God’s love – Page 2

A Spiffy Girl

September 21, 2018 No Comments

When I say we’re going to need a bigger closet, I mean it.

This week we announced news we’ve been relishing in ourselves for almost three months now – we’re having another baby!

I was excited to get all the details out at the same time – the fact that it’s a girl and her name is Elianna (middle name TBD).

The idea that I’ll be dropping “Dude” and Dinosaurs for “her” and bows (also TBD, haha I’m trying to work up a love for bows currently) is still settling in, however, she is truly an answer to prayer and I am resting in the fact that God will equip me to be a mother to this little sweetheart.

I’ve had this name picked out for over 15 years – before I even knew my husband. In Hebrew it means, “God has answered.” And boy, is that spot on! We’ve been believing for another baby and He has answered in the perfect way.

There’s so much more I can say but I’m still in processing mode so it’s not coming out as smoothly as I’d like.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in our excitement!

Life, Spiffy

Check Perfection at the Door

September 29, 2017 1 Comment

Grace not perfection, emily ley, emily ley book, mom blog, how to do it all mom blog, mom fashion, mom blogger, knoxville mom blog, knoxville mom blogger

Read only if you’re human.

The sounds I want to hear when sitting down to write? The sound of the washer, dryer and dishwasher all whirring at the same time. The soothing sounds of my toddler and dog snoring just a wee bit as they sail off to dreamland. The “likes” of the picture I just posted on Instagram ticking up and up and up!

Does this happen every time I sit down to write? Nope. Is the sound of someone sailing off to dreamland often me? Yep.

I don’t have to tell you (but I’m going to because it was in my outline for this post) that we live in a time when it’s harder than ever to put away the picture perfect world we have in our heads and be thankful for our reality. Enter: Emily Ley.

Her book Grace not Perfection was top on my t0-read this list year as the title alone helps me realize I’m doing a good job.

Why should you listen to Emily Ley?

Well, she has twins, and a elementary school child which is reason enough right there but let me go on… She runs her own business – one she built from the ground up. It’s super successful and oh at the heart of it is her desire to make women’s lives easier. Also, random fact: she turned down Shark Tank.

If you read any of that and say “Meh” get out and start writing your own book for us all.

Emily is the creator of The Simplified Planner. Oh yeah – this woman has built a business on paper planners in the 21st century. Let’s add that to the list up there. She has struggled with infertility, stressed herself out to the point of breaking and just generally embodies the “when having done all to stand – stand” scripture.

That’s why I was excited to pick up her book and get a snapshot of what drives her.

Here are my takeaways…

It’s okay for the house to be a mess sometimes.

“You don’t need a Pinterest-perfect home; you need a home that works for you and makes you feel alive.”

No matter where you fall on the scale of perfection when it comes to your house – at some point in your week you look around and think it needs to be clean/cleaner/what has happened with my life. I cannot function with a messy house. And (while I won’t admit this to many) get a small thrill in cleaning it up. So when I can’t get to it and things are awry I start to unravel a bit mentally.

On the other hand, if I spend my entire free evening cleaning the house and getting it to where I like it, but don’t spend any time with my kid – the other kind of guilt sets in and I go to bed thinking WHY HAVE I FORSAKEN MY CHILD!?

This book reads like you’re sitting across from her having coffee and being told “it’s okay to let go of the mess.” Which is great. But what is also great, is Emily gives pointers as to how to manage it all. Like her laundry basket trick at the end of the night, or her Sunday night ritual. (You have to get the book to see what those are! Muahahaha).

It’s okay to take moments for myself.

“God’s grace shines through our ability to love others with sincere patience, gratitude and acceptance.”

Several months ago I started embracing early mornings. I am in love. Those quiet moments with my Bible and my coffee have revolutionized me as a wife, mother and human. Talk about women empowerment – how about all the women in the world spend some time with their Creator. Am I right? *First bump.

Here’s the thing – we can’t be in touch with that grace she talks about up there, if we’re not recharging ourselves. It’s like the airplane oxygen masks – put one on your face before you go to help someone else. You can’t be a help to others if you’re falling face first into the floor, ya goon. So why do we go through life without putting our “oxygen mask” on first? Selah.

