how to: make a magnetic organization board

1) find a flat, metal board that is magnetic. for my board, i purchased a decorative metal sign from hobby lobby which was 50% off, and while i definitely am a ford fan, i know that i will be an even bigger fan of my board. other types of metal boards that can be used are metal clipboards or even flat cookie sheets. it all just depends on the preferred size, and it is important to make sure that there will be a way to efficiently hang your creation. this specific sign has nail holes near each of the 4 corners.

2) cover the metal sheet with the thin scrapbook paper of your choice. the purpose of using paper as opposed to fabric is so that the metal underneath can easily remain magnetic. i find using mod podge with a paintbrush allows the glue to spread evenly without noticeable spots or drops of glue under the paper.

 3) hot glue ribbon around the edges as the trim. i was feeling some yellow rosette.

4) add the information you want to organize to the board. i created these custom lists because i want to start planning my meals and chores for each week (dedicating a specific chore to a certain day of the week), but there are many free templates to be found online. i then covered the 5 by 7 sheets of paper with 5 by 7 replacement picture frame inserts which can also be purchased at hobby lobby. the lists are now miniature dry erase boards so that i can customize them for each new week.

 5) i then added another round of rosette ribbon as trim to my organized lists, and voila! i now have a magnetic, dry erase organizational board to hang in my kitchen.

the body

"a church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints." abigail van buren

i love the church. let me say it again: i LOVE the church. after being the daughter of a minister for 25 years, that is something that i am boldly and easily able to say. one thing that i am frequently learning and being reminded of is that i am not, can not, and will never be perfect and neither is the church. while the design of the church is perfect, the people who form it are not. and while it can be tempting to view the church as a collection of people who have it "all together," it's actually a gathering of broken bodies seeking the help of one another and of GOD in order to find healing and to become whole.

i write the following post in a spirit of love and not in a spirit of bitterness. i also write as a person who sometimes has difficulty seeing due to the planks in my own eyes. i do not attempt to correct or remove the specks in the eyes of others with this post as i am not perfect and as i am certain that i am guilty of all 3 actions of which i write today.

as a member of the church and a part of the body, it can be easy to become complacent, stagnant, and a little too comfortable at times. it can be easy to become self-absorbed and focused on our own goodness and involvement. it can also be easy to rely on the other body parts at times in order to get good things accomplished. and it can be extremely easy to abuse the body of CHRIST and the worship environment in order to seek our own agenda or to pursue a hidden mission.

the following 3 areas are ways in which i've seen the worship environment and time of fellowship with the church be abused and misused by us, the members of the church and parts of the body. i feel that these areas primarily apply to young women but could also be applied indirectly to others of us who sometimes forget the real reason why we come together each week as a body of believers.

the runway. a very brilliant young woman i know recently made the point at our girls' home bible study that while it is of significant importance to present our best before GOD by dressing accordingly for worship, is it not of equal importance that we aren't trying to impress or please others with the way that we dress and that we are solely focused on honoring GOD with our appearance? how many of us fall guilty, however, of wanting to astound those around us with our brand new haircut, adorable new dress, or great new pair of shoes?

how often does the worship setting and time with the church turn into a runway and place of self-promotion and the seeking of attention? do we get a thrill from looking beautiful, cute, handsome, sharp, or excessively classy in the presence of others? does feeling this form of goodness influence or motivate our desire to attend and ultimately to worship? are we more aware and worried about what others will think of our appearance than we are about the perception of our GOD?

if we are the body, why are we more concerned with pleasing our audience rather than our maker?

the ultimate revenge. i believe that any young, single female who has ever dated can relate to that uncomfortable tension that immediately emanates from the eye contact created between yourself and an ex. whether it's an ex-boyfriend, a casual dater, or someone with whom there was mutual attraction and interest, that awkward moment of meeting can create a whole host of bizarre and upsetting symptoms: that sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach. the immediate racing of the heart. the excessive elevation of blood pressure. the imminent inability to think of or to produce the right words. and what can be even more awkward is when that ex is a fellow member of the same congregation, with the eye contact occurring sometimes on a triweekly basis.

