Month: February 2025

Motivational Monday

On February 25, 2025

In Motivational Monday, News and Announcements

Hey friends! I hope you are all doing well. If you have missed it, Pastor Scott has been preaching a series called, “Good Stories From The Good Shepherd”. It’s REALLY good. If you have missed a week or two, no big deal! Just look on Facebook and all his sermons are there waiting on you to watch them! I highly recommend them.

You are enough. Love yourself. You are perfect just the way you are! Do these saying ring a bell to you? In our world today, we hear these a lot. You see them printed on notebooks, shirts, hats etc. mostly targeting young women. Are these right? Are we enough? Are we perfect just the way we are? Should we love ourselves? Let’s talk about it.

This is the part of my motivation where I tell you a story about me. But this week, I have been in a situation where I have sat back and watched someone spiral downward. I’ll be honest, being someone on the outside looking in, it’s heartbreaking. I want to grab them and yell, “Get it together! Stop this nonsense!” And to me, it is nonsense. Because I care about them. This person’s family cares about them. This person’s neighbors care about them! We all love this person. They just don’t love themself. Because of this situation, I’ve really had a long hard look at myself.

While growing up as a christian, I was always told to love God and love others. It was pretty clear cut. But Matthew 22:37-39 states, “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Did you see that last part? Love your neighbor as you love yourself. This got me to thinking. The grace I show others is directly related to the grace I show myself. In the way I care for my mental, physical, and emotional needs will also be the way I invest in caring for the needs of those around me. The way I learn to have compassion on myself is the way that I would have love and compassion for others.

We all know the song, “Jesus Loves Me”. And as a christian, we don’t doubt His love for us, right? And the Bible clearly states we are to love others, right? Well, if we are going to do what Jesus tells us to do (which is love others) don’t you think love has to come from within?

Now, John MacArthur has a different take on the verse above. He states in The MacArthur Bible Commentary, “Contrary to some contemporary interpretations, it does not mandate self-love. Rather, it contains in different words the very same idea as the Golden Rule. It prompts believers to measure their love for others by what they wish for themselves.” Many believe self-love takes the focus off loving God and pursuing Him. Philippians 2:3 says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

Well, Jennifer…what is the right answer?

Well, after looking at all sides of the Bible, I think it’s a balance. I do believe all the, “You are enough” sayings are silly. Because, that’s false. YOU are not enough without Him. YOU are not perfect just the way you are. YOU need to seek Him for…everything. But do I believe God wants us to not love ourselves to the point mistreating our body? Absolutely not and there is scripture to back that up. I believe loving yourself enough to know YOU can’t do this alone is the balance.

Love you all,

Jennifer

Motivational Monday

By Jennifer Robbins

On February 17, 2025

In Motivational Monday, News and Announcements

Hey friends! Thank you for letting me have an off week. It was my birthday and Valentine’s week so it was a busy week. One of the many reasons I love the month of February is because it is centered around love. We talk about love a lot in these motivations but today I want to focus on christian love. So, let’s talk about it.

Most of you know me in real life (unlike the internet one! 🙂). In real life, I have (more than) a few tattoos. I have the word “love” tattooed twice on me. Once on my left ring finger (for my love, Jon) and the second is a bible verse. 1 Corinthians 16:14, “Let all that you do be done in love.” I got this verse for many reasons. But the first and foremost reason was to be able to witness to nonbelievers. This verse speaks to me. If everyone did everything in love, this world would be a great place. I think even nonbelievers would agree, right?

Now, I love my husband. I do. But the easiest love is my son. Sure, he gets on my nerves but in my mom mind, the love you have for your child is the closest you will ever experience to pure love. It’s the closest love we can experience as how our Father loves us. Every person on Earth is a child of God whether they are a believer or not. Our God created everything you see. Look around…everything. And He did this for YOU. He did it for me. He did it for all of us. YES! Even those who hate Him. AND, He gave us HIS only son. Can you imagine allowing your child to use his life to pay for our salvation when we could care less about it? I can’t either. This love is agape love.

Agape love is the desire to do good for others, even enemies, and is not based on feelings. If you are anything like me, it is hard to separate feelings from doing good. I can’t tell you how many times I have to walk away to just think. In my younger days, I erroneously just reacted. I am definitely not perfect but I can tell you I have mellowed as I have gotten older. This more mellow Jennifer usually allows the opportunity to consult with God and ask questions. There are times I listen and there are times I don’t because I allow emotions to get in the way. I say this all the time, it’s because I’m human. Let me be clear when I say, that is no excuse for bad behavior. It’s just important to know that’s how God made us. Why did He make it hard on us? I don’t know exactly (I’ll ask when I get to heaven) but I feel certain it was a way to constantly seek Him.

