Let Your Light Shine | Halloween 2017

Halloween! Candy and costumes and pumpkins and parties and oh so much more! While I don’t really celebrate Halloween, I still love carved pumpkins! The cute little Jack-O-Lanterns on people’s front steps is by far my favorite thing! I love seeing how creative people can get! One of my friends made hers into a croc! Kinda crazy, but so fun! And you know, we are all kind of like those carved pumpkins. In a weird sort of way, we share a lot with those little (or big) squashes!

When you go to a pumpkin patch, you pick out a pumpkin, take it home, and wash it off. Then you carve out the top and begin removing the insides so you can carve it and put a light in! Jesus does the same with you! He removes you from the world and washes the sin off of you! He then opens the door to your heart and removes all the sin and shame that are sitting there. Then, he carves a huge smile onto your face as he fills you with his relentless joy! And the light, the most important part! It makes it possible for people to see your lovely pumpkin creation no matter what time it is! And Jesus gives us that, too! Because he puts his fire inside of us, no matter our circumstances, we let our light shine out into the world! We share love and hope and truth with everyone who sees us! So, like that Jack-O-Lantern, we can bring light into other people’s lives too!

So you had probably never thought of yourself as a pumpkin before, huh? But it really does make sense! No matter what you do, let your light shine before men! Let your light be a beacon, bringing people into the love of Christ! Have a safe Halloween and remember to let your light shine!

What are you doing for Halloween this year? Comment down below because I would love to hear from you!

October Wrap Up and November TBR

Ah, October! Cool weather (finally), Halloween movie marathons, tea, and pumpkin everything! While I love the fall and everything about it, this month was pretty sad reading wise for me. I only read one book, which was for my lit class because I have not been prioritizing reading lately. But, in the month of November I have high hopes because I (sort of) have things back under control ! So, stick around if you want to see my October Wrap Up and my November TBR.

The one book I completed in the month of October was Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars because, while it was one of the more enjoyable classics, reading things for school often ruins the text by over analyzing it (which makes me really sad…). Anyways, if you are interested in getting into more classic american lit, I highly recommend this one! It is easy to understand, short, and engaging!

I started and did not complete two books this month. The first of which is Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas, which I have enjoyed for the most part. I am dragging it out because I love this world and am not ready to leave it, plus there is so much going on I have trouble keeping things straight when I read a lot at once. The second is Night Film, which is so intriguing! I just began it, but I love the plot (so far), characters, and the mixed media!

In the month of November I am hoping to complete those two, as well as read One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake! It is one of my most anticipated releases of this year and I cannot wait to be able to read it!

What have you read this month? Comment down below so we can chat about books!

How to Deal with Mean Girls

Hey y’all! I was talking to some younger girls at my church today and they were saying how bad the mean “popular” girls made them feel. They were asking about how to deal with that, and I honestly didn’t have a good answer. It’s been awhile since I have felt like that, so I did some cyber sleuthing and found a few amazing blog posts that really helped them to put some things in perspective. They talk about loving as Jesus loves and some practical ways to go about that! I hope that these help you if you are struggling with this sort of thing!

How to deal with mean girls from Crosswalk.com

https://www.crosswalk.com/print/11581504/

When Mean Girls Strike from Lies Young Women Believe

http://www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com/when-mean-girls-strike/

8 Biblical Ways to Deal with Mean People from Empowering Everyday Women

http://www.empoweringeverydaywomen.com/8-biblical-ways-to-deal-with-petty-people.html

Mean Girls Don’t Win from Faithgateway

http://www.faithgateway.com/mean-girls-dont-win/#.WfYtRYFSy00

One thing that I remember helping me was making daily affirmations that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, jesus loves me, I are worth loving, I are beautiful, I are talented, I are not of this world (simply in it), and I was made for the Lord and the Lord alone! I still do this on a daily basis and it really helps to lift my spirits when I am struggling with anything! Below is a list of 110 positive affirmations that are based on scripture and there is one for every situation you are in!

http://www.faithandhealthconnection.org/110-affirmations-using-bible-verses/  

What has helped you to deal with mean people? Comment down below so you can help some other people out!

