I’ve known Emma all my life and I can truly say she is a Christianista. Emma is the cutest nurse I know. She is smart, genuine, knows how to have fun and constantly challenges me to be a better person. We are currently challenging each other to stay away from sweets. Enjoy reading about Emma below.
Age: 31
Occupation: Registered Nurse
Hobbies: Reading, Knitting, Dancing, and listening to music
What does being a Chrisitian mean to you?:
Being a Chrisitian means continuous education…what I mean is learning and studying the Bible. I believe that you should take your christianity the same way as you take your profession. As a nurse I am constantly learning about things in my profression, as a Christian I do the same. I want to continue to learn about Jesus in order to continue to grow. You get up every day to go to work, no questions asked I feel that you should take time out of your day to study the word, no questions asked. I also believe as you go through your daily life others should see your light. You shouldn’t have to say that you’re a Christian your actions should show that you are. I feel that being a Christian means being an inspiratin to others, through helping people who aren’t as fortunate as you are.
Two challenges that I face as a Chrisitian woman is:
1. Making the time to study the word the way that I should. As a single dating Chrisitian woman I tend to lose focus on the most important thing which is spiritual growth in God and focusing more on building my relationship with my boyfriend.
2. Being in a nurse and working around a lot of women. Not getting into the office gossip and just concentrating on my work. Letting my abilities speak for themselves and trusting in God that whatever rumurs come out I will not be swayed or act in a non-Christian way.
I’ve known Sherrie for about 11 years now and what I love about her is her colorful personality. She is such a positive person who always sees the brighter side of every situation. I have so much to say about this lovely lady, but I will let her tell you about herself.
Age: 29
Occupation: Full time stay at home mom, part time : nurse
Hobbies: Reading, Zumba, Hiking, Writing, Singing
What does being a Christian mean to me: To me it means doing the best I can to imitate Christ…that is so broad but I mean it everyday living, loving, giving, sharing, helping as he would. In the words of Joyce Myers ” Progress is vital, perfection is impossible”. So I am living everyday as a Christian woman trying to be more like my God knowing I will never be perfect like He is.
Two challenges I face as a Christian woman:
1. Daily not getting sucked into the things of this world examples: how I look, am I too big or small, do I have enough, is my house big enough..I feel like this is so hard because I am constantly surrounded by people who have things and I find myself wanting more but needing nothing. So I have to pray everyday that God give me a heart that wants and desires the things of Him and appreciates the things He has already blessed me with.
2. Finding balance in my relationship with God, my husband, my children, my extended family, and my friends. I know that my relationship with God is most important but some days I feel like I am squeezing Him into the day instead of putting Him and making room for everyone and everything else. I find that starting the day off with Him makes the day so much easier..yet some days I wake up and it’s straight the the boys room I go after giving hubby a morning kiss, then breakfast and then life….and then at nap time I’m like ohhh I guess I should read my Bible now…that is not how it should be.
I studied social justice in Argentina during a semester while in grad school, and loved it. I lived with a host family in Buenos Aires during a US summer which made it winter in Argentina. Buenos Aires reminded me of a San Francisco or New York with its hustle and bustle, busy streets, crazy clubs, and insane taxi drivers. I can be bit of a carefree person and at the same time afraid of any animal smaller or bigger than a puppy, and with fur. During my time there, my classmates and I went on ventures to visit sister countries. This one particular time, we went to Iguazu falls, we took a bus.
The 13 hour bus ride
The bus ride to Iguazu took 13 hours and had various military road blocks along the way. Despite my initial reactions, the bus ride was painless. Instead, the bus was decked out. The seats reclined into semi-beds and they served us a meal, which I dared not take part in. The 13 hour bus ride was shortened to about 3 hours of alertness thanks to 2 adult doses of Dramamine (I get bad motion sickness). During our ride, my classmates and myself played games and moved from seat to seat to socialize with each other, but that came to an instant halt when our bus conductors found out. The bus conductors on our 2 story dream bus were very strict, threatening to throw us off the bus if our seats didn’t match the number on our bus tickets, and the name on our bus tickets didn’t match the name on our passports. It was then when I took my second dose of Dramamine and the next time I woke up, we were in Puerto Iguazu.
