Hillsong. Hebrews. & Pumpkin Muffins

This morning I woke up wanting to get online and get some blogging done, and just get a start on my day. Yet, I had this feeling deep in my heart that I should spend time with him. Yesterday morning I started out my day this way, but I just wanted to get going on my day today. I had thoughts going through my mind like, "Am I just doing this so that I can say I have done my God time today? Am I being legalistic and ritualistic?" And after about ten minutes of going back and forth I said forget it, I'm spending time with my God because I WANT to. I WANT to start out my day in the best way possible. So I turned on an older Hillsong album and opened to the book of Hebrews. I've been reading through the Old Testament for a while now, and have really enjoyed it. But I've decided to take a little break to read some of the New Testament because it truly can refresh my heart and remind me of Jesus' calling on my life. It reminds me that many have gone before and lead a life of purity and love. It reminds me that I'm not stuck in the desert for a bazillion years and STILL ignoring God. I just get so frustrated with the Israelites at times, yet am reminded that I can be the same way!
So how do I feel now after spending some wonderful time with my Jesus?

Incredible.

I'm refreshed, encouraged, and filled with that love that I desire to spread to all I talk with today. I'm reminded of the kind of wife I want to be for my love. The kind of friend, daughter, and sister I want to be.

It's so cool to see how when i take the time with spend with my God, my Creator, I am brought back to where I need to be. I'm reminded that wherever God desires to send us, HE WILL SHOW US. I'm reminded that I have a purpose and am doing my best to live that out. I'm reminded that Jesus is INCREDIBLE! He came here and became a man...like us. He experienced trials...even more difficult trials than I have ever experienced. He died the most painful death, so I could be ALIVE. So I didn't have to die for my sins. He ROSE again to show GOD'S power. He rose again to show that HE IS GOD. That we are to go and tell this good news to the world. That we are to bring God's truth and hope to those that are in such a great need of it.

This hit me hard today. It made me SO giddy inside, because I am reading the word of God. It's sitting on my counter everyday...every morning I read a Proverb to start off my day. This is GOD'S LETTER TO ME.

"For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. NOTHING in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom WE are ACCOUNTABLE." Hebrews 4:12-13

God, my prayer today is that your will is done in my life. I owe you my life, and I will worship you forever. I give you my life Father and I desire to live to bring you praise, honor, and those that need YOU. God I pray for those that read this blog, and those that don't, that they may experience your joy today. I pray for healing for those that need it most, and blessings on those that desire them from You. I pray for refreshment to the tired and weary, and hope for the ones that have lost it all. God, bring love and joy into the lives of all I see every single day, whether it's on facebook or face to face:) God, you are mighty. You rose and conquered the grave and I THANK YOU.

Have a great day guys! Enjoy whatever it is you are doing today, whether it's working that job you are sick of, or running around doing all the other things that need to be done. Above all, be encouraged. For we are not alone in our battles, fears, struggles, arguments, hurts. We have THE God that is holding our hand the whole time.

Much love guys, and Happy Easter:)

He is alive and working today!

Britt

Spring has Sprung!

Not quite sure what that saying means...if it means anything. But it was my first thought when thinking of a title for this entry. So YES. Spring has Sprung:)

Lately I've really been on top of things in the world of cleaning and housekeeping, and I'm pretty happy for that! Except today, was the day to do those tasks that have needed to get done for months and I finally stopped putting them off! Yay! I loved it. Having the windows open made it that much better. I feel refreshed and content in knowing I was very productive today. Time to do my last workout for the week and make some yummy breakfast for dinner. One of my favs:)

Enjoy your weekend everyone! Get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather. Jason and I are spending time with our brother and sis-in-love and looking forward to seeing our little nephew Connor and nephew (boxer) Wyatt:)

Blessings and sunshine:)

Britt

Let's be honest here...

Yep, its time for honesty. I miss my Mom. How weird is that? For most of you who know me, know how much my family means to me...so this probably doesn't come to you as a surprise. But honestly, I miss her! I've noticed myself thinking lately that I really don't fit in with the rest of my 21 year olds...I mean I am a newly married woman...which I absolutely love! Most people my age are not ready or wanting to get married anytime soon, and that's ok too. Jason and I were both at a place where we were ready. Ready to become man and wife. And I praise God everyday for this season in my life, because it's so beautiful, refreshing, challenging, and a HUGE learning process. I've learned so much about myself already, the good and the bad, and I look forward to the next many many years learning more and more. But honestly, I miss my Mom. You must be thinking, Ok Britt, we get it, you're homesick, you miss your Mom...now get on with it. But let me explain. Lately I've felt a little on the lonely side. And of course you might wonder how that can be being a newlywed. And to clear up any smelly air, Jason and I have so much fun together and we spend lots of time together. But, I miss having my Mom around to do those fun girly things with that Jason can't appreciate as much (nor would I make him). Don't get me wrong, I've got many great girls that I hang out with and I love every moment I have with them. There's just something about my Mom that is so perfect. Over the last few years I have noticed how much alike we are and I love it! Sometimes it's even scary! I've just noticed that I love talking about new recipes I've tried, and how I want to plant flowers and herbs and all that good stuff. We aren't wanting children for a while, but I just love talking about babies and all the incredible things that come along with them. They are just a miracle! I love decorating, cleaning, and taking care of my home. I love to try new things around here and make it as homey as possible with a newlywed budget. I just love this season in my life. Yet, I'm noticing I desire to have my Mom around to share this with me. And Mom, you're probably reading this and saying well why did you leave me in the first place! And I will remind you, for the bazillianth time:) I came to live in BC because God called me to study here. Remember how that all went?:)

