Red River Revel

The Red River Revel is one of my favorite things to happen in Shreveport-Bossier every year. It's technically an art festival, but let's be honest—I go for the food. Because the food is the best.

This year I begged Rachel and Sarah to come with me because I really needed some fair food. It didn't take much begging—they were happy to come with! Sarah did my hair all cute because she likes doing hair and I like having my hair done. The hairstyle was Rapunzel-worthy! I tried to recreate it myself a few days later and failed. Miserably. Le sigh. Some people have the hair-fixing gene and some of us do not.

When we arrived, we went to the booth for the new local Puzzle Room. They had a contest to figure out clues to unlock three locks on a box. We managed to unlock two of them!

Then we went to the food section! We got blackened catfish, crawfish etouffee, corn on the cob (slathered with butter, parmesan, and Tony's), crawfish balls, funnel cake, cinnamon pecans, and chocolate covered cheesecake! We left so full and every bite was totally worth it. I already can't wait for next year!

Tutu Cute

top: Forever 21 | skirt: Versona | belt: Versona | shoes: Ross

Tutus are just so fun! Especially when they're PINK! I distinctly remember a morning a few years ago when I woke up and thought, "I want to wear a pink tutu today." But, alas, I did not own a pink tutu. Thankfully I do now! So on the days when I wake up wanting to wear a pink tutu, I can do just that.

Meditation Monday: Why does God let bad things happen?

Earlier today I was messaging a friend who is going through some rough times right now. One of the things she said was “I don’t understand why God lets bad things happen.” And I get where she’s coming from. Why would a God who loves us so much let horrible things happen in our lives?

I have personally asked this question before, along with many others: Why is this happening to ME? I’m the good girl! I obey God’s word! I go to church and I’m involved in ministry and I try my best to live a Christian life and develop my relationship with God. So why should bad things happen to ME?

No one is exempt from rough periods of life. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Christian or not--that doesn’t keep the hard times away from you.

James 1:2-3 (NLT) says, “When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”

Consider troubles an opportunity for joy? Man, does that sound like a contradiction. To be happy about trouble. But if we don’t go through hard times, we can’t grow. You probably know the cliches. “You can’t have a testimony without a test.” “You can’t have a message without a mess.” And those statements are, indeed, true. If everything were always rainbows and sunshine, we wouldn’t have a reason to learn, grow, and trust.

It’s been through the worst times in my life, through the struggles and the doubts, that I have seen God in the biggest way. Looking back, I can see His hand on me in the dark times, even if I wondered if He was there at the time.

Times of trouble tend to be the times we doubt God. We wonder if He really loves me. If He’s really there for me. If He really exists. So how do we conquer the doubt?

A few weeks ago, my pastor said, “If you don’t understand why you’re doing it, walk in obedience until you do.” Sometimes I don’t understand WHY God asks me to do the things He asks me to do. But I’ve learned to do those things anyways. Every time I have obeyed despite not understanding, God has brought me to understanding. It doesn’t happen overnight--sometimes it takes years. But He has been faithful through every storm.

Another quote I heard a few weeks ago from a friend’s pastor: God is not affected by your storm. You may not be able to get to Him through the storm, but He can walk on the water and come to you.

So I encourage you, when life gets tough and the waters are rough, keep trusting in God. Obey his commands and His Word, even if it doesn’t make any sense. He will be with you every step of the way.

Application:

Going through a rough time? I encourage you to find an uplifting verse that speaks to you. (I’m including some below to get you started!) Write this verse on a piece of paper. In a note on your phone. On the palm of your hand. On your bathroom mirror. Put it on sticky notes all around your house and in your car. Memorize it. The Bible is composed of God’s own words. Allow His words to permeate your brain, and know that God IS there and He is speaking to YOU.

Psalm 91:2
Psalm 119:169
Isaiah 41:10
Psalm 29:11
Psalm 71:20-21
Isaiah 26:3-4
Psalm 37:23-24 (NLT)
Psalm 16:8 (NLT)
Isaiah 43:1-2 (NLT)

Falling

top: Forever 21 | skirt: stolen from Mom | scarf: gift | boots: Wet Seal | watch: Charming Charlie

Fall is my favorite. I'm sure I say that about every season when it begins. I love the changing seasons. But fall, oh fall. The crisp, cool air. Hot drinks like Nutella hot chocolate and caramel apple spice. The Red River Revel, where I can stuff my face with all kinds of delicious food. And the clothes.

Oh, the clothes. Finally cool enough for long sleeves and layers. And in (hopefully) just a few weeks, I get to pull out... TIGHTS! I have a lot of tights. An embarrassing amount of tights. More tights than I can wear in one season of chilly weather. And, oh, how I love them.

