Spiritual experience is a gift, not something to m Spiritual experience is a gift, not something to muster or manufacture. 

If I ever find the guts to get a tattoo, it would be this. A constant reminder of true reality:

I am saved, kept and loved based on objective facts and grounded in a perfect person, Christ, never my subjective feelings and circumstances and abilities. 

Tim Keller says, “what makes you a Christian is Jesus’ work, not what goes on inside you.”

Experiencing God is not a requirement to live life with Him, but it is a sweet gift and worthy of hungering for. 

Grace through faith. Everything. Always.
✨ Her — only wants to eat cheese, most of the ✨

Her — only wants to eat cheese, most of the time walks on her tiptoes, loves playing with the car seat straps, chews on her finger constantly, has the best smile, learning more words and pushing boundaries something serious

Me — not sure what to do with her wild hair, getting creative with God on recharging in moments that aren’t so relaxing, using every minute of nap time for design work and loving it and becoming a bit obsessive with walking our quiet driveway
Some days you wonder how it could be this awesome Some days you wonder how it could be this awesome and other days she keeps trying to eat rocks and you don’t brush your teeth until 3 o’clock. 

Solidarity, parents.
@themasters weekend @themasters weekend
#Repost @allthecounterthings
・・・
(cue ‘I’m So Excited’ by The Pointer Sisters)

One of my biggest giveaways to date!

I believe in @beautycounter, even to gift some GREAT things so that you’ll try them for yourself that they may serve you. 

It’s @themasters Friday, and in my city that means an exciting few days is ahead. 

May it be so with your clean beauty swapping!
(Until April 17th. 😊)

Need suggestions or a guide around the website? Message me or click the link in my bio to take a skincare quiz or to find your right foundation shade or to request samples. 

I’m here to help! And I can’t WAIT to gift someone this box of goodness. 

peep @emeraldoxco amazing coffee
What a joy to spend the morning with the beautiful What a joy to spend the morning with the beautiful @ashtonquattlebaum. 

We knew each other in middle/high school, now we’re adults and because of Beautycounter, reconnecting and working and dreaming together.

HOW. COOL. 

This is my ‘why’ with Beautycounter — the opportunity to cultivate friendships and help and love women where God has them, connected by clean beauty products.
spotting airplanes and sharing goldfish spotting airplanes and sharing goldfish
#Repost @allthecounterthings ・・・ #preachingt #Repost @allthecounterthings
・・・
#preachingtomyself

When you abide in Christ, when you open yourself to His Spirit’s leading and changing, when you trust and obey Him, your whole being can become ministry.

Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God, do it with God, do it and see people as Jesus saw them, with needs and dreams, and love them. 

I have started more endeavors and realized more dreams in the last year then I think in my entire life. Joining @beautycounter was one of them. 

So I encourage you also — 

Take yourself seriously and not too seriously. Work diligently. Dream big. Be faithful. Have fun. Rest on Jesus. Hold it all with open hands. And enjoy it.
Anna when asked if she wants blueberries or to go Anna when asked if she wants blueberries or to go outside. #Easter2021
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faith · 06/07/2017

thoughts from a sick day

I write this post from my couch.

Where I’ve been sitting for the past 8 hours.

Surrounded by books, pillows and blankets, a tea mug, a water glass, and tissues.

Yes, I have a cold, with a fever attached.

Although seriously bummed I couldn’t go about my normal day, for it was full with a need for productivity and a fun meeting over God’s Word, Holy Spirit has been teaching.

First, I struggle with sitting still. I’m fidgety, restless, and almost always multi-tasking.

“We often use outer distractions to shield ourselves from the interior noises.” Henri Nouwen

In the quiet is where I experience His presence, because He doesn’t shout over the television. On a day like today, stillness is where I encounter Him. Reading His words, I am refreshed, and challenged.

Second, a friendship with Jesus means honesty with Him.

This is a lesson I learned earlier this year.

“God insists on artless transparency to enable Him to mold me into a woman of grace and beauty, a woman who listens and hears and knows Him down deep… When I confess my flaws, my guilt, my failures, my frustrations, to God, He takes the softest washcloth to my mess and bathes me in beauty. I lean into His warmth, breathing in the scent of Him, wanting more.” Diane Comer

It took multiple circumstances, and Holy Spirit’s gentle convicting, to help me see that I’m not honest with God. It’s a funny idea, though, since He knows my thoughts long before I think them. I held things in own strength, pretending for appearances, weighed down by legalistic guilt and fighting spiritual battles on the grounds of deeds. 

But in this habit, I missed a profound part of my relationship with God — His goodness, and the Gospel, that covers every past mistake and every future deliberate sin.

Third, I occupy myself with lesser things, even though deep down, I know exactly what (or Who) I need.

I got up around 6am and eased my way to the couch. Talked to God a bit, then J joined me and the “you have a fever, text your coworkers, take some medicine, stay hydrated” unraveled.

