Pretty | Not Pretty

I've been feeling... not beautiful lately.

A few times I wanted to put a picture of myself on Instagram but I ended up deleting the photos in frustration.

My cheeks have filled out from this pregnancy.

Pimples after pimples have gladly taken up residency on my face in the most obvious spots.

A hot mess is how I would describe myself.

BUT.

I saw something on Instagram the other day that inspired me to shift my focus from self to God.

The obvious evidence of my pregnancy has clouded my vision.

What I should see is how God is using my body to grow a HUMAN.

A SOUL.

A soul that He has great plans for.

A soul that He so loves He died for.

When that is my perspective of self, I no longer see myself flawed but purposeful.

And God's purpose is beautiful beyond measure.

Resources for Level 0 Homemaking

I had no idea what homemaking was.

I didn't growing up watching it modeled.

I didn't growing up learning how to do it.

I was at level 0.

So when I got married, I was overwhelmed.

I admired the beautiful picture the Proverbs 31 woman portraits, but I was clueless about how to get there.

Thankfully, there are lots of resources available and I'd love to share with you what have helped me.



The Keeping a Growing Home Series by the Growing Home Blog

Jacinda is wise beyond her years and I loved learning about home management from her.

In this series, she talked about knowing your role & choosing priorities; she also shared what her schedule looks like throughout the day and offered some time-saving home management tips (we all could use more of those, couldn't we?!)

I highly recommend following this series!





Pinterest

There are lots of ingenious homemaking tips and tricks and hacks and insights! Oh I love them!

I have pinned my favorites on this board here, feel free to take a look and try a few out!

**I will warn against comparing ourselves to those who seem to have mastered homemaking.
Please keep in mind that we are all gifted differently and we are in different seasons of life; but our common goal is to glorify God through working heartily whatever our hands find to do. So let's encourage each other and learn from one another where we lack.






The Christian Homemaker's Handbook edited by Pat Ennis and Dorothy Kelley Patterson

This handbook covers a wide range of topics and contains lots of practical information and how-to's.

It was such an awesome resource for someone like me.

I found myself going 'ooooh, that makes sense,' or 'oooh that's helpful!' as I flipped through the pages.

I hope this will help you just as much!








The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

There's been lots of hypes around this book lately and I understand why.

I followed her principles in decluttering my closet and I got rid of 5 13-gallon-sized trash bags full of clothes. I felt so good afterwards.

I strongly believe that when you have less to manage, you get less overwhelmed and as a result you are more efficient in managing your home! (Plus you need less time to actually manage the home! Can I get a high five on that?)




What resources have helped YOU? Share in the comments below!

Carry the Truth Temporary Tattoos

I was feeling a little depressed a couple months ago.

Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones.

Maybe it was the winter blues.

Whatever it was, I had a cloud of sadness hovering over me.

I hated it. I hated feeling blue.

I needed God's Truth to direct me instead of my feelings directing me.

So I picked up again a habit from college - I wrote Scripture verses on my arm.

It helped me a lot as I could see God's Word in front of me all day.

It refocused my mind whenever I was tempted to be led by my emotions.

The only downside was it was easily smudged because I used a pen.

That was when I thought printing temporary tattoos would make them stick longer.

And voila, that is how these tattoos came to be!

They had been helpful to me and I didn't want to keep them all to myself!

If they had kept my mind on the Truth, I'm sure you would benefit from them too!

They are not just for depression. They are also great for whenever you need to keep your eyes fixed on the Lord [which, in my opinion, is all the time ;)]

Each sheet of the Carry the Truth Temporary Tattoos comes with 8 designs.

Here are the Scriptures/Inspirations Behind the Tattoos:

1) We are not called to be wimpy women. We have a clear picture of a godly woman in Proverbs 31:25 who was clothed in strength and dignity. What a beautiful imagery of true womanhood. I want every lady to be reminded of that.

2) This is so comforting to me. It is from Psalm 61:1-3 "Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy."

3) I love this picture from Psalm 112:7 "He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD." I pray that our hearts may indeed be firm because of our trust in the LORD!

4) 1 Timothy 6:12 - We can get weary fighting the good fight. But we need to remember it is all worth it in the end when we see Jesus face to face.

5) This verse was on my wrist on repeat when I felt lonely and depressed. I may be at home by myself during the day, but God is with me wherever I am and I take comfort in that.

