Yahweh

Our Lord, Yahweh is here to stay..what comfort we have in knowing this. Faithful God, you're here to stay. He's faithful, oh is he ever faithful. I've weathered some storms through the past few months..nothing serious in the scheme of life, but average storms..and my Lord has been so faithful to me. Reminding me of His love through the sunshine beaming through my windows each morning, through the perseverance He's given me. I see Him cheering for me each time I choose HIM. My heart is so full knowing I was created by an ever faithful, all knowing, all loving..eternal Father.

Faithful. That word appears in so many worship songs, and scriptures. It's been a constant reminder to me lately. Be faithful in showing others the love of Jesus..I feel that tug at my heart. As soon as I feel the temptation creep in.. to go against something the Lord wouldn't stand for I try reminding myself of His faithfulness and that I should mirror that. Even in the moments where it feels like you're alone..when you want to give up He's rooting for you to keep pushing..keep going..because He's here, with us. He's walking next to you and me every single day...His steps precede our own. Nothing is a surprise to our Savior so why do we worry? He's here..active in our daily, sitting beside us..writing that paper with us, sitting in traffic with us, holding you as the tears fall down your cheeks. He's faithful, so very faithful. I hope you are blessed by this song as much as I have been. Yahweh...

little bits of happiness

today i'm linking up with this lovely lady for

little bits of happiness i saw through out my week. i love this concept because it's

easy to get caught up in the everyday craziness of life and forget about the little blessings that God

sends our way.

new shirt/rainbow wearing weather

healthy snacks: blackberries/wheat english muffin with peanut butter, bananas and sprinkled brown sugar

new lamp/california poppy on my shopping day

silence is golden now that Mr wears these gaming headphones/hurray for getting hired at a country club! appropriately celebrating with syrup and hot sauce?

these were just some of the lovely things that happened this week. the main one being that Mr now has a job. such a blessing and we are SO happy! maybe next week i won't be lazy and i'll get out my actual camera ;)

a yearning

And while sometimes we hear the faint whisper of our Heavenly Father through scriptures or praise..other times we hear it through creation and the light breeze that tickles your face as you stand in a field among blowing brush and wisping tree limbs. We hear Him call out to us, yearning for our hearts. For we lift our hands in worship toward Him. We bend our knees and bow our heads in honor of Him..the One we call Father.

valentine's day recap

Mr and I celebrated our first Valentine's Day in three years together yesterday and it delivered quite nicely. I was slightly out of practice on the Valentine's celebratory-ness because Mr's been gone with the Army for the past two years. I don't think I paid much attention to lover's day these last couple years because of that. To be honest, I think it's a totally commercialized, hallmark holiday and I don't know how I feel about it. But, as I said yesterday..we can always use more love.

I spent 9am-6pm taking notes in class so I couldn't wait to get home to my lover. I was greeted at the door with a clean-cut, nicely dressed Mr. He had Pandora's "Love Songs" station playing in the background and directed my attention to the beautiful hand made bouquet sitting on our in-table. I told him he looked nice and that he was the best lover ever and then he told me to get dressed and ready because we had dinner reservations at one of the nicest restaurants in town. Spoiled? Yes!

I had a mojito...my drink of choice as of late, and he sipped on beer while we enjoyed each others' company and waited for our meal. Honey walnut prawns, general's chicken and white rice. Get in my bellllly.

It was a great night spent with Mr and he earned himself some brownie points for sure. A hand made bouquet and love songs...could he be any sweeter?

I love you Mr, thank you for a wonderful first Valentine's Day as hubs and wifey..you far exceeded and made your lady feel oh so loved.

Oh and check out day two of these flowers...he done good my friends. he done good.

let's talk about faith

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. - Philippians 4:8

My faith defines me, from the inmost parts of my being. I live my life for God and I strive to show His love to those around me. It's something that nobody is perfect at, obviously, because the only perfect One was Jesus. But, I strive to live as God would want me to. People say being a Christian is hard..but I don't see it that way. It's only hard if you let it get to you when people criticize you. I have so much joy in my life living for my God because He's pretty darn awesome. Who else is available at all hours of the day and night? I can talk to Him whenever I need to and want to. He's so real to me and part of my life that I can't even imagine what it would be like to be without His love. Luckily that's something I'll never know because His love is infinite. Score!

But, sometimes I feel so exhausted by the people at work, school, blogging, and life in general. I feel like I'm supposed to act a certain way, believe certain things because they're "politically correct," or keep my mouth shut when something tugs at my heart for fear that I'll be reprimanded for disagreeing. But that's not what our Lord and Savior has called His people to do. We are called to be different, stand up for what is pure, lovely and admirable. We have been called by name as sons and daughters of a Heavenly King! He's our Faithful High Priest and our lives should reflect this.

