Liebster Award #3

Courtney6 Comments

Guess what everyone? I was recently nominated for a Liebster by Only Way 2 Hope! She has an awesome blog so be sure to check it out! I’m very honored to have won and it makes me happy to know that others are reading/enjoying this blog.

For this Liebster, you have to 

  1. Acknowledge the blogger that nominated you
  2. Answer the questions they asked.
  3. Nominate 10 bloggers with under 200 followers
  4. Inform the bloggers you have nominated them
  5. Post 10 questions for them to answer

Now, without further ado…the questions! 

1. Who is the most admirable person in your life?

My mom. She manages to juggle a lot and still always has time to hang out with me.

2.  What is your favorite color?

Probably blue.

3. Do you agree with the laws in today’s society?

I agree with most, such as the laws that prohibit theft and murder. But, there are some things that I don’t personally believe should be legal (alcohol, cigarettes, etc.).

4. Where do you think you will be in 10 years?

Hopefully a published author and lyricist and maybe doing something in journalism. Also, I should actually have a license by then…

5. Who is your hero?

Jesus, because He died to save me from my sins.

6. Who is your favorite superstar?

I honestly don’t have one…I used to listen to Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift a lot but I haven’t really followed their recent albums.

7. What activities are you most involved in?

Mostly writing, although I do also enjoy singing and acting.

8. What made you become a writer?

I absolutely love reading and storytelling. I read constantly as I kid and figured out at a pretty young age that I want to write books someday.

9. What is your dream home?

The truth? Living in an apartment with all of my friends on the same floor. Basically the Friends TV show setup. 😂

10. What city would you love to visit?

I’d like to visit New York City someday. It always looks really cool in movies and pictures!

Now for the new nominees! 

Kenzi In The City 

Kewrites 

Transformed Girl 

Adopting Star 

Blessed Brunette Believer

Worshiping A King 

Along The Way 

Where The Wind Blows 

Duttyo’s Weblog 

Inspiring Passion For Jesus Christ 

Please answer the same questions that I did and keep up the good work with your awesome blogs! 👍

 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 23

Courtney6 Comments

wpid-blogging-challenge

Day 23…If I won the lottery.

In all honesty, I’d be very surprised if I won the lottery, considering I don’t believe in gambling.

That aside, if I somehow did win, I would donate the money to charity. I don’t need the money, so I’d want to give it to people who do need it. I would pray about about it and ask God where He wanted me to donate the money, and be on a search for organizations that could use it wisely.

I would never want it to be used as a free ride through life. From the time I was little, I’ve known that I want to enter the work force someday. If I didn’t work, I’m pretty sure I would feel bored and unproductive.

Unknown-7

There are so many people in this world who can’t even afford basic provisions, like food and water. I would want the money to go to people like that; people who could use the money to feed their families and create a better life for themselves.

Every day, we are called to be a blessing. Even if we can’t afford to give financially, we can show the love of Jesus in other ways, like through a kind word or a helping hand. We can volunteer our time and look for ways to make this world a better place.

I don’t want to ever go through life wondering what I could have done.

I want to make the most of my time here and be all that God created me to be.

We can all, in some way, shape, or form, do our part to make a difference.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

— Proverbs 31:8-9

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 22

Courtney6 Comments

wpid-blogging-challenge

Day 22…My worst habits

  1. Perfectionism.-I have a horrible tendency to want to make everything that I attempt one-hundred-percent perfect. Whether it’s my writing, my grades, or some other project, I tend to go completely neurotic with trying to achieve the overwhelmingly high standards that I set for myself.
  2. OCD-I wrote about this struggle here. I’ve gotten better about it, but admittedly, I still struggle with it at times. OCD manifests itself in anxious thoughts, germaphobia, and other forms of obsessive behavior. I suppose you could say this is my “thorn”. Call it an overactive imagination, but oftentimes, my mind tends to jump to unrealistic scenarios, causing me to fear the absolute worst. Paired, with perfectionism, my brain has a tendency to drive itself crazy.
  3. Being on social media too much-Whenever I’m standing in a store, or just bored, I have a tendency to check my twitter, Instagram, and blog feed to see if there’s anything new or interesting. I’m probably on too much, but when I’m bored, my mind frantically searches for something—anything, to keep myself occupied.
  4. The tendency to overanalyze everything-This can be good at times, like when I get in a overly philosophical mood, but bad when I’m just trying to exist in the everyday world. What does that mean? Why did they do that? How does this blog post sound? Yeah…the overactive brain. It’s a scary thing y’all.
  5. Not being organized-I know this sounds contradictory to numbers one and two, but somehow, in the midst of perfectionism and OCD, I completely lack in organization. I go from one extreme to another. When it comes to organization, I’m either “Organize everything by color and alphabetize everything”, or, “I really don’t even care”. There’s no in between.
  6. The tendency to keep talking about the same thing-Because I hate silence and I’m not great at small talk, I tend to bring up a topic that was already discussed the week before. Grasping at straws for something interesting to talk about, I have a tendency to recycle topics. But what else are you supposed to do when you’re an extravert who slowly dies when discussing the weather?