Being Betty | Riverdale Party

Instead of having a Halloween party this year, my friends and I had a Riverdale party! We all dressed up as the characters and binge watched all the episodes that are out! I came as Betty and I am going to show you what I did to achieve her look!

Step 1 is hair! Betty is known for her perfectly curled ponytail, so here’s what I did to achieve that look!

1. I put some Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Leave In to keep my hair from frizzing and tp help in holding the curls!
2. I brushed my hair and put it up in a ponytail!
3. I used my curling wand on medium heat (330 degrees on mine!). I then broke my hair up into 4 large sections and curled them (I held them on the curler for 30 seconds and let them set in my hand for 15)
4. Then I used LOTS if hair spray to set them.

Then I did my makeup! Betty always has very light, simple makeup, so I used whites and creams mainly and used blush in my crease! Lots of mascara and light pink tinted chapstick finish off the look!

For my outfit, I wore dark denim jeans, brown booties, a denim button up shirt, and a pink sweater over it! And that’s it!

Who is your favorite Riverdale character? Comment down below because I would love to hear from you!

Reevaluating | Back to the Basics

It has become so hard for me to stay in the habit of reading the word daily and praying. I act like I am okay and while I am still doing a lot, my heart’s not in it. I read my bible to write blogs or do a journal, I pray for safety and when I wake up, go to bed, and eat meals. I go to church and I listen to tons of Christian music. But why I am feeling like that is not enough? Why does it feel like all of this stuff that should be awesome and lead to development of my faith feel like I’m just going through the motions?

I think the answer to my question is that I am not personalizing my time with the Lord, not prioritizing it, not doing it for the right motivations. Yesterday I posted about being in the in-between and how we should still celebrate with the Lord during those times, but how do we do that? I left it open ended, but even after a day, I am already struggling! So I am going to look at the things I am doing (or not doing) and see what can be done to make a change in the way I approach the Lord.

Firstly, I am not personalizing my time with the Lord. I am letting it be generic, studying what other people are studying, not bringing him my problems. To have a true relationship, you have to give some of yourself, which I have not been doing well lately. My solution to this is to look and see where in your life you can improve. Study that and ask God to help you with those things. Don’t just do a study because everyone on Instagram is doing it, find something that is relevant to you and will re-excite you to spend time with the Lord!

Next is that I am not prioritizing my time with the Lord. I am putting my to-dos before him. I have been so caught up in all the things I have had to do lately that I have neglected my time with him. To remedy this, set aside a time of day where all you do is be with the Lord, whether it’s a study, meditation, playing worship music, or praying. I used to be really good about having a structured quiet time, but I haven’t made time for it. Do it whenever in the day works for you, but make sure you have having daily time with him!

Lastly, I am not doing any of it for the right reasons. I do it because it’s what I’ve always done, it’s what everyone (including myself) expects of me. So instead of taking time to get to the root of the problem, I go through the motions. I don’t reevaluate how I do things, I just keep chugging along. You should not force yourself to spend time with the Lord, you should desire it! Since I have been forcing myself, I don’t want it. To help this, I won’t be so hard on myself. I used to have a strict structure to my time with the Lord and I had a schedule at which certain things had to be done, now I am going to take my own time and focus solely on fortifying my relationship with God.

I once heard, “You’ve got your bible, you’ve got your knees, now use them!” I think this is the simplest way to go about reevaluating faith. Go back to the basics. Just you and God. On your knees with your bible. Rediscover that childlike faith and come back to your first and true love!

The In-Between

A new song by Carrollton came out recently called “In-Between”. It talks about how it is easy to praise the Lord when we are on the mountains and how desperately we call out to him in the valleys. We need help in the dark times and we only see good in the highs. But, what about the times in which we are neither on a mountain nor a in a valley? What do you do with your in-between?

