Monday, October 29, 2012

Dirty Politics

Hello Everyone,
I spent a lot of time talking about politics. And I think that it's important to give politics it's due. But it saddens me to see so many people get so excited and so animated about this subject and then when it's over the excitement goes with it.

I wonder what would happen if people channeled the same fervor and excitement that they have for the political issues and directed it toward constructive pursuits.  What would happen if we got very excited about helping our young people today?  What would happen if feeding people that needed food got as much a tension as much excitement as whether or not it's okay to burn the US flag or not?  What would happen if people got as excited about loving their neighbor as they did about condemning their neighbors choice and political party?

I think we would live in a vastly different world. Guess what poverty, low self-esteem, financial need, and  stress those don't have a real political party. So let me ask all my politically active friends what are you doing every day to help someone else in need?  Jesus praised people by saying, "When I was hungry you fed me when I was imprisoned you came to visit me when I was in need of clothing you gave me clothing."   He never said when I ran for political office you bombarded Facebook or the social media of the day with long laborious posts condemning the other party.  He didn't mention how you should vote.  When He judged people, he said, "When I was hungry you didn't feed me, when I was naked you didn't clothe me and when I was in jail you didn't visit."

Now before my far right wing or far left wing readers write me some critical comments, let me say that I am not against anyone voting there conscious.  As a matter of fact, I plan to early vote and I have already made up my mind how I am going to vote.  Many Americans gave their lives over the last 250+ years to give me that right and I plan to honor them with my vote.  I am completely for voting and doing what's right for this country.  I'm just appalled by what I hear through the media, Facebook and other places about politics from what some public entertainment figure has to say to what the left and right media have to say.

What troubles me is that I don't hear much about people helping others.  I remember one time I helped someone by giving them some supplies that they needed for their young kids.  The Lord told me to give them so much and I decided to give more than what the Lord asked me to do.  Now let me say that I did not hear the audible voice of God telling me to do anything.  I just knew in my spirit it was the right thing to do.  Anyway, after I gave them what the Lord told me to plus some, I felt like the Lord was smiling at me and was proud of me for what I did.  It was like He was saying, "Son, you act like me more and more!"  As I sat there in the car that day, I wept with joy at being that close to God and knowing that I pleased him.  I have never ever had that feeling or anything close from trying to make a political point. 

So what am I trying to tell you today?  What I'm saying is that it's high time we got off the sidelines and quit just talking about what needs to be done how we should vote what the right politician is doing or not doing and it's time that we stepped out and started making a difference in somebody's life.  So I want to encourage you today. After you're done voting and making speeches and talking about what's right and wrong with America please take the time to find that single mom and your church that needs a helping hand and give her some help. That's what causes me to have pride in America.  It's seeing Americans helping Americans not bickering and arguing about the political system or who should be in office but just an American helping someone who needs help!

That's Another Opinion of the Minion

Monday, October 22, 2012

Sitting at Starbucks

Tonight I am sitting outside of Starbucks in Fort Worth.  My friends who know me personally would be shocked that I am here (not really - I come to Starbucks a couple of times a day for Earl Grey tea).  As I sit here tonight, the weather is beautiful.  It's in the mid 70s and we got a little rain earlier.  People are walking around and talking and generally enjoying the night.  So tonight I want to talk about love.

I harp on this subject a lot because I see so much hatred in the world.  Tonight, everyone around me seems to be having a good time but we all know that hate is around here somewhere.  Now my girlfriend D and I had a discussion last night about politics and some of the more hot topic issues that always seem to come up.  Now as I said in one of my very first blogs, I know that there are definitely issues that need to be addressed and they are serious.  Whether or not you are for or against same sex marriages or abortion or flag burning or you fill in the blank.  I want to challenge you to love people.  I sat at lunch with my good friend J to day and this is one of the things he and I discussed.  Not love specifically but allowing others to have a different opinion and still being able to love and appreciate the person.

Regardless of whether you are a die hard Republican or die hard Democrat, God calls us to love people.  Did you know that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and yet He gives each of us the free will to go to Hell if that's what we chose?  Guess what, He will love you all the way there.  He will hate that you chose to go but He will love you and respect your decision and opinion on the subject.  Did you know that when they nailed Him to that cross He said, forgive them Father for they no not what they do.  He could have called 10,000 angels to get him off that cross and destroy the world but He chose not to do it.  He chose to love those who were putting Him to death.

