secret agents, tea tree oil, & the days you have an overwhelming desire to look like lisa frank.

1. due to my recent “alias” kick, i have dreams where i am a secret agent all the time. so far, i have been successful on all my missions...i even threatened a bad guy with a knife. it felt pretty good, because then he left me alone. not only do i have the dreams, but when i am alone at night, i actually (silently) dare any creepers to try and attack me (but not really) because i think i have a shot at taking them down.

**disclaimer: when a woman dares you to do something, she’s really saying, “do this and you’ll be sorry” which is what i mean when i say i “dare” someone to attack me. i do not actually want anyone to attack me, ever. didn’t think i needed to clear that up, but you never know. 

2. tea tree oil is the remedy for everything! it cleans bacteria and soothes skin. when i had my nose pierced, i used it to prevent infection. currently, im using it on my nail beds to sooth pain from hangnails. my pain instantly goes away when i apply it. i got my bottle from whole foods market. it always comes in handy!

3. let’s face it, every little girl wanted the latest lisa frank folders, pencils, “trapperkeepers,” and accessories. going back to school was bearable for me as a child, because at least all my school supplies would be lisa frank. secret: i still love her. and sometimes i just want my world to be swirling with rainbows and hot pink cheetahs. enter hair chalking. i found this lovely trick on the glitter guide. you simply get some oil pastel chalk (i got a huge pack from hobby lobby for $7) and wet your hair. then color random strands of your wet hair until you get the desired color. then blow dry so the heat will set the color. this is great if you want colored tresses for just a night, because it washes out with shampoo! and yes, you can look like a character from lisa frank! 

so to sum it up... if you are a creeper, i might distract you with my rainbow hair and chuck a bottle of tea tree oil at your head and then sprint away. you have been warned. 

a little sweetness.

a little sweetness for the head of a little girl...or maybe for the little girl in you :)

love & feminine beauty.

Your femininity is most beautiful, most nurturing, graceful, other-centered, when you know you are loved. Let God make you, through his tender and personal love, the beautiful woman he intends you to be. -Jani Ortlund

flower headbands.

so i have a new thing. flower headbands. they are so pretty and hippie-esque. i not only love to wear them, but i love to make them. my friend mere and i have been on a headband streak for a couple months now. what can i say? i heart.


check out some of the ones we have made:

wearing my favorite at my cousins wedding.

you can actually look like a flapper or a hippy with these! guess who is the flapper and who is the hippy here. 

we recently made some baby headbands and are sending them down to a missionary friend in mexico who is due with a little girl soon. pictures of those will be put up after she receives them...don't want to ruin the surprise :)

innocence, beauty & strength.

-rhianna “S&M”

Feels so good being bad (Oh oh oh oh oh) 

There's no way I'm turning back (Oh oh oh oh oh) 

Now the pain is my pleasure cause nothing could measure (Oh oh oh oh oh) 

Love is great, love is fine (Oh oh oh oh oh) 

Out the box, outta line (Oh oh oh oh oh) 

The affliction of the feeling leaves me wanting more (Oh oh oh oh oh) 

Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it 

Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it 

Sticks and stones may break my bones 

But chains and whips excite me 

i have so much i want to say, but have no idea where to begin. all i know is that my heart is burdened. i heard rhianna's "s&m" song last night, and although i have heard it several times before, it makes me angry and extremely sad every time it comes on. it is easy to become desensitized to things in the media, but i absolutely refuse to become desensitized to anything that condones the very things my Savior had to die for. 


there is no doubt that there is an attack on purity, for women in particular, in our culture. look at the lyrics above, one of the top songs right now. Satan has led our culture to believe that purity and innocence is stuffy and prudish, not beautiful and attractive. instead, he has us believing that the rebellious women are the attractive ones. and it's the song lyrics we listen or sing along to, the movies we watch, and the magazines we read that not only glorify rebellion and the loss of innocence, but desensitize us to the fact that rebellion is the reason why Jesus had to atone us for our sins...rebellion is why Jesus went to the cross and suffered. 


this has been on my heart for awhile, and i ended up finding this article last night on "fighting for innocence."  i loved how it cleared up the misconceptions between being naive and being innocent. to be naive means to have never had any temptations or opportunities to sin. to be innocent means to have had all the opportunities, but to have remained strong and to have stood firm against the temptations. therefore, to be innocent certainly isn't to be naive. innocence is something that must be fought for. to be innocent is to be strong. 


why must we fight for innocence? because the loss of innocence is why everything is so messed up. it's why little girls and women are enslaved in the sex trafficking industry. it's why men are addicted to pornography. it's why the divorce rate is the highest it's ever been. it's why the shorts in the stores are getting shorter and shorter every summer. it's why Abercrombie Kids is selling padded, push-up bikini tops to little girls. and we just accept all of this... 


we have to fight for innocence so we can fight for our little sisters, daughters, nieces, and friends. we also have to fight for innocence because we are the Bride and Jesus will return for a pure Bride. to care about my innocence is to care about my sisters' in Christ innocence if we are one Bride. we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (romans 12:1-2) to what is truly beautiful and attractive in a woman. 

