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Chicken and Bliss

A Philadelphia faith and lifestyle blog fueled by copious amounts of coffee and Jesus

Minimalist Advent Calendars For Christmas

November 27, 2016

Advent is one of my favorite times of the year. Although I am definitely not a huge fan of winter, one thing that gets me excited about this time of the year is celebrating the arrival of our Savior Jesus Christ.

While there is reasonably some debate regarding whether or not Jesus was actually born on the month let alone the day that we celebrate Christmas, I know that I am not celebrating it simply because society encourages us to or to contribute to the economy by purchasing a bunch of gifts. I am celebrating Christmas because I am celebrating the birth of our beautiful Savior (whether in December or some other time of the year), who came to this earth to redeem us, free us, and provide us with the beautiful gift of eternal life and fellowship with God.

But, I digress.

The reason I am sharing about advent today is because it’s officially advent season! This is the first advent that Han and I will be sharing as husband and wife, so the traditions we’re coming up with this year will be special for us since it’ll be the first. Other than decorating the tree and lighting the candles, I really wanted to find some ways to celebrate advent this year. We’re pretty late on the advent game due to some unforeseen circumstances in our personal life, but hoping to get on the tree-purchasing-advent-celebrating-home-decorating kick next week! As my husband and I try looking for some fun, special ways to celebrate, I figured I’d share some of the ideas we’re considering with you in the event that you are also looking for some ideas.

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DIY Advent Calendar on Etsy

I love printables and one of the things I love the most about this idea is not only is it cute, but it’s reusable. One of the ways I’m considering using this gem is by placing it in a frame (similar to the way it’s displaced) and writing on it using dry-erase markers. I love the idea of writing in the ways we’re celebrating in smaller ways such as purchasing a tree or making hot-cocoa. I know I love the idea of perhaps writing in prayers and on each day, having an intentional time of prayer, interceding for another person or a specific concern.

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Hanging Advent Calendar

I think one of the reasons why I love this idea is because of minimalistic and simple to erect it is. On the back of each day, there’s a bible verse that you can meditate on, prayer over, or spend time studying. I know one thing I’m really hoping to find in an advent calendar is one that incorporates scripture or at least allows space for you to do so. One of the things that makes this calendar so perfect is it already does that for you.

If the $15 is a bit too much, you could easily recreate this yourself by purchasing string, index cards (or card stock paper) and paper clips.

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Advent Reading Devotional

I haven’t read this yet, but if the content in this is anything like the rest of the items they sell, I’d say it might be worth a read. This reading is for those that would rather read rather than make or remove something from a calendar. For $5 you get 30 days worth or content!

It also includes the following:

  • • Five daily reflection questions to help guide your personal study
    • Suggested worship songs corresponding to each week’s reading
    • Two devotional readings to help you both prepare & reflect on your experience
    • A calendar detailing all of the readings, as well as specific pages for each week
    • Five Scripture memory cards- featuring 1 Bible verse from each week’s study
    • Two beautiful, full color pages that could be framed as 8×10 art prints
    • A lined notes page. Print off 35 copies of this page, put it in a binder and create a record of your journey through Advent.

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Christmas Comfort and Joy Jar

I love this idea! I’m all for learning new ways to consider Jesus and establish a routine where you are thinking of the things Paul instructs us to in Philippians 4:8. This jar includes slips of that include scriptural and inspirational phrases and verses to think of each day of advent. However, each item is made by the poster, herself.

If you’re looking for more specific verses, I would say that this is another item that you could also do yourself! If you have an old jar, some construction paper, and a few slips of paper, you can easily personalize the jar or even purchase this one and add your own verses to it!

While we’re definitely still undecided regarding how we’re going to celebrate it this year since we’re in the middle of a move, once we figure it out, we’ll be sure to share with you in a future post and how we’re seeking to make it our own!

What are some of the ways you’re celebrating advent season? What is your favorite part about advent? 

Leave a Comment in DIY, fashionandhome, God, home

#JustMarried

November 21, 2016

So, we are officially married – a reality that I remember repeating several times during our honeymoon that I could not quite believe. It felt like a dream – even on the ride home – that I would quickly wake up from only to be his girlfriend. Yet there we were, joking and reflecting on the day that was and will forever will be etched in our minds as the day that two people became one.

