popular on pinterest

If ever I pop on to Pinterest and see any fancy red number on the side, I get excited. Pinterest isn’t somewhere I invest a significant amount of time, and other than looking up new pictures of the same haircut, I'm not there often.
I thought it would be fun today to share 5 of my most pinned images. I’m not sure if it’s the images themselves that are the most pinable parts or if it’s the words I shared, but regardless, here they are!

One last funny preface. I find it genuinely funny that two of these posts are on singleness. Oh Lord, please let me NOT be an authority voice on singleness. I say that jokingly, but I’m also serious. I’d really like to be an authoritative voice on being in a relationship. PLEASE LORD.

I digress.

5 of the TOP pinned posts from my blog:

This first one doesn’t have any of my own words added so I blame its popularity solely on the words I quoted. It’s a tough quote to digest, and it’s sparked quite a few conversations.

In this post I shared about the ways I work to honour my future husband. Through prayer, intention, modesty, and simply forgetting about him. This post is probably the most read post on my blog in general.

I remember the night this next post describes. I remember feeling so intimate with the Lord. Intimacy is something that in my mind is a marriage thing. It’s something I look forward to in marriage. Experiencing intimacy with the Lord was such a beautiful experience. He was so close to me as I wept over feeling so very alone. His faithfulness is beautiful.

Psalm 8 was one of the first Psalms (no duh) that I shared in the Psalm series. This image is one of my personal favourites so I’m so glad it’s been appreciated elsewhere.

Oh man. I miss this wall. I miss so many things of my old apartment. My new space is coming along and once all the walls are covered I’ll share a walk through. But this wall from my old apartment was so fun to create, and writing a little bit of a DIY post was fun too!



So that's that! The top 5 pinned posts from my blog!

a familiar picture

I wasn’t sure if I was going to share this, but I've had a few friends let me know that what I shared on Tuesday resonated with them. I wrote (most of) this on Christmas Day.

I had a moment of "aaaaaahhh" on Christmas Eve. 

The festivities of the day were already done. I'd finished playing the church service, had been to my sister's place with the family, and had already spent an hour in the backseat of my parents car driving to my hometown to stay the week.

I carried my bags down to my old room. 

As I walked in, I noticed a familiar picture on the floor. It must have fallen from its place on the wall.

The photo was from when I was 16. Christmas Eve. A picture of my sister and I in matching pj's. 




I remember the hug the picture depicts. It was a sweet moment and is an engraved memory. 

The aforementioned "aaaaahh" moment came as I looked at the photo, as I stared closely at myself. 

Age 16. I was so insecure. To be realistic, I'm pretty much just as insecure now except maybe I hide it better now. 

I was insecure. I felt as though I had no friends and high school was what high school is: tough. 

But dang. I was beautiful. 

At the time I would have disagreed. I would have felt similar to how I do now; inadequate at what the worlds calls beauty. Too big. Too much. Not pretty. 

Yet as I looked at the photo, as I saw a beauty in myself that I’d never seen before, I started to realize that maybe, JUST maybe. Maybe the girl I see nowadays is just as pretty as the girl of 16. 

A friend recently told me I looked like a very specific cat that she thinks is beautiful. Since I don't think cats are pretty, I got hurt by her words. She meant her words with sincere kindness, but my mind couldn't hear her kindness. I think this example sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.

People compliment me and I disagree. I disagree and I shake my head, and I dishonour the person sharing their words. I shared about this type of dishonour earlier this week.

This whole exchange in my mind, which lasted all of 30 seconds, made me question my own logic of determining my beauty. 

I wonder if I might not be the only female with some improper logic.

Over drinks with a couple close friends last week, we laughingly concluded that I’m the Ted Mosby of our group. Hopeless romantic, believes in love completely, tells super long stories, never seems to get it right. My friend Christa looked at me, knowingly, and said, he’s the main guy of the show. You’re the one with the show! She knew I’d focus on the bad instead of celebrating that he’s at least interesting enough to get a show. As we laughed, I decided in the moment to just take it. To not think of the bad characteristics but to be grateful for the good ones. I might not tell a short story, but I do tell good stories. I tend not to miss any details! teeheehee.

I wonder what would happen if I, and you, and all of us, if we decided to simply agree. To humble our pride if it gets in the way, and to stomp on our fear when it shows up, and simply smile at our friends when they tell us something kind. Not the smile I tend to give, the awkward I’m uncomfortable smile but the I have value smile. 

Seems like a decent idea to consider, especially since we're reflections of our Creator.

{a walk through} psalm 89

When I read through this Psalm earlier this week, it was verse 9 that caused me to stop.

It reminded me of a line in a song by Rend Collective Experiment that consistently speaks to me whenever we sing it at church.

You speak and the waves obey, but you whisper peace to me.

God is huge. HUGE!
He can do anything.
And He chooses to calms me.
He whispers peace to me.

Wow.

a verse for 2014

This post seems grumpy to me. I'm hesitant to publish it because I don't like grumpiness. But I hope you can look beyond the potential grumpiness and grasp onto the hope that I have in Christ alone.

Mid (or late) January might be a bit too late to the party to add to the verse of the year, word of the year, goal of the year, all of the things for the new year club.

I’m not typically in this club.