I often find myself neglecting my relationship with the Lord. I get in these slumps in which I don’t know what to do with my prayer and quiet time. I drift further and further. The in-betweens are when I question my faith, when I wonder if God really has a plan. I forget all the good he has done and how faithful he has been. You might not think the in-between is bad, just meh. But I have found that the in-between is the hardest place to be. You are either recovering from a dark time or coming back to reality after a high. Neither of those are easy places to be and that is why we need the Lord during these times.

The song says “I’m going to dance with you in the in-between”. To me, this says that I will still be close to you in my down times. I will still celebrate with you during those times. You are still God even when nothing is happening, I still need you. There will never come a time when I will not desire time with the Lord. But making that desire into action is where things go off the rails in the in-between. To dance with the Lord is to take steps toward him and his unfailing love, not to let the relationship fall apart because things are dull.

Currently, I am coming out of a valley, emerging into my in-between. During these times in the past, I have let my faith drift. But now that I am conscious of this, I will be intentional in spending more time with the Lord and being in a perpetual state of prayer and petition with the Lord. It is not easy at first to do this, but as you spend more and more time with the Lord, it becomes second nature to bring everything to him!

Pageviews, Likes, and Other Demons

When I scroll through my instagram account, there is only one thing I look at: the likes. That is how I judge how successful my post was. Did 20 people like it? 50? 100? I don’t stop and consider how much I like it or how much time and effort went into that page. I get so caught up in the likes, followers, and my posting schedule that I forget why I started the whole thing. It was designed to share my love for the Lord with everyone and to get creative while doing it.

When I open my blogger site, I go straight to the Stats page and look at how many pageviews I got that day, how much my all time views have increased, and what drew that traffic to my blog. I don’t think about the content of the post, I only concern myself with networking and how many people see it. I write meaningful posts, posts that matter to me. But once they are out there, I don’t care who sees them, only that they are seen.

How can we escape this cycle? How can we get out of the idea that our worth is defined by likes, plus ones, pins, reblogs, retweets, and views? The solution is to find your worth in Jesus. So what only 20 people liked that post you took days to work on? If you are working out of desire to please the Lord, then the reaction of humans should be inconsequential. While this is easier said than done, the only true way to escape the cycle is to evaluate your why. Ask yourself why you have a blog or an instagram account. Is it to get attention or money? Or is it to bring glory to the Lord? I have this blog because I love Jesus and I want to have a place to share my thoughts about my faith. If that is my motive, why do I get so bummed out when I don’t get a hundred people to see it? If even one person sees it and it allows them to draw closer to Jesus, then have I not done what I set out to do?

Ultimately, this is just a change of perspective. Don’t go and delete your blog because you have your priorities mixed up, simply realign them with the God who has the best plan for you! When you focus on the Lord, the jumble of human thinking falls aside and your only desire becomes to bring his praise with all you say and do!

True Satisfaction

Earlier today I was scrolling through the search page on Instagram (a very dangerous black hole to fall into) and there were so many of those slime/ paint mixing videos! You know, the ones where they push food coloring around on a plate with a popsicle stick for 60 seconds… And you know what the description on all of these posts say? “S A T I S F Y I N G” “Comment satisfying in your language” “Satisfying Satisfying Satisfying” “Oh so satisfying” I may be the only one, but I don’t find that to be satisfying. Or entertaining. I really just don’t enjoy it, if I’m being honest (But no hate if you do, that’s just me).

But, if you find those things to be satisfying, let me tell you, there are so many other things in life that can bring satisfaction. Like writing that essay that you have been putting off by scrolling through the Instagram search page. Or maybe trying something new or helping some out. Satisfaction is the fulfillment of desire or needs and the pleasure associated with this. Just think for a second. What are the things in this life that truly satisfy you? That truly bring you pleasure? For me, these things are making my friends smile, hearing my cat purr, seeing people cheer each other on. I find true satisfaction in making other people joyful, in meeting that basic need of pleasure.

Even more than that, true satisfaction comes from the Lord alone. He fulfils all of our needs, erases all of our debts, brings us pleasure in the form of his love and strength. He is not slime being pushed around. He is life and breath. Only from the Lord can true feelings of contentment and pleasure come because he is one who knows our every need, our every desire. He paid the price so we could life a complete life with him. That is satisfying.