The honeymoon was wonderful. Primarily because for the first time in months, him and I were able to just rest, travel, brush up on our American and African-American history without interruption. We could just be. We whimsically walked through gardens in Historic Londontown, took a random trip to Baltimore and DC. We tried Annapolis’ best crab cakes, swooning over it’s deliciousness and discussing our activities for the next day. We were uninterrupted by buzzing phones, obsessively checking Facebook, and concerning ourselves with life’s realities for just a few days. We laughed, we shared inside jokes, and obnoxiously sang Mariah Carey songs to each other.

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Not to mention, we had some delicious coffee at City Dock, which I am so excited to share in a post I’m brewing (HA – get it? Coffee? Brew? *baduntz tss*) about some of our favorite places we visited in Annapolis.

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It was perfect.

We returned from our honeymoon to quite a bit of not-so-good news, reminding us quickly that while for a brief moment in time as our worlds officially collided together things were blissful, life doesn’t stop throwing it’s darts our way just because we’ve committed to each other in the presence of our loved ones and God. Life doesn’t wait thirty days until after you’ve been husband and wife, so you can adjust to living with each other and each other’s routines before slamming you with responsibilities and unpleasant news.

Yet I recognize what a blessing it is to not be walking through these challenges alone. What a blessing it is to have a God that is walking alongside us and a spouse that can journey through the pain with you. What a blessing it is to have each other and have the support of others around you. What a blessing it is knowing that our hope is in Christ – who never fails, never forsakes, and is far greater than anything we can or cannot see. It doesn’t necessarily lessen the blow, but it does help provide some sort of comfort.

Here’s to prayerfully walking through this challenge, hand-in-hand with Christ.

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I cannot create it
I cannot sustain it
It’s Your love that’s keeping (captured) me

Please be my strength…

at my final breath
I hope that I can say
I’ve fought the good fight of faith

I pray your glory shines
through this doubting heart of mine
so my world would know that You

You are my strength
You and You alone
You and You alone
Keep bringing me back home

Leave a Comment in God, life, Love, marriage advice, travel, Uncategorized, wedding

Why Is It So Hard for Us to Surrender + Submit?

October 10, 2016

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If there’s one thing I think God has been whispering to my weary, to-do-list-filled soul, that’s it. It’s a word that as I confessed to one of the elders of the church as a word that I’m not sure I’ve truly known how to do.

I like to be in control because I like knowing what’s next. I like knowing what to expect, so I begin to figure out ways to tackle it head on. I like it and yet many times, these situations stress me out. It’s these weird conundrum of not wanting to be stressed out by these things, yet feeling comforted by being in control so much so that I fool myself into thinking that I have to tackle these things alone. If I don’t do it, this will never get done. Can any of you also relate to those sentiments?

Even as an educator, it’s a struggle. When some students’ essays weren’t being turned in on time and the deadline of high school applications were approaching faster than any of us originally expected, I edited their essays and sent them out. The original timeline would require that they submit their edited drafts themselves and yet there I was, a day before the deadline, correcting sentences in the draft of the essay and writing recommendations they forgot to ask for.

Despite comments from people in my life telling me that I should not do that, the same theme of, “if I don’t do this, it will never get done” rung true and I relented, typing away as an attempt to get these things done before the 5pm deadline.

Don’t get me started on how this showed up in other areas and situations of my life.

When I first came to Christ, surrendering was easy because I mistakenly assumed it was a one time thing. That at that moment, as I felt the weight of my sin become more real and yet simultaneously sense that weight lifting off my shoulders onto Christ’s as He welcome me home, I no longer had to surrender because all of the surrendering was done. I mean, I surrendered my life to Him – right?

Yet, I believe what I’ve been learning in various situations in my life is that I still need to surrender. When new struggles arise, a new invitation to submit this to the Lord, ignites – an invitation that I sometimes didn’t realize was there. Surrendering our will, our desires, our conflicts and challenges to God is a daily act. It’s an act of daily humility and submission rather than a moment at the altar of grace. It’s a daily act and I am learning every day that surrendering means letting it go.

