Sweet Home Santa Barbara

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Favorites & Lessons {Of 23} // Vol. 4

Continuing the series, today! 
If you're getting sick of these, don't worry. Only one more day of favorites & lessons. 
But be sure to come back tomorrow. 
Those just might be my favorite :)

Fifteen // I completely surrendered my finances to the Lord this year. What does that mean, you ask? 

Well for one thing, I felt led to start tithing my money. I realized that my money is not my own, it's a blessing from God. And it is a pleasure and a blessing to be able to take what God has given me and return a portion of it back to His church, specifically the one that has become my family

But when I began tithing, I wasn't just surrendering 10% of my income to the Lord. I was surrendering all of my finances. 

And with that, God led me to make the big jump to take a huge chunk of my savings to pay off my credit card bill. 

AKA I am now debt free!

{Source: this post)

Sixteen // This year has been a year of surrender for me. As a matter of fact, in March I realized that that was my word for 2013, surrender

In addition to surrendering my finances, I gave up my dating life to the Lord, too. 

It was my security blanket. The one that I was secretly holding onto, doubting that I could trust God with it. 

But now? Now, I have looked God in the face, with my hands extended out as far as they can go, and said "Here, God! My dating life, you take it."

{Source: this post}

Seventeen // I returned to the desert for Stagecoach, round 2!


If you're unfamiliar, Stagecoach is a giant country music festival. 

And it is amazinggg. You can read all about it here!

Eighteen // I went on my first blate {blogger date}.


Who would have guessed that when I surrendered my dating life to God, He would set me up with a blogger!

Ha, kidding :) But this really was a match made in heaven. 

I absolutely adore this girl! And you can read all of my raving about her here.

Nineteen // I ran!

I ran a 10K. 


{Source: this post}

I ran my first fun run, the Run or Dye 5K!


{Source: this post}

I ran a 15K!


{Source: this post}

And I ran a half marathon!


{Source: this post}

I guess you could say that I fell in love with running this year. Is next year gonna be the year for a full marathon? Only time will tell!

I've got one last day of favorites & lessons planned, you know, to get to 23 of them. 
I think the last ones are ones you definitely won't want to miss :)

4 comments:

Pamela said...

So proud of you & all of your running! Too bad I live on the opposite side of the country!

Julie said...

I'm seriously loving this little series because it's like a countdown to your birthday! And if I haven't told you, I LOVE other people's birthdays. I can't wait until I can start tithing someday (ya know, when I actually have a job). I think it'll feel so nice to surrender my financing to the Lord. Also, I'm glad to see my face on here again ;) Such a fun time on our blate!

Caitlin said...

Can't WAIT!!!! to hear the last one! :) I have loved all of these so far!

Seriously girl... I don't know how you run half marathons. Props to you. I run like 1/2 mile and I'm not tired, but I can't control my breathing and then I walk and then run some then stop and walk again. And then 30 minutes later I have only gone 2 miles. Fail. This is why I try to do much better on other ellipticals !

Rach said...

Aww, I just love re-reading all these. It really is the best-of-the-best from the past year all in a few posts. :)