learning

"Believe God is working in your life even when you don't feel it." - Rick Warren from The Purpose Drive Life

With everything I do, I need to glorify God.

This is what I learned from Bible study last week. We studied 1 Corinthians 4:1-21. I learned important characteristics of a God's servant and here they are: 

1. God's servant must be faithful.
2. "Do not go beyond what is written."
3. We don't need to boast about people. 
4. Don't compromise.
5. Be a spiritual father/mother.

Apostle Paul personally became the Corinthian's spiritual father. He didn't just become their guardian, but he became their father. Though guardians and parents both has custody over children, there are things that parents would do for their children that guardians might not do. 

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10: 45)

This verse has been repeating itself in my mind for the past few days. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." And then it repeats again. Serving is hard because it requires me to deny my selfishness and consider others. However Jesus, the Son of Man did not come to be served by people, even though he deserves it! He came to serve and to be like him, I must learn to serve others as well. Truthfully it's really hard because sometimes I just don't want to do it. It means I will get overlooked, I won't get to do what I want to do, and etc. But God is teaching me that it's important to serve. Through these years God taught me that true leaders are the ones who love the ones they lead by serving over and over again. Yes, when you serve you tend to get overlooked but God knows. It also matters the attitude I serve in because if I serve but do it with grumbling, then I might as well not have done it in the first place. So I want to have the mentality - "how can I serve?" more and more rather than to just be served.

Changing the topic, this weekend was really good. It really reminded me to be thankful for simple things such as being able to run, having good friends, etc. On Friday we did Operation Christmas Child at school and it was just nice being able to give back in a simple way. God did so much for me throughout my life and continues to do so much that it's just a simple way to give back. Then after that I went to my friend's house and then went to her youth group's Thanksgiving dinner. On Saturday we also did Operation Christmas Child at youth group! Then Mary Anna, the two Hannahs and I went for a run through a trail to University of Maryland. Well, I was really slow, but I ran at least half of the way there! I never even knew there was a trail to Maryland! Well, you had to go through like the apartments, to the roads, to the golf court, and then there was the trails. It was such a nice day! There were so many potential locations for a photo shoot, haha. Then this weekend after hearing the Sunday message I was reminded to be thankful that I could run. I remember there was a point around two years ago when my foot hurt when I ran. So thankful I can run now! I also realized how thankful I should be to have had good friends throughout high school.

I just finished reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelly for Lit and it was actually really good. Whenever the creature juxtaposed his creation with Adam, I was reminded how God created us. He created Adam and said he was very good. And we, as his creatures are made in his image! (: