As you all very well know, I turn to Pinterest for a lot of my life situations. Whether it be going somewhere and looking at my hair and makeup board understanding that my hair nor makeup will ever fully resemble the picture before me or literally having a board dedicated to cute pictures of kiddos (it’s so much less creepy than it seems I promise you should SEE their monogrammed diapers oh my goodness), Pinterest soothes me. Call it materialistic, which my Christmas list board totally is, but there is another side to Pinterest that has gotten me through a lot of tough times and good times as well. I have always been one for words (hence the blog) and finding and reading quotes on Pinterest really resonates with me and helps me to understand what they’re saying on a deeper level. It’s like opening up my Bible and the page I turn to has a verse that directly relates to my current feelings, that is how I feel when I scroll down my feed and see a quote that reminds me that its just a bad day not a bad life when I happen to have a cold or miss the bus, or when I see some Amy Poehler quote right when I am needing a solid dose of girl power and a lil bit of laughter.

One of my go-to boards is linked here: gimme Jesus.  This board has helped strengthen my faith life more than I ever could have imagined that Pinterest would, but today I want to talk about my favorite quote I have come across. My all time favorite verse ever is Proverbs 31:25 “She is clothed in strength and dignity and laughs without fear of the future.”

Now this verse for me is the DEFINITION of trusting in God and His plan. I am a huge worrier. Like, major huge need to be updated on things 24/7/365 or the world practically falls apart for me internally for a few seconds. Although this usually results in people close to me having to constantly giving me the lowdown on things, I have also learned that it can be used as a sense of stability and means I care deeply about things. I like to think this verse can and should be applied to our daily lives, every minute honestly.

What does it mean when God says we are clothed in strength? Strong women (and men) and followers of God are people who trust. These people understand that they are putting their life and their decisions within the hands of God and that they are OKAY with that. It is one of the hardest things God asks of us to do, to full put our lives before Him and say, “here, all yours. what can I do for you?” Being clothed in strength is knowing that you cannot break a woman who seeks happiness from God and who has allowed God into her life. It sounds so cheesy and I KNOW that you’ve all heard it before, but there is zero happiness that can be compared to the joy that committing yourself to a relationship with God can bring you. Sure, God put things on Earth to make us happy while we are here: our friends, our family, our beloved furry friends, heck, Pinterest! These things are all so good because they were created by God Himself, but they are in no way what He was meaning for us to devote our lives to. Simply put, striving to commit yourself to God is what will bring us ultimate happiness. This looks so different for everyone, and that is so so good, for me, it is simply remembering to take a step back when things don’t go exactly how I want them to and remember that who am I to worry when I have someone SO perfect in charge of my life? That is one thing that constantly blows my mind. God loves me. God loves you. God loves ALL of us, and a whole lot too. He wants to protect and provide for us, so being a woman who is clothed in His strength, means trusting that He will do His very best to do so, even if that means not agreeing with our current earthly wants and needs. When life DOES get hard, which is will, there will be days when it is hard to stand, so kneel. Understand that with pain comes joy that is unimaginable. God will never leave you forgotten.

So, part two, what does it mean to be clothed with dignity? Dignity by itself means to be held in a state worthy of respect and honor. So how about God’s dignity? I like to think of it this way: here we all are, all of God’s little human beans that he put on this Earth, doing our thing, ya know, livin’, and all of a sudden we realize we feel kind of empty inside. I promise that you’ve all had the feeling of a really good day and you are ready to go to bed and are still smiling from your adventures and maybe at one point you think to yourself, “okay that was great, but, there is still this feeling of wanting more. there is still a part of myself that is not fulfilled.” Wearing dignity looks like taking that emptiness, and doing something about it. I had a bible study small group tonight where we talked about God in a sense of proposing to us, asking ourselves to commit to Him, and understanding what that commitment means. Revelations 3:20 tells us that God? Has been and always will be simply waiting for us to accept his proposal. He is knocking on the door of our hearts saying he is dying (literally, he died for us, again, HOW FREAKING COOL?!?) to fill that emptiness if we will only say yes. Dignity to me, is accepting that commitment, knowing that is is going to be hard at times, and knowing that just like any relationship, I need to put in effort as well. After doing all this, then you must wear it. Wearing it by understanding that this proposal you just accepted? It’s so cool. Tell everyone about it. Tell your family, your friends, tell everyone how you are now committed to being the absolute best version of yourself! Okay, so maybe you don’t wanna parade around with it on your forehead or post it in your social media bio or even change your Facebook relationship status, understandable, and fixable too. All God asks of us is to use this relationship to do what He has already done: LOVE. (oh cmon you knew this was coming you are reading my blog where love is for sure the most used word here by far) By being a woman clothed in God’s dignity, love your neighbor as you would love yourself. And for a quick tip, you love yourself a WHOLE lot. After all, God made you, so what isn’t to love?