Bold Faith

“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.” 2 Corinthians 3:12

There are so many things that scare me. I don’t even know where to begin, but some of those things are drowning, fire, losing those I love. Those are all big things, things that most people are scared of. But what about the fear to share your thoughts, the fear of being judged, the fear of being abandoned. Those are all fears that get in your head. Fears that tell you that you aren’t good enough. We all have things we are afraid of, big and small, tangible and feelings.

The opposite of fear is faith. Faith is putting trust in something else despite your worries of what might happen. It is hard to have faith. It is hard to let go of things. But true faith is handing the reigns over to God and admitting that his plans are better than your own.

Boldness. Faith is an act of boldness. Peter stepped out on the water! That was a bold act of faith! But then, his fear caught up to him. The initial boldness was not enough to carry him across. But, was it that he was not bold enough or was he not trusting Jesus enough? These ideas are not inseparable, they go hand and hand. Having faith is being bold, stepping out. When you lose faith, you lose the stamina to run from fear and pursue the Lord. When you have faith, you are being bold enough to hand over your plans and neglect the ideas of the world.

Putting faith in Christ is making us bold to do things the rest of the world wouldn’t do. All your friends are going to a crazy party- not you. Everybody’s gossiping about someone- not you. That takes boldness, that takes strength. It is hard to go against the flow, but being empowered by Christ allows for your faith to take a step ahead of your fear.

To be bold, you must be open to hear what the Lord wants you to do. If you don’t know what choice to make or what to do, listen to God. The idea might sound crazy to you, but he has an amazing plan at work! It is bold to take a turn that you don’t know where it will lead, but if you have faith in God, you know he will bring you through it!

Our faith in Christ makes us bold to neglect the ways of the world, the grip of fear, and to live in light of glorious love and mercy! Christ is empowering you to make hard decisions, to trust in his plan! Faith will always overcome fear, simply give over the reigns! Take a bold move and tell your fear that it is not welcome here! You worship and serve a God of love and there is no fear in love!

Exhausted

This post is not planned at all. In fact, to make it so I will have posted everyday this month, I have 6 minutes to write it. This is unorganized and messy, but it is where I am right now. Here we go:
I am exhausted. I spent the past 11 hours driving home from one of the longest weekends of my life. It took a toll on me emotionally and physically after an already long week. But, it goes beyond that. The past 6 or so weeks have been hard. I have lost a lot: people I loved and my peace. And yet, here I am. Still alive, still turning my wheels. The only answer I have for this is that God is on my side. He is here and he is alive!
So I am exhausted and late and I still have so much to do, but God is with me. For that reason, I shall never fear nor loose hope. I am never alone. I can give him my burdens and fears and he takes them on with a joyful heart. Bring your sorrows to the Lord, he can and will heal you. He will bring you through the storms.

Fall Blog Post Ideas

Hey y’all! Since I have been posting everyday this month, it has been hard to keep the ideas coming for blog posts! I have been in a bit of a slump this week and I’m sure other people who are doing this feel the same way! So, I am going to share some fun, fall-themed blog post ideas! Hopefully it can inspire us all!

1. Fall Lookbook
2. Apple Picking/ Pumpkin Patch Day in the Life
3. Your Favorite Pumpkin Recipes
4. If You Celebrate Halloween or Not and Why
5. Fall Books (That You Plan on Reading or Remind You of Fall)
6. Fall Bucket List
7. A Fall Tag
8. What You Did Over Fall Break
9. Homecoming OOTW
10. Share a Fall Moodboard (with cute pictures from Pinterest!)

Do you have any other ideas for fall blog posts? Share them down below because I always need more ideas!

Distracted

At the time I am writing this, I honestly cannot tell you the last time I actually sat down and had quiet time with the Lord. Yes, I have been at church and blogging and doing my bible journals, but I have just been doing them because it’s what I do. I’m the girl who lives at church and makes art inside a book. But, I haven’t been putting my heart into it lately. It’s why my instagram posts are more and more infrequent and my blogs are being posted at 11:00 pm because I just finished writing that one. In the past, my instagram posts were scheduled weeks in advance and I had at least 10 days of turn around for my blogs. I would always have quiet time and pray daily, but I have been distracted.

