I will be studying the ESV Bible during this school. One of the different ways we will read through the Bible during these next three months is by reading 5-6 chapters in Psalms out loud together and then meditating/re-reading the Psalms while Jesse (one of the staff) plays the guitar.
We also took a learning style test to find out what learning style we are, I scored 20 in Visual, 19 in Kinesthetic and 13 in Audible. It was very interesting! From looking at the characteristics of all three learning styles I saw that I am all three but mostly Kinesthetic and Visual. Here is a link to take a test online. It isn't the same test that I took at the school but I took this one as well and it said I was both Auditory and Kinesthetic, so I'm definitely not a single one but I know for sure I am both kinesthetic and visual! Click the link or copy and paste! http://sunburst.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/stylest.html
After dinner we watched a sermon about Intimacy in relationships not sexually but relationally. I will sum the 40 minute video up for you in a few paragraphs.
Remember when you were falling for someone or maybe you desire the relationship with your spouse to be like it was when you were dating. You would finish each others sentences, and just love to spend unstructured time together. Maybe you crave how your relationship with Christ was when you first got saved! You would read the Bible all the time, starve for it, desire it and pray all day long. But what happened why is that person so respectful now and not even trying to bring the relationship back to an intimate level?
What changed? Why is your relationship with that other so structured? You know what your duty is in your marriage and you fulfill it. But there isn't any intimacy. Maybe when it comes to God you now have a checklist. You prayed before your meals, you gave some money, you've gone to church for Christmas and Easter for the past three years! You ask for forgiveness when you sin but you just turn back the same things over and over and over and over again. What happened? What happened to that intimacy? Maybe it's with your son or daughter? Father or mother? What has happened to the intimacy that used to be present? Where did it go?
Here are three essential ingredients to having intimacy in a relationship. No matter if it's with God, your mother, father, son, daughter, brother or sister.
- You have to have to set aside unstructured time to just be with each other. Sure you can have a basic idea of what you are going to do but don't plan it down to the minute, be flexible!
- You need to be transparent, you have to be open, you can't have a conversation with preplanned questions and answers. "How was your day?" "It was good." "How was work?" "It was fine." You need to be transparent, when you come before God and ask for forgiveness instead of saying "Lord, please forgive me for the sins I committed today." No, ask forgiveness for the specific sins that you committed! If you need to start praying r-rated prayers! It's not like God doesn't know what you did or how your thinking! Do you think He's going to say "Wow! Really?" "Oh my, I would rather you hadn't even told me that." "You did what? Oh now your really in trouble..." No! God knows our every thought so He already knows exactly what you are going to say and even what your thinking!
- There needs to be submission. Think about a relationship where you both know that the other is totally submitted to well being and success of the other.
So I guess that was more than a few paragraphs but that's alright, it's life transforming truth!
Make it a priority today and take those three and put them to practice! Unstructured Time, Transparency and Submission. Start working toward intimacy in your relationships! I know for me I will be going before God and my siblings (when I return home:) by applying these three elements!
I love you guys! Can't wait to share more about what I'm learning over here!
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