A bunch of randomness

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't been as consistent as I was last month. With Christmas around the corner and my 2 new, lovely medicines that are causing me some pain, I've been either busy or resting. Anyway, I wanted to stop by for a little bit and let you in on some of the stuff I've been up to...

 

painting DIY 3D wall art...

and more painting...

 

creating...

 (This little guy is a SUPER simple DIY Rudolph made out of a piece of wood, lightbulb, paint, glitter and branches. Maybe this is silly, but it was a fun little project.)

and decorating!

 

Also, I've been nominated for the Liebster award again! My new blogger friend, Cat, over at This Little Life of Mine nominated me. She is such a sweet woman of God with a moving testimony. I ran across her blog a couple weeks ago and told her about Alisa and Jaime's story. She even blogged about their story-so sweet! Please go check out her blog...you won't regret it! Thank you so much Cat! I nominated some blogs for this award a couple months ago and if I would have known you then, I would have nominated you in a heartbeat!

Since I just nominated a couple months ago, I'm going to wait a few more months to nominate again so that I can nominate new bloggers :)

These are the questions Cat asked me, so here's your chance to get to know me a little bit better :) I hope it's somewhat interesting! Haha.

 

1. Why did you start blogging? I started blogging because I felt that God put it on my heart to share with others what He has taught me. Honestly, I had always hated the idea of "blogging" before and was totally against doing it...God has a funny sense of humor haha.
2. Favorite Movie? Gah that is SO hard...how bout I list 3? A Walk to Remember, Remember the Titans & Accepted - this should tell you that I like Nicholas Sparks books/movies, football and comedies. What can I say- I'm a girl of variety!
3. Favorite holiday tradition? I guess it would be decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music. What's even better is when the tree is all finished and we can sit back, drink some hot chocolate and enjoy our masterpiece.
4. Who is your role model? I know this may be a Sunday School answer, but I would have to say Jesus. I have many people I look up to, but even though they are wonderful, they aren't perfect and the only perfect person is Jesus. He sets the example of how we should live.
5. Movies or a book? I think it just depends on my mood because I like both. Right now-I would say movies.
6. Do you have a favorite scripture? Just like my favorite movies, I have a tie of 3 or 5 or even 25 favorite bible verses. I'll just go with 3 right now- Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, Ephesians 4:1-6
7. Where is your favorite place for vacation? Here's another tie..(I guess I just can't make a decision haha) Vegas & Destin, Florida-Vegas just has so many things to see & I like the weather. Destin is just gorgeous-nothing like crystal clear water and white sand!
8. Are you ready for Christmas? Oh I'm ready for Christmas! I'm always ready for Christmas, but the real question is, am I prepared? No way. I have so much to do and so little time. I knew I should have gotten started earlier.
9. Do you have any pet peeves? Hmm...tapping!! It could be nails tapping on a table or a foot tapping on the ground, whatever- it drives me nuts haha.

Now that I've filled you in, I figured I'd share some encouraging words. It comes from the Bible, so rest assured that these words are 100% true.

 

 

Mmm...I love that. God is with me (& you!) He is mighty to save (mighty-oh yeah!). He takes great delight in me/you (woa!). He quiets me/you with His love (He sure does!). He rejoices over us with singing (wow-I feel special!).

 

Rest in these truths & may they bring you peace.

 

Today's scripture for read-your-Bible-in-a-year plan was 1 Corinthians 12-14.

If you would like a copy of the plan, check it out here or send me an email!

 

 

 

 

 

Who is your defender?

Hey everyone! I'm back again today! I didn't just want to talk about blog awards,

so I wanted to share with you a song that I keep on hearing. I love it! It's called, "Defender" by Chris McClarney. His voice is so unique and soothing...so check out this video and really read the lyrics and try to live like the song.

 

"Resting in Your promise
I will rest within the knowledge that You care
I put my trust in You
Deep within the darkness
Though my enemies surround I will not fear
I put my trust in You

And when I don't know what to do
I will fix my eyes on You
You’re my defender
I hide my hope in You
You are the loving arms my broken heart can run to
I will remember
That there is nothing You can't do
For You are God, You are good
And I surrender
You're my defender

You are strong when I am weakest
You're the peace that passes everything I see
I put my trust in You
I'm surrendering completely
Laying all my cares here at Your feet
I put my trust in You

A mighty fortress is our God
I will not fear, I will not fear
Safe and secure here in Your love
I will not fear, I will not fear"

 

Here's the video :)

 

 

My favorite part of the song is, "I will remember there is nothing you can't do".

