About Beauty...

"Don’t let Hollywood define it; let the pages of Truth define it: Romance is a long sacrifice.

Say that quiet to yourself at the mirror, over the stove, over the toilet bowls, and let your soul feel the caress of God who knows: Romance is a long sacrifice.

And then it will happen to you, like it happens to all the women who are soul beautiful and loved:

For a beautiful countenance — count blessings.
For beautiful lips — only speak words that make souls stronger.
To carry yourself with poise — carry each other’s burden.
For the most beautiful shape — simply live with one hand receiving all as gift, and other hand giving away the gifts. You becoming the shape of a gift —
Becoming the shape of a Cross.
Go ahead, Girl, run your hands wild through your hair and smile unashamed and be at peace in the fullness of you and pour your beauty out like an alabaster perfume:

Beauty doesn’t live in your skin

Beauty lives in the lining of your heart."

-Ann Voskamp - www.aholyexperience.com

Quotes for Life

Sometimes I read thoughts from other people that resonate so deeply within me that I don't ever want to forget them. The trouble is knowing where to put all of these quotes so that I can remember them again and again, short of smothering my computer's desktop with stickies! So I'll put some here for now, and maybe next month there will be another post of quotes, and maybe next month another post. Maybe this blog will morph into simply quotes alone! We'll see ... but here it begins ...


"Productivity experts don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a life plan than to craft a soul. But life goals can be pretty sterile, cold comfort when you look in the mirror somewhere in middle age and your own hollow eyes look back at you, when the doctor calls you in for the test results and tells you it doesn’t look good and you wonder if any of what you’ve been chasing after has really been good enough?

"No one is really good at their work —  if their work is all they are.

So maybe this is what matters: Get a life — and the only way to really get a life — is by giving away the one you have."

-Ann Voskamp - www.aholyexperience.com

On memorizing...

"What the heart knows by heart can heal and hold the heart.

What you really know by heart is what your heart really knows - and what you really live.

What if Jesus' Word was more than useful to us? What if it was beautiful to us?"

-Ann Voskamp - www.aholyexperience.com

"Compassion isn't a vague sense but a feeling so strong it causes you to bend, your insides turned over; it shapes your body, your life, into a response."

-Ann Voskamp - www.aholyexperience.com

Looking Back at 2013 ...

One of my very favorite things to do is, at the end of the year, look back at all of my journal entries and remember what that year was made of. What did God teach me? What was exciting? What was I anxious about? It's amazing how much I forget after only 12 months - or less. So here are some of the memorable events or things I've learned in 2013:

1) Learning what it means to be a disciple of Jesus (thanks to John Ferret from Light of Menorah Ministries):
        a) memorizing and integrating the Teacher's words
        b) understanding and knowing His teaching
        c) imitating the Teacher's actions
        d) going out in His name to make more disciples for Him

2) Learning that just getting some sleep is actually quite energizing!

3) Surviving microbiology and discovering that it is possible to still function on only a couple hours of sleep due to homework cramming!

4) Learning that sometimes saying "no" is best. Sometimes saying, "No I can't do such-and-such" could actually be obedience and walking by faith even when I feel so bad for not helping!

5) Only OBEDIENCE brings full satisfaction. Not work. Not social life. Not good habits. BUT ... if all of those things are done out of obedience, out of the fear of the Lord, then we will experience success and satisfaction.