Best Friends

These two sweet girls are such a blessing to my life! They are new to the University this year and have quickly found friendship in each other!

I am was so excited to get to spend time with them and practice some more. This go round I wasn't paying as much attention to areas I need to really be practicing so there are a few here that turned out decent!

Thanks for taking a look!

I will attempt to post my first week of the thirty day challenge on Friday evening!

 I know there are a lot of pictures here, I told the girls I would put as many as possible on here. Sorry if there are any repeats let me know what you think and any pointers or advice would be awesome!

Be Blessed,

Becks

Thirty Day Challenge!

Hello family and friends!

I hope that you are finding comfort, hope, and joy today! Our God is good and loves you so very much! 

I am about to begin a thirty day challenge so that I begin to focus on some of my goals! I am looking forward to growing spiritually and physically over my final years of my undergrad and so here is a great start.

I am beginning a thirty day photo challenge. I am really passionate about photography. The ability to freeze a frame what God has created and to acknowledge that he is great and powerful is such an opportunity!

Thus, the beginning of my thirty day challenge!

Come along and join me. I may be unable to post every single day, but I will do the best that I can! Thank you for being a blessing in my life. If any of you would like to be my genie pigs during this please let me know!

Be Blessed,

Becks

Free From Bondage

I was going to post this on my health blog, but decided to post it here.. we all struggle with this.

Another Journey Begins

I recently have purchased a Nikon D3000 and I am learning about photography. I really enjoy taking pictures and editing them! I had my first ever mini "photo shoot." 

On Thursday afternoon when I got out of class me and J Rey headed towards downtown and I got to play around with my new camera.

I have a lot of room to grow and area's to learn. I played around with appature, I haven't quite gotten lighting figured out, but I did learn a lot. I also played around with the ISO a bit. It was a lot of fun.

Please be gently, this was my first attempt! I have a lot to learn about photo editing as well, but I have had a great time doing this and look forward to many more opportunities. If anyone wants to be my genie pig, please let me know!

Distortion... Recognition... Devotion... Restoration

This post is the result of the inability to sleep and the stirring of my savior upon my heart and soul.

This evening I had the opportunity to go to a Chris Tomlin concert with the youth at my church!

Around the time I begin to get really selfish and absorbed in my own little world, God always has a humbling experience not far in the distance.

I wasted this entire day. Battleing a war that is not my own. Surrendering to my sin, and acting like a victim.

Jeeze Becca no wonder you were making yourself sick.

On the way to the church prior to the concert a woman came on the radio and said something along these lines.

We worry about such petty things. Those things for some reason begin to take precedence in our lives, why because we allow them to. For instance; worrying about other peoples business, where we are going to get money, or even the lingering drama dwelling in women that seemed to graduate with us in high school and never leave.

However, if you were to die today how much of what you concerned yourself with furthered the kingdom of heaven.

We waste so much time conserning ourselves with things of this world. We are just like everyone else.

Tonight at the concert Louie Giglio did and incredible presentation ( Google: Louie Giglio How great is our God)

All of creation is worshiping our king. Do you want to be out- worshipped by a whale?

I know I sure don't!

When we allow our God View to become a World View. Our hearts, minds, and souls begin to imitate that of a victim.

However, when we allow our World View to be transformed and developed by our God View. Only God himself is able to recieve the victory of a life he created, representing his name, each and every day!

"My cross before me, I'm already on my way!

Luke 9:23 "whoever would come after me, must deny himself, pick up his cross daily and follow me."

It's a daily battle. We are in a spiritual war! Our king has already won. It's a choice. DAILY!

Are you going to chose to live like a victor, or a victim?

Sickness

This is one of those day's where you wouldn't post because your struggling and don't want to be vulnerable but I need prayer. Serious prayer. I am going through something right now that no one understands. It sound soo stupid to anyone I talk to. Please don't ask about specifics.

