Can you carry out orders?

“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 5:30

 

John 5:30 has such a simple message that many of us have heard so often it is common place to blurt out “not my will but your’s Lord” in the midst of any challenging decision or circumstance.  But do we mean that when we say it or does it just sound good? And if we really mean it, then why wait for the big/challenging issues to use this train of thought?  What if each and every day we started our day off by speaking this verse out loud and meaning it from the depth of our souls?   What if the moment you sat up in bed each day, the first words out of your mouth were, “I can’t do a solitary thing on my own: I listen, then I decide. You can trust my decision because I’m not out to get my own way but only to carry out orders.” (the Message)

How much easier every moment, every mundane task and decision would be if we completely removed our own will and selfish ambition and exclusively consulted the Lord and upon His answer, we immediately “carried out His orders.” Are you able to simply listen and carry out His orders?

Challenge: Each morning this week, recite John 5:30 when you wake up and throughout the day as you make big and small decisions.  I would love for you to check back in and let me know how it went!

Welcome Back, Me

So, I took a not-so-brief, completely unplanned hiatus from blog land.  I wanted to pop in today and say Happy Friday and Welcome Back to Me!  I’ve missed writing, but somehow I suddenly slipped back into my “old ways” of utter busy-ness. I am proud to announce that in the mist of all the busy-ness, my life does feel quite balanced and I love that. 

A few updates:

• My hubby and I have really been focusing on living a healthier lifestyle with the help of a local food and fitness facility, Utopia, and it is going great. More Details to come!
• We were accepted as a Cares team by apartment life last year and we were (finally) placed at an apartment community in April!!!  This has been a huge part of my busy-ness and why I’ve been MIA for a few months.  We are entering our third month of serving this property and it has been a blast so far! For more information about Cares, click here.  If you are interested in serving as a team contact me at pinkfaithtoday@hotmail.com and I would be glad to answer any of your questions.  
• As I mentioned, I have missed writing you and I am excited to get plugged back in with everyone! I’ll be checking in at least once a week.

Before I wish you a fantastic weekend, I have to share this video with you.  I watched it yesterday and I was so incredibly blessed by it that I NEEDED to share it.  It’s completely in line with my updates above, Health and Balance in your life (and mine).  Enjoy.

 

 Now… Have a Fantastic Weekend!!!

#ClubSexy

Last month, I had the great pleasure of participating in a Cara Box exchange for the first time ever!  I am so glad that I did.  The theme for February was #ClubSexy, appropriate for the “red” month, don’t you think??   I was blessed to be matched up with Gayle from Grace for Gayle.  Not only am I thankful that I found her blog, it’s super awesome, but I’m thankful that I actually had the chance to meet Gayle for gelato last week! I will call her my first official blogger friend since she is the first lady I’ve met in blog world and in person.   I really had a great time chatting with her and getting to know about the woman behind the blog.

So, on to the juicy details about my Cara Box, Gayle’s #ClubSexy challenge was to create the perfect date night for me and she did a great job!! The “box of relaxation” included:

Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate

(delicious, one of my new favorite snacks)

Glade Candle and Candle Lighter

 (I LOVE all things smelly and this candle smells so yummy)

Aloe Infused Socks

(like walking on clouds)

Note Cards

Red Velvet Cake Body Wash

(certified #clubsexy win)

Massager

Vanilla Lotion

The items were beautifully packaged!

 

 

Super big smile, I was excited.

Thank you so much for the wonderful Carabox, the sweet note, and the fun girl time!

I prepared a special box for Jessica at Wonder What's Next. You can visit her blog for details on what I included in her #clubsexy package, here!

Unexpected Collision with Character

I love mid-week dinner dates!  Josh and I are pretty busy and rarely have a night at home together in which neither of us has a meeting or conference call or rehearsal (etc etc) to attend.  Last night, was one of those rare occasions when we had the evening "off" so we headed to Spoons, one of our favorite restaurants.  We enjoyed a nice conversation over breakfast (at dinner time, love that).  After a leisurely dinner, we briskly walked back to my car (it was chilly out last night).  As we approached the car, we both thought the glare from the street lights was playing tricks on our eyes.  My car seemed to have a big dent in the side of it.  Hmmm, must be the light.  We stopped talking and approached the car (walking even more quickly than before).  No tricky lighting, there was a LARGE dent in the side of my car.  My heart sank but before I would allow the self pity to set in I began to convince myself that whoever hit my car left a note.  I was desperately hoping they had but only scarcely believing they did.   I peaked around the windshield and was flooded with relief... a note fluttering in the breeze.

