Sweet Southern Pearl

Truth and Grace. When listening to Christmas music, it's easy to not pay attention to the words because we've heard the same songs so many times, year after year. Today as I tried to do some work during my planning period, my mind kept wandering. Lately, I've had trouble with worrying and letting my mind wander off into "what if?" land. That's dangerous! My mind was wandering, and I focused back on my work and the Pandora Christmas music station (Hillsong Holiday, to be exact) playing in the background. "He rules the world with truth and grace." That part caught my attention. "Joy to the World" has always been one of my favorites (I had a Christmas screenname in high school: JoyToTheWorld18. (#DontJudgeMe)) Truth and grace. Two important words. HE rules the WORLD with Truth. Focus on the truth. Focus on what's TRUE. What we know to be true. What I know to be true is that God has always, always, always provided for me ...

I just wrote a post about prayer, but I have more to say.  How blessed are we to have the absolute PRIVILEGE of being able to speak to the Creator of the universe,  any time we want to ?! Thinking of prayer as a privilege really puts it in perspective. In the Old Testament, they had to go into temples and special places just to talk to God. They had to take a bath before, and all this crazy stuff (I hope I'm not making this up...seems accurate). Now, we can literally talk to God anytime, anywhere.  SO WHY DON'T WE?!?! We forget. We have pride and think we can handle everything by ourselves. We underestimate the power of prayer. We get busy. We don't know what to pray? The Lord knows your heart. Talk to Him. Say anything. Tell Him how you feel, what's frustrating you, what makes you happy... Thank Him for what He's done. Ask for what you want. He can give you what you want if it's His will. You don't need batteries or wifi o...

So I absolutely HATE when people say, "Just pray. That's all we can do!" I know they don't mean anything bad by it, but I guess unknowingly, they are undermining / underestimating the power of prayer. If praying is all we can do, then that is essentially everything. How blessed are we to have the absolute PRIVILEGE of being able to speak to the Creator of the universe, any time we want to ?! I was thinking about the power of prayer the other day because one of my New Year's resolutions for 2016 was to be more intentional with prayer and to remain in continuous prayer - constantly talking to God throughout the day. Reflecting on this year, I think I have made strides towards that. No, I don't pray as fervently as I should, but I have really grown in my prayer life. Not saying this to toot my own horn; I just really want everyone to be able to experience the peace that comes with constant prayer like I have. When you have something really great, you want...

Everyone knows I listen to Christmas music year round. Of course now I'm in full-Christmas music mode. (If you are judging me right now, click here to find out why I do what I do :)) "O Come O Come Emmanuel" is one of my favorites, hands-down. I like to break it down verse by verse because the lyrics are so powerful.  Tonight, after going through the McDonald's drive-through after midnight (so wrong but felt so right... definitely won't feel right in the morning though!), I was listening to the song and a certain part hit me: "O come, O come, Rod of Jesse, And rescue us from Satan's tyranny. From depths of Hell, Your people save, And give them victory over the grave." First I thought about my loved ones who have passed on. I'm not sad anymore because when they accepted Christ, they were given the promise of eternal life - victory over the grave. The long hours of holding their hands and humming "Jesus Loves Me" as ...

Once again, Facebook's "On This Day" has caused me to notice something interesting.  I was thinking earlier about appreciating all of life's seasons, and it's funny how I literally saw extremely different seasons of my life as I scrolled down through "On This Day." Four years ago today, I was going through a season of extreme confusion, feelings of abandonment, etc. I was in grad school at Appalachian, but didn't live there, so I couldn't enjoy Boone. I remember being in downtown Boone after class one night and sitting in the middle of all the Christmas lights, just crying and reading my Bible in my car. I was wishing I had someone to enjoy the beautiful lights with. (Fun fact: I got a warning ticket in Boone that day and got another one just yesterday!) "This is my prayer in the desert, when all that's within me feels dry." A year later, when they put the Christmas lights up, I was downtown eating at Jimmy John...

I decided in high school I wanted to become a teacher. I got to about my senior year of college (fifth year, at that), and decided that I didn't want to be a teacher anymore. It was too late. I went to graduate school right after college to avoid teaching for two more years. I got a teaching job the summer after graduate school. People congratulated me, but most kept saying, "More power to you - I couldn't do it." This scared the mess out of me. I was literally terrified out of my mind. WHAT WAS I GETTING MYSELF INTO?!?! Now, when I tell people I am a teacher, they still say, "More power to you - I couldn't do it!!!" But the difference today is that I have 2.5 years under my belt and it's been such a blessing. It's challenging, yes. But today, thinking about what I'm thankful for (because it's November and Thanksgiving is coming up, duhhhhh), I can't help but be so thankful for my job and for the experiences it has awa...

