Vision check

As you may have guessed, over the last few weeks I've been pretty busy. With my schedule being what it is, my pipe dream of reading a book a week flopped quite a while ago. It's ok though, I've read a few books so far this summer and hope to get a couple more done before I fly out. The ones that I don't get to will just make the trek to Thailand with me.
The latest one that I completed was a reread of one of my favorites - "I Kissed Dating Goodbye." In my younger days I scoffed at it because well, I don't want to be single & I didn't know the premise behind it. When I read it last summer though I found that it lined up with my personal set of opinions & expanded them in certain areas.
With some things that have changed since then I thought it would be good to get a refresher on the ideas which I agreed with then but have been struggling to implement now.
Anyways, I'll get more into it after the jump.
The main idea behind the book is to show young people the failings that come through the dating scene. How the practice of most to date for the sake of dating, jumping from partner to the next (even in a pure Christian manner) is a flawed way to get ready for marriage.
All that does is create an ability to bail out when things get rocky.
I can't stand as some example because I've pretty much never dated anyone. My understanding of getting through strife with someone else as more then a friend is basically non-existent. But I've watched many of my friends over the years going about their many girlfriends & learned a few things from viewing the drama & pain that it caused them.
It really was a check on how I viewed though. At a fundamental level it, among other things, was instrumental in showing me how worldly I am. The thing that most got to me & which I'm still really wrestling with is the principle of not pursuing any sort of a romantic relationship until marriage is possible. I'm leaving the country in a month and a half, but my mind set is and has been that I should be able to date, even though marriage isn't even a partially feasible possibility. I'm working on changing it, because that sense of entitlement is a real load of garbage. It's what got Satan kicked out of Heaven & everything has been messed up since then. Anyway, it's a real kick in the teeth. The only thing I'm entitled to is serving God & serving others. Everything else is garbage.
But to apply that to all areas of life is....tough. I see so many people seemingly getting everything that they want in their lives while I'm trying to follow God & seem to not be getting any of things that I seek God for & pray into.
But that comes back to my point. It's not until the right time, none of it is. I'm trying to follow God & as hard as it is believe it sometimes His plan is being worked out & His timing is truly perfect. God perfect, not the watered down way that is so flippantly used to describe like everything in the world.
Sorry, I'm going off onto a few mini tangents, I hope it all works...
Back to it.
Like I said in my last newsletter, everything that is happening gives me an opportunity to grow in my faith. Whether that be reading a book, losing a close friend, having major life plans change over night, the positive spin on it is that I am being given the opportunity to learn & grow.
I don't want to be a worldly - minded church goer. So while it's uncomfortable for me to look in the mirror & see I need to be corrected I will rejoice in it. I will look for the positive in it. I want to be the Son of God that I was made to be. So I keep looking. Keep listening. Keep living. Always knowing that God's plan will be fulfilled & just have to do what I know I'm supposed to do. That's what I got out of a book technically about not dating.