#seasonofsingleness

[timeunwinds]

How’s Your Diet?

Starving vs. Well Fed

Have you ever noticed you’ll grab the quickest food option, regardless of its nutritional value, when you’re starving? Your stomach is growling, you’re fatigued from a long day, maybe your head is starting to ache, and the last thing you want to do is cook a well-balanced meal. You grab the chips, the cookies, or the fast-food. The quicker, the better. Maybe in the moment it feels like pure ecstasy grabbing that quick fix, but feeling sick can often follow. I have learned, if I don’t stay well fed throughout the day, I am at risk of derailing my healthy eating habits by dinner time. 

What does this have to do with dating? I’m glad you asked.

When I am well fed by healthy relationships, lifestyle choices, & a healthy soul, I am more inclined to be patient and trust God. This makes healthy dating choices simple and attainable.

When I am starving in these same areas, I can feel myself becoming impatient and cynical. I start to lose focus and think God’s promises aren’t coming to pass fast enough. In those moments I begin to compromise and look for the quick fix. This makes healthy dating choices difficult and unattainable.

If you feel like God’s promises aren’t coming to pass fast enough, take a moment to assess what’s going on in your life. Before you reach for the quick fix, check in with yourself. Are you feeling well fed or are you starving? 

<3,

Lisa

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience , kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.                                               Galatians 5:22-23

                                      🎵Tall Heights- Growing🎵

[timeunwinds]

Why I Kissed Dating Goodbye

I stopped dating with purpose and the best intentions. I took a year off to heal & get my priorities straight. During that time I came to the realization that I had been dating for a decade and was only left more broken. I needed to understand why that was. I needed to understand why I couldn’t just sit with my pain and heal. I had a habit of jumping from one relationship to another, assuming each guy would erase the pain of the last. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. 

Each time I moved on without healing, I was just filling up my emotional knapsack with more pain and brokenness. I also realized I had never consulted or included God in any of these relationships. I thought I was just having fun, but in reality, my relationships were far from functional or healthy.

Upon further reflection, I realized that I started dating entirely too young and it affected every relationship moving forward. When you date before you’re ready, it puts you in situations you were never meant to be in, causes wounds you were never meant to have, and builds walls that will take years to break down. 

Hindsight is a beautiful thing. I did not notice or acknowledge any of this while it was happening. I just built a lot of walls and avoided vulnerability at all costs. My carefully crafted walls were built in response to my first relationship but were not needed for the relationships that followed. I had great guys in my life, who just wanted to love me, but all I ever felt was fear. 

Looking back, I wish I would have taken the time to heal after each heartbreak, but I never did. I believe God has given me this season of singleness to finally do that healing. It was easy to embrace in the beginning, but in the thick of it, I think I resented what God was doing. When you are used to always having a guy in your life, it isn’t easy to never have a guy in your life. 

I can see now that this was all for the greater good, but it didn’t feel good while I was going through it. I guess I am technically still going through it, but I know now more than ever, that God is going to fulfill his promise(s) to me. He has shown me that this wait is not a punishment, but a gift. He has proven himself faithful every single day and I am grateful. 

If God has you in a waiting season, don’t fight it. Reflect. His wisdom and insights may blow your mind. If you’re stubborn like me, it may take awhile to see it, but eventually you’ll see it. When you do, you’ll never be the same. 

<3,

Lisa

“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the spring of life”                                             Proverbs 4:23 (AMP)

                           🎵Micah Tyler- Never Been a Moment🎵

                           🎵Shawn Mendes- Wonder (acoustic)🎵

[timeunwinds]

One Day at a Time

       This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.                                                 Psalm 118:24 (ESV)

[[Season of Singleness Day 1,999,999. Just kidding. I have not counted]]

Some days you may feel stuck. Some days you may feel like you’re barely getting by. You know deep down God’s promises are coming to pass, but you can’t see the signs and have lost the map.