Honestly, as with every other person in the world, I could probably go on about this. When The Fall happened, not only was sin born, but so was anxiety and a host of vices.

But, there’s good news. Everything we deal with can be turned around as a testimony of God’s faithfulness. We all have a story, and when we’re willing to share how we struggle, God can use the very things that make us feel far a thousand miles from perfection for His glory.

2 Corinthians 12:9 says “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

We all struggle, and when we share those struggles, authenticity flows out into the world and we become a little more connected as human beings. I’m not ashamed to say what I struggle with if it can help another person. Never be afraid to let God use you in unexpected ways.

Never be afraid to share your story, no matter how crazy and complicated or surprisingly simple it may be.

Your life is something that God can use, if you’re willing to let Him. 

Three Day Quote Challenge: Day 3

Courtney8 Comments

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller.

I believe it’s fair to say that most of us enjoy things that are felt by means of the five senses. Music. Art. Film. Nature. It’s engrained in human beings to enjoy beauty in the world. As created beings, we were given the unique opportunity to create, and enjoy the creations of others.

But, we don’t just enjoy these things for their own sake. Most often as human beings, we connect with the world around us by means of feelings and shared experiences. I can recall many times in my own life when I heard a song, or read a story that seemed to completely get what it was like to be me. I felt understood.

Unknown-6

Some of the greatest things in life aren’t things that we can see with our eyes. We cannot see God, but we hold onto our faith in Him. We cannot hold concepts like love or friendship in the palm of our hand, but we know that they’re abstracts as real as you and me. We cannot see altruism and charity in tangible form, but we can see their affects in the lives of very real human beings.

So much of our living experience is made up of things that we cannot see, hear, smell or touch. Yet, these are the very things that seem to connect us the most. They’re universal things that cross divides and join us as a human race. They separate us from the animal world and give evidence that we truly are image bearers of an intelligent God. 

The Bible even speaks about the importance of setting our eyes upon what is unseen in 2 Corinthians 4:18. It says “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Faith in Jesus Christ and a personal relationship with Him is without a doubt the most significant thing in this world. We cannot see Jesus, but whether or not we choose to accept Him affects our entire eternity. 

Let us never get so caught up in this world that we forget a world that is far greater and more amazing than we can even imagine. 

The last nominees for the quote challenge are…

Cherry Drop Princess

Juni Desiree 

Musings of a Millennial

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 21

Courtney6 Comments

wpid-blogging-challenge

Day 21…What makes me sad 

*Note-I’m just going to apologize in advance if this post ends up being a downer.

  1. Death-Kind of self explanatory, right?
  2. All of the problems in the world today-Seriously, I feel like the world has gone completely crazy, violent, and hateful. I can’t even watch the news because it’s too depressing.
  3. The end of something exciting-I’m always kind of bummed when Christmas or another big event comes to an end
  4. When a show I previously enjoyed goes downhill-As I’ve gotten older, it’s become harder to find decent television shows, so when one goes downhill, it’s pretty frustrating.
  5. When food drops on the floor-Loosing food (even if it’s just one french fry) bugs me. It’s like your taste buds just got deprived of the yummy deliciousness you were about to devour.
  6. When I don’t have any free time-If you’ve lived through high school, there’s a good chance you’ve had this problem before. I’m kind of bad about procrastinating, so oftentimes, I would save all of my homework for Sunday night, and go into complete panic mode. I would have twenty things to get done before the morning when all I really wanted to do was turn on the TV and relax.
  7. Having too much free time-Between this and number six, I basically have a loose-loose situation. If I don’t have enough free time, I get stressed, but if I have too much, I get insanely bored. Go figure.
  8. Seeing a homeless person on the side of the road-I always feel bad for them, as I’m sure it must be hard to not have the assurance of shelter, food, or water. I once heard a former homeless man speak at my youth group and that caused me to have a lot more compassion for the homeless community
  9. When people are mistreated-Bullying, exclusion, harassment, prejudice, and any form of mistreatment of fellow human beings seriously gets under my skin.
  10. The fact that there are people in the world who don’t know Jesus-I think this one is sad for pretty much every Christian.

