Wholeness

After going to the Torrey Conference I felt that it taught me how a relationship between and man and a women should really be. One conference that I really enjoyed and that stood out to me was called "Dateology" taught by Dave White. This conference was all about how a healthy relationship should be between a man and a woman. It talked about how God should be the center of our relationships and how to keep that as our main focus. The one thing he talked about that stood out to me the most was when he shared the importance of being a whole individual.

I thought Dave did such an amazing job explaining to students the importance of being whole in a relationship. Especially with society these days saying that in a relationship people complete each other and become whole when they come together when that is not how a healthy relationship should be. I read an article about relationships on this website called SHCS and the article was called “Someday My Prince Will Come”. In the article it says, “Distinguishing the difference between fantasy partners and relationships and reality seems to becoming increasingly difficult”. I found this to be so true. Media gives us this false perception of how relationships should be today. It tells us that prince charming is waiting to sweep us off our feet; we just have to seek and find him, when in fact that is not the case. This quote reminded me of something that Dave also touched up on. He said that we should not go look for a relationship in desperation; it should be from a place of wholeness.

             I think these days many relationships are sought out in desperation. People think that if they find that special someone it will make them complete and Dave made it very clear that that is not the case. I found this website called, “How to Find a Husband or Wife”, and it gives seven steps to finding a mate. When I found this website it really disturbed me. It gave the most ridiculous advice. One thing that it says that did not settle well with me was, “Go where men and women are! Women, go to baseball games where you will find a high concentration of men”. I thought this advice was horrible. It is telling women to go out and seek a man when it should be allowed to happen on its own and not sought after in desperation.

I thought everything Dave White talked about was so meaningful. He showed everyone listening the importance of being whole individuals that are strong in God and content in ourselves before we get into a relationship with someone else. Everything that Dave talked about, I think, really showed what a Godly and fulfilling relationship should be like and that was something that society does not show us today and I personally, greatly appreciated Dave’s honest and Godly input of what a relationship should be.

 

 

No Return Home

After reading the article Storm Evacuees Frustrated as Return Is Blocked, in "The New York Times”, I can completely understand why many residents are left feeling helpless and upset. Due to hurricane Gustav in New Orleans many were forced to evacuate and are now left with no money, no food, and no place to sleep. The evacuation started off with great success by getting all residents out before Gustav hit. New Orleans was also very lucky in terms that the hurricane left minimum damage. Many anticipated Hurricane Gustav to be another huge disaster. “The mother of all storms,” is what Mr. Nagin, the city’s mayor, called the hurricane. However, although New Orleans escaped what they thought would be another Hurricane Katrina, many residents are left without a place to stay.  Now that the storm has passed residents began returning to their homes to find roadblocks, this left people stranded in parking lots while running out of food and money. City officials claimed that they were not allowed to go back to their homes because the power was still down and there was a lack of medical care. Although the medical care is understandable to the resident’s safety, why is it taking so long for the city to pull themselves together after the storm? Some residents claimed that they do not think the city thought about what needed to be done after the storm was over. Many residents were very excited to be able to go home and start putting everything back together again and were crushed to learn that they cannot. Quiet a few residents did not seem to care that the power was out. Merlene Demourelle, a resident in New Orleans, claimed, “We’re tired, we’re hungry, we’re out of money, and we want to take a bath. Sleeping in darkness-we’re used to that in New Orleans. Our lights always go off.” A resident named Kim also stated, “We might not have lights, but we can light candles. We have canned goods. We don’t have anything out here. We’re dead broke.” Now many are left thinking why didn’t the city officials think about post storm procedures. They did such a great job getting everyone out, why didn’t they do a great job bringing residents back home? The city claims that they have over a thousand workers cleaning up debris, if things are getting done so quickly then why weren’t residents allowed back in? I really think that although the city of New Orleans did such an amazing job getting everyone out to safety before the storm hit they need to come together and make a plan of how to get their residents back in their city and homes as quickly as possible. It seems really unfair to these people that that they have to sleep in their cars and on the streets with none of their needs met when the storms is over and it is now safe to return home but cannot due to their cities lack of planning.