Let's fix our eyes on Him!

What's your favorite lyric?

Comment me :)

 

 

P.S.- Scripture today is Mark 4-5...it's pretty awesome! :)

I need more fruit!

 

I need more fruit. Plain and simple. Did you know that the recommended amount of fruit for adults is a minimum of two cups a day. Fruit is an important part of healthy living because it gives us vitamins and minerals that help fight of illness, strengthen our immune system and give us energy. 

Are you getting the recommended amount of fruit a day?

That's not the only fruit I need more of...I need more fruit of the Spirit.

 

Have you heard of the "fruit of the Spirit"? If you haven't, that's okay because you are about to learn them! We learn about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23..."But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." So basically the fruit of the Spirit is an attitude, a lifestyle, a result of living in the Spirit, not an actual fruit that you eat. So you may eat a cup of strawberries and an apple a day, but are you forebearing the fruit of the Spirit? I'll be honest with you...I sometimes (well, more than sometimes) struggle with the fruit of the Spirit. I've noticed, however, that the more dedicated I am to serving God, the easier it is to live by the fruit of the Spirit. For example, the days where I have dedicated my whole self to God and have immersed myself in the Word, I feel this joy and I think, "Why do I feel so free and so happy?" Or when I'm at the store and it's so easy for me to be kind to others, I think "What has gotten into me?!" God then reminds me, "Hellooo!! It's my Spirit! Duh Chelsea!!" The more focused I am on God, the Holy Spirit intervenes and gives me the ability to live in "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodnesss, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control". Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect when that happens (because I'm not), but it becomes possible to bear that kind of fruit when I'm living by the Spirit. When I'm loving, kind, faithful, gentle, etc., that is NOT me...it is the Holy Spirit living IN me. The Holy Spirit can live in ALL of us. It's definitely a choice to follow Christ and to live as He has called us to live, when we do that the Holy Spirit kind of "takes over". Can you imagine if EVERYONE produced the fruit of the Spirit? Oh my goodness, that would be AWESOME! This world would be a MUCH happier place! We can't change other people and the decisions they make, BUT we can change the way WE think and the way WE live.

 

So think about this...are YOU bearing the fruit of the Spirit? Are you focused on God? If not, ask God to give you the hunger to seek Him, to live out His calling on your life, and to bear the fruit of His Holy Spirit. He wants us to live that way! So I challenge you to really dedicate yourself to God and His teaching. Trust me, you will produce some AWESOME fruit (of the Spirit, which is better than an actual fruit!). Plus, people like that kind of fruit (of the Spirit)...I mean, who wants to be around someone who is hateful, sad, impatient, rude, unfaithful, aggressive and impulsive? Um, I know I don't!

 

Pray this with me...Dear God, I thank you that you make it so clear in Your word what you can produce in me when I live according to Your will. Help me to hunger for Your Word and to live the way You have called me to live. Move your Spirit within me and produce fruit that will bring others to You. Thank you for the many blessings you have given me. In Christ's name, Amen.

 

P.S.- If you are following along with the read-your-bible-in-a-year plan, today's reading is Matthew 17 & 18, yesterday's was Matthew 15 &16. Also, if you're memorizing a verse, don't forget to practice it and hold it close to your heart!

My fear of yielding and merging...

In driver's ed, one of the things you learn is to yield. The definition for yield is "to give up, as to superior power or authority, or surrender." If you know me, you know that yielding has been a struggle for me. Being from a small country town, you don't have many opportunites to practice yielding. Whenever I would be in the city, I would freak out. Now when we are driving and yielding to traffic, we don't often think of those cars being superior to us. If you think about it, they are superior, because if we were to ignore the yield sign and just go, we most likely would be crushed into pieces by the traffic.  Obviously, being crushed to pieces is not on our to-do list so we should definitely obey those yield signs.  If you know me, you know that merging and  yielding has been a struggle for me. Being from a small country town, you don't have many opportunites to practice  merging and yielding. Whenever I would be in the city, I would freak out when I had to yield to other cars. I'm now over my fear of yielding (and actually quite good at it, if I must say so myself ;), but yielding can still be a hard thing to do at times.

