Rest Easy.

I’ve been pondering prayer, my journey and various types of praying I have encountered, as well as the revelations I have had while praying.

Since I can’t sleep, and my bedtime prayer turned from an innocent conversation with God, to thinking I’m the next Aristotle with new philosophical revelations, I decided to see what great definition of prayer I could find.

This was taken from Bible Study Tools

“Christian prayer is, thus, a sequel in a relationship that begins before the idea of praying even occurs to us. One is summoned to continue the dialogue by the God who offers the gift of prayer, who guarantees its reality, and who calls on men and women to pray through the instrumentality of human speech.”

I. Love. This.

This describes my view on Christian prayer exactly as I have been trying to word it the past 30 minutes! And now that we know that I’m not the next textbook philosopher, here is my own personal testimony of prayer.

When I was young, I mean REALLLLY young, probably 4-5 years old, God spoke to me. Yes. Literally. I was saying a little kid prayer, probably something like, “Thank you God for my family. Thank you for my cat. Thank you for my food. Amen.” Then I heard God’s voice, like the deep, booming voice you would imagine it to be. He said hi to me, and He said He could hear me. And that was it. I went to Sunday School the next morning and raised my hand and told my class what happened!! I was so excited!! I actually talked to God! Then, my Sunday School teacher told me I was lying and I went under my desk and cried. I remember this like it was yesterday & I still walk by the classroom at my church where this happened and think of this situation every time. I’m not going to get started on my thoughts of children being the “closest” to God, and that being the reason for my encounter, but this was my first memorable interaction with prayer.

Later, in High School, I prayed constantly. Every other thought going through my head was a prayer, and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. I was obsessed with praying because I thought that meant I was a “good Christian”. I prayed all the time, so I was “close to God”, right? Wrong. My prayers were empty and meaningless at times. I was focused more on saying a prayer rather than taking a moment and just trusting. I wasn’t able to hear what God was saying because I was too busy talking.

Through college I wandered slightly, I never stopped believing, but my actions drew me away from God and the things He truly wanted for my life. Then, I was so broken, tired, and lost, that prayer was all I had left. I cried myself to sleep and my only prayer was “God, I feel so alone, please take me back and hold me in Your arms.”

For awhile, my prayers were negative. “God forgive me for this….”, “God, it’s me again, will forgive me for that?”, “I’m sorry I did this….”, “God, help me be better….” and the list could go on. What was missing? Why wasn’t I seeing results? Who wants to pray when all they want is forgiveness and all they feel is guilt? Better yet, what God wants to be approached when I was only ever needing something?

Recently, my view on prayer has made a 180. Because guess what?!

God is so easy to please.

That’s it.

I’m so lucky to be a Christian and know what goodness and hope comes with that realization. I have changed from a guilty, shame-filled prayer life, to a hopeful and optimistic life focused on being prayerfully mindful. Instead of constantly praying, I’m constantly listening; listening for that “voice” (it probably won’t be booming and say my name again, but a girl can dream….), when I feel like I should smile at that person at Walmart, or when I feel like I should buy that boy a new pair of pants because his are too small, or when I think I should text that friend I’ve been thinking about…. I DO IT! I was once told that the best thing you can do for someone is to pray for them, and the worst thing you can do is to not follow through. God is easily pleased just by listening to the “voice in your head” or the simple prayer you say before your meal, or the quick “Be with ____ person today as they ______”. My life doesn’t have to be based on the next wonderfully worded prayer, or a constant string of empty “prayer thoughts” throughout the day, or what horrible thing that I did that I need to ask for forgiveness from, I rest easy in knowing that my prayer life is a sequel in a beautiful conversation with God, & he promises it’s reality.

Simply,

The Hoosier Peach

Secrets of a “Hampton-girl” Wedding

For those of you who know me, or have kept up with my blog, I planned my wedding in 89 days. Steven and I became engaged April 19th and our wedding was July 17th, 2014. I wasn’t extremely prepared for the cost of a wedding, but I had a nice job and some money saved up. I’m so thankful for my Mom who was able to step-up and help me out with such a time crunch, as well as my Grandma, and Steven’s family. Every one was very understanding of our situation and willing to financially help where they could. With so many people pitching in to make it an amazing day, I did what I could for LESS! Here’s how to have a $6,000 wedding in 89 days.

First, DO. NOT. FREAK. OUT. Do not keep a count-down, do not count the weeks, and definitely not the months. You will stress yourself out knowing the precious and limited days are dwindling quickly. Here’s what you really need to know:

1. Have your wedding on a WEEKDAY- the price for venues is typically less than HALF the cost of a weekend date. I had my heart set on an old Georgia-style Victorian home where I had attended other weddings, and the only July dates open were Thursdays, so I had to be ok with that. I was MORE than happy that my venue only ended up costing $500 for TWO DAYS of use! I had Wednesday at the house for set-up and rehearsal and then the full wedding day. And guess what?! I had around 150 guests attend! Keep in mind that the people that love you will be at your wedding no matter what day it’s on.

