Watch this.

LOVE.

If I knew where these came from, they would definitely be on my Christmas list!

Beyond Precious..

Come Say Hello!

Hello lovelies
I have a hard time walkin' around with ipod music goin' and not dancin'. The walk home tonight would have been interesting for whomever witnessed. That's all for now.

Hey! You!

Pearls for Curls officially has a Facebook Page!!! Big step, I know (ha). You would be my favorite person ever if you went and “liked” it! Here’s the link:

Actually scratch that, it doesn’t have a separate web link from the Facebook homepage. So it’s listed under “Pearls for Curls,” and YOU should go check it out!

Dreamin’ about...

this delicious looking strawberry smoothie/drink/whatever it is (i don’t care just give it to me!)

Hey, a girl’s gotta do something to get her through finals, right?! :)

Shadows - David Crowder Band ft. Lecrae - Passion 2011

This smash up of Shadows with David Crowder and Lecrae. I love them both separately, but put them together...and I will be one happy girl. Pure genius.

Basketcase

....of emotions, is what I am right now.

I hate how the week of finals is also the last week you have with everybody at college before a really really long break. That was how it was at Christmas, and it’s even worse now because Summer is three times as long. It makes me just want to go hug all my friends close and do things like get in the word at Blackbird with a friend and let our studies go as long as we want without a worry of time, lay on front campus in the grass and listen to good music (but only in one ear because your friend has the other earbud), and have jam sessions with all my music buddies. I hate that the focus of this week (for EVERYBODY!) is study study study; I mean, as it rightfully should be, but I hate that the last I see of all these people is....well, studying, because everyone claims to be too stressed out to do anything really fun. 

 I want to sit down and write a legit post about everything I’ve been thinking about lately. I need to spill everything out. but alas, i have to study for two finals and finish homework.

So consider this the start of a hopefully meaningful, at least to me, post.

Don’t you hate how you can feel so confident about something one day and then one little thing can change everything? 

Oh yes!

Best of all in my opinion. This is the destination of my dreams right now..

Lovely things on this first day of finals...

how I long to be in this teepee...laying on a quilt in the grass, leisurely enjoying a book.

 TAKE ME HERE...please? 

Field trip, anyone?

Oh, how I wish I could pack all my friends and bloggy friends up in an instant and go somewhere magical, like this.

via: source

Oh hey, Easter.

More to come later, just had to share this photo. Love this chick, Stephanie. 

If you want my two cents on it...

I’ve begun to realize that college is just about the ideal lifestyle, except for these pesky things called classes.

Couldn’t Agree More..

Image: Source

Anyone who knows me, can realize just how perfect this describes me! 

You Are My Sunshine.

source.

Art Wall

Art Wall, a photo by I heart Norwegian Wood on Flickr.

Next year, I’m going to have more wall space.

Remake this wall? Check.

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most.  We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?”  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us.  And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

–Nelson Mandela, 1994 Inaugural Speech

***the quote is originally from Marianne Williamson, but was used in Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Inaugural Speech***

Good Friday (part 2)

Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:3-6 (NIV)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

Galations 3:13 (NIV)

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

7-10Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

11-12It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

Ephesians 1:3-12 (the Message)

I hope you know how perfectly loved you are. What a high price was paid for you.

I hope you are living in the more-than-enough freedom that has been purchased for you through the blood of our Deliverer!

Good Friday

I just read this post from Cherry Tree Lane. It’s too rich not to repost.

Why I'll wake up sick, on Friday

I remember when "The Passion of the Christ" came to theaters.

When it hit the box office, my husband and I, along with a group of friends, purchased our tickets and took our place in the red, velvet chairs.

Wept.

Even my husband and the grown men who were with us.

I had never seen my husband cry during a movie before.

And I haven't since.

We walked outside in complete silence and went to our respective cars without saying a word.

I have never left a movie so impacted.

When I shared my experience with others I felt like I was met with absolute avoidance, from so many people.

"I don't need to see that to know how much Jesus suffered"

"I can't stomach blood and guts, really."

"I feel like it's marginalizing the importance of the cross."

"It's too Hollywood and I hate Hollywood."

"It's sensationalizing the crucifixion."

Of course anyone can argue anything and I'm not here to start a firestorm if you share one of those aforementioned opinions.

But I would encourage one thing, as it pertains to Good Friday.