As much as I love living here in BC, Canada...what an experience it really is. I do wish I was closer in distance with my Mom...with my family. There's just so many times I think, oh I'll have to go to that craft fair with...Mom...wait...she's 6 hours away! (some of you might say hey thats not bad) but it's not close enough sometimes:)
Plain and simple. I miss having my Mom, that understands why I love being a wife. I miss having my Mom, that understands me and my dreams and my struggle with anxiety (or lack there of, Praise God!). I miss having someone that loves laughing at those Victoria Secret catelogs because no one REALLY looks like that in those things.
I know God has us here for a reason and a beautiful reason at that. And when we both graduate from college, I know whereever God directs us, it will be for another beautiful reason. And each time I notice this sadness...I lay it down to the Lord, and He always reminds me of His love.

But for now, I miss my Momma Love:) Because she understands why I am, the way I am....right now.

How about I get started on that dinner now:)

The Beautiful Truth

I have had a few people ask me what The Beautiful Truth is, and I thought it might be time to fill some of you in. Basically, I believe that God has put an exciting dream on my heart over the last few months, and I am excited to see what comes of it in the future. Right now, it's a dream. It's a mind full of ideas. I know that I haven't spoken much of my testimony on my blog, but in my first-second year of college, I began to develop a mild eating disorder. It started out with an obsession with working out, and lead to an obsessive counting of calories and watching every bite I took. There's so much to it, and I would be more than willing to share it with you if you want to hear. That's actually something I am passionate about and is why I am in youth work. I want to work with girls struggling with eating disorders, and be a motivational speaker to girls that just struggle with feeling beautiful. So I am love being able to share what God has done in my life and how he took an huge boulder, and broke it down over time. God is beautiful. And he has made each and every one of us beautiful. Inside and out. One night I was laying awake in bed while Jason was fast asleep. I remember wondering why I still had to struggle with self-esteem issues even though I eat great, exercise regularly, and have overcome my struggle with the eating disorder. I desired to have a group of people that I could talk with at least on a monthly basis, and be reminded that I am not alone in this battle. This is where The Beautiful Truth was born. God has given us so much truth in His word, yet we are bombarted on a daily basis by the world of what we are suppose to look like. Being on a christian campus doesn't make this struggle go away either. So I felt that there was a need to create a small group atmosphere that gives girls the support they need in order to grow in their confidence and faith in Jesus Christ. I have learned that I am growing in my faith, I am beginning to see more and more how beautiful I am, and how God made me PERFECT in his image. How cool is that!? Not only do I want something like this to form on the CBC campus. But I also want to spread the word to churches, youth groups, small groups, and other colleges and universities. There is such a need to have something available for girls that may not be deep in an eating disorder, but definately struggle with their inner and outer beauty. That is The Beautiful Truth. Eventually I would love to present it in a way that public schools will allow me to speak to their girls about true inner beauty. I was just talking about this with one of my profs today and how there is such a great way I can do this obviously without speaking openly about my faith (or else I won't be able to reach the public schools) but also showing these girls that there is truth, and hope that they can have! This, is my dream. We will see where God takes it:) Welp there you go! I was totally vulnerable there and sharing with you one of my greatest dreams! It's funny how we can do this online now days...

Would love some feedback, whether it's people I can network with that may have something like this already, or if you have any ideas to add:) Feedback is always a great thing!

Britt

Secrets

It's so interesting to me, the reality that people are in need of sharing their deepest, darkest secrets...online. Recently I came across a blog called Post Secret, and I have to admit, it's reallty interesting to read through. Yet it breaks my heart everytime. Everything is done anonymously of course. They either email these secrets in, or they send in these postcards with a collage of their secret on it. It tears my heart out to read that someone feels incredibly ugly, yet there is no one there to affirm them with the truth that they are beautiful. Or what about the one that says they do this or that behind closed doors because of something horrible that happened to them. Where is the hope in telling these secrets? I guess it's the release of something that has been eating this person from the inside out. So ya know, I do think the creators of this were pretty genius. The part that kills me is the question of what happens to these people after they send out these secrets. My hope is that in hearing the responses from others, they might get the courage to tell someone face to face, or through a text. I can see how this is a part of the healing process. Being in youth ministry, it's often a very healing through to hand out paper to the kids, and ask them to write down their deepest, darkest secrets. Yet in the end, we either burn them, or rip them to shreds. It's a symbolic thing that helps them even more in their healing. We take those secrets, and hand them over to God, and realize that there is no longer anything else that we can do about them. They were already forgiven.
What's so heart breaking is that millions of people are hurting. They are broken. Fearful. Empty. Unable to grasp the truth of God's love. This is why we are here. We are called to bring his peace...love...his hope...and his truth.
This week as I am talking with people from all over Canada, I hope that I am able to bring that hope, that truth, and that love. I pray that God will use me tomorrow to be the answer to a prayer, or that voice that someone needed to hear that day. I just want to bring God's joy into their lives, for I have been filled with such joy, that I cannot even express how happy I am. I am in love. In love with my husband yes. Very much so! But I am so in love with my Lord, my Creator. Your God. The one that made you. Yes. He is wonderful:)