It’s okay to take inventory of your social media.

Emily talks a lot about unfollowing people who aren’t pushing you forward. Get rid of the clutter, get rid of distractions. If there’s someone that pops up in your feed that makes you feel bad, unfollow! If social media as a whole makes you look around your room and wish everything was perfect, get off!

Since reading this book I’ve taken several large blocks of time when I don’t allow myself to get on anything social. It’s so freeing. It’s something I want to do regularly to break my brain of having to check in every 15 minutes.

Obviously I could go on and on but I’ll wrap it up. One of my favorite quotes from the book is this…

The difference between people who achieve their goals and people who don’t is their ability to dust themselves off and wear their dirty outfit proudly.

Towards the end she talks about finding your purpose in life. It’s a great reminder to listen to the tug God has placed inside of you and to hone in on your purpose.

That just shows that regardless of where you are in life as a woman – this book is for you. I can’t think of any woman that doesn’t need the “Grace not Perfect” message. Well, maybe that one girl that always pops up in my Pinterest feed. She’s clearly got it all together, summer winter, spring AND fall – but other than her – we all need this message.

Get your book here. While you wait for it to come in, read this post to see how to fit reading into your busy schedule.

<br />

Life

Improve Your Body Image This Summer

June 12, 2017 No Comments

how to improve your body image, confidence, how to have confidence,

Taking some time off from the blog this week, but I wanted to have this very important post pop up for your reading pleasure!

Please enjoy it and I’ll see you back here next week!

Do you want to have a summer spent comfortable in your own skin? Or do you want to continue scrutinizing yourself and others, meanwhile furthering your discontentment with different parts of your body?

Now is such an important time to address body image because we’re about to start showing a lot of skin on a regular basis. In the winter we can hide behind layers of clothing and blame a little extra weight on the holidays (even in March). But in the summer, the sun shines on our every “flaw.”

So if you’re ready to be comfortable and confident, keep reading (and get out your wallets!! …just kidding).

This isn’t a promise to fix all of the flaws you fixate on, but I do believe that if you put into action these three steps, you’ll have a great summer completely relaxed in how you look.

Because I hate it when articles spend half the time harping on the problem and only a paragraph on the solution, I’m going to dive right in. You know the problem. I’m talking about the negative thoughts you allow in your head when you look in the mirror and how you sometimes compare your hair to someone else’, or wish your muscles were as toned as hers.

There’s the problem. Here’s the solution…

Step 1: Choose to be content.

If I were you reading this for the first time, that first step would probably piss me off. You’re reading this because you want magical answers, dang it! But truly contentment is a choice.

We may not be able to control each and every single teeny tiny thought that pops into our head, but what we can control is the amount of time we dwell on it.

When you look at someone and the thought of how skinny their thighs are compared to yours starts to stir around in your head, put an end to it. Any kind of comparison thinking, or negative scrutinizing – don’t give it more than 1 second worth of brain power. Whether it’s aimed at you or someone else. You have to work to break the habit of thinking down that negative path.

Step 2: Replace the negative thoughts.

Step 1 could exist on it’s own…for about 24 hours. That’s why you’ve got to complete it by filling those thought spaces with God’s word.

One of my favorite verses and really the one this blog is based on is in Luke 14:11… “if you are content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

The minute you realize the door to those negative thoughts is cracking open, think (or even say out loud!)…”I am fearfully and wonderfully made. God created me in His image and He loves me.” What better thought to settle on than the love your creator has for you?

Step 3: Don’t base your happiness on future events.

Too many times we build the foundation of our happiness on ice cubes. We think, “when this happens (weight loss, new hair color, etc.)…then I’ll be happy with myself.” And our mistake is in the fact that sure it’s solid at the time, but when we don’t hit a goal everything starts to melt and collapse and we’re back to square one. That’s why you have to start now. Right where you’re at. Now. Now.

What you look like right this minute is the person you need to be happy with.

Decide you’re going to be happy, and work to drive out those negative thoughts with what the Bible says about you. God knit you together in your mother’s womb (Isaiah 44:2) so He knew exactly what you were going to look like, down to your exact DNA, and He loves how you turned out! Ask Him for help loving how you turned out as well.