Now I know a lot of us would like to walk around in the same power that Jesus walked the earth.  I think the reason that it doesn't happen is that we wouldn't say forgive them.  We would call the 10,000 angels to wipe out anyone who doesn't agree with our position, political party or choice of snow cone flavor.  Folks, this isn't the right way to run a railroad.

Now I am not saying that you shouldn't have an opinion and I do believe that you should stand up for who you are.  Guess what I have seen both sides of the isle work to run the other one over.  What I am telling you is stop the hate.  If you can't express your opinion in love, then don't express it until you can.   Quit making fun of or speaking badly of people who don't share the same opinion as you and start walking in love.

That's Another Opinion of the Minion

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Faith

Today I want to talk about faith.  Did you know you have faith?  "Well, wait a minute," I can hear you say, "I'm not even a Christian.  I don't believe in that faith stuff."  My friend I beg to differ with you.  You do have faith.  What you have faith in is a totally different question.  While I was working out at the gym today, my trainer showed me a video of the guy who recently jumped out of that balloon from the edge of space.  Did you know he had faith?  In what?  Gravity.  He believed that he would return to earth when he jumped out of that capsule.  If he hadn't believed it, he would never have jumped out.

See we operate in faith all the time.  When you get out of bed, you have faith that you will be able to stay on the floor (gravity again).  You have faith that you are breathing air.  You have faith that the round ball in the sky providing light is the sun.  We have faith in all kinds of things.  Yes some of us have faith in God and that's a very good thing.  According to the bible, the opposite of faith is fear.

Fear is faith that something bad is going to happen.  If you have fear that you are going to die in a car accident, you are really saying that you have faith that this will come to pass in your life.  That's not a good thing.  Now I know some people will say that they had faith in God for this to happen or that and it didn't.  Why didn't your faith work?  I can't say for sure.  There are a lot of reasons that you may not have received what you wanted.  But let's look at the other side, there are many times when we fear something will happen and it doesn't.

I am amazed sometimes at how much fear and faith we see everyday.  Some fear is stronger than others but some faith is stronger than others as well.  I want you to know that fear and faith are not equal even though they are opposites.  Faith in God will always beat fear.  So let me ask you what you are afraid of today?  In the last couple of weeks I have been afraid of a certain thing.  But here's what I learned, when I started trusting God and putting my faith in him, that fear had to shrink away.  So let me ask you this?  Where is your faith?

Is it in something bad or something good?  The answer is something you have to decide but know this - you will operate in faith in many things today.  You only get to chose what you have faith in.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Monday, October 15, 2012

What to Do When the Cross Gets Heavy

Today this keeps running around in my head.  Now earlier this week it was for me but I sense it's for someone else today.  I posted this on the Minion Facebook page and on my personal Facebook page at different times this week.  It's the lyrics to a song called "Through the Fire" and it's performed by a group called The Crabb Family.

The lyrics that keep impacting me are these - "He never promised that the cross would not get heavy or the hill would not get hard to climb.  He never offered our victory without our fighting but He said help would always come in time.  Just remember when your standing in the Valley of Decision and the adversary says give in, just hold on.  My God will show up and He will take you through the fire again."  Those words are so true and they have impacted me greatly several times in my life.  This past week I went through a bit of a fire of my own making.  I'm thankful for friends and a wonderful woman who helped me see it for what it was.  I also gave myself permission to not be perfect this week.  Thank God for His grace.

Now I want you to think about something for a minute.  Put yourself in a room that is on fire.  You are standing in the middle of the room and everywhere you turn there is fire.  You can't see windows through the smoke and the flames.  What are you thinking about at this moment.  Chances are you see and think nothing but smoke and flames.  You're in a bad spot and there doesn't seem any way out of it.  What do you do?  There is no way to put out the flames so you will either go through or get burned.

Obviously this exact situation doesn't happen to many of us.  But what about when you are up against a school project that's due tomorrow?  Or maybe you are in a relationship that doesn't work right.  Maybe your financial picture is all messed up and you don't see any way out.  The list of possible bad situations could go on and on but I hope you see my point.  Regardless of what you are facing, I want you to know that God never promised you wouldn't face trouble.  The only way that happens is after you go to Heaven.  Before that event, you will see trials and tests.

