Meditation Mondays - Writing Letters to your Future Husband

Today's post as we wrap up our mini series I'd like to talk about writing letters to your future husband. 

As I talked about last week praying for your future husband is important writing letters to him is something special. I have found that writing these letters is way to help me know that someday He will read these. I write about how I am thinking of him and praying for him or when something special happens in my life. 

You can write these on notebook paper, in a journal, or even on your laptop. It's another way to share your heart for your future together with him. The letters don't have to be long. I've thought about buying a special journal to use for my letters and prayers. Right now I am just using notebook paper which works just fine. It doens't have to be fancy, it can be plain and simple. 

Here is a letter that I wrote to my future husband that I wanted to share with you. 

Dear Future Husband, 

I haven't met you yet or maybe I have. Only God knows you are the right person for me. As I have been praying God laid this on my heart. Sometimes it feels like an eternity waiting for you to come into my life. It's hard seeing others around me finding love and moving on with life. It makes me want you more. I want you to know that I am waiting for you. I am not giving into temptation. I pray for you every single day and hope you are praying and waiting for me too. What a day it's going to be when we finally meet? I can't wait to see what God has in store for our future together. Just know that I love you. 

Much love,

Your Future Wife 

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 

Do you write letters and notes to your future husband? Do you find it helpful? Let me know in the comments. 

Blessings and Shalom,

Grace Mae <3 <3 <3 

Worship Wednesdays - My Paper Heart

My Paper Heart is one of my all time favorite songs ever. It talks about how God has our heart. Remember that even if you don't have that special guy in your life God loves you and wants your heart. Enjoy this song today! Thought it would be a great way to end our month of Love. 

Meditation Mondays - Praying for Your Future Husband

Welcome back to the third week in our mini series of preparing ourselves for our future husband. Today I want to talk about one very important thing. Prayer! This is a key element to preparing ourselves for marriage. We need to already be praying for our future husband. I am going to share with you 10 ways you can pray for your future husband. I use these every day.

1. Pray for his relationship with God. 

2. Pray that God will bless him. 

3. Pray that he will be a spiritual leader for your family. 

4. Pray that he will love you deeply.

5. Pray that he will have a heart for your children together. 

6. Pray that he will make wise choices. 

7. Pray for his emotional, mental, and physical health.  

8. Pray that he will prosper at work. 

9. Pray for his power to resist sexual temptation and stay pure.

10. Pray that you will show him respect, grace and kindness. 

These are just a few of the many ways you could pray for him. I'd just like to take a minute right now and pray for you ladies that are reading this.

Father, I pray right now for each one of the sweet ladies reading this. I pray that as they are waiting for you to bring that special guy into their life that you would help them resist temptation. I pray that they will continue to grow in your knowledge and wisdom. Let their hearts remain pure and as they prepare for marriage someday that they will be praying for their future husband whether they have met him or not. In Jesus Name, Amen!

Be sure to check back next week as we wrap up this mini series ;)

Blessings and Shalom,
Grace Mae <3 <3 <3

Selfish Valentine

He walked through the door empty-handed. To say I was a little more than disappointed is an understatement. Didn't he know it was Valentine's Day? I thought that he would have at least given me a bouquet of flowers or a card.

The entire day I wasn't very pleasant. I went to work and purposefully asked people what they received, tempted to seek pity for anyone who asked me what my husband had given me. 

But I sensed God whispering to me: Did you give him anything? 

That made me even more irritated. Um, of course not, he was supposed to get me something. 

The more that I dwelt upon the question, though, the more I realized how selfish I have been to my husband. I expect and expect and expect without giving. And really, that's what we are meant to do--give. This doesn't apply to just marriage or romantic relationships. It applies to friendships and family relationships. If we all--especially Christians--stopped always expecting people to give to us and instead focused on giving to others, then we would be a much more effective witness to Christ and probably happier too! 

So instead of expecting that perfect gift, give. Give your time to someone, help pay for a stranger's groceries. Demonstrate the selfless love that God has shown us. 

In His love,

Kayla

A Story of Faith, Hope and LOVE

February is that month when love is undeniably in the air and for us singles it is that one month of the year in which our singleness stands out the most. This week I have not only faced another year of being single on Valentine’s Day, but I will have also celebrated my birthday the very next day. Yep, a double dose of joy, Valentine’s Day and my 37^th birthday back to back. I’m not only reminded that I am single on Valentine’s Day, but I’m also that I am still single and now thirty-seven. Ouch. 

