10 Random Facts About Me

So, I saw this on a couple of blogs, and I thought I'd do it too!
Here are 10 random facts about me:

1. I have never read Nancy Drew, Hardy Boy, Boxcar children, Mandie, or Bobsy Twins. Some of my younger siblings can't believe that I haven't read these, but I've never had an interest in mysteries. I always preferred to read biographies.
2. My eyes change colors. I was born with blue eyes, but as I got older, they started changing to green. Some days they are blue, and then other days they are very green. They change sometimes depending on the color of clothing I am wearing, the mood I am in, or how tired I am feeling. Sometimes my left eye is very blue, and my right eye is very green. Is that not weird? My eyes are green more than blue now.
3. This one is going to sound pretty strange...when I practice the violin, I usually take off my right shoe...and just my right shoe. Not sure why, but it has become an odd habit for me.
4. My ideal of the perfect place to go on a honeymoon would be to go dive-bombing over the Royal Gorge in Colorado.
5. I used to wear glasses, from about age 6-11. Then the eye doctor told me I did not need them anymore.
6. I love dark chocolate, and prefer it to be no less than 70%. Although, I prefer 85%.
7. I have never left the United States, but I would love to travel to Israel, or Taiwan.
8. I do not dislike any food (that I have eaten before) except for liver, and black licorice. Although, I cannot eat ginger, because the taste makes me nauseous.
9. I helped my mom make my first dress when I was six years old, and have been sewing ever since then.
10. Someday, I want to serve in a ministry to high school/college aged people, witnessing to them, and training them in the ways of the Lord. Particularly to teenage girls.

And there are the ten random facts about me! What are 10 random facts about you? Have a wonderful day!! Stay strong in Jesus!

Because of His blood,
Faith Christine
Galatians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 15:10

Journaling -- Video Blog Post

So as I promised, I am posting another video blog! I think I'll be good to get in two a month! Today we are talking about journaling, and the blessing it has been in my life. I hope this will inspire you to start keeping a journal!

(Not sure why the lip-sync is off. Sorry about that.)

As for what else is going on in my life right now, just the usual. Lots of piano practice, violin pracitce, and studying hard for my next CLEP test: US History 1. On top of that, took my siblings on a photoshoot today, so looking forward to editing those pictures, and sharing them with y'all. Well, I pray this post was an inspiration to y'all! Have a great day! Stay strong in Jesus!

Because of His blood,
Faith Christine
Galatians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 15:10

Purity? What is that?

In our world today, purity is something that is becoming rare to find. More and more you hear of girls in their teens getting pregnant, or you hear of people living together before marriage. Even just 60 years ago, this was not something that you did, or of which you could be proud. As time goes on, purity becomes less important to the world, and the world actually promotes impurity through telivision shows such as "16 and pregnant", "Teen Mom", "The Secret life of the American Teenager", "Pregnancy Pact", etc. (Just for the record, I have never seen these shows, but I have read reviews on PluggedIn, and please don't ever consider watching these shows.) Why do we not have shows promoting purity?

Yesterday, I read this article. It was so encouraging for me as a young lady who is striving to be pure, and to completely save myself for my husband, to see young men who appreciated and encouraged girls to stay pure, because they were staying pure for them. I encourage you young ladies to go and read this article, and allow it to be an encouragement to you to keep your purity.

After reading this article, I started to think to myself, what exactly is purity? Of course there is the obvious, such as sexual purity, but I personally believe there is a lot more entailed with purity. So if you are interested in how I define purity, and the things I do to keep myself completely pure for my future husband, continue reading.

