yes.

abc.

QOTW.

abc.

all i need.

today, this is all i need. forever, this is what i need...

"For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you...

Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first,

so that you might have a second experience of grace.

I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this?

Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?

As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.

That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.

(2 Corinthians 1:12-24 ESV)

and..

"'Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you,

and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the LORD is a God of justice;

blessed are all those who wait for him.'

For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,

yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,

“This is the way, walk in it,”

when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous.

In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.

And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow."

(Isaiah 30:18-26 ESV)

words cannot explain the sweetness of those words. the Lord is abundantly faithful.

abc.

QOTW.

i think this nails the importance of evangelism and the baffling power of Gods grace.

abc.

( PS: i think i would pay a million dollars for this bracelet. maybe more...seriously)

this side of Heaven.

im reading this book called "the knowledge of the Holy" by A.W.Tozer... its pretty far over my head, so even though i started it at the beginning of this semester, i am only on chapter 7. just to give you a little perspective- the chapters are all 4 pages long.

recently, there has been so. much. going on in my life that has just been cumulating to a mass of frustration. things that im not really going to write about, but that have been a mixture of maddening, exciting, annoying, frustrating, mysterious, pin-pointing, stressful, revealing, and confusing. and when you have a couple things happen, close together, that leave you with those same emotions.... its like a volcano of emotions just waiting to erupt.

so, knowing myself and how i deal with my emotions, i've been begging the Lord to give me clarity on what he is trying to teach me right now and to find joy in all this as opposed to get pissed off and shut down like i sometimes usually do...

so the chapter that i read today was such a comfort, but also such a frustration. more so of a comfort though. its titled the Eternity of God. in it Tozier says,

"We who live in this nervous age would be wise to meditate on our lives and our days long and often before the face of God on the edge of eternity. For we are made for eternity as certainly as we are made for time, and as responsible moral beings we must deal with both... 'He hath set eternity in their hearts', said the preacher, and i think he here sets forth both glory and the misery of men. to be made for eternity and forced to dwell in time is for mankind a tragedy of huge proportions. all within us cries for life and permanence, and everything around us reminds us of mortality and change. yet that God has made us of the stuff of eternity is both a glory yet to be realized and a prophecy yet to be fulfilled...."

i love that i serve a loving Savior that knows my life. that knows my beginning. that knows my end. and that knows all that is in between. i love that knowing all that would be in between, he hung on a cross so that when my end comes- it would be a joyful day. i really do love that....

but....

i really dont like that. i really dont like that he knows my future and doesn't make certain things clear to me. i really dont like that he knew my future when i was in the past and still allowed certain things to happen. i really dont like that he knows things about me that i dont even know about myself. sometimes i feel like he is keeping my own secrets from me. i really dont like that...

earlier in the chapter Tozier spoke of Moses when he was writing Psalm 90 and how "in it he celebrates the eternity of God. to him, this truth is a solid theological fact..."

Psalm 90: 12-17 has, unknowingly, been my prayer over the past few weeks. maybe even months....

"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom...

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

and for as many years as we have seen evil.

Let your work be shown to your servants,

and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands upon us;

yes, establish the work of our hands!

- Psalm 90: 12-17

teach us to number our days..... so- teach me to live with eternity on my heart. knowing that the things of this world or temporary. important, but temporary. understanding that my frustration is in the flawed perfection that my soul knows it craves. the Lord has "made [me] of the stuff of eternity" so my soul longs for perfect communion with him that isn't going to come this side of heaven...

i dont really know where all this leaves me. maybe more confused than when i sat down. but also more encouraged and, maybe, not alot, but a little less frustrated than when i sat down too.

abc.

who wouldn't want to come home?

i got to take ellie jane on a date last week to eat at moes, get her nails done, eat ice cream, and then play chase in the leaves.. oh my gosh it was so fun! (please excuse my obnoxious voice ha)

Ellie Jane playing her favorite game with Grandaddy...

if you ask john a question he replies with THE. CUTEST. "i dont know"...

who wouldn't want to come home to this?! i love these little stinkers so much!

there are more videos coming, so stay tuned!

abc.

meatballs and pinterest.

this whole semester me and some of my international friends have been wanting to get together and cook authentic "where you came from" meals. so, last week we started with Turkey! my sweet friend Burcu (i call her "B" because i cannot pronounce her name correctly ha) came and cooked us a DELICIOUS* meal! it is her mom's secret recipe and is SO GOOD.

i loved getting to watch the different techniques and ingredients that they use!

this is Mika (on the Left) and she is from Japan, and the Burcu (on the Right) who is from Turkey!

while we were eating, they started asking questions about american weddings and engagement rings. they did not understand why the engagement ring was such a big deal... Mika asked "so, american girls, you marry for ring? not man?" i laughed pretty hard, because sadly... sometimes i think girls idolize the actual wedding so much that they look over big flags in the relationship.

we had so much fun explaining the wedding process from each of our countries together. they wanted to see pictures.... so OF COURSE i pulled up pintrest (maybe a greater procrastination tool than facebook) and showed them pin-board after pin-board of wedding stuff. they LOVED it and i am proud to say that there are now 2 more pinners in this world :)

i am so unbelievably thankful for these two! we also had 2 other friends come over, but by then we were having so much fun hanging out, that we forgot to take pictures!

Burcu is coming with my family for thanksgiving and will be in for quite the surprise... we are headed to good ole Carbon Hill for the day and she is in for a big taste of southern cookin' and country livin'!! pictures to come for. sure.

abc.

QOTW.

abc.

thank goodness.

you know how sometimes you just need to get away and clear your head? well, one of the (numerous) perks of college is.... you can. so, i did. i called up a good friend, grabbed my precious baby angle a.k.a my camera, and hit the road...

this is my favorite one... the fact that it was raining only added to my perfect get away. it made the music playing just that much better...

after we left our friendly little cows, we were driving and stumbled across this glorious little hide away that we will MOST DEFINITELY be visiting again!

and, HOLY ANALOGIES my head was spinning.

i love shooting with people that get the whole analogies side of things. we had so many awesome talks as we were taking pictures about why we love each one we took and what we were thinking about each one... i love it when someone else just gets it.

we wrapped the night up at my sweet Aunt BeBe's house, in rocking chairs, eating some homemade chili, listening to the rain and just relaxing. seriously the most perfect thing i could have asked for!

i am so thankful for so many things. for my awesome parents and their wisdom, my legit friends and their love, my rockstar of a family and their support, my bad-a camera and its perfection, my itunes and its soothingness (because yes, thats a word), and my apartment for its hominess. and so, so, so, soooo much more.

abc.