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Happy July!

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Happy July!

Today officially marks the second half of the year…and it came so quickly (in my opinion) that I’m still a little shocked I was flipping my calendar over to this month last night. Well, with this new month come new things: namely, my new website!
I have finally moved over from my original simplechara.wordpress.com site to my own, self-hosted site: thecharalife.com!
Over the past few months, I’ve wanted my blog to be an avenue for joyous encouragement for anyone who might come across it – hence the name “the chara life”. As I talked about in this previous post, chara is the Greek word for “joy,” a virtue that is unfortunately seen less and less in our chaotic society today. I had the wonderful opportunity to study joy in my personal devotions in May, and from that study I’ve found that joy isn’t only a virtue – it’s truly a lifestyle that one pursues. And so, thecharalife.com was born, as a space that aspires to be chock-full of as much inspiration – whether it be hilarious, thought-provoking, smile-inducing, or calming – as possible.
Each week, I’ll be posting new content (I’ll explain more on the different features as they come), hoping that they’ll offer as much joy and inspiration to you as they have to me.
I hope you’ll join me on what’s sure to be a wonderful and lovely journey! I’ll be living and learning along the way, so it’s sure to be an exciting ride.

I Wanna Know Your Heart

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I heard this song on the radio at work today, and it struck me that this…this..is literally all I want in my life.

So pull me a little closer, take me a little deeper
I wanna know Your heart, I wanna know Your heart.
Cause Your love is so much sweeter, than anything I’ve tasted.
I wanna know Your heart, I wanna know Your heart.

This was my prayer during my quiet time this morning: Lord, I just want to know You, more and more each day.

Arise

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Happy Easter – He is risen! I’m so very thankful for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross…it’s a truly incredible act of love to think of on this day and to cherish as a child of God. I couldn’t help but wake up with a smile (really…I was serious about Easter being one of my favorite times of the year!) – knowing that Jesus, the King of Heaven, died thousands of years ago as a man to create a way for us to have a meaningful relationship with God is completely overwhelming, in an awesome way. I’ll never get over it, because I can’t wrap my mind around that kind of unending grace and love! What an awesome gift to be thankful for.

Woven in time, the scarlet string
To breathe and create a sacred thing

The fight we’re in has already been won

Arise, for the kingdom has come
Arise, for the kingdom has come

 

Love in the Time of Easter

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It’s so easy to witness, yet so difficult to express: the mother of all virtues, the “greatest of these.”

It’s an emotion, an action, a word.

It can’t be contained by anyone’s definition, or whittled down to a sole meaning. So what is this it?

Love.

One of my favorite times of the year is now: the week of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter. For me, it’s a time filled with incredible hope, joy, and especially love. This April, I’ve been studying the virtue of love as a fruit of the Spirit – in other words, how are the different ways I can express Godly love to those around me? What does it mean to love others as God loves me? Love is clearly complex, but I’ve lately become so aware of the many nuances surrounding it. Its sheer complexity shocked me, such that one morning a few days ago, I thought to myself, There’s just no way I can fully understand it! Which, in hindsight, is just as well – if God is love (1 John 4:8), and there’s no way for our human minds to ever completely understand God, then it makes sense that it can be a doozy to wrap our minds around the concept of love. Continue reading →

21

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I’m completely overwhelmed.

I think this day has to be the most love-filled day I’ve ever experienced to date.

Today, February 22nd, is my 21st birthday and the joy and bountiful blessings have just been pouring in on me all day long! I always get introspective around special occasions, but this has been an especially poignant birthday for me as I’ve had time over the past few weeks to really ponder over just why I love birthdays so much. I wondered over my penchant for birthdays because I’ve known so many people who lament them, either because they’re getting older or because they don’t know of good presents to ask for or because they don’t get to spend it with certain people. But I love them (and let’s be serious – I adore mine) because it really is a celebration – God’s brought it to my awareness more in these past few weeks, but each day really is a gift. No day is promised to any person, so to have the opportunity to celebrate another year of life? That is truly a wonderful, heavenly gift that deserves to be celebrated. And even though it always shocks me how quickly time passes by, one of my co-workers put it into perspective the other day, saying that “when time passes so quickly, it’s because life is good.” So there’s no need to lament growing up another year… I see it as a time to be immensely grateful for all God has done in my life over the past year and as a time to look forward to new growth and maturity, both personally and spiritually.
Continue reading →