with part one, I want to make a few general points about this particular series:

1. This is a 6 week series and a new part will be posted each Wednesday (so mark your calendars.)

3. I will be talking about certain people I’ve encountered and things I’ve experienced, but please know that NO NAMES will be mentioned; if a name has to be used it will be changed.

4. All the things I am going to tell you are true and are my stories that I have a right to tell.

5. Please read/listen with open ears and hearts.

6. Some of the topics I will be discussing are mature and very series at times so if you can’t handle the intensity, please feel free to click out at any time.

Okay so with all that out of the way, I want to jump straight in to part one. I want to spend this first part telling you guys exactly what I do all day: aka “Behind the Scenes of a Homeschooler.” I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions of homeschooling in general and I want to take some time to tell you guys exactly what is and isn’t true about us “weird kids.”

1. Homeschoolers don’t actually study, we just sit around and watch Netflix in our pjs

This is definitely not true in my case. I can only speak for myself, of course, so there may be kids out there that do this but I try to be as productive as possible each day. Now there are definitely some days where I’m just lazy but for the most part I like to wake up and get things done. As you know, I do have a part time job along with blogging and doing YouTube as hobbies so I definitely try to balance all of that throughout my week.

Being homeschooled definitely teaches you a lot about time management. There’s no bell to signal the start and end of the school day or the pressure to complete assignments by a certain time. You have to decide all this for yourself; which is good and bad for some cases. It took me almost my whole High School career to finally develop a good routine that works for me.

2. You don’t have a social life

This is one of the biggest myths of homeschooling. People automatically assume that because we stay at home for school that we never leave the house. If only. No, for me it’s been quite the opposite: I have too much of a social life. Okay so I have to admit, I’m not a very social person to begin with. At events you can usually catch me in the corner, probably eating. So having a social life has never been an issue for me but again, it could be different for others.

I’ve had people my age who aren’t homeschooled tell me “I would love to be homeschooled but I would miss the social part of school.” People who attend public school definitely have the advantage when it comes to extracurricular activities. Most school districts won’t allow homeschoolers to be on their football team, join Latin club, etc. I would like to see that change but that’s a whole other blog post.

I really think there are plenty of opportunities out there for homeschoolers. I’ve been an active 4-H member for 6 years; I’ve been a part of several Youth Groups, as well as activities at my local library. So for me, socializing has never been an issue. There are many activities to get involved in; it just may require looking a little harder.

3. You don’t have friends

This goes along with the previous assumption but I wanted to quickly address this on its own. I’m going to talk about friendship in an upcoming part to this series, but as far as making friends as a homeschooler I really don’t think it’s that hard. As long as you put yourself out there (ex. Youth Groups, 4-H, book clubs), it’s not much different than how everyone else makes friends. The only difference is you don’t go to school with them every day and sometimes I think that’s a good thing.

4. There’s no drama

FALSE. I literally have to restrain myself from laughing whenever people say they think there’s no drama when you’re homeschooled. We live in a drama-prone world where no matter where you are there’s going to be some type of drama- unless of course you live under a rock.

I remember when I was younger and I had just started middle school. I had such high hopes and I thought once you got to middle school that life would be so much fun and it would be like in the movies where I’d hang out with friends all the time, go on fun trips together, etc. I really can’t explain what my expectations were but I never thought it would actually be completely different than my vision.

Looking back, I have a lot of regrets of things I wish I hadn’t done, people I wish I never would have spoken to, and all the different ways things could have gone better. Every day I think about how I wish people from middle school could see me now and see how far I’ve come. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, though, it’s that the best thing to do is let go and move on. It’s a hard principle to learn but you’ll gain so much if you apply it to your life.

5. You never leave the house

Once there was a week where it felt like I was only home to sleep. However, people seem to think that we don’t have any kind of life outside of school which is not true at all. Honestly your life is what you make out of it so there’s always the option to never leave the house but I would probably lose my sanity if I stayed home all the time. I think it’s important to put yourself out there in the outside world because there will definitely come a day where you absolutely can’t be in your room all day long.

