It's important to do things that we love. 

However, we must hold fast to the truth that in doing these things we may be pushing out the Great, the Best, the things that are meant for God. Everything we do, including our "good things" - such as enjoying our blessings - should still represent an out pour of love and appreciation for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

I've been waking up to an app called First 5 recently. An app that allows you to set your alarm five minutes earlier each day to reflect on a bible verse or lesson from scripture and the quote below really grabbed me this morning. Recently Mr. Charming and I have made a more mental and spiritual effort to make more time in our evenings for things that connect us more to Jesus and less to things of this world.

We so often are guilty of entertaining ourselves with worldly distractions. Weekdays have looked like ys being tired from a long day of school and work, so we play on our phones or curl up with a movie and zone out after dinner.

While this doesn't seem "harmful" or "wrong", after a while you will start to feel the disconnect. From each other, from God. A hunger will creep in and an emptiness that only His word and presence can fill and everything but Him will lose it's luster. I don't know about you, but when I entertain myself with these "empty" things I feel anxious and hungry for something different, something more. It's important to stay focused on keeping your not only your relationship with God strong, but keeping true connections with your marriage and friends strong outside of technology and trivial entertainment. 

I've listed a few ways we've managed to infuse more worship and more God into our evenings together. And I'd love to hear yours. 

For those of you visiting for the first time Tickle Me Tuesday is a series I started years ago to reflect on the good that happened in the week. It's my Gratitude Journal if you will to keep life in perspective. :) I always invite readers to follow along too. I'm even of making this a link-up for other bloggers to join. 

My List For This Week:

1 // I landed a position as a food reviewer for a major food app (specializing in curated collections such as gluten free, vegan, dairy free, etc.) - excited to start and make the official announcement! 
2 // It's a rainy day today and I look forward to spending it working on my travel writing freelance project and my blog with a hot mug of peppermint and honey tea. 
3 // My heart is happy for being able to catch up with so many of my girls this month. More on that below!
4 // Working a lot with Everlast and Evian this month <3 August brought to you by the letter E... Apparently ;) Click on their names to see what I'm doing with them. 
5 // Mr. Charming was feeling under the weather this week, which boo for feeling bad, but yay that we got to spend an extra day together this week catching up on Tiny House Nation, Pretty Little Liars and Astronaut Wives Club! :) 


Also, an update on my Social Challenge. For those of you following along know that in July I set a goal to disconnect more from social media and dive in to true social connection - the full post and my goals here - and I'm happy to report that I've stuck with it and it's been super rewarding. 

In the last month I've had a coffee date with my Bible study leader and friend to catch up, threw a dinner party for my sister and her fiance, hosted a family birthday party for my husbands sister, had a phone date with my best friend, caught up with my mom and dad over the phone, spent a relaxing afternoon with a girlfriend, sent encouraging texts throughout the week to girls I haven't seen in a while, took a Holy Yoga class and met new people and reached out to fellow bloggers and Christian girls I've met online. 

Coming up I've planned a phone date with my friend and Godson's mom, two more coffee dates this month and started a monthly poker night. The only thing I've yet to do is writing letters, but since I made more coffee and phone dates than planned, I'm not feeling bad about it. 

I can honestly say I feel more balanced overall and plan to make these connections a more regular occurrence. God didn't put us all here to chat online and forget each other when we are busy. He put us here to love each other, love on each other and hold each other up when life gets messy. How can you know when someone needs you to lean on if you don't make it known that you are truly there for them?

Want to join along with Tickle Me Tuesday? Write it in your journal and if you're a blogger, write a post or share your list in the comments. Just five things that made you smile this week. If you post your list make sure to tag #TickleMeTuesday on social media.  

Want to join along the social challenge? Pick up the phone, schedule a get together or coffee date and when you're chatting with or hanging with your friend(s) snap a photo, upload to Instagram and tag #NNSocialChallenge. 

Wishing you all a beautiful week! 

In celebration of #NationalSimplifyYourLifeWeek coming to a close - something has been weighing on me lately. I've always been one to have many irons in the fire. The busy, the different... it has always kept me motivated. It was exciting working on a film one day, performing in concert the next night and then having a span of days to work on a novel. 



But as I grow, as a career woman, as a wife and as a future hopeful mother... I'm realizing the simplification is a much needed part of life. Of a balanced, God-led life.