72 days for freedom: day three

DAY THREE PRAYER:

Pray that the highly visible Freedom Art Installation will be a symbol of freedom for the city of Atlanta and stir questions, conversations and action in people of all walks of life.

Slavery isn’t a Christian or non-Christian issue, it’s a human issue. 

slavery fact: Slavery still exists. It is estimated that there are anything between 10 million and 27 million slaves in the world today.
3 (ILO and freetheslaves.net)

one way to do more:

Take the Slavery Footprint Survey and learn how many slaves work for you – based on the things you
purchase, wear, eat, use and purchase on a daily basis. SlaveryFootprint.org

All information came directly from the 72 days for freedom website: www.72daysforfreedom.com

go to the website for more information and more ways to get involved.

 

 

Authentic Beauty

I know that I said for the next 72 days I would use this blog to keep everyone informed about slavery and freedom....and I am, but I'm also going to take a minute to share what has been deep within my heart and on my mind.....

I've been reading the book called Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy.

I recently have been focusing on the sixth chapter: Lily Whiteness and Romance (Future Husband Application).  I'm not going to get into details about the chapter or about the book because I would basically type the whole book, word for word, all over again. haha. It's that good! But I am just going to focus on one specific part that listed practical steps for loving your future husband. I wanted to share this because I think it is so important to protect not only your heart for yourself but also for your future husband:)

In the book, it talks about being a Set-Apart Woman. In order to be a set-apart woman you must base everything in your life around your true Prince (God) and be completely satisfied in Him. If He was the only thing you had, would you be completely fine with it? Would you still be totally head-over-heels for your Prince?   "Only when we fall in love with Jesus Christ and build our lives completely around Him can we experience human love and romance in its purest and most beautiful form" (page 85).

You must also prepare for a Christ-centered love story by living a lifestyle of lily whiteness.

Lily whiteness lifestyle: (I wrote this on a note card so I could carry it around to remind myself....and I would encourage for other people to do the same.)
1. You must set yourself apart for your future husband.  This doesn't mean just doing the bare minimum of putting up a few boundaries for physical and emotional stuff.  This means putting up boundaries in every part of your being:
your thoughts
your emotions
your dreams
your imaginations
your habits
your actions

"Being set apart means loving and honoring your future husband even before you meet him." -Leslie Ludy

You should protect every area of your life.... Don't just protect your sexual purity...Protect the way you think, the way you react, the way you dream about things, the way you imagine things or situations, protect your habits, protect your actions. I can't tell you how many times in my life I have wasted my emotions, thoughts, dreams, imaginations, and actions on guys that I knew weren't going to be my future husband...Or even guys that I knew I'd NEVER date....

2. Ask yourself the following questions:
-Do I seek male affirmation through flirting, hugging, touching, making puppy-dog eyes, innocent giggling, etc?
-Do I draw guys' attention by showing off my body?
-Do I allow my mind to fantasize about guys I'm attracted to?
-Do I casually offer my heart, mind, emotions, and body to guys when I know it's only going to be a short-lived moment?
-Do I offer too much of myself, even in friendship?
-Am I willing to sacrifice temporary fulfillment to live a lifestyle of lily whiteness for the man I will spend the rest of my life with?
-Am I willing to allow God's faithfulness to bring a love story into my life in His own perfect time and way?
-Am I willing to hand over the pen of my love story to Christ and trust Him completely?

If you keep those two simple numbers in your mind throughout your day and your life...Then you'll be able to keep yourself in check. I know I need to check myself with these. And I'm going to set myself apart for my future husband because he's worth the wait.
I don't know about you...but I would not want my future husband to be doing all of these things with all kinds of different girls....so I need to make sure I'm not letting other guys get in the way either.

"Be the person the person you're looking for is looking for" -Andy Stanley

I encourage you to read Authentic Beauty. It is a fantastic book written by a fantastic woman who is living her Christ-centered love story with the husband God specifically made for her. God has made one specifically for us, too... We just need to wait and trust God.

