Prayer Challenge: Week 2

Well.. I have to admit that this second week of the Prayer Challenge hasn't been the greatest. I have not been as motivated as I was the first week. I really am quite sad admitting this because I wanted to do so well with this challenge for myself. And I knew that it would be easier at first because I had just started it and I was so motivated, then it would get harder to remember to do. 

I told Reese at the beginning of this challenge that I wanted to be the one to pray whenever we were eating so that I can get into a better habit. So after I told him that I have gotten a lot better about being the one who prays at dinner; I even prayed at lunch & dinner with his family this past week. I am proud of myself in how I've opened up in that aspect. 

I know that the year is not over yet and I have plenty of time to get into the habit and actually remember to pray. I want to be someone who prays every morning I wake up and every night before I go to bed. I want it to be as much as a habit as brushing my teeth is. I pray for this, I long for this. I truly believe that I can do this, and do know that it will take time to get used to and to become apart of me. 

Please be praying for me over this next week so that I can become better in that aspect of my life. If anyone wants to remind me to pray, I would truly appreciate that! I have put this image as the background of my phone, so hopefully it, too, will be a reminder.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with their family. It was definitely a much needed break for me. Talk to you all soon!

Prayer Challenge: Week 1

Last weekend I started the Prayer Challenge, and y'all, I can't even begin to describe this first week. If you haven't read my post about this challenge... Go here!

A lot of times when I try to do something like I am with this challenge it is something I have to truly work at, but boy have I been addicted to praying. I had written a list of someone to pray for each day for the rest of the year and I've even realized that I had forgotten some people so I have been praying twice a day. I feel a lot closer to The Lord. Praying for someone intentionally each day has made me become more thankful for that person. I've realized how much I need to actually pray for people and talk to them to see if they are in need of any prayers. I have a friend who truly believes in the power of prayer, and I'm starting to agree with her. 

I've become so committed to this challenge for myself that all I want to do is read the bible, read blogs, or even find good books to read. Last night I went out to dinner with Reese and just felt like treating him to dinner. We ate at Teds Montana Grill, and our food was amazing! Then I had asked him the day before if we could go to Half-Price Books because I had been looking for certain books for awhile now. I found some but still was really on the lookout for others.. So we made a trip to Barnes & Noble too {have I told you all I don't really read?!}. I am so excited to read these books and can't wait to tell you about them and what they've done for me when I am done. 

The Books I got were:

Believing God by Beth Moore

Whispers of Hope by Beth Moore

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver

7 by Jen Hatmaker

I've started reading Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and I am loving it. I haven't gotten very far yet but I just love know it is going to be good for me! And this part in the story truly sticks with you..."Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." -Luke 10:38-42. Such a great reminder that it is so important that we acknowledge our Lord and continue to get closer to Him. It is good to serve people and we are supposed to, but we also should take time for the Lord, sit down, and talk to him. I can't wait to read more and I'll definitely let y'all know how the book is!

I am so excited to see where I am next week and at the end of these 50 days. I honestly don't know if I will be able to end it on the last day.. It may truly become apart of me and I pray for that. I pray that people can come to me with their prayer requests and that I can be someone who prays intentionally for them, and on a daily basis. Please continue to pray for me in this challenge... And if you all have any prayer requests, please please please email me at simplyafaithfulwalk@gmail.com :) I would love to talk to you guys and get closer to you all, and what better way than prayer?!

I hope you all have a great week! 

Trust IN Him

I literally just finished reading my bible and my nightly devotional. I have been going through Psalms and Ecclesiastes. Tonights reading was such an amazing reminder that I had to share with you all right now! I read Psalm 62 tonight, and when I got down verse 8 I couldn't help but be so thankful and in awe of God. I wanted to Instagram a picture of the verse & so I {of course} went on Pinterest to find a cute picture of it. I found two, & I love how different yet the same they are! 

I am starting to really love how there are so many different translations of one book. I read ESV and love it! Some people say that it is one of the hardest ones to understand but for me it is the easiest. But there are times that other versions will be more relatable to me than my bible. I just love the fact that these two versions are the same but come off so differently! 

But anyways... I am writing this post to remind you all how much God wants us to come to Him with all of our problems, our worries, our insecurities, our struggles, our temptations, etc. etc. etc. because HE loves US! He is there for us to take refuge IN Him! He wants to have a deep relationship with us and wants us to let Him in our lives so that there will be an amazing relationship. Guys, I pray tonight that each of you realize how much God loves YOU! He is our Father and is always there for us. I pray that you truly take this verse in your heart and learn/know that you can trust IN Him. You will never regret surrendering your life to what God wants for you and has planned for you, I know that it has completely changed over my life and I am so thankful that God kept tugging on my heart to finally surrender my life over to him. 

Goodnight friends.

xo, Danielle 

Prayer Challenge

Hello, everyone! Lately I have been feeling called to actually take time out of my day to intentionally pray for someone. I know that whenever someone says "pray for me" I say that I will but most of the time I don't actually sit down and take time to intentionally pray for just them in their situation or in general. I want to become someone who prays when I say I will pray. As it says in Colossians "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." 

