ONE WORD 2014 // MICAELA

/

I've had the pleasure of knowing Micaela for a number of years. She's pretty much the most enthusiastic/encouraging person I know. She was one of my city youth girls but (sadly for us but happy for the mainland) moved to Surrey with her family. Her heart for the Lord and his church is so incredible and I truly believe she's a world changer! Take it away Micaela….!

Hey, I’m Micaela, one of Laura’s past yet present youth girls (but I’ll get to that later). It was over two years ago when I first heard about the one word idea from Laura on her blog and it changed my thinking about new years resolutions. Since then, I've seen incredible things happen in her life every year she's done it and when the new year came, I decided to join in.

My one word came to me while reading her 2013 one word recap, more specifically, when she encouraged others to join. The month before, my one word kept popping up in my life and while reading her blog post, it came back. That word was STILL. A couple seconds later, a verse popped up into my head as well.


“Be still, and know that I am God!

   I will be honored by every nation.

   I will be honored throughout the world.”

Psalms 46:10 NLT



This past September I moved over to the mainland with my family and it has been a huge change for me. From an island kid’s perspective, I learned very quickly that everything over here is go go go and I’ve gotten overwhelmed multiple times by all that and attempting to get through it myself. It’s hard to be still when you’re doing everything in your strength alone and can barely catch your breath, but this year I'm focusing on that.

During the past few months, God has already done a bunch of things with my one word, including- letting go of the pain from something in my past that has been impacting my life for over 5 and a half years. He’s shown me the true meaning behind STILL and how it applies to my life. 2014 has been a crazy adventure and I can’t wait to see what God will do with my one word throughout the rest of this year.

Also, huge thank you to Laura for letting my story be included with all the other amazing one word stories and for constantly sticking by my side during this whole process. I’m so honored to have the chance to call you my leader and friend. 

Thank you so much for sharing your one word with us Micaela, I love ya so much and miss you but I know Surrey is lucky to have you, xo!!

 

Check out the other one word entries ---> Amy | Nadia | Sarah | Tiffany | Danae | Laura

 

How amazing have these one words been? I know I've said it before but I'm going to say it again, it's so incredible to see God uniquely speaking to his daughters. He sure loves us and knows just what we need. :)

 

xoxo,

s.s.♥.

 

P.S. If you would like to submit a post about your one word for 2014, email me at laura@ssheart.com

ONE WORD 2014 // DANAE

/


Today get ready to meet the beautiful Danae. I get to see Danae almost everyday as we work together at the church and it is honestly such a blessing. She's incredibly fun, has the best "snort laugh" and has a heart of pure gold. Her she be…!

Hi! My name is Danae and I had the privilege of taking part in the one word brunch that the lovely Laura hosted this February.

2013 was the year of new experiences for me. I, as a 25 year old woman, entered into my first relationship. Let me be clear, saying that I “entered” it is putting it really lightly. What I actually mean is that I jumped blindly, wildly and without any inhibitions headfirst into it. I went in with the mentality of “I am 25, I know what I’m doing… seriously! God! I’ve soo got this”. I left God on the edge of that relationship and I ended up experiencing a lot of pain and hardship as a result of that decision. 

 I learned so much about myself throughout that time and most of it has been pretty hard to accept and face. As a result of abandonment as a child, I have the mentality that I don’t deserve the best that God has to offer me and that I should be willing to settle for sub par because that’s all that I am ever going to get. I felt the need to quell all that I am as a person in order to fit into whatever mould my significant other wanted me to fit into. I lost who I was during that time and it has been quite the journey over the past few months trying to regain my identity. 

 I spent some time early on in January praying over what God wanted to say to me about this next year and one verse kept on coming back to me.

“But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation: It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness. The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.” Lamentation 3:21-21 

 Hope was my word of year! I decided to look into the original Greek and Hebrew words from which hope derives from in the bible. Tiqvah(Hebrew) literally means a cord or attachment. Tiqvah comes from the root word qavah, which is also commonly translated as hope. This word originally carried the sense of something strengthened by being bound together, such as a rope. This rope or cord endures when tested and stretched. The concept of hope as symbolically represented by these words is the trust placed in an unbreakable promise. Another common Hebrew word translated as hope is yachal. Yachal means to wait expectantly. It is to patiently endure because of the assurance of what is coming. In contrast to the plethora of Hebrew words, there are only two Greek words for hope in the New Testament. Elpis is an expectation or confidence, and its verb form, elpizo, is the act of expecting or trusting.

 

So this year I am putting my trust in the unbreakable promise that is Jesus Christ, I will wait expectantly for all the amazing things God has in store for me and I have immeasurable hope in the beautiful work that God is doing within me and will continue to do within me! 

 2014, bring it on!

all photos by Amy Gary

Such gold right there. Thank you so much for sharing Danae!

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the other girls' one words- Amy // Nadia // Sarah // Tiffany // Me and here is the original post from our one word brunch!

 

I'm still taking submissions for one words! So if you would like to share on here about your one word for 2014 email laura@ssheart.com

 

xo,

s.s.♥.

ONE WORD 2014 // TIFFANY

/

hey everyone! today you'll be hearing from my beautiful friend Tiffany. I've had the pleasure of knowing Tiff for years. She has the most beautiful soul. Her heart for people is so huge and she is a constant inspiration to me! Take it away Tiff...

 

Hello my name is Tiffany. I am a wife, a worship leader, a nurse, a coffee snob, and I love to encourage smiles!  I am two years married to my rock of a husband Roman and it just keeps getting better. I love to worship God by singing, and dabbling on guitar. I love my church of Glad Tidings & Adore and the work that God is doing in the hearts of His people there. Laura is a fantastic friend and inspirational leader one of my fav people so thanks Laura for having me share on your beauty of a blog!

