Tattoo

As many of you know I have a few tattoos. To me tattoos should have meaning to them and should be personal. Each and everyone of my tattoos (and future ones) are reminders to me of what is extremely important to me. I thought I would share why I have them so maybe someday you will want to get one too!


My first tattoo that got me started is a cross made of three nails with a banner going around it with the reference to the verse 1Peter 1:14-16. The three nails symbolize the nails that pierced Christ's hands and feet. Reminding me that because of my sin Jesus died on the cross for me. His blood was shed and not mine. I am not to live for myself but for others. It ties into the verse which says, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is Holy, you also be Holy in all your conduct. For it is written you shall be Holy for I am Holy." I am not supposed to live according to my previous life. I choose to follow Christ and that choice comes with obedience. At the same time because of the cross I am now Holy. I am set apart from sin. I should no longer be conformed to my former passions. Yet it is not easy. I am still a child who is learning to become obedient who can be holy in his conduct. That is not to say that I am better then anyone else but to say that I do it differently. Acting more like Jesus and becoming obedient to how he showed us how to live. For we are holy like He was holy.


My second and third tattoo are In loving memory tattoos. The first part was for my sister and my cat. I know it sounds weird to remember a cat permanently on your body but when you grow up with a cat for almost the first 20 years of your life she becomes your best friend. They're always there when you need to talk to someone and she listened. It's hard to lose that friend and I did not want to forget her. She was a best friend and also part of my family. I also have my sister's footprint. Most people don't know that I had another sister. I was only 7 when she was born and died a few days later. I never knew much about her until recently when I asked to get her footprint. She is a sister that I never knew and I wanted to have a memory of her close by. The third tattoo which is really just a second part to the main part of my in loving memory tattoo is two yellow roses. My cousin passed away in January and on her casket were yellow roses. We had chosen yellow roses because Aleeza was a burst of sunshine always filled with joy. It was really hard to see her die at such a young age and know that I would never get to see her again. The two yellow roses are in memory of her so that I will always remember her joy and who she was.


My fourth tattoo is a Hebrew tattoo for the word truth. In Hebrew the word is Emet. I choose to put Truth because it reminds me of who I am. I cannot run or hide from who I am but I can learn to live with it and give my struggles to God. We are to live by truth and the only true truth in this world is God. His Word is the truth and that is what I must learn to live by. It is not an easy thing to learn to be truthful in everything and this is a reminder to me that if I expect people to be truthful with me I must be truthful with them. Truth is a big thing but it has to start somewhere small and continue to grow.


My fifth tattoo (I'll get it someday) is of the phrase la prima dulce Verita. Which is Italian for the first sweet Truth. It is a saying by Catherine of Siena about God. Which I think she sums up best in the first paragraph of her Dialogue: 
“A soul rises up restless with tremendous desire for God’s honor and the salvation of souls. She has for some time exercised herself in virtue and has become accustomed to dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge to know better God’s goodness toward her, since upon knowledge follows love. And loving, she seeks to pursue truth and clothe herself in it.” We seek the truth of God because He is the ultimate and first truth. We want to know about the being that created us. He is the sweet Truth to us because he satisfies who we are. It is like being in a desert and finally you get a little water after days of thirst. It is sweet to drink as it satisfies a bodily need. God is our ultimate body need and when we finally begin to see Truth in Him we begin to see the first sweet Truth that created us. He begins to fill us with Himself and we only want more. His truth is absolute because it was the first truth which all other truths come from. 


Some people say there are other ways to remind yourself of these things but for me its a way that I will never forget because I see them daily. I get them in places that I can cover up because they are really reminders for me and only sometimes can other people see them. The things I remind myself of are things that I struggle with or tend to forget and I want them permanent and engraved on my body as a reminder that I cannot forget these things. I still make mistakes because I am like everyone else, a human being! The difference comes in how we take responsibility for those mistakes and where we go to with our struggles. 


P.S. I do have a sixth tattoo idea but it is in the works.

Big Words | Love

Love isn't something that can be put into words. It's an action. Something that is done. Love is not a descriptor that describes a feeling. It can but it is something far greater than just an emotion. It is something that we do and must show that makes love. 

Humans have tried for generations to put love into words. There are books and books about what love is and how we should fix it between people. We think that we have to recreate that sort of high feeling of emotion that we get when we "first love" someone. Is that really love though? I would say its not. It takes time to learn to love a person. You have to learn to accept them for who they are and everything that comes with that. 

A lot of time Christians say that we are to hate the sin and love the person. The only problem with that is that the reason for the sin is the person. If you hate the sin you hate the person. If you start to look past the bad things of people you aren't really loving them. You are just trying to love because you are told to love so you look past who they are and fake love them. You don't accept them you just make them into someone else and that is definitely not loving someone. 

Love comes from being able to accept a person as they are. That can be the hardest part about being able to love people. Accepting who they are. Accepting a person means we have to go out of ourself and not let yourself get in the way. Our selfish desires go on the backburner and the other person needs becomes more important. Slowly love becomes more than a feeling and becomes an action. Something that we want to do. 

Love is not an easy thing because you cannot expect anything in return. Just because you love someone does not mean that you will get that love in return. Loving people does not become easier because of that. It may be easier to learn to love people but the more love you give out the harder it becomes. You being to feel sad for the people you love because you feel their pain. Its as if you begin to bear that weight that was on their shoulders. Yet it is love that brings us through this and brings about something beautiful. 

Love is still something far more than this but its an idea of what one aspect of love might be. Love is something great and can bring about something beautiful. 

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers."

I John 3:16

Big Words | Hope

Hope is a Strange Invention


Hope is a strange invention --
A Patent of the Heart --
In unremitting action
Yet never wearing out --

Of this electric Adjunct
Not anything is known
But its unique momentum
Embellish all we own --


Emily Dickinson




Hope is such an odd thing that I don't think that I can do it justice. It's more of a poetic thing so I thought I would find a poem. It is simple yet makes you think about what hope could be. It's something that we strive for and it is what gives us the strength to move on. We hope for what is to come and that something better will come each day. We hope for the best and that is what lets us live our lives to the fullest every day. Without hope we have no gains to hope for something better. 



But God will never forget the needy; 
the hope of the afflicted will never perish.

Psalm 9:18

Remembering

A song that really gets at how I felt when my cousin Aleeza passed away. Love and miss you Aleeza. 







Sissy's Song by Alan Jackson
Why did she have to go 
So young I just don't know why
Things happen half the time
Without reason without rhyme
Lovely, sweet young woman
Daughter, wife and mother
Makes no sense to me
I just have to believe

She flew up to Heaven on the wings of angels
By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees
And she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting
And I know she's smiling saying
Don't worry 'bout me

Loved ones she left behind
Just trying to survive
And understand the why
Feeling so lost inside
Anger shot straight at God
Then asking for His love
Empty with disbelief
Just hoping that maybe

She flew up to Heaven on the wings of angels
By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees
And she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting
And I know she's smiling saying
Don't worry 'bout me

It's hard to say goodbye
Her picture in my mind
Will always be of times I'll cherish
And I won't cry 'cause

She flew up to Heaven on the wings of angels
By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees
And she walks with jesus and her loved ones waiting
And I know she's smiling saying
Don't worry 'bout me
Don't worry 'bout me
Don`t worry 'bout me