Distraction. It comes from everywhere. It’s found in school work, in friends, in reading, in TV, in every little thing you do. You say, “No more instagram, I can’t focus when I’m scrolling through it.” But then, you find yourself doing the same thing with something else. I find I do this because I want to be distracted. I don’t want to think about what is going on around me. But when I do finally stop, it all comes crashing down like a tidal wave. I want to take my mind off of all the hard things in life.

I don’t know if you were reading this to look for an answer, but I don’t have a good one. I am just as guilty of this and still working through it. All I can think to do is turn my eyes on God. Whenever I catch my mind drifting, my actions shifting, I need to slam on the breaks. I need to reorient myself daily around the Son, asking him to make his thoughts my thoughts and his actions my actions. So, all I have for you is to pray and worship and pray some more.

(Oh and the image above is of me and a friend trying to take a cute picture! Of course, I ruined it by being distracted...)

1 Year

365 days. 2500 pageviews. 103 posts. 1 blog.

One year ago today, Undeniable Joy was born. It began as a place to post what I was thinking about, what was on my heart. Now, it has grown into more than a blog, it’s an etsy shop,  an instagram account, it’s become a part of my identity. It is the safe place where I share my thoughts, it is where I post sermons, where I rant about books. This blog has become an extension of myself- a catalogue of all of the things that make me undeniably joyful!

I began this to share my passion about Jesus with anyone who stumbled across my blog. Now, I share everything that makes me undeniably joyful! Thank you for sticking with this for a year! You are amazing!

Blog Post Superlatives

In the past year, I have posted 158 times between my 2 blogs! Since there are so many, I wanted to go back and highlight some of my favorite posts! I’ve broken them down into categories to showcase the best of them! I hope you enjoy my little blog gallery!

First Post: What Sets Your Soul on Fire?

Favorite Post Overall: Wise and Foolish Builders

Best Post about Me: Why Your Testimony Matters | My Story

Best Post about Music: Why Listen to Christian Music?

Best Bible Post:  Just a Taste

Best Post about Joy: True Undeniable Joy

Best Favorites Post: Fall Lookbook

Best Tag: Christian Girl Tag

Best Book Review: A Court of Wings and Ruin Review

Best Miscellaneous Books Post: Why I Did Not Like Harry Potter

Best Wrap Up/ TBR: May 2017 Wrap Up

Which is your favorite blog post? Do you have any ideas for future ones? Comment below because I would love to hear from you!

Finding Undeniable Joy!

Undeniable /uhn-di-nahy-uh-buhl/ adj incapable of being denied or disputed

Joy /joi/ n the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation

Undeniable joy /uhn-di-nahy-uh-buhl joi/ mental state The emotion of delight that is incapable of being disputed

Have you ever felt giddy- like the “I can’t sit in my seat I am so excited because something totally awesome just happened” kind of elation? Your heart starts racing and you are kind of laughing and you just want to get up and do your happy dance! And no matter how much other people will judge you, you do it anyways! You shout down the halls and dance through your day! Now, imagine feeling that overflowing of joy for eternity! Imagine wanting to jump up and down screaming “Yay! Yay! Yay!” forever! It is the best feeling ever and this kind of undeniable joy comes from only one place!

The Lord alone gives undeniable joy! He gives me strength and joy and I am incapable of refuting that it come from him! To be undeniably joyful is to dance through life because God is good! Your circumstances might not be good, but the Lord is! And you dance and dance and sing and jump and shout and dance some more and make a complete and total fool of yourself, but it doesn’t matter! Even on your worst days you have a reason to celebrate! Jesus is alive and God is here and he is real and he is doing good work in your life! How can you not smile when you hear that? Let me say it again, God is good!

