Trained to Pray

 

This is probably going to be one of the weirdest connections you have ever heard, but it is okay. It came to me in the middle of church as we were going through the book of Habakkuk.

In my psychology class, my professor talked about a rat assignment they used to give to all the students. Every student was to train their rat to do something, such as press a button, and whichever rat, at the end of training, pressed the button the most in a 30 minute span was the winner.

The students trained their rats by feeding them a piece of food when they pressed their button. Some people were consistent to give them food every single time the button was pushed. Other students waited for the rat to press the button about 10 times before giving them food. By the time the test came around, it turned out that the rats who pressed the button the most were those who didn’t get food consistently.

I related this to us in prayer. What would happen if God answered every prayer with what we wanted, right away? We would turn God into a genie, and only come when we needed something. We would pray sparingly. However, God has perfect timing and makes us watch and wait. When we pray, He listens, but He doesn’t immediately give us what we want, or sometimes He says no. This pushes us to continue to pray in desperation for God. God wants us to come to Him often, and He knows this is the way to do it. Just as trials bring us to God more than happiness, the longer the trial, the greater the impact. God stretches our reliance on Him. In a way, we are like little rats (or mice if that sounds better to some of you). We are always going for what we want and need, but with slow results, we spend more time looking. We spend more time praying.

Brothers and sisters, watch and pray. It is always for the best.

By the way, that is a cute picture I found of pinterest, it’s not mine. (:

Contentment

Lately, I have been hearing a lot of new ideas because of college. Many of them are nice, many others disappointment me. I won’t go into what exactly prompted me to write this, but there is an idea that I believe branched from discontentment. I feel that too many people are unhappy with who they are and where they are, and they want to be more glorious or special. They bugs me, especially because I am in Christian university. Shouldn’t people be happy, especially since they are in a life completely designed by God?

One thing I really don’t like is how people don’t feel that they are important enough, and they are meant to do meaningless work, but they don’t understand how meaningful their work is. For example,  some women who stay in the home like to say, “Oh, I’m just supposed to stay at home and pop out babies.” What do you mean? Why do you say it in that way? Do you not understand how beautiful and important that role is? I have never seen a man able to create people in their bodies, so ladies, that’s awesome enough! Even more, a homemaker is the basis of her home. She keeps everything stable and sane. Would her kids and husband work successfully without her? Hardly! I am not saying that all women need to stay in the house, but I am saying that women who are called to stay in their house should consider their job as an honor. It is so much hard work and very much needed.

Another example is how people are called to places of ministry. The only way to be great is to be a missionary or pastor to many churchgoers. However, that is not true. Paul talks a lot about the body of Christ, we all work together. We need every part of the body to their job, because one imbalance can be a hindrance on the whole body. Look at our pores. We don’t think much about skin pores, even when we sweat. However, if we didn’t have pores, we could all be at risk of dying because the body needs that way of releasing heat.

God never created a meaningless purpose for someone. God knows what He is doing, and He sees everything that you are doing. Don’t think you have to be great in the eyes of mankind to be great in the eyes of God. I struggled with this for a while, but God has worked in my heart. I will admit, as my fiancé has been called to be a pastor, I have felt unappreciated and purposeless compared to him. He got so much attention because of his calling to the ministry, and I didn’t. However, I don’t feel this way anymore. I am confident that God has called me in a different way to work in His plan. The greatest role you can hold and the greatest person you can be is who you are in Christ. Everything given by God is the best that can be. God does not make meaningless roles or purposeless people.

Be content with who you are and what you have been called to do. Everything you do unto the Lord is a beautiful thing, and there’s no greater thing to do than what God has called you to. If you are a cashier, praise the Lord, do everything for his glory. If you are a janitor, what a blessing. God has called you to do such a meaningful job because we, as people, make huge messes. Be content, brothers and sisters. God looks at you with so much love and wrote your story with love. God knows what is best for you. Do everything in confidence that God has a great purpose for you no matter who or where you are.

Opening Post

Happy New Year! Hi all, I am Sierra Tamayo and I am so excited to be able to kick off the new year with my new blog. I hope that I can just bless you all and glorify God in so many ways with this, so I really hope you enjoy it and give me your input.

For starters, I’ll give you a few pointers to help you navigate. I have four main pages: home, about, blog, and contact. Home page is where my website will automatically open. About gives a summary of my testimony. Blog obviously is the page where all the good stuff is. Contact is where I highly suggest you use to let me know what you think.

That is all simple, but what I really want to explain to you is the blog page. I have three subtopics for my blog posts: fun, grace, life. All my posts will be divided into the categories. The fun category is for any craft, recipe, or any idea I think would be great for you to try. Grace is more focused toward God and the things He shows me. Life has to do with the crazy and great events I experience, just to let you all know about my life (:. On the blog page, the posts are listed in chronological order. Therefore, you don’t see any specific category. If you feel like you want to read something more creative, or you want to hear about God’s goodness, you can use the subtopic links on the left side of your computer screen to see the posts more specific to your wants.

Lastly, there is one thing I want to tell you all. This is my first time blogging, and I am really excited to open up my life to you all and how much God has blessed me. I just ask that you really use the contact page to let me know. Don’t worry, NO ONE ELSE will see what you tell me. It goes as an email to me. Let me know if a link is broken in my site, or if you suggest any new posts, or if you completely love/hate my layout. I am learning and I can take criticism so please help me. (: And don’t forget to click the follow button so you always see when I post! I’ll try to post once a week from now on. Remember that I am a new blogger so I am still trying to fix out a few bugs. Just point them out to me.

Once again, I am so excited and I really hope you all enjoy my new blog, Lost At Sea!