Challenges and Awards – Page 4 – 1 Timothy 4:12 Girl

Three Day Quote Challenge #2: Day Three

December 31, 2016February 4, 2017 CourtneyLeave a comment

“Home is where the heart is.”

What does it mean to be home? For many of us, the word has positive associations. Many of us, when we hear this word, think of close family members, such as our parents, siblings, grandparents, and maybe a family pet. For others, we may also think of close friends—people who have watched us grow up and who have always been there for us. Still for others, we may think of a particular place that brings back found memories, such as our church or our house that we grew up in.

For the Christian, the word has an even deeper meaning. Home, for the believer, is all of these things and more. It’s a place that we’re traveling to, as we walk down the winding road of life. It’s the place that we anxiously anticipate, where we’ll be united with our Heavenly Father. This point is beautifully illustrated throughout the Bible and in numerous Christian novels.

Jesus paints a picture of Heaven in John 14:2-4, giving us a glimpse of what’s to come.

“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.””

Nonetheless, we cannot discount the journey. In the midst of the greatest ups and the lowest downs, God has each of us here for a reason. We are all fellow sojourners, called to make an impact and touch the lives as we make our journey home. We may be called to a variety of vocations here—from writers, to musicians, to business men and women—but if we know Jesus, we’re all heading to the same destination. No matter how insignificant you may feel, your life matters. In this dark world, you’re called to be a flashlight. Each one of us is called to be a spark that lights a fire—lighting the way like streetlights to help others and and know their Savior.

We are called to fight the good fight and run the race of faith. We are called to make a difference, following God’s footprints and paving a way for others. We are called to follow Jesus, trusting Him and clinging to Him as we live life—always ready to welcome others into the family of God.

We were made for something greater than this life. We were made for an eturnal home.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”—Hebrews 12:1

Nominees for the last day of the quote challenge!

Processing The Journey

Consecrated Tree

Juni Desiree

Quote Challenge #2: Day Two

December 30, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney2 Comments

Hey everyone, sorry I’ve been kind of inconsistent with this blogging challenge. For the last couple of days, I’ve had a cold, and have lacked motivation to churn out a new blog post. Nonetheless, I’m feeling better and I’m happy to be back!

Today’s quote is one by one of my favorite Christian authors and thinkers—C.S. Lewis.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. C. S. Lewis

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For many, the decision to surrender everything to God can be a scary one. Becoming a Christian means handing over the steering wheel to Jesus, trusting that He knows what’s best for us and will lead us to a destination better than the one we would have chosen for ourselves. For some, it means fear of ridicule from peers who formally liked and respected them. For others, it means loosening the reins on our plans and allowing God to come in and make tweaks when needed.

But, I’ve found, the pros will always outweigh the cons.

Jesus, while demanding everything, often takes us to places beyond our wildest dreams. For every “no“, there’s a bigger “yes” around the corner. In my own life, He’s opened doors that previously felt bolted shut, answered prayers to problems that seemed beyond fixable, and surrounded me with a family of believers that I know have my back no matter what. There’s just one question that we all have to answer before He can work in our lives.

“Will we trust Him?”

For each person who has ever been born into this earth, there is a decision to make—follow the world, or follow Jesus. We cannot do both. 1 John 2:15 says “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.” This does not mean we aren’t supposed to love people—it simply means that we must not see this present world as our home. The world promises false happiness, the kind that will soon fade away. Jesus promises eternal happiness. 2 Corinthians 4:17 says “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

In this world, we will have troubles—but we will also have blessings and eternal life—if we hold fast to faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelations 3:20

Since I forgot to nominate people in my last post, I’m going to nominate six bloggers in this one! The nominees of this challenge are…

Three Day Quote Challenge #2: Day One

December 26, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney1 Comment

Hey everyone, I hope you guys had a Merry Christmas! I can’t believe it’s’ already over, but I trust that we have more great things to look forward to in the upcoming year.

