this is who i am and what i do

If i were to say one question or comment that comes up the most for me, is "How can you have piercings and tattoos as a Christian?" (now mind you i do not have a tattoo, but in 4 months or so i will)
so i think im going to say my point of view here.

tattoos and piercings have had a very long love hate relationship with the church. and because of that, it has become such a big debate "is it a sin?" "are you destroying the temple?" "does God like them?" and so on and so on.

i have been in the piercing and tattoo seen for 4 years and i have 6 piercings(3 stretched holes 1cm, 9mm and 8mm in size. two upper cartilages and a conch), and tomorrow it will be 7(im getting my nape pierced). and before i started i wanted to know if it was wrong or if its ok. so i do what i do best, asked questions and did research. and after a lot of question and a lot of research here what i have come up with (im not going to throw any bible versus or anything like that at you im just going to tell you the conclusion)




I look at it as being in the clear, people have asked me how do you wanting piercings and tattoos work for the glory of god. and i remind them of the people who have tattoos and piercings and have been turned away by other churches or felt unwelcome, because they "damaged" their temple or their tattoo is viable. when they see that im like them, and i enjoy and share something that really does become a part of your temple (and not destroying it) they then would see they have been accepted in the eyes of god because i have been. 

I have put a lot of thought into this, and i have prayed about every piercing and that is the conclusion i have come up with. im not justifying anything, im not doing it for a fake god. I'm doing it for my love of the art (that is piercings and tattoos)- god created everything, including art or all kinds. 
im not saying "your wrong and im right nanana booboo" im just giving my side of the story as well, but in the long run, im christian, and your Christian and jesus would have died for just me, just like he would have died for just you :)

A BIG FOLLOW UP

right off the bat i have to say sorry, i since my last post (almost a month ago) i have had a lot going on. not all good but not all bad. even with everything happening i have not forgotten about you guys :)

lets start from the top shall we. for the past little while i have been under a lot of stress; school, working, finding new job, working new job, looking for another new job before current one ends, teen age angst and just about anything else under the sun. and with that i have been finding it hard to keep my head on with out it blowing up and making a big brainy mess.

the thing i think that has set me back the most was about a week ago, my mom said she was leaving my father.  i dont want to go into too much detail because thats not part of the story. but it set me back enough where i have not been as happy as i could be. a few after i heard the news i was going to the bank to put another check in the mail (we will get back to how much money i have saved soon) and i couldnt find it. i was really starting to freak out a little, this was a rather large check and i need the money. so as i was digging through my bag looking for my check i pull my hand out full of papers that could be a check, this small golden(but not real gold) coin falls out and hits the floor. it was this coin here

10 kopiyok

this coin is 0.10 gryvna ( the Ukrainian version of the Canadian or US Dime) but here its worth less than 1.2 cents. but even though it is worth so little in the eyes of everyone in north America this coin made me stop, smile, breath, and cleared my head long enough for me to realize my check was in my coat pocket and not even in my bag.

Why does this coin mean so much you ask? well i was talking to a very smart and very wise friend of mine in Ukraine and i told her how from my trip thats the only money i had left. She laughed and said "in Ukraine you can buy a plane ticket with that coin, or even enough food for a year". of course she was joking, you cant even get onto the subway with that coin alone. but what she said stuck with me so much that its now my motivation. i keep that coin on my necklace with my cross close to my heart. that way every time i hear them clicking against each other it reminds me on how close i really am to Ukraine.

now, about the money. currently i have over 2000 Canadian dollars (or over 2100 American dollars with the current exchange rate, GO CANADA) and some time with in the next two weeks ill be past my half way mark of 2500 dollars :D

Thanks so much for your support, love and prayers. it means so much to me.