The Royal Wedding!

This morning, as the world watched, Prince William and Catherine Middleton were united as husband and wife [and Duke & Duchess]! Wow talk about pressure!! I wasn't going to watch but then as it got closer and everyone talked about it the excitement & anticipation rose within me. So I pushed through it and stayed up. I watched it on my laptop and on my television simultaneously. It was Beautiful!! I love weddings because they are so emotional and real! That's when you see that look of pride on a young man's face as he sees his wife-to-be all dressed up and looking like the definition of beauty. His eyes light up and she is so high on love! It's perfect...I loved the ceremony and especially Bishop London's Sermon  [check it out by clicking on that link]
He said a few things that stood out to me as priceless:

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire"          

"In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future."  

"A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life."

"Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art."

Beautiful words and now the beautiful couple:

 As he entered

 The sweet Bride as she entered....

 Exchanging vows

Prince & Princess.....Duke & Duchess of Cambridge at last!!

This truly was the wedding of the Century!

 

My husband is a talented man!

Among the many talents my husband has, we've discovered he can sing with our worship team too! Here's a sneak peek :D He was filling in and did a great job :) I was so proud to sing by him!!
More pics to come soon ;)
Happy Easter dear ones!

In the 'Dryer Cycle'

My phone rang today and I recognized the phone number....so with much anticipation and excitement I answered. The voice on the other line kindly asked for me and as I replied "this is her," she proceeded to thank me for  meeting with her... and the following words were not what I had hoped to hear....
She said, "Thank you so much for your time, but we have decided to chose another applicant"

...Ughhhh & OUCH!!....Were the only words that came to mind. I truly did not expect this phone call to turn out that way, but since it did, I must say that I have nothing but....HOPE!
See, I have been through this pattern a lot lately going through a really great interview only to find out I was not the chosen one [this blog is painfully embarrassing to write but stick with me, I am making a point] Ok, so HOPE did not come as quickly as it should have, truthfully the emotions that I have felt today are frustration, confusion, anger and then.....peaceful stillness!

As I sit here unable to sleep I can only think of writing to you [whoever you are that will be reading this because maybe, just maybe God will use me today to bless you....I can only HOPE!] So there is this necklace I have, that was given to me by my grandmother and although she meant this as a simple gift, God had a much bigger idea [He's great at that you know!] This necklace has a very important scripture on it 

which says, "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him."

What I love about this scripture is that the writer is not saying "my souls find[S] rest in God, but rather he is actually TELLING his soul to find rest in GOD......does this make sense?!? See what he is trying to say is that we don't automatically have rest or peace or understanding or control in any situation, but we must CHOSE to rest in GOD because that is the only true HOPE we have.  We must actively decide to dwell in the rest of God, because more often than not, it will be up to us to find. Wow! I honestly have to tell you that I am being ministered to as I write this...AMEN! I love the WORD of God...so much we can learn from it!
Sometimes we may feel like we are in the 'Dryer Cycle' in our lives because there is so much heat and pressure stirring in-about-beyond-over us, while life just tumbles all around! And like a dryer we are just waiting for that phone call or opportunity to set off the buzzer so that we can be free to be aired out, set out and ready for action. But sometimes we must wait and just HOPE that our moment is just an arm's length away. In my personal life I could not be happier. There have been so many things that look like windows of opportunity and I am just grateful to be were I am....In God's hands... I know I am just one step closer to my HOPE and shortly this will all be just a stepping block to my greater purpose. I truly believe this, while not negating the current frustration I feel, yet I won't allow that to dictate my overall attitude. I want to be branded by the HOPE of God because my HOPE comes from Him, just as His Word says and so while I am 'in waiting' my soul will be at rest in Him. I pray that you are encouraged, it's not as dark as it may seem, the door is only closed for a little while and in the meantime, until that buzzer goes off, just know that the craziness tumbling around you is meant to be there let is form you and be a part of you growth story...

