Joining Sigma Tau Delta

[waldenwriter]

This might seem like a selfish prayer request, but I'll chance it anyway.

I found out a little while ago that my school has a chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an internationally recognized honor society for English. I am going to a meeting today (in fact, I'll be leaving shortly after I post this) for it and will be turning in the necessary paperwork to join.

My prayer is that, if God wills, I can be accepted into this society. The society provides opportunities for publication, scholarships, awards, and even internships (the two they had up on the site were for Better World Books and Penguin USA). Plus, if I pay the one-time fee and submit the paperwork and am accepted, I'll be in for life, even after I leave school, meaning I can put it on my résumé even. It just might open some doors, and with my difficulties marketing myself, any promotion I can get would help.

So, anyway, that's my prayer request.

[newburydave]

Hey Walden

I'm praying for you on this. Go for it sister!

This sounds like an excellent network to be a part of. If you want to make your writing count for the Lord, you need to start developing your network. Then when you hit your stride as a writer you'll have the contacts to get published.

I wouldn't say this is a selfish request. It sounds like someones been feeding you false humility. We are God's handiwork in our natural birth and our spiritual rebirth, created in Jesus for Glory. We are created to be part of His Royal bride.

Romans 12:1 says it all, as Christians we present everything in our ordinary lives as an offering to our Lord and Savior. Some translations call this our 'reasonable service' and 'our spiritual worship'. Our earthly vocations are as much part of our spiritual calling as any churchy vocation.

He don't make no junk, and we want to offer the best we can achieve to Him. (read the verse in the Message, it really rocks in that translation). So get in that organization, if the Lord opens the door, and get that network going.

When you succeed in opening the way for a good work you advance The Kingdom.

Praying for you sis

SGD

[Christian Soldier]

You got it, WW! If anyone can do it, I know that you can!

Prayers away!

[waldenwriter]

Thanks, guys! I got an e-mail from the leader of the group saying I had been "added to our online roster," so I guess that means I must be in (though I have no way of accessing this roster to confirm it). Technically, I think I have to wait for the induction ceremony later this semester to be formally inducted. But it looks like I made it in!

You are right, newburydave, I do have an issue with false humility. Actually, I have trouble understanding exactly what humility should look like. I know humility and selfishness are opposites, and I've always gotten the impression that Christians shouldn't be selfish and should show agape love (self-sacrificing love) to others. But then, Paul spends a whole section of Romans 7 talking about his own struggle with doing the right thing, and somewhere else he talks about how he begged God to take away his "thorn in the flesh." And at church recently, they were saying how we can bring anything to God in prayer. In fact, one of my dad's favorite hymns - which he told me he wants played at his funeral - is "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," and that song talks about how we carry around such unnecessary pain and grief because "we do not carry everything to God in prayer." I just feel silly about asking God for things I want - things that aren't inherently spiritual, that is - as if he were some genie (which they always say at my church he isn't) or Santa Claus. It's like, if they're selfish requests with seemingly no spiritual value, then why bother him? That's how I feel. I know that sounds wrong, but I'm kind of in a state of confusion about God and my relationship with him right now. Like yesterday I was thinking, do I really need to ask God, "should I have toast or cereal for breakfast" or other such questions? Yet today in church they pointed out Colossians 3:17, which says to do everything, no matter what it is, in God's name. And Colossians 3:23-24 say that whatever you do you ought to do it as if working for the Lord. But should I really consult him about my breakfast choice, what to wear to school, that sort of thing? I mean, if we have to consult him on every single little thing, why the heck did he give us the power to reason?

Ok, sorry about the rant. Thank you guys for the prayer. Really.

I found out at the meeting that membership in the club also involves volunteering (which I shouldn't have been surprised about, since most Greek organizations do volunteering), and I put down my name to go read to preschoolers on the 21st at the childcare center/preschool that's part of our campus. I've never done it before (at least not in a group setting - I might've done it when I babysat), but I like to read aloud and kids like that too (although preschoolers have pretty short attention spans - I read this somewhere while I was working with preschoolers in Sunday School), so hopefully it will go ok.

