Style Idea 21: Star Gazing

Richie, my brother, and I headed out to Red Rock Canyon late on Friday night to watch the Perseid meteor shower. We’d tried to watch meteor showers before but had never really found a good spot. Red Rock turned out to be perfect – it’s pretty close to our house yet far enough from the brightest city lights. Being out there was amazing and it made me want to go back for a Friday date with just the husband. I think the right outfit would make a trip like that more date-like. Of course, this is something I would wear on a star gazing trip and not an actual hike or anything!

Lace Collar Dress: $68.00 Urban Outfitters

Vintage Binoculars: $21.95 Etsy

Crocheted Belt: $9.50 Charlotte Russe

The Shoes I Really Wish I Had: $144.99 Mod Cloth

background image via James Marvin Phelps

Proverbs 31 Challenge: Rewards

Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

Proverbs 31:31

The first couple of years that my husband and I were in charge of youth group were beyond difficult. Our kids refused to pay attention, caused disruptions in every service, rebelled against all the rules we set, criticized every event we planned. It really seemed like they were trying to make ministry as difficult as possible.

Richie and I were putting a lot of hard work in, but it seemed like nothing we tried could make things any better. We spent a lot of time preparing their lessons, praying for them, trying to establish relationships, planning camps and retreats. No matter how much effort we put into ministry, it felt like we were getting nowhere. We were doing a lot but seeing nothing in return.

Working at becoming a Proverbs 31 woman can make you feel like that too. Maybe you’ve been following along with this series and trying to make changes but nobody has seemed to notice. Maybe you’ve been serving others selflessly for a long time but have never gotten a thank you. It' can get really discouraging really quick.

The good thing is, hard work doesn’t stay unrewarded. My husband and I eventually were blessed by the true transformation we saw in a lot of our youth group kids. Now there is even a small group that’s being discipled more closely and prepared for ministry.

If you put an effort into following God’s guidelines for Biblical womanhood your work will bear fruit and people are bound to notice. But even if in your lifetime you don’t get the recognition you deserve, know that the greatest rewards are those to be received in heaven.

All rewards and recognition must not lead us to take all the glory, though. We have to always remember that God is the source of anything good we do. If it weren’t for his help we’d be unable to follow what his Word tells us.

Cucumber and Dill Pasta Salad

I really hope you can all forgive me for my lack of posts last week. Midterms kind of caught me off guard and even though they weren’t really all that stressful, they did manage to keep me busy. To make up for my absence, you get two entries today! The first is a recipe for my current culinary obsession. If the only mouth I was feeding was my own, I’d probably make a month’s worth of this pasta salad and eat it everyday for every meal.

 

What you’ll need:

• 1 lb medium pasta shells
• 1 large cucumber, peeled and diced
• 1/2 fresh dill, chopped
• 2 tbs mayo
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 lemon, juiced

What you’ll do:

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain and let cool. Meanwhile, whisk the mayo, olive oil and lemon juice until you have a smooth dressing. Combine the pasta shells, cucumber, and dill. Add the dressing and stir to coat your salad. You can serve it like that or let it chill in the fridge for a while if you’re more patient than me.

Style Idea 20: Casual Date Night

Friday night is usually date night for the Garcia’s. While “date night” sounds fancy and expensive, the husband and I typically go for casual outings: picnics, dollar movies, and free live music. So even though I want to dress up a bit for our date, I also don’t want to overdo it. That’s why I love this outfit and wish I could actually get it! It’s more dressed up than what I usually wear without going overboard. And I could really use a cool cardigan like this one!

 

Owl Necklace: $14.99 Mod Cloth

Black Tank Top: $19.50 Delia's

Light Striped Cardigan: $30.00 Lulu's

Caramel Leather Bag: $168.00 Fossil

Layered Ruffle Skirt: $38.99 Mod Cloth

Black Hole Punch Flats: $27.99 Mod Cloth

Proverbs 31 Challenge: Beauty and Charm

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

Charm and beauty are without question two of the things our culture values most.

The people our society considers most successful (movie stars, singers, millionaires) are more often than not ridiculously good looking. Whether they’re successful because they’re attractive or attractive because their success can buy plastic surgery, the message we get is the same: beauty and success go hand-in-hand.

Today’s girls very quickly learn that a little charm can go a long way in getting them what they want. Cosmo to Teen Bop equally promise to teach us “50 fun new ways to flirt” and what kind of body language is sure to give us the result we want. Movies tend portray flirtatious women as the ideal we should all strive toward.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that God isn’t impressed by the things that wow our culture. In fact, it should be obvious that culture’s obsession with beauty and charm is at odds with everything Biblical.

It makes complete sense, but it can be so hard to remember! When everything around me tells me I should be worried about my body, that my face is far from perfect, that I should spend more time on my hair, that my style needs an upgrade or two, and that I should be concerned about making men take a second glance at me it’s extremely hard to remember what God’s word has to say.

That’s what this verse reminds us of. Whatever beauty I might gain will one day disappear; even if I die beautiful, my corpse will never be attractive. Whatever charm techniques I might master, they’ll be at best a façade and at worst a sinful attempt at deception.

God doesn’t want beauty and charm from us. He wants us to fear (respect, admire, adore) him! He doesn’t expect us to spend hours getting ready or to impress him with our charm – he expects us to follow the pattern he set out for us, to walk in his commandments striving to be more like him each day.