Getting married was the second best decision of my life. Although challenging at times I love it. Our first year had a lot of bumps, think about it, two very different yet similar people, two schedules, two jobs and only one car, 2 opinions, and the list goes on. BUT we are wonderfully in love with each other and we want to walk through our differences and challenges because of this love and the example of true love that God laid down for us.

One benefit of all this is that your hubby is your ultimate accountability person. So as things come out of your mouth, sometimes in an endless stream, they can, stand with you and verbally acknowledge your feelings and then lovingly admit to you the things that you might miss yourself.

Roman, my best friend; has helped me to notice the negative or ungodly things trying to creep into my life, the old ways or habits and the new. He doesn’t point fingers at my weakness and furrow his brow. He sits beside me, hears my story, and walks with me in my struggle. He secures a trust and in it he shares honestly what he is hearing. He doesn’t do it to strike me down, but to love me more. So yeah sometimes I am wrong HA! Hard to swallow but it’s the truth! Thank goodness Roman is who he is or I may not take it like I have.

Ro talked me through a near explosion on a family vacation last summer where I was ready to run and give up. He held me by my arms, stared into my eyes and said “This isn’t who you are!” He speaks up to protect and defend me from myself and others. He validates my feelings and when I cry he wraps His arms around me even if I don’t make sense and he comforts me. Ro is a listener sometimes he speaks and sometimes he doesn’t which can drive you nuts at times but you know his heart! What is even more beautiful about all of this is that when he does these things, I feel God in our relationship. I feel God’s love, His strength and hope holding us up even when we feel we have failed GOD IS WITH US.

 

I am thankful and blessed.

 

God is with us. He believes in us that we can get through all things with Him, especially the dirty and hard things. So my one word for 2014 is PURIFY. My prayer to God in January was asking God, as I am, to PURIFY my heart to help me to become more aware of the things trying to creep in and discourage. I asked God to scrape from my mouth any hint of gossip and to say no to fear of what people may think of my decisions. For God knows my heart. I asked God to remove any bitterness from my heart that has been building up from judgment or hurt feelings. God forgives, God forgive me and I will forgive others.

 

The last two months I have been experiencing God purifying my heart. I won't lie, it isn’t easy and sometimes it really hurts, but end result Eternity with Christ and Him using this life to love, so worth it.

A friend gave me a new concept for the word purify, we used to sing that worship song “Purify my heart.” Beautiful song, but I don’t think as a young’n I really thought about the REFINERS FIRE! Ha! Sometimes it burns and hurts when you are being remolded or sanded ouch! We’re asking God to make, us sinners, like Christ. It’s a big job.

It might be nice to say once I became a Christian that was it, no pain, ta da, but I am even more glad to say that through my walk with Christ I have hit road blocks, messed up sometimes, but God was with me nudging at me, guiding me. At times it was hard because I fought with what I wanted and His plan. I still do! I am so over joyed to have chosen God’s plan and I have seen great reward and blessing in walking with Him, and have myself molded into the woman He sees me to be.

 God’s way is always better

all photos by Amy Gary

 

Thank you for sharing your word with us Tiff!! Love you :)

Check out our one word brunch here and check out the past one word explanations- Laura // Amy // Sarah // Nadia

 

Hope you have a lovely day!

xo,

s.s.♥.

P.S. Do you have a one word for 2014 too? If so I'd love to feature you. Email me at laura at ssheart dot com or comment below for more details!

SEASONS

/
spring.jpg

I've been learning about seasons lately. As you know, I've started my half marathon training. It's been a little bit crazy. On Sunday I did 17.7 km in the icy rain (yeah, not ideal…spring come soon!) The good thing about the training is it gives me a lot of time to listen, think and talk to Jesus. Recently I've been working through some of Steven Furtick's sermons. Last December he did a miniseries on seasons. Wow, just wow, has God been doing a number on my heart through those messages.

 Let's just get this out there…this winter season has felt very loooooong. As I've said it many times before, fall is my favourite. But (along with most of the population) I do love summer too, and spring is great with all those beautiful cherry blossoms. But winter….well, winter is dark and cold and looong. Is anyone with me on this?

Personally, the past three months have been pretty right on par with the weather. Let's just say it's been a very emotionally draining time with a lot of tears, fears and angry runs and showers (please tell me I'm not the only one who hashes the hard things out with God in the shower?) It's been yucky and at times I've been tempted to make my heart as frozen as that icy rain that beats angrily against my window.

God's been teaching me though. I've been learning that I can't choose my circumstances, but I can choose my response. I can choose to be frozen, numb and bitter OR I can choose to cling to Jesus and trust that spring is just around the corner. I can choose to trust that God is doing something in me through this season, that He knows what's up and He is producing something in me that will blossom in its time. I will dare to hope. I will declare over my life that God is faithful. 

And he has been faithful. He's sent me prayer warrior mamas who pray for me. He's sent me angels who've given me mani & pedi gifts. He's sent me friends who encourage, who give me beautiful frames with God's truth in it. He's sent me people who listen. He's sent me the Holy Spirit to fill me up and move through me when I couldn't even fathom being used by him.

So I will remain in him and set my sights on the sun and trust that hope is rising. I will have spring again.

 

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

- C.S. Lewis (The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe)

 

So I write this post not to depress you but to encourage you that even though you can't choose your circumstances, you can choose your response. God is with you and for you and he will be faithful through this winter season. Remain in him and let his hope arise in your heart. Spring is just around the corner.

xo,

s.s.♥.