Anyways, I was just nominated a couple of days ago by Mandie from afcrocks99 to do a three day quote challenge! I’m a little late, as I’ve been crazy busy with Christmas stuff, but better late than never, right?

The first quote in this challenge is going to be a quote by none other than America’s sixteenth president.

In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years – Abraham Lincoln

With the new year on the horizon, I figured this would be a fitting quote to start with. We all have a number of days, weeks, months, and years given to us by God, but it is our job to decide what we do with them. How will we steward the time that’s ours to borrow?

For many of us (myself included) it can be easy to fall into routine and drudgery. School, work, and a variety of other responsibilities often take claim to our time, making it difficult to find the time to do the things we love—the things God is calling us to.

Nonetheless, I believe that if we’re honest, we can all find some spare time in the day that is ours and ours alone. What will we do with that time? Will we spend it scrolling through social media (I’m guilty of this) or putting our God given gifts to work, and following the dreams that God had put inside of us? Will we spend our time in front of the television, or will we reach out to our friends and family, making the moments count with those who matter most to us?

We all have a question that we must ask ourself – How will we spend our days? Someday, that time, those moments, will add up to the sum total of our life—how will we spend it?

I believe that we’re each put here for a purpose. God wants us to make our life count, touching other lives in the process. None of our lives happen in isolation—we were made for community and interacting with others. We were made to make a mark, in both big and small ways every day.

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” – Psalm 90:12

How will you make the years in your life count? How will you bring your years to life?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Sunshine Blogger Award

October 22, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney8 Comments

Good news everyone, I just got nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Juni Desiree from Sapphire Life Writer! Her blog is awesome and I would totally recommend checking it out!

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to bloggers who are positive and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.

Here are the rules:

Thank the person who nominated you
Answer the questions from the person who has nominated you
Nominate 11 other bloggers for this award
Write the same amount of questions for the bloggers you have nominated
Notify the bloggers you nominated

Now, without further ado…The Questions!

What has been the greatest lesson you’ve learnt in your life?

I’ve honestly learned a lot of things over the course of my life, but the biggest one would probably be to trust God. As I wrote about in a recent post, I struggle with wanting everything to happen my way and in my time. Nonetheless, I’ve found that when you trust God, he can make even your craziest dreams come true in a way that’s better than you ever could have imagined. And, when he closes a door, there’s probably a really good reason.
What song has impacted you the most and why?

Hmm, this is another hard one, but I’d have to say Ready Or Not by Britt Nicole. I first heard it in the 9th grade and at the time, I was pretty shy and still searching for myself. Her song encouraged me to live confidently and not be afraid to speak up and let my light shine for God. Her other songs have also been really encouraging and her albums were pretty much the soundtrack of my high school years.
What movie has impacted you the most and why?

At different points in my life, different movies have impacted me. In middle school, my favorite movies were Soul Surfer and The Left Behind movies, because they encouraged me in my faith. I was a new Christian in middle school and movies like those helped me to solidify my faith. In my freshman year of high school, I saw the movie Lemonade Mouth for the first time, which encouraged me to use my voice and be more confident. Currently, I’d have to say the God’s Not Dead movies, as they all speak about being a Christian in a non-Christian environment, something that I’m experiencing for the first time this year.
What book has impacted you the most and why?

There are a lot of books I could mention here, but I’m going to go with the Sunday School answer: The Bible. The Bible is sort of my manual in doing this thing we call life. Because it has so many accounts and so many different lessons, different parts of it relate to me at different points in my life. Recently, I was talking with my pastor’s wife and she noted that my situation with college was a little like Daniel in the king’s palace. I had never thought of it that way before, but I now find that account relatable in my own life. I have also been leaning heavily into passages about being “strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9) and “trusting in the Lord” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
What quote do you resonate most with?

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” – C.S. Lewis. There are a lot of quotes that I like, but as I’ve grown in my faith, I feel this one to be more and more true every day. My faith informs so much for me that to take it out would leave my life a fragmented mess. It informs everything from my dreams, to my views, to my perception of life itself. It is also the common thread that ties otherwise very different personalities and lives together – something I find very cool.