Typically, if something is super popular, I’m awkward and avoid it. Hipster much?

Unless it’s something that I think is cool. Then I’m all over it. HIPSTER MUCH?!??

Like word to the year.
Or verse of the year.
Or phrase.
Or mantra.
Or whatever.

Those, for me, fall into the super popular and I avoid category.

So I determined, mid December, to avoid the cliche of the new year.

To avoid talking about the past year, and the new year, and to stick with just writing in general.

I’ve already failed at that a few times. I’ve talked about what I learned in 2013, specifically in December, and I’ve written oddly reflective posts. Hm . . .

I read two specific verses in Hebrews 12 mid 2013. I really liked them. A lot.

And I forgot about them.

Until I read them again and listened to a sermon on them a couple weeks ago.

The sermon really didn’t focus on these verses, but I felt like God made my ears attentive as I read over them again.

Hebrews 12:12-13 says:

     Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Let me give a quick recap of 2013.

2013 brought down my arms. It buckled my knees. It questioned my paths and hurt my feet. It put everything, and I mean everything, out of joint.

This might sound dramatic but the only sure thing of 2013 was the God who held me through it. Everything else felt uncertain. There are days from 2013 that I don't let myself think about because thinking about them is more difficult than my typing fingers can express. Failures of my own doing, failures put on me, hurts and sorrow.

I have no clue as to what 2014 will look like. I know where I will live for the year, I know where I work currently, and I know where I serve in ministry, but outside of that, there aren’t a lot of clues for what this year shall be. 

Will I meet an utter hottie and date him? Optimally yes! (insert winky emoticon) A girl can hope. Will I determine what it is I want to do with my life? Maybe! That'd be cool for sure.

 I do, however know this:

By the aide of Christ, and only His aide, I’m going to lift up my hands, no matter how drooped they may be.

They’re tired. They’ve been pushed around and held down but I’m raising them in praise to God.

My knees? They’re down. Physically my left knee hurts almost all of the time lately. Super fun. But I’m going to strengthen them. Physically I’m working to strengthen my knees, and spiritually I’m going to bend them more than ever before to kneel before my God and submit to His will.

My paths? I don’t know what they’ll look like, but I do trust my guide. My guide is the Holy Spirit and with Him in front of me, I cannot fail or fall.

All the lame parts? The hurt, broken, and sad parts? They don’t get to be put out of joint. They don’t get to remain hurt.

Christ will heal my heart. He will heal the physical ailments, and the spiritual ones. He’ll fix the emotional scars and He’ll gain glory while doing it.

2013 largely was not my favourite. There were good moments, and I'm thankful for the many good things, but when I think back to what sticks out from the year, it definitely wasn’t a good one.

2014. It still might suck. But I will still praise Him.

With Christ as my aide, my arms are going to be raised, my knees shall be strengthened, my paths shall straights, and all of my hurts will find healing.

What about you? Do you have a verse for the year? I've even got a word, yet another thing I tend to avoid. I'll share it soon.

 

A hard question

I was deep into a conversation with my roommate. I had been reading aloud from her French bible to practice. Reading my favourite verses in French and then sharing why I loved them in English.

I'm so excited to have a French roommate. She is lovely and kind and it's so fun to be learning bits of French. One of my long term life goals is fluency so she's perfect to get me on my way!

I was grabbing some water from the sink when she told me I was wonderful. 

I disputed her. I shook my head, and smiled my I'm uncomfortable smirk.

I sat on the floor with my glass of water and expected the conversation to continue as it had been: French filled and lovely.

She said, "Can I ask you a hard question"?

I frowned, as I tend to do when I recognize where a conversation is heading and nodded. 

Side note, does anybody else do this? I’ve realized this after having multiple roommates who are excellent at speaking truth. My tendency is to frown, raise my voice (something I generally don’t like to do) and say I know when someone I love is speaking hard truth to me.

In her beautiful French way, she asked, “Why do you do that? Lower what I say? It is because you want me to dispute you or do you not believe me?"

I thought about it, unsure, slowly answered and we chatted about this for a while. When I say we, I mean she said deep and hard and strong, and the good kind of painful truth to me. 

I shared that compliments are hard for me to receive. Oh really Nadine? No duh. 

An hour prior, I had been pondering how I want to stop disputing complements and simply take and receive them. Apparently I’d forgotten my own resolve by the time she complimented me.

Back in December, someone told me that when I dispute the things my friends say to me, I'm calling the other speaker a liar. I'm telling them that their words don't have value.

My roommate spoke about how I am a reflection of Christ. 

How the goodness in me is a reflection of Him. Why dispute that?

Sometimes I want to tie up my writings with pretty bows, bows called "I have learnt this and can move on". Yet that seems silly since I rarely move past things. I might learn something today that tomorrow will be deepened, the day after lessened, and the day after deepened again. And then soon probably lessened because I tend to take a billion days to learn a lesson.

So this has no bow. I still dispute. It's natural. It's my tendency. But I want to believe that the words people at have truth. And I don’t think something being natural means right. I believe that I need to change this natural tendency. I believe it is not healthy. I know that even if I forget more often than remember, I do have value.

What about you? Do you agree when somebody compliments you? Why don’t we just take them as truth? Why don’t I? Do you? How do you do it without stroking your ego? These are my genuine questions.