Love What You Do

Since the birth of Pinterest and the mass of social media outlets in the recent years my life has been bombarded with encouraging words, motivational sayings, beautiful rhymes to live by.  You look everywhere and our homes are decorated with poems, rhymes, and scriptures. Everyone wants to “live simply” “be happy” “be kind.”

But, on the inside are we REALLY feeling this? Do we really want to “never give up” or  believe “doubt is the only failure?” Maybe we do.

We all need encouragement, love, support, our own personal cheerleader at times. We can’t and weren’t  supposed to get through this life without one another. So, please NEVER stop encouraging others. I just wonder sometimes, if the we nail up the new living room décor “Dream Big” plaque and read it a million times, yet never feel as if our dreams can or will come true.

Being defeated is one hard thing.

No one wants to be there. We will do whatever it takes to never be there, and maybe that means never actually getting off the couch and “just do-in it.” Or striving so much that we neglect anything important in our lives, just so we can beat the odds. Become successful, and make a name.

I’m learning no matter what we do, we will never get “there” become “it” or see our dreams come true unless we start loving where we are at. Right here. Right now. This season of my life has been change, change, and more change. And even though I love change, and always have. It wasn’t exactly the change I was “dreaming” for. If I had it my way…well we won’t even go there. This season has allowed me time to rest and think. There has been lots and lots of thinking...

If  I am honest, it usually starts out with a little bit of “wish I was…” or “when I get there…”

Boom! There is it.

The answer you all have been looking for. The “dream maker” “success builder.” Don’t you see it?

God wants nothing more than to bless ABUNDANTLY, I might add, you!! But, he just can’t do it if we are ungrateful.

Being grateful, is the key. It is the long lost secret to this life. The thing we’ve all been waiting for.  The Lord has really been challenging me in this season of my life, to be grateful in ALL things. Right here. Right now.

It is not easy. Not fun. Not glamorous. But a necessity. If we want  to “love life” and ACTUALLY experience what our Pinterest boards are screaming at us. This is not an option!

I want nothing more than to know my Savior and love what I do each and every day! I want to love MY life, not my “one day life.” My life right here. Right now. So let’s give thanks…

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 

The beauty of the written word.

Being a Journalism & Public Relations major in college, you could say I spent my entire college career  in a word document. Thank goodness for spell check!

I wrote 7-10 papers weekly, on top of my extracurricular activities, of writing and editing for my college newspaper, let’s just say I got a lot of practice learning how to express myself on paper (or on a keyboard!)

When I sit down to write, even now, I find myself able to express myself deeper and more true than if I were to speak, sing, or dance. Writing to me is a way to place everything going on inside of me in order. Label it. Give it a name and call it something. 

I can identify better with myself, if I can figure out actually what is going on.  The beauty of the written word is you can look back on it. Re-read it. Re-pray it, re-feel it. When you look back on things you write down, it can feed our need to accomplish something. We can check it off our list. Give ourselves a gold star.

We need this. As humans, we need to know our worth. And even when we don’t realize we do, we find ourselves out searching for it. Some it is your job, others it is a relationship. But, the truth is God’s written word is  the “something” intended for us to find our worth.  In the Bible,  God pours out his heart to us. Revealing the most intimate details of himself and how he feels about us. He knew that we would need to look back at it over and over again. He knew we would be able to identify better with our human nature if we understood the stories, adventures, and mistakes others before us had made. He knew we would need to re-feel it.

So he wrote it down.  

Just for you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

What inspires you?

I love when the small things in life inspire me. A walk in the evening, a phone call from an old friend, an encouraging note left on the coffee pot when you wake up. 

This week I have had the privilege of all of the above happening. And I think it is about time we start focusing on what encourages us, instead of what discourages us.  One is easier than the other, but also very damaging. 

When creating a wedding, I have moments when I feel like there is no creativity left. I come up short every time, my vision is foggy. This is a hard and frustrating time. When this hits, I have started to realize that I need to check myself. Take a step back, and ask the Lord to help me change ME.  Ask him to evaluate where I have been going wrong, admit it, ask for forgiveness, and then switch my focus. 

If we only focus on the negative. All we have is negativity. If we focus on our fear, all we are is frightened. 

We have the choice. To focus on what God is doing today, right in front of us. We can choose to focus on that. And I truly believe that if we DO NOT switch, we will never see the abundant life Christ died on the earth to give us. We will miss out on so many blessings. We will not see promises and dreams fulfilled. 

Every day we stand at the threshold. What will you choose? What will inspire you?

4th, Fashion, & Family

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. We have a wonderful family tradition of always watching fireworks  on the river in the small town where my dad grew up. My grandma still lives there so we all gather at her home. This is a time of year I cherish because my family is all together. We eat A LOT, drink coffee all day, and laugh. Non-stop.

Second to Christmas, the 4th is my favorite. We go “all out” as some would say. And have for years.

Let me show you…

I would like to think that my fashion sense DID NOT come from my mom, but that isn’t the case. She is a wonderful creator and have designed things her entire life. These fabulous outfits were designed AND sewn by her.

Not that I am slightly embarrassed to show you these…I was an innocent bystander in all this. I wore what I was given. No opinion. EVER.

Some may say, we all looked cute. And maybe we did. But, these are going in my archive of outfits shouldn’t have.

So this 4th of July I get the privilege of spending time with some of the coolest people I know!

I hope this 4th you are blessed to be around those you love.

Happy 4th of July!

Xoxo

B

There I am at 3. In all my glory!