You are Worth It!

I was talking with a student the other day about their college career. This student was in a very tough major and didn't know if he or she could make it. Of course I know that they can and will do great things. That is why I love my job...seeing the potential in students before they see it themselves.

But, this conversation made me remember something my grandmother told me when I was younger. She said, "Do not let anyone determine your success or failure; the only one who can do that is you." Of course when Gaga (that's what we called her) said this to me, I smiled, took the advice, and didn't think too much more about it. But now, as a working woman, these words ring so true.

We let the world tell us that we are too loud, too big, too dumb, too weak, too small, not good enough, too smart, etc. We allow others to determine our worth and our lot in life. My grandmother was right, the only person that can tell you that, is you. How you feel about yourself can determine many things. The "face" that we put out to the world is the only one we have...why not love it!? Why not wake up today and succeed? Why not take the risk and reap great rewards? Why not look in the mirror and believe that you are worth so much more?

For so much of my life I let others thoughts of me determine how I felt about myself. I let the world tell me I wasn't pretty enough or smart enough, when in my heart I knew that God created me the way I was for a reason.

1 Samuel 16:7 says:
   But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Although this verse is talking more about our outward appearance, it rings true for every part of our self worth. The world judges you by your appearance; but that can be how you appear to work, how you appear to think, how you dress, how you act in certain situations. God loves you, no matter what, he sees your heart.

When I was talking with the student I mentioned above, I made sure that they knew that their heart was in the right place. They were majoring in something that changed lives and they loved it. The only person who could tell them they couldn't do it, was them. Just like for me, the only person who needed to know I had self worth, was the person staring back at me in the mirror. Once I accepted this truth, I was a much happier person.

Now this doesn't mean that you can't have days of self doubt...believe me, I do. But what it means is God is there with you. He is walking beside you and knows your heart, he sees your potential.
I'm going to leave you with the words of one of my favorite Contemporary Christian songs. It has helped me when I doubted myself and when I doubted that I could pick up and carry on, I hope you can use it as an anthem too!

In the Eye of the Storm

In the eye of the storm, You remain in control

And in the middle of the war, You guard my soul

You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn

Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm

When the solid ground is falling out from underneath my feet

Between the black skies, and my red eyes, I can barely see

When I realize I've been sold out by my friends and my family

I can feel the rain reminding me

In the eye of the storm, You remain in control

In the middle of the war, You guard my soul

You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn

Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm

Mmm, when my hopes and dreams are far from me, and I'm runnin' out of faith

I see the future I picture slowly fade away

And when the tears of pain and heartache are pouring down my face

I find my peace in Jesus' name

In the eye of the storm (yeah, yeah)

You remain in control (yes you do, Lord)

In the middle of the war, You guard my soul

You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn

Your love surrounds me (Your love surrounds me)

In the eye of the storm (in the eye of the storm)

When the test comes in and the doctor says I've only got a few months left

It's like a bitter pill I'm swallowing; I can barely take a breath

And when addiction steals my baby girl, and there's nothing I can do

My only hope is to trust You

I trust You, Lord

In the eye of the storm (yeah, yeah) You remain in control

In the middle of the war (middle of the war), You guard my soul (yeah!)

You alone are the anchor (ooh), when my sails are torn

Your love surrounds me (yeah!)

In the eye of the storm, You remain in control (yes you do, Lord)

In the middle of the war (in the middle of the war), You guard my soul

You alone are the anchor (ooh), when my sails are torn

Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm, oooh

Oh in the eye of the storm

More posts are coming, and I promise, they won't all be this sappy or sweet! :) 

Be Still and Know

I wanted to try something different today. This has been on my heart and when a sweet friend asked me to share something with her blog, I decided to put it here too. I am by no means a perfect person, but with God I have a chance to be perfect forever. I hope this touches at least one person!

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

This year has been pretty tough. My mother was diagnosed with cancer and it shook my world. To have the strongest woman I know, sit down and tell me that she has a disease that the doctors are not sure is curable, is a huge blow. No matter your age, you always need your mom. So when this happened, the worst thoughts crept into my mind. What would happen if she lost her fight? Who would I call when I needed something? What would happen to my dad (who she has thought for, for the past 40 years)? The only thing I knew to do was pray.

I prayed in the car, in the shower, when I went to bed at night. I tried finding the right words, but nothing seemed appropriate. I begged God for my mother’s life; I pleaded with Him. But in the silence a voice kept repeating, be still and know, be still and know, be still and know.

If you know me, then you know that there really isn’t anything that “still” about me. I am pretty high strung and I am always on. My mind races in different directions, getting ideas as fast as I forget them. When God spoke to me, I did not know what to do. Just imagine a woman on her knees in her craft room, looking up to the heavens and saying, “Yes? God is that you?” I was not sure what he wanted me to do. How could I be still? My mother’s life was on the line, this was one of the biggest hurdles I had to face in my 30 something years…be still, wait...yeah right God!

But it seems that even in our darkest days, God finds a way to show you what you need. I needed to be “still”. I needed to clear my mind, trust in God, and wait for the answers that he was preparing. Trusting in God’s plan is not easy. Like I said before, I pleaded for my mother’s life. But God wanted something different from me. He wanted me to know that he had a path laid out for my family, all I had to do was trust him. I needed to be still and know that he had this. He had my troubles, my doubts, my fears. He knew my heart.