6. People are homeschooled because they got expelled

This assumption comes straight from what someone said to me just the other day. We were talking and they said “I think some people are homeschooled because they got expelled from school.” What?!?! I have yet to meet anyone who is homeschooled due to that reason but I suppose it’s always possible. I had never even thought of that before, which is why I wanted to include it. So now I’m going to be insecure when I tell people I was homeschooled because what if people assume that?

7. That homeschoolers don’t get to go to college

Again this is something someone said to me awhile back but I’ll never forget it. If homeschoolers didn’t go to college, how would they get jobs? Our economy would literally be failing if for instance everyone was homeschooled but we couldn't go to college. Surprisingly, homeschoolers are more often accepted into colleges than schooled applicants. Why? Because homeschooled students spend more time studying what they are interested in rather than being forced to study the same things as everyone else.

So yes, we do get to go to college.

Well that wraps up this post! I hope maybe this provides you with a better understanding of what being homeschooled is like and that we’re not all the weirdos some people make us out to be. Make sure to stay tuned for next Wednesday for part 2 of #HowISurvivedHighSchool.

faith

Love Part 4: The Best Love

February 25, 2018

Love Part 4: The Best Love

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-6

Here we are. The final week of the series. I can’t believe how fast this month has gone by. It feels like yesterday when I sat down and wrote the first part, and now here we are at the very end. If you haven’t been keeping up, here are the first three parts:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

I decided that I didn’t want to spend a whole post talking about everything going on in the world right now. I even wrote a whole post about it that was separate from the series but decided not to post it because I want this blog to be a place that’s not full of sadness and negativity. I think it is important that we do recognize all the tragic events that happen, but we cannot let those things control our everyday lives.

If we really want to fight this evil that has taken over the world, we must show no signs of fear or sadness. The scariest thing to Satan is love. He HATES seeing kindness and positivity. So therefore, that is our greatest weapon. And that’s what I’m going to continue doing here. I’ve recently been hit with a case of depression this week because every time I look at my phone I see bad news everywhere. And I don’t know about you, but it really puts me down. I get that it’s important to know what’s going on, but sometimes I think we let the media control our lives and let it take our focus away from the good and positive things.

So that’s why I’m here today. I’m here to tell you about a love far greater than anything else we’ve talked about in this series. It’s a kind of love no one else can give you, because it does not come from another human. No, this is God’s love and it’s a way no other person can love. Because we (humans) are imperfect. We anger, we hurt, and we have feelings. Sometimes our pride can get in the way of our ability to love and help others.

See, God doesn’t have those problems. He is fully committed to loving us no matter what our faults are or how many times we’ve sinned. God loves you even when you sin. Since He is our father, he is disappointed when we do wrong things, but God always forgives. In Romans 5:8 it says “But God demonstrates his own love for us while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

I’m going to tell you a short story about my life if you don’t mind. I always love hearing these powerful conviction stories about how people come to know Jesus. Mine is probably nothing special to anyone else, but it is to me because it’s part of my story. So I’ve been a Christian pretty much all my life, when I was growing up I was surrounded by believers and positive influences of that sort. I attended youth group on and off for a long time, and I always thought I was the ideal “good-girl Christian child”.

When you consider yourself a pretty good kid, you never think you might do something to change that. When I was younger I used to laugh and say “never!” when asked about doing things other kids my age were doing. Then I discovered the internet. I didn’t realize exactly how far off I really had gotten until about a year ago when it was too late and damage had already been done. Damage to that good kid I always thought I was. The thing is, when you think so highly of yourself, you don’t really plan for situations where you might be faced with a dilemma and end up compromising your morals.

