Deck the Halls with Lots of Turkey.

It's been awhile since I've been here. A lot has happened since my last post in May. I am now married. I have a new job. I bought a house. The Cowboys are #1 in the NFL. Just about everything has changed, and I'll get to all of that, I promise. But today, I want to talk about a highly controversial issue facing all of us that I think really needs to be addressed.

Christmas before Thanksgiving.

Even the pilgrims had an opinion.

The holidays are upon us (and, ironically, I just legally changed my name yesterday so I guess you could say my "Holiday season" just ended??), and with that comes lots of joy, food, and of course, debating about when it is acceptable to start thinking about Christmas.

He Put A Ring On It.

A lot has happened since my last post! And now that school's out, I intend to post a lot more. :) I had some other posts I was working on BUT I'm putting those on the back burner for now because I have a much more important story to tell first. (Head's up, it's LONG...but good).

3 weeks ago, on Sunday, May 15, 2016, the most handsome man got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. And I said...well, let me start from the beginning. 

Love.

This morning, as I was finishing up a study of the book of James in the New Testament, I read the famous words that Christians are told over and over again -- "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Then, as I continued my study into 1 Peter, it came up again. "Christians need to...love one another."

According to my Google search, the command "love one another" appears in the Bible (NIV translation) 11 times. "Love each other" appears 4 times, and "love your neighbor" 10 times.

That's a whole lot of loving we're supposed to do.

Today, Christians all over the world are constantly faced with accusations of being hateful, unkind, or worse. If the Bible makes it so clear that we are to love EVERYONE (yes, even your worst enemy; see Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27, and countless other verses), then why is this such a common belief of the world around us? 

I started thinking about this and wanted to share my thoughts and some encouragement.

A Belated New Year.

I've been wanting to write this post for days but couldn't find the motivation to start. 

Usually when I write my new year's post, I am able to link to all the posts I've written throughout the year and highlight my favorite moments, but I have really dropped the ball on blogging this year. I feel so behind and just the thought of writing this post was discouraging to me.

It's not that nothing has happened this year. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED THIS YEAR. I guess I just got so caught up living my life I forgot to write about it. That's not really a bad thing, but I really do enjoy blogging. I just have a habit of feeling bad or like I've let people (mostly myself) down when something big happens and I don't write about it. But, I've been so bored all day and have officially run out of excuses not to do this, so I'm biting the bullet and FINALLY doing my 2015 recap (which is a good post to start back up with anyway, since I missed posting the majority of 2015).

I know it's a little late, but better late than never, right?

I'll start with my top 5 moments from 2015!

A Boyfriend Won't Make You More Secure.

On March 19, 2014 I pressed published on the first post on this blog. To this day, it is one of my most popular posts.

That post gave you a little glimpse into my life and a struggle that I and countless other women (and men!) across the world deal with daily: insecurity.

In my first post, I detailed my personal struggle with insecurity. I talked about some things I had gone through and how those things affected me. I talked about my worries and my doubts and how all of it ties back to the I-word. I talked about my one saving grace: my hope and trust in Jesus Christ.

But even then, after I had come so far in my walk with God and my struggle with insecurity, I had bought into a HUGE LIE that the media tells women every day.

 Here's a snippet from that post last year: