Pretty is as Pretty Does

Searching for what is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, right, true, honorable, of good repute, and what is worthy of praise in the world God made.

[prettyisasdoes-blog]

[prettyisasdoes-blog]

I want to know what you do . . . .

I've always been conscientious about remaining "unstained by the world". I have sheltered myself, unnecessarily at times, from situations or people I felt would tempt me to do wrong. Much of that at one time was out of fear -- fear of getting in trouble somehow. Now, I fear less, but must still work carefully to remain unstained. 

James says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:27). 

Many individuals are good about providing for orphans, widows, and others who are afflicted, who cannot provide for themselves. However, we as a species are not good about remaining "unstained". I want to know what you do to remain "unstained". Or, is remaining pure difficult for you? How do you measure "unstained"? What do you think is unnecessary or "overboard" when keeping oneself "unstained"?

[blackstripeswhitekeys-deactivat]

To the drunks, the addicts, the perverts, the victims, the porn stars, the prostitutes, the adulterers, theives, the obese gluttons who think a waste is a terrible thing to mind, the Twilight fans, the murderers, the mommy’s boys, the losers, the freaks, the geeks, people who think wrestling is real, red necks, guys who own action figures, chain smokers, everyone who does not use a turn signal while texting and talking on the phone in their car, men who live with their mothers, women who get paid in dollar bills, dudes in dresses (seen it at Mars Hill), democrats, republicans, the guys at the gym who walk around the locker room naked singing Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer, mormons and anyone else who wears sacred under breeches, whoever is responsible for the creation and ongoing sale of men’s Lycra biking shorts… yoga instructors, witches, pot heads, meat heads, crack heads, dead heads and meth heads… people who don’t recycle, the rainbow-loving tree-hugging … lefters, and religious people who do not know what I am talking about because these subjects were not on The Little House on the Prairie or covered in their Home School co-op — I have good news for you: Jesus loves you. You’ll fit right in. And because He died for your sins, you get to repent.

Mark Driscoll, Jesus Loves Sinners (via chelsatonic)

Oh God, this is gorgeous.

(via deconstructingpianos)

[kelseyfindingbeauty]

“The glory of the Gospel is that when the Church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it.”

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones (via kelseyfindingbeauty)

[prettyisasdoes-blog]

A breath of fresh air for ALL women. 

[acatholicrose]

“…I am sometimes appalled at our apparel. I am not suggesting that Sunday Mass be a black tie affair. However, I firmly believe appropriate dress is not what I would wear to the beach, a rock concert, or while cleaning the garage. It does not require new or flashy clothes. Sometimes the best I...

[wallpeg-blog]

Being comfortable in your swimsuit will enable you to have the most fun on your vacation, so find one that you are the most comfortable waring. Here is a list of ten places to find a modest bathing suit this season.

[temperate-soul-deactivated20130]

I’ve been thinking lately, a lot actually, about what modesty is for a woman. In today’s society women/girls wear whatever they want, especially since style is a way to express one’s personalities. I understand that very well, but then I think how does my style give a testimony of who I am and Who...

[jlgerhardt-blog]

Check out the May issue of Virtuous Magazine. I wrote the article “Made Perfect Forever” to answer some questions I’d received about how to overcome guilt. Turns out, there’s not a lot of guilt in the Bible—not the kind we often feel, anyway.

[jlgerhardt-blog]

London (my four year old) tells Justin he is “the best daddy in the world.” A lot. Like two or three or four times a day.

Adorable.

A few nights ago he asked her what she meant. He asked, “What does it take to be the best daddy in the world?” (He asks such good questions)

She didn’t...

[prettyisasdoes-blog]

What I Like About Being Single

A list compiled over time, beginning April 21, 2012.

1. I can spend my time making things or doing things for others.

2. I can daydream. And I do. A lot. :)

3. I can usually get by without buying a lot of groceries.

4. I rarely feel the need to impress anyone. If I do, then they usually turn out to be worth it! :)

5. My time is relatively flexible (compared to those who have spouses and children).

6. Given that my time is flexible most days, I can "be still and know that [He] is God." 

7. I can get projects started, then involve others as their time allows, like a Birthday Bag Blitz, a Girls' Night Out/In, etc.

[carsondoesnotapprove]

[condenasttraveler]

Denmark’s Little Mermaid Gets a New Gentleman Friend 

[iheartclassics-blog]

Librarian Pickup Lines! May the odds be ever in your favor.

[opalci-blog-deactivated20200610]

To everyone who thinks majoring in English is easy: “Bifil that in that seson on a day, In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage To Caunterbury with ful devout corage, At nyght was come into that hostelrye Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye, Of sondry…

[wwnorton-deactivated20200424]

It’s way easier to enjoy if you’ve got the Sheila Fisher translation: “It happened, in that season, on a day In Southwerk, at the Tabard as I lay Ready to start out on my pilgrimage To Canterbury, with true, devoted courage, At night, there came into that hostelry, Fully nine-and-twenty in a company Of sundry…

[jlgerhardt-blog]

“The Economic Policy Institute recently reviewed dozens of studies of what constitutes a ‘living wage’ and came up with an average figure of $30,000 a year for a family of one adult and two children, which amounts to a wage of $14 an hour. This is not the very minimum such a family could live on;...

[jlgerhardt-blog]

All of this Invisible Children, Visible Children, KONY 2012, they’re wrong, you’re wrong stuff makes my head hurt.

Not because I’m disappointed. Who am I to decide what’s black and what’s white in this very gray-looking conversation? I don’t know enough. About charity work or about Africa or...