Purity Defined

Modesty
I don't know if a lot of you girls think about this one as remaining pure, but I certainly do. If we dress in such a way that causes men to lust after us, I believe in some ways, we have let go of purity. Jesus says that lusting after a woman in your heart is the same as committing adultery with her. So if we dress in such a way that causes a man to lust after us, then in God's eyes, it's the same as committing adultery. Have you ever thought about that? So ladies, dress in such a way as to save your body completely for your husband. Ask the men in your family if something you are wearing causes a wrong thought to spring in their head.
Here are a few pointers:

1. Don't show any cleavage please!
2. If you are wearing a skirt, please make sure it covers your knees when sitting down. You have no idea how easily someone can see up your skirt, even if you are careful.
3. If you are wearing pants, please wear pants that are loose fitted, and do not show every outline of your body.
4. Even if you are wearing a top with a modest neckline, make sure it is not tight and clingy to your skin.

If you have to ask yourself the question "Is this too tight, too short, or too low?" then it probably is. I am not saying that we all need to go around in potato sacks. There are ways to dress modestly and stylish at the same time. I know many girls that do so, as well as my sisters and myself. I am not saying to hide your beauty. In fact, dressing modestly adds extra beauty to you. I promise you that if you dress modestly, some day your husband will greatly thank you for saving yourself for him by dressing that way.

Physical Contact
Now, I know everyone is going to feel different about this issue than I am, but I am addressing this because this is something I personally have felt convicted to do to help save myself for my husband. For me, I have no physical contact with young men. I know a lot of girls who give hugs to their guy friends, but I do not. I want to save my body completely for my husband, and to me that means having no physical contact with other young men. After talking to my dad on the subject, I know the kind of thoughts that could go through a young man's mind when you give him a hug, and those are not some thoughts that I want to cause. Talk to your dad about the subject, and pray about what God would have you to do. If you end up in several relationships (which I hope you will not after reading the next paragraph), this will help to lessen pain and attachment when you leave that relationship. But as for me, and my sisters, we avoid physical contact. For me, this also means not having any physical contact with the man I am in a relationship with, until the marriage altar. My first hand-hold will be at the altar. My first kiss will be at the altar. I intend to save the first of everything for my husband. This goes for you too, guys. Help out us young women by avoiding physical contact with us. Don't initiate those hugs. If we are trying to avoid physical contact, we need your help by you avoiding it also.

Dating vs. Courtship
Another way I am saving myself for my husband is by not dating. In my family, we believe in courtship, which to us means not entering into a relationship until God has brought the person into our life with whom we are going to spend the rest of our life. Some people play the dating game, thinking "Oh, if I do not like this person, I can dump them and find someone else". Ask yourself these questions. How will your future spouse feel about you having relationships with other people before them? How would you feel if the person you married had a lot of other relationships before you? Please, wait on God's timing to bring the right person into your life before ever entering into a relationship.

Purity of heart
This is the main thing, and should really come first before anything else. We can not have pure actions if we do not have a pure heart. This means completely giving yourself over to Christ, and keeping your focus on Him. When you keep your focus completely on Him, and make Him the love of your life, everything else will follow. I plead with you to set your focus on Christ, do everything to please Him, and then God will eventually bring along the right kind of person into your life. Because the right person will be looking for someone who is totally in love with Christ. If you want Christ to be first in your life, then you want someone who also wants you to have Christ first in your life, and has Christ first in their life.

This post ended up being a lot longer than I wanted, but this is something that has been weighing on my heart, and I wanted to share it with you all. Please think about what I said, and I encourage you young ladies to save yourselves for your husbands completely, in the ways I have described, and put your focus on Christ. Young men, I encourage you to be doing the same. Set your eyes upon Christ. Make Him first in your life. Keep yourselves pure for your future wife. God will bless that, and will bring along the right person into your life in the right time.

God's blessing upon you all as you strive for purity, and strive to live for Jesus Christ. Because life is all about Him! Stay strong in Jesus!

Because of His blood,
Faith Christine
Galatians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 15:10

A Letter to My Valentine

To my Dearest Valentine,

I have been thinking about you a lot lately. In fact, I find myself thinking about you more and more every day. I can’t get you out of my mind, or off of my heart. I find myself falling more and more in love with you every time I think about you. The thing that makes me love you the most is the fact that you have continued loving me, even when I didn’t love you like I ought. Thank you for not giving up on me when I was not completely faithful to you. You have continued to woo me and draw me closer to yourself this last year, and I find myself loving you more now than I ever have before.

