Vulnerably Beautiful

Dear 17 year old me... enjoy senior year. don't study so much, enjoy your time with your friends as this year will go by faster than you want it to. go to that party, go on a date with that boy. invest time in those around you, be intentional about your relationships and time. read your bible more, play more music. go visit grandma and grandpa more. focus on God. be in the moment, stop worrying about the future, it will all work out the way it is supposed to. your marks aren't everything, they aren't worth the stress. enjoy every moment you have, the people around you, won't always be there. Dear 18 year old me... life sucks right now, hey? you'll get through it. it's tough, but you are tougher. stop being angry at the world, forgive yourself for what happened, it wasn't your fault. bloom where you are planted, choose to be content in any situation, whether you chose it or not. (Philippians 4:12) life isn't as bad as it looks. the things you will ...

weakness.  the biblical concept of weakness does not mean the things we’re not good at. We’re tempted to think this way. it would be easier if weakness were contained to the things we stink at doing. but it’s much more pervasive than that. We can’t simply tip-toe around it. weakness is everywhere in the New Testament-- Mark 14:38, Acts 20:35, 1 Corinthians 1:26-27, Romans 5:8, Romans 8:26, Romans 14:1-4, 1 Corinthians 12:9-10. in all of these verses, the general theme of being deficient in something is what it all comes back to. the broad definition would be that weakness is usually associated with something we are lacking. weakness means that we are in desperate need of God and all that He has to offer us.  embrace your weakness, don't despise it.  when we embrace weakness, we have looked into our own lives enough to know that we don't have it all together and that we need God so very badly. 1. embracing weakness means you value spiritual gifts....

ever have a choice to make, and you know what the right choice is, but inside you still want to pick the other one? this is something that i can guarantee will occur once in your life, if not more than once. it is something that i have to do on a regular basis. do you ever think that God is the same way. He doesn't want to allow pain, and hurt and brokenness to come upon us, but He knows how we will grow from it, and how the rest of our life could be impacted because of that hard situation. He loves us so much though, that it must be hard for Him to see us struggling. that also gives me so much hope, knowing that. that God only allows suffering when it is going to help us, and improve our way of life. He can change any situation, yet He chooses to leave us in hard ones because He knows the growth and faith and love that will come from it. don't get me wrong, it is incredibly hard to make the wise choice over the favourable one. little, or big, it is hard. whether it is ...

your worth, is not defined by what you do. what sports you play. what your GPA is. what school you go to. who your friends are. who you are dating. your worth, is not defined by how much you weigh. by how you look. by how much money you have. by how fancy your clothes are. who your parents say you are. your worth, is defined by Christ the Lord. NOT by what other people see in you, or the way you lived or are currently living your life. when we look for our worth from earthly, worldly things, it gets us no where. that space we are trying to fill, that gap, can only be filled by Jesus. if we look to others to tell us our worth, then we find our worth in what they say, think and how they perceive us and the world. it will lead us astray very quickly. looking for our worth, in another person, in a relationship isn't going to fill us. yes, it is important to have worth to a friend or significant other, but that can't be the only place that we look for it. when we find our wort...