May you experience His joy tomorrow. My challenge for you is that you start your day with a little prayer. Pray that God will shine his light on your tomorrow. Pray that he will pour a little joy in your heart, for it goes a long way:)

Any thoughts? Anything you don't agree with? Anything you don't understand? I would love to chat with you:)

Britt

A Year to Review

What a beautiful year 2009 was! I've been wanting to take a moment to think about some one the crazy rad things that happened to me last year. So here ya go:)
*I fell in love with Jason Cavanaugh and married my best friend July 12
*Moved back home for the summer before getting hitched and worked at a Craft store...loved it!
*Officially grew my hair out. I've never been patient enough to do this, yet when there's a wedding on the way there's a little more inspiration.
*Worked at a specialty chocolate shop and began to see just a glimpse of the tricks of the trade.
*Learned to love and appreciate true chocolate
*Officially dedicated 40 minutes, three days a week to some form of exercise
*Learned to cook decent meals
*Fell in love with Big Train Chai Latte's, yet struggle to drink any other brand when there is no Big Train.
*Gave away more clothes to friends than ever
*Gained more confidence in my voice, in leading worship.
*Was given a few opportunities to speak to groups of girls about my story and my passion for the beauty God has truly given us, and created us to be
*The Beautiful Truth dream was born. Time will bring this to a reality
*I actually invested more time into this world known as blogging.
*Learned some tough lessons along the way
*Learned many things about myself, good and bad
*Grew even closer to my amazing family. Never thought that would even be possible huh;)
*Saw my brother become a true soldier
*Watched my younger brother grow into a pre-teen
*Dedicated more time to reading God's word daily. It was always a desire for me to read the bible daily, yet until about two years ago, I struggled with keeping on top of it. Now I am able to say I read it at least five days a week:) Praise God for his beautiful love
*Fell more in love with my creator, and was given many new and refreshing blessings
*New friends came into our lives and old ones became even more familiar
*Made my first pulled pork bbq sandwich meal...and my goodness my husband fell loves it
*Just so many more firsts.

Here's to 2010:
*I want to run that 10K in Vancouver with Jason and our good friends
*Learn even more what it means to be a Godly wife.
*Start a new life with Jason wherever God leads us to go
*Finish my last year of schooling
*Begin to make more traditions in our new little family
*Buy a fishy:)
*Continue my three days/40 min work out
*Allow God to use me. Stretch me. and Bless me more than last year.

My goodness I am tired of thinking about what I have done and what I want to do. So let's just end it at this: I want to live life to the fullest and love God more and more each day. I desire to be a blessing to every person I see, and bless my husband even more. I would love to live closer to my family, but God knows where we are needing to be. I want to laugh more and more every single day:)

Have a blessed new year and take a moment to think of some attainable goals for this next year.

It's a Blessed Time of Year

This last Christmas was just so beautiful! Early in December Jason and I were able to spend an evening with our wonderful Cavanaugh family and that was just so much fun. It was the first time I was able to join them for a Christmas celebration and I loved every moment. God has blessed me with wonderful in-laws:) After getting some good hours at the Chocolate shop, Jason and I left the night before Christmas Eve to be home for Christmas! It was so much fun to have Jason with us Larson's for the traditional festivities and he was enjoying himself as well:) We both left feeling incredibly blessed with the quality time we spent with my side of the family as well as the amount of gifts we were given. They are such giving people and we truly experienced that one!
It's been so cool seeing how God is providing for our needs. He sure knows exactly how much money we need, when we need it and I can't believe we ever have a lack of faith! God is so good.

Little challenge for you today. Last night Jason and I made some chocolate chip cookies for the people living on the same floor as us in our building. Over a month or two ago we had a strong desire to do some missional work for the Lord, outside of the normal routine. Jason had the best idea to start where we are living. SO we made cookies for the ten different couples living around us and wished them a happy new year! It was so neat, yet stretching to introduce ourselves to people whom we live by, yet have never met or even seen. It's incredible how that can happen ya know? Anyway, the last door we knocked on was the woman living below us. We made sure to apologize if we ever make too much noise. We sparked up some conversation and left feeling like we had made a new friend. That was the point of this in the first place. About 45 minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Linda, the woman we had just met, was standing there with a gift in her hands. She had just used her cricket (a scrapbooking type tool) and made us a plaque with our names on it. It was just beautiful! We were immediately blessed by this little outreach we had done towards our neighbors. How cool God is:) In the midst of desiring to bless others, we are blessed even more in return.

I challenge you to do something small for your neighbors, or those working around you. It's neat to see how a blessing can be returned:)

Happy New year and God bless!

Britt