What are your 10 most important core values?

Faith in God
Respect and love for people
Staying true to myself
A good work ethic
The importance of family and friends
Having a purpose in life
Loyalty
Courage
Helping those in need
Living out my faith

How can you most help others best at this time in your life?

Probably through helping out at different charity organizations and donating to charities like Salvation Army and Operation Christmas Child (Yes, my mind is already on Christmas).
If you could only write one book in your life and were guaranteed to succeed in it, what would you write?

I truly wish this said series, but since it’s saying only one book, I’m going to have to say the first book of a series that I’m writing. I don’t want to say too much about it online before it’s published (Hopefully by the end of my college career) but it’s about a group of teenagers at a local church youth group and how their lives impact one and other. I’ve already finished the first book, and I managed to incorporate some of my core values into it and tell a story that I believe will inspire people. It’s my dream to see it on a bookshelf one day.
What do you want to be known for?

The short answer is, I want to be known for sharing my faith with others and inspiring others to live confidently in Christ. When people know God and live for Him through their own lives, personalities, and situations, amazing things can happen. The more technical answer is that I want to be a writer. My goal is to go into professional journalism, become a successful author, and publish my song lyrics (I’ve already written a lot). I want to leave my mark through writing things that will inspire others and make the world a better place.
And taking this opportunity to possibly get some help with the book I’m working on: what message of encouragement would you give to survivors of sexual abuse?

Your life is worth living. You were not created for someone else’s pleasure at your expense. You were created to do big things and God isn’t finished with you yet. He has a purpose in your life, and you have to keep moving forward. What happened wasn’t your fault – you were a victim. But, you won’t always be a victim. You can and will rise above this.

Now, the new nominees are

Saved By Grace 2009

Dainty M.

Fearfully Wonderfully Me

Ever Changing In Christ Jesus

Unfiltered Freckles

And the new questions are…

What is your testimony? How did you find God, or if you were raised Christian, when did it really feel real for you?
What has God been teaching you lately?
What is your biggest dream?
What is one quirk you have that you don’t mind sharing?
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
What do you believe the purpose of life is?
What is one piece of advice would you give your younger self?
What has 2016 been characterized by for you? What things stand out about this year?
What was your hometown or the city you grew up in like?
What have those closest to you taught you about life?
What was a defining moment for you?

My Day In Selfies

September 19, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney8 Comments

Hey everyone, I was nominated a while back by Katie from Concealed Foundation—and I finally got around to posting this! Sorry for the delay, I’ve been trying to find a day interesting enough to actually record in photos!

The Rules Are…
– Take a selfie every hour during one whole day of you going about your life.*
– It would be cool if you could show what you’re doing in the selfie as well as showing yourself. Feel free to include other people in your selfie too if you’re with others!
– Post all your selfies in a blog post so your followers can see what your day looks like. Feel free to include captions.
– Include the rules of the tag.
– Nominate some other bloggers to participate

So without further ado…the challenge! Sorry it’s so late Katie!

Today I woke up and got ready for an eventful day of volunteering in Sunday School at my church. I volunteer once a month and today was one of the days that I was signed up for.

And here’s one of the photos here. At this point in the day I’m playing with two young children and listening to very redundant background music from one of the videos.😂 Today’s lesson was on Jonah and the whale and we made a lot of crafts involving the Bible story.

And here I am at home about to eat lunch (Vegetarian chicken patties covered in spaghetti sauce). At this point in the day I’m recovering and pretty hungry.

Still pretty tired, I decide to put on some TV. In the background, there’s my cat, a poster from the movie Grace Unplugged, and two inspirational wall decals.

After spending some time watching TV and hanging out with my mom, I take on the challenge of organizing that messy closet I wrote about here. In case you’re wondering, it’s much better now. 😂👊👍

Finally, I settled down to one of my favorite hobbies…writing! As you may be able to tell from the picture, I’m very tired now.