Something someone once said to me that I loved was, “Here is an undeniable joy for you!” They followed this up by reading a bible verse to me. At first I thought, “That’s a weird way to say that.” But, then I realized that it was pure genius! If joy comes from the Lord and the Lord is truth and light, then an undeniable joy is something that shines light and truth into my life! A bible verse, a song, a C.S. Lewis quote (let’s be real- that guy was awesome!), they can all be an undeniable joy! They speak truth and they give an ounce of an explanation for the crazy amounts of joy you have found! No one will fully be able to experience true joy until they accept it for themselves, but an undeniable joy is a morsel of wisdom that attempts to explain what it feels like to have concentrated joy running in your veins as opposed to blood!

I realize that most of you think this is crazy. You say; “Katie, I don’t know how to be joyful.” But, the thing is, you do! You are preventing yourself from this obscene amount of joy! It take practice to integrate joy in your life and to be okay to throw it around like confetti, but I believe you can do it! Here are 3 things that will shove your joy in the right direction!

1. Begin by reading God’s word! Once you realize how deeply he loves you, it will be impossible to not be joyful!
2. I also highly recommend finding a christian dance party playlist! Put it on and practice your sick moves so you are ready to do your happy dance whenever the situation calls for it (and it almost always calls for it)!
3. A major thing to do is stop complaining! I am going to say this three more times because it is integral! Stop complaining. Stop complaining. Stop complaining. Complaining centers your thoughts around the negatives, joy is a celebration of good. And there is always good to be found! Instead of moping or complaining, look for the joys in the situation(Hint: a constant one is that Jesus has saved you and he is in control)!

Undeniable joy is not a fleeting feeling. It does not only come when good things happen. It does not go away when bad things happen. It is lifelong and it will never leave you! You cannot return it (and I don’t know why you would want to!) and it cannot be taken from you! It comes from the Lord and it is the most beautiful thing to ever enter into my life!

Finally Fall Book Tag

1. In fall, the air is crisp and clear: name a book with a vivid setting!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern has some of the most beautiful, descriptive writing! You can feel the crisp air, taster the chocolate mice, smell the kettle corn, and envision perfectly the rows upon rows of black and white circus tents!
2. Nature is beautiful… but also dying: name a book that is beautifully written, but also deals with a heavy topic like loss or grief.

I have to go with The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This book is told beautifully and the writing is amazing, but it deals with some really heavy stuff.
3. Fall is back to school season: share a non-fiction book that taught you something new.

I don’t read too much non-fiction, but I just finished On Writing by Stephen King for my literature class and I found some parts of it to be incredibly interesting!
4. In order to keep warm, it’s good to spend some time with the people we love: name a fictional family/household/friend-group that you’d like to be a part of.

The Inner Circle from A Court of Mist and Fury! I would give anything to see Velaris, to go to the Court of Dreams, or to fly with the Illyrians! They all have such an amazing dynamic and even just one dinner with them would be enough!
5. The colourful leaves are piling up on the ground: show us a pile of fall-colored spines!

I don’t have any fall spines, but I can show you some recent pictures from my instagram account, @katiesaboundingbooks!

6. Fall is the perfect time for some storytelling by the fireside: share a book wherein somebody is telling a story.

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh! It is a retelling of A Thousand and One Nights, so throughout the novel Shahrazad is telling stories!
7. The nights are getting darker: share a dark, creepy read.

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco is a very dark read! It is a YA historical mystery novel and it gets darker and darker as the story goes on. It is perfect to read this time of year!
8. The days are getting colder: name a short, heartwarming read that could warm up somebody’s cold and rainy day.

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales! It is a coming of age novel about a girl who wants to be a DJ! It is about finding people who accept you as you are and it is a really easy to just sit down and finish it!
9. Fall (luckily, it’s my favourite season) returns every year: name an old favourite that you’d like to return to soon.

I would love to reread Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake soon! I have been anticipating reading the second book, but I am making myself wait until I get through the first one again! It is so good and so complex- I would highly reccomend it to someone looking for a new fantasy series to dive into!
10. Fall is the perfect time for cozy reading nights: share your favourite cozy reading “accessories”!

An sweatshirt, fuzzy blanket, my cat, and camomile tea!

What book are you looking forward to reading this season? Comment down below because I would love to hear from you!