ForeverLOVEd

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” dr. suess "What is your best love advice?" This is the question I asked each of the beautiful women at the Isaiah House as I topped their bowls of yogurt with scoops of granola and graham cracker. Love is a question I wonder about a lot! How do you find it? What's the best way to keep it? How do you know if it is real? I knew that each of these women that passed through the line would have a story to share, or a lesson they learned, or some piece of knowledge to pass on about love. Each of them have a real amount of life under their belts, and some of them have experienced more things than I will experience in my entire lifetime! I couldn't pass up the chance to soak in everything that they have learned along their journeys! So I listened intently as each women shared their advice on love. Some had a few words of wisdom, others an entire story. Each with a message on love in it! Between th

The devil will try to upset you by accusing you of being unworthy of the blessings that you have received. Simply remain cheerful and do your best to ignore the devil's nagging. If need be even laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Satan, the epitome of sin itself, accuses you of unworthiness! When the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future! -- Saint Theresa of Avila It's a strange thing, when you start to see God working in every part of your life. At moments, He slides in little messages to let you know He is still there walking the journey with you. Other times, He seems to be shouting "I'm here" or "I told you" or "Wait and trust". He comes into our lives in so many different forms; through words, through songs, through nature, through people, through moments, and through quiet. And I describe this as strange for a couple of reasons. One because these messages from God, seem to only increase the more you trust and t

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Mark 8:35-36 Ice cream, a sticker, a high five...when you are young these things give you incentive! They are rewards that let you know you've done a good job! And because these are physical markers that let us know our actions are positive, they condition us to keep doing the thing that is deemed "good"! As we grow up we no longer work for these small incentives, but strive for bigger more abstract goals in our lives. Markers that tell us we are doing the right thing and making the right choices. Sometimes in our lives we see our good choices leading to good concrete results. And truth be told sometimes we don't! It's easy to struggle with this notion, that no matter how many good choices or good decisions you make, it seems like everyone else

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again;death no longer is master over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:8-11 The other day I'm driving home in my car and I'm blasting the Taylor Swift cd! I love and can relate to almost any Taylor Swift song in at least some small way! And anyone who knows me knows that one of my biggest dreams in life is to fall in love, get married, and have a family. These are things that Taylor sings about more often than not! And so in turn I find myself filling a part in each of her songs. My favorite Taylor Swift song is "Mine". I love this song for a lot of reasons. And maybe it's because I can identify with the careful daughter or because the story is

14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:14 Have you ever baked a cake?! I'm not talking about the kind where you throw in the powder, add some eggs, and call it done. But like a real, from scratch, homemade kind of cake?! Maybe its from a family recipe or the old copy of Betty Crocker you have on your kitchen counter. It's the kind of cake where you measure and mix in the perfect measurements of each ingredient. You add just enough of each thing. Toss in a pinch of this, a cup of that, until you have the absolutely perfect combination of everything! You stir everything together in the bowl, grease the pan, pour the mixture in, and then there is this moment where you put the pan in the oven and there's really nothing left for you to do but wait. The recipe and the cake are out of your hands at this point. You can only sit there as it cooks to become the perfect chocolate c