Posts

This is America. Now what? A challenge to believers.

Image
It seems as if we all need a little bit more love in the world. Every day I scroll through social media and see close friends berating other individuals, I hear people prioritizing America over the Gospel over and over, and I hear people’s opinions – but that’s it. People’s feelings get hurt so easily because people are so mean and rude and hateful today. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love America. But, the political and agenda-driven comments of people are the highlights of every news story out there. And unfortunately, it’s now in my own social feed that I experience the most hate. Christians berate other Christians for what they teach and preach, women tear apart men, men tear apart women, the white brother tears apart the black brother, and the black brother tears apart the white brother. News articles are shared with passive-aggressive meanings behind them that push the agenda and forget to care about the individual, the past, the story. This fundamental a...
Post a Comment
Read more

8-Second Slave

Image
The 8-second time lapse. Someone's jumping off a boat in Greece. Gone. Someone's eating a big bowl of ice-cream. Gone. Someone's sitting on a beach in Florida. Gone. Someone is reading a book in a hammock. Gone. Someone's having a party with all of your friends. Gone. Someone is in an airport flying to Texas. Gone. Someone's kissing her boyfriend. Gone. Someone just got flowers. Gone. I have found myself growing more and more short-focused.  I can't help but wonder if it has to do with how surrounded I am by a fast-paced social and real world. While reading, I can only make it a couple chapters...while praying, I only communicate for a few short minutes. I think our generation is a slave to speed. The internet is at our hands in no time. Questions about something? No problem. You'll have the answer in seconds...along with 300,000 other possibilities. The children of Gen Z are being exposed to all types of answers to their child-like questions i...
1 comment
Read more

What I Hated About Being a Bride

Image
Sometimes I just think up these really attention-getting titles and hope to draw you in to a small piece of my heart and the lessons I have learned in my life.  Statistics:   A little less than 45% of all marriages end in divorce The average cost of a wedding is  $26,720 The average couple divorces after 8 years of marriage  A divorce happens in America every 36 seconds.  Jon proposed to me in August. I was looking forward to all of the bride-ish things. Showers, parties, parties, parties, friends, cake, etc. However, I was just slightly uncomfortable the whole time. Don't get me wrong, I had so much fun being celebrated by close friends and family!  But, shower after shower, I just felt an itch of weird. What was it about this that was just uncomfortable?  The wedding drew nearer, and I began to hear the words "what do you want for this?" "what do you want to do about this?" "You're the bride," "It's what the bri...
2 comments
Read more

Why You Don't Want What I Have

Image
Many women want to be where I am. It's true. We've all talked about it and dreamed about it, and people tell me "how lucky I am" and "how amazing this is," etc. I will talk to friends, and they will just look at me with such longing in their eyes that their lives mirrored mine. I remember as a girl growing up, and in middle school, and even carrying on into high school and college, I longed to be loved by a man. I dated quite frequently in high school and always had a guy that I could call mine. I remember laying awake at night with a sleepless mind that just dreamt about what it would feel like to be held in big strong arms, or to be kissed on the forehead, or to be kissed in general. It was probably going to be the most amazing feeling in the world, I was sure of it! To have a life with a man that loved me, was perfect  in my eyes. Nothing else could top it. This lie has been one of the biggest ones that has attacked girls and women in our culture toda...
1 comment
Read more

Life Keeps Moving On

Image
I know it's been since Germany, but I want to update yal on where I am in life and what I am doing. On september 7th, I hugged all my siblings with tears in my eyeballs and squeezed my sweet parents one more time and got in my car to make the trek to Pine Mountain, GA (yes, the middle of nowhere). Impact 360 (pictured to the right) is my new home. This is probably the second biggest step in my life, aside from moving to Germany for a bit. The same feeling of independence rushed back as I re-realized the feelings of "I'm on my own again, I don't have parents with me, I don't know anyone, I am paving my own un-reputable future." Something interesting about me, is that I love environments where I am the only person I know. I loved stepping off the plane in Germany not knowing anyone! I loved driving up to the Impact 360 campus with just me. Impact has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. With class every day from 9-12, we are learning so much a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is it really real? Week 3 in Germany

Image
     Experiencing other cultures is vitally important to your faith, in my opinion. It pulls you out of your comfort zone, (Which is totally cliché right now, but think about it. You’re literally in a zone of the world and you need to physically get out of it) and pushes you to see how other people around the world do things.       In a world that is becoming postmodern I have learned to cherish my values, to cling to the body of Christ, to abandon legalism in order to truly understand the Gospel, to be open to different doors God may be opening, to think before I speak, and to understand that Gospel credibility to other people is through my relationships with other people (how I love them).      I have seen a different, but just as able way to do church. I have recognized how real the Gospel is and how worthy it is of my entire life. I have been to some of the latest, biggest parties I’ve ever experie...
21 comments
Read more