It is just draining me emotionally and physically. I don't understand it at all. I am crying every day. It's like I have allowed this to steel my joy. 

More than anything it is probably jealousy of no one in particular but just the situation in general.

Pray for me I need it

A Lady of Diligence

Today as I was searching for a half used spiral I came across an old devotion journal. It was from when I went through Lady in Waiting.

As I read through it I found that it met me where I was! 

Recently on K LOVE it was discussed that we as Christians are constantly seeking literature, more knowledge, more "rules" for how to live our lives properly. When really in fact, we know more than we put to practice and if we would initiate that knowledge it would be better than pursuing more with empty reproach. 

"Almost as dangerous as neglecting the word is the habit of taking it out but not putting it into practice."

Isaiah 50:4

The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary....

No how are we going to use it, and when are we going to start putting it to practice!

Be Blessed,

Becks

Relaxing

This week was a busy week, I had two tests that drained it all out of me! So today I took  advantage of the opportunity to rest. I cleaned the living room and kitchen, next stop will be my bedroom and bathroom. It is truly amazing how much better you feel in a clean and organized environment. 

In an hour I am headed out to spend some time with friends, planning for an upcoming baby shower for our sweet friend Randi, an having some fun playing around with shiny rocks  :). 

Today has been exactly what I needed. I am looking forward to a productive and relaxing weekend! 

Be Blessed!

Becks

Stumbling Blocks

Something that I struggle with an that I always have struggled with is trusting people. I am naturally a pretty open book, I find it to be a weakness sometimes. I am so transparent that it is inappropriate at points. Not to mention, the ears that hear may have mouths that wander. I am open with the things that I have experienced and the areas that I am weak and struggle. Which makes it easy to understand that I over share sometimes. When this get's taken advantage of by a friend though, I really struggle. When I find out from there moms mom mom, you get the picture It is tough! 

As Christians we are called to protect each others testimony. I am learning so much about this.

It is important to me and to so many people, this world is broken and we do not need to be stumbling blocks for each other.

Take care of your brothers and sisters in Christ, if they share something with you in confidence, do not use it against them or share it! 

It hurts your trust with them and affects others who are watching your life!

Love each other, be real, and don't hurt your spiritual siblings.

Be Blessed,

Becks

6 days later..

This weekend I went home. It was relaxing and always fun to spend some time with my mom and Joe as well as his family.
 Another week, with plenty of things to get done! It will fly by just the same though. I just wanted to post and say I am still alive and ticking I am just busy at current unable to post on a daily basis! More to come later this week!

Have an awesome day,
Becks

Soul Savvy Sisters

Today, In honor of my weekly fellowship and in celebration of a life dear to my heart, I have decided to write about my sweet friend Taren Nicole Shelton! 

This beautiful lady is one of a kind! 

She is our BSM Intern for the year and was with us the previous year as well. Every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. we meet to talk about life and enjoy in each others lives! I do understand that she get's paid to hang out with me, but that is beside the point :) !  

Our time together is usually accompanied by coffee, you see this young woman is addicted. Actually its to the point to which coffee is one of her many passions! :) She loves to encourage and do life with everyone she comes into contact with, not content with surface level relationships which is right up my alley. I love that when we get together we can talk about life and just enjoy each others company, but are able to challenge each other spiritually as well!

Taren, is excellent at photography! She recently helped me with a little project for our women's bible study. Let's face it, she did the entire shebang! It is truly spectacular! I have always wanted to get into photography as a hobbie and she indirectly encouraged me to go for it! 

Our ministry truly has been blessed through the life of this wonderful woman! I am thankful to have such a great friend and leader! On Monday she turned 24! What a great opportunity to celebrate her life. I am so thankful for her and the obedience she has to surrender to God's call. She had an opportunity this year to pursue an outlet towards her dream of owning her own coffee shop, and she listened to her savior and chose to serve him through serving us! What an awesome example! 

