Welcome!

Welcome!  We are so glad you are here.  Grab a cup of coffee, light a candle, turn on some soothing music, whatever helps you relax, and join us on our journey!

We are three women from Lubbock, Texas.  In February of 2015 we traveled to Austin, Texas to attend the IF:Austin conference for women.  What we left with was a...revive our generation (1), live a life of faith (2), walk it out (3), be strong and courageous (4), our Redeemer lives (5), break every chain (6)...kind of attitude.  We were on top of the mountain when we left Austin, and as we made the drive home and reflected on the weekend, our greatest fear was that Monday morning, real life, demands of the week would hit and we would crash down from that mountain and lose the high that we were on.  We heard Jen Hatmaker say, "Real faith moves out of our heads and into our lives."  We wanted to make sure that our faith was present in our lives for all to see.

So, we started brainstorming.  How could we, just three normal wives, mothers, friends expand our lives of faith?  We decided to start with a blog.  A place to share our lives, to show how we use our faith everyday, a place to give ideas, a place to learn from one another, to encourage, to hope, and to share the love of Jesus.

At the conference we heard Angie Smith say, “God has given us gifts to use for His glory, and they don’t have to look like everyone else’s.”  You will find through this blog that the three of us have different gifts.  We write differently, we process things differently, we have different styles of blogging, we have different traditions, we think about things differently, and the Lord has put different ideas on each of our hearts.  We hope that as you read, you will be encouraged to find your own gifts that God has blessed you with and use them to advance His kingdom.  Romans 12:6-8 says this:
“⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.  If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”

All three of us have different gifts, and we can use those gifts to fulfill our purpose here on earth, but at the same time we can merge with others who have different gifts, and together we can be a force to be reckoned with.  Imagine what our world could be like if we used our gifts to work together for a common good.  “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)  At this blog we hope to sharpen one another.

Although our ultimate goal through this blog is to share our lives of faith, all three of us also wanted to share with you our personal reasons for beginning a blog, and what we hope is achieved through our blog:

AD:
One of the words I’ve felt God place on my heart for a while now is the word courage-  courage to step out in my faith more.  I’ve always been a quiet follower, but now I feel as if God is saying, “Okay, it’s time to speak up.”  This blog will help me in two ways with my courage.  Since I want to live out my life of faith for others to witness, this blog will gently nudge me into courageously sharing with others what that faith looks like in my life.  Writing itself will also be a form of courage for me as writing opens up a whole new door of putting myself out there.  It not only gives me an outlet to share, but with that comes fear of what people will think of me and what they will think of my writing.  I am hoping and praying that God is using this blog to strengthen my total trust in Him, and to create in me a dependence on Him for courage.

AI:
Several years ago, even though somedays it feels like a past life, I blogged and it was a highlight in my life. I let a few good reasons and a lot of bad reasons stop that outlet for me.  Mainly, I became fearful of drawing attention to myself and I hid. That fear not only caused me to hide something I loved, but it caused me to hide my faith by keeping things I had once shared publicly to myself and reserving it for those closest to me. While not bad in and of itself, at If:Gathering the words "your faith is meant to be shared, not hoarded" resonated deep in me. So in an effort to stop hoarding that most precious gift in my life, I'm choosing to share more...step one: this blog!

MC:
I love photography, I love beautiful things, I love finding beautiful things in the unexpected, and what do I do with that?  I document it, I take pictures, I share them with others!  I hope that through this blog, I can focus more on the beauty of our world, and in turn I hope you will feel encouraged to find the beauty around you! 

 

We are so glad you are here!

3 Lubbock Girls

 

1. Rebekah Lyons  2. Jennie Allen   3. Bianca Olthoff   4. Joshua 1:9 (NIV)   5. Jo Saxton 6. "Break Every Chain" sung by Melinda Doolittle