Potlucks and Challenges

This week's post is a little late, and for that I apologize. It has been one long, crazy week! I have been brainstorming some ideas and think I have found some cool ideas for making this blog of mine a little more interesting, and I am very excited to get the ball rolling.

First off, I read the COOLEST blog today. If you haven't come across it already, GO BROWSE THROUGH IT. It is called The Pollock Potluck...and it is super cute. Ashley went to my youth group and was a few years ahead of me in school; I always thought she was just the prettiest, most put-together girl. But seriously, I remember she got a senior superlative in my freshman yearbook, and I thought she was like, the coolest. I barely knew her, but knew she was someone I aspired to be like one day. Her blog, in a nutshell, makes me STILL want to be like her. She is a dedicated wife, amazing mama, and sweet sister in Christ. Her posts are humorous, and her how-tos are super relatable {see the stove-top cleaning post}. Overall, its just a good read...so turn off the Golden Globes and go browse through.

***

On another note, I heard a really cool acronym {for lack of a better description} in church today. It was a review of what the students learned last week, but Joe and I weren't there. {Joe and I, after serving in youth for almost 4 years, are finally getting to attend our OWN adult Sunday school class, once a month! First Sunday of every month we get to connect with other young couples at our church, and I couldn't be more excited! :)} Our friend Tom had taught last week, and he shared with the students a challenge for 2013:

2 = Make TWO friends.
0 = Have ZERO tolerance for caplacency.
1 = Live for an audience of ONE...God.
3 = Share the gospel with THREE people.

I am excited to challenge myself with this! Are you willing to take the challenge?

Have a wonderful week, friends. Xo

Hello, 2013!

Hello, there!

 

2012 was a crazy one, was it not?

Was anyone else a little relieved when the ball dropped and a new year - a new start - was given to them?

 

If I could describe 2012 in one word, it would be this: change. Change in job, change in living situation, change in income, change in dating outlook, change in marital status, change in youth leadership, change in family, change in friendships, change in my relationship with God. Some of them were far more for the better, and some were far more for the worse.

If there is one thing that people can tell you I don't cope well with, it is change.

 

Ironically, our sermon on Sunday {taught by Gary Vaughan} was centered around the idea of a new year bringing the opportunity for new change. The statement was made that "change is not working hard and willing circumstances to be different...real change comes from submitting your life to Christ and living out of that relationship." Colossians 3:1 was referenced, which points us towards the idea that we are raised in a new life with Christ, and that real change begins with that new identity. It reminded me of II Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." It just brings such a renewed sense of hope for new beginnings - excellent way to view a new year!

 

Tonight, while assisting in leading the 11th and 12th grade girls' small group, we asked the girls what their spiritual commitments were for 2013. One said to get more involved with activities at church, another said to read her Bible more. I remember having similiar answers at their age, and I even have the same answers now.

 

But then I realized: without the real change that Gary spoke of on Sunday, aren't those resolutions just "working hard and willing circumstances to be different?" Is there a real change of heart when those resolutions are made?

 

Whitney {my co-leader} mentioned an example she heard in a Beth Moore study years ago: "What ugly wallpaper do I have on the walls of my heart, that needs to be removed before I can replace it with something new?" What steps do I need to take to empty myself of the bad, to make room for the good? Furthermore, what is the "bad" in my heart? We asked this question for the girls to answer, and their answers were insanely relatable: cussing, bad attitude, anger, impatience, laziness, and selfishness. What is the "good" I should replace those characteristics with? More good answers from my girls: compassion, peace, patience, selflessness, humility, gentleness.

 

I came to the conclusion that I will resolve to give my heart a makeover: too often do I lose my patience at work, or get irritated with my husband (still weird to say!), or allow a curse word to slip out in a moment of frustration or pain. Too often do I let selfishness win out over selflessness, and a negative attitude declare victory over a positive outlook.

 

2013 will be another year of change, that is without a doubt.

