Designer & Developer

Be Intentional

Written by Tyler Childs on January 22, 2012 — 1 Comment

If a man wants to become stronger, he works out. He plans a workout routine and he follows it. He doesn’t just magically become buff just because he wants to. He disciplines himself and he works towards the goal he wants to achieve.

If a person wants to become good at a sport or an instrument, they practice. They work at it and even if it seems hard at first, it gets easier because they become passionate about it and they enjoy working at it.

When Solomon was building the temple, he prepared for the work and he took care of every preparation before he even began the construction. His work payed off, but it wasn’t without hard work and preparedness.

So often in our lives as Christians, we just think our future selves will be better followers of Christ. We think that we will be better people in the future; more loving, more joyful, more peaceful, more patient, more kind, more good, more faithful, more gentle and more self-controlled. But if we don’t intentionally plan to live this way, we never will.

I don’t think we can afford to buy into the lie that we’ll have it all figured out in the future. Even if that were true, we’d still have to work at it.

Just like the musician and the athlete work toward their goal, we also need to work towards our goal of becoming more Christ-like. We’re not going to be better at living our lives in a way that honors Christ if we don’t work at it. And if it seems like hard work, that’s because it is, but it is worth it.

Posted in Spiritual

Speeding is Illegal

Written by Tyler Childs on January 15, 2012 — 2 Comments

How do you normally drive? I know for me, I usually speed a little bit and I mostly stop at stop signs. I’m assuming most people are the same way and might have other habits that are also illegal, because let’s face it, speeding is illegal.

How do you drive with a cop behind you? I usually go the speed limit, maybe a little under just to be safe. I completely stop at stop signs and I look every direction multiple times. This shows that I know the law, but sometimes I choose to ignore it. Driving laws are put into place to protect us, but we think we know better, we think we know the “real” limits and we push them. Can you relate to this?

But what if you have a friend that’s a cop and he’s on patrol and he pulls out behind you. You know he won’t give you a ticket because  he’s your friend. How do you drive then? Do you respect him, his authority and follow the driving laws or do you walk over him and basically take advantage of the friendship you have with him?

I know it’s not a perfect analogy, but how often in our walk with God, do we know what is sin and yet we choose to do it anyways?  How often do we push the limits of sin by thinking we have control of various situations? How often do we disrespect Jesus by repeatedly falling into sin? How often do we take advantage of what He accomplished on the cross?

Posted in All Posts, Spiritual

Avoid Sin

Written by Tyler Childs on January 9, 2012 — Leave a Comment

A while back my mother told me a story about my 4 year old sister and her AWANA memory verses. Her group (cubbies, I think) were practicing their memory verse, Romans 5:8.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So my sister said it along with the group, except she remained silent for the phrase “While we were still sinners.” Now she didn’t say it because she doesn’t yet understand that she is a sinner. I think that we are more like her than we’d like to admit. We see that verse, process it as, “I’m forgiven now because I’m saved but that will be a good verse to share with someone in the future.”

Sometimes I feel like we forget that we still are sinners. Even after starting a relationship with Christ, we still fall into sin and it is a daily struggle that we need to always look for Him to help us. He can give us the strength to resist temptation and He alone is the one that is able to forgive us of our sins.

I believe that it is important to try to be sinless, even though it is impossible and even though Christ will forgive us when we do sin. If we continue sinning because we know why can fall back into Christ’s forgiveness, we are disrespecting Him and we are disrespecting the gift that He has freely given to us.

Posted in Uncategorized

Prayer Things

Written by Tyler Childs on January 4, 2012 — Leave a Comment

I don’t think we need prayer structures to pray to God. I know we can pray to Him and say whatever we want, however we want to. But I kind of like a structure when I pray as a launching point to get my heart and mind settled and focused on Him.

So I’ve heard of a few different types of ways to pray. One of them is to:

Praise
Repent
Ask
Yield

and the other one I’ve heard is to:

Adore (God)
Confess (your sins)
Thank (Him for anything/everything)
Supplication (ask for… whatever)

And I’ve done those before, but I always felt like those were man-made prayer structures. So I started saying The Lord’s Prayer daily, for about a week. And then I realized I was missing the point. When Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer, he didn’t say to “Pray this,” instead, he said to, “Pray like this.”

