Fashion

Okay... I admit, I love fashion and design... I love vivid, vibrant colors; colors that put a spark into your day and a smile on your face.  I also admit that I love walking into a Gap shop with the scent of Gap clothing floating and humming around.  I love spontaneous findings of beautiful colors and wonderful scents.  For example:  I was walking into my dad's work place the other day, and a array of beautiful colored flowers were spread under an area of trees ... flowers, flowers, flowers; beauty, beauty, beauty...it didn't stop.  It was beautiful.  That's God's kind of fashion.  I love God's kind of fashion.
    Picture taken at the University: 

Matthew 6:38

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

    God wants us to enjoy life; and enjoy His colors and His fashion.   Although clothing and shoes aren't really God's creation, he did give people talents to design beautiful things.

Take, for example, this type of shoe... it makes me smile. :O)  (The blue ocean in the background bribed me into liking the shoe even more).

{credit} for picture numer 2

Enjoy the colors that God has put in the world.

Lord's day

                                                                              

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,

but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers,

and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,

but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up

my body to be burned, 

but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind;

love does not envy or boast;

it is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way 

it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.

Love never ends."

-I Corinthians 13:1-8

`photo credit: Google Images -- Jessie Wilcox Smith' 

The Importance of Prayer

        I'm currently reading through a great book by Elizabeth George...A Young Women's Call to Prayer.  Besides being beautifully written, the book portrays the need for young women to pray; and how important it is to pray.  But, it's so hard to pray sometimes!  When praying in the night, this is usually how I end up:
   'Dear, Lord Jesus, how holy is Your Name!--How great You are!  Lord, you've blessed me so much.  I thank you for a house, for my new friend across the road, for my new blog, [this is where I go: 'Oh, yeah! And I was gonna' finish that post...and now I forgot.  Oh, and the blog design--I wanted to change that.  Adding a new blog button would be nice, too.  E-mails!--Smack...I forgot to reply to Jessica...' etc.]  Do you get the point?  I start to drift off into a totally different world.  A world that I should be laying aside.  Why should I be laying that world of thoughts aside? -- to help me focus on God.   
        Let's face it: it can be hard to pray.  But let's plough through this together.  God loves to hear from us and we love to talk to Him.  Even though it may seem hard, let's think of a method by which we can  speak to God freely and without interruptions:

1. When I go through really hard times it's then I can give my all to Jesus.  It's then when I can weep at His feet.  It's then that I pray non-stop without my thoughts interrupting my prayers.
2. Write a letter to God.  Grab a piece of paper, a pen, and have some thoughts you want to jot down.  Pretend your writing to your best friend...in reality, you ARE writing to your Best Friend.  Share with Him your mistakes, your worries, and your joys.
3. Sing praises! 
4. .................This is where you comment and share suggestions!  Do you have a method by which you pray to God with?   Please share it.  

    'But,' some may be asking, 'why is prayer important?'

Prayer fulfils the Purpose of God in Salvation

The purpose of salvation is to restore lost people to relationship with God our Father. Through the cross of Jesus, the barriers to that relationship were removed. When we begin to trust God once again and turn from our sin, He comes into our lives to begin a new relationship of love with us. God is in every true Christian (Romans 8:9,10; John 14:23; Revelation 3:20; 2 Corinthians 13:5). Our faith and love towards God will lead us to recognise His presence with us, to talk with Him, to listen to Him, to sense Him. This is prayer. We express our thanks, our faith, our love, our hopes with God in prayer, and we receive from Him answers, assurance, guidance, peace, strength, power, revelation of who He is and what He wants to do. (Matthew 7:7-8; John 16:13; Philippians 4:6-7; Ephesians 1:17,18 ).  [This is taken from a site on prayer.]


   Do you see?  Isn't that amazing?  Why not start praying?...Now! 

 Lastly, if you're a woman, I'd highly recommend this book. ( http://www.amazon.com/Young-Womans-Call-Prayer-Elizabeth/dp/0736914633/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298121872&sr=8-1 ) 
     It's great.  Inspiring.  This book helps.


"…The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16). 

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18). 



"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). 


"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:5-8). 


"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:13-14). 

Life is like looking up a tall tree...

                                 

photo by acacia (acaciart photography)

Life.  It's happenings.  Breath.  The abilities it gives us.  Laughter.  The spontaneous happiness it produces. 

Life is too amazing to be true--how God created me and you. 

      I realized today that life is like looking up one of those really tall trees and thinking: 'Man, that's high!'... I find that we look up to life and say 'Geesh...that's high...how will I ever be able to reach there?'  In other words, 'how will I get where I want to go in life'?  Yeah.  That's the question.  How?  How can we climb to the top of that tree without just staring up at it from the bottom...?--we really do have to pull our own weight.  It's not just about waiting for that spontaneous moment to appear when you'll be accepted into a job and as something great.  Although, after the pulling and hard work, then, comes the time to wait.   Everyone's tree--or aspirations--are different...thus, each of us carry a completely different task.  

Just think a minute about what you love to do a lot.  Okay, now think about climbing up a tree with that on your back...you're 'aspiring high'.  Aspire high for that job you want--for that ability that you want to get better at.  Sure enough, you'll realize, God's there right next to you ready to give you a helping hand.  

While you aspire,

love God--not the things of this world. 

Laugh a lot...and, of course, crying is necessary.

be thankful in all circumstances,

Please don't complain,

Make nothingness into something...a dull room into something cheery and bright.  A blank piece of paper into a written masterpiece or drawing. 

Just aspire high.  And remember--don't just chose a small tree to climb--choose the biggest--or the one that God is calling you to.  

Note:  Please don't get too caught up in the things of this world: love GOD.  HIM alone. 

aspire high

be inspired by Christ.