OK, hopefully I got through that without seriously depressing anybody. 

Now…funny cat pictures!

Smiling-Cat

images-4

images-3

Unknown-5

Unknown-4

images-1

Three Day Quote Challenge: Day 2

Courtney8 Comments

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”-To Kill A Mockingbird 

I have always loved this quote from one of my favorite classics, To Kill A Mockingbird. The book, in all honestly, isn’t really about mockingbirds. The book’s main theme is doing the right thing even when everyone else is against you, and putting everything on the line to help another person. In order to do this, the main character (Atticus Finch) is forced to put himself in the shoes of a lot of different people, as he strives to defend an innocent man accused of crime.l-114822.jpg

Oftentimes, it can be easy to consider things from our perspective, but difficult to understand life in another’s shoes. Look no further than Twitter to find that too often, human beings are better at speaking than listening. As a society, we criticize other’s choices without taking the time to understand the motive behind their actions. While we may not always agree with the decisions that someone makes, we’re bound to have more compassion when looking at the world from another’s perspective.

I believe that the best way to “climb into someone’s skin and walk around in it” is to listen. Through listening, we validate that the person we’re listening to matters, and that we care about their thoughts and feelings. James 1:19 says “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.”

Imagine what would happen if everyone took the time to listen and really hear the stories of those around them. If everyone did this, so many of our social ills, such as hate, racism, and violence, would fade away. Our entire world would be turned upside-down, simply by practicing the art of seeing life through another’ eyes; taking the time to listen and care and love people where they’re at. ❤️

We can be a spark that starts a fire.

Let us start a movement of love.

A movement of listening.

A movement of walking in another’s shoes. 

If you want to read more about this topic, I wrote something similar a while back. You can find it in the link here.

Since I forgot yesterday, I’m going to nominate six people today. 

Concealed Foundation 

Only Way 2 Hope 

Papberry 

Passion and Pixels 

Victoria Favor 

Aschulting 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 20

Courtney4 Comments

wpid-blogging-challenge

What makes me happy…Day 20 of the challenge! 

  1. Hanging out with friends and family-As an extravert, I love being around people; particularly family and close friends. There’s a certain comfort in being around the people who know you best. Even though during the summer, I don’t see my friends as much, technology allows me to stay in touch, through texting and email.
  2. Learning something new-Truth be told, I’m a bit of a nerd. I love learning something that I didn’t know before, particularly about theology, history, or psychology. I enjoy finding out new information and discussing it with someone who shares an interest in the subject at hand.
  3. Reading-As I’ve said before, I’ve enjoyed books from the time I was little. I love getting inside of a character’s head and living a million different lives while still staying in my own. While I have mostly talked about fiction on this blog, I also enjoy nonfiction, if I find the topic at hand interesting/informative.
  4. Writing-Considering I write for this blog and dream of becoming a successful author, this one probably isn’t much of a surprise. I absolutely love the art of storytelling. Writing is a bit like reading, except I get to be in the driver’s seat instead of the passenger’s seat. Typically, I write with fitting music in the background, which makes it feel a bit like watching a movie in my mind.
  5. Holidays-I’ve always loved celebrating holidays, especially Christmas. There’s something about the holiday season that sends adrenaline through my veins. I love the warm-fuzzy feeling of it all; baking, Christmas shopping, family get togethers, decorating…in all honesty, I’m the type of person who will start playing Christmas music in November.
  6. Bible study-I enjoy studying the Bible on my own, but love it even more in a group setting, where I can discuss my faith with fellow believers. I’ve started doing a Bible study at my house this summer with friends and I’ve really enjoyed it. We’ve gotten the chance to share our experiences with one and other and I believe that we’ve all grown through the discussions and lessons. I suppose it’s a little like the early church, where the believers met together in each other’s houses and studied God’s Word together.
  7. Music-I think pretty much everybody likes music. Personally, my taste in music is rather diverse. I could literally go from pop to rock to country all in the course of one day. I suppose my favorite is contemporary Christian. I love that the lyrics are always uplifting, and that you never have to worry about questionable content. Some of my current favorite contemporary Christian singers are Britt Nicole, Blanca Callahan, The Afters, Jeremy Camp, Tenth Avenue North, and TobyMac.
  8. Watching a movie-I love movies, especially when I get to see them in the theater! Somehow, the atmosphere of movie theaters makes the movie even more enjoyable. Like my taste in music, I have a fairly wide range of movies that I like-Inspirational, rom-coms, comedies, animated, action, etc. Currently, I’m anticipating the release of the movie I’m Not Ashamed, which follows the life of Rachel Joy Scott before the shooting. Because I have always admired Rachel Scott, I belief that the movie will be incredible and very inspiring.
  9. Good food-Let’s be honest, who doesn’t like good food? I love going out to eat or eating freshly baked desserts out straight out of the oven. I always feel happy when I know I’m about to eat really good food!
  10. Accomplishing goals-In all honesty, I’m a checklist kind of gal. I get an odd satisfaction out of making a list and crossing items off as I accomplish stuff. This adrenaline doubles if it was a big goal that I’ve had for a long time.