On a side note, I had a good reminder from an unlikely place today. The lesson for the Sunday school class was about trusting God, something that I needed to hear myself. Between college and stress about the future, I’ve kind of been panicking and trying to map out my whole life, wondering what it will all look like. The lesson ended up being a good reminder to trust God and not try to make everything work out myself.

Now, the new nominees for this challenge are…

Everyone reading this post! Yes, that means YOU! I’m looking forward to seeing all of your awesome selfie pics!

*Confession, I do not have a selfie from every hour but I managed to record the highlights of my day.

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: The Last Day!!!

August 16, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney7 Comments

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I made it everyone, today is the last day of the challenge!

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I actually posted about the last topic in a previous entry. You can find the answer to today’s question here.

As crazy as this blog challenge has been, it has also been a major blessing. Through this challenge, I have gotten a lot of great new followers, I’ve received awesome feedback, and I’ve grown as a writer. I’ve honestly been surprised at some of the posts that drew the most attention. I thought for sure the refrigerator post would be a flop but I ended up being one of my most popular ‘challenge blogs’. Who knew?

Some of the topics were hard (Not to mention personal), but they forced me to be more open and have ended up being quite enjoyable to write! I think that the best part of this challenge has been reading the comments and interacting with all of you guys. It was hard coming up with new content everyday, but it was also pretty exciting! I can see why they call this thirty-day-thing a “challenge”.

To close up this challenge, I’d like to post some celebration music!

Through Your Eyes by Britt Nicole (She just released this song!!!)

Love With Your Life by Hollyn

What You Want by Tenth Avenue North

Eye On It by TobyMac

That’s How You Change The World by The Newsboys

Thank you so much for following this challenge! I promise to keep this blog going into the school year! I’m sure I’ll have plenty of topics to blog about with college on the horizon! 🏃

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 29

August 15, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney8 Comments

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Day 29…A confession.

I am a nerd.

If you’ve known me for a while, you’ve probably figured this out. Even if you haven’t, you may have pieced this together somewhere along the way.

Though I’m not a fan of labels, many of my interests fall into the “nerd category”. I enjoy subjects like history, literature, psychology/sociology, and theology, and could honestly ramble on about any one of these subjects and the intersections between them (e.g. the sociology and history of Christian thought process…nerd alert!). I even enjoy the occasional discussion about politics, so long as it doesn’t turn heated and crazy.

Paired with the vice of being an overachiever, you can pretty much get the picture of what I was like in middle and high school.

I even went through a phase where I wanted glasses (before I knew that I needed them) because I thought that glasses made you look smarter. My mom didn’t quite believe me at first when I told her I thought I needed glasses, as I always talked about how cool I thought they looked. Initially, she thought I just wanted them for appearance-sake. Nonetheless, she took me to see an eye doctor and soon found that I actually did need them to see. I still wear the same frames today, as I can’t seem to get contacts in to save my life and have no interest in getting a new pair.

I think we all have our quirks; and nerdy-ness is just one of many for me. If you also have nerdy tendencies, I urge you not to be ashamed of it. Some of our greatest world changers would be considered “nerdy” by the world’s standards. Imagine where we’d be today if Einstein or Edison had suppressed their interests to fit in with the world!

God made each one of us different and unique; the world would be boring if we all looked, talked, acted, and thought alike. The people who I enjoy hanging out with the most are the ones who are fearlessly and unabashedly themselves. Never change just to try to fit in with the crowd. When you’re authentic, it inspires authenticity in others and helps us all to be a little more honest and transparent.

As an old song by Jonny Diaz says “You were made to fill a purpose that only you can do, so there could never be a more beautiful you.”

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 28

August 14, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney4 Comments

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Day 28…My most embarrassing moment

I think that nearly every teenager/young adult has a couple of these in their rearview mirror. I could honestly think of a few situations just off the top of my head. Nonetheless, for the sake of this post, I’ve narrowed it down to a situation that happened to me during sophomore year.