Last thing: The book also encourages ladies to write a letter to their future husband telling them about the commitment that has been made to be a set-apart woman of lily whiteness. I think you should do this as well! This way...If you ever forget about the book or about the decisions you've made, simply open the letter and read it over again. Pray for your future husband... and then continue to live the lifestyle.

Above all else, guard your heart. Proverbs 4:23
Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

love God. love people. love the world.  
 

72 days for freedom: day two

The Freedom Art Installation
Standing 103 feet tall and leaving a mark in the Atlanta skyline, The Freedom Art Installation is a visual reminder to the city that slavery still exists but together, we can help set the captives free. The sculpture is being displayed at Passion City Church located at 515 Garson Drive, Atlanta, Georgia for 72 days (Feb. 27 - May 8).
The sculpture was first constructed and displayed as part of Passion 2012 that took place in Atlanta, Georgia January 2-5, 2012. Beautiful worship happened in both song and deed as 43,000 18-25 year olds filled the Georgia Dome. The Freedom Art took form outside the Dome as an artistic expression of freedom and was completed as the students gave financially to fund the Do Something Now Freedom projects. Attendees stood lines a thousand students deep to give their financial gift to the cause of freedom. After giving a donation, attendees wrote prayers and added their signature to the materials used to create the sculpture. During the 4 days, attendees gave more than $3.3 million to fund freedom causes around the globe!The materials used to create the sculpture include items found on the Department of Labor's list of top goods produced by forced labor and child labor around the world such as coffee, cotton clothing, soccer balls, Christmas decorations, rice bags, brick, toys, shoes, and other materials symbolic of sex trafficking and the abuses faced by the women and children who are exploited (children’s dresses, red fabric, and. The reclaimed materials used on the sculpture were collected by the Passion team from trash piles, thrift store, and homes. In its final form the Freedom Art is a powerful and visual symbol meant to challenge and call people to action.

 Day 2 Prayer:

Pray over the release of the new anti-slavery song, 27 Million (By Matt Redman). Pray that this song awakens hearts and challenges thousands to take action.

 For more information:
http://www.72daysforfreedom.com/ 


love God. love people. love the world.

72 days for freedom

Today marks an important day because it is day one of the 72 days of freedom. The hand that was raised at Passion 2012 that symbolized freedom for the enslaved will be raised tonight at Passion City Church, 515 Garson Drive, Atlanta, Georgia at 7:30. It will remain up as a symbol of freedom for 72 days while we, as one body of Christ, pray, give, and change the world for the better. We are joining together to end slavery and to set 27,000,000 men, women, and children free. Alone, we can't; Together, we can!
Here are some more links to get you plugged in to what is going on all over the world and ways that you can help end slavery!

www.72daysforfreedom.com
http://268generation.com/passion2012/#!/freedom/
www.dosomethingnow.com
 http://www.thea21campaign.org/
www.itwasforfreedom.org


Pray about it. Read about it. Take time to think about it. and then change it.
follow your heart.

Together we are a force for good!


for God. for people. for the city. for the world.

Thank you, Pinterest:)

So, I attempted to make my first DIY scarf from an old t-shirt.

So the rules of the game are as follows:
1. find an old shirt (other sites say xl or xxl...but I only own smalls and mediums....and it turned out just fine...just not as long).
2. Cut the bottom stitching off. cut under the armpit.

(as you can tell...I cut a little weird..because I wanted to save the print). 

3. after you cut, stretch the bad boy out. stretch it horizontally...not vertically..you want the side of the shirt to be the stretched part.

(since I cut mine a little different...I had to make some adjustments and stitches to the final product. I had to fold over the purple Celebrate text so that the scarf would be the same size all the way around.

and that's it. You have an infinity scarf :)

Together we are a force for good!