Proverbs 31 describes a godly virtuous woman. Out of 21 verses that describe her, only one mentions anything related to her beauty. That was obviously not her strongest point! That doesn’t mean she was ugly; it means that because among all her other admirable qualities, beauty was secondary. Her strengths were her wisdom, trustworthiness, intelligence, resourcefulness, and the love she showed her family.

Let’s think about what we’re investing in. Are we investing on the superficial qualities the world admires or on the virtues God calls us to? Memorize this verse. It’s incredibly helpful when standing in line at the grocery store with flawless faces staring at you from the magazine rack.

Check it Out

It’s been a while since i last wrote on of these posts, mainly because I’ve been busier than I ever thought I would be. I thought I would have more free time after quitting my job, but school has somehow managed to take over those 40 hours and then some! I’ll try to be consistent and have a post every Friday, but we’ll see how it goes.

We all tend to be hypocritical about some things. A Boundless post challenges us to dig up those areas in which we “engage in moral licensing.” For me, it seems to be evangelism.

Ali has access to 600 names that represent people in desperate need for prayer. These are potential patients that the medical ship she lives on in Africa just couldn’t help.

Chris Larson shares a simple explanation of Christ’s substitutionary atonement.

So this is why waking up early helps me pray! Josh Harris writes about the importance of self-control and sober-mindedness in prayer.

I might just try my hand at making this lovely chandelier instead of waiting to have enough money to buy one.

This map post was another source of inspiration! So many craft ideas!

Photo of the Week

 

Boulder City is less than an hour’s drive from my house and just 15 minutes from school! it’s fairly close to Vegas, but completely different. The mood is more laid back, the people are nicer and smile more, old buildings don’t get torn down. I took this photo a few months ago when my brother and I went out to Hoover Dam at about 5 in the morning to get some architecture shots. On our way back home we sort of intentionally got lost and ended up at this mysterious old building.

Up to Date!

I posted the long-awaited (ha!) Proverbs 31 Challenge post. In order to not mess with the posts’ order, I set the publish date as Monday. So, if you wanna read it, you can check it out below!

Prayer

If there’s one thing I suck at (besides posting blog entries really late) it’s praying.

I understand the need to pray (Romans 12:12), the command to pray (Luke 18:1), the privilege (Romans 5:1-2) and benefits of prayer (James 5:13-18), and all the theological reasons why I should pray but I can’t seem to actually get myself to do it.

When I first converted, I thought prayer would get easier as I grew spiritually. I thought it would somehow someday come naturally. Six years later, it doesn’t. At all.

For a while, I got into the habit of saying short prayers throughout my day. “Thank you, God, for this amazing view,” as I drive westward at sunset. “Lord, please help me,” before taking a difficult test.

And that kept me satisfied for a while, but eventually I yearned for more. It’s funny how that yearning has worked in my life, though. Instead of leading me to deeper longer prayer times, the dissatisfaction I’ve felt led me cut even the tiny amount of prayer time I already had.

We’ve been slowly reading through RC Sproul’s Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow with our discipleship kids. The second chapter is about prayer, and boy was it helpful.

Sproul explains the importance of prayer in the first part of the chapter and then moves on to practical advise he himself learned from a booklet by Martin Luther. The two things that stood out the most to me were his encouraging to set time apart specially for prayer and to pray through Scripture.

Praying from Scripture and through Scripture are two very different things, he said. The first just involves reciting verses and repeating parts of the Bible. The second means taking a portion of Scripture and using it as a guide to your prayer. This is how Jesus intended for us to use the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.

So instead of running through a recitation of Jesus’ sample prayer, you stop wherever you need to elaborate in your own words. As Sproul puts it, “to pray through the Lord’s Prayer is to focus attention on each of the petitions for a time.”

Last night, I set my alarm to go off at 4:30 in the morning; a whole hour earlier than usual. Granted, I didn’t actually get out of bed until 5:15, but I had some time for prayer before getting ready for school. I took me a few minutes to figure out the most comfortable prayer spot is actually in my closet, but I finally got to pray.

5:15 was the perfect time. The whole house was quiet. There were no distractions but my own wandering mind (which I have at least some control of). It was great. Both tips worked. I got to spend more time in direct communion, speaking to my God, than I had in months.

I’ve heard a lot of people claim their day goes better when it starts in prayer. Others have said it changes their morning from dreadful to cheerful. I don’t have any claims like that, but I will say the satisfaction of being able to praise God, to obey his command to pray, and to finally feel close to him again is far better than any other benefit I could have gained. I can’t wait for my alarm to go off again tomorrow at 4:30 am.

Style Idea 19: Simple Skirt and Tank

Although the heart’s starting to wane, me typical 102-degree days still feel too hot for anything other than a dress or skirt. I asked my husband once if my skirt and tank top outfit was casual enough and he laughed. Most people probably would agree with him and say that a skirt getup can’t be casual, but I think it definitely can. Just like you can dress jeans up, you can dress skirts down. Just pair them with a simple top, comfortable shoes, and a few basic accessories and you have an outfit casual enough for an impromptu weekend bbq.

 

 

Sunnies: $12.99 Ruche

Green Tank: $4.50 Forever 21

Thick Woven Belt: $19.99 Ruche

Paisley and Flower Print Skirt: $28.00 Francesca's

Woven Leather Oxfords: $114.99 Mod Cloth