• Faith,  Life

    Life To The Fullest

    October 19, 2015

    I’ve discovered the secret to living life to the fullest- well God’s let me in on the secret and well actually it’s not much of a secret at all….

    Do you ever feel like there are so many things that you want to do but never really have the time for? Things that you think you’d enjoy but after doing all the “regular” every day things that need to get done you don’t feel like you have the energy to do anything else? Things like going for a run. Or reading that book that’s been sitting on your shelf for months that you’ve been meaning to get to.

    For the longest time this is how I felt and still do feel most of the time. There are always things I wanted to get done but I always feel like I lack the motivation to actually get them done.

    The past two weeks I’ve been trying to get into the habit of running regularly and it’s been hard. This week I’ve slacked a lot actually- I only ran once but I feel like I can hear God’s voice more clearly when I’m out running. Out pushing myself to do the good things that I know I should be doing to better myself. During one of these runs I felt God telling me why I hadn’t had the motivation to get all the things that I wanted to get done.

    The problem was I wasn’t seeking Him first.

    But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – Matthew 6:33

    God spoke to me so clearly on this one particular run and He told me that when I seek these things first- the desire to be healthy, or be more adventurous and try new things, or even just try to read more- I am not putting Him in His rightful place. When I don’t seek God first, these things become my main goal and they were never meant to be and that is why I lost focus of them so quickly. I’m still struggling with this now. I desire to wake up a little earlier each morning and spend time with God before starting my day- but far too often than I care to admit I choose sleeping over this.

    God showed me how when I seek Him first, He’ll give me the motivation to get done the things that He knows are good for me- like running or reading. He rearranges my day and gives me time to do these things and I don’t have to worry about that.

    I am striving to spend time with God first and not worry about all these “secondary” issues that aren’t mine to arrange anyway. I know that the things that I want are good things but they turn rotten when they are out of order in my life. I wish it were easier to seek God first. It’s convicting to realize how often I don’t but I am committed to continually striving after this until I can get it right.

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  • Faith,  Life

    A New Start

    October 8, 2015

    Hi friends. It’s been a while, I just wanted to drop in to explain why. When I first started this blog, I had NO idea where it would end up. I had no idea if I would write more than one post. I had no idea if anyone at all would read it or if I would get bored really quick and just never write again. This blog has already way surpassed my expectations for it. I started this blog because I started reading a few other lady’s blogs and slowly fell in love with the idea – the idea of sharing my life with others and giving advice to hopefully help a few other girls along the way and save them from the mistakes I’ve made.

    What I’ve slowly learned though is that blogging is such a huge community that I never knew existed and once I found out that this community of women were out there I put so much more pressure on myself. I would read other women’s blogs and feel that I needed to post as much as them, or on a specific schedule like them, or about a specific topic like them – well because I loved their blogs so if I wanted one just as great I should probably follow along in their footsteps right? What I’m learning is that the answer to that question is no. No I don’t have to follow along with others because even though I love reading what they’re doing doesn’t meant that I will love writing that way.

    Writing is such a new thing to me and I’m still developing my passion for it so I decided I really needed to stop putting so much pressure on myself to do it or I would completely lose interest in it. And that’s exactly what I was doing, I was putting so much pressure on doing as well as others and gaining followers and finding people who liked me that I forgot what I was here for in the first place.

    I desire for this place to be a place of encouragement, a place where you can come and hopefully through some amazing grace of God – get to know a little bit more about Jesus – and also maybe follow along with my life as well. I’d love to be your friend and follow along with your life too, even if you don’t have a blog (email me!). Jesus hasn’t let me forget about this little place though, even when I was putting so much pressure on myself, so I have a feeling that there’s a reason for that. I have such big hopes and dreams for this place. Just writing again now (even though I haven’t taken that long of a break) feels so refreshing. I’m so happy to be back. Jesus has also done some amazing things in my life in just this past week alone and I can’t wait to share! I feel like a new person.

    So all that to say I want to get back on track, and only write when I have words to say – when I have something meaningful to share. Not write when I feel like I have to or feel like I need a post like so and so’s. I want to be authentic and real and share my heart with you guys so in order to do that I need to take the pressure off and just be myself. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it but it’s okay if you don’t. I’m growing closer to Jesus along the way too so if that’s all that results from this page, that’s fine too.

    Hopefully you’ll stick around, I’d love to get to know you 🙂

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  • Coffee Dates,  Faith,  Life

    A Farewell Coffee Date | Blogtember Day 30

    September 30, 2015

    Coffee dates are one of my favs. I wish I had more friends who loved them as much as I do. I love how just being face to face with someone, with nothing to do but talk brings out the best conversations. It tends to really bring out our hearts and I just love conversations like that.