What I want you to understand is that there isn't a situation that can possibly go on in your life that God can't handle.  Now here's where I get in the most trouble.  I have a tendency to meditate the problem for hours.  The thought of meditating God's promise over the situation can escape me at times.  Have you ever been like that?  I have been in situations recently that weren't near as big as I thought they were but because I focused solely on the problem it grew out of proportion.  On top of that, I never trusted God with the issue.

But when I finally woke up and took the issue I faced to God, He was right there waiting for me.  Guess what I didn't have to move at all to get to Him.  All I had to do was turn around and He was right there.  The Bible says He will never leave you nor forsake you.

So if you are going through tough times stop and trust God.  He never said life would be easy but He did say He would bring you through all the trials if you trust Him.

That's Another Opinion of the Minion


Thursday, October 11, 2012

One Degree

Today I want to talk about direction and goals.  First of all, is it important to have goals?  Well for some it may not be.  I know some people who's personalities really don't lend themselves to concrete goals.  They meander through life and enjoy it.  For them it is a peaceful way to live and goals really mess things up.  For me, that would be a difficult way to live but I must admit that there are days when I envy them.  I am not a hard core goal nut who has to have a goal for everything in life (at least I don't think I am) but I do think that goals are important.

After all, if you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you get there right?  That's where I think goals are important.  For many of you who read this blog, your goal might be to graduate high school or college.  You may have never thought of it that way but if you are in high school, your goal is definitely to get out right?

Well after we get out of college goals can be a little more vague.  For most, the goal is to get married, raise a family, provide for retirement, etc.  But I know so many people who really don't have any plan for their lives and after we are adults, I think that is not healthy.  Let's say your goal is to get out of debt.  What is the plan?  How are you going to cut spending or increase your income?  Is that plan realistic.  Let me take you back a couple of years to when I first really started financial goals.  Back then, I used budgets to justify going further into debt.  Harry Potter movies were more realistic than my budgets.  So are your goals something you can measure?  Remember if you don't have a destination, how will you know when you get there?

Now I want to get to my point for this e-mail.  Sometimes we set goals for ourselves and we come up with good plans to get where we want to be.  For many of us, it is to be good parents and take care of our children.  For me, one of my biggest goals is to walk closer with God.  Now that goal is a great one but it is a little hard to measure.  When I was losing weight, I could step on a scale and the number it displayed would tell me if I was progressing toward my goal or not.  But with my walk with God, I didn't have as concrete or measurable goal.

But here is what I noticed recently.  I have drifted a little away from the Lord.  Now I didn't backslide to hell by any means and I didn't fall into sin or deny Christ or anything close to that.  However, I did notice I was not a peace.  I hit times that weren't as fun as they should be and I couldn't figure out why.  While this isn't the only reason for my frustration, it is an important one.  I knew I had to get back to a closer walk with the Lord.  As I made a fresh commitment to walk closer to Him, I noticed that I didn't have to turn and run back to where I last felt close.  See He followed me on my journey.  The Bible says He will never leave you nor forsake you and He didn't.  He was right there when I went looking for him.  It was great and definitely refreshing.

One of the big questions in my mind was how did I get to this place were I had lost my peace.  I didn't hurt anyone; cuss anyone; do wrong that I knew of so what happened.  The answer is I got one degree off course.  I didn't take His presence seriously enough in my day to day life.  I quit praying as much as I should.  I quit reading His word and my daily devotional with as much attention as I should.  The next thing I knew I was out of peace.  Did you know that if an airplane starts flying from Fort Worth to Paris and it is only one degree off course it can wind up miles and miles from it's goal?  Well that's exactly what I think happened to me.

So let me leave you with this.  What are your goals in life?  Have you ever woken up to find yourself way off course?  If so, all you have to do is rededicate to your goals and set your course straight.  Then take time regularly to check and see if you are still headed where you want to go.  If you aren't simply fix the course.  Many of you may not be where you want to be with Christ at this particular moment.  If that's so, getting back to where you need to be with him is easy because even if you quit paying attention to Him, He never left your side.  If that's you, would you pray this simple prayer.  "Father, please forgive me.  I strayed from my course with you.  Please help me get back into Your perfect will for my life."  If you prayed that prayer, then you are back at the right place with God.  Now search His will out for your life and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

What Have You Done Lately?

Words.  We hear them everyday from all sorts of places.  We hear songs on the radio, watch TV shows, talk to other people and we even hear our own words.  I think I heard that the average person speaks 10,000 words a day.  Which means that the average person hears at least that many every day and probably more.  That's a lot.

