Sponsor Spotlight: SweetnessItself

Given the wonderful surprise coming later in the week, yes keep an eye open this friday...

It only seems appropriate to introduce you to a wonderful sponsor of mine & a dear friend.

Meet Erin From Sweetness Itself.

Image Property of {SweetnessItself}

If you have yet to visit her blog. Well it is a must! 

No seriously!! I am not joking....go check it out right this instant and stop listening to me.

You back already? Well ok...I will continue =)

There are girls you meet in this life whom you may not see very often. She and I have never lived in the same place (It is one of my dreams to someday). She is a beauty living on the west coast. The very first time I ever saw the Pacific Ocean (or the West coast), it was with her and because of her. 

If I were Anne living in Green gables....it is quite possible I would want her to be my Diana. She is one of those girls. The ones you know you don't need to talk to everyday to know that if you call them, they will still understand you. Even if life passes for a few months, nothing changes between the 2 of you.

Sweet friends. She is one of them.

Image Property of {SweetnessItself}

 So I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce you not only to her AMAZING blog. 

Which you really should visit quite frequently, because her heart is just amazing and she shares it over there in her virtual living room (aka her blog). 

But also to share the sweet story of how we met.

Image Property of {SweetnessItself}

Picture 18 yr-old Erin & L. Both living on opposite sides of the globe. 

Both with hearts for purity, a love for the Lord & committed to allowing Him to show them the one they would someday marry.

A few months after I arrived at college, a friend introduced me to the puritygirls website. I can't link to this site anymore as it no longer exsists due to personal conflicts with the people running it. However, it was a site dedicated to encouraging young men & women choosing to wait on the Lord to bring His best into their life in a spouse. 

I had surrendered my relationship with A to the Lord at this point in my life. We were not corresponding and living in different countries (again, I apologize more on this story another time).

I decided to join this site and hopefully find encouragement from like-minded girls choosing to trust God with this area of their life.

Once I was a member of the purity girls website, I filled out my profile details and then it moved to the next step (which was optional) of choosing an accountability partner.

So I scanned through the pictures of countless young women all of whom looked awesome in trying to live their lives for the Lord. As I scanned through them I thought well I will choose someone later...then I came across the profile of a girl called Erin. 

I felt a huge nudge, like a voice said to me 'Pick her!'

It was not an audible voice, just to be clear.

As I read through her profile, the nudging happened again.

I was unsure if this was the Lord or just me thinking she looked sweet, so I clicked the button requesting accountability with this sweet californian girl. 

It.Was.The.Lord.

Who nudged me.

A friendship this sweet, was definitely a gift from the Lord.
As we began correspondance that year, I met this incredible girl with such a sweet heart for God.

She encouraged me in my pursuit of Christ, in my loneliness of being single, in so many different ways.

The more I got to know her, the more I found out how similar we were.

We were both the oldest of 2 girls in our families. Both love vintage things, both have blonde hair & blue eyes (in fact her mom mistook me for her when I later visited her), both in love with girly things (I blame her for this change in me haha). 

Image Property of {SweetnessItself}

The Lord has given me this precious friendship & taught me so much from her wonderful heart.

She has been my friend through so many exciting changes in my life.

From loneliness in my first year of college, through exciting courtship with A.

Through engagement to A right after I went to visit her and we actually got to spend a week together in sunny California.

She has been such a true friend to me. 

She was my long-distance bridesmaid as last minute she was unable to make it to our wedding.

I am so thankful the Lord nudged me that day in my dorm room, to pick an accountability partner from SoCal. Just another girl in a bunch on a website. 

She is not just another girl!

This girl has a heart of gold.

She is so precious.

I pray that someday I will be able to witness her earthly prince arriving to sweep her off her feet.

To share in her joy, like she did mine.

And I totally plan on naming a child after her (of course that decision will be made with A)...

because I love her name & because if I someday have a daughter who turns out anything like her....

Well that would be one of the biggest blessings in my life ever!

I was going to describe our trip to see each other.

But that might have to wait.

Praise the Lord for sweet friendships & for ordaining our meeting!!!

Go call or email those wonderful women in your life for no reason other than to say hi. 

