To Date or Not To Date-Ashley

To Date Or Not To Date: Christy (+playlist)

But...

This word has the power to nullify everything previously stated before it.

I trust God, but...my circumstances are so BIG and so overwheming.  

I know God is the God of the impossible, but...this really is an impossible situation.

I know I am unique and created for a purpose, but...I wish I had their talents/skills/gifts.

The underlined/bold phrase is all that is heard.  It creates an ineffectiveness of the first statement made. 

Yet imagine if you will, you could train yourself to not speak your words in that order.  Imagine if you rendered the statement after but...ineffective. 

Let's see.  Using the same statements as above, in reverse.

My circumstances are so BIG and so overwheming, but...I TRUST GOD!!!

This really is an impossible situation, but...I know God is the God of the impossible!!!

I wish I had their talents/skills/gifts, but...I know I am unique and created for a purpose!!!

AMAZING RIGHT?!?!?

I would like to challenge you to use your words with boldness.  To speak and declare goodness, kindness, love and life.  To nullify the lies.  To render statements of defeat, useless.  To effectively use your words to create an ineffect in the statements that oppose the real truth.   To place value and worth in words that encourage and comfort.  Do not invalidate your words of peace, joy, truth, love and life with a but.

I am just a girl, but...God has risen up a warrior princess....a creative dreamer :)

Love,

Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

Comparison steals joy!

Comparison steals joy.

Did you hear that?  Comparison steals joy, among other things.

It begins with little remarks, little jabs at yourself, that at first seem so harmless.

It may even appear that you are humble.  That you are just praising someone else's

strengths.  Yet you are subtly discrediting yourself.

Remarks like...

"She/He is way better at ______ than me."

"I am not pretty like ______."

"I don't have the qualifications like ______."

"I can't do ________."

 "She/He has more of _______ than me."

Add in whatever word(s) applies, but you see how these little snippets can tear down?!?!

There is no encouragement in it, for yourself or the person you think you are praising.

It doesn't build someone up to have you torn down in the process.

It doesn't comfort someone to have you point out all their strengths whilst you indirectly point out all your weaknesses.

Every comparison breaks you down a little.  Every comparison makes you pull back a little more.

Every comparison IS A LIE!!!

A lie from the enemy, a lie to keep you trapped, to keep you chained, to make you feel worth less, to make you feel invaluable and useless.

And in the comparison(LIES) you lose...Joy. Peace. Trust. Strength. Courage. Freedom. Uniqueness.  You lose you.

You have been created for a purpose that ONLY you, yes, only you can fulfill.

You have been created uniquely to be you and you alone. 

You have been created to SHINE. 

You have been created for GREATNESS.

But if you want what everyone else has and to be who everyone else is, how will the world experience and see you?

I read this wonderful quote from Marianne Williamson (usually misinterpreted to have been a quote from Nelson Mandela):

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

This quote has really stuck with me for some reason.  Maybe because I too have compared myself.  I too have stepped back to let others shine.  I have shyed away from being to great, to talented, to fabulous, to ______! 

But I realized, I want the world to experience me.  The me, God purposefully and intricately created.  He made me the way I am for a reason.  He is within me and wants to shine all the creativity, beauty and goodness HE IS through me.  I am like him, why would I want to hide His creative, beautiful, good, fabulous, talented, brilliant daughter from the world.  Why would I want to be like someone else that is showing the other creative, beautiful, great attributes of our Heavenly Father? 

God didn't intend for anyone of us to be a replica of another.  What a bore that would be to have us all be the same as the last.  What good would that accomplish? 

I am rambling now, LOL ;)

I hope you understand though, you are you...you are uniquely and perfectly you. 

Don't let comparison steal away the you God created.  Don't let it take away your joy.

Instead, be proud, shameless, free, joyful, fearless, brilliant, worthy, creative, bold,  courageous and live your life out loud as YOU! 

Cuz no one else can do it ;)

Love,

Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

p.s, I didn't want to add creative dreamer to my middle name for this blog(in the beginning), but that IS what I am and I am no longer afraid to declare that in my life, among other fabulous truths ;)  What truths will you begin to declare and live out loud in your life? 

The Domino Effect.

One domino followed by another domino…

Consider how one choice in life develops another choice, follows by yet another choice, and results in a few more choices…

They say life is pattern of choices and blended in such choices is that of love. Erwin McManus even argues that "you cannot live unaffected by love. You are most alive when you find it, most devastated when you lose it, most empty when you give up on it, most inhumane when you betray it, and most passionate when you pursue it. The human story seems more driven by the insanity of love than the survival of the fittest."

Recently someone stated, "your INSANE for choosing purity."  So, then why do I choose purity?

• It isn’t just about being a virgin. Purity is about your heart, your mind, and your body. 
• It isn’t just about being a naive sixteen year old and saying, "yes to purity." Truthfully, you actually choose purity in your singleness, as you date or court or engagement, and especially in your marriage. 
• It isn’t just a one-time battle. Instead, you fight for purity each and every day. It's a lifetime battle.
• It isn’t just for a girl or a heart shaped ring symbolizing the value of purity. Guys and girls alike are required to consider what purity means and hold each other accountable to such a standard in a highly sexualized culture.  

It's a choice. 

At the time, we were both twenty and sitting on the deck glancing out at the ocean. He said, "Charlene, you need to change that..." My response, "change what?" I shrugged it off, yet years later did I actually grasp the significance of his statement. 

I needed to change my perspective of purity. He wasn't a virgin and had asked me, "could you love me if you knew I wasn't PURE?"