It took me until 3pm to find quiet again. I was uncomfortable and wanted a distraction. I started movies and didn’t finish them. I watched a few episodes of a couple different shows I enjoy. I read a little.

In the back of my mind I’m thinking, this is the perfect time for some one-on-one with Father… but I ignored it.

Why? The other things were easier, and they seemed more entertaining, while really containing no real substance. I forget that time spent meditating on Father God, no matter what it looks like, is always the best use of time.

For most of the day, I settled for obliging to my lesser appetites.

But, reading His words, being quiet and letting my mind roam, was far more refreshing and helpful, better for my soul, than anything else all day. 

This statement from John Piper I heard the other day continues to ring loud:

The greatness of God’s majesty is not magnified in hollow efforts to keep commandments. Every religion does that. That doesn’t make God look great. It makes you look moral. Rather, the greatness of God’s majesty is exalted when you are satisfied in him more than anything, especially when you’re suffering. My point here is you’ll never feel this, you will never devote your life to magnifying God by being satisfied in God, until you see that the ultimate essence of evil is the failure to be satisfied in God. John Piper

So. All of this to say, it’s easy to believe the lie that anything but God will satisfy what I’m craving, whether that craving is hunger, excitement, comfort, confidence, etc.

The battle is in my heart, deeeeeep down there, and I pray His Spirit continues to capture my heart with an insatiable desire for Him.

In: faith · Tagged: faith, observed, spiritual growth

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I'm Chelsea... a wife, mom and friend who enjoys all things peanut butter, clean beauty, the written word, and a good sports movie. This is my place to share real life and Biblical encouragement to draw us all to deeper joy in God. Pull up your favorite internet browser and stay awhile!

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Spiritual experience is a gift, not something to m Spiritual experience is a gift, not something to muster or manufacture. 

If I ever find the guts to get a tattoo, it would be this. A constant reminder of true reality:

I am saved, kept and loved based on objective facts and grounded in a perfect person, Christ, never my subjective feelings and circumstances and abilities. 

Tim Keller says, “what makes you a Christian is Jesus’ work, not what goes on inside you.”

Experiencing God is not a requirement to live life with Him, but it is a sweet gift and worthy of hungering for. 

Grace through faith. Everything. Always.
✨ Her — only wants to eat cheese, most of the ✨

Her — only wants to eat cheese, most of the time walks on her tiptoes, loves playing with the car seat straps, chews on her finger constantly, has the best smile, learning more words and pushing boundaries something serious

Me — not sure what to do with her wild hair, getting creative with God on recharging in moments that aren’t so relaxing, using every minute of nap time for design work and loving it and becoming a bit obsessive with walking our quiet driveway
Some days you wonder how it could be this awesome Some days you wonder how it could be this awesome and other days she keeps trying to eat rocks and you don’t brush your teeth until 3 o’clock. 

Solidarity, parents.
@themasters weekend @themasters weekend
#Repost @allthecounterthings
・・・
(cue ‘I’m So Excited’ by The Pointer Sisters)

One of my biggest giveaways to date!

I believe in @beautycounter, even to gift some GREAT things so that you’ll try them for yourself that they may serve you. 

It’s @themasters Friday, and in my city that means an exciting few days is ahead. 

May it be so with your clean beauty swapping!
(Until April 17th. 😊)

Need suggestions or a guide around the website? Message me or click the link in my bio to take a skincare quiz or to find your right foundation shade or to request samples. 

I’m here to help! And I can’t WAIT to gift someone this box of goodness. 

peep @emeraldoxco amazing coffee
What a joy to spend the morning with the beautiful What a joy to spend the morning with the beautiful @ashtonquattlebaum. 

We knew each other in middle/high school, now we’re adults and because of Beautycounter, reconnecting and working and dreaming together.

HOW. COOL. 

This is my ‘why’ with Beautycounter — the opportunity to cultivate friendships and help and love women where God has them, connected by clean beauty products.
spotting airplanes and sharing goldfish spotting airplanes and sharing goldfish
#Repost @allthecounterthings ・・・ #preachingt #Repost @allthecounterthings
・・・
#preachingtomyself

When you abide in Christ, when you open yourself to His Spirit’s leading and changing, when you trust and obey Him, your whole being can become ministry.

Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God, do it with God, do it and see people as Jesus saw them, with needs and dreams, and love them. 

I have started more endeavors and realized more dreams in the last year then I think in my entire life. Joining @beautycounter was one of them. 

So I encourage you also — 

Take yourself seriously and not too seriously. Work diligently. Dream big. Be faithful. Have fun. Rest on Jesus. Hold it all with open hands. And enjoy it.
Anna when asked if she wants blueberries or to go Anna when asked if she wants blueberries or to go outside. #Easter2021
I love what our pastor said this morning — If it I love what our pastor said this morning — If it was just the cross, we’d be a bunch of forgiven corpses. We have been saved TO something, the richest and fullest of life, in Christ, forever. 

May we be courageous people who know real hope and endurance in the sorrow of life and real gratitude and wonder in the good of it.

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