Joy & Wonder

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Tis the Season

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It’s the hap… happiest season of all!
I love Christmas time.
The joy
the cheer
the love
& most of all,
celebrating the birth of Jesus!
Sure, that may sound cliche
but it’s true.

As much as I love the joy this season brings,
it doesn’t come close to the joy & freedom
you can find from knowing & following
Jesus.

So this month I will have a little extra skip to my step.
Life is good.
And because of the birth of Jesus,
we have hope!

Happy holidays!!

p.s. I will be missing a little more than normal on the blog this month.
Just finishing up some end of the year tasks and
embracing the love & joy around us!
xox

You Should Depend on This

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Blessings :: All Things RAD

Happy Monday!! Can you believe the week of Thanksgiving is finally here! This week is easily one of my favorite weeks of the year. This week we all come together to celebrate our blessings and to give thanks ,and then, the Christmas season officially begins!! To start off this week I want to introduce you to one of my sweet friends Rachelle A. Davis, aka RAD {I know, could she have cooler initials?}. Rachelle and I met in our college Bible study a few years ago and last month this pretty lady tied the knot with her beau, Beau. {Keep an eye out for her wedding in Style Me Pretty, her wedding was beyond swoon worthy.} And she recently started a blog to document her & her new hubs adventures together- which I am sure will be filled with beautiful photography, gorgeous calligraphy, great stories, and lots of love.

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{Wedding Photos by Kori & Jared Photography}

What a joyful season I have been in! I have so much to be thankful for. A loving husband, a great family, and to just experience this new season has been something that has rocked my world lately. How great is our God?!! Some might say I am obsessed with the holiday season…and that is completely true. I AM 100% obsessed. And proud of it. I had a thought this past week while listening to a popular worship song…the lyrics hit me like a ton of bricks.

“We are His portion”

… Wow…We are! Those four words stir within my heart the exact reasons why the holiday season is so special to me. WE ARE HIS PORTION… and His grace set us free. So for this season in my life, I am thankful to be His portion and to know that the Lord delights in me. He makes me feel like I am His; I am now the righteousness of Christ through Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21).

{photo by her husband}

give thanks,
Rachelle A. Davis

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Happy Halloween

 Happy Halloween from the Arnolds!
Hope your day is filled with blessings
& joy!

 

 

 

Joy

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This is Being Productive

Happy Friday!
This weekend I plan on being productive.
The past few weeks we have spent countless hours on grad school
& our upcoming big change.
This weekend is going to be about fun with my man.
{yes, grad school & other work will sneak in there too… life doesn’t slow down just because you ask it to 🙂 }

What are your plans for the weekend?

Plan for success and you will find it! {Tweet that}

Worship Me

You know those moments when you hear the Lord speak to you? Well on Monday I had one of those moments. Wednesday-Friday of last week were a bit rough. My office was full of negativity and it was sucking the life out of me. Half way through Wednesday I decided to make it my goal to be even more joyful and to pray for joy. While joy in itself is great and something the Lord calls us to be, I wanted this joy for selfish reasons.

This Monday morning before work I went through my normal routine. Part of that routine is going over that days agenda, filling in my goal for the day, and praying over the day. On Monday I think I literally stared at my ‘Goal’ section for a solid 2 minutes before I could decide what to write. Then the Lord spoke to me. Worship Me. Those two words hit me like a rock. My goal should not be joy; my goal should be to worship our Father, our Creator, Abba. And I’ll tell you what, this week has already been so much better. When I took the focus off of me and set my eyes on Him it was like a weight was taken off of my shoulders.  Our lives are supposed to be all about Him and should be a song of praise! So this is now my goal for the day. Worship Him.

What has the Lord been teaching you recently?

Joy Ahead

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Life is too Short Not to…

Life is too short not to laugh & be silly often
{Photography by Scott Cotton Photography}

Life is short. Okay, some days seem like they go on forever, but in reality life is fast like a “fleeting shadow” (Psalm 144:4, Psalm 89:47). Recently, the Lord has been teaching me a lot about being intentional with my short time here. I want to spend more time doing what fires me up, what brings joy to others, and ultimately brings glory to God. This past weekend I spent time working on my goals and I realized just how many dreams the Lord has given me. So I made a list. What is most important. This list is kind of my, ‘life is too short not to…’ list. Lara Casey coined this month Intentional August. So in continuing with this theme I want to encourage you to make your own list. Pull out a piece of paper and finish the sentence below. Then make time for these little blessings because life is too short not to!

{fill in your own list here. Make it as long/short as you want. I started mine in the morning and kept adding to it all day}

This list below is very vague, try to also add in specific/tangible things