I want people to look at me and see something different, something they want..I want to share my love for Jesus with people and help them see there's more to life. My heart hurts for people who don't know my Jesus, my Lord..the only One who can save me.

If we let our hearts dwell on pure and lovely things maybe our lives would be less stressful. Maybe we would be more apt to stand up in circumstances where the red flag stands at attention. Don't let the rules of the world silence your faith. I'm guilty of this just as much as the next person, but I'm seeing a problem with it now. I see the importance of standing up where wrong is clearly endorsed. It feels gross and awful when I see things on TV and in movies that desensitize us. We're so hard to impress these days, there needs to be more violence, more sex, and less morals. I don't understand where we went wrong, but I won't stand for it anymore. There's nothing okay about crude jokes, violence against women or funny dudes on drugs. All that stuff completely clouds the movie industry today and it really saddens me.

I often wonder why people hold back from their beliefs. Why is the fear of rejection more important than the hope of bringing someone to Christ? Shout it from the roof tops that you love Him and live for Him! If someone rejects what you believe..it's not going to kill you. If anything it's planted a seed where later, room for growth might appear. I constantly see this in Christians, myself included and I really don't understand. Our biggest fears are not to offend people or feel rejection, but I think those are lousy excuses. The Lord of this earth created you for something special..He created you for a purpose. That purpose was not to stay silent or be silenced. That purpose was to spread the gospel and show His love in abundant ways. So why must we fear if He's on our side?

Our goal is love. Who doesn't need a little more love in their lives? What's so scary about sharing the love of Christ?

I hope and pray that we as Christians wouldn't be scared of standing up for what's right, that we would voice our beliefs when necessary, and let our Heavenly Father speak through us. If He's the One talking...then what's there to worry about?

Let's spread the love :)

Foods

Apparently I take a lot of pictures of my food..or what I'm consuming. Is that weird? It looks so pretty sometimes that I can't help myself.

 Trader Joes grapefruit

 Cheese/bread/green/onion/oregano creation

 green slime from the Bux. 

and my new favorite treat. greek yogurt/blackberries/bananas sprinkled with sugar

New additions and crafts

Before school started, we made a few changes around the apartment. It's so hard finding nice furniture for such a small space, but with places like Ikea and World Market, our job is made easier! Besides some new furniture, I got in a few crafts before the crazy school semester started.

I've really been wanting some new coasters lately because the ones we had didn't really match the themes we had going in our little place.  I stumbled on this idea from Pinterest one day and decided I had to give it a try. I used the coasters that we already had because I didn't want them to go to waist. I'm so happy with the outcome and only burned myself with hot glue 5 or....20 times :)

The next craft I worked on involved some more hemp because I'm sort of obsessed with it right now. But, sticking with the theme of saving money I looked around the house for more supplies on hand. I found a canvas I bought on clearance last year, and had saved for the perfect craft. All I did was wrap the hemp around the canvas, as tight as it could go. After spacing it out evenly..because I'm slightly OCD..I cut out hearts from some fabric I had and hot glued it on top. Easy peasy lemon squeazy.

I'll show some before and after pictures of our living room in another post so you can all see the transformation, but for now I'll reveal our new Ikea chair. The lady I used to nanny for had it sitting in her garage and offered it to us a few months back. We had ugly brown couches before and no space for it but I assured her we would be back for her green beauty. When Mr got home...literally THE night he got home from Iraq, we went out and bought new couches. We couldn't put up with our dirty brown Craigslist couches much longer ;) So after Christmas passed and we had room where our Christmas tree was..we called up our friend and said we were coming for the chair. I'm in love with it, and feel like it finished off our room perfectly. So here's a little sneak peek of our new family room. Oh, and the best part, now we have an ottoman..

I've always wanted an ottoman...is that weird?

So there you have it...all our little home changes on a budget. I've got so many more projects I'm dying to do but I should probably write that 8 page paper first... ;)

Happy crafting and decorating!

romancing your heart

"Every song you love, every memory you cherish, every moment that has moved you to holy tears has been given to you from the One who has been pursuing you from your first breath in order to win your heart.  God's version of flowers and chocolates and candlelight dinners comes in the form of sunsets and falling stars, moonlight on lakes and cricket symphonies; warm wind, swaying trees, lush gardens, and fierce devotion."
- Captivating