Naturally this would lead anyone to a little time of reflection. It is a time to look back and reflect on my experiences, some of my mistakes, but ultimately land on my hopes and dreams for the future. It is in these disappointments, heartbreaks, hopes and dreams that I find my story of faith, hope and yes, even love.

Faith

I have always believed, but had never committed my life to my faith until I was in my early thirties. I didn't commit until God made it painfully evident that something was missing in my life. I was running on empty and seeking desperately to be filled. I spent much of my adult life searching for my worth in things, relationships, experiences or anything that would fill the void I was feeling, all the time not realizing the void I was feeling was one that only He could fill. This was the point in my life that He pursued me the most. It was in the moment that I felt like everything in my life was falling apart that everything was truly beginning to fall into place. 

God was pursuing me in probably one of the most difficult times in my life and during this time I was praying some pretty big prayers. I honestly believed that He would step in and repair all the damage that was done, fix everything and life would go on as it always had. But God, had something else in mind. Those prayers went unanswered, so I thought. God did not answer in the way that I had hoped for in that moment, but He had moved enough in my heart and in my life at this point for me to remain steadfast and faithful. I held on to my faith down to the final moment. Even in the disappointment, even in the heartbreak and the confusion I could feel His Presence in my life. I didn’t understand His plan, but I held onto my faith in the promise that He had one. I placed my faith in Him and where He was leading me. See He always answers and this time His answer just happened to be “no” and that disappointment turned out to be the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

Hope

I can look back on so many prayers through out my life and thank God for the “no” that I was blessed with and this occasion was no different. I may not have gotten the answer I prayed for, but I can now see where His answer has brought me and how much that “no” has grown my faith and deepened my relationship with Him. I can also say that if I had gotten the answer I was looking for I don’t know that I would be where I am today on my faith journey.

He is my Heavenly Father, He is my Creator and He always knows what is best for me. He may not always change my circumstances in the way that I expect, but I can trust that He is continually changing me. See the freedom I have found in Christ is just that. My situations may not always change or go as I have planned, but I can find hope in a bigger plan, in His plan. I can know without a doubt that He has not and never will leave my side. He will sometimes deliver me from the storm and He will sometimes carry me through it, but He will never leave me in it.

Love

He is and has been with me in every moment. His plans for me have always been better than anything I could imagine, so as I reflect on this season of being single and I prepare myself for this week I can remember once again that He knows what is best for me and trust Him in the wait. I can trust that even though He has not changed my circumstance yet, He is still continually changing me.  He is not only changing me but, preparing me, preparing my heart for the plans He has for me. He is preparing a heart that at one time was not ready to give nor receive the kind of love He created me for. The best part of this time of reflection has been recalling all the twists and turns in my life and seeing how far His love has brought me and to know He’s not finished with me yet.

While I pray the plan He has for me includes marriage, I can trust whatever He has in store for this heart of mine. I can trust it, because I am already in the midst of the greatest love story of all. I have a Savior that bore the weight of my sin on the cross to bring hope into my life. He offers me love, grace and mercy each and every day. I find a comfort and peace in Him that is like no other. In Him I find my confidence, in Him I have found my purpose, in Him I find fulfillment and most of all, in Him I find love, a love that endures forever. Out of His love the desires of my heart were born and I can trust that He will never let them go unfulfilled. He may not answer the way I expect, but I can trust that He will lead me to my greatest desire of all, a life grounded in faith, hope and yes, even love.  

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)

Worship Wednesdays - Someday Soon

This is another one of my favorite songs. It talks about someday falling in love. Hope you enjoy! 

Meditation Mondays - 3 Things I Look for in a Date

Welcome back! Today we will continue in our series of what purity means and how to prepare yourself for your future husband. Let's talk about what I look for in a guy and how some of my standards you can apply to your standards as well. We all look for different things but I hope this will help you out. 

Does this guys share the same relationship and love for God that I do? 

This one is so important. The Bible talks about how we need to be equally yoked. I do not even consider a guy that doesn't love God and have a relationship with Christ. This is one thing I will never back down on and never compromise. I always say that until you find Christ and know Him like I do, don't come looking to win my heart. God has to be the center of his life before I will even consider dating him. 

Does he respect me and my views?

This is another important thing for me. He needs to respect me. I have certain standards and promises that I made to myself and God. Things like waiting to have sex until marriage or saving my first kiss for my wedding day. I will not date a guy that doesn't respect me for this and try to force me into changing my mind. If the guy really wants to date me and get to know me than he will help me keep my promises. 

Is He someone I can pray with?

Prayer is important to me. I want to find a guy that loves to pray just as much as I do. There's a saying, "couples that pray together, stay together." I believe that. One thing that will help me decide if I can date this guy is if He will pray with me whether it be on the phone, in person, or even in a text. I want to feel like I can come to him with a prayer request and that he can come to me. I want us to grow closer in my relationship with God through prayer together. 