When I went through what was probably the hardest time in my life so far last summer, I was hurting and I was also really lonely. It didn’t feel like the people around me cared, and I was too ashamed to talk to anyone about it, so I just kept to myself. And then one night I just started praying, letting out everything I was feeling and talking to God like He was my best friend. I asked for forgiveness, I asked Him to make me strong again, to help me through what I was going through. And He did. That’s how I became so connected with my faith again and ever since then my life has changed. A good change.

See, people will always come in and out of your life. People will hurt you, be angry at you, and let you down. But no matter what the situation is, you can always depend on God. He is there for you, He cares about you, and He will forgive you. If you don’t have Jesus in your life right now, let me just ask, what are you doing? What are you waiting for? If you’re roaming the earth looking for this kind of love that I just told you about, I’m just going to help you out and tell you that you won’t find it until you know Jesus. Because God made humans to be imperfect. We fail, we make mistakes, even Christians. A Christian isn’t just like a favored student, a Christian is someone who knows what they have when they have God. And if you don’t have God, you won’t ever know what the perfect kind of love looks like because this is not a kind of relationship you can have with another human, it’s something that’s only possible when you have God.

“For God so loved the world that he gave is one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

love

Love Part 3: Relationships

February 18, 2018

Love Part 3: Relationships

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

By the time this post goes up, it will be passed Valentine’s day, so I hope you had a wonderful holiday (is Valentine’s Day considered a holiday?) but even though Valentine’s Day is over, we still have two more posts left in the love series and today we’ll be continuing on with part three. If you haven’t caught up with parts one and two, you can catch up by clicking on the links below:

Part one

Part two

So today is all about relationships. Whether or not you are or aren’t in one currently, this post applies to you so don’t skip it just because you’re sitting there thinking “well I’m single so I don’t need to read this”. I hear you, but please stick around and hear me out.

See, relationships are tricky. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to write about for this post, because no matter what I say or no matter what you read on the internet, it really comes down to you. I can’t tell you how to obtain a perfect relationship because every relationship is different, and there really is no secret recipe to having one. Sure, there are things that can help keep a relationship healthy and good, but you shouldn’t shape your relationship or a future relationship around what you read on the internet or hear from other people.

Why? Because I used to do that. All the time, whether I had one or not, I was obsessed with reading those posts on social media that say things like “how to know if you have a good boyfriend/girlfriend” and “10 signs you have an unhealthy relationship”. I would use those things to shape my idea of what a relationship was supposed to be, and not based on my beliefs or what the Bible says.

If you really want to know exactly what a perfect relationship looks like, the answers are in the Bible. A good example is in Ephesians 4:2-3 which says, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”. All of those things are qualities you want to have in your relationship. Love does not exist without patience or gentleness.

As for what to look for in a significant other, the only person that can tell you that is yourself. I strongly disagree with people who think they know exactly who they’re going to be with forever when they meet them. I mean, sure it may be possible for some people, but really you don’t know someone you just met. They may have a good first impression, but that impression doesn’t always last. That’s why dating is a thing. If everyone just married the person after seeing them one time, can you imagine how high the divorce rates would be then?

The thing is that it takes time to REALLY know someone, and to really know if you want to be with them for a long time. I don’t think it’s possible to know that after a few days. You have to love everything about them, even their flaws, which isn’t always easy. We tend to not like flaws and try to change someone, instead of just embracing them for who they are. I think that’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned over the years, because no one is ever perfect and part of loving someone is accepting their flaws.

The hardest part is probably the waiting. This is something every person will have struggle with. It’s that period of your life when you’re looking at the relationships around you and wondering when it will ever happen to you. Everyone’s been there at one point or another. The reason for that is because during that time, God is preparing the perfect person for you. If you’re an artist, you know it takes a long time to create something amazing. That’s a lot like how it works during the “waiting period”.

I realized something a few months ago that changed my view on relationships. When you’re young, relationships can be fun and all, but after a while, you’ll get tired of it and want something “real”. One day I sat down and said to myself “why would I just keep putting myself through the same situation over and over when I could just save myself the trouble and wait until I have that real one”. That’s what I’ve stuck to ever since. I don’t want to be in a relationship just to put it as my Facebook status and snap a few pics. It’s not worth it to me when I can spend that time growing as a person and enjoying life while I wait for that special person to come into my life.