How about you guys? I’d love to hear what makes you happy! 

Three Day Quote Challenge: Day One

Courtney8 Comments

Hey everyone, as I promised, I’m posting day one of the quote challenge today! 

I’d like to thank Emily for nominating me; I was super excited and honored when I saw that I got picked! As a writer, it’s always good to know that someone out there is reading your random thoughts, opinions, and ramblings. 😄

Unknown-2

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”― Catherine of Siena

I’ve loved this quote since the moment I first heard it. It’s so inspirational and makes me feel like I can take on the world! It’s the kind of quote you want hanging on your refrigerator, as daily inspiration to start your morning with!

I love the message at the core of the quote: Be yourself and God will use you according to His plan and purpose. We can only serve God at our fullest when we’re completely honest, transparent, and real about who we are. This doesn’t mean that we can achieve perfection through some sort of new age-y”self actualization”. What it does mean is that God can use us as a vessel to make a difference in this world, flaws and all.

We’re all separate, yet all connected. This is something that I’ve always loved about the body of Christ. Though we’re one body, we have different parts, and each of us bring something beautiful and unique to the table. I may not be good at math and science, but that’s OK, because someone else is. God can use me exactly where my talents lie to help spread His message of love and grace to a broken world. Because I’m a writer, I can express God’s truth the most naturally through written word. If you’re a singer, make a joyful noise unto the Lord and glorify God through song. If you love science, teach about the truths of God’s creation, sharing your knowledge with the world.

We each have something special that we can bring. Whatever it is for you, do it with your whole heart, and bring a little more beauty to this world through your life. 

Never be afraid to set the world on fire for Jesus! 

 

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 19

Courtney13 Comments

wpid-blogging-challenge

Hey everyone, sorry I’m a little late! I had a Bible study today and everyone just left my house. Today’s topic is my favorite movie.

I have a lot of movies that I like, but one of my favorites would have to be God’s Not Dead. In addition to a great cast (I already knew Shane Harper, Kevin Sorbo, and the Robertson family from other works), the movie had an amazing storyline!

One thing that I loved about the movie was the fact that it had multiple plots. A lot of books that I’ve read use the same tactic, and I feel that it often makes the story feel more complex and interesting. Plus, you get the advantage of having multiple perspectives.

The main storyline centered around a college student named Josh Wheaton, who had to defend his faith in a college classroom. This story got the most attention, but the other ones were just as compelling. Some other stories include

  • An ex-Muslim girl who was forced to hide her new faith in Jesus from her family.
  • A successful blogger and reporter who gets cancer and is forced to take a second look at God and life.
  • The dynamics between a college professor and his girlfriend, who was beginning to realize that she is unequally yoked.

Somehow, as different as all of these stories appear to be, they all tie together nicely and share the common underlying theme of of faith and it’s role in a person’s life. Josh and Aisha (The former Muslim) risk everything to stay true to their faith, while Amy (the reporter) and the professor are forced to reconsider their unbelief.

This movie carries a surprising amount of depth and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys well made faith based films. Also, it doesn’t hurt that the Newsboys make a star appearance at the end of the film. 😉

Here’s the trailer in case you guys want to check it out!

Thirty Day Blogging Challenge: Day 18

Courtney10 Comments

Hey everyone, I’ve officially reached day eighteen of the thirty day challenge and I’m still going strong! *Fight song plays in the background*

wpid-blogging-challenge

Today’s challenge is to post a picture of myself. As weird as it feels posting a selfie to my blog, the challenge calls for it so here it is…

IMG_0641

The girl behind the blog ☝️

Because I don’t really want to end this post with a random photo, I’m going to give an announcement! My friend Emily just nominated me for a three day quote challenge, which I plan to start tomorrow. Be sure to check it out!