Love Thy Brother and Sister

“Leave me alone!”  “Put that down!”  “That’s not yours!”  “Get out of my room!”  “MOM!!!”  Sound familiar?  Yeah, if you haven’t guessed it yet, this usually happens between siblings.  Siblings get on each other’s nerves a lot.  And it’s understandable because you see these people all day, all week, all the time.  They’re always there!  But sometimes we need to take a step back and think twice before we lash out at our brother and/or sister. 

Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  Your siblings may be bossy, annoying, rude, even mean, but remember, they’re still your brother or sister and you need to love them and forgive them.  Don’t think I’m trying to be mean here, but do you think they’re going to treat you better if you start screaming at them when they do something bad?  Do you think we’d be better off if God cast us into Hell because we sin?  God loves and forgives us and wants us to be better.  Shouldn’t we want the same thing for our siblings?  Maybe they’re older and you can’t do much for them.  Maybe just your example will influence them.  I encourage you to pray for your siblings.  It’s the best thing you can do.  When you’re praying for someone, it’s hard to be mad at them.

Challenge!

Try hard this week to treat your siblings like you would treat your best friend.  Go out of your way to make your sibling(s) happy and feel special.

Prayer

To love and forgive your sibling(s) like Jesus did for you

Be Positive

I think we all have a little negativity in all of us.  Whether we realize it or not, we do.  Have you ever sat around with your friend and told her all about how you had to stand in line for 45 minutes while you waited for your food to cook or how your little brother/sister is being really annoying lately because he/she keeps taking your things without asking.

Life’s full of negativity.  But our job is to keep it from pulling us down.  As Christians we are to be the light of the world not the darkness. What if some random person on the street heard you complaining or saw you pouting because you didn’t like how something turned out?  Do you think his/her first thought would be, “Wow!  She must be a Christian!”?  No, I doubt it.  When you walk by people do you want them to ask, “What is it about her that makes her different?”  That’s the question I want people to ask themselves when I walk into the room.  In John 8:12 it tell us, “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 

Challenge!

Find ways to bless others.  If it’s telling them that their new hairdo looks nice or writing them a short note of encouragement, it’s worth it!

Prayer

-to be better encouraging to others

-encourage others with a cheerful heart (this can be a tough one sometimes)

Prayer

Prayer, in my opinion, is one  of the hardest things to do.  I know it can be hard to pray to Someone we can't see or find things to pray about.

To solve the first problem isn't a magic trick.  That's where faith and trust come in.  It's so hard to wrap our minds around the fact that God hears all prayers all at the same time.  So, in other words, He knows all things (1 John 3:20).  I don't know about you, but if I had a problem, I'd want to take it to Someone who knew all things and therefore, knew the answer to solve it.

Now the answer to the second problem mentioned above is much easier.  "What/who do we pray for or talk to God about?"  We live in a world that has billions of issues.  There is always something or someone we can pray for.  Maybe it's your neighbor down the street who has the fever or the poor African children going hungry.  Trust me, there's plenty to pray for.  Prayer is very powerful.

Have you ever noticed that when you're around someone a lot you start to pick up certain things that they do?  Same with God!  We need Him to lean on so we have good back up when we feel tempation getting much too powerful for us.  God wants to help us.  In Matthew 26:41 it says, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  According to the verse, we are weak but God is here to make us strong and overcome temptation.  So, in order to stay strong in our walk and in our faith, we need to use as much of our time time talking and spending time with God as we can.

Challenge!

This week start your days off with a prayer to God, but don't let it end there!  During the day as you see either a homeless person on the street or even as you're passing people in the store, pray for them.  Who knows what's going on in their lives?

Prayer

You decide this week!

Quiet Times with God

A great way to draw nearer to God and help us to stay on the right track is to have a daily quiet time with Him.  There are lots of good devotions out there for us to read, but it won’t be the same as reading the Bible.  It’s so important that we know what God’s Word says.  How else would we know what we should or shouldn’t do?  Sure, Christian books tell us, but how do we know that what they’re saying is true?  In Psalm 119:11 it tells us, “I have stored up Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”  So, we need to not only read the Bible, but study it. It’s so important that when we are confronted with tough situations that we know how to react to it in the godliest way possible. 

Another reason why we should have a quiet time is so we can start hearing God’s voice.  Now this won’t be a literal voice talking to you (like a friend talking, although, I have heard of that happening).  Whatever it is, find out how god communicates to you.  Like for me, He has to be very obvious to make Himself known to me (which makes me feel pretty dumb at times).  For instance, having the same verse or example brought to my attention multiple times within a few days or a week.  That’s when I know He’s trying to tell me something.

            Here are a couple of ideas you can do for your quiet time…

·        Read a devotion and look up the verse(s) that it may offer and maybe even read the chapter the verse is found in

·        Pick a book of the Bible and read one chapter of that book per day

Challenge!

I don’t think this is a hard one… set up a daily quiet time for yourself and stick to it!!

Prayer

-that we may become diligent in our quiet times and use that time to really study the Bible

Note from the author:   Please tell your friends and other girls you know about this blog so we can continue to reach more and more girls!  Also, don’t forget about our Facebook page and that it is a place where you can share prayer requests or praises, struggles, etc. and girls can connect! (just go type in Life is Christ in the Search box)  Thanks so much.