God is watching you

The topic of today's sermon was God is watching you. Despite its basic message the sermon was profound in that we so often forget that God is ever watching us. Admittedly, at times, I have taken for granted the fact that God is always watching the things do, the places I go and the words that come out of my mouth. While as Christians we are forgiven of our sins and God still readily extends His grace, mercy and forgiveness to us, it's still important to strive to be a better Christian today than we were yesterday. As Christians we are to constantly devote ourselves to spiritual growth. How would you day be different if God was sitting in the corner on a stool at our jobs? Or on the couch in our homes? How about riding in the passenger seat of our vehicle? We joke about "big brother" watching us or listening in on our phone conversations but the reality is someone bigger than "big brother" is watching and listening all the time. God. He might not physically be on that stool, or couch or passenger seat but He is always be our side watching us, protecting us, providing for us and guiding us.

Black faux-wrap blouse:
Grey leopard print jeans: Vanilla Sky
Black o-ring belt: Gap
Black suede peep toe booties: Steve Madden
Black carryall purse: Coach

In the valley.

The pastor of the church down the street from my house is doing a series on the valley. He preached a message from the 23rd Psalm that completely changed the way I looked at a text that is so familiar I could quote it verbatim from memory. It was encouraging because no matter what every individual is either entering a valley, going thru a valley or exiting a valley. The beauty of the valley is we are never alone in the valley. Even when it seems like we are going thru a trial or a problem and all our friends, family members and love ones have left, we STILL are not alone. God goes before us leading us INTO the valley. Contrary to popular belief, those trials are not always punishment for things we may have done sometimes God orchestrates situations to teach us a lesson or build our faith and trust in Him. Even when our trials are a consequence of poor choices on our part God isn't going to abandon us to ride out the storm, He sticks right by our side as we maneuver our way through our trials and when we see the light at the end of the tunnel guess what? God is bringing up the rear, His goodness and love follow us!! So the next time you think your alone in your situation, whatever it may be, BE ENCOURAGED God is with you! And remember valleys exist between two mountains so while you may be transitioning through the valley you can only emerge on a mountain!!
Now on to the fashion: yea my dress is colorful...blame it on my foreign roots ; ) This dress actually has a drawstring waist but I didn't particularly care for it so I added a belt to the dress. As for the heelless Mary-Janes they're remarkably comfortable, it's just a matter of balance. This outfit pretty much put an end to my summer brights but at least I got a chance to go out with a bang : )

Have a little talk with Jesus...

Since summer has ended and school has begun I had to change my schedule/ routine. Earlier mornings, longer days the whole nine yards. Throw in a Monday class that disrupts my entire week and the ripple effect begins in earnest through my life. I could bore you all with the details but lets be honest that's not why you're here...you're here for fashion and the Lord (in whichever order floats your boat). Sooooo while my work schedule has little to do with fashion it has a lot to do with my relationship with the Lord. See, I have a prayer partner. We pray daily during the week. While we used to pray around 7:30am my new schedule requires me to leave my house 20 minutes earlier, so now I'm leaving at 7:30am. Well this left me with two options: pray earlier or skip prayer with my prayer partner and just pray by myself. Well I have to tip my hat to my prayer partner for being a trooper because we now pray at 6:30 am and I KNOW they're tired and would much rather sleep until 7:15 because more often than not I'm tired and would rather sleep until 7. The reality of the situation though is that sleeping in is not an option. In Proverbs 8:17 God promises that those who seek Him early shall find Him, and I definitely need to find Him daily. If you aren't starting your day with prayer and devotional try it, I promise you'll find Him early in the morning and your days will be better, even when they're worse because your mind will be set on better things.
Now on to the fashion!
Summer is over so except for Youth Sunday I'm pretty much done with casual looks. I'm still trying to squeeze the last bit of bright colors out before the cool weather starts but since I live in South Florida I've got time.

Coral and royal blue blouse: Local boutique
Royal blue capri's: target
Royal blue suede pumps: Steve Madden
Royal blue clutch: express

Not rain, nor hail, nor sleet, nor snow

I live in South Florida and earnestly prayed for several days for a tropical storm day (don't judge me). Well, God blessed me with tropical storm Isaac and in turn a Monday off from work and the best part of it all was despite a lot of rain and wind we basically got by unscathed. But that was Monday afternoon rewind 24hrs to Sunday when the meteorologist still was giving conflicting reports on the severity of the storm and the estimated arrival of the most inclement weather bands. Although some ministries had cancelled morning service my church had not, and honestly I was quite apprehensive about our church's decision to have service because according to the weatherman the most inclement of weather would arrive as service let out. Honestly, I would have loved to go to 7:30am service go home and bunkered down for the rest of the day but as the coordinator for the dance ministry with a dancer on program for the day I knew I needed to be present, so off to 10:30 service I headed...and boy was I glad I did! Not only was the young lady's dance AWESOME, the weather held up ALLLLLLLL the way until Sunday night! I know I've said it before but I really do think sometimes God just waits for us to step out on faith and trust Him so He can show out in our lives and our situations.
Now on to the fashion!
I wasn't exaggerating when I said I had some reservations about heading out to service in potentially inclement weather. My outfit definitely reflected my sentiment for the day. I kept it really simple and went with wedge booties because I HATE getting my feet wet. I also have a guest in my picture, "button", my niece, but since her mom dressed her I won't go into details about her outfit ; )

Yellow cotton safari shirt: Apostrophe (British clothing line)
Drab skinny fit cargos: The Limited
Brown ultra suede wedge boots: Wild Diva