This semester I have committed to memorizing Psalm 139, God has been working on my heart so much through this chapter of the bible! I read it often, and am slowly absorbing it. I need to be more intentional in my pursuit of this goal! 

This portion of the chapter clings to my soul. My beauty is defined by him, I am precious and held by the creator of the universe! Wow, so thankful for that promise! He knew me before I was born, he knew all the places I would live, all the places I would struggle, and all the areas of my life would bring him joy! Good stuff people, especially for the girl who struggles with insecurity!

I hope your day is blessed and filled with peace!

Stay Classy,

Becks

My Beloved. (Spoiler Alert)

As mentioned yesterday, joey and I attended Courageous this past weekend. At one point in this movie this father takes his daughter out to a fancy restaurant. It is beautiful, he is in a tux and she in a nice dress. As, she begins to digest and understand why he has done so much for her he pulls out a ring box. He then continues to ask her for the opportunity to approve of any and all boys who want the opportunity to date her, and to respect their decisions in her dating life. In asking this he also explains that he loves her more than she can digest and helps her to understand that she deserves only the best. The ring he pulls our is a gorgeous diamond heart with a gold band. As he puts it on her finger he tells her that this is intended to be worn until your wedding day. 

Of course, as any girl who loves her daddy would, she responds in a giggle and with thanks! The scene continues and she is seen starring at the beautiful ring that now occupies her left hand where her daddy placed it, heart filled with joy!

I just wanted to take a day to get back to the status of a daughter. I often forget that he is not only my God but my father. I am his precious and beloved child! I am held, cared for, and loved. 

In reading this morning, I came across beloved in 1 Peter, although it didn't come directly from the mouth of Jesus, it did tug my heart just as dearly. My daughter, come close! I hold your heart, your next moment, and your dreams. I will not let you fall. Wait upon my will, it will be greater than you could ever imagine on your own. Be still.

Remember today how your savior see's you. That bond is unique and specific to you! 

A special and sacred reminder that you too are

Beloved!

Be Blessed,

Becks

A man worthy of honor :)

I just would like to spend today to express how proud and grateful I am to have Joseph  Adam Watts in my life.

Saturday was the mark of our third year of dating, and no it wasn't some fairy tale day with this extra ordinary ending, however it was perfect. We kept it simple, spent the day relaxing and watching football then off to dinner and a movie. 

The flick we decided to see was Courageous! Such an incredible portrait of the call for men as spiritual leaders of their homes! Even cooler was the fact that there were probably a total of 5 women in the theater and the rest  of the seats were packed with several generations of men! Such a rare but spectacular thing to see.

When we left the theater I was so excited as to where that would lead our conversation for the remainder of the evening. God did not let me down! 

My savior is so passionately in love with me to want so great for me and to provide me such a man after his own heart! I get to see the man that most don't know on such a personal level. I get to see the man that is fearlessly pursuing Christ and seeking what is noble and true. I am awarded the opportunity to follow a man that is only leading me towards things the encourage growth and honor the God we serve!

I am so excited for where God is taking me, and even more thrilled that I get to see the ways he is leading Joe. This is just the beginning! 

The ways that he has grown in the past three years is incredible, I thank God daily for the good work he is doing in my future husband. Also for the ways he has and is continuing to develop our relationship and ministry together.

Please continue to be prayer warriors for us and with us! 

I am sorry for not posting my weight watchers stats but please help to keep me accountable... when i don't post I am cheating lol :)

For today:

Breakfast

Nothing :/

Lunch

Baked Ziti Smart One - 8 points plus

Dinner

Total Remaining Day: 

25 points plus

Activity Points:

Walking Tonight 

For A Lack of Words..

Stay Classy,

Becs

S'more Cookies?

Food Finding Friday!

