Taking a Break...

Hi guys!! 

I wanted to apologize for being kind of in and out lately with blogging. 

I feel like the only posting I do regularly is Friday's Fancies. 

And, as much as I LOVE doing Friday's Fancies...

It's not enough.

I have a lot going on in my life right now.

And that has made me kinda fuzzy as far as blogging. 

So...I am taking a short break to do some planning and evaluating.

I will be back on April 1st. 

I hope to have a month full of blog posts sketched out for you by then. 

I AM committed to this blog but I just need a tiny bit of time to get my ducks in a row.

I will see you on April Fool's Day. 

And that's no joke.

{okay, okay...it was a joke. a bad joke. my apologies.}

Friday's Fancies: St. Patty's Day!

FF St Patty's Day by tonsofsomething featuring a white ring

I had fun with this Friday's look! I may not be a huge St. Patty's Day girl, but I love, LOVE wearing green. I love that blouse. And that backpack!! This is a fun look that I would love to rock any day of the week! What girl wouldn't love to wear this flirty-without-trying look??

Words

So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. Thinking about the words we choose to say. Thinking about the way words can be used. The power that words have. The power we can give to them. Or pretend to take away from them.

In and of themselves, words are just words. They don't have power. The power comes in the way that we perceive them or say them. By themselves, they are kind of like a sword sitting on a table top. It can't do anything just sitting there...but once it is picked up it can do a heck of a lot of damage.

Words can have just the same amount of power. It only takes one or two words to deal a powerful blow to someone. On the other hand, it takes the same amount of words to build someone up. How often is one way used over the other? I am beginning to learn that for a lot of people it is easier to tear someone or, the more passive route, not build someone up.

This week was a particularly lethal one for me and words. I wish I could be the kind of girl that is so confident that words don't bother me. I wish that when people tried to knock me down I could just stay standing strong. But that is not the case. Words inflict a special kind of pain in my life. Words make me crumble faster than just about anything else. I wish I could just blow it off but I can't.

What happened on Saturday was so stupid. But okay. I will tell you. At work we all write our birthdays on the calender. And as mine is next weekend, I had written it on there. Well, I came into work on Saturday morning someone had written a bit old "WHO CARES" over the top of it. I wish that it didn't hit me the way it did. But I have a lot of trouble at work. Anytime something like this happens it just hits me how horribly mean people can be. This particular event hit me so hard I ended up falling to my knees in the bathroom crying out to God about the injustices of the world for like twenty minutes. Yup, that's right. Your's truly is a hard core drama queen. But it hurt. Really bad.

It is hard because some of my people are not here. They will not be here to celebrate my birthday with. There will be fun conversations until late at night or no seconds of birthday cake after everything else goes away. Sure, I will have a good day with my family. But I can guarantee you now that I will be missing my people a lot. And sadly, I feel like those two words will be blasting in my subconscious like Ty Peddington with a bullhorn. I mean, I hope they aren't. But I will say that because of this week and my bestie being a million miles away has made me more apathetic for my birthday than I ever have before. I know that it will be a good day, but it won't be as good as it could be...you know?

Words have a lot of power. Weeks like this make me dwell on the negative power of words. I wish they inspired me to go out of my way to speak the kind of words that build others up...but instead they make me want to hole up. This week makes me want to lock the door of my apartment and only let in the people that I want to come in. I wish, I truly truly wish that there was some kind of door on my life. Where I can only let in the people that I want. But the fact is that I am only one person. Every day I have the chance to come in contact with hundreds of people. They can be indifferent. They can be hurtful. Or they can make my day. I want to be one of the people in that last group.

I discovered lately that my love language is Words of Affirmation. I have been doing a lot of thinking about that in relation to the things I have been going through and it kind of helps it make sense to me. I think that there is not enough encouragement in my life. I get it now from some places. But I don't feel like like I get it enough. And that is not something you can ask for, you know? Unless I want to be all like "My Love Language is Words of Affirmation...blah, blah, blah." Which is soooo not me. But the thing is, that is why when people try to hurt me, they do...badly. I have reconciled that, really I have. But that doesn't make the hurt go away. It is still there.

I want to be the kind of person that can channel my hurt into this incredible drive to build others up...to keep them from feeling hurt. But that is hard. Because when I arm hurt, I want to be hurt. I want to hole up inside myself and just think about me, me, me. I don't want answers. I don't want explanation. I don't want a band-aid. And above all, I don't want to know that you don't think I should be hurt. I just want to be hurt until I am not hurt anymore. If I can heal on my own instead of consistently being served platitudes on a golden platter I can heal better and transition more efficiently into learning to build up others.

I will end this on a positive note. I am so thankful for you...the readers of my blog. There are some days that your comments just turn my day around and give me the boost I need. Every time I get a comment a huge smile comes with it. That is why I love being a blogger. I love that I can do what I love (write) and get responses from people that I have really come to care about. I also love commenting. I am sorry I haven't been doing that so much lately...I have been trying so hard to get my ducks in a row that I just (as I have explained above) that I have neglected reaching out to people I care about. I am sorry for that, thank you with all of my somewhat-broken heart for sticking with me!