Here's to it!

 

P.S. I also am resolving to begin with a post per week...if I do more, that is GREAT. But one post per week is achievable, I think.

 

What are YOUR resolutions in 2013?



We Did.

JOE AND I DID IT.

I am now Mrs. Anna Crews!

A few of my favorite photos are below, enjoy!

 

{I got my toenails done to match the girls' dresses.}

{My personal favorite of Joe.}

{I LOVE MY GIRLS.}

 

{Thank you, Pinterest!}

{Remember my top secret unity ceremony idea? A unity braid! A cord of 3 strands is not easily broken...<3}

{A few of our youth group girls that I work with!}

{Joe and I with the Powell's--a HUGE thank you to them for allowing us to use their property for our big day! We love y'all!}

 

Hope you enjoyed the brief photo summary!

Xoxo,

The Crews'



sick day thoughts.

a little over 2 weeks ago, i started coughing a lot. a little over a week ago, i went to the doctor. two days later, i went back to the doctor. a few days after that, i called back to let them know i was having awful side effects to the medications. yesterday, i went back to the doctor. all the while, my symptoms haven't faded from 2 weeks ago, and more things keep adding on.

yesterday's final diagnoses? a sinus infection, bronchitis, 'reactive airway disease', a UTI, and clinical anxiety. oh, and medicine reactions that are causing insomnia and lucid dreams.

to say that i feel like death would be an understatement.

what is frustrating for me, more so than the rest, is the anxiety. because i know my God is bigger than it. i know in my head and my heart that these feelings are NOT of God. i feel guilty for feeling so anxious, because i know what God promises:

"come to Me, you who are weak and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (matthew 11:28, niv)

he says "I WILL GIVE."

not "i will try to," or "i will but it's conditional."

i like the way that the message version of the bible puts it:

"are you tired? worn out? burned out on religion? come to Me. get away with Me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. walk with Me and work with Me--watch how I do it. learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. keep company with Me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (matthew 11:28-30)

sorry to get a little preachy, i tend to get carried away. :) all of that to say: because i know His word to be true, i have a guilt that is associated with the anxiety. i am constantly reminding myself to give it to Him. thank goodness He is so much stronger than me!

totally unrelated, but i had CMT on last night while i was laying on the couch, and saw a music video for waylan jennings' son, shooter jennings. it was FULL of southern colloquialisms! as miserable as i felt, i couldn't help but smile and couldn't wait to mention it in a post. the song is called "the deed and the dollar." here are some of my favorite lyrics from it--

"she got a special way/it makes me happy everyday/what do the old folks say/she's finer than frog hair split both ways...she's such a good catch/she's got me grinning/like a goat in a briar patch...she never loses sight of the important things/but she's wilder than a junebug on a string."

i had never heard any of those phrases until last week; i read all 3 of those when i was looking up fun colloquialisms. just thought it was ironic :)

something else i've had time to do since getting sick: think. think about my life. about what i really want. about what my actions say; what the words that come from my mouth have the power to do. and thankfully Christ has been right here, pointing things out to me that my little brain isn't good enough to pick up on. i just love discovering little truth nuggets in the bible! i am coming to a place of surrender with my plans for my life. i have tried to surrender them in the past, but held tight to certain parts...but surrender doesn't mean,

'take this, but don't touch that..'

it means

'here is all of it, take it.

you can do this better than me.

i don't want to worry about it anymore.'

what has God been teaching you lately?



oops, I've been MIA!

well hello there, love!

my apologies for it being SO long since i've blogged--this holiday season has been a busy one for sure! how was your christmas? did santa bring you anything good that i should know about? {leave a comment and let me know, i love seeing that i have comments!}

i came across a pretty cool photo while celebrating the holiday at my grandparents': some snapshots of my aunt peggi in 1958. they look EXACTLY like my baby pictures!

