Expectations

I am an unfortunate human being. Why? Because I have too high of expectations for people.

Sometimes, it makes sense. Like too me, if you profess to be a Christian, that means that besides accepting him as your Savior, you are on a journey to grow closer to him in all the ways that you possibly can while being on this Earth...which kind of means that you at least attempt to read his Word and follow his commands.


I believe that in the Bible, nothing ever becomes old-fashioned or irrelevant no matter how much times passes.

"Your word, LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens." Psalm 119:89

Whenever there are things in the Old Testament that are not held in high esteem anymore, that's probably because something in the New Testament changed that law and made it new in a different way. The Old Testament (to the best of my limited knowledge) was written for mainly history and context, and the New Testament was written mainly for application. 

But it's when people who confidently say that they are Christian and want to follow God with their life and live for His glory...AND repeatedly and knowingly disobey his commands without guilt...those are the people who I sincerely want to understand. 

Confession: I'm a judgmental person. It's bad. 

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Matthew 7:3

I'm working on it slowly and with lots of prayer..But I somehow cannot seem to balance it with this one..

"So watch yourselves. "If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them." Luke 17:3

Yeah, okay. Forgive, forgive, forgive like Jesus. Rebuke and forgive.... And if they don't repent? Then what....

A person can't continually rebuke can they? That's kind of....socially unacceptable. 

Our society loves its freedom. "I can do whatever I want because it's my life" It's none of your business what people do behind closed doors.

I have come to no conclusion...Probably cause I haven't read Revelations... The answer is in Revelations...

Maybe. 

;)

Sex. Sin. Stupid.

Frustrations.
Frustrated at why God created us all to be so perfect.
Frustrated that Satan could take something so beautiful and turn it into something so damned shameful...

!@#$%^&*()_+)(*&^%$#@!#$%^&*()_)(*&^%$#@!@#$_)(*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*()(*&^%$#@!

So far gone.

We are all so far gone from what the Lord had intended for our lives in the first place. Did you know that? Did you know that even in your best clothes, with your best manners, and offering up the best, most unblemished thing to God, in reality, you give Him a giant, stinking platter of shit?

Shit.
That is that reality of life.
Humans are shit.

We were created to follow his commands and to live in perfect harmony with one another. Created to embody his image in mind, body, and spirit. Yet, we've let ourselves be tempted by the beautiful mirage that Sin parades to be.

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 Back story.

Reading a book called "Every Young Women's Battle" by Shannon Ethridge and Stephen Arterburn
Great book, highly recommend it.

Umm....
However....

The way that this book portrays the reality of sexual sin and its relevant and constant temptations in life causes me to look upon myself and on my peers and realize that we are so lost.

The way that this book portrays the reality of sexual sin and its relevant and constant temptations in life causes me to look at society and its harmful messages and wonder how in the world I'm ever gonna get out of this jungle alive.

It's really depressing, to be honest...Really truly.

Sure, sure. Through Jesus Christ, we are cleansed and forgiven of all our sins and we are able to have a personal connection with God, our Heavenly Father.

But.
But. but..but...

The sin is still there. The temptations are still there. Those stupid, manipulating, lying, idiotic, messages are still there, entrapping us, following us, yelling, screaming, crying out for our attention.

How difficult it is to fix your eyes on God when there are darting figures in your peripheral vision...

"I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

It's a journey. And you're never gonna win. But you don't have to because Christ already won for you. Now all you gotta do is pray for the strength to follow his commands and take up that extremely heavy cross. Every single day. 

Great. 

Project: Jeans to Shorts

So a couple weeks ago, I started pinning things. I created a pinterest. One of the pins that I had found were these jean shorts with lace on them! http://pinterest.com/pin/551550285585040487/

I wanted to try this out myself since I had some dreaded jeans that I wanted to transform.
If you had read my previous blog post about sewing, you will see me use in this blog post the old collars of my cousins dresses as the "lace".

This was the pairs of jeans that I never wore. They were an okay color but they fit weirdly and were uncomfortable.

They were also bedazzled with these gems and I did not like that. I don't really enjoy having bling on my clothes unlike some people. It's just not my sense of style.

Henceforth, I had to get rid of the bling and then I cut the jean into shorts.

This recipe for short called for some slitting at the sides and I had to place a pin to create a boundary so that my slit would not find itself too high up my thigh to be considered decent.

I also cut a bit of the material out of the inside of the slits I made to make the cut a wee bit more dramatic. I knew that the lace would cover it up anyhow so I wanted to highlight the lace a bit more through having a larger part of the shorts to be just lace.

This is the lace collar that I salvaged from my cousin's dress that I had altered earlier. It was a convenient coincidence that the colors matched pretty well. :)

I placed the lace onto the sides of my short see where it would fit and how, and I ended up using only one collar and cutting it in half.

So then I pinned the lace to the shorts and put it through the machine! The sewing machine is always the exciting part for me because it just puts everything together. 