Listen, everyone everyone struggles with something about their appearance that they don’t like. But not everyone lives in the freedom that comes with casting those worries onto God. Let’s decide this very minute to not live in that critical state of mind any longer and really love the person God created us to be!

Life, Spiffy

Thoughts on Believing God for a Baby

April 18, 2017 No Comments

believing God for a baby, mom life, mom blog

You’re not alone.

I had a dear friend tell me that recently – she wanted to let me now I wasn’t alone. After she said it, I thought those have to be some of the most uplifting words in the English language. To know that you don’t have to go through something alone is invaluable.

I just want to share my thoughts and some of our story. I wish I had a formula that you can follow and suddenly the strip turns positive. But then we wouldn’t get to sit back and watch God’s plan unfold.

It’s a process. It takes faith in God’s timing. It takes patience – which as my Pastor preached recently is, “the ability to stand and not give up.”

You may be surrounded in pregnant women. Stand. Don’t give up.

You may see people who aren’t trusting God with their lives, suddenly get pregnant. Stand. Don’t give up.

You may have the last 10 months of period start dates memorized. Stand. Don’t give up.

I think about this subject every year on Good Friday. It was Good Friday 2014 that I miscarried for a second time. I didn’t have a good doctor and being a fiercely private person, I hadn’t shared any of what we were going through with anyone. So the feeling of being alone was real. Of course I had my husband, who I’m extremely thankful for. He held me up and we stood in faith together.

I’m sure the monthly melt down when I’d get my period and come to him crying and holding a tampon wrapper got old for him. But he was always there to be my cheerleader.

Who is your cheerleader? If you don’t have one, get one. It needs to be someone who is going to pull you up off the floor, dust you off and get in your face every time to tell you, “God is faithful. He never fails.”

The thing I’m meditating on and purposing to do right now is to rest in His timing.

We decided in 2012 that we felt the time was right for kids. Jackson was born in 2015 and you know what? He couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. I’m serious.

Sure it didn’t happen when we thought it should, but my goodness it was perfect in ways I never could have thought of myself. Which is why He’s God. (She reminds herself).

Besides having a cheerleader, the things that got me through it was speaking the Word.

Exodus 23:26
There will be no miscarriages or infertility in your land, and will give you long, full lives.

Psalm 127:3-5
Children are a gift from The Lord; they are a reward from Him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!

I knew that children were a blessing from God because His word says so, which meant the doubt in my mind that said we were never going to be parents had to go.

The next thing I consciously did was choose to be thankful.

Thankful for silly things. Like being able to bop in and out of stores with ease, or thankful that I could just walk around and not have to carry 17 pounds of stuff (babies require A LOT of stuff, turns out). In doing so, it helped me two fold: it helped me appreciate the time of life I was in and not waist it wishing I was doing something else. And it helps me now as I carry 27 pounds of things (it doubles eventually) – I can rest knowing I had a great time as just a girl (woman, whatever) and now I can have a great time as a Mom.

Finally, I took steps of faith. Besides speaking the Word over and over and over again, I did everything in my power to prep.

I bought up clothes that could be worn with a belly. I lost weight so I would be ready for extra pregnancy pounds. I wore maternity pants. In fact I wore those pants so long, that I stopped thinking of them as maternity (LORD are they comfortable…I mean were comfortable as in past tense like I don’t wear them now that would be silly…*nervous laughter). One day I put them on over my pregnant belly and was wearing them around the house when I realized – there was finally a baby in that pouch. I pointed it out to my husband and we both just cried in thanks to God.

I know being in the middle of waiting it feels like a mountain. I know it can be frustrating when it’s happening all around you. I know it feels frustrating when you realize you’ve started menstruating. Those are the facts, but they’re not the truth.

The truth is that God has good plans for you. The truth is that faith is the evidence of things hoped for. The bible says – your faith has given you the title deed. I like to think of it this way – my faith has given me the birth certificate for that baby.

God has such good plans for you. Just lean back and trust Him.

You’re not alone. Elizabeth@thespiff.com