    If we were on a coffee date, I would really want to know what is on your heart. What are your fears, concerns, or worries nowadays? What are the exciting things, the happy things, the dreams that are coming true for you?

    If we were on a coffee date, I would try to be as real as I could with you. I would share my heart with you and what Jesus is currently doing in there (oh boy is it messy lately). I would tell you that I am in a season of waiting – waiting for big things, life changing things. I would tell you that I am equally excited as I am nervous. Some days just nervous, others just excited.

    If we were on a coffee date, I would hope to be at one that is small and more like a mom and pop one than at a Starbucks (though I do love me some Starbucks too). I just love the cozy atmosphere of the smaller ones. I love the noisy chatter of others sharing their hearts with each other. I love the sound of the keys typing away or the pages turning in a book. And of course I love the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

    If we were on a coffee date, I would share with you that I just found out today that my bank is in fact merging with another bank and that almost everyone in my building would be losing their jobs by the end of the year. I would tell you that as of right now all I can feel is peace. I know that this can only be from Jesus because I am not a fan of the unknown as I have mentioned before. I would tell you that today I realize that my job is not where I was meant to be long term anyway. I would share how a serious weight was lifted off my shoulders when I found out that I wouldn’t be in that field forever.

    If we were on a coffee date, I would tell you that I am learning, learning to trust Jesus one step at a time. Learning that He will lead me where only I could get to with His help. I would tell you that I am so excited to find out where that might be because I know it will be way more amazing than I could ever imagine.

    Let’s pretend we really are on a coffee date, share with me what is really on your heart today? I have loved the bloggers that I have discover through this month long linkup. I do wish I had joined in more but am glad that I got involved at all. Thanks so much to everyone who I have interacted with, let’s keep in touch 🙂

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  • Faith,  Marriage

    A New Normal (Part 2)

    September 22, 2015

    So I just wanted to drop in today and remind you guys how GOOD God really is. If you’re following along with my story at all you’ll have read my post back in July about how God really answered my prayers in an amazing way. Check that post out here if you missed it 🙂 Just to summarize in case you don’t feel like going back and reading, I wrote about how Tommy’s dad let him know that he would be able to get him a job at the quarry that he works at early next year, which ultimately meant for us that we would be able to start our lives together which was really exciting.

    I wanted to write this post today to tell you guys that today is Tommy’s first day at the quarry! I’m literally so excited for him and didn’t even realize how much bigger of a blessing this is than I had originally thought. I went back and read the post again and I had forgotten that Tommy’s dad had told him that he didn’t think he would be working with him until early next year.

    Tommy’s still working at the same job he was during the day, but is working on a special job at nights with his dad. The start of the special project is such a blessing to us because it made it possible for Tommy’s dad to get him the job there and it gives us the opportunity to save more money. I’m so insanely thankful for Tommy and his desire to work both these jobs so that we will be able to start our lives together. We’re both so so excited about the thought of it.

    Lately I have been feeling the presence of God so much and just know that this is exactly where He wants us to be. I’m so excited for my future and for where He is leading me. On a normal day, before Tommy started work with his dad we would hang out and have dinner together – if neither of us had plans with friends and now I’m not too sure when we’re going to have the time to hang out. It’s obviously going to be much less than were used to and I’m a little sad about this but know that it is more than worth the sacrifice.

    I’m going to use this time so really strengthen my relationship with Jesus and work on being the person He needs me to be. I also wanna strengthen my relationships with my friends as well. I want to spend more time blogging and start writing consistently. And I also want to start working out again. I also joined an online bible study – we’re going through the book of Ephesians and I’m really excited about that and starting tomorrow I’m attending my first ever small group! I’m equally excited and nervous about this. I’m a very shy person and have been putting off joining a small group because the idea of making friends is a little a lot scary to me if I’m being honest, but I feel like I’m in the place where I want to push myself outside of my comfort zone into greater things. I’m excited for this group because it is held at the house of the leader of the group that I serve on at church as well and I loved meeting this woman and the best part is that the group is going through a book that I already wanted to read on my own! That’s how I knew that this was the right group for me, and because they meet every other week so it’s a little less commitment and a little less scary than every week haha.

    But yeah, so that is where I’m at in my personal life – I would appreciate prayers for both Tommy’s job and the small group if anyone would mind praying 🙂

    What’s going on in YOUR life? I would really love to know and would love to pray for you as well. Leave a comment or email me – [email protected] ! I would really love to hear from you and be friends. 🙂

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  • Faith

    My Favorite Quote | Life is What You Make of It | Blogtember Day 21

    September 21, 2015
    Monday, Sept. 21: A favorite quote/expression and how it has impacted you.

    Today’s prompt is an easy one for me because I have always had a favorite quote that I sort of lived my life by.