Praise God for integrity.  The parking lot was moderately well lit and fairly secluded.  I'm confident when he backed into my car "no one was looking," but he chose to do the right thing in spite of the consequences. Titus 2:7a instructs believers to, "Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works."  This stranger's actions are a perfect example of modeling good works and integrity.  I am thankful not only for his insurance company covering the cost of the damages but also, for a reminder of what integrity looks likes.  So a great big Thank You to the nice man that backed into my car last night for the reminder. For the record, I'm not being sarcastic, when we spoke with him, he was a very nice guy!

So, how will you model good works and integrity today for those around you?

Burning Passion

Happy Valentine's Day to each of you!  I absolutely LOVE Valentine's day.  OK, confession... I pretty much love every Holiday but Valentine's is special.  Love is supreme and often difficult to define, describe, or explain.  Nevertheless, love is certainly worthy of celebration.  So, today, celebrate!  What better way to celebrate Love than with the most beautiful love poem I could find straight from the greatest book ever written.   Before you read this, think of the person that ignites a burning passion within you.

"Hang my locket around your neck,

wear my ring on your finger.

Love is invicible facing danger and death.

Passion laughs at the terros of hell.

The fire of love stops at nothing---

it sweeps everything before it.

Flood waters can't drown love,

torrents of rain can't put it out.

Love can't be bought, love can't be sold---

it's not to be found in the marketplace."

Song of Solomn 8:6-8

The Message Translation

 

The man that ignites a burning passion within me is this guy! I love you Joshua Currie.

Photography By: Team Howard Photography

 

 

I Heart Weekends!

Here's a recap of my oh-so-fun weekend!

(1) Friday, I arrived home to my first ever Graze box delivery.  I LOVE getting packages in the mail so that was way exciting! Graze is a subscription snack delivery service.  For $5 per week, they package and send 4 healthy snacks right to your door.  So far I have only tried one of the snacks and it was really yummy!

(2) I started off my Saturday at the hair salon, as usual with Tangie B.  Just curious, does your hair stylist get you surprise gifts just because??? Mine does! She gave me the cutest blinged out coffee cup and starbucks coffee!  She’s trying to encourage me to be a good financial steward and not stop at starbucks every day.  Yea, love her.  If you need a great hair stylist in the Dallas Metroplex definitely give Tangie a call. 

 

Saturday night, I had the extreme honor of celebrating one of my friends by surprising her in a flash mob! It was so much fun and I got to cross that one off my 30 bucket list!! You can read more details and watch the flashmob video on Team Howard Blog.

 

(3) Sunday morning I broke the Daniel Fast over breakfast with Josh.  It was so delicious!! Boy oh boy am I EXCITED to have coffee back in my life!  Overall, the fast was really great.  I certainly had challenging days but the primary goal for me was to draw closer to the Lord and I feel like that was accomplished.  Let me be completely honest and say that trying to take on OTN90 and the Daniel Devotional simultaneously was a bit of a stretch for me.  I was not able to maintain both reading plans, however, I am still on track with the Old Testament reading.  I will complete the Daniel Devotional when, I reach Daniel in the OTN90 reading plan.  My greatest takeaway from the fast is the importance of prioritizing God in my life.  Denying myself the foods that I love was one small way to consistently choose God throughout my day.  This is something I should be doing each day well beyond the fast.

 

(4) Then, I was blessed to hear Josh share a message with the youth at church about biblical dating.  I LOVE to listen to this man talk about the Lord! 


Last, but not least, we enjoyed the Superbowl/Beyonce Concert with friends to close out the weekend. Josh is a lifelong 49ers fan and was quite disappointed at the final score.   I was fairly disappointed with the quality, or lack thereof, I saw in the superbowl commercials.  However, I really loved the Budweiser Commercial.  It made me smile and say, “Awwwww.” I also really liked the “So God Made a Farmer” Dodge commercial.  It reminded me of my dad.

 

Make it a great week friends!

 

 

 

 

Winner x 2!!

The winner of my Mary Kay Satin Lips Giveaway is *drum roll please* Bernadett Rauski.  Congratulations!! I will put it in the mail asap, I hope you love it!! 

If you can take this much excitement in one post, I have one more winner to announce... ME!!! I won Jan's Giveaway from The Comfort of a Safe Place.  What did I win??? These gorgeous earrings.

 

I absolutely adore accessories and I can not wait to wear these! Thank you Jan, I love winning.