Today, it's a question commonly asked, "can I undo or restore my purity?" 

I believe purity is love in its fullness. Humanly, I cannot undo the past, the domino effect, of the man I one day will marry. Likewise, he cannot undo my first kiss at sixteen or even the "I love you" exchanges with my previous boyfriends. Instead, I am thankful for a Heavenly Father's love that restores the purity of my mind, heart, and body. God's love purifies my past and compels me to pursue His greatest commandment: love. As a result, "the goal of the command is love, which comes from a PURE heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5). 

When I choose purity, I am actually choosing to pursue the love of my Heavenly Father. Furthermore, I am choosing to fight for purity for those who have struggled with pornography; who have been sexually abused as a child; who have been told they would never be loved; and even those who have sought unhealthy love to fill the void in a state of brokenness or betrayal.

Purity is a choice.  A choice to fight! 

Will you join me in protecting your heart, mind, and body and fight for purity in its fullness?

Charlene 

To Date Or Not To Date: Chantelle

Keep Asking

The following verse may seem like a tall order to fill but through God nothing is impossible! Ask God to fill you with His love for people, to keep you humble, to give you a servants heart, to help you forgive....I could go on but you get the picture. Ask God and He will deliver. Does that mean that all of a sudden you are going to have these gifts and abilities...no. He will teach you, guide you and correct you and it wont always be easy......we mess up, make mistakes and fall but through it all God is faithful and will

                                                          keep "giving" you the things you ask for. Keep asking.....

To Date or Not To Date:Tina's Story

Complacent No More

Aren't we sick of complacency?  Sick of the stress, the drama, the lies, the bondage/chains?  Sick of broken families and relationships?  Aren't we sick of the fleshly desires?  Don't we want MORE?  Need MORE?

THERE IS MORE.  There is Jesus.

He came for all the reasons listed above and more.  He came to restore, heal, set free, to seek and save the lost, to bring truth and life.

You CAN change your life, your thoughts, actions, words and you can change the condition of your heart.
If you are drawing in, pressing close to Him and pursuant of His heart.  Reading your bible, which gives life and truth.  Spending time with people who will encourage and comfort you.  Praying, worshipping and praising daily(all day long is even better) Becoming constant in your relationship with abba.  I tell you friends, you change.  Your life transforms.  You begin to look more like Him.  Your actions, thoughts and words begin to look more like Him.  You begin to see yourself through your Heavenly Fathers eyes.  You start to look for ways to press in, all day long.  You start to smell the burning of your flesh.  Cuz let me tell you, you can't get in realCLOSE(yes, I did that on purpose) to abba and not expect your old self to fall away.  To get sick of all the lies, to have such distaste for the things of this world, for the drama, for the stress, for the bondage and chains.  It starts to fall away and you even ask God to continue to show you where your old self is still hanging on.  Oh, let me tell you friends, your old self WILL try to hold on.  He'll twist and draw back and beg you to just leave a little, cuz what is a little?  But God wants all of you.  He wants to chisel away everything of the old man(woman). He wants to mold you and shape you.  He has a great plan and purpose for your life.  But you have to let go of the flesh life you are trying so desperately to hold onto.

I can say I am a "christian", but it is not enough to label myself and continue to walk in this old self. NO, it is not enough.  I want to be more than a label.  I want the world to see His light and His beauty shining through me.  I want to carry His peace, His truth and His strength wherever I go.  I want my life to point back to Christ.  I will not sit in complacency.  I WILL get sick and tired of all the lies, stress, drama, bondage/chains, broken relationships and selfish desires.

I believe that when you get sick and tired of it all.  Others will take notice of how much change has taken place in your life. They too will seek change, they'll ask questions, they'll wanna know more.  You become a beacon of light pointing towards hope, towards life and truth, towards Jesus.

I don't want people to see me, I want them to see Christ through me.  I want to reflect Jesus when people look at my life.

I will not be complacent.  I will be constant.  I will go deeper, closer and press in to my Father's heart.

Will you join me?

Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Luke 9:23 - And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.


Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

Basic or Complex

Oh decisions….

You, like me, make them each and every moment.

Did you get up this morning? Put on a clean pair of underwear or boxers (hopefully)? Had that routine cup of coffee with an extra shot of vanilla? Eggs or cereal or drive-thru? Update a Facebook or Instagram status?

Those are basic decisions.

Did you consider your words before you spoke? A positive or negative outlook?  Couldn’t stop at just one beer? Did you look at porn this week? Believe the persistent lie that you aren’t good enough or even worthy? What genuine respect did you give your boss or spouse or best friend or stranger?

Those are slightly more complex decisions.

Regardless of the size of decision, it is a choice that your mind consciously or subconsciously makes.  Since, Philippians 4:8 states, “whatever is TRUE, whatever is NOBLE, whatever is RIGHT, whatever is PURE, whatever is LOVELY, whatever is ADMIRABLE---if anything is excellent or praiseworthy---think about such things.”

So, are those words of bitterness or hurt or even anger true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable? Is feeding your addiction (whatever it may be) true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable? Furthermore, are those negative thought patterns twisted with lies true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable?

I’ll assume, not.

This week, I was faced with two rather large decisions. In my mind, I’ve done the classic pro vs. con list; the consequence vs. benefit dilemma; and even the safe and responsible vs. the unknown and potentially risky choice.  As I awoke this morning, laid in bed longer than normal, and simply asked God, “what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable?”

Regardless, of the size of the decision, basic or complex, it is also a decision to include God. So, I challenge you to ask yourself today, “is it (whatever it may be) true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable?” 

In the midst of decisions,

Charlene