I also frayed the ends of my short as well because I didn't really like the clean-cut shorts look. I just wanted to have a balance between nice and girly with the lace and a little rebel in the frayed strands that would loosely hang.

That is the finished look and I hoped that you enjoyed this blog! I'm sure I'll wear these shorts much, much, MUCH more often then their past life jeans. 

Catching up - Part 2: Sewing

And as promised, I am going to show you guys some of my alterations to dresses for my cousin and myself.
I quite enjoy reinventing old clothes into news ones that I will actually wear. My latest venture has been two tank tops that I turned into a dress!

So this was my first ever alteration of a dress. The dress was a really nice print, but my cousin

expressed that it was a little too loose and was too long. (The before picture I took after I hemmed the 

gown). So what I did what I hemmed the skirt, took out the sleeves and took in the dress a little bit, just so she has enough wiggle room. :) I'm really happy with the result and she is as well. I remember I was super nervous about her trying it on. I was so sure that it would rip or be too small or something!

This is her dress before I touched it. I have started to make before and after pictures just to up my ego. *cough* ...I mean to see the differences and compare what I did. ;)

And these are pictures of her modelling the after version of the dress. What I did was I 

took in the sides, cut off the sleeves, took out the collar (I thought it looked a little grandma style)

made it the ever-so-prevalent high-low style and accessorized it with a belt of matching color!

This is my first skirt. to be honest, those two cut up tank tops were sitting there safety pinned to each other for the longest time! I needed to go get myself some dress pins before I even dared take it to the machine. Originally I was going to paint this skirt into a galaxy print one but I'm not sure I would wear it if it were, so basic black with do for now. 

So this is the before picture of my to be dress. The tank top on the left is a hand me down from my aunt and I guess it was a cute tank top. I just never found a place or outfit to wear it; it just wasn't really my style type thing and the tank on the right is just a really old loose tank top that I would have probably turned into a rag to wipe the toilet with had I not turned it into a dress.

So what I did was I put the tank top on the left on as a tank and the black tank top on as a skirt and I matched them up in a way that it looked like a dress. After that, I drew some markings, cut off some fabric, pinned the two together and sewed a dress. :)

I'm very pleased with the result. I loved having so many hobbies and things to do. I'm especially excited for my sewing to evolve because I have a lot of old clothes that I don't like enough to wear but I don't hate enough to give them away...So now I get to change them up into something I will wear! :)

Prayer

Lord, thank you for your presence. You are so good. Because of your goodness, I am good. Thank you for creating me. Thank you that I am a beautiful masterpiece. Teach me to be humble and understanding. Thank you for your love. Thank you for that example of love. I love you Lord. Guide me in your steps. Make me a Christian worth representing you.
In your Holy Name I pray.
Amen. <3>

Catching Up - Part 1

Hello there lovely readers!! :)

I realize that I have really been lacking in the blogging department so now I have sooo much to share with you guys! So this summer, I've been given free time to do whatever the heck I want and that, so far, has included sewing, taking pictures of babies, and playing the guitar.

Firstly, I'd like to show you peoples a couple pictures of one of the cutest babies ever. His name is Max and he's my old youth leader's baby and his name is Max. He has an older brother named Spencer and they are super cute kids! Hehehe. Here are a couple of pictures of them that day.

Tasty strawberry?

Look at those eyes!!

Christ Manifesto

Commitment to Jesus Christ:

I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made, I’m a disciple of His! I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer, and I labor with power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions are few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know and work till He stops me. And, when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me … my banner will be clear!”

Hi there.

It's been awhile guys. I'm glad you're reading this. It means you haven't left me yet.

I've been having trouble with my future. I don't know what I want. Well, I want a lot of things but they seem too....i don't know. Far fetched...

meanwhile, here's some random photos of what life has been:

I want to cry.

...

1 Corinthian 13 and my problems with it.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails."

"...it keeps no record of wrongs." Love keeps no record of wrongs. 

This is the part of 1 Corinthians that I had a problem following when I first read it. I've always been judgmental and looking down on others for their faults, exalting myself as better than them because I didn't have those problems. But that's not how Christ would act. That's the opposite of how he did act when he came down to us.

Christ is God. God is Love. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Where there is remorse, there is forgiveness and that is why it is so freeing to be a Christian. 

Not only does being a Christian allow me to be forgiven by the God of the Universe, but wanting to be more like Christ helps me to forgive others when they fall short of His glory as well. 

Love is all kinds of wonderful things, but a lot of time we think it's wonderful when someone treats us with the Christ-love that we need and we don't try to imitate it ourselves. That was my problem anyways. 

Was my problem.

Is no longer my problem. 

Because of Jesus, I have the power to understand and forgive. Even though I may be hurt, disappointed, unhappy, and any other negative thing...even though I may feel all that or even WANT to feel all that, those feelings are made so small compared to my feelings of understanding and wanting to help the person I love, whoever that may be. 

Because Christ has the love to forgive me, I can and I do have the love to forgive others.