The city of Puerto Iguazu
Iguazu falls sits between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The falls itself is like Niagara falls on serious Barry Bonds steroids, the city of Puerto Iguazu is completely different. Puerto Iguazu in the winter time seemed empty but crowded with indigenous local street merchants. Our hostel, which was only $8 for 3 days and 2 nights was something right out of one of my nightmares. I, being the only person afraid of dogs jumped on a counter every time one of the many stray dogs wondered into the game room which is where my classmates and I congregated daily. Not to mention, one of those dogs were a class favorite and quickly became my arch nemesis. Also, my full size bed was shared with someone that I didn’t know so well. Needless to say, I slept on top of the covers with my coat AND hood on, with jeans, socks, and boots. Fast-forward to my last day.
Last day in Puerto Iguazu
Great, it’s our last day, we get to actually go to the falls, and then back to Buenos Aires. Iguazu falls were amazing. We spent the entire day there, rode speed boats under the falls, and perambulated hiking trails of the park. Time to go home now! Wait! It was father’s day, and I needed to call my dad. Because of safety concerns, students were told only to bring the money they would use, a copy of their passport, and nothing else. I did exactly that, and in doing that only had one phone card, with about 5 minutes left on it. Every phone/internet store (locutorio) doesn’t accept all types of calling card, and the particular calling card I had, most locutorios wouldn’t accept. I had to call my dad to wish him a happy father’s day because with the time different and 13 hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires, father’s day would be over by the time I got home.
Lost
It was now time to board the bus and I still hadn’t called my dad. With 30 minutes left to board, I dashed down the streets of Puerto Iguazu in search of a locutorio who would accept my calling card. I was one block away from the bus station and stopped at a locutorio, but they pointed me to another locutorio one more block away. This series of events happened about 5 more times in 10 minutes and before I knew it, I was 10 blocks away. Lucky for me I stayed on the same street and had finally reached a locutorio who would accept my card. I whipped my card out, dialed my dad, and then ……I hear the operator say “hello you have reached the voice mail of”….and my dad’s voice, ” hey at the tone, leave me a message and I’ll get back to ya”. Ugh!! First of all, I’ve been telling my dad for so long that your voicemail message doesn’t go there, but instead you are suppose to put your name, but that’s a different story. And Secondly, he didn’t pick up the phone!! I hung up the phone as I screamed at the top of my lungs (in my head) looked at the time, and jogged toward the door. As I ran to the bus station, the dog from the hostel appears and runs alongside of me. I am now frantically running from the dog and not paying attention, and that’s where I ended up at a dead end. Not just any dead end, but I noticed the change from tourist area to walls of graphite and vandalized cars, and the dog is still beside me like he is my dog! I try to calm myself as the sweat burns my eyes, and the heavy book bag strap is falling off of my left shoulder. I gasp for breath and pray at the same time, “Jesus, oh no, Jesus, please, this is not happening”, and then I run full speed in the opposite direction…..and so does the dog. We end up at another street that doesn’t look familiar and at this point I have 5 minutes to get to the bus station, no money, no more minutes on my phone card, and a copy of my passport. I’m about to die! I run into a store and mumble something in my broken Spanglish, “eh..donde es la buse?” The merchant looks confused and sees my hand gestures and points me into the direction of the dead end. We exchange words, hers Spanish, mine broken spanglish, and I’m off again with the same dog hot on my trail. After two minutes of all out sprinting and visits to different stores, I stop a couple who look American and ask if they spoke English. Success, they did!! They pointed me in the direction of the station and I ran, along with that dog. As I was running with the finish line in sight, and the flee bitten, tick polluted, dirty, smelly, kinda cute now that we’ve spent so much time together dog by my side, just like a track meet, my classmates were hanging off the bus pushing me on. My classmates were yelling, “push it, run, don’t give up, pump your arms!” I know I’m exaggerating a bit, but they were telling me to come on. I made it to the bus wet with sweat, my heart now in my stomach, and a cramp in my side. I made it. Thank God! I was lost and now I’m found! I was sore for about 3 days after. That was the scariest day of my life. Ok, so I’m a bit dramatic and didn’t almost die, but that day I thought I was going to.
Happy Tuesday. To continue with my Tuesday’s true story theme, I thought of a special time during my Freshman year in college when a certain guy group came to visit. 112!
