The Sin of Busy-ness

I opened up WordPress today and I realized I hadn’t written a blog post, I was going to write an apology post for my recent lack of consistency, but then I realized something. This happens to all of us. We are all so busy in today’s society, we run from event to event, from school to sports to work to church events and finally getting to bed much later than we intended. We keep going until we need to stop. We have mastered the art of multi-tasking, of doing our homework for English in math class. Or whatever else it is for you. We are ridiculously busy. 

We try to do everything, and then we get too stressed to do much of anything. 

I’m absolutely guilty of this. I sign up for activities knowing that I often have tons of homework to do, plus a blog to write, plus time I need to spend in my Bible, plus this and that. I am usually in such a state of stress that all I can do is waste time doing something thoughtless and meaningless, like scrolling through social media or watching endless episodes of something on Netflix. I just don’t have time for anything, but I get so overwhelmed that I spend all the time I do have on things of little to no importance. 

Why do we do this? The Bible tells us to keep our hands busy and not be idle, but it also tells us to rest. The resting is the part I struggle with most. Even if I’m not doing anything important, I have this unending need to be doing something. But that isn’t what God intended for us. He intended for us to work as hard as we can, and then take a break, rest. Not scroll through social media or work on your to-do list for home instead of work or school, He intended us to rest. 

And I think that in this time of year, that is supposed to be cozy and joyful, we find ourselves especially busy, and I don’t think that that is what Jesus intended for us. 

Just a thought to ponder this week as you’re running through the weekly motions. 

Sitting Back and Letting Others Earn Glory (And Why That’s Ok)

Tonight I was sitting in my room scrolling through Instagram and I saw several of my friends doing really awesome stuff for Jesus, one of my friends is doing and inspiring others to do a 30 day prayer challenge, another has a really successful Bible verse Instagram account, yet another is incredibly outspoken about her faith and has inspired countless people to come to Jesus, and it goes on and on and on. And I found myself getting a little jealous, maybe jealous isn’t the right word, but I felt like I wasn’t doing good enough, like no matter how hard I try I could never be as well known as this friend or as perfect of a Christian as that friend. I started to feel bad about myself and the things that I do for Jesus instead of being proud of and encouraging my friends. 

And later I was thinking about this thought process and I remembered a verse somewhere about encouraging your friends, and another verse about not making your good works known. 

Galatians 6:2

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Matthew 6:3

“But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,”

And it occurred to me that my mindset was very un-Christ-like and while it’s great to be encouraged or spurred on by a friend’s good works, it isn’t good to feel like you need to do better so that people know you did better. Doing Christ’s work isn’t always glamorous or successful in a worldly sense. Praising God and doing His good work has nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with Jesus. And because of that, sometimes we are not called to be the one reckognized for good works, sometimes we are meant to stay in the background, support our friends and do the stuff that happens behind the scene. And that is just as important. 

Hebrews 6:10 

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

Twitter: @golden_rose_8

Beauty and Jesus

So I posted a blog a few weeks ago called Mental Health and Jesus, and it got a very positive feedback, so I decided to turn it into a series! This installment will be (obviously) Beauty and Jesus, but if you have any ideas that you would like my take on for this series, leave it in the comments! 

Anyway! I have always been very interested in makeup and beauty and magazines and that type of thing. Up until recently, I thought that was just completely normal and not even worth noting, but I’ve come to realize that there are a lot of people who do not believe that someone who trusts in and lives a life for Jesus would also be interested in beauty. These people take Bible verses about not being prideful or conceited and take them to mean that people who love Jesus should not partake in things like makeup. 

Just a disclaimer before I discuss my thoughts on this, I am completely fine with people who think the Bible says that makeup is bad, if they don’t want to wear makeup that’s great! I just wanted to share my thoughts and hopefully reassure other people who want to love Jesus but also wear makeup!

I love makeup and nail polish and beauty magazines and beauty bloggers and the like. My favorite part of my morning is putting my makeup on, I think it’s calming and creative and fun! I really enjoy it! I don’t think it is controversial or something I can’t live without, I just enjoy it. I don’t think that using beauty products is bad or sinful in my life, but I do think that I can become that way. Makeup is, for me, an artform and a hobby. I enjoy reading about new products and deciding which ones I want to try, I enjoy trying new looks and expressing myself through how I did my makeup on any given day. I enjoy painting my nails to match my mood or the seasons or whatever is, it is all just something that I enjoy doing. However, makeup and nail polish is not, for me, something I feel like I need. It is not something I depend on for self-confidence or something I hide behind. I don’t feel better than people who don’t wear makeup or nail polish, and I think that is where the sin comes in. In my mind, the sin of beauty products has nothing to do with the actual products, it has everything to do with why people use them. They can quickly become a sin if used to make someone else feel worse about themself, or if used in a prideful way. 