Honestly it’s one of the best places to be in. I can’t lie and say it’s not hard sometimes. There are definitely times when I feel down and lonely, but that’s just part of the process. I’m a dreamer and I loveeee to fantasize about what my future will be like. It’s one of my favorite things to do. For a long time I used to put certain people in those dreams, but now whenever I daydream it’s like just an outline of someone I have yet to meet, and that’s the best part about the dream is thinking and dreaming about the day when that figure won’t be an outline anymore.

The most important thing is to be content. Be content with where God has you now, and know that He has the best plan already sketched out for your life. You’ll spend a lot less time stressing and worrying about your life if you let Him guide your path and trust in His plan. Just as it says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight”.

emotions

Love Part 2: Friendships

February 11, 2018

Love Part Two: Friendships

“Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” Proverbs 13:20

Welcome back! As you probably already know, today I’ll be continuing my series on love with part two. If you missed last week’s post, check it out here.

Last week I went over some things about what this series is, defined love as put in the dictionary, and talked about loving family. Today we’re going to continue along those same lines, but today we’re going to talk about your friendships.

In case you forgot, I’ll go ahead and insert the dictionary definition of love again.

Love- an intense feeling of deep affection

Of course one of the things we’ll be doing throughout all of these posts is to not only look at what the dictionary and society say about love, but see what God’s Word says. And maybe by the end you’ll even have your own definition of love.

Mark 12:31 says “love your neighbor as yourself”. Neighbor means your peers, the people around you. When we love other Christians around us, that means we are loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, which pleases God. It’s important to build friendships with good people. If we surround ourselves with good company, that will make a more positive impact on your life and you’ll be much happier.

Some people make friends easier than others. For me, making friends has never been easy. I’m a very shy and reserved person, not outgoing like others. But one thing I’ve learned is that it doesn’t take a lot to make a friend. Sure, it does involve stepping out of your comfort zone a little, but let me tell you a little story. So about a year ago, I was at youth group and we divided up into small groups of about five or six people. In my group one night we were going around and introducing ourselves and after I introduced myself this girl looked at me and said “you’re really really pretty”. Ever since that compliment, we’ve been friends.

You don’t have to think of a super impressive thing to say to someone. It can just be something simple like “hi, I love your hair”. I think sometimes we overthink and it prevents us from talking to people because we can’t think of something really good to say. Another thing I’ve learned when trying to make friends is to make yourself approachable. When you surround yourself with people you already know, there’s a less likely chance that someone new is going to talk to you because they assume you already have your group of friends.

I like going places by myself. I’ve found that by going alone, it reduces the stress of having to “impress” your friend or whoever you’re usually with, and it makes you more open to other people around you. It takes some getting used to, but you’d be surprised what all you miss when you’re busy with other people.

So enough about making friends, let’s talk about keeping them. This is the real key to having good friends, because you want friendships that will last, right? As I said before, positive things come from being around positive and uplifting people. Believe it or not, friendships can be just as toxic as some relationships if you “hang out with the wrong crowd”. But if you have good, positive people as friends then this part should be a breeze.

The most important part of a friendship is to talk. All the time. About everything. Okay maybe not everything, but keeping secrets that you’ve told someone else from your friends is what leads to those dreaded fights. I think communication is the most important thing when it comes to friendships. If you don’t communicate properly with your friends, you’ll eventually lose connection with them and they’ll drift away which is pretty sad.

The last thing is to tell them how much you appreciate them. By letting them know how much you appreciate them being in your life, it shows them that you still care and are making an effort to keep the friendship lasting and going strong. I’m really bad at this sometimes because I tend to get upset whenever someone isn’t talking to me as much and I wonder why but then I remember that to keep any friendship strong, you have to let the person know that you still value the friendship. Even if that means texting them first (which is something I literally hate doing), or getting over your pride and being the one to step up and say “hey I just wanted to let you know how much I value you as a friend”.