I went to a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) and had the best time of my life. Football season with the marching band, spring time cruising, Homecomings, parties, concerts, bands and singers visiting our school. This one particular event, the group 112 came to visit. If you are unfamiliar with 112, they were a popular guy group. I can’t compare them to any guy group from today because they don’t seem to exist.112 had hit songs such as “I’ll be missing you”, “Peaches and Creme”, and my favorite, “Cupid”.
112 was scheduled to make an appearance at our school’s student union banquet hall, just one of the many events our student government planned for the spring. I was very in love with 122, especially Slim. I had all of their Cd’s and knew that Slim and I would make the perfect couple. I was very involved in school and had the inside scoop of where they would be entering and exiting from. I don’t know what I was thinking that day or if I was thinking at all, but in the moment I thought I had a brilliant master plan.
My plan was to hide behind the curtains in the staging room, the room where they would be entering before they went out on stage. I had to hide behind the curtains in case security made a sweep of the room before they entered. I was so smart I told myself. I knew they were riding in a white minivan, and I had a stakeout point to lookout for them so that I could hurry and go hide to await their arrival. As crazy as this sounds, it gets crazier because I was acting alone. I was serious and involving another person could have possibly compromised my mission, so I went by myself. Please don’t judge. Actually as I’m writing this, I’m thinking….maybe I should keep this to myself. Anyway, I saw the white van pull up and hurried to my post behind the curtains. I can hear girls screaming and yelling as 112 is guided through the chaos by their body guards. They enter the room, and here is my chance. I peek from behind the curtain and see that they are relaxed now since they are in private, or so they think. OK, here goes nothing……”Hey Yall!!” I greeted them in a “tada” kind of weird way and jumped out of the curtain. I could see I startled one of them as Slim backed away. They just looked at me and didn’t respond. The moment of awkwardness seemed to last for about 3 hours and grew longer with the silence. Finally, I scurried past them to find refuge in our student union food court. How embarrassing! As I sit and think of what went wrong I enjoyed a sandwich from Chic-fil-a. In my mind it went totally different than that. I thought Slim would have one look at me and fall in love. He would see my skinny boyish frame, disheveled hair, flip flops with no pedicure and say ” it’s just something about her.” Don’t we all want that, someone to discover that something about us? One thing I took away from that experience is, it never hurts to try, but it can surely be embarrassing.
I was crazily in love with a figment of my imagination, a music icon, or basically, an idol. I know it sounds strong in my situation to say that God tells us not to have any gods before Him. If you think about it, I was idolizing this person, making myself look crazy to meet an idea of a person I had no real knowledge of. God says in Judges10:14
Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress. This is especially funny to me because of the way God says this. He says it like,”go ahead and see how much your idol will help you, receive you, love you”. In my case, my idol didn’t even recognize me, although he’s never seen me before..AHEM, but that’s besides the point!! How many times are we so in love with a person, an idea, material items to the point where we idolize them?
This weekend we had our mini-camp for the NFL team that I dance for. We had many bonding moments and times where we shared stories. As we went around the room to share funny stories, I shared my story. As I was telling the story, the response I received was an uproar of laughter and I thought to myself, “If they think this is something, they would die if they heard the many stories of my life.” So, I decided to start sharing true stories with my blog family. First up, the chinchilla that attacked me on an airplane – and by attack I mean chased me.
I need to start with a disclaimer – I am deathly afraid of animals. There are a few exceptions which are puppies and kittens, but other than that, I hate them all. I was at the airport boarding my plane, on my way to NC for a nice and relaxing 4th of July trip. As I boarded the plane, I tripped to the sound of a dog barking, not a good sign. Ten minutes later, I was settled in my window seat, headphones -check, Lucky magazine – check, Jones New York Pashmina scarf – check , jamba juice – check, let’s do this. The flight attendant starts to make her safety announcements, and I dozed off.
I slowly open my eyes and start to focus in on a dim light that is slowly getting brighter as it is approaching my row. I notice that the owner of the light is a cell phone, which a passenger is using as a flashlight. The passenger is hunching over and crawling on his knees in search of something. The sudden blast of the brightness from the cabin lights coming on caused me to fully wake up. Seconds later I hear the soft voice of one of the flight attendants, “excuse the lights ladies and gentleman, please check under your seats as we have a passenger who have seemed to have misplaced their pet chinchilla.” At that very moment, I hit panic mode, A PET WHO-CHILLA?!?!?!?
