A Smackeral Of Life

 I’m not one to get into politics on social media, honestly, I’m the last person. It confuses me too much and I don’t have any desire to start anything with anyone, for fear they may confuse me more. But, that is not what this blog is going to be about. This blog is going to be about the ads put out during this time of year. So, hear me out before you slide your screen over and swipe this page up. We as people urge acts of kindness every single day. It’s expected of us as children, it’s expected of us as adults. To have respect for our fellow human beings, to show them kindness in our differences, and to be an example for the generations that follow us has been ingrained in our heads since we said our first word. “No! Don’t pull your sisters hair! That’s not nice!” “No, we do not name call in this house! It’s unkind and hurts peoples feelings!” “The customer is always right, treat them with respect.” “You need to be a good example for the new employees coming in, so please respec...

Do you know how mother eagles teach their babies to fly? It's quite a painful process really, and if I were a baby eagle I would probably be scarred for life! But, there is some genius behind it. It starts out fairly normal, the mother eagle makes an extravagant nest full of feathers and comfort just for her babies! The eggs lounge around in this comfy bed until they hatch, and then the baby eagles get to enjoy the comfort for a little while. After some time spent amongst the cuddly feathers and other eagles, the mother begins to remove feathers every day. Little by little she removes them until the nest becomes unbearable to sit in. The babies venture over to the side of the nest and peer out into the vast skyline before them. Then, they do the unthinkable, they jump. With no skill, no experience, no lessons, they just use all of their strength and jump right out of their cozy little nest. And, they fall, then they fall some more, and then they keep falling, until they are so clos...

I've been wanting to write so badly lately, but I've been afraid to. Mainly because what I want to write is something so vulnerable about myself that I'm afraid to just be honest and put it out there. So....wanna know the truth? Okay, here goes.  I'm not okay.  I haven't been for a few weeks now. Every night is a struggle for sleep. Every day is a battle to get off my phone in the morning (which helps me zone out) and get out of bed. I've been striving so hard in life right now to find joy. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad in my life. I'm continuing to grow and walk with The Lord, I have two jobs, and I have amazing friends that I spend my time with. But lately all of those things have just given me a "temporary high." Once I'm out of bed in the morning I feel better, and when I'm in The Word I'm soaking it up. When I'm with friends I'm smiling and laughing and genuinely enjoying my time with them! But take tha...

Have you ever seen this movie? I've seen it about a million times, and after I'm done writing this blog I will probably go watch it again! It's a family favorite here at our house, and you can find us trying to decide between this movie and "Finding Dory" often. I've thought a lot about emotions recently, and how we as humans deal with them and as I thought some more this movie popped up in my mind. So I thought I would take the opportunity to use the characters in this movie to showcase all of the things I have been thinking and feeling lately :) Joy "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again-rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4) This is joy, she's bubbly, outgoing, fun and makes sure that Riley (the girl in the movie) is happy as much as possible! Whenever Riley starts to feel down, joy jumps in and reminds her of the good things in life. Joy is always good company to keep, and one emotion that we always want to stick around just a...

This blog post may be short, but it's something I felt I needed to share. God has a funny way of poking at us, of preparing us for the unknown in ways that we...well...don't know! That happened to me recently, and as I shared it today in church during our "Where have you seen God and what has He been saying to you?" segment, something much deeper seemed to rise to the surface after I sat back down from sharing this story with my friends in the congregation. So, here I am sharing it with you and the amount of emotion that showed itself after. If you're friends with my mom or me on FaceBook you would have seen by now the many things my family is going through. To recap on a few... My youngest sister has a heart defect, she is special needs and takes many medications. As of tomorrow, we lose her insurance. The insurance that purchases her $5,000+ a month medication. We are still in the process of figuring out what we're going to do about this, and thankfully...

I'm never really sure how to begin my blog posts... I always have so many ideas running through my mind that I tend to struggle to pick just one. But today, today is different. Here's why, I had a vision.... It wasn't one of those "I can see into the future" visions. No. It was a vision God gave me showing me the state of my heart. Now, before I share this post I have two things to share. One, some of you may remember that I once was engaged. The place this vision took place was in the spot I was proposed to (pictured below). And two, I would be lying if I told you I haven't been struggling lately, with multiple things. Loneliness being a big one, but also spirituality, learning to be silent...the list could go on really.... So, now that I have those two things squared away, I can share my vision knowing that you'll understand where I'm coming from right now. I was standing on the beach, right where I had once stood during that important moment in...