I would encourage each of us to

GET UNCOMFORTABLE.

I truly believe that people are afraid of what they will discover when they confront the ugliness and brutality of the cross. I think that fear propels people to come up with reasons to not face what really happened.

If you face it you might have to cry {the ugly cry}, be vulnerable, look silly being emotional or

face your own mortality.

I don't necessarily believe that you have to run out and see "The Passion" to fully grasp Good Friday and Easter. People have been taking time to reflect and fully immerse themselves in this special week for years, without the aid of a film. It's by no means a "must".

I simply think that we need to pause, this Friday. We must take time. We MUST reflect on the impact.

I wake on Good Friday, each year, with a pit in my stomach. I literally feel sick.

Even though I know that the crucifixion is done. The price is paid. The blood is shed.

Even still, I wake up nervous, silent, remorseful, in reverence. As if I'm waiting for the ball to drop and the Earth to breath a sigh of relief. I'm waiting.

I hear the laughter of my child, the sounds of lawnmowers outside, breakfast crackling in the castiron skillet. I see the news on the television and watch the mailman go about his route. The phone rings and the dog barks.

Everything is moving like normal but I feel like I'm standing still. I feel sick. I feel fake. I feel like a Pharisee who stands and acts holy, but knows nothing of what it means to be authentic.

And at noon, on beautiful Friday, as I sit in church,

I will let tears roll down my face, uncomfortably.

Sick of myself. My selfish and black heart.

And I weep and thank the Lord for loving me and my ugliness.

My wicked and contrite spirit.

And feel His wide-reaching arms reach down, pick me up and embrace the sinner.

I will wake with uneasiness, but slumber that night with rest assurance.

I have been saved.

Today, I fast. Today, I’m enduring temptations and laying them down before my Lord and Savior. 

Father, it’s only 4:00, and I’m struggling. 

But God is worth it. so so worth it. Tomorrow is Good Friday. This whole week, the reasons as to why I believe have been so pressing in my mind, as I’ve been reminded through the public’s celebration of Easter. A part of me has been frustrated with myself, for not always thinking about the tremendous suffering my perfect savior chose to go through for me. Why does it take a week that’s set aside as a reminder for us for me to focus on it so much? 

I don’t have an answer. 

I just know how grateful I am for his unending grace. 

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: 
to loose the chains of injustice 
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry 
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you, 
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

~Isa. 58:3-8

“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake,

And I will not remember your sins.”

~Isa. 43:25

Maundy Thursday

“He humbled himself and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross.”
Philippians 2:8

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there would be peace."

- John Lennon

Photo Dump

Pictures from the past few months. 

Fun babysitting activity=jumping on the trampoline to “try to take cool pictures"

These three were from my last day of Spring Break at one of my favorite places ever, Julie’s House. She made that dress Ruth is wearing! 

Snapped this at the library one day, where I’ve been living, basically. 

One week at Blue Book, a lot of guys from Campus Outreach just walked up and said, We just want you to know how much we appreciate you, and love you as your brothers in Christ. And then they gave flowers. How awesome is that? 

Also in the Library, one of my friends modeling a new headband.

Pictures from Earthfest start here, this is Kristian, who I got the pleasure of hanging out with more this weekend! We’re both in Environmental Science Club together, and she’s a pretty awesome chick! I was so happy when she came with me to New City Sunday morning.

Beautiful friends, modeling the headbands they purchased! 

This was a new experience for me, this past Sunday New City did their first baptismal service. Here is one of my good friends, Summer, getting baptized! Such an amazing thing to witness. 

One of the first things planned for Earthfest, river cleanup. Here’s the team afterwards. I heard we collected approximately 800 pounds of trash! 

Palm Sunday

(just a wee bit late, HEY! You can pretend it’s Sunday, right?)

I love what Joy’s Hope  does each Sunday. Julie chooses a verse each week and simply posts only the verse in this precious polka-dotted template. I hope to start something similar soon. 

Image: Source

I’m ready for change, who’s with me?

Image: Source. 

Saturday Dreamin’

I promise I did really mean to post this Saturday, since that’s when I wrote it :). But here’s some photos that might provoke some day dreamin’. Enjoy :)

(favorite. flower. ever.)

 fruit=favorite food group that I could be perfectly satisfied living off of for the rest of my life. mmmmm. :)