God told us to love others as He loved us (John 15:12). He told us to walk with the wise, and forgive others if you have grievances against them. Obviously it’s hard to top God’s love for us, but if we clothe ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:12-14), we attract people of the same character. That’s the real truth to making and keeping friends.

emotions

Love Part 1: Family

February 04, 2018

Love Part One: Family

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 1 Timothy 5:8

Hello and welcome! Today is a very exciting day because this is the first part of a series I will be doing for the month of February. Not only that, but this is the first series I’ve EVER done so I’m very excited.

I’ve seen other bloggers do this and I’ve wanted to do a series for a while, but I wasn’t sure what it would be about. I needed a topic that I would be able to cover in multiple posts and something that I’m passionate about . It came to me while I was lying in bed one night. I was thinking about Valentine’s Day and brainstorming for ideas of what I could write about for my blog. Then I thought “what if instead of one post, I make a series for Valentine’s Day?”

So here I am now. Over the next few weeks we will:

Look at what is love according to the Bible
Look closely at different connections with people in your life
Examine what it means to be loved by others
Examine what it means to be loved by God

This series will be weekly, so there will be a new blog post up every Sunday. Also, feel free to start a discussion in the comments. I would love to hear from you!

Now let’s finally dive into this thing called love. We’re going to start by defining love. First, let’s see what the dictionary has to say about it.

Love- an intense feeling of deep affection

Does this definition surprise you? I think it gets pretty close to the point. After all, love is a feeling, right? The thing is feelings are different for everyone. People also express feelings differently. Have you ever heard of someone talk about “love languages”? Love languages are how each person expresses love. For an example, someone might perform an act of kindness, like doing the dishes for your parents or cleaning the house for your wife. If you like to do things like that, that would be your love language. Some might like to give their loved ones gifts. That’s also an expression of love and a love language.

Some other common forms of showing affection (love language):

Words of affirmation
Physical touch
Quality time

Leave a comment below and let me know what your love language is! I’d love to know.

Now that we’ve talked about what love is and learned about the love languages, I think it’s time to talk about the real first topic in this series: family. I put family first because that’s obviously higher on the list than some of the others. Why? Because your family are the people who share your blood, who share your same last name (in most cases), that you probably live with, that you’ve grown up with. Your family is probably the people you spend the most time with. And let’s be real, we all get annoyed with our family sometimes. Okay, maybe a lot more often than sometimes. But that just goes to show that even families aren’t perfect.

What saddens me is that there are so many families that are torn apart in some way. Most of the time this is caused by the parents. Divorce rates are extremely high these days, and the worst part about divorce is that it affects the children just as much as the marriage. Children with divorced parents usually are more distrusting and tend to be more aggressive towards their peers (clearly this is not the case for everyone). There are other things that can tear families apart such as the military, and busy jobs or jobs with a lot of traveling.

A strong, healthy family is centered around God. The Bible says in Joshua 24:15, “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” If a family serves and honors the Lord, they will have a firm foundation in their home.

Love takes patience, especially when it comes to family. That’s why I think the two values go hand in hand. I’ll be talking a lot about patience in this series, so get used to it now. It’s just almost like you can’t have one without the other. Just as it says “love is patient”. It takes a patient person to love, and love requires a lot of patience sometimes.

Your family should come before anything else in your life, next to your relationship with the Lord. It’s something that you should treasure and put effort into. Not every family is perfect, but if you put God in the center and foundation of your relationship with your family, He will bless you with good things in your life.

Pages

#HowISurvivedHighSchool Part 6: A Promising Future

#HowISurvivedHighSchool Part 2: We're Not All the Same

#HowISurvivedHighSchool Part 1: 7 Myths About Homeschoolers

Love Part 4: The Best Love

Love Part 3: Relationships

Love Part 2: Friendships

Love Part 1: Family

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