{i will have to scan some of my baby photos in a later post--this is seriously freaky how identical they are!}

let me think back to all of the happenings since my last post: i went to another amazing concert, got my hair done, did a lot of christmas shopping, welcomed home a friend from iraq..and man, has God showed me some awesome things in the last few weeks!

as for the amazing concert: i was blessed to be able to see the story tour. one word for the songs/performances: breathtaking. the idea for the music came from a book by max lucado that profiles major persons in the bible. the lyrics to the songs, made to be each historical person's "song", were written by nichole nordeman, and to say she was given a unique insight into their lives is an understatement.

growing up in church, i've heard most of these stories since i was a toddler in the nursery. adam & eve, abraham & sarah, joseph, moses, joseph, ruth & naomi, david, daniel, esther, and job make up the old testament line-up; mary, Jesus, the thief on the cross, mary magdalene, the disciples, paul, and the Lord's return make up the new testament. ever since i was 5, i could probably give you a detailed account of what each person experienced in their unique mentioning in the bible. yet this musical compilation helps you to really understand what they felt..how they thought.

my favorite songs on the cd are abraham & sarah's, and david's. david's song, "your heart," has the powerful lyrics: "i know that i've crashed and burned, and lives have been overturned, but You redeem everything; yeah, even me. at the end of the day, i want to hear people say that my heart looks like Your heart.." how challenging of a request is that? yet i've found that being my heart's cry; will i fail, yes. but will God love me through my attempts, absolutely.

(i saved the best for last!) :) gosh, i have learned SO MUCH from the song about abraham and sarah. i'm just going to post the entire song here for you to experience:

tell me that doesn't both break your heart and want to just praise God for who he is? the lyric, "you think somehow i'd let my heart believe it's time to let go of lullabies,"..for me that just paints a picture of how sarah felt, disappointed and heartbroken that she had not been given a child. but God promised -- and God stays true to his promises. it blows my mind when i remember that THAT God, who fulfilled promises to Abraham and Sarah, is the same God who promises me that he is here for ME.

my journal entry from 12/15/11:

my God is that God. amen.

from God, to you..and me.

just came across this, and loved it. how true!!

my first guest-post!

so i told you a few weeks back that i'd come across this amazing little site that i fell in love with: the small things blog. and i told you that i intended on emailing kate, blogger of all things small {and amazing and creative!}..because i was fairly certain that she and i were supposed to be friends.

amazing little thing: she asked to do a guest post! my response was, "i'm semi-new at this, and have no idea what that means, but yes!" so without further rambling from me, i give you: the guest-posting.

Hi! I'm Kate from The Small Things Blog! I have "met" Anna online through blog connections and I'm excited to be guest posting on her blog today!

She and I have a lot in common with our love for makeup, hairstyling, and fashion. But more importantly, we have been blessed to realize that our worth, our value, does not come from these things. While it is okay to enjoy them, we must not fixate on them. Or place them above our relationship with Christ.

It took me awhile to be "okay" with my job as a hairstylist. I absolutely love what I do, but I struggled with the vanity of it. "Am I doing the right thing?" was the question that forever plagued me. Through many talks with the Lord and my husband, then my boyfriend, my heart changed about my job. The Lord gave me this gift, and it would be a shame to let it go to waste. And instead of focusing on how it might look like I'm in a vain career, instead I should focus on the people I meet and the opportunity to love them!

So I want to offer a little encouragement to you: don't push away your passions because you don't understand how they fit into your life. Pursue them. Enjoy them. Use them! Don't underestimate God's ability to use them for His Glory.

Come check out my blog for hairstyle tutorials, makeup tips, and the occasional outfit post!

This is one of my favorite outfits for fall! Grey + white + denim. You can't go wrong!

