Trust in the Lord

I am the type of person that has a plan for everything.  I know what I want and I am a very decisive person.  With that being said, I really do not enjoy change.  However, I have been experiencing a lot of change recently and I have really had to rely on God and trust that He has the best plans in store for me.

I will give a few examples of things that have not gone the way I imagined or planned.  I always imagined that I would meet and fall in love with my future husband while in college and get married after I had graduated at about the age of 23.  In reality, I met my fiance when I was 16 when I had no interest in dating and now I will be married at the age of 20.  When deciding where to go to college, I only applied to one school- Virginia Wesleyan.  I was set on going to Virginia Wesleyan for four years and did not want to even consider going anywhere else.  Well, I stayed at VWC for one semester and after a lot of prayer, decided to transfer to Regent.  I have also wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember and could not imagine myself doing anything else.  I have done internships and worked with children for many years and have loved it.  Well the Lord has shown me this week that teaching is not for me anymore.  He has opened up so many doors and opportunities for me elsewhere, so I am changing my major.  This is something I never thought I would do, but I am taking this leap of faith because I believe this is what the Lord is telling me to do.  

All of that being said, we can make plans in our lives, but the Lord is the one who always has the final word.  We must let the Lord guide us and trust that He has the best plans for our lives.  We need to realize that He has planned every single detail of our lives and He is in control.  His plans are much higher than our own.  We must seek Him first and pray that we would follow His will and honor and glorify Him in every aspect of our lives.
"We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps" Proverbs 16:9

Blessings!

Dani 

What Makes You Beautiful?!

Our society has become so obsessed with outward appearances.  People are so quick to judge others by how they look! What is with this?! We were not created to put others down.  We were not created to think poorly of ourselves.  We were not created to criticize and judge other people because of how they look.

What were we created for?

We were created for intimacy with our creator-God.  And anything that comes in the way of that needs to be removed from our life!  If we are obsessing over how we look, this could be getting in the way of our relationship with God. 

It is really hard to be confident in this world, especially without a firm relationship with God.  We are constantly being told how we should look, what we can do to attract someone, and other things like that.  The truth is, only the love of God can satisfy us.  Until we are confident in who we are in Christ and our identity in Him, it will be very difficult to be truly confident. 

GOD MADE YOU…

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:13-14 NIV)

Think of a time that you had to create something.  It could be a painting, a sculpture, a song, a poem, something that YOU made yourself.  Something that you were very proud of.  This creation may not have been perfect; you may have made a little mess with the paint, or have some eraser marks, but that didn’t matter to you.  You thought it was beautiful.  You LOVED your creation. Something that you wanted to show to everyone.  Have you thought of something yet?

Okay now, thinking of that same thing, think about how you would feel if somebody talked badly about your creation.  Somebody pointed out the flaws or mistakes you made.  Somebody told you it was ugly.  It wasn’t pretty.  That you shouldn’t be showing other people because it is nothing to be proud of.

That is how God feels when we constantly point out our flaws.  When we call ourselves ugly.  Or we say that we need to be skinnier.  Or have better hair.  Or wish we had better skin… the list goes on and on. 

God created us to be perfect in His sight.  We are His masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10).  He created us EXACTLY how He wanted us to be. 

Why do we take into consideration the opinions of other so much?

We have God’s approval.  God tells us we are absolutely perfect in His sight.  (Ephesians 1:4)  It is very difficult to become confident in yourself unless you are confident in God.  When you know what God says about you and that He made you just the way He wanted for a purpose, nobody else’s opinion will matter. 

Ladies, if you have been told that you need to look a certain way to attract a guy, let me tell you right now… THAT IS A LIE!  Any man that is worthy of receiving love from you will accept you the way you are.  If they do not appreciate your God given beauty, they are not worth your time.

Make this declaration over your life: “I am beautiful because God created me.  I am perfect in His sight because I am his masterpiece.  I was created with a purpose and the only opinion that matters to me is the opinion of my Heavenly Father.  I am confident in who I am in the Lord.”

If you can speak this over your life, you will soon be able to believe it and in turn, you will become more confident!  Pray for God to give you confidence in who you are.

“Don’t be concerned about the OUTWARD BEAUTY of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes.  You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from WITHIN, the UNFADING beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so PRECIOUS to God.” (1 Peter 3:3-4).

When we are beautiful the way God created us to be beautiful, our beauty never fades!  When we trust in Him and honor Him, He sees us as PRECIOUS!  He sees us as precious… AMAZING! 

