A Weekend Outdoors

Sometimes, you just need a weekend outdoors to appreciate how beautiful God's creation is. 

This weekend was one of those weekends for me. It was filled with almost all of my favorite people, and left me feeling incredibly grateful. 

Grateful that God put so much beauty in this world for us to enjoy. 

Grateful that I live in this incredible place called Santa Barbara. Where within 5 minutes, you can drive from the beach to the mountains. 

Grateful that I have so many incredible friends. And grateful that my friends are now becoming friends :)

And with that, I leave you a zilliontrillion photos. 

Because sometimes, no captions are necessary. 

Happy Monday, loves!

Have yourself a great one :)

Prayer Chain! // Week 3

Happy Sunday, lovelies!

I am so happy to be back for round 3 of The Prayer Chain, hosting with my wonderful friend, Melissa Jo. 

I'm gonna keep things short and sweet today, but I do have an incredible praise!

That's right! My aunt is officially cancer free. Thank you all so much for your prayers, and please pray that all check ups moving forward will keep showing the same good results!

As for prayer requests:

1) Please pray for healing for my roommate. You can read about her accident here. Recovery has been rough, and prayers would be much appreciated!

2) I will be running a 15K next Sunday, and please pray for God to keep my body strong through the race! This will be the longest that I have ever run, 9.3 miles. The last time I was running this much, I ended up with a stress fracture. Fortunately, I have not had any issues with my feet lately (yay!!). But I have been feeling it in my knees. 

Luckily, thanks to some wonderful Instagram advice (thank you!), my knees are feeling 100% better. Foam rolling has done wonders on my IT band, and I have had zero knee pain since!

Please pray that God would keep my body strong through the 15K, and as I continue to train for my Half Marathon in May. 

I cannot wait to hear all of your praise reports and prayer requests. 

Thank you so much for sharing your lives with us!

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises. 

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them 

pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 

James 5: 13-14

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HAPPY Friday!

Haven't done one of these in a while, but there's always so much to be happy about. So here we go!

*The fact that it's Friday makes me happy!*

Always a given, right? 

*The fact that I finished The Happiness Project this week makes me happy*

Separate post on this coming soon. This book was the kind of amazing that deserves its own post.

*The fact that I started A Confident Heart this week makes me happy*

This book has been sitting in my room for a few months now, just waiting to be read. Can't wait to dive into it. How to stop doubting yourself & live in the security of God's promises. Who couldn't use help with that?

*The fact that we have a Finance Bowling Party tonight makes me happy.*

Even though I suck at bowling.

*The fact that Jesus love me makes me happy ecstatic!*

Happy Friday, friends!

Got prayer requests or praise reports? Come join The Prayer Chain on Sunday. Hope to see you there! :)

Optimism at its Finest

Yesterday, my roommate got hit by a car. 

Yupp, you read that right. Hit. By. A. Car. 

I've mentioned that Ashlee is an incredible athlete, but I don't believe I've mentioned that she is currently training to go compete in an Olympic qualifying triathlon in August. 

I'm still wrapping my head around that awesome-ness. 

When she left for her training bike ride yesterday, she forgot her helmet. After debating if she should return for it, she decided it was a good idea to turn around and not risk it. 

God is so good, guys. Thank goodness she went back to get it. 

Shortly after, she was hit by a car, and brought by ambulance to the ER. 

Which is where I found her, looking like this:

That's optimist at its finest, people. 

Praise the Lord that the accident only left Ashlee with some stitches. But please pray for a quick recovery. 

Not only is she training for the National Age Group Championships in August, but Ashlee's primary job is personal and group fitness training. 

I am so inspired by Ashlee's spirit. In spite of knowing the next few weeks will be challenging, she's going into them with an incredibly positive attitude. 

If you've got some time today, stop by her blog and leave her some love, will ya? The video in her latest post is hilarious, enjoy. 

Happy Thursday, dears! I love you all!

Why I'm a Christian

This post has been brewing in my head for some time now. 

So today, I explain why I'm a Christian. 

Ready? Here we go. 

I've talked a few times on the blog about January 1st, 2012. About that moment. 

The moment when I lifted my hands as high as they could reach, and confessed that I was desperate for God. 

The moment when I realized that I had to surrender my entire life. Not just Sunday mornings. 

The moment when it hit me that the past 8 and a half years that I had thought of myself as a Christian, I really had no idea what it looked like to live like one. 

But you know what I haven't talked about? Why I felt that way. 

Why did I feel the need to surrender my entire life? What were my motives behind making that incredible life change. 

The truth is, I wanted to surrender my life because of the future that I thought it would provide me. I thought that by finally living as a Christian should, I would end up with the life that I always dreamed of. 

I would find a wonderful husband. 

We would have wonderful children. 

And I would have a wonderful reputation. 

And as I began making changes that I never thought possible for me to make, as I began studying the Bible for the first time in my life, I kept dreaming of this wonderful life that God would give me. 

Are we seeing the common theme here? It was all about me. I was happily changing my life with the expectation that God would bless me in return. 

Today, in March of 2013, I am so thankful that I decided to surrender my entire life to Christ on January 1st, 2012. 

But I realize now, that I did it for all of the wrong reasons. 

It's not about me. 

It's all about Him. 

God has already blessed me beyond what I could ever hope for, He adopted me into His family. He sent His one and only Son to die a horrible, terrible death on the cross so that I can enjoy His presence forever. 

I live my life for Christ now, not because of what I expect to get in return, but because of what I can give back. 

I was put on this earth to glorify Him. 

And if a wonderful husband, and wonderful children, and a wonderful reputation will glorify Him? Then so be it. 

But if I never get married, 

if I never have children,

if people never hear the name Amy Reed in their entire life, 

heck even if they hear that name and think negatively of it, 

it doesn't matter. 

Because it's not about me. 

It's all about Him. 

I am a Christian not because of what it will add to my life. 

But because it is my one hope to bring immense glory to His name.

***

"I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting

in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Galatians 2:20

Well, We Didn't Dye!

This past weekend I finished my first fun run, a Run or Dye 5K!

The run itself was a blast! And I would definitely say we got our fair share of color. 

But why don't you judge for yourself:

It was great! A fun way to get out and get some exercise. And the paint didn't stain, win!

To be honest, I was going to write a few constructive criticism points for Run or Dye. They're coming to Santa Barbara later this year, and I thought there were definitely some things that they could improve on. 

But, shortly before writing this post, I got an e-mail from the company. 

Get this: they sent out an e-mail to every registered runner acknowledging and apologizing for the problems. They went on to assure us that they would make improvements to avoid the problems in the future, and offered each and every one of us 50% off of any event of our choice. For us, and a friend!

Say what???

I think it takes a lot of courage to admit your mistakes, and for the Run or Dye organization to show such humility speaks volumes about the people involved. 

As I said, the run itself was so. much. fun!

And with the event improvements and clearly professional leadership involved, I know this organization will put on many, many more successful events in the future!

I, for one, will absolutely be signing up for round 2 when they come through Santa Barbara. 

Check out their schedule to see if Run or Dye will be coming your way!