• Life

    Monthly Goals: June

    June 5, 2017

    Before I even start this post I need to warn you guys, I 100% completely neglected my goals last month. Moving in with my family and only having a tiny room instead of an apartment to ourselves really proved to throw off every little bit of my motivation.

    Even though we still have one more month before we get to move upstairs to our own apartment again I have a better feeling about this month. (At least a little bit!) My motivation is back a little bit and I’m excited to make some new goals.

    May Goals Recap

    • Celebrate Branden + Sarah’s wedding!
    • Meal plan well this month
    • Continue drinking plenty of water
    • Be active with Tommy
    • Spend more time in God’s Word
    • Read every night before bed
    • Celebrate our ONE year anniversary!

    I told you guys it was bad!! I really didn’t even want to post a recap this month but I did for the sake of being real and knowing that other people have bad days as well.

    Attending my cousin’s wedding was super fun despite how cold it ended up being that day. We also stayed overnight at a hotel in Maryland, which is always fun if you ask me.

    We celebrated ONE whole year of marriage last month! I wrote a post about my reflections on the past year. You can check that out here if you missed it. 🙂

    June Goals

    • Get back into consistently reading my bible + praying
    • Go on plenty of hikes
    • Take a few beach trips
    • Go on a weekend getaway with Tommy and my family up to Lake George
    • Get caught up on bills
    • Read more
    • Plan one year photoshoot
    • Write 1-2 blog posts a week
    • Finish crocheting blanket

    Let’s see if I can do a little better this month than last month! What are your goals this month?

    I’m linking up with Autumn for #MonthlyGold.
    Come join us! 🙂

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  • Devotional,  Faith

    How Jesus Satisfies Bible Study: Week Three

    May 31, 2017

    Hi friends! I had to skip a week due to life getting in the way but I’m back this week sharing about what God is teaching me through our online bible study. This week was another awesome week. The study is about looking closer at Jesus’s “I Am” statements. This week we studied his statements, “I am the gate for the sheep” and “I am the good shepherd”.

    The first part of the study was about looking closer at sheep and shepherds. Sheep are notoriously prone to wandering, follow each other without thinking, and very stubborn. It’s no wonder we are always compared to sheep in the bible.

    Good shepherds during the bible’s time were very dedicated to their jobs. They would care for their sheep very well. They would risk their lives if it came down to it to protect their sheep. This really puts it into perspective when it comes to God calling himself our Good Shepherd. He literally laid down his life for us (his sheep).

    There is so much good content in this study and it’s so hard to wrap it all up into one blog post. I want to share my favorite part of this study with you guys though.

    “I am challenged to recognize how important it is to bring my offering to the Lord first and in faith. But also, I want to give God my first thoughts in faith every day. I want to turn to Him first in faith as I’m thinking about the cry of my heart as well. He wants to be first and He wants me to come to Him in faith with all of my desires and daily struggles. He wants my heart. And He wants my heart to want Him.”

    Woah. This really struck me you guys. God goes so far as to lay his life down and care for his sheep well because he wants our devotion. He loves us and wants our hearts to love him back. How easily I forget this.

    If I am being honest my prayer and bible reading life have been slacking so much. There is a huge life change on our little families horizon and it has completely thrown me off. (I promise to tell you more as soon as I can.) I was reminded this week how important my time with Jesus is though. If I am not being filled up with his love my heart will drift and I will start desiring things of this world.

    I have decided to recommit to spending my time in the word daily because I desperately need the time with Jesus. I am not even capable of loving and putting him first without his help.

    \\Do you struggle with this? What are some tips you might have to keep me consistently in the word in a time of transition?

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  • Marriage

    One Whole Year of Marriage

    May 23, 2017

    Yesterday marked one whole year of marriage for me and my husband. I cannot believe that a whole year has passed since the day we stood in front of our friends, family, and God and promised to always put each other first. We promised to love and respect each other and to always point each other towards God.

    These are heavy promises and not ones that one should take lightly. I don’t believe that either of us has but can I say that we have always done this throughout our marriage? Of course not.

    This past year has been hard, beautiful, challenging, and rewarding. I am nowhere near the same person today as I was last year when I promised forever to my best friend. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.

    There have been many changes and challenges over the course of a year, but none that I would ever wish didn’t happen because they brought us so much closer. We have learned what it means to truly means what it means to put each other’s needs over our own and just how hard that really is.

    I love my husband now even more than I did on the day I married him, even though I didn’t think that was possible then. I love watching him grow in his faith. I love watching him learn more and more what it means to be a husband and putting that into practice. I am so proud of who he has become and I cannot wait to see how much more he grows in the years to come.

    Marriage is hard, yes, but oh so beautiful. It’s fighting through the challenges together to show one another that this love is worth it. At the end of the day, no matter how hard marriage gets, it will always one hundred percent be worth it to get to spend each day experiencing life with the best friend I’ll ever have.

    Happy Anniversary Tommy, I love you!

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  • Life

    The Liebster Award!

    May 19, 2017

    Happy Friday friends! Today is a very exciting day because I was nominated for The Liebster Award by Ivy from ivyneal.com! Basically what this is, is an award given from one blogger to a few others. This helps grow readership and helps you to get to know the authors behind the blog a little bit better. I am so honored to be nominated for this award! Thanks so much Ivy!

    The Rules

    1. On your blog, thank the blogger who nominated you for this award.

    2. Link back to the blogger that awarded you.

    3. Upload the award to your blog.  This can be done by writing a post about the award, and uploading the award image in your sidebar.

    4. Answer the questions you have been asked by your nominator in a blog post so we can get to know you better.

    5. Nominate 5 blogs with less than 200 followers, that you believe deserve to receive this award.

    6. Notify the owners of those 5 blogs that you’ve nominated them so they can accept their award.  Bloggers can be nominated more than once, giving their readers more chances to learn more about them.

