The Military, Living Overseas and a Failed Marriage (AKA Part One)

I visit a lot of blogs and often get frustrated that there simply isn't enough information to judge what kind of people they are... or even what kind of Christians they are (not that I'm JUDGING... but I do like to know who I'm talking to).

As I was recently having this thought, I realized that I'm a little sparse in the info area.

So here is the slightly stylized, very abbreviated story of me.

I apologize if it seems like you're reading the exploits of a mentally deranged person (these are supposed to be uplifting and encouraging, after all!) - it gets better I promise!

ADULTHOOD

 A year after graduating from high school (in Panama City, FL!) I joined the Air Force, following in my father's footsteps. I was immature, immodest, conceited, arrogant, stubborn (that one may still be in the house), and generally just not very educated about the world at large. In short, I was a teenager. 

After finishing basic training in San Antonio, TX my dad said I had a mouth like a sailor. But I had finally learned how to properly run (after throwing up a few times) and follow orders (after crying a few times).  I hear the Air Force basic training is pretty nice compared to the other services.


Then I went to technical school in Biloxi, MS where I almost didn't learn how to work on computers. Did but almost didn't. Halfway through I became much more concerned with my social life than I should have been. Just to give you a picture of how very self-focused I was.

When I completed tech school, I was assigned to Kunsan (koon-sahn) Air Base in South Korea. WHAT?!?! Yep. South Korea. I was shocked too. And I quickly found out that if you do not have a solid moral system in place, you won't keep your head above water.


Suffice it to say that I don't remember most of my first year there. Or adequately recall the names of all of my "boyfriends". I am not proud of that year and I deeply regret how I spent it... drinking, smoking and much worse stuff. I cannot ever take it back but I can and have learned from it. It's very obvious now that I was not at all prepared to be in charge of my own life... Parents: take this as a warning to prepare your children and not shelter them! (I still claim complete responsibility though)


My second year in Korea was much calmer after I became completely disillusioned with these vices (except smoking) when I witnessed my friends' drunk cavorting while I was on call (could not drink). Someone licked a floor. It was not funny. It was gross. And like me, they probably didn't even remember what they did. (that's only one example... much worse things happened).

I may have stopped all of the idiocy but everyone remembered it and, to them, I WAS still that person.

Mind you - I still dressed scantily, smoked, and hung around the same people. I spent more time in the gym, at work, and volunteering but mistakes cannot be erased just because YOU say they are.

REAL ADULTHOOD

Towards the end of my tour there, I met a complete stranger, had a handful of dates with him and felt very loved because someone treated me nicely without wanting more. He asked me to marry him and I said yes. 

Can we collectively slap our hands to our foreheads? *SMACK* Annnd done.

We came back to the states, got married, had a horribly honeymoon (don't ask) and he went back to Korea for the rest of his tour while I went to my next assignment at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, TX.

It did not go well from there. 

Apparently, you cannot actually get to know someone in a matter of weeks. The older me can look back and see that I was just at fault as he was. The younger me is wanting to make a list of everything he did wrong. He left and I have not seen him since. It took a year to get a divorce because I could not find him. Divorced.

I am forever going to be a divorced person now and I am grieved that I am a horrible example to those who know me on  how to resolve marital issues. I cannot express enough how much that distresses me. I don't want people to believe that if at first you don't succeed at marriage, try try again. If I had been this person then, it may have worked out. It's not about who they are - it's about who you are! (this does apply to abuse, obviously)

This concludes Part One, but stay tuned for Part Two... it gets really steamy. 

Kidding! But don't worry, it's only uphill from here!

OMG, You $*!#%!!!

Sorry for the title : )


Many Christians believe that the bible holds no guidance on using "bad words."

In fact, it's all over the bible!


I've always heard that cursing makes you look unintelligent... how true that is! Our culture has begun losing words and replacing them with the most debase and immoral form of communication known to man.



Just a funny video. I do not endorse replacing foul words with not-as-foul. The emotion is still there.

Let's start with Matthew 5:22 "... and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca (lit. vain fellow or empty head), shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool (moros, lit. stupid), shall be in danger of hell fire."

Bet you didn't think that was cursing, did you? I take this to mean that if we make light of someone, we're in danger of slander... but when we make a malicious, bitter, damning statement, we are in danger of hell ourselves. I do not believe that we can lose our salvation, but I do believe that if you can be so bitter towards your fellow man, there is a chance that you are not saved.

The ten commandments themselves tell us not to take the Lord's name in vain, and yet all over the country (world, even) people are joining pop culture in o.m.g. Did you really think it meant something else? I go to the store and hear Jesus Christ... but not because they're Christian. I hear little kids with their OH GAWD. And apparently now people can order God to damn things. I've gone a step further by trying not to say Oh My GOSH because it's so easy to slip and say God.


Cursing itself (using a profane word as an exclamation), in my humble opinion, gradually wears down the spirit of the person saying it (not to mention the testimony of said person). 


Foul language tears down, destroys, and desecrates the dignity of the person saying it and that of the person it is being used against. Over and over again, the bible refers to the tongue as the culprit... the flesh is our weakness! If you can see that as the truth, then realize that cursing (and the owner thereof) are motivated by SIN.


Bring on the proof!
If you need more than this, then you don't really believe that God governs your life... I do recall that there need be only two-three illustrations for it to be considered fact, yes?

Psalms 10:7 "His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity." (cursing is aligned with liars and cheats!)

Psalms 59:12 "For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak." (again aligned with lying)

Psalms 109:17 "As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him."


1 Peter 2:1 "Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and cries and all evil speakings."

Proverbs 15:4: "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach of the spirit."

Matthew 12:36-37: "I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." 

Luke 6:45 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." (what's in YOUR heart?)

Romans 3:13-18 "¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: ¹⁴Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: ¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood: ¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways: ¹⁷And the way of peace have they not known: ¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes." (look at the kinds of people God is comparing cursers to)

Romans 12:14 "Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not."

Ephesians 4:29 "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."

Colossians 3:8 “But now you must put away anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths."

2 Cor. 10:10 “For someone will say, "His letters are severe and forceful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” 

Titus 2:6-8 "⁶Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. ⁷In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, ⁸Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you."

1 Peter 1:15 "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;"
 
1 Peter 3:10 "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:"

James 3:6 "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."

  James 3:9-12 "⁹Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. ¹¹Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? ¹²Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
There is a way to stop, if you don't know how!

One of the sweetest verses in the bible:

1 Corinthians 10:13 ¹³There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

This is not a step program, it's God's program. Lean on Him and you can do it 

Pray unceasingly

Hide these verses in your heart

Repent immediately when you fall

Praise God for milestones of success in quitting