These are just three of the things I look for and I hope they were helpful to you. Let me know in the comments below what you look for in guy. 

Blessings and Shalom,

Grace Mae <3 <3 <3 

Take Heed Lest You Fall - Part 2

With every page I read I wanted to read more. And no, it wasn’t the Bible. For some twisted reason, Fifty Shades of Gray was my new bedside reading.

My heart was lonely, and as much as my soul craved time spent with God, my flesh craved lust more.

I touched a little on this last week that when we aren’t satisfied with God, we will try to find something else to satisfy us, and that’s where I want the focus of this article to be: how can we say no to the things of this world so we can say yes to the things of God?

1. Start with your mind.

Almost all sin starts with our mind. It begins with one thought. So in order to become fully satisfied with Christ, our minds need to get rid of all the filth it gets bombarded with daily. Fill your mind with good things, pure things, joyful things (Phil. 4:8).

2. Memorize Scripture.

Part of filling our minds with good things is memorizing Scripture. Truth. See, the devil has a way of convincing us that lies are truth and that real truth is outdated. In order to fight the battle on lust, gluttony, gossip, lying, or (enter your sin of choice here), Scripture is our primary weapon.

3. Pray.

One of the biggest reasons I kept falling victim to sexual sin is because I wasn’t in constant communion with God. I treated Him as a genie almost, asking Him what I wanted and then leaving Him alone until I was in desperate need. But prayer is something that we should hold in high importance. Prayer is instant access to the One who holds our hearts in His hands. Why wouldn’t we pray to Him!

If you are struggling with dissatisfaction, take heart: God is more than enough to satisfy you, and He wants to prove that to you. He loves you with an everlasting love, and no man or book or thing can ever compare.

In His love, 

Kayla 

 

LOVE is the key to success

Have you ever thought about why we are called to love? 

Why does our Heavenly Father demand us to love people we do not even know? 

These questions have come to pass in my mind plenty of times. There are many options that we have in this world about love and what it should look like.

LOVE is the key to success

My name is Crystal Lee and I have been writing for small groups at my local church, new letters for various local women’s groups and teaching devotional at a local women’s rehabilitation facility. I decided to step out on faith and become a guest writer for One Girl One Life One God; it has been an honor to have met Grace Mae. I am grateful for the opportunity to share a little bit of my experiences with the world. It is definitely not a coincidence that we have crossed path on the subject of Love. As a single mother of two children one being a teenager and freshman in High School, and my younger one who is in Elementary and may be ready for College next week, love has been long lasting subject in my household.

Why do I have to love the ugliness in others, you may ask yourself?

            When my children decide to act of character and bicker over petty stuff. I have to redirect them to the understanding neither how annoying nor how ugly they may be to each other; they will need to love each other. The relevance to regrouping and bringing my children back to the word is because we should take the time out to lay the foundation of God’s word back into our children’s lives.

“Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old,

He will not depart from it.” ~ Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

Love has many meanings in the word of God. We need to take hold of the Agape type love which doesn’t come easy for some of us. For me it is a daily battle to choose the spirit woman to raise up verse the fleshly woman. In this life we have many distractions that draw us away from the light of the Savior. The modern, fast pace world where we want immediate answers to all of our situations and questions tends to draws us away at times from crying out to the Lord for answers. Our children disobey, our Husbands are disconnected, the work place environment is dull and overwhelming all at once, the bills are due, the family is hungry, you are a soccer mom, you volunteer at the local church, you have laundry piling up, etc. ; all sound familiar to some of us? What does this have to do with love? We engage in all these activities for the sake of a loved one.

Agape (Ancient Greek ἀγάπη, agápē) is "love:

The highest form of love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God.

"Not to be confused with philia – brotherly love –agape embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends, that serves regardless of circumstances.

I tried something different, starting my day with quite time in the word of God.  Asking Him daily to allow me to see people in the light of His love and how I could show love to those around me.  My challenge to you today is to step in faith and show some love. Love to me looks like feeding the homeless, going over to the that one sister in church who is totally your opposite and telling her how beautiful she is (we all have one of those), praying for those who spitefully use you, pray for your husband instead of complaining, pay it forward, find a women’s group in your area and pour your love into someone who is hurting, volunteer at a group home and pour love into some children, pray for that one person who gets under your skin (don’t tell me you never had that someone), etc.

Be blessed and thank you Grace Mae for the opportunity to be part of the ministry.  

I love you all.

