I Could Feel My Heartbeat Taking Me Down

As it is finally starting to feel like winter in Knoxville, its time to pull our your chunky sweaters, tights and boots. And I have officially started listening to Christmas music, planning my wish lists, and am ready to decorate the tree.

Just as I am getting in the Holiday season, ELLE published one of the most beautiful covers I've seen in awhile. Jessica Alba is gorgeous and I am obsessed with the colors and themes of the photo shoot. Here are the various photos picked to be in the layout.

"Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed."

-Storm Jameson

She Knows that My Hands are Empty

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
'Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand"

I've Made a Mess of Me

Life is a jumbled confusion of experiences, that somehow form our traits and personalities. God gave us freedom in order to shape our hearts. This freedom brings chaos, passion and love. These photographs capture freedom both in life and in fashion.

"Every human has four endowments-self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change."
-Stephen R. Covey

The Breath Before the Kiss

I was inspired this week by another excerpt from Captivating. Lately I have been feeling guilty for my day to day actions, and I was feeling lost and abandoned from Christ's grace. My faith was lacking because I was confused as to why God would let me stray from my day to day relationship with him.



God does not always rescue us out of a painful season. You know that he does not always give us what we so desperately want when we want it. He is after something much more valuable than our happiness. Much more substantive than our health. He is restoring and growing us an eternal weight of glory. And sometimes...it hurts. But the experience of sorrow in no way diminishes the joy of living. Rather, it enhances it.
-Pg 144


"To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing."

I Promised You the World Again

Friendship is the bond that keeps two people together throughout his or her life. It is sometimes hard to form strong relationships in college because of maturity and the temptations of the college atmosphere. My freshman year, I filled my life with emptiness through my social life. My sophomore year I was still filling my life with meaningless partying, however, I was beginning to find and fill my life with true friends who loved and cared for me. This year, not only have I changed my social life, but I have found more amazing women to surround and influence me and my life in a positive way. Find those friends who make a difference in your life, be patient with them and grow with them, those are the true friendships in your life that will last.

"Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives"