Blog

November 29, 2015

Advent – Day 1

Advent was a term that I wasn’t familiar with until I entered college. Well, to be honest, I had heard of Advent. The phrasing I had heard it in was: Advent Calendar.

You might be familiar of an Advent Calendar. Everyday you open a little door on a Christmas house display and a tiny gift is revealed. We never had one in our house but I remember my aunt did. She never put gifts in it. She just used it as a decoration to put in her home.

That was my core knowledge of Advent – little gifts.

I was 21 when I learned what Advent really meant.

“Advent is coming.”

This phrase started trickling in during the month of November. The pastor shared that their staff had created a bible study for the season of Advent.

Why had I never heard of Advent up until now? Was my church back home missing something? Am I a terrible Christian for not knowing/participating in Advent?

You might be going through those same thoughts. Let me introduce to you the sweet season of Advent.

Advent (noun): coming or arrival

Advent is celebrated for 4 weeks. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ends December 24th. The focus of Advent is prepare for the coming of Christ. There are two advents that happen: when Jesus is born and when Jesus comes back. It’s not receiving a daily gift from a Christmas decoration, but a time to focus your mind and heart on the arrival of Christ. During December 17th to 24th, our main focus is to prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Advent is a time to long for His glory to encompass and shape us.

“The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them. ‘In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land.'” – Jeremiah 33:14-15

Waiting in our culture is difficult. We get instant messages. Our coffee is ready in minutes. We get angry when our phones don’t load faster.

Yet, God is calling us to wait for the arrival. He is calling us to focus our minds on Him and practice living in His presence. There is a restlessness that resides in our souls. We are anxious for the arrival of Christ.

“I will wait with longing for the Lord.” – Psalm 130:5

Our prayer is that you may use this Advent season to wait on the Lord. May He speak to you as you spend time with Him and rest in His truth. We pray that the community that God has formed through The Captivating Woman will press into Him and wait.

May our hearts reset and beat with His. May we wait anxiously, but with excitement, like a mother waits for the birth of her child. And as we draw closer to the arrival, may we celebrate in His birth.

Things we want you to know:

Every Sunday we will share an Advent prayer. Prayer brings us to a closer intimacy with the Lord. We hope that during your Sundays, you may meditate on these prayers.
Monday through Saturday there will be a Advent study. We hope that our study will help you to draw closer to the Lord and focus your mind on Him. We have 4 guest bloggers joining us and we are very excited to share their words with you.

Prayer
Lord of our longing,
fill us with hopeful anticipation
of as we wait for the fullness of your Kingdom on earth.
Help us to see that only you can satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts.
Remove any temptation to settle for something less.
May our Advent prayer and worship increase our confidence in your holy Word
so that sin and evil never lead us to despair.
As we ready our hearts and minds for the celebration of Jesus’ birth,
may we reach out in charity and kindness to those most in need.
Amen.

Credit: Photo by Sarah Simon // Instagram: @themintgardener

November 25, 2015

Hearts of Thanksgiving

“Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks.” – 1 Timothy 4:4

First off: We want to say Happy Thanksgiving to our American sisters. We pray that your time together with family and friends will be blessed. I’m not sure if we have readers from different countries, but comment below to let us know where you’re reading from.

Second: We want to say THANK YOU! We are so incredibly blessed by you, the reader. Your support is ridiculously amazing. When we started off, we had no idea the impact we could make. We are so thankful for your comments, emails, and the love on Instagram. There are late nights phone calls with Haley or Ashley in which we talking about all of you! So thank you…we love that we are both in each other’s lives. May God continue be glorified through all of this.
—————————————————————————————————————–

Merriam-Webster defines Thanksgiving as a prayer expressing gratitude.

I’m sure in your homes you have a prayed a prayer like this:
Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this meal. Thank you for my family…

I’ve felt for so long that my prayers have been weak; like they have been this memorized prayer that I just recite so that I can eat without feeling like a terrible person.

I know God doesn’t look at me like a terrible person and I shouldn’t lie to myself, but I have felt in my heart that I’m not fully expressing gratitude.

I don’t want you to think I’m ungrateful and that my prayers sound like a voice of an adult on Charlie Brown, but I’ve always struggled with a prayer life.

I can feel God revealing in my heart that I haven’t been acknowledging the little gifts He has been giving me.

See, God is doing. He is an active God. He is doing things in our lives everyday. He is moving, paving ways, setting up situations. He is showing Himself in nature, laughter, friendships, etc. He wants us to see Him. He wants us to love Him by expressing to Him our acknowledgment. But wow, aren’t we a distracted bunch?

A few years ago I read One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp. It changed the way I looked at life. It made me see that God was DAILY giving gifts. These gifts came from giggles from my younger cousins, letters in the mail from old friends, and the taste of jasmine tea.