This is the first among many new recipe adventures. Heather, Katharine, and I took on S'more Cookie Bar thingies today! I must say they are absolutely deli-sh! However, we ended up forgetting one key ingredient. As most know; a S'more consists of chocolate, graham cracker, and marsh mellow! Well, we forgot the mellow. Turning this into a absolutely fabulous chocolatey haven for a food connoisseur mouth! I know this is not a healthy recipe, but I am hosting a girls night tomorrow evening for the women of the BSM! So something fattening is just what the Dr. ordered! 

I will leave you with the recipe and a couple of images for eye candy!

From: Ice Cream Before Dinner

11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. I used one 11x17 pan and one 9x13 pan but you can really use any sized pans you want.

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching). I used 16 graham cracker squares on one pan and 10 squares on another. You may have to add or remove graham crackers according to how much dough you have. If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight (I did one batch right away and another after chilling overnight and found there was no difference.)

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. I averaged about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per graham cracker square as seen in the picture above. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. You can place as many pieces or as little as you want depending how much chocolate flavor you want.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. For clean cutting make sure cookies are completely cool and cut with a sharp knife.

Fabulous, Fun, and Quick!

Enjoy. I know that we will! Miss and love you all!

Be Blessed,

Beck's

What is going on woman?

Wow, talk about a hectic crazy life! None of those adjectives should describe the life of a follower of Christ! This shows me just how little I am really relying on my savior to be my supplier of energy and my source of life! Any who now that I am done admitting I am a slacker and haven't been making the wisest of decisions. I am going to move on and accept the blessing of grace!

So here goes! My goal is to begin to blog everyday about each area of my life. Maybe I will chose each day of the week to be a specific topic! That sounds good! Today has been a weird day! Not doing so great, I got this killer sunburn while hanging out at "Life's a beach" today and it is wearing me out. I mean I where some large sunglasses, so these aren't even reasonably called raccoon eyes.. I feel like they are more like you got beat up and then got a sunburn around it eyes!

I have finally found a church to make my home here in CC and it is Lexington Baptist Church! I love the heart of this church family! I have found the fullness of community here and am beyond thrilled! This week we received our new minister of music and youth! He is awesome and is really excited to begin impressing upon our youth true discipleship. Wow, way to many exclamation marks, can you tell I am excited :) . So, this wednesday was the first youth night. It was cool to get to meet all of the students, they are really awesome kids and I can't wait to get to know them more.

Afterwards we had college discussion group. This time feels almost like seminary for average people. We dig into the topics that most Christians settle on and don't really care to dig to find the answers. We investigate controversial topics, I truly feel as though I am being sharpened and challenged here! Most often they are topics that non Christians struggle with understanding and hinder them from committing to turn towards a life of freedom in Christ.

This week the topic was "If heaven is so good, then how was "satan" able to do something so evil causing sin to enter the world." The way pastor scott sets it up is we pick a topic usually the week before so that we can investigate and then come back with some ideas. This week, there were none! So we begin looking through scripture, and googling the question. We come up with passages in Isiah, Ezekiel, John, Genesis, Revelations; yet none really tell the story. No where in scripture are we able to find this, it eludes to what happened, but no where is it flat out said. ( An hour and a half of searching and finding no answers to the Sunday school a+b equation is really exhausting!) In the last two minutes of discussion pastor Scott broke down for us what theologians have to say. It doesn't flat out say, however had Satan not been evil, the polar opposite of God, then we would have no free choice. If Good is all there is , there is no choice. Wow, never have I been thankful for Satan... but in this and only this aspect of him, I am.

God is so much bigger than our little brains can comprehend... " Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; its too high, I cannot attain it" (psalm 139:6).

God, you are so much bigger than the moment, so much bigger than the minute, the hour, the day, the week, the month, the year, the decade, the century, and even my lifetime. "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in your book were written all the days that were ordained for me, When yet there was not one of them" (psalm 139:16). Your plan and purpose is beyond my selfish existence. I am thankful for a father who is all knowing and all sustaining! Show us that even in a moment of weakness and in a pattern of chaos, you are still on your throne!!! "Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way of the everlasting" (psalm139:24).

Be Blessed,

Becks