Love is an Open Door...

From yours truly and the cutest nephews one could ask for. 

Enjoy.

You're Welcome.

NOW FEATURING // Katie Point

Sometimes, we just escape "reality" by hiding out in the schools Racquet Ball Room singing just about anything. 

Even- Christmas Carols in Spring. 

Heres to Throwbacks on Wednesdays a Merry Christmas to you all!

Dear Diary...

Shelby and I are making blueberry doughnuts with lemon glaze! There was a small dose of confusion at the beginning, but we overcame... by the blood of the Lamb!

//

So there she was... just mashing those blueberries. Just mashing away! IN goes the lemon juice. IN goes the sugar. UP goes the rising temperature of the jam. Oh, the skillz... Oh those plentiful skillz!
Commence the dough making. The intricate process proved to be tedious. Our dedication to the outcome was unmatched. This batter would be the best any kitchen has seen. THE LORD WAS WITH US! He provided just the right ingredients in just the right quantities.



With the changing of hands come the changing of love spilt in these doughnuts. Her delicate hands wrapped around the spoon. Messy fingers slide along the dough filled silver. Dropping the loving goodness into the... yeah... And the gooey goodness sits in their nests, where shortly in time will become delicious doughnut muffins.

//

And her small and silent feet move across the kitchen floor only to put her servant fingers to more wonderful service. The beauty one person, one heart can put into this one small batch of baked good, is astonishing! Her strong, delicate hands move with her silent, beautiful feet, to place these doughnut things in the fiery furnace that only can change them for their better selves.

We have conquered. The lemon dances with the blueberry across our tongues and delights our awaiting digestive systems. We do not measure our success by number but by love. And there is much here. Though we anticipate the completion of our task, we mourn the ending of this wonderful experience.

//

Our time shared in these fleeting moments are just a small reward to the amount of investment we choose to place in each other. These doughnuts are more than nourishment for our bodies, they are...Shelby makes a farting noise (with her mouth)... another jewel in the crown in our blood-brotherhood-ness.

Now. Please enjoy some music that we also enjoy.

I am Oak - Trees and Birds and Fire

//

Boom.

Make-Up-Less May?

As a Freshman in College...

A friend and myself decided to do something crazy. We were just two girls out of a mere couple hundred, if that. But these college guys seemed to be real interested in their facial hair. Don't get me wrong- kudos to them and all. But only a freshman, coming from high school where "boys" didn't really know when they would be able to grow facial hair, entering a whole new world of older and hairier men. This was new to me. Natural November. Dirty December. Mustache March. Ugh. Gross.

But they found joy in the competition. Who can grow better, faster, facial hair for a longer, more painful amount of time. And although some found it painful to see, two young freshman found it somehow... inspirational. Natural November. Sure, there are the brave women out there who go without shaving their leg hair and arm pit hair- and then there are the sane of us who couldn't bare it. But we are human and some of us thrive off of competitive spirits. 

Natural November.

 We challenged not only ourselves but our small group of friends that we spent nearly most of our time with. And then we went beyond that. We challenged the rest of the women at our small college. And then we made a Facebook group, wrote posts, and talked to every woman we knew about it. We started inviting people we barely knew or talked to, to challenge us all! It was nerve racking and thrilling, and quite intoxicating to look back on. And so we challenged all of these women to go the entire month without... wearing make up.

{This was my Freshman year...all Natural November. And pretty confident. I was pretty prepared for the photo-op though}

Oh I know. How tragic. Not wearing make up. Saving yourself 5-20 minutes (depending on the girl of course) in the morning. Saving yourself tired eyes and running mascara/eye liner. Saving yourself from the fight of holding back from rubbing your eyes throughout the day. But entering ourselves into a world of insecurities and vulnerability. It is easy to hide under the mask. Maybe your thinking that you don't wear a whole lot of make up so it cannot possibly be a mask. Think about it. Its still a mask. There is comfort in wearing it and discomfort in not wearing it in front of others. Hey- congratulations to those of you who are completely opposite in this and find it freeing and careless to not wear make up or maybe its just not your thing. I guess this doesn't really apply to you. But I know, for a solid fact, it applies to many, many women out there. 

One day, while going through this challenge in November of 2010, one boy came and talked to me about it. He had told me that he liked it when girls wear make up. He likes it when they "look better". Now, I know there must have been really good intentions behind these comments. I mean- lets face it. Guys do enjoy knowing that we like to look our best for them. That we try. That we take the time out of our mornings to plan out a nice outfit, put a little glamour on here and there, and make time for our hair. These small things that we do everyday may actually mean something to other people (like the opposite sex and stuff...whatever). But no matter our intentions in the beginning of this routine that starts sometime in our early teens and ends up lasting a lifetime, we find comfort in this old friend that is hiding our faces and calling itself Insecurity. We feel comfortable. We feel secure. Yes. It is fun and exciting and a great female bond to share with your closest friends. But have you tried giving it up for longer than one day? Have you tried it for a period of time that forced you to see different groups of people? Pushing you beyond the comfort zone you may not have realized you had?

We did.

And it was different.

But most of all.

It was freeing.

So three years has passed since that awakening month of November. We have seen many different facial hair styles over the years from the same guys we see almost every day. But somewhere along the line, I lost my inspiration. I didn't talk girls into doing Natural November. Heck- I hardly did Natural November. And so I am here now. May something or other. And I, a senior in college, have been challenged by motivational women, freshmen in college, to post a picture on Facebook of our bare, naturally beautiful, pure, make-up-less faces. And I have been putting it off for a couple weeks, watching as woman after woman post pictures of themselves, realizing their true beauty in all its flawlessness that was created by God, and embracing the freedom in the thrill. 