Friday's Fancies: Spring Break

FF Spring Break by tonsofsomething featuring beach hats

I had so much fun with this week's post!! I am going relatively stir crazy at the tale end of this Wisconsin winter, so the thought of going on a wonderful Spring Break adventure sounds LOVELY!! I am not going anywhere this year though, which is a sad fact indeed. *sigh* I have never been anywhere truly tropical and that just sounds so amazing to me. I watch the Price is Right every day at work,one of my favorite parts is when they give away these AMAZING trips to all corners of the tropical world. Bora Bora sounds particularly lovely. There is one resort where the hotel rooms are out on a pier over the water. You walk down a few stairs and BOOM water. Beautiful, crystal clear, blue water. The hotel staff come to your room via boat with your breakfast. That just sounds like heaven to me right now!!!! This outfit is just perfect for m;, I love the dress, the retro bathing suit and the book!! It just screams "RELAX" as loud as any relaxing outfit can scream!!

The path I want to walk.

Okay, so I think I finished my list of mission statements.

I am choosing to look at this as more of a pathway for my life. A list of principles that I want to sort of guide my step in my walk with Christ and my relationships with other people. Well, just read the list. I made it a point to use scripture references with each of the points. I worked really (believe me, REALLY) hard to form this list of based on points from scripture because that is kind of the reason I am doing this...to bring me closer to the Lord and further in my walk with Him.

Throughout my life I will be committed to an attitude of edification to those the Lord brings onto my path. 

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:29

I believe that Christ is with me and has worked in my heart and life to turn me into who I am. As I live, I will submit my life and heart to Him, allowing Him to mold me into the woman He wants me to be. 

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; 

we are the clay, and you are our potter; 

we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8

In my personal life, I will protect my heart because it is Christ’s home in my life.  I am committed to allowing Him to have power over my emotions and not allow my emotions to have power over me. 

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 4:23

I will value forgiveness, both in seeking it and giving it. 

Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Colossians 3:13

I chose not to live my life with a spirit of fear; I will not be afraid to give Him credit, ask Him for help and make decisions based on His truths. I will acknowledge that God will help me live with a spirit of power, of love and of self-control because that is the spirit He has given me. 

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:7

I will prioritize my relationships with those who love Him. The ones I love most and keep closest to my heart will influence my life in ways that bring me closer to Jesus. 

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:7

In my relationships with those who are not walking with the Lord I will not be ashamed of His words. I will talk about Him because He is and will be the most important part of my life. 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16

No matter what my employment, I will do my duties as unto the Lord. I will show my supervisors and coworkers respect and I will do the job to the best of my abilities. 

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men

Colossians 3:23

A Moment of Growth

Do I have an awareness of having a personal mission from God?

This question was presented to me at Bible study tonight. It really got me thinking and I wanted to share some of my first thoughts with you. I am going to be really working on the things I am about to tell you about for the next few days so I may be a little slow on the blogging. 

I think that I do not yet have that awareness. Despite what I say about God's will being good, acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2) and needing to base my life and decision making on that standard I still feel as though I am still waiting for God to reveal what my actual literal "mission." I think I got some wires crossed there.

Yes. There are things that God will blatantly reveal to us. But there are also things we need to do that He has shown to us already. As I study God's Word, I am kind of growing in the understanding that a mission is not something we wait for, but directions we see and follow. The things that God wants us to do are already there in His word. We need to hold those directions and instructions up as a standard in developing our personal mission. 

Is it important that we know what our mission is? I think so. But I know it is for me. My friend shared her "mission statement" with us tonight. As I approach my 25th birthday in a couple weeks, I think it is important that I develop a mission statement of my own. No that my age is altogether important, but I do not want to waste anymore of my life living for myself and not comparing where I am with where I should be in my walk with the Lord. I need to hold my life up to the standard that He has for it on a more consistent basis so that I can be where He wants me to be. 

I want to figure out what my mission is so that I have something tangible to strive to as I live for Him. I am not doing this to try to be perfect or to add to my salvation somehow, neither option is possible. When I accepted Christ as my personal savior my salvation was locked in. There is nothing I could have done to earn my own way. He did it for me by dying for my sins. And that is why I want to live for Him. I want to show Him that I love Him, honor Him and am eternally grateful to Him. He died for me, the least I can do is live for Him in response.

Please pray for me as I do some Bible digging and book consulting for research this week as I develop my own mission statements. I have a couple ideas but I want to put a lot of thought and prayer into my resolutions/mission statements before I consider posting them, which I will. A goal of mine is to back every single one up with scripture.  

Friday's Fancies: Tangerine Tango

                                     
I am not a huge fan of the color orange. Or tangerine really. I would rather just have pink. But that is just me. I wasn't gonna post today because of that.


But then I went the mall. The piddly, middle of WI mall.
The mall may as well have been painted Tangerine.
IT WAS EVERYWHERE!!
So I decided that if a color fad can make it to where I live, the least I can do is embrace it for Friday's Fancies! 
I didn't want to create a look drowning in tangerine.
I saw this dress on modcloth and decided that it was something I would maybe wear,












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