Overall, I think we just need to look at the reasons we are using beauty products. Jesus did not tell us not to make art or enjoy hobbies, He told us not to become prideful or hide behind artificial idols. The line is drawn in our emotions and the reasons we use makeup, not in the actual use of it.

How to De-Stress

Recently I was at work, after a day of school and rushing around to get my room clean and my bed made for the first time in two weeks, and I was scrolling through Pinterest looking at all of the Halloween costumes I wanted to make and all of the journals/planners I wanted to keep and all of the recipes I wanted to try and all of the things I want to do in my future classroom and so on. Obviously I started to feel incredibly overwhelmed because I wanted to do everything but I didn’t want to wait to plan things or take the time to enjoy any of it. 

I realized I was spread too thin and it was entirely my fault. 

And because I’m me and ultimately always going to be thinking of the next thing to do and the best way to do it, I decided that I needed to de-stress, but before I could actually de-stress, I had to list my favorite ways. SO instead of taking the time to write a separate blog post for today, I thought I would share my list of ways to de-stress! 

Some of these are my tried-and-true favorites, and others are things I’m wanting to implement into my day to day routine, so hopefully you’ll enjoy this list and be inspired to set down all of the things you’re worrying about and just de-stress! 

1.   Reading! 

I love reading and find it a wonderful distraction from the stresses of every day life. Especially when I have a cozy atmosphere!

2. Coloring!

I mention coloring way too often, but I legitimately enjoy it! I find it incredibly calming while still feeling productive, which is always a win in my book. 
3. Making lists! 

I get actual joy from filling in my planner every morning and seeing what the day holds, making lists and planning my day is my absolute favorite de-stressor, even though it stresses some people out more. 
4. Spending time with Jesus! 

Reading my bible, doing a devotional, or bible journaling are some of my favorite de-stressors. I feel productive because I’m always meaning to spend more time with Jesus, but it’s also calming and reassuring. 
5. Listening to my record player 

One of my favorite ways to unplug and destress is to listen to music on my record player. I like to focus on the music itself and  I find it very calming. 
6. Playing with animals! 

I love going to pet stores or the local human society to love on puppies and kittens that don’t get much affection when I’m feeling stressed, it’s a good way to think outside of myself, plus I just love spending time with sweet animals! 
7. Doing my makeup 

Doing my makeup every morning is my favorite way to start the day! Doing my makeup requires just enough focus to take my mind off of other things, plus it’s a creative outlet and I just enjoy it! 
8. Photography 

One of my recent favorite activities is taking a walk around my town and taking pictures on my phone of things I think are pretty or inspiring, and I really enjoy it! 

9. Making and drinking tea!

Recently I’ve found that the process of making and savoring a cup of tea is extremely therapeutic and I’m really enjoying this discovery!

10. Journaling! 

Last, but certainly not least is journaling! I’m a super huge advocate for writing in a journal and will talk about it all the time! It’s so good for you and I can never feel entirely de-stressed until I’ve written in my journal!

Worshipping During Tragedy

The world is full of a lot of tragedy right now. Other than the major national tragedies, there are tragedies in our homes and towns and churches. And I’ve found that it’s really easy to pray in the midst of a tragedy, it’s really easy to be mad at God and ask desperately why He let whatever it is happen, it’s easy to scream prayers full of anger or whisper prayers teeming with pain. But it isn’t easy to worship in the midst of tragedy. It isn’t easy to thank God for allowing something awful to happen, or sing praise songs with a broken heart. People turn away from God in the midst of tragedies more than any other time because of this. A successful relationship with God requires praise and worship, and tragedy often prohibits people from worshiping or being thankful at all. 

But this isn’t the first time that the world has been ravaged with pain and suffering. This isn’t the first time that people have been oppressed and killed for things they can’t help. It isn’t the first time that awful things seem to just keep happening. And somehow, in the middle of these historic tragedies, people managed to worship God. Some of the most amazing stories I’ve heard about worshipping God have come from soldiers that fought in world war 2, or black people who suffered through the 1960’s, or Jews that lived under Hitler’s reign. So how did they manage to worship? And how do we manage to worship now? 

It isn’t going to be easy, I’ll tell you that much. We can’t expect God to give us easy lives, full of careless joy, because that’s not what He told us to expect. He told us that we would be hated by the world, He told us that we would suffer and struggle during our time on earth, He warned us that we would go through tragedy but that we needed to worship Him regardless. 

So, no matter what, God will provide for you. He will provide things of joy so that our human hearts can bear to worship. He provides food for our tables, He provides new babies and allows people to fall in love, He lets us choose our careers and find something we enjoy, God wants us to enjoy our time on earth so that we can do His good work. 