I can just feel a bad situation about to happen as my stomach drops and hands start to sweat, am I gonna faint? Number one, I’m probably the only person on this plane with a fear of animals. Two, there is a wall from floor to ceiling separating me from first class so in the case that I lift my feet to clear a path for whatever could be under my seat, it won’t have anywhere else to run! Three, what is a Chinchilla?!? Before I could formulate any thoughts, I look down to see a huge black bunny rabbit- looking- rodent with no ears crawling up my bag. It was like a dream where everything is in slow motion, I couldn’t unfasten my seat belt fast enough. As the chinchilla starts to crawl up my bag closer to my seat, I violently throw my body out of my chair aiming for the aisle, but instead falling and rolling over the passenger with the aisle seat. Once the majority of my body was free from the aisle, I dart as fast as I can to the front of the plane. Looking like a fool, shaking and out of breath, I was free from the chinchilla and a foreigner standing in first class. Short of an asthma attack, I was approached by the flight attendant who apologized and said the chinchilla chewed through its cage. “Great”, I thought, what kind of animal are we dealing with here.
During the entire rest of the flight, I couldn’t sleep and kept jumping when anything including my bag strap brushed my leg. When I returned home I researched chinchillas to find that they are rodents from South American that bark and can jump up to 8 ft vertically. Needless to say, I wrote a letter of complaint. I’m sorry, but I’m not used to flying on flights where wild rodents that bark and jump up to eight feet roam freely.
Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a book that attempts to explain how to live in exceptional moments against the dull background of life. You are in your flow moment when you are doing something challenging that you love and time doesn’t seem to matter. Unlike happiness, flow is complete mental and physical involvement. Flow are exceptional moments with mental focus that encourages action. When you are in your flow, you have a clear vision and focus of your goals.
Where does flow happen:
Flow can happen while you’re dancing, working, running, and hanging out with friends just to name a few. An example of a flow activity would be a game of connect four. Two players who know how to play the game, who know the goal of the game can concentrate very clearly on reaching their end goal. These players have no question of what is to be done and how. During the entire game, the two players are in this concentration bubble with a concise end goal in sight, and that goal is to win.
How do you find your flow
Below is a list of ways to find your flow from Zen Habits:
2. Find something that is challenging – If you’re like me, you will probably not give your undivided attention to something that is too easy and instead multitask.
3.Minimize distractions – Turn your phone and computer off. Let people know that you are busy and not to disturb you.
4. Prepare yourself – Make sure you have everything you need so you don’t have to break your concentration.
5. Isolate yourself – This goes along with eliminating distractions. Sometimes distractions can be your boyfriend, friend, mom, and even your pet.
6. Let go– Let go of your expectations and excuses, just do it!
7. Set a timer/deadline – Give yourself a set time so you have something to work towards. I find that I work better under pressure, so having a set time pushes me.
Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
OK……so, I’m a little confused here. I’m not all about the looks, actually, I’m not about the looks. I believe that the kind of heart a person has is so much more important that the exterior. However, because I watched the show “Let’s talk about Pep”, I’m a little confused on how Jacque ended up with J. Anthony Brown. Jacque Reid, former BET nightly news anchor, was one of my favorites of the show. She is extremely smart, articulate, cute, and fly and J. Anthony Brown is the opposite of all that in my opinion. Is his personality so dynamic that he pulled Ms. Reid? According to The Tom Joyner Morning Show and Black America Web, J Brown and J Reid are getting married on the “Fantastic Voyage” cruise on Monday, May 17.
Trying out recipes with my friends and family, long dog walks, singing w/ my guitar, board games, wake boarding trips to the lake in the summertime, praying with my boyfriend and my gal’s group, shopping, sharing photos with loved ones, helping people find deeper meaning and achieve their goals – both big and small!
What does being a Christian mean to you?:
Even though I have been in a church community almost all of my life, I’ve learned a lot about being a Christian in even the past year and have grown this idea to be many things…
Living in faith AND action – trusting God to provide and take care of me rather than my own power, planning, action, hard work, will, etc… this is my biggest challenge!
Praying daily/giving anything and everything up to God. Stopping to think about God’s intentions for my life and for my everyday decisions. Enjoying the company of the Lord.
Pursuing the truth (in Bible verses, Godly mentors, sermons, etc.), acting on what I know is right and what the Holy Spirit is stirring in my heart. Humbling myself (being honest and mold-able) before others and God. Reminding myself that “it’s not about me”, and that ALL I do can honor Him!