Why is that so hard for us? Why does it seem that acknowledging that we aren’t as in control as we’d like to be, entrusting these things to God and letting it go seem so challenging? Wouldn’t it be freer to simply release the problems, conflicts, desires, and plans into the hands of the Creator of all things rather than obsessively try to fix it ourselves or hold onto the resentment?

Society tells us to grab life by the bullhorns and that things won’t happen unless we make it happen. Yet God whispers to us in a gentle yet resounding voice, reminding us that we need to submit our plans to Him and trust Him.

Tweet: “Yet God reminds us that we need to submit our plans to Him and trust Him.” @chickenandbliss

Society encourages us to go after what we want, not stopping until we get it. God reminds us that He is Lord and that sometimes what we want isn’t what we need or what we need right now.

Society tells us we’re in control of our destiny, but reality tells us that we aren’t. We can’t control people, circumstances, or even sometimes our own behavior. I can’t begin to tell you how many times in my life I’ve blurted things out of anger, only to later realize it was uncalled for.

Now, I don’t believe that the surrendering that we’re called to do is to do so with a reward in mind. We should not aspire to surrender to receive something in return from God. We should surrender, even with the unknown looming over our heads like a dark, storm cloud that seems to follow us in our travels, still trusting that with whatever we’ve laid in His hands, He will use for His glory and for our good. He will use what was meant to destroy us and turn it into something positive in His timing. Even then, the latter shouldn’t be our motive for surrendering.

So how do we surrender without expecting and instead, simply trusting?

The suggestion I have comes from God’s word and says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)

I know you’ve heard this verse before and some of you might be frowning your face because as many times as we’ve heard this verse, it’s easy to do in a moment, but hard to commit to that daily. Some of you might also be wondering “how?” What steps can I take to ensure that I am being still before God?

While there are several blog posts that discuss this, I think that if you struggle with control like myself, coming up with a list of to-do’s might send us back into a works-mindset that convinces us that if we complete step 1-3, we will succeed at being still before God. Perhaps that’s just me, but if I am being transparent, after realizing this pattern of control that’s been flaring up, I’ve wanted to try to handle this all myself. Yet I realize that I cannot. The same way I cannot control other people and their actions, this act of learning how to not seek to control so much is something that can truly only be fulfilled by God. Sure, I have some willpower to try to take steps to work on this, but even in creating these steps to work on this I am still controlling. See the cyclical issue here?

Instead, I’m learning that even in the daily act of submitting to God and His will, it requires a work that only He can do in us. That even in acknowledging that you have a problem with control or a challenge that has seemingly fallen  and that you struggle with submission to God, it’s a step in the right direction. However the work in truly abolishing that habit, that challenge, that struggle is a God-thing. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Meaning, He is the one that both saved us and gives us the strength, tools, and ability to continue on the straight and narrow path. All we can do is honestly and humbly turn our hearts and eyes to Him, daily, allowing Him to do the work necessary in us in the timing that He sees fit.

I am not dismissing that as Christians there is work involved (yay for to-do list people like me). However that work isn’t going through a to-do list of things that we think make us a good Christian or religiously reading through the 10 commandments, attempting to use our own will power to try to achieve them. If we were able to do these things by our own willpower, God would never have had to send Jesus as an atonement for our sins and the Holy Spirit, who is our advocate. It’s clear in this sacrificial act of love that we cannot follow these commandments by our strength and we can see this throughout the bible. The work we’re called to do is a work that only the Holy Spirit can do us. Our work is to humbly life our eyes to Him, considering Him, seeking Him, following Him, and submitting to Him daily yet even in these acts, it’s the power of the Holy Spirit in us that makes these things possible.

The invitation is not to look at our walk with Christ a religion, full of to-do’s and don’ts that we must accomplish in order to reach the hierarchy of Christian-hood. It’s a relationship with Christ, a desire to know Him, seek Him, be lead by Him, and trust that the work He’s doing in us is a work that He will fulfill and finish. It’s a relationship with Christ that encourages us to submit and surrender to His will – not because of a religious standard or because God is standing over us with His finger wagging, demanding that we do these things or He’ll stop loving us, but because of our reverence and love for God, who gives us the strength and ability to love and submit to Him.