So I broke down The Lord’s Prayer and this is the prayer structure that I derived from it, which turned out to have more life application than prayer application.

Submit to God’s will (Ask Him to help you to do His will)
Live righteously – don’t profane God’s name. (We are his followers and are therefore his representatives on earth.)
Constantly depend on Him (He can and will provide for you. If you depend on Him daily for your needs, He will provide. Ask Him for provision in your life.)
Forgive others (Remember that whenever someone has done you wrong, that you have done worse to God.)
Ask for forgiveness (Know that only He has the power to forgive you.)
Ask Him for strength to resist temptation, to help you flee from it
Pray Genuinely

So it isn’t exactly a prayer structure, but it does give me some direction when I pray. When I pray like that, my prayers are typically like the one I typed out below.

“Father, help me to do your will. I pray that you will give me direction and that I will follow it. Help me to focus on you, daily, and to not worry. I ask that you would help me to remember that you are in control and that I do not need to worry. You have never let me down before, even when I had my doubts. Forgive me of [actually name your sins]. And help me to resist [name your temptations].”

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Sheild

Written by Tyler Childs on December 24, 2011 — Leave a Comment

I have some friends that know what buttons to push to bring out the worst in me. I’m sure we all have those friends.

They are only people I am with sometimes and they know what to do to make me say or do things I wish I hadn’t.  Satan and his demons are working against us constantly. To name a few ways, by bombarding us with images from the media and tempting us with evil thoughts.

How much more do they know our buttons than the people around us? We need to constantly be on the watch to protect our minds and our hearts.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8

We can stay on guard by monitoring what we take in from music, movies, television and books. We can protect our hearts by staying in God’s word daily and by memorizing scripture.

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Proverbs 18:10

Posted in Uncategorized

Live it.

Written by Tyler Childs on December 21, 2011 — Leave a Comment

As Christian’s we aren’t called to judge and condemn, we are called to love. To be the hands and feet of Jesus.

It isn’t our job to save people, that is the work of the Holy Spirit. However, we are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ clearly.

If we don’t (at the very least) do that, then we are essentially condemning people to hell.

People will not want to listen to us or take us seriously, if they can’t see something different about us. We need to live our lives daily in a way that reflects our faith in Jesus Christ and that only He can give us peace in this world that is so restless.

Posted in Spiritual

Do Not Worry

Written by Tyler Childs on December 17, 2011 — Leave a Comment

I know nothing, so I’m not even going to pretend to; So this post is just a summary of part of my journal from this past week.

I’ve caught myself worrying this week more than I’d honestly like to admit. So I’ve been going back to my two of my favorite verses, which just so happen to be about worrying.  These are a couple of my vice verses which I cling to every single time I get caught up worrying about things that honestly do not matter in the grand scheme of things.

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6:26

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

I also ended up looking up the word “still” because I felt so lead and I ended up finding Psalm 46:10 which gave me a lot of comfort when I needed it.

“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.’” Psalm 46:10

All of Psalm 46 is good; it is about God being our fortress, which is always a comforting fact to keep close to our hearts.

I’ve also been singing, “Bless the LORD, O my soul” a lot recently. I haven’t really been able to get it out of my head, so I finally looked it up and I ended up going to Psalm 103.  I’m just so undeserving of God’s love, but He is “merciful and gracious” [v. 8] and “does not deal with us according to our sins” [v. 10]. I’m just so grateful for his forgiveness.

I need to always remember that life is short and that life without God is meaningless. So while I’m here, I need to make the most of my time and not waste the resources God has blessed me with.

Posted in All Posts, Spiritual

Life, art, writing: all are messy

Written by Tyler Childs on December 11, 2011 — Leave a Comment

One of the things I’ve been learning from God lately is that, “Life is messy” and that I need to get over it.

So often in my life, I get caught up in trying to do everything exactly right. Perfectionist. I know that outwardly, I don’t seem like a perfectionist, but I get caught up in my own mind and end up stagnating and not doing something because I don’t feel fully equipped.

I know that God equips people and blesses them when they try. He equipped Moses when he was making excuses, He gave Gideon victory when he was a coward and He gave Paul the words to say on so many occasions.

