Captivating...

As much as I love to decorate & pour so much of my time & energy into my home...

I wanna take a little break from my normal home improvement, DIY, craft project/post & let you in on another part of my life that I am also very passionate about...

(Credit)

You see, it was just over a year ago when my husband & I finally found a church home. We had been looking for quite some time & and were having difficulty finding a church

where we both felt comfortable.

We had two totally different church backgrounds..

him-Baptist and I-Catholic,

but in February of last year we visited a church in our

neighboring town & absolutely

FELL.IN.LOVE!!

I don't know how to describe it...

 but you could just feel God's presence!

The sermon was phenomenal, worship was amazing, & the people

in the church were just so nice & so welcoming!

We felt so at ease & so at HOME!!

We immediately got involved in a small group, my husband got baptized a couple months later (something he had never done after becoming a christian) and I followed in August of last year, feeling like the baptism I had as a young child in the Catholic church was just not sufficient...

(Pay no attention to my belly...I was 9 months pregnant people!!)

I felt like it was something I had done because my parent's wanted me to, not because I had personally made the decision to follow Jesus myself. Since re-dedicating our lives to Christ, we have become very involved in the church  & started serving in different areas.

In addition to our small group, I have also started in a

women's study group. 

We have been reading this book... 

If you've not read it...you are seriously missing out on

something special!

We are just in the second chapter of the book, but it has already touched me in so many ways! I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on the book & some of the ways in which it has spoken to me as a woman...

The first chapter discusses...

 The Heart of a Woman

The authors, John & Stasi Eldredge,

reveal to us the desires of women...

(1)To be Romanced.

(2) To Play an Irreplaceable Role in a Great Adventure. 

(3) To Unveil Beauty.

You may think its silly to have these desires...to want to be romanced, to want to feel beautiful, but there is a reason why those desires are there. They have been placed there by your loving Father.

I'm not talking about your earthly father....

 I'm talking about your Heavenly Father!

The book reveals to us that God has those same desires for us. He wants us to romance in Him, He wants our walk with Him to be a great adventure, & He wants us to see Him as beautiful and holy. The book also talks about women defining themselves in terms of their relationships with others. We tend to put our identity in being a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend, etc. We as women yearn for & spend our time developing meaningful, intimate relationships with the people in our lives...

The reason why we spend so much time on relationships?

Because God desires & seeks out these same types of relationships with His people.....

Making Any Sense? 

The heart of a woman is very much like the heart of our God...

He loves us, unconditionally, despite our faults & failures.

In His eyes we are perfect.

He wants that same kind of love & devotion from you & I...

Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and

with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 22:37 (NIV)

I will be doing future posts on this book as I dig further into it...

for those of you who enjoyed this post...

I hope you will come back & learn more!

I would LOVE to hear from you!

Any of my readers out there read this AMAZING book?!?