Those little gifts were a way of God saying, “I see you. I know you. I know what you like. I love you dearly. I have more gifts to give.”

Ann says this in her book:
“And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.”

Don’t you love that? Even in the smallest thanks – thank you Lord for the trees, thank you Lord for laughter between my grandparents – we make a place for God to grow within us. We view God as an intentional God – as a lover of our soul. Woah, our lover.

As we sit down as our Thanksgiving tables to thank God for this incredible life He has given us, ask Him to reveal the little gifts that He has only set out for you. He wants to be pleased by your enjoyment. Once you see, hear, or feel the little gift, thank God. Thank Him for being intentional with you and that He was able to express His love to you in such a unique way.

May our hearts become full and grow with having a thankful heart. May we recognize Him every single day. May a product of our acknowledgment instantly turn into an expression of gratitude.

“Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” -Psalm 95:2-3

—————————————————————————————————————–

As a way to thank you for joining our community and supporting us, we are having a little giveaway. We want to bless you with Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts. The giveaway starts today and ends on Monday, November 30th. We are using Rafflecopter for our giveaway. There are a few ways to gain giveaway points – the most is by commenting on our giveaway photo and tagging 3 friends. Come back each day (if you’ve commented on it) and get your point. You have been a HUGE blessing in our life.

We also want to let you know that starting November 29th, our Advent bible study starts. Everyday up until December 24th we will be sharing from our hearts. We are excited to bring in 4 guest bloggers, too! Looking forward for this Sunday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

November 19, 2015

Get in His Presence

Earlier this year, on my personal blog, I wrote everyday in a series titled: “Taste & See”. Let’s just be honest…I didn’t write everyday. Most title posts looked like this: “Day 24-25” or “Day 17, 18, 19”. But it was a cool little goal that I created to help me discipline myself (I am not that great with discipline).

I want to share “Day 23” with you.

“…I feel dissatisfied.”

After a day of coffee, delicious Italian food, and ending the night with froyo, I sat on a bench with my friend Hannah staring into the night sky.

“I just feel weird today” Hannah blurted. I was glad she said something first because I was afraid to express that same feeling. Why do I feel dissatisfied? Nothing wrong happened today – it was a good day.

But I felt dry inside – I didn’t feel happy.

It was in that instant that I knew I needed to get home, go into my room, and talk with God. I didn’t want to talk about how I feeling right then and there. There would of probably been tears in my froyo cup. There was a heaviness that pushed me down and caused cracks in my soul.

So as we drove home, we listened to worship music. The need to start receiving whatever the Lord was going to give was extremely desired.

The song “Crash over Me” by Bethel Music started playing.

I have come to this place in my life
I’m full but I’ve not satisfied
This longing to have more of you

It was as I wrote this song. The song was my heartbeat at the moment.

I can feel it, my heart is convinced
I’m thirsty my soul can’t be quenched
You already know this but still
Come and do whatever you want to

I ached for this. Lord, please come.

I’m standing knee deep
But I’m out where I’ve never been
I feel you coming
And I hear your voice on the wind
Would you come and tear down the boxes
That I have tried to put you in
Let love come teach me who you are again

I’m a big cry baby, but I didn’t want to cry in my friend’s car. It would just be messy. As we drove on, I sat motionless trying to figure out what God was trying to tell me. But I grew restless not knowing because I heard nothing.

Would you take me back to the place
Where my heart was only about you
And all I wanted was just to be with you
Come and do whatever you want to

& then I heard it: Be with me. Don’t try to look for answers. Come be with me.

There are many times in my life where I am seeking the Lord to get an answer or a sign, and I never receive it. But that night, I realized something. He just wanted me to be with Him. Cling to Him. Cry and sit with Him. No words. Nothing. He knew that being in His Presence was all I needed. I needed Him. I needed to sit with Him. I needed to cry, sit on the corner of my bed, and raise my hands. I needed to be in His Presence.

His Presence is where I find peace. His Presence is where I find joy. His Presence calms the wild sea in my life. All of that is done in His Presence. I don’t need to complete a list of things to get into His Presence – no, I just walk in and sit down.

Do you need to get into His Presence? Do you need peace? Do you need hope for tomorrow? Sit with Him. You don’t even need to speak. His Presence is powerful and you will be changed just sitting in it.

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all.” – 2 Thessalonians 3:16

This post was originally posted by Sarah Sandoval her personal blog –bytheirfruit.wordpress.com. There have been edits from the original posting.

November 17, 2015

Nutella Hot Chocolate

What I love about the fall and winter season are the yummy warm drinks. I’m all about hot chocolate, but I’m definitely anti hot water with chocolate mix. It just doesn’t cut it. Who is with me?