So today I want to talk about words, indirectly anyway.  See we hear things all the time and we say things all the time.  I tell my girlfriend, D, that I love her regularly.  Those words sound great and they feel great to say.  What's even better is when I hear her tell me the same thing back.  It feels awesome and I know she means them.  But how do I know she means what she says?  Or how does she know that I mean what I say?  The answer is really simple.  It doesn't require a great leap of faith or many hours of prayer and fasting to figure it out.

All D has to do to know if my words are true is watch my actions.  Do they line up with my words?  I tell her that I love her and then I do my best to show her that I love her.  I consciously consider whether or not my actions are lining up with my words.

This same thing applies to other places as well.  If I tell someone that I will do something and I don't then my actions and words don't line up.  I remember several months ago, I promised to take all the kids to a place called Main Event here in Fort Worth.  This place has bowling, laser tag and video games and the kids love it.  Now when the day arrived, I was feeling a little sick and I didn't want to go.  When I told the kids, my daughter said, "But Dad, you gave your word."  I had a choice to make.  I could either go back on my word and do something else or I could go and feel a little sick in the process.  Let me just say that while I didn't feel good, I wasn't completely sick or I would have stayed home.  I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't be smart and weigh the consequences of the situation.  But in this case, I should have taken the kids and we ultimately did.

Let me turn this blog in a slightly different direction and I will get to my point for today.  Many of us say that we are Christians but unfortunately our actions don't line up very well with our words.  I heard a story and whether or not it is true, it illustrates a good point.  A pastor of a church had a friend who ran a restaurant close to the church.  One day he and his friend were talking and the restaurant owner said to the pastor, "You know I have a lot of trouble getting people to work on Sunday."

"Why is that?" the pastor asked.

"Because the people from your church are the worst tippers and treat the wait staff rudely," he said.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard of Christians that I would never want to do business with because of the lack of integrity that I have seen.

So here is the real point.  The bible says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave...."  If we are going to say that we are Christians, it's high time we started giving.  When we go to a place to eat, the waiters ought to fight with each other to see who gets our table because we are such generous people.  When is the last time you gave to someone without expecting anything in return?  I hope the answer is recently.  But if not, it's time to make a change.  Remember God gives to us every day and he does it because he loves us.  If we are telling people that we are Christians, isn't it high time our actions lined up with our words?

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Friday, October 5, 2012

Conflict

Today I want to talk about something that is a very tough subject and honestly I don't know if I have ever seen people do this right.  I want to talk about how we solve problems between people.  Now I don't think that we can really go around solving other people's problems.  I know several people who have tried unsuccessfully to do that for years.  But what I want to talk about today is a great personal triumph for me.

Think with me for a minute about learning how to drive a car.  If you had never done that before and had never even seen a car, do you think you would be capable of driving one?  Let's say you managed to get the car started and drive it.  Since you don't know the traffic laws, there is a very good chance that you will wreck that car and quite possibly get someone else hurt right?  Well that's the way I think I have been with conflict resolution for most of my life.

If you are married or in a serious relationship, you are going to have conflict between the two people in the relationship.  If you aren't, you are going to have conflict between yourself and your friends and all sorts of other people.  Now for me, resolving conflict with friends has always been fairly easy but for years I have had conflicts with people who are close to me and had no idea how to resolve it correctly.  As I have said before, for a long time I simply turned my emotions off.  That wasn't the best thing but it made conflict resolution easy.  How?  Well, most of the time I would other people simply run over me. Whenever there was a conflict I was normally the one to try to keep the peace.  I read in the bible that blessed are the peacemakers and I tried to be a peacemaker.  The problem was, many of the people I knew only wanted peace on their terms.

That typically didn't work out well for me because I just gave in.  Was there really conflict resolution?  No because I just bottled up all the hurt and never found a balanced, healthy way to resolve it.  Part of my problem was having to deal with people who didn't know how to resolve it either.  Most of them learned that the way to resolve conflict was to get mad and yell.  If you show enough anger then the other side will back down and the conflict is resolved right?  In the short term, that is true but it is very damaging to a relationship.  So that way doesn't work either.

