Faith - March 26, 2016

Currently Studying

I want to talk about my faith more

I feel like I say this ALL the time, but I really do mean it when I say that I want to share more of my faith on my blog. I think the main thing that keeps me from sharing is the act of actually sitting down and writing – it’s so hard to make myself do that. And then on top of this, I feel pressure to perform. In other words, I feel like if I’m going to write something about my faith, it better be good and worth reading.

When the truth is that’s not the necessarily case – or at least I hope not. I think (or hope) that you all would be just as thrilled to hear about my struggles and hot-mess-ness than you would be to hear me talk about some grand revelation I had. Because most of the time, my best moments in my walk of faith are the ones where  I don’t have an answer – not even close – and I can’t explain the why or how things are the way they are, BUT I have peace and am still confident that God is good. And that’s enough for me.

Anyway, I think I should talk about it more – even if it doesn’t quite jive well in between outfit posts.

And it looks like you want the same thing…

The funny thing is, when I look at my analytics, it appears that you all want to hear about my faith more as well. For instance, I’m able to see the things you search for and aside from the obvious fashion-related queries, one of the next most searched topics on my blog is faith. And those of you that visited my faith-based posts tended to stay on the blog longer than others.

This information literally blew my mind. I was like, wait what? Really?

Anyway, this discovery was just the encouragement I needed to commit myself to posting at least ONCE a month about it. So here we go, I promise (eek!) to talk about my personal walk with Christ and what’s going on/struggles/etc. regardless of whether it’s pretty or ugly, well-written or a hot mess of ramblings.

What I’m Studying right now

For my first post I’m literally just going to share with you what’s going on and what I’m studying. Right now, I’m a bit all over the place, doing a few different studies at once, but I kind of like it better that way.

Currently, I’m in a bible study through my church that meets every other week; we’re finishing up a study of “30 Life Principles” by Charles Stanley, which is a GREAT book that I would highly recommend.

brighton the day current bible study march 2016

In addition to this group study, I’m doing a few others on my own and with an accountability partner that I’ll share with you. I alternate between the following other studies during my quiet time:

Be Still and Know study (by Life Lived Beautifully) – This past Monday, I started a new study on Romans 12:9-31 with an accountability partner (which is just an older woman in the church that I meet with once a week). I’m really excited about this one because it only covers a few verses and is focused on memorizing scripture rather than studying long passages.

IF Gathering Nicene Creed Study – After going to the IF Conference in Austin last month, I was excited to hear about their new IF Equip book coming out that covers the Nicene creed. I’ve never studied or even memorized it before so I immediately purchased it. This study also started on Monday, but I’m confident I can couple this one with other because the reading is pretty light (like only 1 page) and it’s not too time-intensive of a study either.

The Comparison Trap – I’m also going through a 28 day devotional book called The Comparison Trap. I know everyone struggles with comparison, but my struggles with it have gotten exponentially worse sense venturing into the fashion world. I mean, I’ve struggled with it in the past (we all do), but for some reason it’s just so much more intense now. And as I continue to work in the industry each day, the temptations of comparison and the reality of it become harder to fight. After mentioning my struggles and discouragement on my snapchat the other week, a reader snapped me back and suggested I get this book. So of course, I got it! So far, I’m LOVING it!

And then I get the She Reads truth blog posts emailed to me everyday as well. To be honest though, I don’t always get to this one everyday but I still like to have it in my inbox just in case :)

Oh, and this month I’m memorizing John 8:31-32 if you want to join me.

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

– John 8:31-32

As I’ve been committing this to memory, piece by piece, I’ve learned so much by way of asking questions I would have never asked if I hadn’t had to read the verses so closely. Memorizing scripture is no easy feat, but it’s definitely one worth investing your time in.

I think that’s all I’ll share for today. I love comments on any post, but for this post especially, I would really appreciate to hear from you all. Please share your thoughts or feedback or let me know if you have any questions!

I’ll leave you with 2 questions

  1. What did you think of this post?
  2. Are you studying anything in particular? if so, please share!

If commenting on my blog is hard or difficult, let me know and I’ll see what I can do to fix it. Because I want everyone to feel welcome to comment