Independence in God

Lately I am learning that the most beautiful person I can be is myself. The woman who God created me to be. In a society that encourages anything but independence, I constantly feel the pressure to have a million friends or be the most popular woman out there. Although these things may be tempting, the only place I can find true beauty and freedom is within. Read this verse slowly, thats right you read me correctly, SLOWLY. Soak up every word.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Psalm 139:14

Wow. The picture below is a photo I took at the beach this weekend with my family for 4th of July weekend. Absolutely stunning, don't you all agree? This picture is from my instagram account, click here to follow me on instagram! I love taking pictures, especially ones like these of God's pretty creation :) God is a magnicient artist!

In the past, I have searched for freedom in many things besides Jesus. I searched for freedom in boys, money, vacations, shopping, whatever you can think of. Now that I know Jesus and I am able to understand that the spirit of freedom is living inside of me, I desire to know Him more and more intimately. Jesus reminded me of my passions that I had long forgotten about. He is teaching me who I really am, through Him. He has given me the freedom to just be myself.

I am learning that each person must maintain a sense of independence from others if they really desire to understand who they are. By independence I don't mean only with just themselves, I mean independent with God. Spending time alone is okay, especially for those out there who are more of the introverts. I believe that by spending more alone time with God every day, we are able to understand our value in Him more. We are able to reflect more on how fearfully and wonderfully made we are. 

As a vey social person, in the past I was rarely alone. I constantly wanted to be surrounded by my friends, because they were my life. Once I learned the hard way that there must always be a spot in my heart set apart only for God to fill instead of my friends, I was able to understand more clearly how precious and valuable it is to spend time alone with God.  I'm not saying that each of you should become a hermit crab and never see the light of day, I am just saying that it is important to find your independence in God and maintain that independence. 

My goal this summer is to dig deeper into the heart of God, and discover more of who I really am. Besides my public relations internship, I do not have a whole lot going on. I have been searching for a summer job, but so far I have only been offered a real-life job that required me to work full time throughout the school year. I had to turn down that job down because of graduate school.  I am thankful for this God-given opportunity this summer, to discover more of who I really am. I am going to make the most of these next 2 months, and partake in as many volunteer opportunities as possible. Thanks Jesus!

change your thoughts and change your life: think God thoughts

The way that we each think highly corresponds with the joy that we each desire to play out into our individual lives. Our thoughts are beyond important, and they definitely determine our happiness. Many of you may think that it is your behavior that determines how happy you are, but I would argue against that and say that it is your thoughts that control your joy. If you aren't constantly thinking thoughts that are uplifting, encouraging, and joyful, then your behavior will reflect what you are thinking. God has certainly called me to talk about this topic, because I believe that there are many people out there who suffer from negative thinking patterns. These negative thinking patterns lead to depression and all other kinds of horrible problems. I'm here to tell you today that God is POSITIVE, not negative. If your living for Him, your joy will be so oblivious and apparent that others will not be able to help but notice you. God wants His children to stand out as lights in this world. Remember that.

God has been teaching me a lot lately about my own thoughts, and why many of them still need to be renewed. Once I became a Christian a couple years ago, my mind was in a dark place. I was addicted to wrong thinking about myself, others, and life in general. At that point in my life it was just plain overwhelming as to how dark my mind had become. Once God began to pursue me, He switched on a light in my mind that has grown bigger and bigger ever since that day. I have made tremendous progress, and I can tell you with 100% confidence today that my mind is in SUCH a better place. But my friends, progress takes time. There are still some areas of my mind that are dark and need renewal, as much as I don't want to believe it. God has put me in the perfect position this summer to own up to this wrong way of thinking that is still lingering in my mind, and He wants the problem to be fixed ASAP. He is willing to work with me as long as I am willing to work with Him.

On Wednesday night before my parents came into town for the 4th of July, I found myself out of no-where becoming very upset. I didn't understand where it was coming from, and I wanted it to stop. After laying down on the couch for awhile, I decided to catch up on some summer reading. As I was searching through my stash of books to read, I came across a book by Joyce Meyer that I have been in the process of reading for awhile. Joyce Meyer is one of my favorite Christian authors, mainly because everything that she talks and writes about is so relatable and inspiring. The book that I am reading is called "Battle Field of The Mind." I completely forgot that I had this book on hand, and I was about to find out that God was using this book to speak directly to me.