This picture of my dad's mother and father is probably one of my favorite pictures ever.  Every time I see it, I think of one of the verses of a Brad Paisley song: "My grandpa was in World War Two He fought against the Japanese He wrote a hundred letters to my grandma Mailed them from his base in the Philippines I wish they could see this now The world they saved has changed, you know 'Cause I was on a video chat this morning With a company in Tokyo Hey, everyday's a revolution Welcome to the future " Thinking about the events of this week, I know it seems like we've made so much progress to take a "step back," so to speak. But I cannot help but get goosebumps when I think about the many men and women (including two of my uncles) who have fought endlessly to ensure that we do have a choice and certain freedoms that can't be taken away. America is not perfect by any means, and we still have so much to...

Yes, I have been privileged. No, I'm not a minority. Yes, I'm a Christian. But no, I do not have my head in the sand. Christ called me to love everyone and I do that to the best of my ability. That's what I believe.  That should be okay with you. We all have the freedom to choose what we believe. No, I have not seen (and most likely will never see) what many people have seen as far as poverty and hatred, but I will tell you this - I work in a public high school. I have 90+ students.  Five are white. TWENTY are from other countries and have only been in the US for a couple years. Some are Muslim.  They are from all different socio-economic classes. I am surrounded by diversity for 40+ hours a week. That is most of my life.  I absolutely love my job and I absolutely love my students. I WANT what's best for them. I don't want anyone to be scared for their life. It kills me that they might be. It is definitely okay to be sad about the out...

UGH. I'm usually such a positive person, but this election really has me down. I know I posted a really positive post about the election the other day, and I STILL believe that God is 100% in control and nothing can happen without Him allowing it, but it seems like today I've seen everything negative about the world instead of the positives. Get on Snapchat and you see DUMB articles about sex or itemizing women. OUR TEENAGERS ARE ON SNAPCHAT. THIS CRAP IS FILLING THEIR MINDS. And not only them, but our men and women who are working hard to stay focused on the Lord and on track!! Turn on the TV and almost every show is filled with sex, violence, and cursing. Call me a prude or whatever, but I cannot. It's just too much now. It makes me so angry. It's a righteous anger. That is not what we are supposed to be filling our hearts and minds with. Thinking about today and how every person I know has had to vote for someone that they don't like. WE FEEL VIOLATED AND ...

Brooke always gives the most perfect gifts. I collect Bibles, and I can't think of anything better for an English nerd who loves to annotate but also to doodle than a JOURNALING BIBLE. Literally the best thing ever. And this morning's message at Oak View was perfect for my first time using it. I almost cried I was so happy.  ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ Pastor Steve's sermon this morning was ON POINT. I'll admit, I hadn't been to church on a Sunday morning in a while. I was so glad I had my new Bible with me. I've realized over the past few years that there IS a difference between being a Christian and being filled with the Holy Spirit, but I had not heard a message so explicit on this topic. Everything was so great. I was frantically jotting down notes and quotes.  Obviously you can read my notes (that I will eventually color with the pretty pencils Brooke gave me), but I do want to touch on some points real quick. Stephen, the first-ever Christian martyr, was a guy...

Going into a three-day work week (blessed, I know :)), I'm thinking about my wonderful weekend. Friday night my dad and I got to go to our annual UNC basketball game. We have gone to at least one together every year for the past three years. I love this sweet tradition! Chapel Hill is one of my favorite places and Carolina basketball is a tradition second to none. Saturday we headed to Boone for the first Appalachian football game I've ever been to with my parents. My dad and I have gone to lots of basketball and baseball games together, but he had never been to an Appalachian football game, and my mother hadn't been to one since 1975. She doesn't usually like sports, which is funny (and sad) to me, so it was pretty cool and rare to get to go to a football game with them. My mom's first Appalachian football game as an alumna! haha... I just wish my brother didn't have to work and could have come :( ***I may have eaten an entire funnel c...

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NIV) " For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.   The weapons we fight with  are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power  to demolish strongholds." It's election season and all we see on TV are commercials for or against candidates. Propaganda everywhere. People arguing on Facebook (my favorite). The general consensus for this 2016 election is that there is no good choice. Some people are pretty depressed about that. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do... on our own, at least. Complaining and fighting on social media will do no good.  When I think about this election, the verse I posted above comes to mind now. We are in this world, but the ideals and battles we are fighting are spiritual, and that's how they should be handled. Regardless of the outcome on November 8th, as Christians, we should spend a lot less time arguing and a WHOLE lot more time praying for our countr...