[newburydave]

Dear Renee';

The best definition of humility that I've seen is "to value oneself honestly, in the light of God's presence." It seems to me that selfishness is the essence of Sin. Since the foundation of our Christian armor is the girdle of truth, I suppose humility (truth applied to ourselves) is well characterized as the opposite of selfishness.

Now I tend to think of Christian Love (Agape) as being the general opposite of selfishness; with humility being one of Agape's daughter virtues; . . . but some people say I look at the world differently. So take that for what it's worth.

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You sound like a very thoughtful person. In today's world that is a very good thing.

How well I remember going through the spiritual growing pains you describe. It was back in the early 1970's, right after I met Jesus. Count yourself very blessed to have a Christian family. Back then I was the only one in my extended family who knew the religion of the heart; but like the old song says "The Spirit led unerring, to the land I hold today." Over the years I've seen, and in some cases helped, most of them to come to know Jesus.

You're right that God did give us reason and a mind to be used. Just remember that He is our wisdom. In the Biblical sense, Wisdom is the understanding of how to get from where we are to where we want to be. The book of Proverbs talks a lot about wisdom.

It sounds like you are in the midst of the quest to find your own life's wisdom. Dig deep to find it; then you'll know how to soar on your own, when the time comes. Here are the principles of action that worked for us when we were in your place:

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Rule #1; If you have a question about anything, pray about it. Look for Him to light up a scriptural principle to your heart that shows you the right way. As you collect these "jewels of Wisdom" your store of wisdom will grow.

Rule #2; Don't be pushed to do anything, that feels morally questionable, before you definitely hear from the Lord about it. Despite what the Devil, sinful men and even some unwise Christians may say, there is always time to wait on the Lord until you're sure. The 'Hurry-Up Spirit' is never of God when you are unsure of the moral situation.

But when you hear from Him, step out and follow His Spirit and Truth without wavering.

Rule #3: Always keep your conscience clear and seek to honor the Lord with every part of your life; See rule #1 for the details.

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And Do make use of, the great wisdom promise in James' epistle:

Jas 1:5-6 (Amplified Version)
(5) If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.
(6) Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.

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My wife and I wore that promise out when we were starting out in the Christian way. We'd both been saved out of the world in our late teens/early 20's and knew almost nothing about living with Jesus. We still use this promise a lot.

Don't let the Devil, or anyone else, make you feel stupid for praying about anything and everything. God invites us to do so; and he never finds fault with us for doing it. We're his dear children and he is our heavenly Daddy (Abba- Daddy in Aramaic); it delights his heart when we come to him with everything in our lives.

He knows that the only way to learn to walk in the Faith World is to get up and do it; so he carries us though the learning period. . . And He keeps carrying us after, too.

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A few more things to think about.

In the Lords prayer Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread before he told us to pray for forgiveness of our trespasses/debts/sins. He knows that we are just made of dust, and we're weak. We have basic, daily needs, that must be maintained, before we can deal with the heavy stuff. Hebrews tells us he is deeply touched by the feeling of our weaknesses, and he bears long with us.

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The consecration verses in Romans talk about our very common things of life:

Rom 12:1-2 (The Message)
(1) So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
(2) Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.


One of the greatest devotional books in the church, "The Practice of the Presence of God", by Brother Lawrence; talks about how the author found the deep presence of God in his life when he made the ordinary serving in his life; washing pots and pans and cleaning the kitchen, into an offering to God. He was a kitchen drudge in a medieval monastery.


Our heavenly Father is everywhere and everywhen, he fills all the tiny pieces of time and space. We live and move and have our being in him, he is closer to us than our skin; especially so for we believers who have Him living in the emotional core of our personalities. And he loves each one of us passionately.