I have one of the biggest sweet tooth’s out there, so my love for rich hot chocolate is evident. But not everyone love super sweet drinks and that’s okay (we can still be friends!).

Nutella hot chocolate has become my favorite drink to sip on when the weather gets chilly. The drink brings back nostalgia of studying in college while in rained outside. I remember having friends over and enjoyed a sweet conversation over a sweet drink. As crazy as it sounds, this drink brought community into my little college apartment.

It’s super easy to make and you can make it as rich or not as rich as you want – that’s the best thing.

Enjoy it with friends and family, neighbors, and work colleagues. Make it a tradition to drink during the colder months, like I have. It’s become something I look forward to every year.

Nutella Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

1 Cup of milk
2 tbs of Nutella (less or more for your liking)
Cinnamon
Whipped cream

Instructions

In a small pan heat milk over medium heat.
Whisk in Nutella. Make sure to not boil the milk and Nutella.
Sprinkle a little cinnamon into mixture.
Transfer into mug & add whipped cream. You can also add a little cinnamon if you like. Enjoy!

https://www.thecaptivatingwoman.com/nutella-hot-chocolate/

November 12, 2015

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

The taste of warm chocolatey muffins in the morning. The sound of leaves rustling on the sidewalk. The smell the autumn breeze carries. The feel of the cozy blanket as you watch Elf. Who doesn’t love this time of year?!

With Thanksgiving and Christmas on the way, this time of year is the perfect excuse to whip up something delicious. Something you would find in the bakery. Something extremely chocolatey. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to chocolate I could eat it all day, every day. I have fond memories of eating chocolate chip muffins in my grandmother’s home, in the Dublin airport, and honestly wherever I could get my hands on some. I especially enjoy a good muffin in the quiet of the morning. But why limit muffins to the morning? For my family and I (at least for me), muffin baking and eating can happen at any point of the day.

This is similar to our time with God. In the past, I have enjoyed my quiet time with God at the beginning of my day. I would get up at six o’clock and have a good forty-five minutes of reading His word, journaling my thoughts, and praying before I walked out my bedroom door. There was a time where it was difficult for me wake up in the morning and still have my “Me and God” time. The times I did get up to do it, I would be so tired I could not concentrate on the words I was reading. I would get frustrated with myself because I knew I needed a positive start to my day or my day would go downhill fast. I was frustrated because I was believing that I could only have time with God in the morning. But I realized something. Yes, it is good to start my day with God, but I also need and can continue my day with Him.

God is our loving Father. He is the one who brings the peace and the joy to our lives. In Psalm 30:5, it says “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” His joy is not a gift that comes only for the morning. His joy, His peace, and His presence come with the rise of the sun and last throughout your day. He will never leave you or forsake you. What is so beautiful about our God is that He whispers to you and me to be women after His own heart. He whispers to you at breakfast, at the art museum, at your job, at your school, at church, and so on. He loves you so much! He wants time with you! Small moments or big moments, our time with God doesn’t begin and end in the morning. It begins and continues when we choose to whisper back to His heart.

I hope that if you feel like making these mouth-watering, bakery style muffins, you will not think you can only make them in the morning. I hope that when you feel His tug at your heart, you will not think that you need to save your response for only the “You & God” time. You can make the muffins for a midnight snack! You can have moments of “You & God” time throughout the day! My challenge for you today, my sister in Christ, is to listen for Him, answer Him, and rest in Him. Think on that as you enjoy some chocolatey goodness!

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

½ cup (8 tbsp.) of unsalted butter, softened (put butter in a small bowl & microwave for 10-15 seconds)
1 cup of white sugar
2 tsp of baking powder
2 tsp of vanilla extract
2/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ tsp of salt (if you have to use salted butter, omit this tsp of salt)
2 eggs
1 cup of almond milk
1/3 cup of Greek yogurt
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 ½ -2 cups of chocolate chips (be generous!)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray the cups of a stone or metal muffin pan with cooking spray.
Take a large bowl and mix the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and Greek yogurt very well until a creamy and smooth consistency is reached. Add the eggs one at a time and mix into the batter.
In a small bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the wet batter and stir. Then add 1/3 of the milk to the batter and stir. Continue in this pattern until all the dry mixture & milk have been mixed into the batter.
FINALLY (my favorite part) mix in plenty of chocolate chips!
Fill the muffins cups ¾ of the way and bake for 23-25 minutes. Put a fork through a muffin. If it comes out with some batter on it, put muffins in for 2 more minutes. If it comes out clean, you are good to go!
Let muffins cool for 5 minutes and enjoy the yumminess of muffins!! Oh… and maybe save some for your friends 😉

https://www.thecaptivatingwoman.com/double-chocolate-chip-muffins/