 

So yesterday, I went to my grandparent's house to work on my t-shirt quilt sewing project. (I'm almost done...finally!) While I was there, they gave me a book that they thought would be a good read for me..."My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. My grandad has his own copy and is reading it for the third time (so it must be pretty good!) It's a year-long devotional book with short devotions. I started reading it today and I'm already loving it just after one devotion!  So I figured I would share with you the topic of today's devotion.

 

It is titled "Let Us Keep to the Point" and based around Philippians 1:20, ". . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body , whether by life or death". The main idea of today's devotion is to yield to God, no matter what circumstance.

 

Just like we yield/surrender to traffic, we should also yield/surrender ourselves to God. Why? God has superiority over us and we can't argue with that. I mean can we command light and darkness and create a whole solar system? Don't think so. It is clear that God has authority over us.  If we don't yield to His will, we will be crushed to pieces. We will be crushed in a sense that we ignored God's calling on our lives and therefore, unable to find peace in knowing that God is using us for His big plan. Even though it might be scary yielding and merging on the highway, we should never be afraid to yield and merge our lives with God's will. Our goal should be  our absolute best for God. Chambers says, "Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only - my utmost for His highest." We should say with confidence, just as Chambers did, " I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone."

 

Yield to God. Surrender your life to Him and get ready to be used for the best mission on this Earth...showing God's love to others.

 

If you are joining in on the read-your-bible-in-a-year plan, today's reading is Matthew chapters 11 & 12.

 

Drifting away? Feeling lost?

So today, me, my mom, and my two oldest neices went to see ICE AGE: Continental Drift. It was pretty cute and witty. It even inspired me to blog! If you haven't seen it and don't want to know how it ends, STOP reading, right now! Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen any of the Ice Age movies, there are a few reoccuring themes of searching, getting lost, and facing many roadblocks. Can you relate to that? I know I can! Throughout all of the Ice Age movies, the character, Scrat, is on the pursuit of holding onto this beloved acorn and finding more. He focuses so hard on this acorn that he loses sight of everything around him. In fact, in Ice Age: Continental Drift, his acorn causes the upheaval of Pangea's split. Throughout his search for more acorns, he is completely oblivious to all the havoc around him. Not only is Scrat involved, but many other characters such as Manny, Ellie, Peaches, Sid, and more. They are all separated because of Scrat's tunnel vision of acorns. The movie is about these characters getting separated from each other, being lost, and finding each other once and for all....at least I think so, unless there is going to be an Ice Age 5. Anyway, Scrat finds the skeleton of the acorn and gets upset because it is not whole. Soon he realizes there is a map inside of it that is the guide to the acorn heaven. He follows the map and soon finds a palace of acorns. Scrat is in heaven! So you may be thinking, "how in the world would you be inspired by a kid movie?" Well, with me, anything is possible (haha)! So the lightbulb turned on while I was sitting in the movie theater...we can be a lot like silly, lil Scrat. Is there something that you focus on so much that makes you lose sight of everything else? Is that object all that matters to you? Would you do anything and everything to find it and keep it? Well, how's it working for you? I know when I set my sight on something other than God, I can feel lost and all over the place. I don't know about you, but that is not a fun feeling! Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." When Scrat found his map, he knew where to go and how to get there. Once he got there, he found more than he could ever imagine. So when we let go of the things that keep us distracted from God and allow God to guide us, we will find more than we can imagine. Yes, it may be hard to let go of that object or relationship or habit, but it is worth it. God will guide us in His will and lead us to what is best. For Scrat, it was a heaven filled with acorns, but for us right now, it can be peace or joy. However, the best part is the very ending....being in heaven! So if you're holding onto something that is being a wedge between you and God, think about laying it down. Luke 9:23-24 says, "Then He said to them all, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it." So lay it down & trust God's map for you! One of my favorite songs is "Lay Em Down" by NEEDTOBREATHE...check it out! <3 Peace :)