Graciously Tenacious

Recently while perusing facebook, I saw a meme that said, “You have as many hours in the day as Beyonce”. For those of us who follow pop culture on the lowest level, you would know that Beyonce is a busy woman, she performs all over the world, does interviews, photo shoots, expresses her feminist beliefs, travels, is a wife, has a baby and does it all looking “flawless”. She’s a busy women and we are being told by the meme that if Beyonce can do all that she does, we can be just as busy and “productive” because we all live under the same time constraints. Some people would say that I am a busy person, I work two part time jobs, I intern at a non-profit, I am a student leader at Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at CSULA and I go to class (oh and somehow I found time to write this blog). Not to forget the relationships that I have and try to maintain (#sorryforbeinganabsentfriend). I believe that we can do so much in a single day, we can plan and work and be super productive. That

I am kind of a forgetful person. I think that's why I always write to-do list and put events into my phone's calendar. If I didn't write things down, I would always be running around trying to figure out what I forgot. Whenever I go back home for the weekend, I pack a small weekend bag. As I am packing I go over my mental checklist, "underwear, check, deodorant, check, toothbrush, check, etc..." And yet every time I go back home I always forget something important...every time!!! (I have come to accept that I will forget something when going home to visit my family.) Today I was reading Joshua 3 & 4. In Joshua 3, Joshua leads the Israelites through the Jordan River, to get to the land that God has promised the people of Israel. God tells Joshua that when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant walk into the river, the water will stop flowing so that everyone can cross safely. When the priests holding the ark leave the river, the water will start flowing

Now that summer is in full swing, I have seen how easy it is to be an unproductive, Grey's Anatomy binge watching, chocolate overdosing sloth couch monster. Can I get an Amen? I am not going to lie to you and say that I have found the perfect way to avoid the couch this summer. But I have decided that I will make a summer to-do list, that I will actually finish by the end of summer. Christina how do you plan on making sure you do all of the things on your list? I am so glad you asked :p I love making list. The satisfaction I get from crossing one thing off my list usually gets me motivated to do the other things on that list. Knowing how my brain works I very strategically create my list. I always put 2-3 fun or easy things on my list. For example, dance is always on the list. While I am looking at my to-do list and deciding what to do first, I see dance on there and do that one first. I throw on a song I like and dance it out. Then I get the satisfaction of crossing that item

Over the last couple of months I have been thinking a lot about community. The people that I surround myself with, the ones I invest in, the people I choose to make my people. The people I go to in the good and the bad times. The ones who make me better just by being in my life. When I moved to Los Angeles six months ago, I did not have a close group of people to call my own, I had a new church, new neighbors, and new friends. God has helped bring those people into my life, to look after me, pray for me, eat chocolate with me and talk me out of bad decisions. But even with those bonds being built over these last few months, I still have my hesitations towards being in community with people. I am not fully giving myself to these new relationships. As I was thinking about these hesitations the other day, I started to think about Thailand. Going away to Thailand was the first time in my life that I was away from my family for an extended period of time. Which felt strange because at h

So I have recently fallin in love with crop tops and though in the past I would have never dared to wear one, I have decided to just wear them with confidence. I never thought I had the body type to wear crop tops but if I wait around to have that "ideal body type" I will end up never wearing the clothing that I want to wear.  Today I decided to wear a crop top.  I have gotten over the body type issue but another issue popped up. As I looked in the mirror I saw them...stretch marks. I have always known that I have stretch marks but they never showed before because I was wearing full lengths shirts.  I looked at my stretch marks on my stomach and smiled.  Yes, I smiled.  I love my body, my body type and my stretch marks. I realized that in that moment I made a decision to love myself instead of criticize. I know that this is a daily battle for everybody but how you feel about your body is in your hands, so today look at yourself in the mirror and smile. Do n

After a week of celebrating the iconic movie Mean Girls and dressing like the characters of Mean Girls, I started thinking about the rules I live by in my own fashion choices. If you are not familiar with the movie, it is about a new student who gets sucked into the popular clique at school and learns about "girl world" and the rules and drama that are involved. In the world of mean girls, they can only wear jeans on Friday, they can only wear their hair in a ponytail once a week and on Wednesdays they wear pink. And if you break any of these rules than you cannot sit with the clique, you are banished for the day. These rules are silly  and controlling but some friends and I thought it would be interesting to live out the rules for a week. As I was following the Mean Girl's rules, I realized that I have been dressing by a set of rules in my real life that I did not set for myself. It was not until I moved to Los Angeles and going through this week that I realized I was ba