6) We are God's chosen ones, may our hearts and our actions reflect God's characters! This is from a longer passage in Colossians 3:12-17 "Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

7) The trinity - a simple reminder that, through the Holy Spirit's help, we are to love God with our heart, soul, strength and mind for Christ has purchased our redemption with His blood.

8) It says "Pray Without Ceasing", a command in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Let us bring everything to God in prayers no matter what we are doing wherever we are!

I sincerely hope these tattoos will help fix your eyes on God.

Carry the Truth Temporary Tattoos are available for $3.97 (domestic shipping included)

Get them delivered to your doorsteps now!

Click Here to Purchase Carry the Truth Temporary Tattoos

Aaaand... Just for the fun of it, a few outtakes here from when I was trying to take photos of the tattoos on me.

Thoughts on Turning 27

"I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me." Psalm 13:6

Blessings often look like anything but the rosy pictures you have in your head until you reflect on your journey as a whole.

Whenever special occasions come up, I can't help but be moved by how blessed I am, in spite of how I came to where I am now.

Today, as I turn 27, I want to put those thoughts on paper (in the virtual world, that is) so I'll always remember just how God has written my story so far.

I'm going to list out some pivotal moments/season of life and do a comparison between my perspective and God's bigger plan.

My Perspective:

Sitting in the back of my Religious Studies class in 5th grade (I went to a Catholic school), I distinctively remember thinking "God doesn't exist" and "these Bible stories are just fictional stories." Even though I never bother to dig deep into the subject and find out about the truth for myself, I made the subconscious decision to remain atheist.

God's Bigger Plan:

This moment of active rebellion serves as a prologue to God's redemption story of my life.

My Perspective:

In college, over 7000 miles away from home in a culture foreign to my upbringing, I had a difficult time finding people I could connect with. I was lonely.
I also got to experience how self-centered people could be. I found it true that people would use you for their gains if they could. It was rather shocking to my sheltered world.
Meanwhile, my parents encouraged me to go to church and meet people (even though they were not believers, they believed that church-goers were nicer people who would befriend me). I refused, however, feeling like I was going to church in exchange for friendship, like I had an agenda, like a fraud.

God's Bigger Plan:

God used these 2 lonely and hard years to humble my heart, so that when He'd knock at my door again, I would let Him in.

My Perspective:

I transferred to a different college in a different state (helloooo, Iowa!) after 2 years in SoCal. By this time, I was so desperate for genuine and kind human connection that when my roommate invited me to a Christian college ministry meeting, I didn't even think twice about it. And there I met genuine folks who actually cared for me. They had no agendas in mind, they were just there to be my friend. So I kept going back, despite my rejection towards God.

God's Bigger Plan:

He used these friends of mine to greatly influenced my impression of Him. I saw how different these friends were; my rejection towards God turned into curiosity. In curiosity, I drew closer and closer to God by asking lots of questions. I came to the conclusion that while I might have been a 'good' person in the world's standard, I really was prideful and had turned my back on God. I decided to come back to Him, through Jesus Christ.



My Perspective:

Let's rewind back to when I was about 20. I had never dated anyone. The hopeless romantic inside of me desperately wanted to be adored by a man. And I felt like the world around me was telling me how I should have been dating by now and should have marriage in the foreseeable future. I was crying on the inside thinking, at this rate, I would probably still be single looking for love at the age of 30.

God's Bigger Plan:

I now laugh at how silly I must have looked in God's eyes when those thoughts came to me. Little did I know, God was already preparing my future groom a couple thousand miles away. God brought Grant into my life when my roommate at Iowa introduced me to him shortly after I had transferred. A little over 2 years later, we exchanged vows and entered into a covenant :)
And, to be honest, if I had been dating before Grant, I probably would have brought a lot more baggage into our marriage than I already had. My single years were totally God's protection.
Now at the age of 27, I've been married to Grant for 4 years, we have a 15-month-old AND we're expecting another one. CRAZY! I wonder what life will really be like when I'm 30 ;)



So this is a snippet of how God has blessed me, even when it didn't seem like they were blessings at the time.

Do you relate? Do you now clearly see those blessings that you thought were otherwise? I'd love to hear your story!

5 Secret Motherhood Perks You Forget About

Motherhood can be chaotic, demanding and crazy, but I want to remind us all the 5 secret perks we often forget about.