You know who they are.
They are a gift from the Lord.

Much Love,

L

 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17 

The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.

Proverbs 27:9
 

 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12

{On My Heart} Mondays. [Part 7: Sweet Friendships]

I have been blessed to meet some wonderful girls in my short lifetime.
Those with whom I have been able to share a hot cocoa, watch a girly movie, share our deepest desires, encourage each other & enjoy spending time together in general.
The older I get, the more I realise how rare & precious these friendships are.

We are so sinful, in general.
As girls, I've noticed how things can be overdramatized when it comes to relationships with each other. We are so fast to point out how a phone call got missed, an insensitive comment was made, or we felt betrayed.
Then we often shut down or withdraw, we try to punish them for hurting us.
Even when we try to forgive, we often find we hold on to those feelings of hurt or betrayal. We still remember things they said even after trying to 'resolve' the conflict.

Gone are the simple days when things were dramatic for about 5 minutes over sharing a toy, then we forgot about it and were best of friends again. How I long for those days.....
Ever noticed how children are so forgiving. They can be hurt by someone, literally pushed to the ground, but they get over it in minutes.

The Lord has been teaching me so much about how to truly resolve conflict & how to be a godly friend.
How to not look to friendships with girlfiriends as a replacement for His love.
How to ask myself if I am really turning to Him first or if I would rather see if that special girl of mine is home, so I can share my hurt & vent?
As the Lord has moved me around a lot, I have realised in the past I so looked to these beautiful friendships as a way of having my needs met, finding my identity and removing loneliness.
When I was in Middle School, I had a wonderful friendship with a sweet girl which was totally unhealthy. If she was not in school for a day, I was lost. If she wasn't sitting at a table, I couldn't sit there. Our relationship was so dramatic, full of passive aggresive behavior and withdrawal to punish and protect ourselves. Completely self-focused.
But if I am truly following Christ, then I need to follow His example of how to love people.

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 

{Phillippians 2:3-5}

If we all have an attitude of selflessness with each other, there are likely to be less conflicts.
The friendships I value the most are probably those with whom the girls are grasping this concept the most.
I need to start asking myself how I can serve her when talking.
How can I show her Jesus, even if this is uncomfortable for me.
When both serving & seeking Christ...the friendship is able to blossom into something
SO precious.

I have a few of these wonderful ladies in my life, I value my time & conversations with them SO MUCH! Most of them don't even live in the same place as me.
They encourage me to pursue the Lord when I am hurting.
Often I don't need them to pat me on the shoulder as I cry, I need them to tell me truth.
They know my heart's desire is to be more like Jesus.
That requires telling me when I am wrong at times.
I love it when they challenge me about whether I have taken the problem to the Lord first....because it shows me they truly care, about me & relationship with the Lord.
I may not love it at the time, but they understand that I will appreciate that more when I'm not so caught up 'in the moment.'
A lot of people could sit and sympathize with me and tell me how right I am to feel hurt by things, but to me a true friend will challenge me to grow from the situation and encourage me to trust the Lord, even if it hurts.
This kind of friendship is true edification, for both myself & the other person.

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

{Colossians 3:12-13}

We are called to have a different reaction to each other than what the world tells us.
We are not to get angry quickly even if someone was insensitive, we are to be full of patience. Making allowances for their faults, and forgiving them.
That last verse hits me the hardest, the Lord has forgiven me...so I must forgive others.

'When both individuals are seeking to live a life that is all about Jesus, it will naturally result in a desire to make the friendship one in which they not only get more of Jesus, but become more like Him as well. A friendship that purposefully makes Him the center and draws both people close to Him will become a beautiful testimony of patient graciousness, humble servitude, and selfless love - spurring others on toward that same single-hearted pursuit.'

{Leslie Ludy - Set-Apart Friendship Part 2, Set Apart Girl Magazine} 

Our security comes from Christ alone. He is able to make us whole and complete.
He is able to love us perfectly, like no-one on this earth can.
Not even a husband.
May those difficult relationships remind us of that beautiful truth.


And those beautiful friendships.....well we are Blessed, friends.

Much Love,
L