    My Questions From Ivy

    1 | What made you start your blog?

    About two years ago I was bored at work and googling different things about getting married (I wasn’t even engaged yet) and kept coming across all of these websites that seemed to be written by girls my age or a little older. I dove head-first into reading all of their posts and loved the idea of sharing your life with a group of friends online. So I decided to do the same and in June 2015 when I started this blog. I wanted it to be a place where others were pointed towards Jesus’s love through my life so that’s why I named it Set My Heart On You.

    2 | What’s your favorite holiday, and why?

    Christmas is definitely my favorite for a few reasons. The obvious, it’s about celebrating Jesus’s birth so I obviously love that. I also love buying presents for others. I love just the feeling in the air surrounding Christmas too and I absolutely adore Christmas music. What’s not to love?!

    3 | Where do you get ideas for writing?

    Most of the time I just get them from every day life. If I’m going through something I love to write about it. Sometimes it’s from something I learned from reading my Bible or doing a devotional. Other times I like an idea that another blogger wrote about so I borrow their idea. 🙂

    4 | What’s your favorite way to relax?

    I hate that this is my answer but I love binge watching Netflix with my husband. I just love how you can just check out completely, which is super relaxing to me. What I would want my answer to be (and I do also do this to relax too) is taking a bath and reading a book. I love doing that as well, I just wouldn’t say it’s my first pick.

    5 | What inspires you to write?

    Like I mentioned a little bit in the first question, I really want to be a light for Jesus. I want other’s to learn about his love through my writing. I also just love the connections blogging forms and being able to help other girls with something that I had walked through before them.

    My Nominations!

    Leah from My Favorite Adventure

    Victoria from Victoria Strader

    Melissa from Melissa In The Making

    Blair from Blair Blogs

    Amanda from The Lady Okie

    Go say hello to these wonderful bloggers – I’m sure you will love them! (PS I don’t know how many followers they have and probably have over 200 but oh well!)

    My Questions

    1. Why did you start blogging? Is it the same reason you still blog today?
    2. What are your favorite types of posts to write/read?
    3. What would your ideal job be if you could do absolutely anything?
    4. Where did you go for your favorite vacation? Why was it your favorite?
    5. What is your best blogging tip?

    This was a little different today, but it was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about me! 🙂

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  • Devotional,  Faith

    How Jesus Satisfies Bible Study: Week Two

    May 17, 2017

    Hi friends! Sorry I never got around to posting on Monday, I am feeling a little under the weather lately and have been so tired. I haven’t had much motivation to blog to be honest. I will try to get back into the groove of it but no promises. 😉 I couldn’t miss out on our weekly bible study link up though. Here’s what I learned this week.

    The bible study is going through Jesus’s “I Am” statements and really breaking down what each one means. Last week was his statement, “I am the bread of life”. You can see my thoughts on that study here if you’re interested. This week we studied his statement, “I am the light of the world”. My favorite part was day two. I want to share a quote that really stood out to me throughout this week’s study.

    Jesus isn’t trying to expose you to put shame on you. He’s trying to expose the sin that has its chains around you.

    I loved this because the study goes into depth about how Jesus is the light that we all need but don’t actually want. Because we are sinful, we are afraid of the light and hide from it. But I love this quote because it’s a reminder I really needed. Jesus doesn’t want to show us our sin to bring shame upon us. He wants us to recognize our sin because the sin is hurting us. He wants to set us free. He wants us to live closely to him and he knows that sin keeps us from coming to him.

    It’s so frustrating to me that I have such a hard time remembering that Jesus is GOOD and he wants the best for me. In the beginning of the study, Lysa Turkeurst gives you a prayer to pray before you start the study every day. The prayer is, “Please open and soften my heart. Help me hear from you. Help me trust you”. Our sinful hearts can’t even trust Jesus without his help. Praying and asking for help to hear from Jesus and help to trust him has made all the difference in this study.

    I believe hearing and trusting Jesus is the first step in repentance. We cannot openly repent of something unless we trust that Jesus is good. I need this reminder every day but especially lately.

     

    What have you learned from this study?

     

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  • Life

    Friday Favorites | Vol. 6

    May 12, 2017

    Hi friends! I’m back again for Friday Favorites. The past two weeks have been an adjustment since we no longer have our own place until July 1st. We are currently living with my mom for a couple of months. But nevertheless there are still good things to be thankful for even during this time.

    Friday Favorites

    o n e

    We get to live with puppies again! I had a dog (Noelle, the one on the left) who I wasn’t able to bring with me when we got married because our apartment didn’t allow it. But now we get to live with her and the other dogs my mom has and it’s been so fun!

    t w o

    SOURCE

    Tommy and I made Philly Cheese Steaks last night for dinner and they were AMAZING. I almost took a picture and then I don’t know what stopped me but let me know if you’d be interested in a recipe for them. They were so, so good!

    t h r e e

    I’m one week into our Online Bible Study and am seriously loving the study. It’s opening my eyes to just how much we need Jesus and how he really is the only thing that will satisfy our souls. If you want to learn more about what I learned, check that out here.

    f o u r

    I don’t have a picture for this one but my cousin is getting married tomorrow! I’m so excited to drive down to Maryland and watch him get married. We are staying in a hotel overnight tomorrow night too and I’m super excited for a night away with Tommy.

    f i v e

    I thought I’d share with you guys a sneak peek on my next Etsy listing! It’s the boy blanket I made, but in girl colors! Loving how these are turning out. Follow along with me on Instagram for the big launch soon!

     

     

    What have you been up to this week friends? I’d love to know. Linking up with these lovely ladies below.

     

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