So how do we worship in the midst of tragedy? 

Look for the good things. 

See that God provides for you, and that everything will be ok. Look at tragedy as a way to come closer to God and to help others come closer to Him. 

It is not God’s fault that we live in a world full of pain and suffering. He let us make our own choices and this is what we have done. But it is because of God that good things happen. It is because of God that there is hope for the hopeless and light in the darkness. If we can only remember that, it will be easy to worship Him in the midst of our heartbreak. 

September Favorites

I’ve been planning on doing a monthly favorites post ever since I started my blog so I’m especially excited about this post! Hopefully you’ll enjoy all of the things I’ve been loving this month!!! 

• Beauty: 

Purell Seasonal 

This favorite probably seems weird, but I have celiac and can’t have any gluten in my beauty products, which rules out all Bath & Body Works products. This broke my heart when I first found out, until I realized that I have plenty of alternatives! These are one of my favorite alternatives and so is my next favorite! 

The Body Shop Spiced Apple Lotion

This lotion smells so good! It feels great on the skin and makes me feel all warm and cozy! Plus it’s fall-scented and gluten free so I love it!! 

Mario Badescu Rosewater Facial Spray

I’d heard about this stuff for years from different beauty bloggers/vloggers before I tried it, and I didn’t really think it would be as wonderful as they said it was. But! This is an amazing product! I put it on after washing my face and before I put makeup on, and it does a wonderful job of smoothing the skin and protecting it from the makeup you’re about to put on. Plus it feels great and helps your makeup stay on all day! 

Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Liquid Eyeliner 

This is the very best liquid eyeliner I have ever used. And that’s a pretty big deal because liquid eyeliner is my absolute makeup essential. This stuff is more expensive than I would like, but it’s totally worth it! It stays on all day, is easy to apply, and looks great!

Burt’s Bees Lip Gloss in Fall Foliage

I’m not usually a fan of lip gloss, especially colors that are light and mostly just sparkly. However, I picked this up on a whim because it was on clearance. And I love it! It’s gorgeous and keeps my lips mosturized all day! 

• Lifestyle/Home

Coloring! 

This might be lame, but I bought some Johanna Basford coloring bookmarks on clearance at Target and have fallen in love (again!) with coloring! It’s relaxing and peaceful and makes me feel productive! 

Da Bomb Pumpkin Spice Bath Fizzer

Da Bomb is my absolute favorite brand of bath fizzers and bombs (sorry Lush) and when I saw that they had a pumpkin spice scent, I flipped out and bought it immediately. Fall can stressful, plus it gets cold again so Bath bombs are a great fall thing! (And a great all the time thing)

Bath & Body Works Sweater Weather One-Wick Candle

Since the candles and other home scent things are the only products I can use from my beloved Bath & Body Works, I cling to them with all of my might. I love this candle!! It’s great for fall and the new one-wick candles are great for my small bedroom because they fill up a room without being overpowering. 

Planning!!!!

I got my planner from Big Lots and have been using it all school year, and while I don’t love my actual planner, I have re-fallen in love with planning. I’ve been pinning lots of things on Pinterest about bullet journaling and have found myself much more relaxed and on top of things because I’ve been planning better. 

• Food!!! 

Sleepytime Mint Tea

I’ve been enjoying a cup of tea every evening and this has been my favorite kind!! It tastes great but also has lots of good-for-you ingredients! 

Pumpkin Spice Cheerios 

These have very mixed reviews, BUT I adore them! They’re delicious, autumnal, and a great snack or breakfast. 

La Croix Sparkling Water

I’ve been cutting down on sugar, so La Croix is a wonderful substitute! It tastes good, satisfies my soda craving, and is actually just water!!! 
Thanks for reading about my September favorites!!! Hopefully you’ll enjoy and try some of them out!

Mental Health & Jesus

I have had three different anxiety disorders for as long as I can remember, and every time I would ask for prayer in overcoming my illness, people would give me Bible verses about not being anxious/worried and praying. And while it was sweet of these people to offer encouragement, and those verses can be incredibly meaningful in certain situations, I just felt as though no one understood the severity of my sickness. 

People in the church (and people not in the church) often say that people with mental illnesses just need to get over it, or pray it out, or whatever else that won’t actually help with a mental illness. 

I struggled with this a lot because I felt as though I was failing myself and failing God because I couldn’t just get over my anxiety, I couldn’t pray in the middle of a panic attack and be cured, I couldn’t read a Bible verse and not have to be filled with terror any time I was approached with one of my triggers. And it wasn’t until this past November that I realized how mistaken I was. 

