Awkward.
A word that we use often, I'm guilty of it too; and yet it is a word whose meaning has lost its power.
Awkward means a few things, and we know (from English class) that those listed first in the dictionary are the terms most often used for that word. Well awkward means: clumsy, lacking grace or manners.

Manners.
Something we have since forgotten to teach our children. Something our parents learned, their grandparents enforced and nothing we've come to care about.

However the most important (or recently the most important) meaning for the word awkward would be: requiring caution.

We have things like the "awkward game" and do things to try and make others feel awkward. Sometimes we get a perverse sense of humour in making another feel strange, outcast or (to use an old term) 'chicken.'
But really, we've trained out our sense of awkward. We no longer have the feeling of CAUTION.

I am guilty of this myself, guilty of a low sense of caution, a high tolerance to things awkward. Sadly I feel that our sense of "the awkward" is a gift from God that we have stopped using. And once you stop it is hard to retain that sense once again.

God has been teaching me so much in the past few months. One of those things is that our sense of what is awkward goes along with our sense of feeling. When we no longer find things awkward we are that much closer to apathy. Those who are apathetic feel nothing, they sense no caution. There is nothing considered awkward for them. When nothing is considered awkward, when there is no caution, that is where the devil can come in and mess us up. He can come in and fiddle with our perspective.

The Devil knows scripture and he sure can use is against us. He uses a verse of scripture on us, he will tell us  "the Bible says that everything is permissible." What we don't hear is the second part of the verse. The part where God tells us
Everything is permissible, BUT NOT EVERYTHING IS BENEFICIAL.


We often forget the power we have over others and as such we abuse this power. We abuse the power to make them feel awkward, the power to make ourselves feel awkward.

Everyday I am constantly reminded of this verse. Maybe it is when I walk into Ludwig and seeing the food that never looks appetizing, maybe it is when a cute guy walks past and I find myself saying 'well he's aesthetically pleasing', or maybe it is when I want to skip homework for ice cream. In all these times I am reminded "Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial." (1 Corinthians 6:12)

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. - 1 Corinthians 1:25 It is through God we can overcome the apathy and lack of awkward. We can, no I can earn back my sense of caution and protect the innocence I was gifted through God.

~Carollela~

The Rules of a Crush/Love/Romance and Dating

Rule #1:Don't Worry.

You will make a fool of yourself. You will look silly and just plain stupid sometimes; but this is okay. Just be who you are and things will be fine, in their own way. Worry is the quickest way to die young. What't the point in that, unless of course it is in a freak accident sky diving and then, heck it was all worth it. If you worry, you'll get those "worry wrinkles" and start looking older and you will be less active and more prone to ignoring the person you like. Who knows, they could be your future Mr./Mrs. Wonderful.

Rule #2: Compliments really are the truest form of flattery.

I don't care if it something romantic like the way their hair falls down their shoulders or their eye glints in the sun or if it just the fact that they love the same 1979 arcade version of Asteroids; compliment them on what you like about them. Go our of your way to be nice, be complimentary, talk about THEM.

Rule #3: Conversation is what holds a relationship together.

Talk about things you like! Like the song in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, take advice from Bloody Mary, "Talk about thing you like to do. If you don't have a dream, how you gunna have a dream come true." Sure, they may not be your dream person, but you do have a crush on them so that means something. In conversation have a healthy amount of talking about yourself, and about them; but if you can squirrel it talk about something you have in common or something you can do together.

Rule #4: Cliche but, be yourself.

If the person does not like who you are, (the silly, nerdy, friend loving person, or in a bad, hate the world mood) that is okay. You will still have a crush, maybe, but you'll get over it sooner or later. If they don't love your spiked up crazy hair then find someone who does. They just wanted someone with plain, boring, mono-colored flat hair. Don't iron your hair just for them. They should fall in love/like with who you are, and this goes for friends too. Don't conform, be yourself. If you are the one person in your group that wears colors, great! Be the life of their party and rock their socks with your amazing color matching skills.

Rule #5: Understand one another.

An important aspect of a relationship is knowing that you don't know everything. You do not know everything about them. You do now know everything about relationships. You do not know everything about yourself. However that is not all, you know get to know your partner. You need to understand where they are coming from, where they want to go, and where they want to end up. Before this though, you should know your boundaries and where you are from, going to and will be.

Rule #6: Know boundaries.

This will save a relationship. Trust me. Know your boundaries, know their boundaries and then RESPECT them. Should I spell it out? "R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out where their boundaries be..." (Yes, that is to be sung to the RESPECT song...) Know them, do not cross them.

Now understand, this is not an exhaustive list. It is actually just a list I started a while ago that my friend Devan wanted me to post because we were talking about these things about 4 months ago... I never did finish it.

Huh...

~Carollela~