Rooted and Built up in Christ

Hey Lovelies! It's been a while! I feel like I always start my posts with an apology for how inconsistent I have been and a promise of how I am going to do better and I end up not following through *sigh*. So, today I am not even going to make any promises lol. I am just going to say Happy New Year!! and dive into the topic for today :). The past few months have been very trying for me as I have been waiting on God for breakthrough over a certain situation. And mehn... it's really been a journey. There are days where I am all fired up and my faith is all out regarding the situation, and there are days where I just want to stay in bed all day and sleep, sort of as a coping mechanism, and honestly, there are days where I've really done that. However, I thank God for His word and my wonderful support system, which have kept me going. My siblings, my parents, and my church family have really been amazing. It is such a great thing to be surrounded by people of faith whe...

How long, Lord, how long? I know you're never late but I guess we see time differently To you a thousand years and a day are the same because you're not bound by time You live in eternity So while I watch my clock and count seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, years.... Waiting for you to show up You whisper to my worried heart: "I'm right here with you" Oh I ought to know that by now, we've been friends a long time now And you're a true friend, one that sticks closer than a brother But I forgot that so soon.... I got carried away waiting for the arrival of that special gift that I thought you left me Oh how easy it is to focus on the gift that we miss out on the giver Oh how easy it is to forget the many mountains you've brought me over So while I'm in the waiting room, Help me to see things through your eyes, Lord Help me to see time through your eyes, Lord Teach me the lessons you want me to learn And most importantly, may...

Hi lovely people! I know I've been MIA and  I   honestly  have no excuse so I won't even try to give one. But thank God for the STRONG inspiration to write today :). I emphasize strong because I've felt God speaking to me in the last few days about self-love and just embracing how He has made me. Today, I was watching a video on Ashley Empowers youtube channel (side note: go check her out, she's so inspiring!) and the video resonated with me on so many levels. The video was based off a question a lady had sent to Ashley and basically the lady was wondering if she'll ever find love as a plus-sized woman. She's in her 30s and now considering losing weight so she can find a man. Sure you guys may be wondering why this resonated with skinny Dara lol. But yes it did because it took me back to my teenage years when I was still in highschool and used to be so insecure about my weight. I was super skinny and the smallest girl in my year. I was made fun of, called...

The society we live in now preaches "safe sex" but then again, is sex outside of marriage ever really "safe"? can sex outside of God's will ever be "safe"? The answer is no. While condoms and birth control pills, which are not even always 100% effective, can protect us from pregnancies and STDs (the physical consequences of sex), they can't protect us from the emotional and spiritual consequences of premarital sex. The spiritual and emotional consequences of premarital sex we often tend to ignore are even more serious than the physical consequences. And why is this so? It is because sex is primarily a spiritual activity than a physical activity as the world tends to view it. Whenever we have sex, a spiritual bonding occurs- two people become one flesh (Mark 10:8, Genesis 2:24). Hence, the reason why God wants sex to be expressed only within the confines of marriage is to strengthen the intimate bond between a husband and a wife; God doesn't...

Hi Lovelies! Today I'll be starting a three-part series on maintaining sexual purity in a sex-crazed world. This topic has been on my heart for several weeks now so I believe God was leading me to write. Many times, when we think of sexual purity, we equate it just to waiting till marriage for sex. But today I want to say it's more than that! Sexual purity actually starts from the heart. In our equating sexual purity to just waiting for sex, a lot of us have thought it okay to do everything else but have sex. I won't lie I've also been guilty of this faulty thinking till the Holy Spirit began to convict me. The issue of waiting for sex is not so much about the sex itself as it is taming your flesh and saying no to lust. So, today we'll be focusing on the heart aspect of sexual purity. In subsequent posts, we'll focus on the why and how to wait aspect of sexual purity. So, what is lust? Dictionary.com defines it as an "intense sexual desire or appetite...

Hey lovely people! Today I'll be sharing something that was very heavy on my heart when I woke up this morning. So last night, I had a dream in which my siblings and I were having this conversation which is the title of this post "Why am I a Christian?". I remember my response was something along these lines "I am a christian because I am accepted, I did not do anything to earn God's love but yet he chose to save me". "God loves me just as I am. In him, my past doesn't matter". "He keeps coming through for me in the darkest times, in situations I never thought I'll make it through".  So I woke up this morning with a fresh awareness of God's love because even though it was me making those statements in my dream, I believe it was God talking through me reminding me that He loves me!  I remember reading somewhere that the difference between Christianity and other religions is that it's the only religion where we s...

Hey lovely people! I know it's been a while since I wrote and I'm deeply sorry. I've been swamped up by school but now that I'm on holiday, I plan to write more  :). Lately, I've been thinking a lot about relationships- family, friendships, and romantic. So my next posts would be covering these. Today we'll be looking at an aspect of the family relationship, which is the sibling relationship. While going through Facebook a few weeks back, I saw a meme which was a picture collage depicting siblings in two different scenarios; the first was of them partying together and goofing around and the second was of them wrestling in a boxing ring. The caption of the meme read something along the lines of: there's no in-between in sibling relationships. And I couldn't agree how more true this caption was! So I began to wonder, why do we feel such extreme emotions towards our siblings? We love them so much at one point in time and would do anything for them ...