When things get blurry and seem like more than you can bear, trust God over your feelings. It’s a constant battle, but you must fight on. Every day you are one step closer to God’s promises coming to pass. Stay focused on your purpose and take it one day at a time. Slow and steady wins this race. 

Keep remembering God knows your name. He is going before you, making a way. I believe he has big plans for you. Stay encouraged. You will see those plans come to pass, one day at a time.

<3, 

 Lisa

                   🎵Elevation Worship & Maverick City- Wait On You🎵

[timeunwinds]

Feel It All

Yesterday’s installment of Faith in Waiting was: Lisa Wept. 

Just typing that out makes me uncomfortable. I was always taught to grin and bear it, shake it off, and basically do anything other than cry. 

I later learned something profound; it’s actually okay to cry. Who knew? (Spoiler alert: Everyone.) I also learned it’s okay to be frustrated. It’s even okay if you feel, at times, that you are destined to be alone. It’s okay to feel how you feel when you feel it. Just don’t dwell on it. The main goal is to be present and move forward. 

In this season of waiting I have learned it isn’t all rainbows & butterflies. Sometimes it’s frustrating, sometimes it’s sad,  sometimes it’s lonely, and that’s okay. If you are feeling the full range of human emotions in your current season of life, consider yourself normal. 

Yesterday being single wasn’t my favorite and I needed to cry it out. Today I woke up feeling renewed in strength & spirit and I thanked Jesus for it. 

No matter how you feel or what you see, keep giving yourself grace and keep moving forward. The best is yet to come. It really is. I believe it and declare for you and for me.

<3, 

Lisa 

                          🎵Allman Brown- Sons & Daughters🎵

[timeunwinds]

He Is Risen

Happy Easter!

I am very grateful to have been with family and at church in person this year.

Still consumed with March Madness. If you didn’t watch UCLA v. Gonzaga, I highly recommend it. 

Stay tuned for your regular scheduled blogging next week. 

<3, 

Lisa

                                       🎵Justin Bieber- One Love🎵

[timeunwinds]

Dating

Two score and some years ago, asking someone out was simple. You liked someone. You told your BFF. Your BFF relayed this info to your potential love interest, and within 24 hours, you either had a significant other or were moving on. Case closed. 

Then came Instant Messenger. You wrote cryptic song lyrics in your info and used them as a conversational piece to ask your love interest out. Easy-peasy.

Next came college parties with that liquid courage (aka beer). You could express your feelings to your love interest and if they weren’t reciprocated, in the words of Jamie Foxx you could, “Blame it on the a a a a a alcohol”. No harm, no foul.

And now you expect us to what? Just walk up to someone and ask them out. Or engage in the most awkward form of dating, using a dating app. A place where you try to guess if you like someone based on their filtered photos and limited, possibly fictitious, info. Are you crazy?

Give me back the days when dating was far less complicated. The days when it was actually fun and entertaining. Give me back the days of yore. I’ll be waiting.

<3, 

Lisa

                                        🎵Matt Wertz- Get to You🎵

[timeunwinds]

Details

I am a logistics person. I am a planner. I like details. I have a need to know. I try to love the not knowing, but we’ve barely become acquaintances after all these years. 

Lately, I am trying my very best to put the details, in regard to my future husband, out of my mind. I am doing my best to trust what God is doing and how he is moving. I am focusing on running my own race, while trusting God to be God. I’m letting him do what he does best, without my interference or need to know. 

It will all happen according to his plan in his timing. I know… I KNOW. 

I do truly believe that, even if I get a little wishy washy at times. 

For now, I am choosing to put the details of who, when, & where out of my mind. Instead, I am focusing on something I can control, gratitude. I am spending my time counting my blessings, because I know there are many, and I’d never want to take them for granted. I am leaving the details to God, because he created this map and already knows the way.

<3,

Lisa

                                 🎵Eric Church- Never Break Heart🎵                          ((Thank you for small towns & country music.)) 

[timeunwinds]

Valentine’s Day

Love it or loathe it?

Either way...

I’m just a girl looking for her lobster.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

<3, 

Lisa