Then, there is unconditional love. I think unconditional love and agape love are very similar but different. Unconditional love is what I believe is the closest most of us come to agape love. Let me sum up unconditional love. Jesus. Jesus helped. Jesus loved. BUT, Jesus also held people accountable. Unconditional love doesn’t mean allowing people to live a sinful life without you calling them out. It is your duty as a christian to tell them what they’re doing is wrong. This isn’t being judgemental. This is love. Remember, be careful of your delivery. When Jesus called people out, He did this with love and not hate.

And then, there is forgiving those who need to be forgiven. As a friend, I am going to tell you some bad news. People will hurt your feelings. They may do it intentionally or unintentionally. But when you are on the receiving end of that hurt, intentional or not, it hurts all the same. It will be up to you on how you deal with that hurt. As a byproduct of that hurt, it will shape you. Will you become bitter and angry? Or will you let go? What I can tell you is God is there to help you through it. And once you DO forgive, that is love. To just put it in perspective, can you truly love someone who hurt you bad enough to not forgive them? I know I couldn’t.

Love is hard and complicated because we have feelings. Love is an emotion that is hard to control. Love is the backbone of who we are or who we want to be. I used to say God tests us but I think God stretches us like a muscle. When a muscle is used and stretched for the first time in a long time, it hurts. It might hurt to use that muscle after it’s been worked but you still do it because you have to go about your day. Hopefully, you have used that muscle enough to where you don’t injure yourself too bad and need surgery. But with a little ice or a little heat, you are usually just fine. God wants to be our day to day life. He is our ice and heat. And if it’s too bad, He’s the only surgeon I want.

Love you all (and I promise I do!!),

Jennifer

February Newsletter

By Jennifer Robbins

On February 9, 2025

In Newsletters

Please clink on the link below to read the newsletter in its entirety.

NL 2-2025

Motivational Monday

By Jennifer Robbins

On February 3, 2025

In Motivational Monday, News and Announcements

Hey friends! I am so glad you are here reading Motivational Monday! Today, I want to address something I wrote in last week’s motivation. Something I wanted to delete but I knew I needed to address it this week…so, as painful as it is to leave it, I did.

Last week, when I signed off from my motivation I signed it as, “Love, Jennifer AKA Just some girl trying to get into heaven”. It was brought to my attention that it could be misleading to some of you reading these messages week after week. You might think, “well if she’s unsure then I’m unsure.” Well, I’m here today to make sure that I clear the air as much as possible. So let’s talk about it.

There are times when I am asked about a subject that I believe to be gossip. As you all know, I am NOT perfect and there are many times I will engage. But, I have tried to be better about being more intentional in my faith. Therefore, if I am feeling uncomfortable and I don’t want to say anything negative, my go to answer is, “I don’t know. I’m just some girl trying to get into heaven”. That’s my way of saying, “I prefer not to answer because it will be ugly and I need to do better.” Do I think that if I had engaged in the question and was ugly, I wouldn’t get to heaven? No. Do I think I’m not going to heaven because I am a sinner? No. In fact, I KNOW I am a sinner and I KNOW I’m going to heaven.

You see, our acceptance into heaven is not how good we have been. It’s not how many times we attend church, how much we tithe, how kind we are people or how many people we turn to the faith. Yes, God commands us to do certain things as christians. And yes, we should 100% do them. But, if you are like me, you realize the more you study the Bible the more you see how imperfect you are. You have to understand that sin separates us from God. Therefore, to get to His dwelling place, it won’t be on merit. Look at Ecclesiastes 7:20, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” By His own Word, He knows we are inherently sin.

In order to get to heaven, a person must first understand they are a sinner, and unable to justify themselves before God on their own. To be saved, all you need to do is believe that Jesus is Lord, that He died as the perfect sacrifice for their sins, and He was resurrected. Once someone has faith in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit secures that person’s salvation until Jesus returns. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13). One of my daily prayers is, “Lord, please forgive my sins I have committed today and in the past. Lord, please also forgive the sins I will commit in the future.” I like to have all my t’s crossed and my i’s dotted. 🙂

Heaven is a magical place with pearly gates, and golden roads. If it wasn’t God’s place, I would think there would be HIGH security but…He kinda knows EVERYTHING that is going on. With that being said, you would think surely, there’s more to it to get in, right? Nope.

Thankfully, it is NOT based on how kind we are or how much we give. Want to know why? For every good, there’s at least 2 sins that outweigh it. I am so thankful that God knows us (because of course He does). He wants us to be in His kingdom forever. He’s our Father. He knew there was no way we were getting to heaven on merit. Hence, Jesus. Jesus’s sole purpose was for us. One man paid the price for ALL of us. Incredible.

So, if I led you astray with my sign off last week, please know that was not my intention. And please know that I am so far from perfect. Maybe that was supposed to happen just for this motivation, right?

Love you all,

Jennifer

AKA Just a girl who is thankful she’s forgiven