So always remember my sister, the small things of your life are big in God's eyes. When you do them for him it delights Him. When you don't it grieves his great heart of love.

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And don't worry over much about Romans 7. Theologians have been arguing about the meaning of that chapter for much of the last 1400 years.

Several years ago, the Lord pointed out to me that the only "actors" Paul mentioned in the troublesome part of Romans 7 were: "I", "The Law of God", "The Law of Sin (and Death)", "My Flesh (sarks)" and "Sin". On a practical level, I took that to mean that no matter how hard I try, I will never be able to ovecome my sin by my own strength or willpower.

Romans 8 is where Jesus wants us to live. (Ro. 8 is dominated by Jesus, Life, Faith and The Holy Spirit) That is the description of what He did, and does, in us by the Holy Ghost. As near as I can figure this chapter describes the power of Gospel salvation. Catch that wave and ride it. Don't look back; the only things back there are the stuff God has already cast into the sea of his forgettfulness. . . and the devil, mad as h**** that you escaped his grasp.

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As I mentioned there is an ongoing argument about whether Romans 7 is Paul's Christian testimony, or a literary device to illustrate something else. However we know that the following passage from Phillippians is unarguably Paul's Christian testimony:

Php 3:12-15 (The Amplified version)
(12) Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.
(13) I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
(14) I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
(15) So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also.

If we all do this we'll prosper in the Kingdom of our Lord.

Remember, we, the church, are going to be the bride in the Marriage of the Lamb. We're getting ready for the wedding down here.

The Lord bless you
That he alone may recieve Glory in us (SGD)

[morganlbusse]

Walden, congrats! And Dave, great answer God cares about us and wants to know what troubles our hearts. I found as a mother that my prayer life changed. I did not have hours to commit to quiet devotion; rather, I pray throughout the day sporadically (asking God for help, thanking him for my children, praising him for who he is). God wants to hear from us and we change as we grow closer to him.

[metalikhan]

Congratulations, WW!

God really does want to be involved in every aspect of our lives. I think what Morwena describes is more in line with daily walking with God rather than setting Him aside for special prayer occasions.

Just a closer walk with Thee...let it be, dear Lord, let it be...

[Jeff Gerke]

You'll be great with the kids, Walden.

Good job on taking initiative here.

[waldenwriter]

Thanks Jeff!

The reading went good, although I had to do it the second day we were doing it (Thursday the 22nd) because my work schedule changed and I was unable to do it on the original day (Wednesday the 21st). It was fun, though the kids did not sit quietly the whole time because kids that age don't have very long attention spans. There was one other girl there (I think most of the people came the day before) and we switched off reading books. I read a book called Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny-Tiny Lie and a book called Goodnight Goon, a deliberate parody of Goodnight Moon (which the other girl there from STD said she had never read ). We were there for about 40 minutes. The kids really enjoyed it, and I was happy I did it because I like reading aloud, and kids' books are well suited for that (I purposely tried to read Goodnight Goon with the same cadence that people usually read Goodnight Moon in). I also think it's great that Sigma Tau Delta requires volunteer work of its members because it's good to give back to the community.

I also got a good laugh out of the last book we read, which was called The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. Basically, it's about this pigeon who just wants to settle down with this hot dog he's found, but can't because he's being pestered by a very curious duckling, who he eventually shares the hot dog with after the duckling wears him down. (Kind of like Green Eggs and Ham, I guess).

So, I'm in, and the reading went well. Technically I still need to be formally inducted, the ceremony for which is supposed to happen in May, I think. The date's not set yet. At any rate, I assume it will happen before the semester ends, which is pretty soon (about two weeks). I probably could start looking into their contests and stuff though. If not now, in summer definitely since I'm not taking any classes this summer and so will have a lot of free time to devote to such endeavors, if I can motivate myself to do so that is.

Thanks again for the prayers everyone!