[The Blanton House- Danville, IN]

2. Talk to your friends who have already had weddings- if you have a similar style to your friend’s wedding, they may be more than willing to let you use things that are still sitting in their garage! I had two friends of my cousin let me “rent” items like chalkboards, table linens, and signs and I paid them around $40, when it would have cost me so much more to try to make the items myself. Plus, your friends can make a little cash off of the things they spent so much time and effort on!

3. FOOD– This is a biggie and some brides can spend upwards of $10,000 on food alone at their weddings! I wanted a laid-back, backyard feel so I was envisioning BBQ or sandwiches. I went to a few of my favorite restaurants City BBQ and McAlister’s Deli to see what deals they could provide. I used to work at McAlister’s so they gave me the best deal that fit into my small food budget. I had a baked potato bar, and some sandwiches, as well as potato salad, salad and toppings, tea, lemonade, and all of the plates, flatware, and cups (our venue didn’t allow glass since it was considered a park). I ordered the exact amount of food for the people who RSVP’d, so my only suggestion would be to order approx. 25 servings more to cover those who show-up, or those who are extra hungry! For cake, Steven’s Mom had a friend who makes cakes and wasn’t going to charge much since the cake was very simple. I made the cake topper and borrowed a typical cake stand. WAH-LA. Let there be cake! Instead of cupcakes for guests, my Mom and Mamaw made some amazing brownies in mini mason jars. IT WAS ADORABLE. I had so many compliments on the uniqueness of the brownies in the jars, and people seemed to like that even more than the cake!

4. Decorations– This goes along with #2, because your friends aren’t going to have every single thing you need to make the day your own! So get crafty! Look on Pinterest or Etsy and recreate the items you love. Lucky for me, I wanted wine bottles as centerpieces, and I had been saving wine bottles for about 2 years and I had around 30 to use. So if you know of something you like, start saving it. For wedding invitations, look through Etsy and download a template that you can edit yourself (trust me, with a short time frame, the more you can do yourself the better). My Aunt printed off all of my invitations and RSVP’s as a gift, so the only thing I had to buy were envelopes, stamps, and labels. I checked with Staples and it was going to be around $150 to print everything I needed, so I was glad to save money where I could. For other decorations and items, I shopped online and got a TON for LESS! I found Tissue Paper Poms and paper straws from Just Artifacts (http://www.justartifacts.net). Since my venue only allowed plastic wear, I bought a case of plastic wine glasses and tissue table cloths from Webstaurant (http://www.webstaurantstore.com). I had my heart set on actual table linens, which are expensive to buy or rent. It was only a few weeks until the wedding day and I had to decide what I was going to do! So I went with tissue paper table cloths and was pretty upset about it because I thought it would make my wedding tacky and cheap looking, but guess what?! I didn’t even remember that the table cloths were “fake” the day of the wedding, and it made clean-up that much easier for my family.

[Wine bottles and tissue paper poms, centerpiece with Questionnaire for guests, and program]

5. Photography– Most of us know a friend or family member who dabbles in photography! For me, I asked a friend from College who has a small photography business. She was able to work with me to create a package that fit my needs. Photos are what you will always be able to look back on years down the road, but don’t be blinded by the editing and crazy effects that can start costing you. Find a photographer you can trust and talk with them, have ideas, and be honest. Photography can get very expensive, so decide what is the most important… I wanted to be able to have a CD with all of my pictures (some photographers will charge hundreds with the CD as an “add-on”), and my photographer gave me a CD with over 300 pictures on it. (Steven even said that’s the first thing he would save if our apartment was burning). You can print your pictures anywhere, so getting that CD in your hand is extremely important. My photographer let me be creative with whatever poses and ideas I had in mind, one thing I wish is that my photographer would given more directed poses. Thinking of my own ideas the day-of-the-wedding was somewhat stressful, but I still got some amazing shots.

6. The Dress- DO NOT SETTLE ON YOUR DRESS. Whatever you do! This is the dress you have been dreaming of, the one you will still “sigh” at when you see it in your closet, the dress you will wear again on your one-year-anniversary, the one you will show your children and grandchildren. Don’t settle on that dress. I found mine at a small local boutique and it cost a pretty penny. My mom was nervous about the expense and I hoped I wouldn’t have buyers regret. But I didn’t– and I’m still so glad I got my dream gown and have beautiful pictures of myself in it. Alterations cost a lot, and thankfully my family sews, so I was able to save that $$ for other things.

So there you have it! The top 6 things to help make your wedding one full of creativity, money-saving, and love. If you have any specific questions, or want to know what I did for another portion of the wedding planning that I didn’t mention, please leave a comment and I will be glad to answer it! Don’t be scared of a quick wedding, and don’t let a small budget get you down about your dream day. Remember what the day is truly about and everything else will fall into place!

Simply,

The Hoosier Peach