And here I am. Putting off uploading the picture by writing this shpeal on a blog that no one reads. But this where I am finding some confidence. A pep talk meant for you, but settling within my own scared and timid heart. So, here I am. Make-Up-Less. Hair thrown back away from my face almost completely (which I always thought I looked oddly like a girlish boy when I had to do this- but in this case, hey- I was playing outside with my little sister...). Nothing special- except for the fact that I look just the way I should. How God created me. 

Blemishes and all. 

Can you deal?

By no means is this a whole month challenge like our Natural November fun. This is a one day challenge. Post a pic. Go out in public. Do whatever. Simply pass by and pretend like you were never challenged. Do what you will :) but be who you are in the mean time!

Restless... Until I Rest in You.

So. Jessica and I did an impromptu cover of Audrey Assauds song Restless. We both love this song (and quite honestly I have been a little obsessed with it since I learned to play it on piano).
So- here are they lyrics...because they are great!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
You dwell in the songs that we are singing
Rising to the Heavens, rising to Your heart, Your heart
Our praises filling up the spaces
In between and frailty and everything You are
You are the keeper of my heart

And I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
Oh God, I wanna rest in You

Oh, speak now for my soul is listening
Say that You have saved me, whisper in the dark
'Cause I know You're more than my salvation
Without You I am hopeless, tell me who You are
You are the keeper of my heart
You are the keeper of my heart

And I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
I wanna rest in You

Still my heart hold me close
Let me hear a still small voice
Let it grow, let it rise
Into a shout, into a cry

Still my heart hold me close
Let me hear a still small voice
Let it grow, let it rise
Into a shout, into a cry

And I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, let me rest in You
I'm restless, so restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
Oh God, I will rest in You

Jesus Paid It All

"Do not try to copy someone else's calling. It is very difficult to dance ballet while wearing boots. If GOD gave you ballet shoes, dance ballet; if He gave you lumberjack boots, cut down trees....The shoes He made for you will not fit anyone else. Fill them." ~Heidi Baker

Can I Sneak This In?

Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God

Okay. Lets get real and brutally honest. I don't know, maybe this is a way for me to finally understand my own heart while I am convinced that I need to share this with your hearts.

Bob Kauflin wrote this book called Worship Matters and I was humbled and brought to the dirt within the first two chapters. Imagine that. Bob is no saint. And his book is no Bible. But my heart- my heart needed this book. I didn't know that when I picked up this book to do an average book report for a college music class, that my heart would be hit with an overwhelming amount of truth, understanding, and humility.

What is worship? Maybe you already know. Maybe you have heard this over and over and over...and over again. #sorrynotsorry Worship is, was, and always will be- about the heart. "Worship is about what we love. What we live for. It's about who we are before God. Worship matters. It matters to god because he is the one ultimately worthy of all worship. It matters to us because worshipping God is the reason for which we were created. And it matters to every worship leader, because we have no greater privilege than leading others to encounter the greatness of God." -Bob

So, maybe you're not a worship leader or aspiring to be a worship leader. Maybe you don't want to lead worship it all. Maybe- maybe you don't sing or play an instrument. Maybe you are just reading this because you love me and want to encourage me by adding a view to my blog status. Whatever you are- you are creation who was created by the ultimate master of creation... and you were created for a purpose. To Worship He that created you.

How enchanting!

Now, can we get down to the heart of it... the issues and challenges we really face? My heart is heavy loaded with the one sentence I read over and over:

"Each of us has a battle raging within us over what we love most - God or something else"

Have you ever experienced this? The battle? The war raging within yourself? It is there. The battle between your desire to love God and your desire to love yourself. And within this struggle, we find the ever so kept sin of idolatry. You know- the statues and totems, the temples and shrines.

"All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together." Isaiah 45:16
"They served their idols, which became a snare to them." Psalms 106:36
"Little Children, keep yourselves from idols" 1 John 5:21
"Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them." Psalms 115:8

God commands against idols. We are to serve Him and Him alone. The Bible warns against idols. Warns us that the idols we serve end up making us into their image. Do you have an Idol? Can you recognize it? Name it? I can attest to this and I am tired.

I am tired. Tired of trying to explain what I can't express. Tired of a loss of words. Tired of holding it in and bottling it up. Tired of not understanding. I - am just tired.

Tired of being my own Idol. My daily struggle and constant battle is always against myself. I always bring it back to me. I care too much. I worry too much. I struggle too much. I compare. Too much.

I compare myself to the people around me. People I hardly know. People I see every day. People I feel I have lost to. Best friends. And possibly the worst of all- family. Every day. Every decision I make. Every time I need to know who I am or even try to figure myself out. It always comes back to me. Am I pretty enough? Am I smart enough? Am I creative enough? Am I nice enough? Am I doing enough?

The answer always seems to be no. And hear, feeling, living no- is tiring.

But where is my recognition? What am I known for? How will people remember me? Where can I stand out? What makes me special?
I will play volleyball - someone is better.
I will paint or draw - someone is better.
I will write poetry and abstract - someone is better.
I will sing - someone is better.
I will play piano - someone is better.

Please, just stop. Don't you get it? It is not about you...

It is not about me.

No matter what happens or what I do - someone may always be better. But that doesn't matter...does it? Maybe, just maybe, to the people around you, are aren't known for anything "special". Maybe you are like me and searching for recognition and waiting for someone to finally notice that you are good at something. It always comes back to the heart.

Whatever you do - whether in word or deed - do it ALL for the glory of our God in Heaven. That matters. and God recognizes that. God sees that as special. He sees all that you are, as worthy to be loved, admired, recognized and enough.