Finally, laughing without fear of the future:

I ADORE this line. First of all, I think a lot of people think of Bible verses and think oh scary and long and big historical words and names I don’t understand nope not for me…this verse literally instructs you to LAUGH! LAUGH! How fun is that? I think that so many of us forget that God is not scary and mean and harsh, he wants us to LAUGH! God wants us to laugh at anyone or any thoughts we have that may tell us that our future is uncertain. I admit myself, this is not at all easy. As I said, I myself am a HUGE worrier and perfectionist and like things to go exactly how I envision them and laughing when these uncertain situations occur is 100% never on the top of my to-do list or even on my mind honestly. But, understanding that after the heat of the moment, settling and realizing that God has a plan for me is the most calming feeling of relief. I really really like a quote on Pinterest I found that says, “faith is not knowing everything will turn out okay, faith is being okay no matter how things turn out.” like, uh, wow?  This really showed me and opened me up the fact that a life without fear of the future doesn’t mean a perfect life, we are human and are all going to encounter fear and hesitation and sadness, but it is HOW we use these not so perfect situations that truly shape us into who God wants us to be. Do we pity ourselves and sulk about it? Or do we turn to friends and family and prayer and understand that God would never put us in a situation that we cannot handle, whether it be just that moment, or our entire lives. Not to go Bible verse crazy on ya, but 2 Timothy 1:7 talks about how God gives us His Spirit, first of all, how amazing is it that He trusts us with such a powerful gift? This Spirit inside of us, does not make us weak and fearful, but instead gives us power and love and helps us control ourselves. So one big hahah to you, future!

So tonight and always, turn your worries into prayers and have so much faith. Because God will do the saving, the delivering, the protecting, ya know, the big dog stuff, and the only thing required of us is to maintain our relationship with Him. For the trillionth time, so, freaking, cool. I hope that I was able to break down my favorite verse for you in a way that you can explain to your people as well. After all, like I love to do over here, tell all you people who tell your people so we can do that whole world changing thing one person at a time. Do you have a favorite verse or quote that you turn to? Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email if you do, I am always down to chat 🙂

Until next time, all my love, xoxo, Ally

Two years ago TODAY I decided I was casually going to create a blog. To be quite honest, I didn’t know why, I didn’t know what I was going to make of it, and I didn’t know how to go about it. Just like one of my all time favorite movies, I was well, Clueless. I knew I loved to write, I knew I loved to make people happy with little things in life, and I knew that I was good at those things and wanted the rest of the world to share in it with me. Little did I know 2 years later, I would still be in love with it, have my own domain name, my own Instagram account solely for my blog, be working with some insanely cool brands, and most of all: I had no idea people would fall in love with it just as much as I had.

I will keep this post short and sweet because I don’t have much to say besides thank you and I love you all so very much. I also want to mention one quick thing blogging and being in the blogger community has allowed me to learn:

you can change the world by being yourself, but first, you’ve gotta believe in yourself, and love yourself in order to do so. 

The people that love and support you, love and support you for a reason! They see something in you that they love and believe in! You are allowed to love yourself for all the same reasons that they love you! Embrace who you are! Loving every side and aspect of yourself is the hardest task God asks of us on a daily basis, but by doing so, we are allowing ourselves to be that much more in control of changing the world and making it a little bit better of a place. Love yourself so you can love others too, if there is one thing that I want you to take away from this entire blog, it’s that.

thanks again for 2 years of fun, sparkles, laughter, and a whole lot of love 🙂

until next time, xoxo, Ally

I would say that today’s post is going to be a little ramble about my life but honestly when are these posts not? Whether it is an article on Kourtney Kardashian I wanna share with you all on Friday or a snack I have been adoring, everything I post here is just a little bit about my life, glad you’ve stuck around to read it!

Today I want to talk about love. A well-known concept to many that causes confusion, complication, and worry, but also happiness, comfort, and that real good warm fuzzy feeling where you can practically feel your heart growing. Now I have only been around for 18 years and 4 months, but I have come to understand very recently how many different forms love can take. Now as much as I love a good romcom just like the next teenage girl, I wanna talk about non-romantic love today. The kind that solely is someone saying, “hey, I care about you and how you feel and you’re pretty important to me.” AKA my all-time favorite kind.

Now if you haven’t before, go ahead and click HERE to take the “5 Love Languages” quiz. Not only will it help you realize a whole lot about yourself and why you feel love certain ways, but sharing your results among your friends helps you understand how they feel appreciated as well. I have written a post before on how everyone feels love differently, and it still is something that I work to understand today. I feel love really highly when people do things for me that show that they care about me. Just yesterday I received a card from a blogger I really look up to and realized fairly quickly that my friend was behind it all. She knew how much blogging meant to me and took the time to get that card sent to me because she knew it would make my day. It 100% did and it is hanging next to my bed right now and I am still feeling so super loved from her reaching out like that. I strive to do things to show people I care about them such as writing my friends notes, simply shooting them texts reminding them that they’re pretty neato and I am lucky to have them in my life, or even just running up to their room and hugging them (hehe hi rachel.) I am a huge huge HUGE believer in letting people know that you care. Why shouldn’t we all tell people how important they are to us literally all the time? Shooting someone a quick “hey I am so happy we are friends” text can make their day with little to no effort by you, AND I guarantee you they’ll pass the favor along to a few of their friends, and look at that, you’ve basically changed the world for a day. Now THAT is an adrenaline rush of love my friends.

So you wanna do some little bits of love? Here’s a few ideas:

-as I said, shoot them a text! From a cute gif of a movie you two enjoy to a simple “I love you” bitmoji, nothin makes someone smile like checking their phone after class to a quick reminder that they are loved

-snail mail!!!! my personal favorite, but that’s just because i am REALLY into decorating envelopes. I adore not telling my friends but having them open their mailboxes one day to a cute letter. plus, who doesn’t LOVE getting mail?!?!

-ask them to hang out!! Now I know this one isn’t practical for everything with distance being a major issue for a lot of people (college ):), but when you do happen to be in the area, grab coffee, grab lunch, literally sit on their front porch and chat for a bit about life! There’s nothing like some real life face to face interaction with people who just, get you, ya know?

So that’s how I love to love. How about you? If we can all tell someone we love them today, I betcha we can change the world. Sending ALL my love you all of you sweet friends today! Until next time, xoxo, Ally