FIFTH RETREAT CHALLENGE

 

 

Hello, Ladies! Happy Valentine's Day. I couldn't resist sharing Baby Maeryn's Valentine greeting with you because, really, seriously, she IS the cutest little person ever. I just want to squeeze her! (I think that's somewhere in the Grandmother Contract)

She thinks Valentine's Day is way fun. (Of course, right now she thinks just about everything is way fun) You probably did too back in elementary school when everybody in the class gave everybody else in the class one of those cheesy little cards, signed in big ol' letters and often accompanied by nothing-but-sugar hearts that said things nobody meant but were fun to have anyway. 

 But how's Valentine's Day for you now? I've heard so many women of all ages -- 13 to 90 -- say it's their most UNfavorite holiday. They either feel like no guy loves them, or the guy who does love them is clueless when it comes to romance, or the guy in their life showers them with flowers and chocolates and mushy cards and yet the rest of the year can barely remember to say "I love you." 

I hope it's not that way for you. I hope you have a healthy attitude toward all the hype that's been building since the stores took down the Christmas stuff and replaced it with cupids and heart-shaped everything. I hope you get that love is for real, whether roses are delivered or not, and that the real thing is worth waiting for.  I truly hope that.

Since it IS Valentine's Day, though, what better time to offer the Fifth Retreat Challenge as we prep for our first-weekend-in-March live blog look at sharing the Bread of Life without saying a word? (World's longest sentence)   It's about love. For the people we pretty much can't stand.

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)

Seriously, is there a harder Jesus-command to follow? I can cultivate my little mustard seed of faith and seek righteousness and shine my light all over the dadgum place. But really -- really, Jesus -- I'm supposed to LOVE those so-called Christian readers who sometimes write me nasty emails about the most miniscule, ridiculous things in my books? You want me to PRAY for peoplewho accuse me of not being "Christian enough?" You want all of us to LOVE the people who seem out to tear down everything that's good in our society? We're supposed to include terrorists and child abusers and serial killers in our  PRAYERS?   

    Well, yeah, that's exactly what he's saying:

"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? . .  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?" (vs. 46 & 47)

    Here's what I'm suggesting. We can witness verbally to our peers and invite them to church and even beg them to get down on their knees and give this Jesus thing a chance. It might even work. But how powerful would it be for those people to simply see you do something like this?

    * When someone is absolutely vile to you, you simply say to them, "You really can't hurt me. And besides, I think you're better than this."

    * When someone who treats you like the bottom of her shoe is really hurting, you go to her and say, "Look, if there's anything I can do . . ."

    * When a teacher you can hardly stand to be in the same room with is being particularly cranky, you drop her an anonymous note that says, "Looks like you're having a rough day. You're in my prayers."

    * When everybody is ganging up on somebody because -- who knows why except that they think it's fun -- you step in and say, "Not funny, you guys."

Jesus isn't saying, "Preach to your enemies." Nor is he saying, "Go sit down in the middle of them so they can tear you up some more." His direction is simple:

    (1) Pray for them.

    (2) Love them.

The first one is self-explanatory. But what about the second one? Your challenge is to define what Jesus is talking about when he says "LOVE THEM." Will you do that? Will you tell us what you come up with when you consider loving that girl who makes your life miserable at the dance studio or that guy who plays with your heart like it's a yoyo, or that teacher who acts like you don't have a clue? Dig deep. Then share. 

Oh, and have some chocolate.

 

Blessings,

Nancy Rue 

Comments

[♫Lexi♫]

This is such a wonderful post, Mrs. Rue!! I often have trouble with loving my enemies. That IS one of the hardest Jesus-commands to follow. How am I supposed to pray for those people that I just can't stand because of countless reasons? How am I supposed to pray for murderers? It's going to be hard, but I know I can do all things with God's amazing love and encouragement for me. After I dig deep, I will share it with y'all. Oh, and I will definitely have some chocolate!!☺
♥Happy Valentine's Day!!!♥

[Kate S]

Love this post, and the photo :D !
haha I pray like this- 'God please help me not go crazy when this person comes around' or whatever :). I do ACTUALLY pray for them too though :).
How to love them? Just being nice to them, even if it basically kills me. Not telling when they write about me on the bathroom wall (lies). When they are alone, just say hey or whatever...
It gets kind of fun, actually, if you treat it like a game. To kill them with kindness- you really can have fun with it- just don't flaunt it. :)
Happy V-day!
sent you my poem, Mrs. Rue, for the retreat. ;)

[Melody]

I don't really think I have enemies. Sure I have people I'm not fond of, but I can't think of anyone who really makes my life miserable. My biggest problem is that for a long time I was really shy (I'm still quiet, but I don't think I'm shy really) so therefore a lot of people ignored me and I was happy to ignore them. Now there's a girl at my studio I really want to get to know and to love, but we've spent our whole lives ignoring each other. What do I do? I know she's hurting, but I just can't figure out how to help her. I've been leaving anonymous encouraging notes at my dance studio, but past that I just don't know how to overcome 10 years of ignoring.

[Emii]

I think -- I know -- that this post is a God-thing. Because I just really, really needed to read it. I wish our RL retreats were in Real Life but they're not. It's so hard to love everyone. And alone it's impossible. I realize now that I can do nothing on my own. Only with Jesus. But how? I don't give what people think of me anymore; I just don't, can't be bothered. Sometimes I wish I could just move to England or Africa or someplace and just sell everything I have and give starving people water and fruit. But instead I'm here at school. You ever get the feeling that you want to get away, serve people and love them and just be someone who is loved because of love and Jesus and stuff?