Do Something Now is an organization that teams up with Passion Conferences, which is a conference that is near and dear to my heart and my generation.  We have been teaming up to help end slavery around the world. If you forget history, it will repeat itself....and it has. Slavery still exists. Right now, there are 27 million people enslaved around the world.

Slave- (noun) a person who is, unwillingly, the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant.

Together, we can end slavery

Here's how you can get involved:

http://268generation.com/passion2012/#!/freedom/

Click on the link.

Then click: Give.

The hand is a symbol of our passion, our desire, and our goal to see slavery end. We are a generation united to serve Christ and to see Justice served.
Fight Injustice.

give FREEDOM.

For more information on Passion Conferences:

http://www.268generation.com/3.0/

For more information on slavery and ways to help:

http://www.thea21campaign.org/

http://slaveryfootprint.org/

Let us do good to all people. Galatians 6:10

Happy Valentine's Day, pretty girl!

“Love is the cologne of Christ. You can’t get close to Him without catching its overwhelming fragrance. Love is the scent of Christ’s true followers, too. And it’s the fragrance of love that we, as Christ’s followers, are personally responsible to drench ourselves in. Take off the cologne camp and just dump it. The heavier the aroma, the more of Jesus this world will understand and know.”

—

Eric Ludy

When God Writes Your Love Story

So, today I opened up the book When God Writes Your Love Story by Eric and Leslie Ludy and I cannot put it down.  There is one part in the book, that I have read so far, that talks about giving everything in your life to God and letting him take control in providing what you need.  God loves us and wants us to give everything to Him.  He wants to have all of our worries, our needs, and our wishes.  He loves us so much that He doesn’t want us to attempt to figure out how to make our lives the way we want them to be, decide what is best for our lives, try to figure out what to do with our lives, and worry constantly.  He cares for us so much that He doesn’t want us to have to worry or doubt. He wants to make all of our decisions and help us live the life He has made for us.  Sounds easy, huh?!

Well, Eric and Leslie both talk about how they had to let areas in their life go and give it to God. It wasn’t easy for either Eric nor Leslie to do so and it isn’t an easy task for any of us to do so either.  But, when we do realize that God is all we need and that He will give us exactly what we need and sometimes even things that we want, it makes living this difficult worldly life much more simple. God provides for us so that we don’t have to worry or stress about things that will happen in the future or how we will end up getting things that we desperately want in the future….we just simply trust in God with all of our hearts and He gives us what we have longed for.

So, one of these huge areas in our lives, for everyone (married or not…), is relationships. Eric and Leslie both talk about their experiences and heartbreaks in trying to find for themselves what they thought was real love.

I wanted to take a part out of the book to share with you. This is Leslie talking about giving God control over her relationships…..

————————————-

“[I was through with the heartbreaks, giving myself away physically, and trying to please the opposite sex when it only ended in emptiness and breakups.] So I had given God the pen to write my love story. But practically, what did that mean for me on a daily basis? I was at the height of my “dating career” and not planning on marriage anytime soon.  Was I supposed to stop dating? Were friendships with guys okay?  How would I know when God wanted me to get into a relationship? When knowing adults asked me that infamous question, “So, Leslie, is there any special guy in your life right now?” what was I suppose to say? What did God want me to do?

During the weeks and months after my decision to allow God to be in control of this area of my life, another gentle message was being communicated to my heart by His still, small whisper.  It went something like this: Leslie, don’t try to build Me into your life anymore. Instead, build your life around Me.

It was true. I had tried to “fit God into my life” by praying each morning, reading my Bible every night, and attending church weekly.  Yet He was not the central focus of my daily life.  In reality I was only giving Him a few minutes of scattered attention here and there.  I finally came to the realization that unless I slowed down and made a genuine effort to seek Him instead of just being so consumed with my own ambitions, I would have a hard time discerning His will for me in any  
area.