I was in the pit of my absolute worst mental health last Fall, I couldn’t get through a school day without having a full-on panic attack that left me in desperate tears, trying to do anything to not feel that way and to not let people know how much I was hurting and struggling. I spent all of my time in my room, either sleeping or watching Netflix. I had a boyfriend who I let treat me awful and who I treated awful because I couldn’t deal with one more thing. 

And I broke. 

I realized that I needed help. I needed to do something because my life was not worth living the way it was. 

I found a counselor and started having weekly counseling sessions and she discussed how to handle my anxiety in a way that didn’t involve the Bible or praying at all, but would give me the best life possible to be able to serve God. She told me that it was ok to need medication to get through the day, and that it was ok that I was struggling. 

She helped me get my life back, so that I could serve and praise God, but she didn’t tell me that praying or reading my Bible would help me get better, because she knew it wouldn’t. 

In the midst of my overwhelming anxiety, I hadn’t talked to God in a long time because I was just so focused on not letting people know how sick I was. But throughout the process of getting better, I began to praise God in a way I never had before. 

And I’m not perfect, and I slip up and I still sin a lot more than I care to admit. But without God, I could never have become the person I am today. I could never have become joyful and loud and opinionated and passionate and loving and happy. 

God guided my healing, even though I had no idea He was doing anything at all. He gave me exactly what I needed, and for me that was medication and counseling, for you it might be something else. 

But God will always provide. 

Farmer’s Market Adventures

Hello! I completed something off of my bucket list!!! This past Friday, one of my best friends spent the night at my house and we woke up really early in the morning on Saturday to go to our local farmer’s market! And it was so much fun! I got a gf vegan pumpkin woopie pie, and had some neat conversations with local artisans, and my friend and I sat in a cute coffee shop and played Spanish bingo before going to some local stores and ending the morning by going home and making pizzas and going through the photos we took. Overall it was a wonderful day and I hope you’ll enjoy looking at all the pictures of my farmer’s market adventures!!! 

How To Love Jesus When You Don’t Feel Like It

Originally I had a different post planned for today, but on Sunday I got to church and just wasn’t feeling it. I was irritable and grumpy and just wanted to go home. In the car on the way to church I was already getting into a bad mood because I just didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to see people, or hear the inspiring words that Jesus told his followers, I just wanted to sit in my room and mope because I’ve had a rough week and didn’t want to deal with anything. 

The whole church service I was like that, grumpy and irritated at everyone and everything. But when I got home, I got the idea for this post and was still in a bad enough mood that I could only write the title before getting annoyed and having to put down my phone. 

So now I’m back to actually write this post, after having time to sleep and eat and destress. And while I have several ideas of how to love Jesus when you don’t want to, the most important one is the most simple. 

1. The most important way to love Jesus when you don’t want to, is to simply spend time with Him. Pray, read your Bible, listen to some worship music. Even if you are so irritable that you just want to roll your eyes and slam your Bible shut, eventually He will soften your heart and all of your irritation and stress will melt away. It really will. I promise. 

2. The second best way to love Jesus when you don’t want to, is to take some time. Normally I wouldn’t recommend not spending time with Jesus as a way to want to spend time with Jesus. But sometimes, when you reach a certain level of annoyance and irritation and stress, spending time with Jesus will only make you resent spending time with Him. You just have to be honest with yourself. You’ll know if spending time with Jesus will make you better or bitter. 

3. The third way is to talk to someone else. It’s a lot harder to be bitter and annoyed when you’re talking to someone you admire and trust. I always recommend talking to a mentor or counselor, but especially when you don’t want to love Jesus. Talking to someone else will make it much easier to be honest and rational, and eventually you’ll feel significantly better. 

4. Try to fix the root of your irritation. Whatever it is, whether it be a church situation or friend drama or stress about life in general or whatever else, there is some way to fix it. It doesn’t always help, but often times, going to the source of your annoyance or bitterness will either do away with it or help you see that it isn’t worth your annoyance or bitterness. 

5. Write about what you’re feeling. Much like how talking to someone or trying to find the root of your problem allows you to see if through new eyes, writing about your emotions does the same. Journaling is, and always has been, one of my favorite things to do, especially when I’m irritated or sad or bitter. It helps me rationalize and see how important what I’m dealing with actually is. 

I really hope that these tips will help you want to spend time with/love Jesus again. Sometimes the passion for Christ is stronger than other times, but it’s important to know that no matter what you’re dealing with or how you feel about God, He loves you and nothing you do will change that. 

A Day In The Life: As Told Through Photos

I couldn’t think of anything to write about for today’s post, so I was texting a few friends about it and they suggested I do a Day In The Life, and I thought I’d make it a little different by using only photos, hopefully you’ll enjoy!