lake strolls

 

yesterday I solitarily strolled the deck of my local lake. it's always so peaceful to watch the waves crash against each other. I'll have to come here more often. 

campfires, s'mores, and Fall

we had a campfire, we had s'mores and we acted like it was Fall by sitting by the fire and roasting with the marshmallows. we might have sweated in our ankle boots but it was a nice gathering :)

Oh and s'mores are good. One time, I ate four in just one sitting (and it was happy).

Looking for You

"I am the sea on a moonless night
Calling falling, slipping tides
I am the leaky, dripping pipes
The endless, aching drops of light

I am the raindrop falling down
Always longing for the deeper ground
I am the broken, breaking seas
Even my blood finds ways to bleed

I am restless
I am restless
I am breathless
Looking for You

I am restless
I run like the ocean to find your shore
I am looking for You

Until the sea of glass we meet
At last completed & complete
Where tide & tear & pain subside
And laughter drinks them dry

I'll be waiting
Anticipating
All that I aim for
What I was made for

With every heartbeat
All of my blood bleeds
Running inside me
I'm looking for You

Looking for You."


Restless by Jon Foreman

Fall Inspired Attire

Even though the weather is not complying with my longing for Fall, I still am sporting the colors of my favorite season.

Skirt: Modcloth
Shirt: Thrifted
Shoes: Gah, I can't remember where I bought them. . .

Cheerio while I go dream of Autumn while I sweat in my ankle boots and fiddle though the cardigans in my closet. 

when in Texas pt.2

some more pics of the Palo Duro. It was very pretty here.

when in Texas Pt. 1

We visited the Palo Duro in Amarillo, Texas. It's the second largest canyon in the United States. We climbed up to a cave in which I almost slipped down the hill in the process (oops). I'll blame it on our guide..

But it was so gorgeous.

We also visited the Big Texan Steakhouse and were serenaded by a guitar singing Roy Roger's junior. 

I like Texas and even though I was raised in Arkansas, I was born in the big T... you can just imagine my accent.

it goes on

"In three words

I can sum up everything 

I've learned about life

i t    g o e s   o n"

Robert Frost

How 'playing church' kills the Church

It's so easy to become indulgent and lazy in the midst of the chaos going on in the world today.  We're shown graphic, devastating videos of precious lives that have been murdered being bartered for personal financial gain. We watch as fellow Christians are tortured and murdered for their faith in prisons and often in their own homes. We're forced to watch blatant sin that wraps itself in the form of "equality" be praised and glorified by the very people who also claim to be followers of Christ.

I can't begin to describe my disgust with the so called "love" message that is sweeping through the American churches. "Don't judge" they say "don't discriminate", or "only God can judge" ( which is actually pretty scary). I feel like waving my hands in the air and screaming out to the church to wake up.
Christian's cannot stand by the sidelines waving their rainbow flags and then show up to church to worship a God they don't even know. Because if they did truly know Him, they'd tell the story behind the rainbow that God sent after He destroyed the earth because of sin. When are we, as Christians, going to shout from the rooftops "Stop this madness! Stop this blatant sin against God! Stop this mass genocide on the unborn!"

We've read, we've seen and we know that for thousands of years Christians have been persecuted, tortured and murdered for their faith and their stand. They knew and they know that their defiance to change their solid belief in God would ultimately lead to their death.
You know what? I don't think the American church is up to that challenge. You know why? When we're more concerned with "offending" people who are in outright sin and we're more concerned with the lights that make our worship teams look like rock bands and when we're more concerned on whether our church has a coffeeshop in it... there's a problem. a big problem.

Where's the sacrifice? Where's the people who call sin what it is? Where are the people with courage?

I remember seeing a church service clip online where the preacher said behind the pulpit, "We don't want to offend anybody. We hope you might bump into Jesus while you're here, but be completely aware- we don't want to push anything on you." after that speech the 'worship band' began to play Eye of the Tiger and the crowd began to clap.

I was left speechless. We don't want to 'offend' anybody? You might 'bump into Jesus'?
That kind of so called Christianity leaves me deeply ashamed. Ashamed that while they're holding their starbucks, clapping their hands to Eye of the Tiger, and maybe-possibly-but more than likely not- 'bumping' into Jesus, there are thousands of babies being murdered and there are thousands of fellow Christians who are suffering greatly because of their stand. It sears my heart that instead of showing people who Jesus is by our lives and reading of the Word (no matter how much Scripture and truth 'offends' them) that we're instead asking them to come play church with us. Like it's some kind of game on how far we can mix secular and sacred.

When someone dies without knowing Jesus and they're spending eternity separated from God- do you think they're going to thank all those people who patted them on the back, those people who sugarcoated their sin and those who said 'don't judge'? NO, they'll be crying out in rage and anger because that is not Christian love. True Christian love is sacrificially giving your life for Christ- no matter if that includes death, embarrassment, hate. It's showing and helping people see their need of Christ. It's showing people the heavy consequences of their sin. It's walking the walk and not just saying pretty (and pretty much useless) words on Sunday morning. It's not 'following your dreams', but following hard after God's path for your life.

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for." -Charles Spurgeon.

Let's become a courageous people. People who will walk the walk no matter what. People who will give anything for the One whom we are created for.

In other words, let's give it all, okay?

looking skyward

i think that... i think that sometimes we forget to look up.
we can get so caught up in our little eye-level worlds that we forget to look upward & see the breathless beauty that waits there for our tired, restless eyes to gaze upon.

here's a challenge. today when you're out & about doing your thing stop in your tracks & just look up, look up, look up. gaze on the immeasurable blue (or gray or rainy) skies & give a little whisper of thanks to the One who put it up there for us to enjoy.
cause it's a big, beautiful sky- sometimes i don't think we realize just how big.

to kill a mockingbird

A bit late in coming, but recently I read To Kill a Mockingbird. It was so good! Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book-


“Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”  

“It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.” 

“Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” 

“Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.” 

― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

the sun will rise

no matter what we're facing-
the highs
the lows
the mountaintops
the valleys
the restlessness
the happiness
the grief
the joy
the longing
the ache
the darkest night

we have this absolute confidence-
the sun will always rise...


..And His mercies are new every morning.

lazy sunday afternoons

lazy, solitary sunday afternoons spent in my grandparent's backyard.  this place is packed with memories.  I remember playing with my cousins when I was a child & wandering around looking for adventure in this old backyard.
it's funny how much things change.

life via (insta)gram

that instagram life. 

Downtown hometown

Southern smalltowns. Nothing like them.  My sister & I took some pictures of our downtown yesterday & can I just say I love living in a small town that literally drips with history??  It's quiet, peaceful, lazy & everybody (well, almost everybody) is friendly & laid back.  Almost like a step back in time.