So the same invitation that is being extended to me right now, I want to encourage you to do the same. That if you’re like me – someone who feels more comforted by being in control, knowing what’s next, and how to handle it – there might be an invitation for you to also rest in God, submitting daily to His will and His way. It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be something that you can do once. Surrendering to God requires a daily act of submission and reverence – relinquishing even tiny things to Him daily rather than trying to figure out everything on your own.
Surrender, friend. Surrender, daily.

4 Comments in God, life, Uncategorized

How to Endure When You Want to Quit

September 23, 2016

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My anxiety has been at an all-time high the past few weeks. Without disclosing much, it’s been a challenging couple of weeks, but there’s also been many tangible and intangible blessings that have occurred throughout this time.

In just a bit of time, our “goodbyes” will turn into good mornings and goodnights.The physical distance between us will no longer exist and God will begin his work to merge us into one being. We will be finally living together, learning together, and growing together as we seek to grow more in Christ. More than the actual wedding, I am looking forward to that moment of finally being able to his wife and him, my husband. I pray for God’s glory in our marriage and our lives together. I pray we may be willing vessels and participants in this work, desiring to please Him even more than ourselves.

Many times throughout this planning process, I’ve considered eloping, feeling a strong desire to start forever now and escape all of the unanticipated anxiety that comes along with planning. It’s not that I expected it to be peaceful, but I definitely didn’t expect it to be tearful. But I’m learning that planning a wedding, is a lot like relationships.

Sometimes, we enter into relationships and even marriages with the expectation that it’ll be all hunky dory with no problems at all yet soon we realize how much work goes into it. We realize that this person we’re entrusting our heart with has the same potential to make us filled with glee as they do to break our hearts. That can be scary and raw yet very comforting and exciting all the same.

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We cannot always run when things get challenging. Similar to my desire to get eloped simply because things were (and kind of still are) getting stressful, isn’t the answer. For some people it is, but I knew for me I didn’t really want to get eloped. I just didn’t want to deal with the process of planning, meeting, paying, waiting, and all that comes with preparing for the big day. Deep down, however, I still wanted that moment where we’d walk down the aisle and profess our love and commitment to each other in front of God and our loved ones. I still wanted that moment where my father would walk me down the aisle, handing me over to my future husband. I wanted and still want that moment. Therefore, the only reason why I’d ever elope was because I was sick of the process.

In our own lives, what if we quit every time things got difficult? If we threw in the towel and gave up, simply because things were too complicated or daunting? As I have been experiencing some challenges in my personal life, I am realizing in the past this has been my pattern. When things get ugly, I flee.

I flee out of fear.

I flee because I can’t see how this situation is going to turn out positively.

I flee to protect myself.

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The last one is a big reason for my temptation to go when the going gets tough – protection. You can’t get disappointed again or go through the same pain if you don’t provide an opportunity for it – right?

Sure in some cases that’s true, but I think when we’re so quick to abort the process, we’re missing out on the possibility of God doing something good out our pain. We’re missing out on the possibility of God turning what was meant to destroy us into a testimony that can encourage and even plant a seed to lead someone else to Christ.

For example, if I stopped the planning process by getting eloped, I would miss out on the moments I am now looking forward to regarding the wedding – the choral worship, walking down the aisle with my father, getting ready with my mother, and capturing that moment in time with some of my dearest loved ones. Eloping is great for other people and I am not knocking elopement at all. I’m saying that for me, personally, I realized that my desire to elope was rooted more in my desire to flee the process more than anything. Those moments do matter to me and I’ve dreamt about them since as long as I remember. Therefore, I must go through the process in order to later see that fruit of the big day.

In our personal struggles, sometimes we must go through the process, which albeit is painful, but it’s fruitful in the end and will bear fruits of the Spirit that you know can only come from God.

If you are going through an inexplicably difficult time, I feel you, friend. I grieve with you and would love to pray for you. I hope that you know that even you’re going through a rough time now, that our hope is all around is – Jesus is all around us.

The Cornerstone of our lives, the Encourager when we’re troubled, the Savior of our souls is always near.

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Leave a Comment in God, life, Love, marriage advice, Uncategorized

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