Sweet Southern Pearl

So I've been posting our story on our "The Knot" site. I've been posting in increments since I wanted to include the full story, but haven't had the time to sit down and type the whole thing! Also, I think people would rather read a little at a time... and it keeps everyone on the edge of their seat!! lol This was the first 'installment' I posted: For several years, they would glance at each other across the sanctuary at Oak View Baptist on Sunday mornings. They knew each other, but they didn't really  know  each other. Beth went to High Point University, and Drew attended North Carolina State University.  Years passed and sometimes they would say hey, but were usually too shy to say much else (yes, Beth Burroughs was shy around boys she thought were really cute). Even when they both accompanied the youth group on church camp trips, they didn't say much to each other. After college Drew moved back to High Point to start work and Beth m

Yesterday I read a devotional about schedules. I love the Bible app (YouVersion), and I cannot start my day without having my coffee and reading my morning devotion on the app (in the afternoons I read a different passage from the Bible). Today the app told me that I have a 100 day streak! That means I have read a devotion in the app every day for the past 100 days. *Let me go off on a tangent and say that if you're treating the Bible app like Snapchat and just open it and click through a post to "save your streak" and don't really comprehend what it says, this method of accountability isn't really effective and you're just going through the motions to 'save the streak.'* Anyway, yesterday's devotional (from "Passion and Purpose" by Charles Stanley) was about not filling your schedule and how today's world is fast-paced and we feel the pressure to "keep up." How if we aren't busy, we feel like we aren't doing

I've spent some time today looking back over my posts from Thanksgiving seasons past. Specifically, three years ago at this time when I was battling some ungratefulness and lack of sense of purpose. It was a dark time. I'm so glad that season didn't last very long! Every Thursday I make my students list ten things they are grateful for that week. I have read that it helps boost mood when we intentionally and actively think about what we are grateful for. In addition to this, from a spiritual standpoint, gratefulness is so key. We are to offer prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord every day for what He has blessed us with. I started a couple Thanksgiving daily devotionals on the Bible app this week (YouVersion) and I'm getting my heart in the right place. I'll be honest -- being thankful hasn't been a cake walk right now. With my dad and Granny both being sick off and on the past couple months and in and out of the hospital, being so busy with everything, an

"Perfection is my enemy"...that's a line I heard in an old song on the radio the other day... We live in a world of comparisons. That's no doubt. I'd say in the past year I've fallen more victim to these comparisons than I have in the past five. I remember always comparing myself to others when I first started college but after that I was pretty good about being satisfied with myself and content in what I had. Lately I've been doing a lot of reading that encourages people (especially millennials) not to get caught up in social media, because doing so causes you to constantly ask yourself "Is my life as exciting as this person's? Am I as pretty as she is? Why does he have this and I don't? How did she get that job? How is her house always so clean??!?!?" ...etc.  This mindset is the opposite of what the Lord intended. He created each person on this earth in a different way to serve a different purpose and to be content in their uniquen

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NIV) 17  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   18  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,  since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Lately I've been getting weighed down with the issues of the world. Yesterday I read 2 Corinthians 4:8-18 in my daily reading book. In these verses, Paul talks about being pressed but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, and struck down but not destroyed... if you are a follower of Christ. The troubles of the world may weigh on us, but they will not overtake us. As we receive grace and sustenance for each day from God, we should become more thankful, which goes along with what I've been intentional about this week - writing a list of things I'm grateful for and thanking God for them. Focusing on these things will help us to see the world through His eyes. Verses

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to be very intentional about being grateful. Even if it wasn't the Thanksgiving season, I want to do this because gratefulness cuts down on stress, worry, and complaining. I feel like lately I could really use a good dose of being thankful for what I have. I plan to jot down a few things each day, because writing it out really makes me do it and think about it. Some things I am especially thankful for today are: *My health. Over the summer I experienced some weird complications due to a steroid shot, and now I'm back to normal! *My church / church family. I am so blessed by Oak View Baptist and the amazing people that go there. It has forever changed my life. *My family. I'm so blessed to be able to spend so much time with them and have them as support. They are the best people I know. I can't begin to thank God enough. *Emery! A good dog is the best therapy, but I don't even know what I'd do without her. It