[Avery]

I guess what God means when he tells us to love everyone is that we need to treat people with respect and kindness. And then we somehow need to find a way to be caring and generous too. So I'm just guessing that that's what we're supposed to do, but I'm honestly not sure. Well, I'm still really praying for yall and hope yall have an amazing week.

[Melody]

Hey girls, quick prayer request. My mom and I are driving to MS (which is about a 15 hour drive for us)so I can audition for the dance program at a college. Both of us have recently been exposed to some germy (though adorable) small children, so please pray that the drive is safe and that we both stay HEALTHY! Thank you so much :)

[Miriam]

Enemies? Sometimes it feel like I have no enemies and sometimes it feels like I have hordes of them. The thing is, there are a lot of people at my school who are really mean to other people and who I don't really like but who are nice to, or at least respect, me. It's hard to deal with people like these because I don't agree with what they do, but I don't want to start arguing with them either. It's hard to love someone when you know that they can really hurt someone else, even they aren't necessarily bullies. But I'm learning that if I want a change to happen I have to be that change. So I guess I can keep praying for the mean people and keep on following God in everything I do.

[Caitlin]

I think Jesus meant to treat your enemies with respect, but not exactly to ask them to be best friends, or anything like that.

[Nicole]

Oh, my. Mrs. Rue, could you come up with a tougher challenge? ;)

Then again, as you yourself said, this was and is Jesus' command. And He wasn't a hypocrite - this really is the way He lives.....caring, healing, loving.

Y'know, this is one of those many things that you can't bypass by following "Christian rules". You gotta have the true, unconditional, undying, incredible love of Jesus overflowing your life, or you ain't got nothing (paraphrased from Paul ;D). 'Cause what do you do when you are totally beyond your human limits of just being NICE, much less loving?? You have to turn to Christ, and ask Him what exactly He wants you to do in a certain (aggravating) situation with a certain (aggravating) person(s). (And I'm not trying to be preachy here; I'm processing it all, thinking out loud...er, on the keyboard).

So, I have a question (which I may have just answered, but I want to know y'all's thoughts)...Mrs. Rue, you said that, y'know, when someone is just being plain mean, you should step up and ask them to cut it out. OK, I get that. But, what if someone's being offensive without really meaning it, saying words you don't especially like or playing inappropriate music on their iTouch or whatever? This happens kinda often at the small, 15-to-20-teens-or-so youth group I go to at my friend's church. I don't know what to do! I'm afraid I'll just push them away if I ask them not to say that or to please not play that song. I'm afraid they'll be pushed away even further from the Jesus they don't even know. I'm afraid they'll be even more put off by this boring religion that doesn't let them have any fun. I'm afraid!

Anyways...I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, because I am thoroughly confuzzled. :P Mrs. Rue, a little help?

[Nicole]

Oh, and Abi, I'll be praying for your elderly friend!! I hope - if it was the medication - that it wears off and she'll be fine. <3

[mimi]

hey everyone,
im brand new here so would someone mind explaining this whole blog to me ?
thanks!

[mimi]

and im really excited to get involved with this blog, its seems kinda like a online youth group. i think its great! cant wait to learn more about it

[Nicole]

Haha, you're right Mimi, it is kinda like an online girls' youth group - I never thought of it like that. ;) And I'm so glad that you found this blog! Hope you really like it. :)

Basically, this is where Mrs. Rue challenges us teen girls with things to ponder, and then we share our ponderings, and then Mrs. Rue replies to our ponderings and posts another challenge. :) We tell each other when we need prayer, or what we're praising God about, or what we're having trouble with, etc. ;)

It's really an amazing community that Mrs. Rue (and God!) has created...I've been involved in this blog for over a year now, so I wasn't here at the conception of it, which I believe happened after several girls 'graduated' from the Tween Blog (tweenyouandme.typepad.com), and thus Mrs. Rue created the Teen Blog. (Is that right, those of you who were here? I know Emii and Paige were...)

That's basically how I would describe this whole thing...feel free, though, anyone else, to explain some more!! :)

Oh, and Melody, I'm praying for you, for your mom and you to stay healthy, and also for you getting to know the girl at your dance studio. That's a really tough situation...I'm sorry I don't have any advice for you! :( Like I said, though, I will be praying for you and her! I really hope there's a breakthrough. :)

[mimi]

Thanks Nicole, that explains a lot! this sounds like a great community, im excited to get involved!

[mimi]

thanks Nicole! that explained alot! I'm really excited to get involved with this group!

[mimi]

sorry it posted twice

[Melody]

Mimi: Welcome! As Nicole said, Mrs. Rue posts things for us to think about and sometimes challenges us to do things. We then comment with responses and musings on the post as well as giving prayer requests and praise reports. There are also official rules which are posted on the main teen page. Also as Nicole said, this blog originated when people started growing out of the tween blog but weren't ready to leave! Paige, Emii, have all been here from the start, I'm not sure who else has though.

Update: I got back from my trip and audition. I felt like the audition went well, but they said they're accepting less than fifty percent of applicants. Also, I'm still not really getting the vibe that this college is the one for me. It's kind of my only choice, and I'm probably going to end up there and I'm sure I'll be happy there, but I'm still not getting an overly postive feeling from it. For the most part we both did stay healthy though, I had sore throat a few days and my mom had some headaches, but it could've been much worse. God really provided for us :)

[mimi]

thanks guys for welcoming me in!
prayer request: I'm bringing a friend of mine who is not a christian to my youth group this tuesday. I know she's hungry for more in life so I'm praying she can really meet God this week.