but what is really troubling is when we young girls use the church and the worship setting in order to seek revenge or get attention from that former guy by bringing the new guy to escort us and be our visitor. what better revenge than to force that guy who used to like us to watch us sit with his replacement for a solid hour while we worship? or even better, to sit in a tiny room filled with people for bible class where there is nowhere else to look than right at our little spectacle? and who can blame us for being so kind and inviting someone to worship with us, right? and if anyone asks, that's really all we're doing, right? ;)

if we are the body, why do we try to hurt and inflict injury upon our body's other parts?

the personal statement. let's be honest, the worship/church environment is an easy place to arouse immediate attention. whether it's with a certain outfit choice, the accompaniment of a certain guest or friend, or the attitude we convey to the people around us, we are always making some kind of personal statement. and sometimes i wonder if the personal statement that we are hoping to make is more motivating to our attendance and participation than our desire to fellowship with one another and to engage in worship to our GOD.

sometimes just our attendance in general can make a statement: attending on a christmas, a mother's day, or an easter. intentionally attending or not attending because of the set speaker. becoming a frequent attender in the hopes of appearing spiritual. not attending to demonstrate the strength of our relationship with GOD and not needing organized religion. intentionally increasing attendance or leaving a congregation after a certain decision has been made.

if we are the body, why does our personal statement sometimes take precedence over the WORD?

the aftermath of disaster

before i begin this post, let me say that these words have truly been on my heart and forming for the past week. i write to you as a fellow human being and a fellow sinner who falls short of GOD'S glory continually. i write to you as one who is frequently broken but healed and mended by the grace of GOD. i am not perfect by a long shot, and any wisdom that i might even appear to have is a gift from the LORD and usually the result of a lesson that i learned from lack of wise judgment leading to a difficult experience.

in my recent conversations with people during the past week, i have noticed a recurring theme: different ways of dealing with sin. i have witnessed and realized that we all have different struggles and temptations, and therefore, we also have different ways of handling the different dilemmas that come our way.

as a young girl, i mistakenly believed that i could avoid making my own mistakes and shortcomings solely by learning from the mistakes and shortcomings of others. i thought that somehow i could protect myself from all difficult situations that i could ever face by being so good and so perfect that i became untouchable and invincible. but as i have grown older and faced situations that i could have never predicted or suspected, i have learned that satan truly is a prowling, roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and that no one can finish this race without being tainted with sin and falling short of the glory of GOD.

romans 12:2 says, "do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of GOD, what is good and acceptable and perfect." i think that many of us have the false expectation that we can discern what is good, acceptable, and perfect without being tested. that we can fully learn from other people's mistakes what not to do. that we can walk through this life guiltless and free from blame or shame. that at the end of this life we can score 100% on the test as we escaped it without temptation, blemish, or failure. but it is, in fact, by testing that we come to receive the knowledge of right and wrong and that we learn what is good, acceptable, and perfect.

in other words, we all are going to be tested at different times in our lives. unfortunately, we won't solely learn how to be pleasing to GOD or how to live righteously just from the lessons of other people. we all will struggle. we all will be tempted. and sometimes we will fall short. sometimes we will mess up. sometimes we will flat out fail. sometimes we will see the good that we wish to do and do the opposite. sometimes we will do the exact thing that we hate or the thing that we never thought that we would do.

and i believe that it is at this moment that the real testing begins: how we choose to handle the aftermath of our personal disaster. how we choose to deal with our failure and our short-falling. how we choose to proceed with the rest of our lives from the point of our mistake.


i think that there are 3 ways that we as humans deal with and handle the aftermath of our disasters. the first method is quite rare, and i believe that few choose it. it's the approach of acceptance: accepting our mistake, accepting help from other people in order to escape and to be set free, and accepting the grace offered to us through the blood of JESUS CHRIST. satan hates this solution because it goes against every lie that he tries to tell us. satan wants us to believe that we are fully human, that we will never be perfect and will always fall short, and that salvation is impossible for us to attain. but the good news is that salvation is impossible for us to attain on our own. no merit of goodness or level of action will ever earn the redemption that is offered to us.

by accepting our imperfection and our sin, we instantly start beating satan at his game. by understanding our humanity, we start realizing our struggles and the situations in which we need to be even more alert and aware for us to avoid the same mistakes in the future. by being willing to forgive ourselves, we open ourselves up to the forgiveness of others and become accepting of the forgiveness of GOD. and by directly dealing with our issues, we allow ourselves to heal and to recover, and ultimately we set ourselves up to be able to move on.