So I embarked upon a journey to get to know my Creator. And truthfully, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I mean, I had gone from revolving my life around a whirlwind of social activities, friends, and dating relationships, to saying, “Lord, I’m going to lay all that aside and focus on You instead.” Not that those other things were necessarily wrong, but God was asking me to put my priorities straight.  My dating and social life had become so distracting that I could no longer hear His voice clearly.

As Elisabeth Elliot says in her book A Chance to Die (about the life of Amy Carmichael), “The preoccupations of seventeen-year-old girls—-their looks, their clothes, their social life—-don’t change much from generation to generation. But in every generation there seem to be a few who make other choices.  Amy Carmichael was one of the few.” And God was calling me to be one of those “few” as well. But I didn’t know how.

If You want this for me, Lord, You are going to have to help me, I silently told Him.

And He did! He met me right where I was and taught me about Himself.  I learned how to love Him with my whole heart, to seek Him earnestly, to listen to His voice on a daily basis, and to fall in love with His Word.  It was the most exciting time of my life!  It made the world of social frenzy I had come from seem incredibly empty. Daily I discovered more about who He is, and more about who He wanted me to become.  I started a journal—-and have kept it up to this very day—-in which I wrote desires, fears, and prayers to the Lord.  I also recorded anything I felt He might be teaching me, be it through Scripture or a gentle pull upon my heart.  Now when I look back at my old entries, I am amazed at how faithful He was to put every detail of my life in place at the perfect time. 

Yes, I lost some friends (but in reality they weren’t real friends, anyway). And yes, I lost popularity. Yet what I gained was priceless: Jesus Christ as my first love, my very Best Friend.

It may not seem that this part of my story has much to do with my relationship with Eric.  But it was the whole key. There are two reasons why letting Christ into this place in my life was the foundation of my love story with Eric.

1. I learned to lean on my relationship with Christ for my hope, joy, and security, rather than trying to find those things in a romantic relationship.  As close to Prince Charming as Eric is, he still is only human (a fact of which I still have to remind him from time to time!). If I had gone into my relationship with him looking for all my emotional needs to be met, I would have been disappointed. I wasn’t truly ready to begin a journey toward marriage with my future husband until I learned to find my hope and security in Christ alone.

2. Jesus Christ remained at the center of my relationship with Eric.  Jesus Christ was the passion of my heart when I met Eric Ludy.  Jesus Christ was the passion of Eric’s heart as well.  As a result, we were drawn together in friendship because of our mutual love for the Lord.  The more we spent time together, the more we grew closer to God through each other.  Whenever I discovered a new truth in the Word of God, I couldn’t wait to share it with Eric.  We spent hours talking about our Lord and our faith.  When we started to have deeper feelings than friendship for each other, God guided us each and every step as we began moving into a romantic relationship.  He remained at the center

Sometimes in a relationship, we can be so caught up in our feelings for the other person that we squeeze God into the background.  It becomes a confusing, emotional mess, and we wonder why God isn’t giving us more direction, when all the while He is there, waiting to be allowed back into first place in our hearts. Only when He is truly in first place are we ready for a God-written love story.” -Leslie Ludy, When God Writes Your Love Story pg. 65-68

———

So, I encourage you to let God write your story. I encourage you to be patient and trust in God.  I encourage you to let Him show you what true love is. I encourage you to pray and seek His will and guidance for your life. I encourage you to grow closer to God and experience what it’s like to fall in love with Him. I encourage you to put Him first—-and then sit back and watch all the fantastic things He blesses you with in your life. I encourage you to wait. I encourage you to not give your heart away. I encourage you to start a prayer journal. I encourage you to pray for your future husband or wife. I encourage you to write them letters. I encourage you to read this book.

I know I’m only 22, which happens to be very young….and maybe you think I’m not experienced enough to know what I’m talking about.. but I want you to know that in every situation that I have given fully to God, I have been blessed way more than I even thought was possible because He knew exactly what I needed and exactly when to give it to me.

So, try it out. What do you have to lose?

Psalm 37:4

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

:)

Love God. Love People.