In the meantime, I'm pulling out everything that is fall-ish in my closet. This outfit came out a true winner, and my co-workers kept complimenting it all day long. I'm just now looking back at photos of it and realizing that there are a LOT of polka dots. I tend to wear lots of patterns at one time without realizing it. That's when you know your patterns work well together, right?

Here's to more fall outfits! Happy fall, y'all!

Photography Friday #6: Hot Air Balloon Festival

A few months ago, I joined Rachel and her family for an afternoon/evening at the hot air balloon festival, and I'm realizing I never shared the photos! We had so much fun eating junk food and watching the hot air balloons twinkle at night. Riding a hot air balloon is on my bucket list, and this just made me want to do it even more! One day!

Photography Friday #5

It's been a weird week. I've got a children's revival this weekend in south Louisiana (keep them in your prayers--the flooding has been devastating!) and another local the next. Plus I've been trying to get ahold of as many of my friends from south Louisiana as I possibly can to make sure they're okay. I know of several families personally who have lost everything they own. It hurts my heart so much.

It's been a rainy week. And right now, no one in Louisiana is very fond of the rain. 

I've done some relaxing this week. The other night, I spent three hours reading a book in the bath. A reread of a favorite, and man, it was lovely. Last night I made friendship bread then did a deep conditioning treatment on my hair while it baked. So yeah, it's been weird and rainy this week, but there have definitely been some moments of (figurative) sunshine. (Which explains why all of these photos were, um, not taken this week.)

25th Birthday!

top: target | skirt: Versona | belt: Versona | shoes: Shoe Carnival | flower crown: Brianna Belton

I am a quarter of a century old. Halfway to 50. Man, that's scary. I've decided I'm done aging, and I'm just going to stay 25 for the rest of my life. I can probably get away with it for a while, anyways.

My birthday was incredibly chill. Mom took me to get a pedicure, then we came home and watched a movie and ate pizza. She put a candle in it. :)

A few days later, I invited a few close friends and family to join me at my favorite Italian restaurant for a birthday dinner. We had strawberry cake with cream cheese icing that I picked up from my favorite bakery. I loved having my favorite people celebrate with me! We had a lovely evening.

My mom got me this gorgeous flower crown to wear for my 25th birthday. I don't know why, but I've always wanted to wear one! This was as good a reason as any! We asked the amazing lady who created it to match it to my new tutu. I absolutely loved that evening's look!

I was so happy to have my two besties by my side. We make a sensational team.

Meditation Monday: What's on God's Mind

Psalms 139:17-18 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

Wow. The God of the entire universe thinks about me. This just gets to me. There are billions of people on this planet, but He thinks about me? And he thinks about me so much that it can’t be counted.

And, even more so, God isn’t concerned about my flaws; He’s consumed with my future. Does that mean my flaws should be ignored? No. My flaws should act as a motivation to praise God! But how wonderful is it to serve a God who chooses to see my future instead of my past mistakes?

Study

Let’s talk about David some more. (Because I love him so much.)

For reference, this is the first time we hear about David in the Bible. This is before he killed Goliath, before he became king. This is the story of his humble beginnings, and it’s found in 1 Samuel 16.

Once upon a time, there was the first king of Israel. His name was Saul. God had picked him to be king, but he disobeyed God, and God “rejected [him] from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23). Which meant that Israel needed a new king. So God told Samuel, a prophet, that he had picked out the new king of Israel, and he was the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite. 

Samuel goes to Bethlehem and finds Jesse and his sons. When Samuel sees Jesse’s son Eliab, he just knows this is the guy God has picked to be king.

1 Samuel 16:17 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

If you read on, Jesse ends up bringing seven of his sons before Samuel, thinking surely it’s this one. But every time, God says no, until finally David is brought out.

Samuel looked on the outside, but God looked on the inside. God sees every single person in a way that nobody else can see them. God sees something in YOU that nobody else sees. Human eyes can’t view me the way God does.

This is incredibly reassuring to me and inspires me to look at myself (and others) through God’s eyes instead of mortal eyes. To know there’s something special about myself and I may not be able to see it, but God sees it. Others may not be able to see it either, but that’s okay. God’s view is the one that matters, and He sees me as special and has many, many precious thoughts towards me.

Application

This week, Pastor has asked everyone to wake up and read Psalm 103, like we did Psalm 34 last week. I truly enjoyed waking up and reading the Word first thing every morning!

This post was inspired by my Pastor's message "The Secret of the Journey".

Meditation Monday: I Will Bless the Lord At All Times

Happy Monday! Today's post is inspired by my Pastor’s sermon The Secret of the Journey.

