Here am I, all of me...

Hello all! I figured that in this first post, I will tell you a little bit about myself and the reasons why I wanted to start a blog. My name is Dave, I am 24 and am happily married to Tereza, my favorite person in the world. I am a year away from beginning my career as a high school math teacher and am super excited about it. I am a very quiet and reserved person, which was motivation for me to begin blogging. That's enough about me for now, you'll get to know me better along the way!

The main reason that I wanted to blog is that God has been putting it on my heart. I have always thought of blogging as time consuming and stupid, but now I feel that it will be beneficial to myself, and hopefully you. My aim for this blog is to grow as a Christian by being honest and transparent with my readers. I feel like this will build a sense of accountability between myself and those of you who take time out of your day to read. Here is your first dose of blunt honesty:

I am not doing a good job being a Christian and now that I think about I have never really been the type of Christian that I yearn to be. Let me get more specific with this (I hate Christian generalizations like I just used); I rarely read my Bible consistently, I don't tell others about Jesus, and when I get around to praying, I pray selfishly. I understand fully how Paul feels when he talks about being the worst sinner, and I want this to stop.

Now that that's off my chest, I have a job for you as my readers. I give you all permission to challenge me, question my views, and push me to become a better Christian. You don't even have to know me, if God puts it on your heart to comment, please do.

I am not writing this for your entertainment, so if you're looking to be entertained, keep looking. I am not writing this because I have all the answers, or any answers. I am not writing this because I like to voice my opinion (I don't). I am writing this in the hopes that it will encourage people to take the steps to grow in their walks with God, as well as encourage myself to do the same.

Most of my posts will be much shorter than this, don't worry! The last part of each post will be about what God has revealed to me through his Word. This will motivate me to keep reading the Bible daily. Today I read 2 Samuel 8-12. I usually don't read this much but it was a nice day outside and in the back of my mind I knew I would be posting how much I read on here. My prayer is that I will increase the amount I read and maybe even start to like to read. There are a few things that stuck out at me that I would like to share.

The first thing is 2 Samuel 10:12. Joab, David's army general told his brother, who was heading up some of David's army, "Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the LORD do what is good in His sight." After reading this verse, I began thinking about where Joab is coming from. He has seen God work so many times before. He knows the power of the LORD and tries to pass this on to his brother for battle. Joab knows that he is a part of God's chosen people, and he trusts that God will watch over them during this battle. Shouldn't I have the same feelings? How come I don't have the courage to tell others about Jesus even though I have seen countless times the power of Jesus in my own life and others' lives. Shouldn't I be willing to take that leap of faith because the LORD will do what is good in His sight. God loves me more than I know, so why would he not want to protect me.

I skipped the part about David and Bathsheba because I have read it and heard it too many times to count, but I read about David's son dying because of David's sin. David fasted for seven days so God would have mercy on him and his son. This made me think about all the things that we pray for and don't get. David was a true hero of faith and God still struck down his son even after he fasted for a week (try fasting for a week by the way). The main thing from this story is that after he learned about his son's death, what did David do? He worshipped God. I have a problem worshipping God after I lose a church league softball game. David's son just died because God struck him ill...and he worships God? I cannot get my head around this.

My prayer is to be more like David in this aspect. I yearn to be a Godly man, and modelling myself after David would be a good start. I dare to say that the church needs more men who will boldly worship their Heavenly Father!