Here is the reason for this post. I have decided for the rest of 2013 that I am going to pray for one person intentionally each day. There are, including today which is Saturday the 16th, 50 correction: 46 days left {I just realized on the 11th day that I counted incorrectly, but I am still going to pray for each person I wrote down & I've added a few since then... I'll just double up, OOPS!}. I have already written out a list of people who I truly want to pray for. I think that it will work best for me personally if I start out each day praying for that specific person. This will also help to start out my day. This will help me to confide in the Lord and know that he hears all prayers.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he will hear us." -1 John 5:14

 I am excited for this challenge I am giving myself, and would love for you all to do it with me! Leave a comment or email me if you would like to do this also! It would be awesome to have someone to do it with so that we can keep each other accountable. If you need praying please email me and I would love to send prayers your way! If you all could please be praying for me in this challenge, I would appreciate it! I know this is definitely a challenge, but I am excited to see how different my prayer life is and relationship with God is at the end of the year, and to see how I start of 2014! 

xo, Danielle 

Happy Weekend!

Happy weekend, friends! I wanted to say thank you all for being so patient with me since I haven't posted anything lately. I know you all are probably wondering what I did in Haiti and probably just wanting to see more posts. Well, I have plenty of posts planned that will definitely be lasting for the rest of the year!!! Soo exciting, I know! 

So be looking out for those posts! I'm excited for them. :) I hope you all have a great, restful weekend! 

xo, Danielle 

My heart forever changed.

So I've been thinking all week of what I wanted to say in my post about Haiti. All week long people have asked me how my trip was, and because I don't have enough time to share the whole week with them all I can say is "amazing!" I've been having trouble wrapping my mind around how my trip was. Don't get me wrong it truly was amazing and I miss Haiti A LOT, but I'm still trying to figure out how exactly it changed me and affected my life.

I knew 100% when I was on the plane to Port-de-Paix that I was meant to be there/going there. And when we landed I was so excited. I never would have thought that I would feel as content, comfortable, and honestly safe as I did. It was such a relief that I did too because I was very nervous the week leading up to the trip and especially the morning of. I think that I am still surprised and maybe even in denial that Haiti left such a special place in my heart. I may be in denial because I've never in my life thought that I could live anywhere but Kentucky {even the city that I am from}, but while in Haiti I was so content that my mind even wandered over to that thought of maybe God wants me in Haiti... and that SCARES me! I definitely want to obey God and follow Him wherever He may lead me but it is definitely scary. I honestly would have been perfectly fine staying there longer. I even thought before the trip that I would have gotten more homesick than I did, which only really happened at night and more towards the end of the week.

God definitely blessed me on this trip. He placed special kids and people in my heart. He kept me from getting sick. He kept me from getting a single mosquito bite {literally I got ZERO, while everyone else had dozens... oops!} He kept me safe, content, and happy. I never thought I would have been as happy as I was in a third world country. It is absolutely crazy how in a place with such heartache and brokenness that I can feel so whole and see the kids that I worked with so excited about God and their education. It was such a wonderful place and I truly cannot wait to go back! I know that God wants me to go back and possibly even for longer than a week. I was praying that God would place Haiti on my heart like I see so many other people have "their" countries that they love. I am so excited to see where God takes me with my new found country and just in life in general.

I am so thankful to have gotten to go on this trip and for everything that God has done in my life this year. 2013 has been one amazing, God filled year and I am so excited for how my relationship has grown with him. It is so awesome to see how far I've come and grown.

I'm sorry this post took forever, I had half of it written but honestly forgot about it. Hope you all are having a great week! I'm still trying to get back in the swing of things, and I will definitely post pictures and what all I did in Haiti very soon!

xo, Danielle

A Monday Update!

Hey y'all! I wanted to let you all know I am back safe and sound from Haiti. I am completely in awe of what God has shown me through my time in Haiti and I pray that he continues to show me even more things and that I grow even deeper in my relationship with him. I am a little sad to be back because I have to finish up this semester and go back to work and get used to my busy American life, but I know that I am changed and cannot wait to see where my life is here in a few months. 

I definitely had two posts scheduled while I was gone but got back and saw they hadn't posted, not sure why... if anyone knows how you're supposed to schedule blog posts please help a girl out! :) I will definitely be sharing about my trip and I have other ideas planned also, but I am going to need a little time to get back into the swing of everything. I also want to sit back for a bit and truly think about where I want my blog to go and how I want to start writing posts. I feel like I am a little unsure as to what exactly my blogs purpose is so I really want to figure that out. 

I hope y'all are doing well and had a great week while I was gone! I can't believe it is already November! Only 46 days until winter break! I am definitely excited and ready for it, I am not to fond of this semester and I hope that next semester classes will be better! Here is two pictures from my trip to Haiti, don't worry there will be more soon! :)

 Some kids I met at a children's hospital. 

Flying over Haiti as we were making our way to Port-de-Paix. This country is absolutely beautiful!

xo, Danielle