Independence by Steven Vongchanh

Freedom is a blessing and it is biblical. When God formed this world, He provided Adam and Eve with guidelines. If you are unaware of this story please read Genesis 1-3. He had told our first parents not to eat from one tree in the Garden of Eden. And they did so anyways. This gives us two things; We are born into a broken world; We have the freedom to choose.


Having been in the presence of God, the Garden must had been a wonderful place to be. All needs, wants and desires were taken care of and we would have had a perfect purpose in life. This is something I get when I draw close to God and yurn to be in his presence. And this principle runs true for all those who seek the Lord first.


Matthew 6:33
​Jeremiah 29:13-14



When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden they had limited knowledge. They did however had the freedom to choose and they chose to partake from the tree of life. By doing so they were granted to opportunity to know good from evil, joy from sadness, and all knowledge. What a great blessing it is for us to have the opportunity to experience joy, sorrow, pain, and happiness. This freedom is granted to us to experince life and all its emotions in hopes to draw us closer to God.


Its in that relationship that we develop what love is. And it is my prayer that we all develop an intimate closeness with our creator. Its in this independence of self that we develop a healthy dependency on another being outside of ourselves. And it is in this interdependent relationship that amazing things happen. This intimate, loving relationship is the blueprint in which we should seek to love one another.


Man was not meant to be alone. That is why God saw it fit to take a rib from Adam and create Eve as a help-meet for him. What is a help meet? Well the ribs are placed in the mid section of the human body. That means man and woman were meant to stand beside each other, not one ahead or one behind. They were meant to support each other. And the ribs are close to the heart and so should your partner be.


Given this blueprint of how a relationship should look like as an individual seeking the Lord first, when two individuals can come together and support each other in that as well as having the desire to work together in life, we have an opportunity to feel the joys and sorrows in life with someone by our side.


Things are always easy. If we look as Stephen in Act 7, we see an individual who is aware of the workings around him. Knowing that apostles, priest, and disciples of Christ are being persecuted, killed, and locked up, he made the conscious decision to be a man of God, knowing how it might end. Steady focused on heaven and being full of the Spirit, when his end came, he offered forgiveness for those who sought his life. Relationships are hard. And they do not always work out. I emplore you to enter into dating or relationships seeking the Lord first, developing an intimate relationship with Him. And as you seek Him, if you find someone you want to share your life with, stay focused on heaven, full of the Spirit and be ready and willing to forgive, even if things dont work out. Love you all! And thanks for reading.