    Life is what you make of it.

    This has always been something that has been very encouraging to me because like I’ve mentioned before, I haven’t had the easiest life growing up. I come from a pretty broken family (my dad is an alcoholic and my mom was diagnosed with clinical depression) and I have always somewhat felt like this was kind of who I was, like it was a part of me and I have always been pretty ashamed of it.

    When I discovered this quote (quite a few years ago) it made me feel better, that I don’t have to have my past determine who I am and that I always have the option of making my own destiny, as cliche as that sounds. It doesn’t matter what type of family you come from, or what types of mistakes you have made. You always have today to change the course of your life. It all starts with yourself and just making better choices.

    The one thing that I have learned over the course of the years though is that without Jesus, we are destined to make bad choices – without His love that changes our heart, we are just in our nature, sinful people who choose selfish things. When we encounter the one true living God, He changes our hearts and we start to desire good things and He helps us have the strength to make the right choices.

    Life doesn’t have to be difficult and it doesn’t have to be what we’ve always known it to be. When we trust in what Jesus has done for us, He promises us a better future.

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  • Faith

    You Have Already Arrived

    September 19, 2015

    Do you ever catch yourself wishing your life away? Not in a way where you wish your life was over, but in a way where you aren’t content with what life has given you now? Maybe it’s by always wanting the “new things” the world has to offer. A newer car. A newer phone. The latest fashion. Or maybe it’s not materialistic at all. Maybe you’re wishing for that next step of your relationship to finally happen. When will he finally propose? When will we ever be financially ready to have a baby? Or another baby? Or a bigger house? Why is it so hard to just stay content where we are? Isn’t that what Jesus calls us to do?

    I struggle with this more than I realize. It starts out small, one day looking at something someone else has on Instagram and feeling that little pull in my heart towards whatever that may be. For me, I struggle with being content where I am in my relationship – no matter what my relationship status is. When I was single all I wanted was to have a boyfriend, now that I have a boyfriend, all I want is to get married. So it starts out small, I see someone else’s blog who seems to have a happy marriage and I start desiring that. But the longer I dwell on their marriage and wanting it the more I find myself discontent with what I have now. It’s like I can’t focus on enjoying what I have because I feel that if I had more or something else then I’d be able to enjoy that more. It’s frustrating too because I want to be happy with where I am and I want to wait for God’s timing so why does this have to be so difficult?

    Just this morning I was sitting on my deck and I felt God answer this question and it was only then that I realized that I had done it again. I had been desiring to push forward and go ahead of him rather than just sit and love where He has me.

    So I made a list, for myself and maybe this will help someone else out too – of ways to be content. Ways to make sure that I can keep my heart in check and not run ahead of where He has me. Because my fear is that once God allows me to finally have whatever I think will make me happier then I will just set my heart on something else and continue to strive and desire for that and be discontent all over again.

    1. Seek His kingdom first- when we put God’s will over our life first, He promises to work everything else out for us and we don’t have to worry about earthly things because He tells us that it’s His job to provide that for us. If you are seeking God’s will for your life then what you’re experiencing is God’s best for you.
    2. Dwell on the good things you have- When we wake up with a grateful heart, it’s hard to keep wanting more because we’ll be too busy enjoying the things we do have. Every good gift comes down from God.
    3. Remember this life is short and temporary- We’re only here for a short period of time when you think about how long eternity is. I don’t want to be someone who is striving for the next thing when it’s all going to be taken from me eventually anyway.
    4. Spend less time on social media- Every once and a while I try to take a social media break because I can feel it in my heart that it can be where my discontentment comes from. There are even statistics that show how the more time you spend on social media, the more unhappy or discontent you tend to be. It’s hard not to want what others have when everybody posts about how great their lives are and how happy they are that they now have whatever it is that they’ve got.

    I’m starting to notice that the closer I get to the next season of my life is the time I struggle the most with not being content. When it’s so close but so far away, it’s hard to not to wish for the next thing. And I don’t think think that it’s bad to just wish for something else. I think it’s good to keep striving for things and reach our potential but I think the problem comes in when we start to want something more than we’re enjoying what we have at the moment. I think it’s important to always remember that everything we have is God’s and that even if we feel God is leading us towards something to allow Him to work and not hold anything too tightly.

    I named this post “You Have Already Arrived” because if you’re a Christian then you already have it all. Jesus should be our biggest desire and we should set our heart on striving to love and be more like Him, not wanting and wishing for more things. The things we’re wishing for will never truly satisfy like only He can anyway. You’re already here, there’s nothing more that you need to live a complete or happy life. God’s already given you His best.

    Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

    But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it. 1 Timothy 6:6-7

    Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desire of your heart. – Psalm 37:4

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