Reaching out to those who are struggling… allowing myself to be used as His instrument. Letting others know why I have faith and peace in Jesus, in hopes of helping them to better know and live a life of faith.
What are 2 challenges you face as a Christian woman?:
Currently, my two biggest challenges are not being afraid to stand up for and explain my faith to others, which includes personal viewpoints and choices that others don’t always understand like making faith-based career decisions, going to church, striving for sexual purity, and trying not to use profanity.
I also struggle in continually trusting God to provide for the future (finances, resources, family, career, etc.) so that I don’t have to worry about trying to plan everything! Note the emphasis on “trying” J Focusing on the joy and peace that God’s will brings, and not letting the worries/strivings of the world (wealth, success, stability) bring me down.
So, my obsession with my eyebrows started about 4 years ago. I noticed how over powering my eyebrows were when I dyed my hair copper. I’ve had so many different hair styles from a short boy cut to a medium length copper layered look to a large curly fro. During all of my hair transitions, the one thing that has remained the same, is MY EYEBROWS. I have really dark eyebrows and I like to keep them thin, and didn’t realize how thin I kept them until my bestie told me. To me, keeping my eyebrows thin brought out my slanted and lidless eyes. In reality, all I had to do was lighten them. Once I started searching for “people with dyed eyebrows” I found out about the new brow less fad. Personally I love it!
I’m going to say NOTHING. I think Valentine’s Day is for women and we should be showered with gifts and love. Call me crazy or selfish, but I just think that women should be appreciated and loved even more on this special day. Valentine’s Day is for us, but if you HAVE to get him something, I suggest doing something special for him instead or buying something. If your guy is making you feel extra special throughout the year and you want to reciprocate that love, try doing something he likes or making something for him. Here are a few low key but thoughtful V-day gift ideas for him:
Make him 10 cups with 10 reasons why he is lucky to have a girl like you: You can use icing to put a number on each cupcake, and have a card with the reasons. You can also write numbers and reasons on the bottom of the cupcake.
Cook him his favorite lunch and attempt to play a sport with him: He will think it’s the cutest thing when you ask if he wants to throw the football around a bit after lunch. Have him teach you his sport of choice.
Make him a CD with all of his favorite songs with you singing or rapping the lyrics: This can easily be done with Garageband on Mac and YouTube. Any music on YouTube can be downloaded to your computer with mp3 converter (free online). If you don’t know the lyrics, don’t worry, you can Google most lyrics on the Internet. Once you have the soundtrack and lyrics, use Garageband on Mac to become the producer that you have always wanted to be.
Have your friends call or text him with reasons why you love him: I did this before. He will be surprised to have random people calling, but even more proud that everyone knows how much you love him.
Volunteer at a V-day program at Senior Citizen home: He will see and appreciate how you share love with others and also get some wise advice about love from older couples.
When I moved thousands of miles away from my family to start a new career fresh out of college, I met two amazing women who I became very close to. Both ladies are completely different from each other, but represent a part of my personality. A is very shy at first, but once she gets to know you , she can’t stop talking, just like me. S says whatever is on her mind and will offer her honest opinion if you ask her, this is one of my personality traits and faults. Both of these ladies are very giving; whether A is giving her time to the community or S is befriending someone who doesn’t have friends, they both inspire me to be a positive woman. I don’t mean to toot our horn, but we are known to turn heads when we walk into a room, it’s just a known fact, check our statistics. Lol. As hawt as we were(and still are), there was a certain point when we were all single and instead of going out, we would stay in on weekends and watch Sex and The City reruns. I remember A and I watching one episdoe when Charlotte said, “Don’t laugh at me, but maybe we could be each others soul mates? And then we could let men be just these great nice guys to have fun with?” I thought that was so sweet until A turned to me with the evil eyebrow and said, “Don’t you ever say that crap to me!” LOL. So despite A’s feelings about soul mates as friends, I decided to make a Valentine’s Day date just for my soul mates
Valentine’s Day last year, I decided to surprise A and S by being their Valentine! I scheduled them both massages during the late afternoon. It turned out that I scheduled for the wrong day, typical of me, but they still enjoyed it nonetheless. After their massages, I told them to meet me at my apartment. I greeted them with matching PJ’s. They did NOT want to put on the PJs but I insisted, it was too funny. It was even funnier when they finally put their PJ’s on, long john shirt with pants to match and both covered in heart designs.I cooked them dinner, pan seared salmon and salad. A would especially appreciate this since she only eats fish and chicken(barely). I also prepared a candy basket, which I ate half of the candy before they got there, an issue I’m still working on. So to make a long story short, we had a great Valentine’s Day, just us girls, us “soul mates”. Haha.