 Focus on who God created you to be. Focus on becoming more like Jesus.  When you focus on these things, when you focus on the things God created you for, you will become closer to Him and anything that this world says about you won’t matter anymore.  The only thing that will matter is what God says about you!  Press in to His love.  Dig deep into His word.  Spend time with Him, and I guarantee, confidence will follow!

Blessings!
Dani xoxo

Love takes Sacrifice

This week I learned a very important lesson that I would like to share.  Many times as humans we are very self-centered and do not realize what other people are doing to show love to us.  We only recognize the sacrifices we ourselves are making and fail to recognize what other are sacrificing for us.
Relationships take a lot of love, sacrifice, communication, and compromise.  They are not always

easy.  In fact, they are oftentimes extremely difficult.  But when we rely on God and seek Him first, He will bring us through anything.
This week, my fiance, David and I had plans to see each other one evening.  I had been working all day long, but David's dad was in town, so we wanted to get together so we could all spend some time together.  To make a long story short, David's family took a wrong turn which caused them to be two and a half hours late to meeting up with me.  I had had a long and hard day at work.  I was exhausted and did not want to wait around.  I did not know what to do.
I began to pray and I turned on the radio.  The song "Fierce" by Jesus Culture was playing.  The lyrics were, "Like a hurricane/ that I can't escape/ tearing through the atmosphere/ your love is fierce".  I started to think about the fierce, undying, unwavering, unconditional love that our Father has for us.  I thought about the ultimate sacrifice that He made for us by sending His son to come to this earth to die so that we may be free.  I want to live my life striving to be more and more like Jesus.  Waiting for two and a half hours was nothing in comparison to the sacrifice and suffering Jesus experienced.
I knew this was important to David and his family, and it was also important to me.  I am so thankful that God spoke to me that day so that I could experience sacrifice.  Love takes sacrifice.  Call on Jesus in times of troubles and He will reveal himself to you and show you the way to go.

Blessings to you all,
Dani Finn

Ephesians 4:29

With everything that has been happening in our world today, I have noticed an immense amount of hatred being shown between individuals.  Rather than recognizing and appreciating each other's differences, individuals bring others down, harass, and mock them for these things.
I am a bridal consultant at a local bridal shop.  I help brides find their perfect wedding gown.  Many times, brides will bring in their friends and family to help them make the decision.  Just recently, I had a bride come in with her mom.  Every time the bride would try on a dress, the mother would make a comment on how fat her daughter was.  She would say that she did not fit into the dress and she could not wear it because she was so fat.  As the consultant, I tried to gear the attention away from what the mother was saying and turn it towards the bride.  I asked her to look in the mirror and tell me how she felt in the dress and explain to me what she liked and disliked.  I told her how beautiful she was and told her how great she looked in the dress.  At the end of the appointment, she was looking to me for opinions rather than her mom because she wanted an honest, yet uplifting and kind opinion.  The Bible tells us, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" (Ephesians 4:29).  This bride needed encouragement and help on making a big decision for her wedding day.  We must remember to treat all people with kindness and respect.
We are called to love all people just as we love ourselves.  We need to remember the example of love that Jesus showed to all people in his time here on earth.  He loved everyone, even those who mocked and persecuted him.  We must remember that every person is God's creation and we must show love to them no matter what.

Blessings,
Dani Finn

Truth

My fiance, David, and I have been planning our wedding for the past several months.  We have finally set a wedding date: August 6, 2017! We have been seeking the Lord's guidance for confirmation of the timing of when we should get married, and this is when we feel is God's will.  Because of this, we have been so excited to share the news with our friends and family.
I will be 20 when our wedding is here.  I am also the youngest in my family, but also the first child to get married.  This is something that no one would have expected or planned for, but we are confident that this is the Lord's plan for our lives and we are so thankful to Him for blessing us.
When David and I started calling our family members to share the exciting news with them, we got several different responses.  Some people were so happy for us and encouraged us, while others basically laughed at us and responded with "well whatever".  This was extremely hurtful.  One family member told me that they would not be attending the wedding.  This is upsetting and difficult, but David and I have learned to hold on to what we know is true.  We know that God has brought us together and no man will separate that.  We know that God created us for each other.  We know that marriage is not going to be easy.  We know that we will have our troubles, but God will bring us through them as we continue to trust in Him.  We know that we are honoring God by saving ourselves for marriage.  We are seeking the Lord first in our relationship and He is blessing us for doing so.  We know that we have heard from the Lord that we are supposed to get married and at the timing that we chose.  We know that some people will support us, others will question us, and some will completely stop their relationship with us.  But we also know that our God is for us, so who can be against us?  We will continue seeking Him first and in doing so, He will bring David and I closer together.  We will continue trusting in our God who brought us together and has blessed us with everything we have.
It is hard when you feel like you have been rejected by family members, but if you hold onto the truth and what you know is right, the Lord will bless you.