During my 10th grade year, I joined the yearbook staff. Thankfully, I soon found that most of the other students were really nice and I began talking with one of the guys in the group. We became friends pretty quickly, and talked about everything from movies to school. Nonetheless, we eventually got to a point where we were running out of topics

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you may remember that I’m horrible at small talk. I was grasping for literally anything to talk about, so I asked the lamest question in the book: “What’s you’re favorite color?”

I knew the question was pathetic, but I didn’t think there was anything problematic about the question.

I was dead wrong. To this day, I still remember his reply.

“I’m colorblind.”

I had just asked a person who was colorblind their favorite color.

I’m pretty sure I apologized about twenty times after that.

To make matters worse, I remembered after the fact that he had already told me about that a couple of days ago, but in that moment, it had completely slipped my mind.

Thankfully, he was cool about it, and we’re still friends to this day. But, at the time, it was pretty awkward.

I suppose it’s moments like this that serve as a good reminder of our humanness. It’s amazing how many awkward situations we can manage to find (or put) ourselves in. I know I’ve had my fair share of “awkward moments”

How about you? Have you ever found yourself in an awkward/embarrassing situation? If so, how did you react? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section below.

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 27

August 13, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney5 Comments

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Day 27…what’s in my closet?

Yes, I know, it needs to be organized. 😂

Clothes (Obviously).
My bag (If you’ve been following this challenge, you may remember it!).
An acoustic guitar (Which I haven’t played in a while).
A Nerf football (Because, why not?).
Some books (The rest are in a different room).
Winter clothes (Shoved carelessly in a couple of plastic drawers).
Peppermint candies (Because those things are awesome)
A bag that I got from a 5K walkathon (Filled with craft supplies)
A backpack (which probably still contains school supplies from senior year).
A box (I honestly forgot what’s in the box. I think it’s school-related papers.).
Pens and highlighters (Located on the top shelf near the candies).
An miniature chapel (Behind the candies).

What do you guys think? Time to clean out the closet? 😂

To those of you still following this challenge, we’re almost there! Twenty seven posts down, three to go! 🏃

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 26

August 12, 2016February 4, 2017 Courtney10 Comments

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Day 26…Your hidden talent

If you’ve been hanging around this blog long enough, you probably know some of my talents already. I have talked about some of my favorite hobbies, including writing and singing. Nonetheless, I do have a hobby that most people don’t know about and that may even surprise some.

Public speaking.

Now, even though I’m an extravert, I don’t necessarily come across super talkative offline. For the longest time, I thought that I was an introvert, until I took the Myers Briggs Personality Test, which confirmed otherwise (The test is here if you want to take it). I love being around people, but I hate having to be the one to carry the conversation. If I’m in a large group of people I don’t know well, my instincts tell me to stand in a corner and pretend to be busy on my phone. Plus, I’d often choose to read a good book over engaging in small talk with people who I’m not well acquainted with. Basically, I’m an extravert with introvert tendencies.

Which is why it is quite weird that I’m fairly comfortable giving a speech. Granted, I did take speech and debate classes during 8th and 9th grade, so perhaps that has something to do with it, but I honestly don’t know.

I suspect the reason public speaking comes more naturally than engaging in small talk is because I know what I’m going to say. I love being able to plan my words before I say them. With both writing and public speaking, I can plan my words and make sure everything sounds just right before presenting the material to an audience. When I’m speaking in conversation, it’s all left to improv.

Furthermore, I love the feeling of speaking about something that I believe will resonate with others. I have a deep seated desire to leave a mark in this world, and I want to say something that will remain after the speech has ended and the last words have been typed. It’s quite possible that I enjoy public speaking not so much for the event itself, but for the impact that I pray it makes. Whenever I speak about a topic I try to bring everything back to my faith and core values. Thus, public speaking has given numerous opportunity to share my faith and beliefs with my peers.

I’d love to hear about your secret talent and/or Meyers Briggs results if you decide to share! Always feel free to post your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below!

P.S. I recently had an awesome opportunity to guest blog for The Recovering Legalist. The post is here if you want to check it out! 😊