He doesn’t expect us to do everything, he only expects us to be faithful and to be willing to be used by Him. I used to write to this blog semi-regularly, but because I’ve posted a lot of random things here, I feel like my blog has become a mess and that has pushed me away from posting on it. But life is messy and it’s okay for this blog to be messy too.

The way I’ve been taught by God is a blessing for me because it’s also a confirmation of the path I’m on for college. I’m majoring in Web Technology & Design with a minor in Graphic Design. Because of this I’ve had to improve my art skills and I’ve learned that art is messy and that my artistic skills are terrible.

Years ago, I prayed.

I prayed that God would show me the beauty in His creation because everyone around me was amazed and I just couldn’t see what they saw. God has answered that prayer by leading me down a path that has led me to where I am in college. By me trying to create, I see how unsuccessful I am and where I fall short. And this leads me to admiring God’s creation.

Before: I saw only mountains, trees, water.

Now I see an assortment of colors rolling in the horizon. I see depth to those mountains, I see how large the world is by knowing I’ve only seen a small portion of it. I see how incredible it is that God makes the leaves bloom, grow and fade from green to yellow to red EVERY SINGLE YEAR. I see the waves roll, I see the transitions in transparency in the water; it is green, blue, black and clear all at the same time.

And God opened my eyes to all of this by showing me that I am nothing and everything I make will amount to nothing in comparison to his creation. I now look and draw inspiration from everything he has done. I see myself looking at the day sky and seeing how the sky changes from white to light blue. I notice that the blue is richer in color some days than others. And I love the deep purple that is painted on the edge of the horizon at night.

To get back on topic though, I’m making a resolution. I want anyone who reads this to keep me accountable of these few things.

  1. That I will journal daily my walk with God: Prayers, praises, and things I’ve been taught
  2. That I will memorize at least one verse weekly
  3. That I will post at least once a week to this blog about a spiritual matter

So please, if you see me ask. If you don’t see me, then please  facebook me, text me or call me.

I need to not be afraid of failure, I need to start doing something and God will bless and equip me for whatever that may be and this blog is my launching point.

Life is messy, art is messy, and writing is messy. I need to accept that and work with it. Thanks for bearing with me for all of my scattered thoughts.

Posted in All Posts, Miscellaneous, Spiritual, The Real World

Life

Written by Tyler Childs on September 2, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Sometimes the most difficult decisions in life (and love) are the ones where you don’t know which choice is right or wrong.

Most choices in life, there is a clear answer of what the right thing to do is and sometimes it’s just hard making the right choice, but I’m not talking about that kind of decision right now.

The kind of decision that I’m currently referring to is one where you can’t tell if you are destroying lives or preserving lives. This is the kind of decision that can only be reflected upon retroactively to know which decision was the right choice and even then, it’s possible that the answer would still be unclear. The only possible solution is to predict the future of two alternate time-lines, which, is fairly impossible to factor in all of the variables when the calculations are not strictly mathematical no matter how relational they are in nature.

I still can’t wrap my mind around me.

Posted in The Real World, Uncategorized

Browser Girlfriends

Written by Tyler Childs on July 23, 2010 — Leave a Comment

I must admit. I haven’t been able to settle down with just one browser. I’ve find dating multiple browsers really helps with testing my websites. Here are the habits I’ve noticed from my browser girlfriends.

Internet Explorer – She’s a little bit older and is pretty lazy. She doesn’t really do very much and what she does do, she isn’t too good at. She’s out-dated which makes sense because the most guys that seek her out are older than fifty. Other users include the teenage “cougar hunters” like Justin Bieber, but they actually know what their getting themselves into.

Firefox – She used to be smoking hot and every guy wanted her. But once Chrome hit the scene she got really insecure. She started getting updates all the time just so she could feel validated. To me, Firefox has become a needy girlfriend.

Chrome – A little bit more racy than the other browsers she secretly updates to a newer version. A lot of guys don’t like that about her and want to know what she’s doing behind their back. I don’t really mind though, I actually really like this about Chrome. She is the woman that makes me a sandwich without me telling her to.

If I were to ever settle down with just one browser, it would probably be Chrome. With her superior CSS3 and HTML5  support, her magnificent developer tools, her fast load times and her in-the-background updates, what’s not to love. Chrome is super-hot and she gets me.

Posted in All Posts, Technology, Web Design | Tagged , , , , ,
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