You're a Christian? That's really cool!

Someone actually said this to me yesterday. I was actually rather surprised by it too because that's not usually the reaction I get.

On the left is my newer cross that I wear all the time.

I should probably explain where I was yesterday, shouldn't I? Yesterday was Homecoming at my school and if you know me pretty well, you know I'm in band and play the piccolo in marching band. We marched in a parade last night and afterwards they fed us dinner. I was sitting with a group of what I'm going to call underclassmen, but hey they're all cool people. Well there were two other seniors with me too, but that's irrelevant. A few people were joking around and one of them started quoting a song by John Reuben. I asked if that's who it was and they said yes. Then we started talking about Toby Mac.

I got up to throw away some garbage and when I came back, one of the girls noticed my cross and said, "You're a Christian? That's really cool! I tried, but I swear too much." Swearing was part of another conversation because we're not allowed to swear in uniform, it makes us look bad according to our band director, and he's right. I don't think anyone actually does listen to that because I hear a ton of people swear in uniform all the time. I try to hold my tongue.

As I said before, I've never gotten such a reaction from my cross before. And my friend even mentioned to me that she's jealous of me. Excuse me? What? Why are you jealous of me? What do I have? She said a few months ago when I had my blog posted on my Facebook status, she went and read some stuff and she's jealous of how close I am to God. I'm not taking this to my head trust me and I'll probably talk about that in my next blog, but I was just really surprised by these conversations yesterday. And sometimes I don't feel that close to God. But I know He'll never leave me. I don't know what to say about why I'm so close to God. I guess I just want the relationship. I want to be loved. And I'm not the type of girl to go out with a ton of boys, sleeping with them just to feel the warmth of love. I'm above that because I know I have God.

Also, just because you swear doesn't mean you can't be a Christian. Swearing is a bad habit. I know this because I sometimes struggle with it. It slips out when I get angry. Anger has two types: the sinning type and the non-sinning type. When I get angry at inanimate or material objects such as my laptop or homework, and I swear, I'm sinning. Swearing is a sin. But God forgives.

There was a time in my life when even though I had been saved, I still swore and it was bad. I did all kinds of bad things. I guess I wasn't ready to commit back then. These days I try to hold my tongue a lot more. I don't swear at school or church or really anywhere unless I get really angry. And you know I always have the habit of apologizing after I swear especially if it's a slip because I don't want to live with that sin in my life as little as it seems to be.

Oh sure, swearing might seem to be a very small sin, but it's just as bad as any sin. Oh you think murder is bad? Try this, sin is bad. I'm not sure different sins have different levels. I just know it's sin and you shouldn't sin, but no person was created perfect. Only God is perfect. We all have our falls, but God is great and He will forgive us because He loves us.