the second method in which we handle our messes is the approach of dwelling: continually dwelling on the mistake that we made, feeling inadequate or hypocritical in doing good or in teaching others what is right, and becoming paralyzed and unproductive because we no longer have a perfect record. the truth is that there are two ways of continuing in sin: the first by continuing to act sinfully and the second, which i'm addressing here, by constantly thinking about sins and mistakes of the past. this approach is the middle man, and it's extremely dangerous as we remain in a lukewarm state, unsure of whether we will return to good or proceed with evil. all we can think about day in and day out is the wrong choice or the bad situation that happened, and we become stuck in a rut of continually beating ourselves up.

half of us believes that because we no longer have a perfect, spotless record, we might as well give up and give into our temptations while the other half hopes to return to walking in the light. but we don't realize that as long as we remain dwelling in the past, even though we aren't continuing to do wrong, we are paralyzed and prevented from doing any good or right.

and the third method in which we handle our sin is the approach of surrender: feeling so dirty, helpless, and tainted that we feel there is no chance for escape or rescue. feeling so judged and misunderstood by other people that we feel we can never belong again. for those reasons, we start surrendering and giving into the sin that at one time we hated so strongly. we throw our hands in the air, limiting our GOD and limiting HIS grace by refusing to accept HIS rescue and refusing to believe that HE can do immeasurably more than all we ask or could ever imagine.

and before we know it, we start justifying: believing that GOD made us a certain way, thinking that GOD'S priority is our happiness, and even going as far as to twist scripture and GOD'S word to meet and justify our sinful living. we no longer consider what GOD wants, attempting to change our lives to fit HIS words, but we consider only what we want, changing GOD'S words to fit our lives. and this is satan's favorite because he gets us to justify a perpetual state of sin while thinking that we are good and acceptable in GOD'S sight. satan makes us fully believe that because of our circumstances or our choices that we can never be set free from the sin in which we've become entangled.

but thank heavens that we serve a GOD who isn't limited by our circumstances. who isn't limited by the consequences from the sin that we fell into. who isn't limited by the fact that we refuse to believe HE is mighty to save. who isn't limited by the fact that we don't always believe that we even need any healing or saving. who isn't limited by our choice to dwell on or to surrender to our sin.

we are all prodigal children: choosing at different times and in different ways to leave the comfort of our FATHER'S arms and to spend some time with the pigs. and in those moments, GOD must and we must let each other go and stand our inevitable moments of testing. we must all face our own struggles and temptations and attempt to determine what is good, acceptable, and perfect. we must be tested and refined by fire, and unfortunately, we will all fall short of the glory of GOD. but we serve a FATHER who is pleading, hoping, and waiting for us to return and to accept the offering of grace for which HIS only SON died.

we must realize that all who wander are not lost and that sometimes stumbling prevents a great, big fall. none of us will score 100% on the great, big test of life, and there will be moments where we do the very thing we hoped to never do. but in those moments, we have the opportunity to pass the real test of our lives: handling the aftermath of disaster.

the upgrade

"the good often becomes the enemy of the best in life." jackie kendall, "lady in waiting"

"what if what i think is great really is great, but it's not as great as something greater?" steve, "the wedding planner"

it had been 2 long years. when i say that everyone else was getting one, i mean that literally everyone else was getting one. i had been patient, and with a dave ramsey kind of mindset, i had made the best out of my current situation. but there was no denying it: it was time for a change.

after much consideration, i approached my parents about it for some advice and wisdom. and to my utter delight, they confirmed that it was, in fact, time for an upgrade. it was finally time to upgrade my 2-year-old, outdated cell phone for the iphone.

at the time of my previous cellular upgrade, the iphone was just coming out, but i had been so ready for a new phone that i hadn't been willing to wait for the best phone. so i had settled and gone ahead and purchased a new phone. but even though the phone was new and much better than my previous phone, i knew it wasn't quite the best and that if i had been a little more patient i would have ended up with something better.

in thinking on this situation, i couldn't help but make the connection to the decisions that we make in our everyday lives. sometimes we are so ready for something new, or just something in general, that we aren't willing to wait for the best or right thing. but i've said it before, and i'll say it again: i would rather be stuck with nothing than be stuck with the wrong something.

