I changed my blog's background, and it feels like it suits me more. While it does have the nice aesthetic of a majestic mountain in the background, there's some meaning behind it that I really appreciate.
Mountains are typically the obstacle in your life. Sometimes your next challenge is just a little happy hill, and it's not that hard to overcome. Sometimes, however, the next challenge is a mountain. You can sit at the base of it and say, "Well, I guess this is the end for me because there's no way that I'm making it past that".
Or you can say, "Whether they be hills or mountains, I know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). And with that notion in my mind, it leads me back to my life verse, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us," (Hebrews 12:1). I know that while I may not appreciate whatever is going on in my life, that it's just another obstacle for me to overcome. I simply cannot stand by and wait for this all to fade away, because quite frankly, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
The other application of this mountain is that it is a reminder that I must be able to love. And one may think, "well just love someone else and you're loving, right?" Wrong. I must teach myself to love myself and the Lord my God as much as I possibly can before I can fathom loving another person. "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all His mysterious and making everything as plain as day, and if I have the faith that says to a mountain, 'jump,' and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. I give everything I own to the poor or even go to the stake to burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, what I do, I'm bankrupt without love," (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
The first time I heard that passage in 1 Corinthians, I never realized it was right out of the Bible. I heard it in for KING & COUNTRY's song "Proof of Your Love". Now that it has been brought to my attention, and now that I have been educated to love myself in my season of singleness, it reminds me to make sure that I am loving myself and loving my God before I dare to say I love someone else.
This is a new journey that I'm embarking on. One where I will learn to love myself as the Lord God loves me. I will also learn how to love Him and attempt to love Him at similar levels as He loves me, but I know that will not be possible because God's love is never-ending.
I am surrounded by friends and family who love me. Even my new friends, we have built this bond of trust that we call each other family. Whether they jokingly say it because we have our inside jokes, or whether they truly mean it when we say we are family, I will call them my family. They have done nothing but loved me, so that I can learn to love myself. I am excited for this new path that God has revealed to me. I am ready for the next leg of the race that I am supposed to run. I am ready to take on the world.
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