This book talks about how the enemy uses our minds as one of his main tools to get inside of our heads. There are so many people out there stuck in a rut with depression and are clueless as to why they feel this way about themselves. Well, its likely that their thoughts are controlling their actions, thus resulting in them living a life that feels meaningless and without hope. I realized after reading some of Joyce Meyer's book that the reason I had become so upset Wednesday night was because the thoughts that I was thinking that night were all lies, they were not of God or from God. I was not thinking in the mind of Christ. Our thoughts must match up with Gods word, or else we will never be victorious. 

"Satan will aggressively fight against the renewal of your mind, but it is vital that you press on and continue to pray and study in this area until you gain measurable victory."

-Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind

The more I fight back, the more it seems that the enemy fights even harder. From this point on, I am committing to owning up to every single negative thought that enters my mind. I am committing to casting away that negative thought as soon as it enters my mind, and replacing it with a positive thought. I am aware that sometimes I may get discouraged, because sometimes I feel that I am not making progress as quickly as I would want to. However it really helps me to think back on the past and how far I have come with thinking positive, and it motivates me to fight against the enemy's lies in my mind even harder. If you are in a dark place with your mind, don't give up. Begin to change today. Admit to God that this is something you need help with and want to change for yourself, and He will help you. Renewing your mind takes time, but I promise you that there is no place where your mind can be that is too much for God to handle. God can turn the darkest of situations into the brightest of joys. Even when we are faithless, He is faithful.

"We take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ."
2 Corinthians 10:5

I love you guys!

Love always, Jess

Summer of something new: DIY pastel painted mason jars

Hello friends! Today marks my second post for the summer of something new. For those of you don't know what this challenge is, it was set up by my wonderful blog friend Annaliese at Southern Belle in Training, and for this challenge Annaliese, Elle, Jenna,  Michaela, Gina and I will be committing to trying one new thing every week for 6 weeks and then sharing with you guys every Friday! I am looking forward to these upcoming Fridays for the next six weeks! Exciting things!

This week for the challenge, I felt inspired to do a little DIY crafting, via Pinterest of course! Now that I have my new camera, I have become more inspired and more committed to start trying out different crafts so I can take pretty pictures of them and also decorate my room. My room at my new house is taking FOREVER to set up, simply because its a bigger room and also because I have a lot of things I need to add onto it. I spent a lot of my time this week cleaning, unpacking, and setting up my room. I noticed that my dresser and desk needed a little extra "touch," so I decided to create some colorful mason jars that are super easy AND affordable to make! They look a little something like this...

These jars are really easy to make, and a lot of fun! First, you need to go to Michaels or some other craft store where you can buy both some mason jars and also some paint to use along with them. The mason jars were about 5 dollars a piece, and the paint was about 88 cents a tube. The paint I used was Acrylic paint, made by the brand 'Craft Smart' at Michael's. I decided to go with pastel colors, but you can use whichever type of paint you would like for this craft.

Next, once your at home, spread out several sheets of newspaper all over a table. Make sure the paper is spread throughout the whole table, so you don't spill paint on it and damage it. Take your first tube of paint and pour a generous amount into the mason jar. Swirl the paint around slowly to evenly coat the mason jar. Set the Mason jar upside down onto the newspaper, and do the same process for the rest of the mason jars you are designing. Move the containers every 15 minutes or so, so they won't stick to the newspaper.  After about 2-3 hours, turn them over and let them air dry. Fill them with silk flowers or fake flowers from the dollar tree like I did. ;). Whatever your heart desires!

Here are a few other pictures my pretty jars, I absolutely love them, they are the perfect touch to my room. I can't believe I was able to make them for such a cheap price, geez! 

4th of July Strawberries! {SO GOOD}

Happy Fourth of July my lovely blogging friends! I love you all so much! First off, I would like to give a big THANK YOU to all of our troops out there who are either currently fighting or who have fought in the past for our freedom. I am sincerely thankful for the each of you. Thank you for showing us what true love really means:

"There is no greater love than to lay down ones life for his friends."

