Ashley Nguyen Wedding Photos + Let Your Light Shine Thursday Link-Up!

Happy Thursday!

I thought I would share a few of our wedding photos with you all, because many of you have asked about seeing them... if you follow on Instagram you already got to see a few of them...
My good friend, Ashley @ Ashley Nguyen Photography did a fantastic job. She's amazing.
I have integrated some candids as well as the finished shots for a little variety :)

Today is

Let Your Light Shine Thursdays!

Thanks so much for all of you that linked up last week!
Me and Aisha loved seeing all of your posts!

Our favorite from last week's link-up was from Kate @ Kate Style Petite!

She has great posts about fashion, style, recipes, and more! Make sure to check her out :)

Thanks again for all of you who participated! Now it's time to link up again :)

RULES: 
1. Link up your favorite post this week - It can be related to faith, fashion, food, family, or whatever else you would like to share that helped you shine your light from the week!

Don't worry if you don't have a blog to link up - just leave a comment with how you let your light shine this week!

2. Follow I'm Perfectly Human & True Soul & Spirit on Bloglovin, or any other social media outlet (FB, Twitter, Instagram, or GFC)

3. Link back by using the button above or your own link.

4. Visit other blogs and meet new blogger friends!

Each week we will be choosing our favorite posts to feature and share with you all!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://truesoulandspirit.blogspot.com/shine" title="Let Your Light Shine"><img src="http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l63/AishaLeuthardt/LetYourLightShine.png" alt="Let Your Light Shine" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Follow me: Facebook || Instagram || Twitter || Pinterest || Bloglovin 

An InLinkz Link-up

6 Months.

Happy Tuesday. 

Six months has passed me by so quickly. Looking up, and seeing the sun shine each day it makes me realize how life is so beautiful. Its July. Where did the year go? My sweet little baby girl is growing so rapidly. 6 months ago I was waddling around, ready to pop this girl out of me. 

Unsure of what I was to face. Unsure of what motherhood meant. Unsure of if I would be good at any of it. Unsure of if I would be losing more than I was gaining. Unsure of it all. 

And then I met her. 

Better than imagined. 

In my heart I vowed to do my absolute best in all things concerning her. 

Failure was never a thought or even considered. 

6 months ago my life was changed forever in the best possible way. So many lessons taught in this last 6 months, so many more to come. 

I love you, my little Layla bean.  

Slobber and all. 

The way you love to snuggle with your blanket literally melts my heart. 

I am now in understanding of how parents think everything that their child does is cute. 

As annoying as it may be to the old pre-mommy Jena, I now get it. 

Please don't grow up, stay cute and sweet and dependent on momma's kisses to keep a smile on that face. 

Stay babbling early in the morning, each day. 

Stay innocent.

 Stay making those sour faces when you taste something new. 

Stay happy. 

Stay joyful. 

Stay being you.

 I love you this way, but cannot wait until you get to the next chapter. 

Love, 

Mommy

Follow me: Facebook || Instagram || Twitter || Pinterest || Bloglovin 

A Praying Heart

Happy Friday!

I wanted to cap this week off by sharing a really cool resource that God wanted me to share today, but first let me tell you the story that led me to using it. 

Do you believe in the power of prayer? I mean seriously, having friends, family, loved ones, and even those you have never met or don't know asking God to move on your life or in your situation? I do. I know that over my life prayer has saved me, time and time again. Prayer has probably saved you as well and you may not even be aware of it. I have been led at times to pray for people that I do not know, or my community, to pray for mothers and fathers, to pray for those hurting due to a loss. Remember this post, here, when I talked about how I had been so down about things but God completely changed it around just like that for me? 

Well, I failed to let you in on the fact that I had requested prayer. Probably not in the most conventional method that you can think of. 

Actually right through my computer, I put in a prayer request, and it was answered. 

Have you ever heard of Prayer Works?

There's a local Christian radio station, KTIS, that has a pretty awesome resource on their website called Prayer Works. You can visit this website and submit a request for a prayer that goes out to a community of people ready and waiting to send up a prayer for you. And the cool part is every time someone prays, it notifies you (you can have it set up for your phone and it will text you!). Also, if you want to pray and send someone an encouraging word, you can do so as well. 

You don't know how encouraging it was for me to use this resource. 

Within an hour of posting my prayer request, I had received well over 15 people that said they had prayed for me. I even received a few kind words of encouragement and it was such a light to me in that hard and dark time. It allowed me to pick up my head and say, I've got this! I have God on my side, I have His people with me, praying with me, and believing with me. Everything will be alright. I immediately felt God's strength, with each and every notification that came to my phone.

Sometimes we just need to know that someone is standing by us in prayer. 

We don't have to know who that person is. 

Often, its better that it isn't someone we know or talk to on a regular basis.

What's even more amazing about this resource, is that you can click on their "stories" tab and read about how prayers are helping others and what God has accomplished through them! It's absolutely inspiring. 

So, what are you waiting for? Even if you don't have a prayer request you can always do good by standing in prayer for another person in need. God honors that and doing what is good pleases Him. 

Visit Prayer Works || Visit KTIS

Do you know of any other online resources that help others? Please share!

Has someone's prayer ever been a help or blessing in your life? I'd love to hear!

Follow me: Facebook || Instagram || Twitter || Pinterest || Bloglovin 

Joy Free Printable + Let Your Light Shine Thursdays Link-Up!

Happy Thursday!