Share one of your non-traditional Valentine’s Day stories below.
I love to watch movies; either at home or at the theater. I love to go to comedy shows, read, sing in the choir, watch my husband play in his many bands, travel, spend time alone, spend time with my nieces (Micaela (10) and Zacari (9), write in my journal, speak to young people, visit my friends and their families, go to plays and musicals, watch Family Feud, and play games (Scattergories, taboo, etc.).
What does being a Christian mean to you?
Being a Christian is everything to me because it is who I am. Being a Christian means I follow Christ who is the head and Lord of my life. It is only through Jesus that I can have a personal relationship with God and I count it a blessing that I have that ability.
What are 2 challenges you face as a Christian woman?
I thank God that I have grown and matured in years and experience. In my twenties the challenges I faced being a Christian were having to stand strong against the temptations I faced in the WNBA. At the time I wasn’t strong enough to say no to many things. However, I have now realized that saying “yes” to God will NEVER end wrong. At my tender age of 33,=) two challenges I face as a Christian woman are not letting my emotions get the best of me, and taking on the burdens of other people. I love people so much that I want them to understand the love that God has for them and if they don’t that wears me down.
I remember my first flight with my mom like it was yesterday. We had it all figured out, mom would buy a window seat, me an aisle seat. We were seated early, magazines ready, shoes off with warm cushy socks, snacks, and no one sitting between us. We were the plenipotentiary of our row, and had full authority of the empty seat that separated us. Between life, the juicy gossip in US weekly, and new fashions from Elle, we had a lot to talk about. However, as soon as the cabin door closed, so did my mom’s eyes. Wait, “wake up mom…mom, for real?” “Wake up, mom, don’t close your eyes all of the way, mom? “OK, don’t close your other eye, mom…mom, at least listen to the safety instructions!!” She doesn’t even move her head, or open her eyes, but out of her mouth, she says, “if this plane crashes, we all are going to die, so it doesn’t matter”. She doesn’t open her eyes for the next 4.5 hours. Ugh! So at this point, I realized that I would not have any conversations with my mom! Sadly, with no distractions from my mom, I actually paid attention to what the flight attendant was saying.
“…. In the event of a decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically drop from a compartment above your seat. To start the flow of oxygen, pull the mask towards you. Place it firmly over your nose and mouth, secure the elastic band behind your head, and breathe normally…… If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person….”
This made me think about life and how we, especially as women, have tendencies to help people. If we can’t breathe, how can we help someone else breathe? In my past, I’ve always had a tendency to help the person I was dating at the time. I genuinely felt in my heart that I could help him or change him into a better person. When, in fact, I wasn’t in the position to help anyone. How could I help someone if I didn’t have it together myself? If I didn’t understand myself, take care of myself, know how to have me time, love myself, how could I share “love” with someone else? The answer is I couldn’t. Like the flight attendant tells us, secure your own mask first before you can help someone secure theirs.
So Marvin Sapp was on the Monique show on Tuesday when she said a few things to him including .”Marvin, you digs up in that a@#, don’t you?” That was one of the many things she said. You can find the video here, fast forward to 10:48:
Hobbies: reading, volleyball, shopping, board games, sleeping, and over-organizing in general
What does being a Christian mean to you? I could answer this in so many ways. But how I apply it to my life is by having an intimate relationship with God…believing in his word…and being a living example of how awesome a relationship with him is.
What are 2 challenges you face as a Christian woman?
#1) I am a PK. So off top that has to be my greatest challenge as there is a certain expectancy and perception that everyone has about how a preacher’s kid should act, or be…or what they should say or do. Especially as a woman! There has always been this default box that you’re supposed to fit in, so you can wind up disappointing people often. This is something that has had a direct affect on who I am as a person- contributing to why I may be far more independent and determined….yet at the same time defensive, shut-off, and stubborn at times than I would normally need to be. Through all the criticism, judgment, and ridicule…I had to learn how to develop a relationship with God that was boxed and packaged just for Tamara, and not care about others. I came to learn that just as you can personalize something to fit you in the natural, I too could personalize my spiritual relationship with God. Trying to please both God and man will only set you up for failure, and eventually make you crash and burn.