If you are questioning God’s plan for you, or you do not understand how to be still, look at this translation. The God’s Word Translation of this key verse is “Let go of your concerns! Then you will know that I am God. I rule the nations. I rule the earth.” Just by seeing a different version, you can take a different meaning. Let go of your concerns, cast them on God. Because he rules everything, he will take care of you.

The path that God has led my family on this year has been trying. It has not been easy or happy at all times. But even in the pain, I knew that by trusting God’s plan, good would come. I am happy to say that although my mother’s fight is not over, she is fighting! She is drawing on God’s grace and continued support. My Christian walk has grown and my faith has been restored. Such a tragic diagnosis has healed my heart and the path of my family. God has honored me with a patient husband and a “better than normal” three year old. He has shown me how wonderfully blessed I am with Godly friends who have been with me every step of the way. God has used this trial for triumph. And to think, it all started with me being still. 

Run to God, lay your burdens at his feet. Be still and know that he will wrap his ever loving arms around you, all you have to do is ask. Have a great weekend!

Hello Again!!

Hi y'all!! It's been about a hundred years since I posted anything on here. As always, life has happened and we have been busy. I've always wanted to be really good at this blog thing, but I'm not. I really am going to make a better effort to showcase some of our life. We have really funny things that go on in our crazy world. And I'd love to share those with everyone. On a daily basis we say that our life could be a reality show.
For instance, my dad has been living the bachelor life for a couple weeks since my mother has been at MD Anderson in Houston, TX. My cousin was at mom and dad's house doing some chores for me and he reported that dad went grocery shopping alone today. What does an 80 year old bachelor buy at Wal-Mart you ask? A fruit tray, a vegetable tray, and 7 jars of jelly. YES...7!!!! I mean what does one man need with 2 fruit trays and that much jelly? When asked he said that it all looked so good. Haha! You have to appreciate a man's logic.
I have tons more stories that I can share, especially of my 3 year old, yes Harper is 3!! Where has the time gone?
Tomorrow I have a special treat...a surprise that I've been working on with a sweet friend, Brittany Moore. Brittany has the cutest online shop, Chasing Portland. She makes shirts, orders clothes, and can design anything you want. On top of it all, she is one of the Godliest women I know. Check her out at Chasing Portland.

Here are some pics of the past couple YEARS (since it's been a while)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well it's that time of year again...time to trim the tree and deck the halls. While I absolutely LOVE Christmas, I really dread getting all of my decorations out and finding a place for them. But, once the deed is done, I love the look of it! I mean we have a new home, so this year was a little overwhelming.
Have you ever had one of those moments where you panic because you don't know where you are going to put your tree? No, you haven't? Well take it from a crazy like me...it is not a fun place in my head! We finally found a place for the tree, the decorations, and most everything else. Pictures are coming soon, but I will leave you with this..

This is how I felt about decorating. I wanted to stop here, but we pressed on.

Here is our mantel...disregard the sports news on the TV..this is just a sneak peek at the decorations.

And last but not least, since I didn't do a Thanksgiving post, I had to share a picture of our little turkey!

Have a great week!

-Em

Baby It's Cold Outside

Since it's Monday and since it's freezing outside, I thought I'd share a little happy...

We're all bundled up and ready to go! You can tell that she just woke up and is not so sure about this cupcake on her head or the puffy coat!

It's cold, it has been snowing, and it's officially (almost) 4 days until Thanksgiving Break! We're ready to get out and decorate for Harper's first Christmas! She missed it by 16 days last year!

I hope you all have a happy Monday!

One of "Those Days"

Have you ever had one of "those days"? You know the kind I'm talking about.

It always starts out the same, you wake up late, stump your toe on the bed..run out of body wash in the warmish (not hot) shower..have to use shampoo to shave your legs.

Then your child doesn't want to keep her socks on, even though it's 30 degrees outside! You finally get out of the house and slide into the babysitter's driveway hoping that you haven't forgotten anything, knowing that other mothers would judge you for not putting shoes on your 10 month old, even though she can't walk.

You get to work on time, which is great if you weren't the crazy that thinks "on time" means 15 minutes earlier than when you should be there. You have 10 missed calls by 8:15 and realize that the phone is on silent...a work phone, the kind that don't just accidentally get put on silent like a cell phone. Really, how does that even happen!!??

You check your hand and notice that there is something on it...you just hope that it's the chocolate that you've been hiding in your desk and not something that one of your students has left for you as a "thank you note" for helping them drop out of college. The day falls to crap after that...yeah it's been one of those days!

With that being said, it's Thursday! This means that I have one more day of "those days" and it's the weekend. At least on the weekend I can have one of "those days" in my pajamas!

The silver lining to this day is the Black Friday ad from Wal-Mart has been released. If you are as crazy excited as I am, here it is along with any other Black Friday deal..this is a good site:

http://www.blackfriday.fm/

I hope that you aren't having one of "those days" and if you are, maybe some dreaming about Black Friday deals can lift you out of your funk!!! Here's the countdown timer to Black Friday Shopping!!

Where has the time gone!!??

Wow...look at that! I haven't blogged in almost a year!!! Things have changed for sure since then!

    We had a baby... (January 10, 2014)
    We bought a house...
    We cleaned and painted said house...
    We moved in to the house...
    We got a niece...
    Our baby got big!!!!

Here is the year in a picture review:

I'm going to spend the next couple of months updating everything and showing pics of the house and Harper. Sorry it's been so long, maybe I'll get better at this!