I discovered pinterest today.  I am addicted. I’ve been looking at wedding ideas ALL day…. not that i’m getting married or anything…I just like to ‘be a girl’. :)

Pinterest is FANTASTIC! It has great ideas for EVERYTHING! you should definitely check it out.

www.pinterest.com

—-NOTE: be forewarned. you will become an addict.

unlovable. i love you.

I read a lot of devotions on the proverbs 31 ministries website. As some of you know, proverbs 31 basically lists out what a woman of God looks like, acts like, etc. However, this article can totally be read and understood for guys too. So, if you’re a dude…I encourage you to also read this. Just replace all the “she”s with “he”s.

“Unlovable” 

http://devotions.proverbs31.org/

God is so great!

For all my ladies and gentleman:)

So, I’ve decided that the quote ‘people of the opposite sex can’t be best friends’ is true…under normal circumstances. Each and every time two people , one male and one female, attempt to become super close friends….one of the two of them develop feelings that happen to be a little stronger than just friends. This sounds like a re-run of a million relationships that you’ve either experienced or that you’re heard and/or seen from your many friends, right? Right. It happens ohhh to many times. And we, as humans, talk ourselves in to believing that one day.. Just one day the ‘best friend’ of ours will fall madly in love with us and realize that he/she has been missing the most important thing in life, us. Well, stop this. Now.

I once read a article…and I’ll post it on here later… That talks about this exact thing. And no matter how much we hope…or we wait…. Or we wish… We just need to put an end to this assumption that our best friend, the ‘love-of-our-life’ is going to fall head over hills for us.

Now listen, I understand that people marry their best friends, right. But in the process of us ending up married to our best friend there are going to be other friends that we have who we will never marry even though we may think we want to very badly. Just remember, especially times like this, that God has placed your perfect prince or princess on Earth…just for you. To be there to support you, to encourage you to be a better person, to pray with you, to help you grow closer to God, to lead you in Godliness, to be your best friend, your shoulder to cry on, your helper, and your spouse. But….until God intends for you and your future husband/wife to meet……be patient. Don’t sell yourself short or waste time trying to make something work that just isn’t in God’s plan for your life. Don’t allow someone else to be more important than God or yourself and your grand adventures in life. Don’t worry and stress out when that ‘perfect guy’ disappoints you…. Like all ‘perfect guys’ will. Enjoy being single. Enjoy spending an abundant amount of time with God and experiencing real overflowing love and romance. We don’t need anything, or anyone else, when we have God and his amazing wonderful grace and love. We are so truly blessed and somethings, in the midst of our doubting and sadness about people of the opposite sex, we miss how glorious and perfect God’s love is.

So, take time for you and your romantic perfect God. 
Take time to work on your relationship with him.
He’ll take care of all the rest……..promise:)

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”

—	Coco chanel

I read a blog once that talked about reaching out beyond your shy comfort zone and doing something you wouldn’t normally do. And I thought it was fantastic…..because for one, you only live life once and why miss out on many things because you’re shy or you think it won’t end the way you exactly want it to. So, do something new. Do something fun. Do something you wouldn’t normally do. Ride a rollercoaster. Eat Thai food. Go to Savannah on st. Patty’s day. Tell someone about how awesome God is and explain some really awesome things that he’s doing in your life right now. Tell a certain person how you feel about him/her. Wake up early and watch the sunrise. Create a bucket list. Start a prayer journal. Write notes to your future spouse. Buy food for a homeless person. Go to a play. Sing in front of people. Talk to someone you wouldn’t normally talk to. Go on a hiike and admire God’s wonderful creation and how beautiful it actually is. Break down your walls that are holding you back from greatness. Prove people wrong when they say you’ll never succeed. Attempt a new sport… Attempt lots of new things. And fail lots of times. Its okay to mess up. Just make sure you’re out doing it rather than missing your chances. Live life.

Go big and don’t even think about going home.