Dani Finn

Work

Work

I completely believe in this truth found in the Bible: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23).  I don’t know about you all, but this verse makes me picture God himself being my boss.  And the truth is, He is! He created you and He planned every single detail of your life.  He gave His son to live on this Earth to represent true, unconditional love for us and then die on the cross to save us from our sins.  Think about that: God sent His son to die, to give us life.

As teachers, we must have passion for our job.  We must already have the innate ability to love all children and be patient in teaching them.  Because the Lord has given us these gifts, we should use them to glorify Him and honor His name.

Because God has gifted me with this precious life, I want to use it to bring honor and glory to His name in every aspect of my life, even my work.  The Bible tells us, “Commit your plans to the Lord and your plans will succeed” Proverbs 16:3

What I have learned is the Lord blesses those who obey Him.  And when you trust in Him and rely on Him, He will bless you.  God loves to see His children working hard at the opportunities He has given them.  If you feel like God is calling you to do something, do it! Trust in His plan! He has a great plan for your life!

Rest

We are all such busy people.  In today’s world as adults, we have so many responsibilities.  Family commitments, work, education, household responsibilities, and just the other things life throws at us that can be extremely overwhelming.  We have all experienced this.  Life is not always peaceful rainbows and butterflies.  It’s overwhelming and stressful at times.  It is so important that we learn to deal with this stress in a healthy way and not let the enemy overtake us!

Over the past several weeks, I have been extremely overwhelmed with the stresses of life.  It has gotten to the point where it has been affecting my overall mood and attitude.  That is not good!! We need to remember what is truly important and hold on to the true things God says about us that we can find in the Bible.

Once Christians understand that the Word of God is full of truth, they can apply that to their lives.  We know that God is always with us.  This truth brings us peace.  We know that God formed us and set us apart.  This truth will help us feel loved, even in our darkest times.  We know that because God is always for us, it does not matter who is against us.  This truth can empower us to keep living our lives to glorify God even when others put us down.  The truth that God gives us can bring us much confidence and joy.

On the other hand, this world offers us lies daily.  As Christians, we must be able to distinguish between the lies of this world, and the truth of God.  We are constantly being told lies like “you will never succeed”, “you are not good enough”, and “nobody likes you”; however when we look to the Bible, we see very opposite things.  We see that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).  We see that we are blameless, spotless children of God in His sight (Philippians 2:15).  We see that nothing in this world could ever separate us from the love of God (Psalm 139).  His love is so great for us that we could never understand it.  We learn that God is always with us wherever we go.  When we are able to speak these truths into our lives, we will become empowered and more capable of spreading the love of God to everyone on Earth.

When you feel stressed or overwhelmed, look to your creator for rest.  He says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 NLT).

Find your rest in Him.  He is the only one that can bring you true peace and rest.  Anxiety, depression, and worry are real things.  They are very difficult to deal with.  But we serve a big and powerful God.  If you are experiencing these things, look to God to find rest.  Sometimes it helps to just unplug from everything and take a break.  Read your Bible- get to know the true character of God.  Spend time listening to soft worship music and just soaking in the presence of God.  Talk to Him-pray.  God will always listen.  Write in a journal.  Just take a break and rest.

Find your identity in who God says you are.  Not what anyone else says.  Read your Bible.  Learn these things.  Ask God these questions and wait for Him to respond.  If you seek the Lord, He will give you everything you need.  He cares for you.  He loves you more than you could ever imagine.  Cling to that love.

A friend of mine shared this saying with me a few years ago about rest: “Sometimes life feels like running on ice.  You get further sitting on your butt and sliding than running.”  This is so true.  Sometimes we just need to take a break and trust that God is holding us in His hands.  He is already at the solution of our situation.  We think it will never work out, but God is already there.  Take some time to spend with just you and God.  He treasures this time… what an amazing thing that the creator of the universe desires to spend time with YOU! Wow!  We serve an incredible God!