Psalm 8:2

Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.

With the arrival of the month of December and countdown to Christmas, I decided to start reading a Christmas devotional book with my younger siblings. We began our reading, with a piece of chocolate from our advent calendars, of course! Halfway through the reading we kind of got off track. We started talking about how Jesus came to earth to restore our relationship with God. We thought it was so incredible that God sent his son just so we could be near him. This led us to talking about our experiences with God. It amazes me that my siblings clearly remember the times that they have encountered the presence of God…they’re only 7 and 8. Which reminds me of how awesome God is. His presence is powerful and impacting! Hearing the things that my siblings had to say, made my heart happy. They began to describe what the presence of God felt like. My sister said “I  just burst into tears, and then I fainted (fell hehe) and then I had a huge smile on my face and I had so much joy and my heart felt really really nice.” She also said” I love feeling the presence of God because I like smiling and my heart feels free”. My little brother said “God is like my dad and my friend, when I’m sad he cheers me up by saying stuff that makes me happy, he’s like a shepherd to me and I’m a sheep and he takes care of me and feeds me and loves me”. How precious to know the love of God. Let me tell you, when you’re talking about Jesus, Jesus enters the room! We felt the presence of God tonight, as we read our devotional. Unexpected, yet so perfect. I feel so proud to be their sister!

Is there such thing as a restaurant that serves both pepsi and coke?

Expectations: We should do this once a month to keep in touch.

Reality: That’s the last time you’ll see her for at least another 3 months.

Why is New Girl only 20 minutes?

¹⁸ For I am full of words, 
   and the spirit within me compels me; 
¹⁹ inside I am like bottled-up wine, 
   like new wineskins ready to burst. 
²⁰ I must speak and find relief; 
   I must open my lips and reply.

Listening to John Mark’s new album and it’s Phenomenal! He is one of the most creative christian songwriters out there! I recommend his new album to everyone, the beat is so good and so are the lyrics =)

This past weekend was quite the weekend. I attended two conferences. Both were great! I learned lots from both. One of the speakers spoke about inner healing which was super relevant to what I am currently going through. He asks three questions 1) If you could meet God anywhere at all face to face, where would it be? 2) If God were to come to you, who would he come to you as? 3) How old would you be in that moment?

Simple questions right? well, they broke me down. I went to my safe place with Jesus for the first time ever. It was the coolest thing i’ve ever experienced! My safe place is a humongous luscious mountain, on top of the mountain there is an apple tree. Just one, and Jesus is standing near the apple tree. He came to me as a father, I am about three or four years old and I ran into his arms and He picked me up and spun me all around! It was so much fun. Once you’re in your safe place you ask Jesus a question relevant to your brokeness. For example you tell him about your worry, “I’m afraid I will never get married”. You then ask Jesus to remind you were that lie was spoken over you and you give it up to him. Healing at it’s best, Jesus is always there. I thought this exercise was super cool and helpful.

I got drunk in the spirit for my first time! It’s incredible fun, Holy Spirit is soooooooo much fun! After service my friends and I decided to go eat. My one friend calls me for directions and we start laughing, we can not get a word in, nothing but laughter for about 3 minutes. Nothing funner than that.

Like fools in love, We’re bound to make a scene.

Sometimes christian women are attracted to non-christian men because some christian men are cowards- Pastor Mark Driscoll

I love his bluntness!

I was watching ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and an episode of ‘How I met you mother’ a couple of days ago. Both mentioned similar ways of thinking about dating and love. This made me think of purity and the importance of guarding one’s heart. Lately I’ve been bothered by this one question: Do you have a boyfriend yet? As if my life depends on me having a boyfriend. Most people think I should be dating around just because I’m old enough. I don’t believe in dating around. Last year I read ‘And the bride wore white: seven secrets to sexual purity’ by Dannah Gresh. The title captured my attention, I was intrigued by the ‘And the bride wore white’ part. This book changed my perspective on the importance of purity and guarding one’s heart. It taught me that purity is so precious, it’s our gift to our future spouses. My mom taught me from early on that dating was no joke, it was meant to be done with intentions of marriage. I went along with it, it made sense, but this book helped me understand what purity truly meant. Purity is so much more than restraining from sexual activity. Purity is a lifestyle.

A couple months ago I was watching a video called ‘recreational dating’ on youtube by Paul washer. This may sound a bit extreme to some but Paul washer says in the video “Statistically most Christians have had five serious relationships prior to being married. Now let’s say that physical sex isn’t even involved.  The way we are made, when we cleave to someone of the opposite sex, although I’m not going to say you become one with every person that you date. There is still the principle of a cleaving and of uniting whenever two people of the opposite sex come together in some relationship that has the hint of romantic and companionship to it. There is a binding, a meshing to it. And so what happens? You get you to your marriage one day, and you’re not whole because you’ve already given part of you to five different people. And on your marriage night, you’re not alone. Those five people come with you whether you realize it or not. Whether you realize it or not it will affect the way you look at your spouse; it’ll affect the way you look at your marriage more than you would dare to believe.

I agree with Paul Washer. You give bits of yourself to people in whom you are involved with romantically. It’s truly inevitable. He talks about how dating is a modern phenomenon even in secular culture. Dating didn’t even exist 100 years ago.

Purity is more than just sex. It’s about keeping our minds, our hearts and our thoughts clean. It’s about being careful with the types of shows and movies we watch. We girls love chick flicks and we may think that they are harmless but in some cases they may even be the equivalent of porn for girls. Because we tend to fantasize about the perfect guy and we compare our life’s to that of others. It is wrong to live in fantasy about romance and relationships. They create emotional fantasy that is wrong. Fantasy in the realm of romance movies is just as wrong as porn. Recently I’ve learned that our minds are so sacred and it’s one of the most creative ways which God communicates with us. He gives us visions and dreams. If our minds are not Holy and set apart for God than it’s hard for a Holy God to abide in a sinful mind 100%.

I was watching ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and an episode of ‘How I met you mother’ a couple of days ago. Both shared similar ways of thinking about dating and love which made me think of the great value of purity and guarding one’s heart. In Sweet Home Alabama, Melanie say “the truth is, I gave my heart away a long time ago, and never really got it back”. She was still in love with her husband whom she had separated from and couldn’t give her heart to this new man because she had already given it away. In the episode of How I met your mother, the characters are talking about dating and how it’s troublesome to find a person who doesn’t have baggage. That baggage usually comes from past relationships. The cause of this problem comes from not guarding one’s heart and from having given it away to other people other than your future spouse. 

I want to stay pure. I think emotional baggage is too messy. I intend to date, actually “court”, (It’s a funny word) when God wants. My focus is on Jesus right now. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”. Keep your focus on Jesus, do what he wants you to do and He’ll take care of you! The bible mentions “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires”, three times in song of songs! It must mean something right? It’s all in God’s perfect time.

Above all else, guard you heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23

Love, 

N