I hope the week is wrapping up nicely for each of you. I have been experiencing an instant release of stress and burdens as the wedding is now in the past for us. They are lovely events, but man do they take up space in your head! LOL. I will share more photos from our special day with you, but for now you will have to settle for a teaser :)

One thing that has been resonating with me over the past couple days is how sometimes when we are going through things or our minds are so clouded with life's to do's or issues, we really lose focus on the important things that matter. 

The most important part of a wedding is that two people are dedicating themselves to become one with each other. The decor, the dress, the colors, and the dinner are all just added extras. Some of my weakest moments over the past few months were spent worrying or stressed about the extras. 

The things that were not truly important at all. 

There have been times where I felt weakened by thoughts of Lupus, or by the pressures of my own self-image, by the words that someone said about me, or worried about how I was going to take care of our finances and be the best new mom to my baby Grace. I am reminded that in those dark nights, when my tears seem to weigh me down, that joy does come in the morning. Joy is on its way, waiting for me to come out of my thoughts, come out of my issues and just rely on God. 

Please enjoy today's free printable as a great reminder that storms don't last always. And in the midst of it all, you can still choose and have joy. Have joy when things are going great, have joy when things are topsy turvy. Joy is yours to keep and hold on at all times. 

Download Me Here!

Today is

Let Your Light Shine Thursdays!

Thanks so much for all of you that linked up last week!
Me and Aisha loved seeing all of your posts!

Our favorite from last week's link-up was from Kimberly @ Diary of  a Brown Eyed Girl


She posts about a great story and reminder, that God is ALWAYS there.

Thanks again for all of you who participated! Now it's time to link up again :)

RULES: 
1. Link up your favorite post this week - It can be related to faith, fashion, food, family, or whatever else you would like to share that helped you shine your light from the week!

Don't worry if you don't have a blog to link up - just leave a comment with how you let your light shine this week!

2. Follow I'm Perfectly Human & True Soul & Spirit on Bloglovin, or any other social media outlet (FB, Twitter, Instagram, or GFC)

3. Link back by using the button above or your own link.

4. Visit other blogs and meet new blogger friends!

Each week we will be choosing our favorite posts to feature and share with you all!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://truesoulandspirit.blogspot.com/shine" title="Let Your Light Shine"><img src="http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l63/AishaLeuthardt/LetYourLightShine.png" alt="Let Your Light Shine" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Follow me: Facebook || Instagram || Twitter || Pinterest || Bloglovin 

An InLinkz Link-up

Dear Jena, I got you.

Hello... (echoes)

Anyone out there?

It has been way to long since I have posted on here and for that I am truly sorry. Sometimes there is so much going on in your life that unfortunately blogging fell to a lower priority. But I am back with a vengeance! LOL

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and long holiday weekend. My weekend was spent with family and friends celebrating our wedding! (photos to come) It was a beautiful, hot, day and turned out to be a lovely time. Although, everything didn't turn out as I had hoped or planned it all came together the way it did and I thank God for all of my loved ones, and all of His help along the way. 

Weddings bring out the best and worst of you. You want everything to go exactly as pictured but that's near impossible. Some say you turn into Bridezilla, haha, now I truly understand that show. You really have to rely on the support of your family and friends to help make the day all it can be, with so many moving parts its hard to stay on top of it all by yourself. Luckily, God doesn't want us to try and take on everything by ourselves. He gives us parents, siblings, relatives, friends to help us keep it together. To be our extended brain. To help us think, function, to bring it all together. 

At the end of the day, any mistakes, mishaps, misunderstandings can all stand in the past and the most important factor is the union that God has blessed between now husband and wife. 

And as you take a huge sigh of relief, and exhale, Jesus is looking down on you and saying, "I got you."


source

Just like every other time.

It's all over, but just the beginning of a new chapter of learning. 

Learning how to be selfless, how to love unconditionally, how to put others before yourself and your wants, needs, desires. I often find myself asking Jesus, how did you always show love? When they misunderstood you, when they hated you, when they lied on you, when they hurt you? How did you keep showing love? 

He did not judge them. 

He prayed for them. 

He continued to show them the truth, and true love to them. 

Perhaps, that's one of our biggest lessons we can continue to learn, time and time again. 

Showing love in a time where all we know to do is to judge one another. Understanding that when we don't understand someone or something, we should solely pray and ask God to help us and them. That when we feel hurt by someone or think someone is intentionally doing something against us, that it doesn't have to be so. Most times open lines of communication can work out the most tangled webs. 

Talk about it with one another and not behind one another. 

That's a lesson I had to be taught again, and will probably have another lesson on it in the future.

But that's what is so amazing about Jesus. 

He knows us and what is in our hearts and He just wants to make it all better. 

Even when you feel like you are so far away, he's saying "Dear (Insert Your Name), I got you! I am right here, ready to take away the hurt and pain." 

He is bigger than our mistakes, our misunderstandings, our rights and our wrongs. So just remember, if you give it to Christ, He's got you, over and over again.


source

Follow me: Facebook || Instagram || Twitter || Pinterest || Bloglovin 

Further reading:

"For a righteous man may fall seven times

And rise again,

But the wicked shall fall by calamity."

-Proverbs 24:16

" No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God isfaithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

-1 Corinthians 10:13

"...strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, andsaying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”

-Acts 14:22

"Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;
For the Lord upholds him with His hand."

-Psalms 37:24

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,..."

-Romans 3:23