#2)The second challenge as a Christian woman is maintaining a healthy balance and being a good example for other woman to look upon. Not being too “holy’er than thou” so to speak…but also not being too “of this world” that you can’t recognize that I am a woman of God. I think that if I am at either extreme, then I have missed my mark. I want to have a balance…both for me and for others to look upon. It is important to me to be a “touchable” example- meaning that I don’t freak people out by my flamboyant holiness, yet I am spiritually radiant enough for people to be both drawn in and touched.
Minx nails have been around in California for a while, and now have caught the attention of the south and east coast of the US. I’ve come to believe that Beyonce has something to do with the widespread of this new type of nail design. Minx nails are similar to the stick on nails I use to have as a little girl but with extra strong super glue and crazy designs. These nails are suppose to last for 2 weeks without chips or cracks.
If you’re like me and hate sitting in one place longer than 30 minutes, minx nails may be the way for you. When getting your minx manicure, you don’t have to wait for your nails to dry. You pick out a design, it is then shaped to your nail, glued onto your nail and then you’re done! Voila!! Unlike your normal manicure, a minx nail manicure alone could cost at least $40.
Actually, I ate the first along with the third and fifth. After the fifth, I went back and ate the sixth, I will just leave the last cookie for someone else. Nope, I ate it too!!
OK, let’s rewind to the beginning of my day. I woke up at 6 am, prayed, blogged, showered, picked out the cutest outfit(my new red fine jersey double-breasted cardigan from American Apparel), and made myself a spinach tomato omelet with cheese. After watching a bit of the news, I casually made my walk to work. On the way to work, I had a fulfilling conversation with my sister about her new boyfriend. My walk was around 20 minutes and although overcast skies and street puddles from the morning rain, the weather was great. Not only was the weather great, I got to wear my brand new rain boots. I’ve been waiting for 3 months to wear them. As I walked down the streets and freely splashed through puddles, I took in the view of the ocean. I passed kids on their way to school, buses filled with people on their way to work, taxi cabs, dog walkers, and other pedestrians, I knew this day was going to be a good day…. health wise.
I get to work 15 minutes early and caught up with one of my co-workers. She told me she loved my boots and I couldn’t help but to agree with her. Needles to say, I was having a great morning. 30 minutes later, in comes my manager with a plate of cookies. Not just regular cookies, but chocolate chip homemade cookies with few chocolate chips in them, just the way I like it.
He ruined my life!! OK, so I’m a bit dramatic, but I will start over tomorrow.
What is the definition of a Christian? Christianity is a very personal relationship that one has with Jesus. Although there are definitions out there, Chrisitianity has a different meaning to everyone. While Christianity is based on of Christian beliefs everyone experiences God in different ways.
I want to survey women all over to ask them what Christianity means to them, and then, what does being a Christianista means to them? My first interview is with Sheree.
Name: Sheree
Age: 21
Occupation: College Student
What does being a Christian mean to you? Knowing and believing in God and trying to live your life by His rules and for Him. What does being a Christianista mean to you?
Being a Christianista to me means being involved in Church. I’m a Christianista because I’m trendy when it comes to fashion and Christian related topics. I’m also non-judgemental and can have fun without being too out there.
It’s Friday!!! You wanna wear your jeans, but maybe you’re going to dinner with friends after work. How to tackle the casual/work/cute look. Try something like this:
Doing something I’m not supposed to do. At work when I am shopping online, even if it’s during a small break, I hate when people walk past my computer. I feel like people are spying on me. I realized this because I grew a huge feeling of hate for one of the guys that works in my office. I know hate is a huge word, which made me sit and think of where this feeling evolved from. I noticed that I counted every time he got up from his desk. I thought “how nosy he is, i wish he would sit down somewhere ugh”. It’s because I am doing something that I’m not suppose to be doing and getting caught. How many times are you caught and annoyed at the person who catches you?
So….I’m not sure what brought me to this article but it was very interesting. Sex toys for Christian women? These sex toys have rules and regulations and are for married couples ONLY. Because I will embark on my married journey one day, I can appreciate couples trying to keep their union spicy as well as honest.