~ CrysLee

Worship Wednesdays - Waiting for You

This song I have listened to for several years. I thought it would be appropriate for this weeks Worship Wednesday as it went along with my post on Monday. I hope you will take a few minutes and listen. Rebecca St. James wrote this song on waiting for the day when God will give her the right guy to be her husband. I pray everyday that God will send me the right guy but until He does I will be waiting and saving myself for him. 

Meditation Mondays - 5 Reasons Why I Wear a Purity Ring

You know just because you are single doesn't mean you can't be thinking about your future husband and life. Every girl myself included dreams about getting married and probably have your pinterest boards filled with ideas. I know for a fact that I have struggled with being single especially the last couple years. Most of my friends are either in a relationship, engaged or married and I'm over here just trying to figure out what I am going to do this week. I wouldn't say that I am fake but as I see my friends finding love and happiness I tend to put up a front on how content and happy I am being single while congratulating all my friends. Don't get me wrong. I really am happy for them. It's just I'm a little bit jealous that it isn't me. For the longest time I would worry and question why it isn't me. Then it hit me right smack in the face. Even though that special guy hasn't come into my life I should be preparing myself for him. Over the next few weeks in February I will be talking about what it means to stay pure and how to prepare yourself for your future husband. 

Today I would just like to talk about my standards of what staying pure means to me. If you know me personally you would probably notice a ring on my left hand. It stands for purity but to me it's much more than just a purity ring. It represents my promise not only to God but to my future husband. It was my choice and decision to wear it. I wanted to show other young girls that it's okay and nothing to be ashamed of to wear a purity ring if you truly believe in it. 

Here are a few reasons why I choose to wear a purity ring. 

1. It's a reminder of my promise to God, myself, and my future husband. Commitments are very hard to keep in the eye of temptation because we are only human and have wants and desires. My ring helps remind me everyday of my promise and why I choose to save myself for my future husband. My body is a temple of Christ and with Christ at the center of my life, His strength I can come against temptations. I want to be modest and save m y body for my future husband. It reminds me that my life is not my own but of God and I am here on earth to serve Him and make His name known. 

2. I serve a big God and this is a symbol of my faith. God is big and powerful. My ring is a symbol of the BIG God I serve. My faith is probably the most important thing in my life. The ring help signifies what I believe and a constant action of my faith. Without God I wouldn't be who I am today. God sent His son to die for my sins and raised to life on the third day so that I may have eternal life with Him forever if I ask Him to be the center of my life. 

3. It represents my respect for my future husband. Guys need to hear that they are respected and when I meet my future husband I want to tell him that I respect him. I want him to know that I kept myself pure for him. I want my future husband to know that I didn't give my body away before I met him. I want him to know that I overcame temptation. This ring is a reminder that I chose to love and honor him. I want him to know that I thought of him, our future, and life together when I made my decision when faced with temptations. 

4. My purity ring will attract the right kind of guys. Most guy that see my ring think I'm married or engaged but the right kind of guys will know that many young Christian women wear a purity ring. I want the kind of guy that will look beyond the initial attraction to get to know me as a person and my heart. My prayer is that the right kind of guy will respect my decision to remain pure until marriage. I want to get to know my future husband as a friend not just as an attraction. I want the guy to see my heart and soul. I want him to get to know me for me not just because of how I look. 

5. It's a conversation starter. Many people think it's a promise ring or that I am engaged or married. I get to tell them about why I believe what I believe and shows people that I'm not afraid to be scoffed at. Some people when I tell them my story applauds me for my choice while other think it's too extreme or that I'm crazy. Some disagree with me saying people don't do that anymore or that it doesn't matter. I have had people tell me just wait until you fall in love. All your standards and values will go out the window. You'll change your mind. Well you know what? Truth is it's my commitment, my life, my choice and that's really all that matters. 

So I challenge you today if you are single to examine your heart and think about what I just wrote about. If you wear a purity ring and would like to share your story I'd love to hear from you. You can either message me, email me, or just leave a comment on this post. 

Blessings and Shalom, 

Grace Mae <3 <3 <3 

Take Heed Lest You Fall

I love fairy tales. Just those two words send my mind into a world of awe and wonder. The way Beast looks at Belle, the way Eric swoons over Ariel. As little girls—and even as grown women—these stories awaken the God-given desire in us to be loved and pursued and wanted. Unfortunately, those same desires can be turned against us and cause us to become prime targets for Satan’s most effective tactic: dissatisfaction. Let’s face it: when we are satisfied in our relationship with God, we don’t go looking anywhere else. It is when we are in want that things get messy and ugly and can turn sinful.  