Thanks Anna for letting me be a guest on your blog today!

thanks kate! your post reminds me of a tweet i read today: my favorite musician {dave barnes} re-tweeted an andy stanley quote: "God may choose to showcase His power on the stage of your weakness." just another way to look at God taking something you think he can't use, and using it to bring glory to Himself.

mustard seeds.

so i came across a list today: "things i'm believing God for in 2009." i made it in my old cell group (bible study group) back in november or december 2008. it looked something like this:

1.) for a friend of mine - we'll call her "sharon" - to find God. {didn't happen; but i have faith!}

2.) for a then-recent ex of mine - we'll call him "bill" - to find happiness. {i think he did!}

3.) for a godly relationship. {STILL believing God for this one!}

at the end of it, i wrote "2 corinthians 1:9b - '..we learned to stop relying on ourselves and rely fully on God..'" those words were so crucial to me in the months after i rededicated my life to Christ. i had to recite them DAILY to myself. i even summarized it into a quick slogan--"God's got this!" when i felt overwhelmed, unanswered, confused..that was the phrase i'd throw out and remind myself and others of. my bible study group joked about having t-shirts made!

needless to say, the list was a little thought-provoking.

first thought being, "how often do i still pray for 'sharon'? do i remember to be Jesus to her?"

second thought being, "well, so much for the relationship in 2009..2010..2011. maybe 2012, God?"

and the final thought being, "do i remember to rely on God in my daily worries, heartaches, and triumphs?"

what are YOU believing God for? got an idea in your head? hold it there for a second.

“you don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “i tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it would move. nothing would be impossible.” {matthew 17:20}

were you thinking in too small of a box? were you merely hoping, and not believing, that God is big enough and good enough to answer your prayers? well guess what? God is big enough to captivate "sharon's" heart. God is good enough to provide the right man for me when the timing is right.

so i ask you again: what are you believing God for?

what am i living for?

i heard some song lyrics recently that have inspired my daily outlook on life. i'm completely obsessed with living these words:

"i will live to carry Your compassion into a world that's broken-to be Your hands and feet. and i will give with the life that i've been given, and go beyond religion to see your world be changed by the power of Your name." {via lincoln brewster/darlene zschech}

wow. it's been a while {well, a few months anyway} since i've dwelt on something and really chewed on what it means, as much as i have these lyrics. i want to dissect them a little bit--

i will live to carry Your compassion -- what does that look like in our daily lives? obviously the "Your" i'm referring to is Christ's. Christ's compassion was timeless, patient. it didn't discriminate. it was joyous. not for a day, not just around certain people he liked hanging out with. it was for all people, from all walks of life. it was for all of eternity. do people look at you and see something different? i'm talking to my fellow Christians, here. our visual field tech asked me a few weeks ago asked me what i was doing after work. i told her that i was going to help lead worship at a youth event for a church in hampton. she responded with, "you're a Christian? i should have known. Christians just have a certain glow and happiness, you can pick them out." that {to me} was not a pat on the back, or an ego-feeder. it was an encouragement and a challenge to let God's love flow through me so that others will notice that i am indeed carrying His compassion to a broken world.

i will give with the life that i've been given -- the title of my blog posts an age-old question. "what am i living for?" i am living, because a Master Creator chose to give me life. and because He has given me this life, i want to use it to give back.

go beyond religion -- i love this. "religion" is such a touchy subject in today's world. people worry about what's politically or "religiously" correct when it comes to God, instead of what's divinely inspired. we are called to step outside of the box of what is religiously correct and to do whatever we need to do to meet our world where it is. it means not just praying for those we do life with, but loving them. getting down on their level and just showing them love, whichever form they might need it in. it might be a meal, it might be a prayer, or it might be a listening ear. they might realize your love, they might not. i encourage you to live out the basic principles you learn in church on sundays, in your daily life monday-saturday. what basic principles, you ask? Jesus himself said the greatest commandment is to love. love others like Christ loved us. can you even imagine what our communities would look like if we all lived this out on days that didn't begin with "sun"?!

i hope this has inspired you.

...

1 corinthians 13:8,11 -- love never fails...and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. but the greatest of these is love.