Darkness mars the spectacular beauty of light. It turns white swans into messed-up, crippled, ugly ducklings. No woman is as dazzlingly attractive as the one who turns her back on darkness and passionately embraces the light. -Mary Kassian

"ive never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful."

the topic on the radio today was beauty. all day long the station played songs and talked about our beauty and value in the Lords eyes. i do not know a single woman who does not struggle with the issue of beauty every now and then. i tend to struggle with this more in the winter, with the weather's curses of pale & dry skin, dull hair, and blah blah blah. but winter or summer, i am most beautiful when i believe that i am truly beautiful. 

i have been studying ezekiel chapter 16, an allegory of unfaithful jerusalem. it talks about how God sees a woman (jersualem) lying in a heap of blood (her sin). he then tells her to live and enters into a covenant of marriage with her and lavishes all kinds of love on her. he feeds her the finest food, clothes her in beautiful dresses, and puts jewelry on her neck, wrists, ears, and nose. he puts a crown on her head makes her the most beautiful queen. she is certainly beautiful, but i think considering where she came from, poor and dirty, practically dead, she is all the more beautiful. the woman's beauty "was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Sovereign Lord" (ezekiel 16:4). the passage goes on to explain how the woman uses her beauty to allure other lovers and commits adultery and idolatry against the One who loves her so perfectly and sweetly. it is sad...but i cannot get past verses 1-14. read them for yourself. it explains the kind of lover the Lord is...how he took us out of our ugliest sin and made us beautiful simply because he made us his. he is so lavishing with his love...he certainly does not hold back. 


ladies, we help make the world beautiful, simply by being women. women are beautiful. we just are. if God is beautiful and we are created in His image and belong to Him, then we are undoubtedly stunning. 

now there are many other things to consider about our beauty: 

1. think about the kind of ugliness, darkness, sin, and brokenness that God has redeemed you from. how has God changed you? how is he currently shaping you? compare who you were before you knew the Lord to who you are now. if you are any different than who you once were on account of Him, then how could you not be beautiful? 

2. psalm 139 says that the Lord knit us together in our mother's womb, that we are each fearfully and wonderfully made, that we are a marvelous work. God created every little thing about us...our unique laughs, the shape & color of our eyes, our ability to be mothering & nurturing to others, our smiles...everything inside and out that makes you who you are. celebrate these things and praise God for them just as david did in his psalms. 

3. having talked about psalm 139, i want to mention that we are beautiful inside and out. yes i know God looks at the heart and not outward appearance (1 samuel 16:7); yes, i know that outward beauty is fleeting (proverbs 31:30); yes, i know that God does not delight in the legs of man (psalm 147:10)... but we are women and we need to know that we are not only beautiful inwardly, but that we are outwardly as well, because just as God created men to pursue beauty, he created women to be beautiful. He made us beautiful on the outside and it is to His glory. read how solomon praises the shulamite woman's outward beauty in song of songs...and she seems to be described with very dark skin (which was not culturally considered beautiful at the time), a round midsection, and a large nose... hmmm. i dont think the women i know in my life would exactly want these physical attributes.  but this woman is beautiful because God created her, because she calls herself lovely, and because her lover praises her outward beauty. 

4. now let's talk about inner beauty for a second. think about a woman who is refreshing to be around. she is gentle, kind, and at peace with God, herself, and her life. 1 peter says a gentle and quiet spirit is precious to the Lord and the type of unfading beauty every woman should strive for. a woman at 90 years old can be beautiful if her spirit is beautiful and refreshing to others. this really separates us from men. there is something about a godly woman's spirit and inner-self that makes her beautiful and inviting...men can also have peace & contentment in their hearts, and have a comforting spirit to be around... and while these qualities make them attractive, i would not exactly use the word beautiful. i think that word is reserved especially for us women. even the dictionary defines the noun form of beauty as "a beautiful person, especially a woman" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/beauty). 

5. a woman's joy and smile makes her the most beautiful. there are two quotes that i love: "ive never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful" and "joy is the best make-up." 


amen. 

beauty picks for 2011

 things that make me feel beautiful: any dress. minute maid blueberry & pomegranate juice (good for the bod). my engagement & wedding rings. peace & joy. neutrogena citrus sugar scrub. smelling like bath & body works 24/7 breathe romance lotion. 

you make beautiful things.

this song right here is the joy of knowing jesus.

"you make beautiful things

you make beautiful things out of dust.

you make beautiful things

you make beautiful things out of us.

you make me new,

you are making me new."

when you remain in him, you are constantly being renewed. you become more & more beautiful every day. so let your life reflect his beauty.  dress up & twirl; worship the lord with everlasting joy.

garments of selflessness and sacrifice

     "one of the workers in the underground church was a young girl. the communist police discovered that she secretly spread gospels and taught children about Christ. they decided to arrest her. but to make the arrest as agonizing and painful as they could, they decided to delay her arrest a few weeks until the day she was to be married. on her wedding day, the girl was dressed as a bride--the most wondrous, joyous day in a girl's life! suddenly the door burst open and the secret police rushed in.
     when the bride saw the secret police, she held out her arms toward them to be handcuffed. they roughly put the manacles on her wrists. she looked toward her beloved, then kissed the chains and said, "i thank my heavenly Bridegroom for this jewel He has presented to me on my marriage day. i thank Him that i am worthy to suffer for Him." she was dragged off with weeping christians and a weeping bridegroom left behind. they knew what happens to young girls in the hands of communist guards. her bridegroom faithfully waited for her. after five years she was released--a destroyed, broken woman, looking thirty years older. she said it was the least she could do for her Christ. such beautiful christians are in the underground church."


-tortured for christ, richard wurmbrand

the exert above is one of many that really touched me. the book was written by an underground pastor who illegally and wholeheartedly devoted his life to spreading the gospel and served fourteen years in prison as a result. no amount of torture or threats could make him deny his First Love. this happened during the reign of the communist soviet union in romania. while romania has been liberated from communism, there are still many countries that severely persecute believers. we have no idea what our brothers and sisters in christ in many countries face. as a part of each other; as a part of one body, His Bride, we must love them and lift them up in prayer. the world is not worthy of such beautiful christians who love their heavenly Bridegroom even unto death. may our love grow just as strong and may we clothe ourselves with the garments of selflessness and sacrifice so that we can be the beautiful Bride that He is waiting to receive in the place that He has prepared.