the blog.
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"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works."
Psalms 73:28 |
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Dec. 27 // 4 min read  
Hey y'all! Today I wanted to share with you three things that have really helped me deal with the longings of wanting to be married, dating, in a different season, or even just temptations to settle for worldly treasures instead of heavenly ones. I pray they encourage you, and I hope you had a refreshing Christmas, reminded of how Jesus humbled himself for our sake and became a servant, being born to die for our sins so we could know Him!!! There truly is NO other God like Him :o Wowowow. Just think -- without Jesus making a way for us to have a PERSONAL relationship with God, fighting longings for a relationship would be WAY harder...we'd just be chasing after other temporary things forever !! (And we'd also be lost in our sin, and it wouldn't matter even if we could deal with the longings well because we'd end up in eternal separation from God nevertheless!)
Let's dive in to the three strategies: 1. Long for something greater. I know for me, my natural reaction when I'm really longing to be in a relationship is to try to stuff it down -- to fight it and do whatever I can to just make myself not long for anything at ALL. But I'm learning that this isn't always very effective, as it usually comes out from under the rug shortly after. A strategy that God has been bringing to mind recently is to find something greater to long for (God and Heaven!!) instead of trying to just suffocate my longings for a relationship. Heaven is something that we know is in our future as believers, and so when I start longing for a relationship, I try to switch gears and start thinking about and imagining what Heaven will be like.
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Dec. 10 / 6 min read
"God, what are you doing?! Where on earth are we going??"
Trust me, He whispers to my heart. Trust. I sigh exasperatedly. Again?! Can't you tell me something concrete, God? Can't you stop always saying "trust" and say something else like (cue cheery voice) "Only 2341 days until you get married!!"?? Anyone else been here? 🙋🏻♀️ Welcome to coffee shop date with Emma #6! (Also known as Ramblings with Emma because she's not exactly sure yet where this is going besides that it's on trust - huh, maybe this is practice for her to trust, too) Anyway, today I wanted to share verses and things that have really helped me trust God in and with my singleness season (and I pray it encourages you in whatever season you may be in, too!). I've struggled a lot with trust especially in the second half of this year, if I'm being completely honest. Trust is hard !! Especially in really tough seasons of life when it feels like you have NO idea what God is doing with your life. But it's something God requires of us - Prov. 3:5-6 tells us to trust in God with ALL of our heart and to not lean on our own understanding (Hahaha, the song I'm listening to literally just said that XD. God is so good at what He does 😆). Nov. 12 / 4 min read
Heyy!! Today I wanted to share an analogy God gave me months ago that helped me further see that marriage isn't the end goal. And...it's a driving story 🥴.
Earlier this year, I started realizing that I wasn't as on top of my driving as I used to be when I first started. I kept coming close to rear-ending cars (though I never actually did, praise God !! And my driving has improved a lot since then so don't worry hehe). I was concentrating on driving and I couldn't figure out why I kept stopping so close to them when previously I had never had that issue. One day, when I came really close to rear-ending a car, my whole body tensed up as I suddenly became deeply aware that I needed to be really intentional about driving well, as it was so easy to drift quietly into bad habits. And that's when I realized the problem with my driving, too: I was so focused on the car in front of me that I had forgotten to look ten seconds ahead. Oct. 6 / 6 min read 
Heyyyo! Welcome to blog post number ✌🏽✌🏽 (4)! I loved our little coffee shop chat last time so grab your cup of coffee or tea (or if you’re like me, your chocolate milk 😋) and let’s get to it! ;)
Today I want to share a little bit about our purpose. The first verse that comes to mind right off the bat is Proverbs 4:23, which says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” You’ve probably heard that verse before – it’s an often-quoted verse when referring to saving your heart for the one you’re going to marry and not giving too much of yourself away. I want to talk about it in a little different of a connotation then maybe you’re used to, though. I think sometimes this verse can be taken out of context. If you look at the surrounding verses, it’s talking about living a righteous life – about living in a way that honors God and not turning to the right or to the left and falling into sin. ** Now, a quick side note before I continue: I think there’s wisdom in not giving your heart away to every guy you meet !! Don’t get me wrong 😊. But I think it’s also important to evaluate where your heart is at – what is your motive behind guarding your heart? Is it out of fear? (God says to fear no evil!) Out of wisdom? Out of faith and obedience to what God is telling you? I’d encourage you to take it to the Lord and ask him to guide you – ask him what guarding your heart in your specific circumstances looks like. Maybe he does want you to guard your heart, because liking that certain person is leading you to stray from following God. Maybe He wants you to keep your heart open. He’s told me that before with a guy, and nothing ended up coming out of it marriage-related, but looking back now I can see how God used that to draw me closer to Him. I honestly don’t have a specific, clear-cut answer for this. But God knows!! And I’m confident that He’ll be faithful to guide you if you ask Him :) And there's no pain out there so deep that He can't heal you from it <3. March 15 / 4 min read 
Heyy friends! Thank you SO much for being patient with me. I can't believe it's been five whole months since I last posted something!!
As I was cutting a mango today, trying to decide how I should spend the extra time I gained from my class being cancelled, the Holy Spirit brought this blog to mind. So here I am, about to try to write a post in twenty minutes...(Lord help me 😅). When I planned this series last year, I wasn't planning on talking about waiting so soon...but I feel like God is prompting me to share about it today, and so I'm gonna talk to you about some things I've learned that have really helped me. You might not be waiting on relationships - maybe you're waiting on God to change your heart in a particular area you're really wrestling through or help you get through a really difficult season or something else. I think we're all in seasons of waiting, though, and so I pray this encourages you :). If we were sitting in a coffee shop together (with cute green plants and everything ;) ), this is what I'd tell you: Sweet friend, waiting is hard. I don't want to invalidate that at ALL. It is so so so so soooo sosososososooo hard. I feel you!! But it's the most refining thing at the same time, and it's in the waiting that I've grown the most. And it's okay that it's hard. God walks in it with you, and He understands and feels your pain...man, think about all the people God is waiting on to turn to Him and be saved! But God is patient our whole lives long, and He's not in a hurry.  People who've met me in the past year & a half are often surprised to hear I was once boy-crazy.
But let me just tell you: oh yes! I most definitely was boy-crazy, idolizing love and looking to guys for fulfillment. I guess it started when I was little. Growing up, my favorite dress-up costume was a white, fluffy dress I affectionately called my "marry dress" which I wore with frequency. I remember lying in bed and praying really quickly and getting my prayers "over with" so that I could tell myself stories of being in love until I fell asleep. |
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