sometimes we jump into friendships so that we will no longer feel lonely, not realizing that certain friendships could lead us down a new path in which we would be much better off alone. sometimes we jump into dating relationships so that we will at least have something even if we know it's not the right thing or really what we want or have prayed for. sometimes we jump into jobs or positions solely for the title and the paycheck that we will receive and not for doing something we truly love. sometimes we get something new, whatever it may be, for the sole purpose of having something new, different, and shiny even though we know that it's not the best quality and that deep down we could do a lot better.

sometimes in life, we are long overdue for an upgrade, and GOD is just waiting to give us that upgrade if we will only ask for it. sometimes we should have just held out a little longer and not settled in the first place, and GOD is silently begging that we just trust HIM and wait on HIS perfect timing. sometimes we don't realize that every good and perfect gift comes only from GOD and that when we choose to act outside of HIS will and timing, we can only set ourselves up for disappointment.

sometimes something may truly be good, but it's simply not the best or what GOD had in store. sometimes something may really be great, but it's just simply not as great as something greater. and we sell ourselves short when we buy, choose, date, marry, worship, idolize...settle for something different or less than GOD'S good and perfect.

today, there's a new iphone out that i don't have, and i realize that by the time i bought it, apple would already be working on the next one. there's a time in life when we must learn to be content and satisfied with the good things that we've found and the upgrades that we've been given. but there is a distinct difference in being content and in being complacent, and complacency is something that we must continually rise above and never choose to settle for. we must wait upon the LORD and fully believe that every good and perfect gift does and will come from HIM.

special note: thank you to my awesome grandmother for making my iphone possible!

this grass

"the grass isn't greener on the other side. the grass is greener where you water it." unknown

never in my life did i ever imagine that i would be here, standing on this grass where i am residing: a single, 24-year-old girl living in a huge city, in texas of all places. carrying out the job that i always dreamed of having. being surrounded by family and by new friends and faces with every new week. and feeling more fulfilled, content, and excited than i have in years.

but as a single, 24-year-old female, sometimes i feel almost pitied for being unattached. for being husbandless. for being "alone." and while i appreciate the sympathy, i can't say that i share the sentiment. while i am so grateful for every individual who is contributing in the search for my significant other, whether by praying for him or by setting me up on blind dates, not having found that man yet in no way makes me feel insignificant. while i do hope to one day say along with song of solomon 3:4 that i have found the one my heart loves, that one and that day have not arrived.

i am finding that satan is just way too crafty. instead of being grateful for the things that we do have and have already received, he tempts us to focus on what we are lacking and "missing." and he allows us to feel entitled to everything, just like he did to adam and eve in the garden. not only does he make us dwell on what we don't have, but he makes us believe that not having something is always bad.

but i have written this before, and i will say it again: i'm learning that sometimes we have to not only be thankful for what GOD has given us but also for what HE hasn't. the truth in the garden of eden is that by sparing adam and eve the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, GOD was ultimately sparing them avoidable and unnecessary death. by wanting to be spared nothing, adam and eve brought death into existence, creating their destruction.

i think of how many terrible and dangerous things we are avoiding when we let GOD take control of and govern our lives. and then i think about how many things we create and bring into existence when we demand to give our input and change our course.

i also think about how satan uses us to make each other feel like we are lacking something. like we aren't complete yet. or that we're missing out. like we aren't good enough. or that we haven't done something right. 

the truth in my life is that GOD has given me everything in CHRIST and that i can do everything through HIM. i am lacking in nothing. i am surrounded by love and get to practice love every day. i am complete, fulfilled, and content with my course. and more than anything, i am completely and 100% attached to the ONE my heart desires most.

i thank GOD every day for what HE is sparing me that i don't even know about and for what HE has already spared me from that i have already seen. i thank GOD for every mistake. for every failure. for every broken bridge. and every broken promise. for every redirection. and every insignificant change that has brought me to this grass. i look back at the almosts and the might-have-beens in my life, and i can't say that i miss a single one or that i feel lacking in any way because GOD didn't intend any of those maybes to be my definites.

my ambition is not to wonder what the grass is like on the other side of the fence but to water the grass that's right here in front of my eyes and under my feet. to not feel ungrateful for the things that i have and to not feel lacking for that which i don't. but instead to thank GOD both for what HE has given and for what i have been spared. and to not only water, but to mow, build a white picket fence around, and frolic barefoot through this grass.