About a year and a half ago, the Lord really opened my eyes to my emotions and how they work.  Since then, I have felt a lot of things.  Most of them are new.  Many feel good but many do not.  This brought a change in the way I decided to resolve things.  If I didn't get a good solution to the problem and one that was more on my terms then I would simply cut the offending person out of my life.  I applied this to dating and I can tell you it didn't really work either.  What I was saying then was unless you are perfect, I won't be around you because if you mess up once, you must be like the other people I have dealt with who don't know how to do this any better than I do.  Guess what, that isn't a winning strategy either.

So why am I so excited?  Well I recently dealt with a person over a particular issue.  On the issue in question, the other person did something that aggravated me a little.  Now fortunately, I read a book earlier that day discussing conflicts and how we resolve them.  Some people believe that how you resolve conflict will indicate how long you stay in relationship with someone.  If you don't do it well, that relationship won't last.  Well in this particular case, I ran a quick errand to give myself a little breathing room to think through things a little.  When I did, here is what I discovered.  This issue did irritate me and it would be unhealthy for me ignore the emotion.  However, in the grand scheme of life, it really wasn't that big a deal.

The other person in this situation could sense that I was offended and thus became a little defensive.  I was able to share how I felt.  It didn't take long and as soon as I shared my feelings and knew the other person generally cared about how I felt, all of my aggravation over the situation left.  I felt much better.  At the end of the discussion this person felt better too.  The funny part is that I don't know if the other person has had much success in life resolving personal conflict either because I sensed this person was waiting for me to attack.  When I didn't it seemed like it was a little shocking to that person as well.  Did it feel great?  Yes!  I finally let something bother me, expressed my emotions in a calm and respectful manner and then the situation was resolved.

So what did I learn?  When you have a problem with someone, you need to acknowledge that their is a problem.  Don't stuff it down but don't react out of anger either.  Take a few minutes to cool off and get your head under control.  After that, take the time to express yourself in a respectful way to the other person.  After that, you will feel better.  Now let me also say that it certainly helped that I knew the other person loved and cared about me.  This particular person is also very level headed and very capable of rationally discussing the situation which was a big plus.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Politics

OK, this post might bring some criticism but here goes.  Today I want to talk about politics.  Since we have major elections in the United States in about 5 weeks, I guess it only seems appropriate.

First of all, let me say to all the yellow dog Democrats and all the yellow dog Republicans, "Wake UP!"  For those of you who don't know, a yellow dog Democrat or Republican would vote for a yellow dog for office as long as it ran for their party.  It seems like I see constant arguments from people on Facebook favoring Romney or Obama for president and most of the time, they quote someone else who said something designed to scare you into voting for their candidate.  They say things like Obama is a socialist Muslim.  When they mention Muslim, they want to scare you because we know it was Muslim extremists that attack America and her allies.  The thought behind this logic is that Obama is working to give the country to Muslims.

Additionally, since he is a Socialist, he is trying to turn our country into the new USSR.

On the other side, since Romney made a lot of money on Wall Street, he is going to ruin our country with all his excess spending.  He is only out to take care of the rich and since greed begets greed, he will be responsible for creating a system where only the rich people make more money and they control everything while the poor people suffer all on his own. 

The first problem I have with all the people saying all these things is that none of them have first hand evidence of what either of these people really want.  All they have is second hand accounts of what someone thinks someone else heard from the janitor of some one's hotel.  I think all this fear mongering is terrible. 

Now let me give you my political views.  On Obamacare - I think it's a bad idea.  It will force people who can't afford to buy health care to pay a penalty or by insurance.  That's just plain ignorance gone to seed.  It will also force Americans who have been very successful to pay for those who have not.  This is called socialism and it's wrong.  When we start taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor, that's called theft.  Sorry if this makes you mad but it's just the truth.  The government doesn't have a right to take money from one group and give it to another.  Right all you republicans?

But I am not saying that we shouldn't give to people who need it because we should.  I give to people who need it a lot and I believe very strongly in giving to others.  I just don't believe that anyone should be forced to give to others.

On capitalism - I believe capitalism is a good thing.  But unchecked capitalism is a terrible thing.  Unchecked, unregulated capitalism is what led to the housing problem that crashed our economy a few years ago.  So guess what, we need government and we need it to police the businesses of this country who so greatly effect our nation.  Sorry Republicans, that's simply the truth.

On homosexuality - See my post of a couple of days ago.  But let me add this, if the government should give money to homosexuals for gay pride parades, etc., then it should give an equal amount of money to those who want to take the opposite stance.  My personal opinion is that government should not give any money to either side for these purposes.  But let me say this to both sides, each of you will have to answer for your own stuff when you get to heaven.  Now learn to start respecting the fact that people might have a different opinion than you.  Quit arguing as you will not convince the other side that you are right and start loving.  That's what God commanded us to do!  Sorry both sides, its just the truth.