John 15:13

And to my blogging friends, You guys motivate me more and more to keep coming back to this whole blogging scene. I am thankful for the friendships that I have built with the many of you. I hope today is filled with lots of fireworks, time spent with close friends and loved ones, and also FOOD! duh! On that note, let me share with you my most favorite 4th of July recipe to date...

CHOCOLATE COLORED STRAWBERRIES!

mmmmmm. Dang.

...The best part about them?

There SUPER simple to make. 

I'm not kidding, like really easy.

And there picture pretty. {instagram, what else?!}

AAAAND they taste amazing.

and there awesome.

Okay, moving on.

Heres what you need: 

1 pound of strawberries

1 12 ounce package of white chocolate chips

1 small container of blue sprinkles {I stuck with Betty Crocker, holler!}

First, prepare your ingredients. Pour out the container of blue sprinkles into a bowl alongside the plate of strawberries. This will make it easy as you are dipping your chocolate and then covering it with the sprinkles.

Next, melt the white chocolate chips in a double broiler, stirring constantly. When the white chocolate is melted, dip the strawberries 3/4 of the way up from the bottom. 

Next, dip the strawberries in the bowl of blue sprinkles, covering half of the chocolate in blue. 

Place on wax paper {or on a plate if you prefer}, and let it cool.

***NOTE: If you do not have a double broiler {I didn't!} then simply just fill a saucepan 1/2 the way up with water, place it over the stove and let it boil, and then place a glass bowl over the boiling water and add the chocolate chips to melt.

WAAHHHHLAAA!

***ONE MORE NOTE: I highly do not recommend using a microwave to melt the chocolate chips, because literally every time I have done that, the chocolate chips burned. So yeah. Just a warning!

Happy Independence day blogging friends, I hope you enjoyed this post! I love food! and fireworks!

working for a relationship with God

Here is a picture to begin this post that I took via Instagram yesterday from my new home. God's beautiful sunset. I was amazed by His beauty. It was the perfect way to end to my day. Click here to follow my Instagram adventures!

Work. Work is something we are all familiar with, whether we have a real-life full time job or are a college student. Work can be down-right tiring, and sometimes we find ourselves in circumstances with work where we just want to give up. I can assure you that there were about a million times where I doubted that I would actually graduate college in 4 years. I was so overwhelmed with my circumstances, but at the same time I was determined not give up. Thankfully I am here today to tell you that I thankfully did graduate college in 4 years, and my diploma is in my room right behind me. {PHEW!} I start graduate school in the fall, and as excited as I am about this new experience, I know that it will be a whole new level of work that I will be challenged with. 

Lately, I have been realizing that my relationship with Jesus takes work. It's kind of like a full time job, that is worth every single itsy bitsy penny. My relationship with Jesus is my life, my everything. I'm not just writing this to you all to make myself look like that "perfect Christian," its simply the truth. Jesus is my all, and sometimes I find myself becoming frustrated with the circumstances that I face in maintaining my relationship with Him. Sometimes, I get distracted by whats around me. Sometimes, the greatest enemy I have against Jesus is my own selfish self. "But you could be working on that project right now, instead of spending time with Jesus!" "Spending time with God doesn't REALLY matter, its not like God will love you any less if you don't spend quiet time with Him!" These are some of the thoughts that run through my head a lot of the time. I am learning these are the thoughts I have to fight against, no matter how hard I have to fight. 

I came across a short passage in Jesus Calling that I felt really related to this topic:

"Be willing to fight for this precious time with me. Opposition comes in many forms: your own desire to linger in bed; the evil ones determination to distract you from me, the pressure of family, friends, and your own inner critic to spend time more productively. As you grow in your desire to please Me above all else, you gain strength to resist these opponents."

Maybe your wondering why I am so determined to fight against my own thoughts and spend time with the Lord. Maybe your thinking to yourself: "But its true, God won't love me any less if I don't spend time with Him!" Yes, that is true, but I have learned that our God is a God of relationship. This means that yes He will always love us unconditionally, but if we are not working to maintain our relationship with him and get to know Him better through spending time with Him, we will begin to feel unloved. God will begin to feel distant. It's like when a girl tells her boyfriend she doesn't want to date him anymore. Although he accepts that she wants this to happen between them, he still loves her. He wants to be with her, but since he loves her and wants her to be free to make her own decisions, he lets her go. Their relationship ends and the girl begins to forget everything the two of them ever had, even though the boy is still in love with her.