Here’s a great way to study a specific verse: repeat it (out loud) over and over, putting emphasis on a different word or phrase each time you say it. This will cause you to think of the verse in multiple ways. Today we’re going to use this technique with Psalm 34:1.

Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Background

But first, let’s get into the story behind this Psalm. The superscript above the Psalm says, “A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. “

Side note: I LOVE the story of David and have read and studied a lot about him.

So once upon a time, David was running for his life because King Saul was trying to kill him.  (King Saul was none too happy that the Lord had chosen David to take his place as king of Israel.) 1 Samuel 21:10 states that David “fled that day for fear of Saul.” Where did he go? To Achish the king of Gath. (To clarify, King Achish in 1 Samuel is the same person as Abimelech in Psalm 34. I’m going to refer to him as King Achish.)

You know Goliath the giant? He was from Gath. I personally think it was a really stupid move for David to enter the city where the giant he killed was from. I guess King Achish figured out David was the giant killer. He definitely realized that the guy standing in front of him looking for safety was none other than the famous warrior, known for killing ten thousands.

Once David realized that he was no stranger to King Achish, he became afraid of the king and knew he needed to get out of there. So “he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard” (1 Samuel 21:13). He literally acted like a fool, a maniac, a loon, whatever you want to call him. David acted like a crazy man.

And it worked.

King Achish was not happy about the mad man in his court and sent him packing. David managed to escape. That’s when he wrote Psalm 34.

Study

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Who will bless the Lord? I will! It doesn’t say we or you, because no one else can do this for me. I must praise Him for myself! I mustn’t let the devil steal my praise—he wants to rob God of anything that pleases Him, and my praise pleases the Lord!

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

The word will means that it will be a deliberate action—I have the power to control my own actions! 

I won’t allow my praise and worship to be dictated by my feelings, but I will choose to praise Him because it is commanded of me.

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

I will bless Him because He has so greatly blessed me—He is my provision, and He deserves it.  Psalms 63:4 says “Thus will I bless thee while I live.” I can’t bless Him once I’m dead, so I’ve got to do it now!

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Everyone wants a piece of you—of your time, your focus, your energy.  I must decide that no one around me will become the priority of my focus; only God will dominate my life. In order to do this, I can’t let others drain me of what is the Lord’s, meaning I might sometimes have to withdraw from others. I must be God-focused!

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Every moment of every day, wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, whoever I’m with. It doesn’t matter. At all times, I’ll bless him. I don’t have to wait until I’m alone or in a private, quiet place. I can always bless him.

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

I must praise him out loud! I’ll admit, this used to be hard for me. What if I said something dumb and someone noticed? Finally, I realized that praise isn’t about me or my neighbor—it’s only for God. So I had to change my behavior. I did it anyways. Who cares what others around me think? I don’t praise God for their benefit!

Application

Pastor requested that everyone read Psalm 34 out loud first thing every morning, before doing our normal tasks or before browsing social media. (He did, however, give explicit permission for us to make a cup of coffee first, because coffee and Bible reading go well together.) This is one simple way to make sure we put the Lord before everything and everyone else. So I’ll be reading Psalm 34 out loud every morning this week!

Granny Chic

top: Forever 21 | skirt: Forever 21 | shoes: Ross | purse: vintage

The first thing my mom said when she saw me in this outfit was, "That looks just like something Granny would wear. I think she had a top just like that." Granny isn't my grandmother--she was my GREAT-grandmother. But she apparently had great style. ;)

Mediation Monday: When God Is First

Good morning! Yesterday I introduced the idea of "Meditation Monday." This week, I’m going over some notes I took from my Pastor’s sermon from a few months ago. It’s titled “When God is First.” Here we go.

The Bible is pretty clear: God should be first in our lives.

Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Colossians 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

It’s really easy to set God aside and let other things come before him. “Other things” aren’t necessarily bad things—they can be good things: reading, spending time with friends, exercising, crafting… you get the gist. Are these bad things? No! But should our hobbies take first place over God? Again, NO!

I know I personally struggle with this. I love reading. Editing photos. Scrolling Facebook (which could, at times, totally border on the good-not-good line). Hanging out with friends. Cooking. It’s not that these are bad things to do with my time. It’s just that I shouldn’t let them be a reason why I “can’t” spend time with God. On more than one occasion, I’ve not done my daily Bible reading because I stayed up too late spending time with friends. Or I chose to read a YA book instead of my Bible. Chose to watch a movie instead of pray. Chose to sleep in instead of pray. (That last one is a big struggle for me.)