By the way...the other side of that necklace reads these 4 precious letters:

I love you all!!! TRULY!!!

The "AMEN"

 אמן - [AMEN in Hebrew]

I wanted to share with you a sermon that my Pastor preached back in February! I know it's a little ways back but it has been sitting on my heart to share with you all and I had to blog about it now! I just 'LOVE' learning something new of scripture. Let's look at Revelations 3:14-17 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

If you have been in church for a while you have probably heard of this scripture used as a reference to being a hot or cold believer; meaning you either will or will not serve God faithfully because their is no 'middle ground.' However, I would like to draw your attention to verse 14. “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 

Here in this scripture there are a few names of our Lord mentioned, (2nd) the faithful (3rd) and true witness (4th) the ruler,  did you miss the (1st) name of God? "The Amen" that is a name of God I had never realized before...WOW! It is not a highly recognized name of God in scripture or in our daily lives. It doesn't come on bookmarks, it isn't taught in a regular Bible study....But it is a Name of God!!

In Isaiah 65 He is noticed as the "Amen" again but in our Bibles we don't read that because in the translation process it was lost since the thought didn't translate correctly, turning it into the "God of Truth" translated from Amen. People believe that the word Amen, means "so be it" but that is a weak meaning/translation. In the Talmud the word 'Amen' is an acronym meaning 'He is the reliable God.'

What does it mean to say that He is the 'Amen'?

It literally means 'make it happen.' So when He says He is the Amen, He is saying "I am the God that makes it happen." WOW! Doesn't that encourage you [I know it did for me!]?

When we hear that voice say it's gonna happen, it is literally the voice of 'The Amen' saying 'I will make it happen.'

The Amen was in the fiery furnace with 3 young men in the Old Testament! 

The Amen was in the lion's den with Daniel!

The Amen will show up!

We serve THE GOD THAT MAKES IT HAPPEN....AMEN!

The voice of the 'Amen' gives us hope!

I truly hope this blesses you, astonishes you and teaches you that God is the AMEN and He will show up in your life. To God be ALL THE GLORY & HONOR forever! 

Click here to hear the mp3 for this particular sermon! 

I truly am blessed by our Pastor and my church every week I will be blogging more of his preachings in the future!! Stay Tuned for A Word from WHAG
as I have decided to make this a weekly feature, to blog about the things that really matter to me!   
God Bless you today!

Wedding Dress-UP!

As our anniversary came and left...I really wanted to put on my wedding dress again. So I decided to play dress up with my lovely Wedding Dress :) It was fun!! Here are some of the pics!

 My original centerpiece! I'll be revamping this to fit my present house decor which I blogged about yesterday ;)

 I'm also wearing my original wedding earrings & bracelet!

 This girl is obsessed with chapstick!

 This hat belongs to my hubs [this was his idea!]

 My Mary Poppins photo....one of my fave childhood movies!

If you have a wedding dress laying around....why not play dress-up!?!!

D.I.Y.ing it up!

Every few months I get bored with the way my house looks so I change it up....I really like change! So I've been looking for some D.I.Y.'s and found one that I could do immediately. I decided to bring red back in to my house after I had taken it all out. So I finished up these paintings a while back but hadn't put it up because I was looking for some other pieces to add with it. [Don't think I'm completely done but its good for now!] Sorry I didn't take a picture of it while in the process but here it is...

 

 You can start by taping together your blank canvas with random lines of tape.

Then you start painting away how ever you'd like....let it dry, then pull off the tape and VOI-LA! 

 This vase above was my 'inspiration' piece. I saw it at Target but it was too much money so I decided to make my own. The black vase below I found at Ross on clearance for 1/3 of the price. It was made of wood so I bought it and decided to paint it myself! 

See the black vase below?! I think it turned out pretty great. The other 2 vases I found on sale at Ross & Goodwill. I'm liking how this all looks together, now I'm just looking for something to put in the black vase......I think ;) Enjoy! And be inspired. DIYing can definitely be cheaper and more fun because it's original!