I am determined to just focus on resting with the Lord this summer, whatever that may take. I am far from perfect, and I know this will take work, but I am looking forward to the journey ahead of me. I have experienced some circumstances this summer where quite frankly I felt like I was in a war zone just getting away from the loudness to spend time with Jesus. Now as I venture off into a more quiet time during my summer, I want to really to to know God on a whole different level.

I love you guys! I hope you have a beautiful day!

Love always, Jess

When giving isn't easy: convicted

***Before I begin this post, be sure to check me out on Instagram HERE and also check out my blog's Facebook page HERE, I love connecting with you guys through social media...holler!!***

giving. Giving is a beautiful thing, and makes many of us feel so good inside when we give away our things to others. We say things like, "It is better to give than to receive!" But, do we really mean that? Do we really understand that concept? I know that I certainly thought I did, until very recently when God made it clear to me in that I had a lot to learn in this area of my life.

I received a large sum of money after graduating college. I'll be honest with you guys, not one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind was to give away any of my money to God at church. The past 4 years in college, I haven't given away hardly any money at church, simply because I wasn't making or receiving any. After being a broke college student for the past 4 years, I was thrilled at the fact that I finally had so much money and also that I would also be beginning to make money next year as a teacher.  I was dreaming of new blog designs (obviously), vacations with the family, shopping sprees at all my favorite stores, and many more, all for me and only me. But giving the best of everything I received to God? never.

Then last night I felt this compelling drive on my heart to give. I cried out to God, "God, where is this coming from?! Why didn't you put this on my heart as soon as I received the money? why now? this is too much for me Lord." God simply responded and told me: Jessica, I want you to give me the best of what you receive, so I can bless you beyond measure. I then realized that I am exactly EXACTLY like cain in the book of Genesis. I asked God to forgive me for not having the immediate reaction to give away my best of my earnings to Him. In Genesis chapter 4, Cain and Abel both bring offerings to God. Abel gives God the "fat portion" of his earnings, otherwise known as the immediate first and the best of what he has received. Cain however, gives to God, but does not give his first and best fruit. Cain began to self-serve and hoard the fruit of his existence, just like me.

 God doesn't want my money, or my fancy clothes, or anything else of this world that I can so easily make into an idol. God only wants the best of everything that I receive because He sees that if I either don't give away the best of what I receive or give away something half-heartedly and not in full of what I am called to do, I am serving other things besides God. Yes, God wants us to give and bear fruit so we can stay aligned in our relationship with Him. When we give my friends, we can be sure there are BIG blessings in store for us. I feel so much better today after realizing how important it is for me to give the best of what I earn to God as I begin to make money in the real world.

I love you guys! I hope you have a beautiful day

love always, Jess

New beginnings: finally at my new house!

Hi blog friends!

How are you all doing? I am so happy to announce that I am FINALLY all moved into my new house! I absolutely love it, and I am so blessed to have been given the opportunity to live here with my awesome new roommates. Ashley moves in on the 7th, and Hannah moves in shortly after her. Hannah will be in and out for the whole summer, but Ashley will be here the whole time, so I am happy that I won't be a loner...haha. I am so excited! I won't lie to you guys, moving out of my apartment took FOREVER! In the past couple of years, I only had to move out of my sorority, which took like maybe an hour? This time around though, it took a lot more time than that!

Here is a little preview of my new home: 

AND just to clarify, just because I have officially moved in yet does not mean that I have also unpacked. Once I am done unpacking and setting up my room {hopefully by the end of this week, I have SO much stuff} I am going to take a lot more pictures of my lovely new home so you guys can check it out! In the meantime, be sure to follow me on instagram HERE to keep up with my adventures. I have already showed a little more of a sneak peak of my new place on there! :) fun stuff. Instagram is so much fun.

Here a few photos from the weekend {it was COOKIN outside, iced tea was a must! ...with sweet potato tater tots obviously :)}

 taylor, my brother and I:

Thank you Jesus for my lovely new home and every other thing you have blessed me with!

Love you guys!
Jess