In order to evaluate your priorities, here are three things to track in your life:

1. Time 

Where do you spend your time? Are you using it? Wasting it? Once upon a time I read (parts of) a book called 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. The book made me rethink what I was doing with my time and encouraged me to track my time to see what exactly I was doing with all my time. So a few years ago, I spent a week tracking my time. It was a wake up call to see what I was actually spending my time doing. (Also, I was incredibly bummed by how much time I spend commuting—I’d have so much more time if I could teleport!)

We spend our time on things that are important and things we love. (And work, which—if you’re blessed—you’ll love!) If I want God to be the most important part of my life, I MUST spend time with Him.

2. Talent/Giftings 

Romance 12:6-11 talks about the different giftings and talents we can have. We must be sure that we are using our gifts to glorify and bring honor to God. If we aren’t careful, we’ll use our giftings only for things of the earth.

God gave us each unique talents so we could use them to glorify him. It has always baffled me that He gave everyone a gift to use for him, but he doesn’t take those gifts away when we choose to use them for another purpose. Think about how many amazing singers and songwriters there are who choose to sing to glorify themselves or the sin of this world. Then think about how much they could be doing for the kingdom of God were they to use their talents for Him!

Ask yourself this: If someone sees you using your gifts, will they see Jesus?

3. Treasure  

Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Our heart is where we put our money. I just finished my budget for the month, so I know this to be true. I always put way less in my savings for doctor visits and car repairs than I do for my house and mission trips funds.  I WANT to fund the things that are most important to me.

But before I do anything else, I make sure I’ve set aside my tithes and offerings. These come FIRST. I am okay with adding to these numbers, but I will not take away God’s money to put it in another place. Tithing is biblical and non-negotiable.

Leviticus 27:30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.

The word holy there (kodesh) also means separate or set apart. Your tithe should be separated and given to God.

Pastor pointed out a story in the Bible that I’ve heard and read a million times and never realized it was about giving of your first fruits.

Genesis 4:3-5 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord, and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.

I’d never even looked at how these scriptures were worded, but it only says that Abel brought the first of his flock. It just says that Cain “brought of the fruit.” I think there should be a “first” in there somewhere.  We must give God what belongs to Him—especially since He’s required it of us!

Application: 

This week, I memorized Colossians 3:2 and 17. I've included these verses in my prayers, that God will help me to set my affections on things above and help me remember that everything I do, I need to do for Him.

Time: I've been trying to reevaluate my time lately (looks like it's time to track my time again!) because I want to make sure I'm using it to the fullest and not wasting time on things that are unimportant or irrelevant. But I'm also making sure I take the time to take care of myself! As much as I enjoy pouring myself into kids' ministry at church and hanging out with friends, I know it's important to set aside some fun and relaxing "me" time. The struggle is to make sure I set my time aside for God before I set it aside for me!

Talent: The Lord has blessed me with many talents and giftings, and I'm still working to learn how to apply them in my life so they glorify and honor Him. I work in kids' min, so I get to use a lot of gifts there: creativity, writing, worship. That's one reason I love kids' min—there are so many aspects to it!

Treasure: I continuously pray that the Lord will give me wisdom to make wise financial choices that will bless Him and benefit me. The Bible says in James 1:5 that if we ask for wisdom, He will give it to us. I'm believing that!

Introducing: Meditation Monday

I’ve played around with the idea of “Meditation Monday” for a while now. Ever since I started this blog, actually. I know, I’ve done so well with photography Friday so let’s add something else, huh?

Basically here’s what it is: me digging into the Word. I'm not necessarily trying to bring up anything mind-blowing, but the point of it is to give me a reason to put my thoughts into words about what I read and study and hear. I'm pretty good at doing my daily Bible reading (I have used this Bible for my daily reading for years and I love it!), but I'm not always great at actually looking deeper into what I'm reading. I'm hoping that sharing what I learn will keep me more accountable.

So Meditation Monday starts tomorrow! I've spent the last week going over some notes I took during one of Pastor's sermons and digging into the Word for myself. See ya tomorrow!

Bright and Sunny

top: Dillard's | skirt: TJ Maxx | shoes: Ross

I recently housesat for a couple in our church and they had the most beautiful backyard. I loved going out and sitting in that swing while I did my Bible reading and watched Angel (the precious pup) prance around the yard. Well, not exactly prance. She's an old lady now and doesn't move quite so well, but she's sweet as can be. 

Oh, I bought myself a present—photoshop actions from A Beautiful Mess! They were half off since they will be discontinuing them. I got the Fresh Collection and used Chloe to edit these photos. I love how bright they turned out! Actions make for a quick editing job. Perhaps one day I'll be better at editing photos without actions, but they sure make it easy and the photos turn out beautiful!