Fast forward two years ago, when I became a married woman. When my marriage wasn’t turning out to become the “fairy tale” I had imagined, and my husband wasn’t being the “prince” I wanted, I turned to something else to try to fulfill my unmet expectations and desires. I turned to Fifty Shades of Grey. 

One of the biggest reasons I believe I fell victim is because I told myself I was okay. I told myself that I would never struggle with any type of sexual sin whether it was premarital sex, masturbation, unfaithfulness, lust. Clearly the verse “Take heed lest ye fall” never seemed to apply to me. And that’s one of the biggest lies Satan tells us: I’ll be okay.” Over the next few weeks I’m going to specifically talk about Fifty Shades and its damaging effects, especially as Christians, but I’m also going to address sexual sin as a whole and why this is such a struggle for so many people. 

But today, I want to talk about why. Why did I become so engrossed in this particular novel? Why this book? I wholeheartedly believe one of the biggest reasons I turned to Fifty Shades is because I always thought that I wouldn’t struggle with it. And that is the point I want to drive home. 

The moment you let you guard down, that is when you are most susceptible. When Jesus went to prayed in the garden and came back to find the disciples asleep, he said, “What, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:40-41). Don’t ever for a second think that you are somehow invincible from a particular sin. That, my friend, is when you will stumble and fall. 

So watch and pray. Pray that God would show you any unconfessed sin, and ask Him to show you any areas of your life that you aren’t guarding. He is faithful. And He is good. 

In His love, 

Kayla 

 

Things We Lost in the Fire

(Our view from the cabin)

Do you ever wonder why God brings people into our lives, or why things happen to us, or feel so defeated? My boyfriend and I have been together for almost 4 years. We had a very tumultuous 7 months that I thought we could never possibly bounce back from. I was broken, he was depleted from all of the nonsensical arguing, and thing just seemed to be getting worse and worse. I prayed for some relief, except all I got in return was more heart break. I would lay in bed at night and cry and plead with God to make it all go away, to make things go back to the way they were. After awhile, it worked; except things didn't go back to he way they were…our relationship got better. New, per-say.  

Let’s skip all the heart wrenching crap that I once felt would be my demise, and fast forward to this beautiful little gift that God has taught me…forgiveness. 

So once things were slowly getting better, we decided we needed some alone time away from out friends, our town, and from work (and an over load of school work for me). We decided on this little cabin in the middle of no where in the Poconos. This tiny little one bedroom cabin that we have been renting every winter since 2014 is like a second home to us. We felt safe there.  It was just him and I and our little wiener dog. We did absolutely nothing but watch TV, eat a bunch of delicious crappy food, and just lounge around.  

One night, we were playing Uno by the fire, and asks me, “How do we get rid of all of these bad feelings and thoughts we have be carrying for so long?”. I looked up at him, and looked over at the fire crackling and said, “We burn them.” He laughed as asked me what I meant. I explained to him that we would write down all of the bad feelings and thoughts we had been carrying for so long and throw them into the fire; they would be scorched and gone forever. I ripped two pieces of paper out of my journal (I take that thing EVERYWHERE), and we began to write. Of course I came up with 10, and he only came up with 4.  I still don't know if its because I'm sappy, or if its just because men totally stink at stating their feelings. Probably the latter.  

We tore each individual feeling or thought off into its own strip, and crumbled it up. One by one we threw them in the fire and watched them disappear. I’m super nosey, so I asked him what was on his list.  

Here’s what he wrote… 
1.Regrets  
2.Childish Games  
3.2016  
4.Pride.  
I was honestly impressed, since he has never been the type to talk about things of this nature, so I was happy for him that he was letting these things go. 

Me on the other hand, my list was a tad bit more….eye opening. My list consisted of… 
1.Shame  
2.Anger 
3.Spitefulness  
4.Physical Pain  
5.Fear  
6.Anger  
7.Nasty Attitude  
8.Lies  
9.Life Stressors  
10.2016. 

A few weeks later we were at dinner and I randomly asked him if he felt better about things. And he told me that the felt as if we had started a brand new relationship and that he couldn't be happier. I told him I felt the same. We just needed to remember that we loved each other, and that all of the nonsense needed to be put aside so we could work on our differences. Whats the point of loving someone so whole heartedly, if you cant take the time to listen, and care for, and be there for them? 

Be kind. Love yourself, love others. It will be your lamp and light; you will find your way.

Worship Wednesdays - Here in Your Presence

Hope you enjoy this song today. This song encouraged me so much because I want to be in the presence of God. I want to draw nearer to Him. Just listen to the music and words and focus on Jesus.