What are YOU living for?

VIa 

So many times in our daily lives, we get caught up in earthly things. I'm not talking about just the material things, but the thoughts that consume our mind 24/7. Don't you think our thoughts should be set on the one who has given us this great life? For me personally, I constantly find myself thinking about what state will I travel to next week for work? What will my future classroom look like and what grade will I be teaching? When will it be my time to turn my love of crafting into a business? Where will I be this time next year? It's "earthly" thoughts like those, that will push us farther and father away from our father in heaven. I should not be concerned with my life on earth, but instead should redirect those thoughts to know that I am living my life for Christ. I am his and he has my future in his hands. So friends, I challenge you to the following: when you find yourself consumed with thoughts of what this life holds for us, remember the verse above and know that ultimately we are living for our forever home with HIM in heaven! 

Earthly Love

If you read my post yesterday you saw that Josh and I were starting a new devotional together for dating couples. I've always been a little nervous to post about my faith on here because I didn't want to turn people away but because of the wonderful Elise over at Cheers Y'all, I've been inspired to post about my faith today in hopes that it will inspire somebody else. 

Josh and I have been dating long distance over four years now and I honestly don't know if we would have gotten through some of our loneliest times apart without our relationship being centered around Christ. While I've been blessed with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel this year, Josh has started divinity school with the dream of becoming a youth pastor. I am so blessed by the love he shows me on a daily bases and I am thankful that I have someone in my life who pushes me to grow stronger in my faith. 

Last night we started our new devotional together, "Devotions for Dating Couples", and it's a 9 week devotion that will focus on a different aspect of our spiritual lives each week. This first week is love, and last night was powerful. 

Last night focused on the true love that God has for us. His love comes without any strings attached and is more perfect than the earthly love we share with our special someone. The one thing that stuck out to me last night was that our passionate earthly love is just a tiny, tiny, tiny pinch of how much God loves us. Just when we don't think we could love any more, well, God loves us unlimited times that. 

I'm not going to be posting about this devotional daily on here but if you would like to follow along I highly encourage you to follow me on Instagram @SouthernAbundanceBlog where I will post daily scripture like the one above! So if your dating or engaged to a special someone and are looking for a wonderful devotional to do together, I highly recommend this one! Happy Tuesday beautiful's! :-)

Amazon 

Monday Coffee Talk

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about a consistent blog post that I wanted to do on a weekly basis and this weekend it finally hit me..."Coffee Talk" on Mondays! This will be my one rambling post a week to share with you just about anything I'm enjoying over a cup of coffee! 

Lilly Pulitzer Sale: Did anyone else have their alarm set early this morning to wake up in time for the big Lilly sale? I made sure to log on last night and be sure everything in my account was correct so that this morning I could just shop away! Did y'all get any good deals? If you have not already headed on over to the sale check it out via the link below:

New Year Cheer Sale

The Bachelor: Y'all, Juan Pablo is back tonight aka I can sit and swoon  watch as he finds his dream woman! I know, if you're like my parents you are probably thinking A) that show has so much drama and B) the track record of people finding love on that show is slim to nothing. However, I just can't get enough of it! Please tell me some of y'all out there are just as obsessed with this show as I am? It is literally marked down on my planner every single week...yep, Monday nights at 8:00pm I'm free for you Juan!

Current Dog Obsession: My current dog obsession is with English Bulldogs. Josh has always loved them and wanted one but I didn't fall in love with the breed until the past month. A pet store back home has had an English Bulldog puppy in the store for a few weeks and we've played with him twice. Needless to say, I'm hooked and want to buy one ASAP when I get off the road.

Devotional Book: Josh and I are starting a new devotional together today and I am so excited! This book is one we picked up a few years ago but have just never gotten around to going through it together. We decided before I left to come back on the road that we would start this today to make us feel close to one another since we are hundreds of miles apart. I'm excited to spend time with God these next 8 weeks learning how to love him more and support Josh in his faith walk!

Via 

I hope y'all have the best Monday possible! For those of you who are getting this nasty winter weather right now, stay save and warm. I'll try and send you some warmth from good ole South Carolina. Don't forget you still have a little over a week to enter my giveaway for your own copy of Blog, Inc!

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