Let me send this one out to all the Christians who read my blog.  While this may be shocking and may require great faith from the Republicans, it is entirely possible to be a Democrat and be a Christian.  Nowhere in the bible does God mention political affiliation as a prerequisite to going to Heaven.  I think he discussed something about Jesus as the savior not Barak Obama or George Bush.  But here's what I really want you to know.  The bible says we need to pray for our leaders.  It doesn't say pray only pray for the ones you voted for.  So as we go into a time of decision for this great nation, I want to ask each of you to pray about how you should vote and pray for our elected officials that they will govern in a godly manner regardless of what their political affiliation.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Monday, October 1, 2012

The Box

Hello everyone,

Today I reposted what I believe to be the most significant thing I have ever said.  The post is called, the Box.  Recently my girlfriend and I were discussing homosexuality and I will not discuss whether it is right or wrong.  You have a bible, find out for yourself.  But I do want to stress that hate for people of that lifestyle is totally wrong.  See our job isn't to judge it's to love.  If you look at thing's through the lense of the Box, it will change the way you look at people.  So, here's the Box.




I have given this a lot a of thought and I believe that the Lord showed me something that changed the way I view people.

You see, when God creates a person he gives them abilities, passions, desires, talents and all sorts of wonderful attributes that we seldom ever see. Then he takes all these things and puts them in a box with silver wrapping paper and very pretty red ribbon tied in a bow around it. He calls the box - You. It is a present to the world. When I saw this for the first time, I looked around at all the people walking by and said to myself, "Merry Christmas!" because all I could see were beautiful boxes waiting to be opened.

The problem is many people don't even know what is in their own box much less have taken the time to look in someone elses box. This starts when we are in school. As we grow up, we learn all kinds of new things about ourselves: what we like, what we don't, the changes that our bodies go through, we learn things in school about the world and we learn about social interaction. But sometimes that social interaction teaches us that the stuff in our box isn't all that important.

Have you ever felt like the stuff inside you doesn't really matter? Can you look back to a point in your life where you were doing something you really enjoyed and someone else called it or you stupid or worthless?

When you pull the most precious parts of your life out of the box and let other people see them, it is scary because you are definitely vulnerable at that point. But know this, the Lord put all those wonderful things inside and they are of great price and value. Don't let someone cheapen what is so precious by their comments.

Everyday, I see people who are alive but aren't living. I think it is because they have told themselves that the treasures in their box aren't important or worth much so they don't do anything with them. They may not have done this openly but below the surface it happens. You have to know that if God took the time to create you and put all those treasures inside you, they are important both to him and to me.

When was the last time you looked in your box and pulled out something you truly enjoyed and used it? When was the last time you opened the box? When was the last time you were passionate about anything? Are you so caught up in the rat race that your box isn't important any more?

Here is another interesting question - When was the last time you opened up someone else's box to see who they really are and celebrate the gifts inside them? Do you always know what is wrong with your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, kids, friends, parents, family, coworkers but never look inside the box for what is so awesome about them?

Husbands, what would happen if instead of criticizing your wife, the next time you saw her, you decided to look at something that was so precious to her, so beautiful, so tender, so amazing and something she loved about herself? What would happen if you nurtured that gift and encouraged it to grow? What would happen if, after you opened her box, she decided that your box was the most special one on earth and decided to touch the core of who you are? What if you both decided to go deep in your relationship?

Boyfriends, what if you looked at her and decided that you wanted more than just what was inside her clothes, you wanted what was inside her heart. Girlfriends, what if you decided that you wanted the same thing? What if you wanted to explore who they are and make them the best person they could be while they did the same thing to you? What if you looked at them and asked, "What can I give?" instead of "What can I get?"

Is this a little intense? Yes. Is it worth it if just one person decides to open their box or open someone elses? Yes. You see, I believe that I got to see a little glimpse of the creation through the creator's eyes when He showed me this. It was truly an eye opening experience and I can definitely say I will never be the same. I got to see how He looked at and longs for His creation to be all that we can be and how His love for us goes so deep His heart aches for us.

So I guess the real question is what is in your box? I want to know.

That's the Opinion of His Minion