I am sorry for loving other things more than you, and for putting what I want before what you desire for me to have. You are everything I have ever dreamed of in a loved-one. You are patient, you are humble, you are smart, you have a good sense of humor, and you have a great love for children. You have such a great servant’s heart, and are willing to humble yourself to the point of washing others’ feet. You are my prince charming, my knight in shining armor, my hero.

I cannot think of anyone else with whom I would rather spend the rest of my life. Walk beside me, and show me how I can love you more, and how I can demonstrate my love for you more. Show me more ways that I can serve you. Thank you for taking me by the hand and leading me through life. Thank you for loving me unconditionally. You are my dearest friend. I am so thankful that you are a friend that I can pour my whole heart out to. I can tell you anything anytime I want to. No matter what I say, it will not make you stop loving me. You are the only one who knows every thought, feeling, hurt, joy, and comfort that I have. You alone can make sense of my mixed emotions. Nothing is hidden from you, and I am glad to have a friend like you that I can confide in. You are my comforter when no one else knows or understands how I am hurting.

You have promised to never leave me, and you have never broken that promise. There have been times when I thought you had, but then I turned around, and there you were, standing right beside me just as you promised. You have told me that loving you would not be easy. It could mean others looking down on me. It could mean others mocking me. It could mean others killing me because of my love for you, but none of those things matter to me. If it means death, I will still never stop loving you. I know there are going to be days in the future where I do not love you as much, and may even doubt your love for me, and I ask for your forgiveness in advance for those days. I know you will never stop loving me!

I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you, and in fact all of eternity, learning more and more about you, and growing to love you even more! Thank you for loving me so much that you gave your own life for mine! I deserved to die, but because you loved me so much, you took my place! Thank you for rising from the dead and conquering death! Thank you for being my valentine, Jesus. I love you very much, and I hope to grow more and more in that love every day. Happy Valentine’s Day, Jesus!

Love with all my heart, soul, mind, & strength,

Faith Christine

Faith that moves mountains

This last year, the Lord has really been working in my life, in the area of my faith. I have recently been reading through the gospels, and I see the many times where Jesus says that if we pray in faith,  not doubting, that He will grant our petition. I have also seen many times where Jesus commends someone on their great faith. Today, I was reading in the book of Luke, the story of the centurion, who felt so unworthy to even approach Jesus himself, that he sent others to ask Jesus to heal his servant. "Wow" I thought. Why can I not have this kind of humility? He felt too unworthy to even speak to Jesus in person, or to have Him enter his household. He sent by messenger and said to Jesus that he knew that Jesus was a man of authority, and that if He spoke the word, his servant would be healed.

So I ask myself, do I have this kind of faith? How do we obtain such faith? It is something with which I have been struggling. I want to live up to my name "Faith Christine" to be a Christian of great faith, but I find my faith very weak. But, do I have to have a lot of faith? Jesus says that if we even have as much faith as a mustard seed, then we could move mountains. I want faith that can move mountains.

This has been a long process for me, and the Lord is slowly growing my faith. I find that I just have to decide to step out and ask God to do something, to glorify His name, and to strengthen my faith. He has done some things recently that have grown my faith in Him, and make me want to trust Him more.

So, I leave you with these thoughts. Do you want to have faith that can move mountains? If you do, just ask Him, and He will give it to you. It may be slow and gradual, but He will give it to you.

Because of His blood,
Faith Christine
Galatians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 15:10

Video Blog #1

So I was inspired by a friend of mine who does video blogs, and I thought I'd try it out too! It's fun to do different things sometimes! Anyway, here is the first in my series of video blogs. Not sure exactly how many of these there will be. But I thought I'd just have fun and try it out, and if y'all like it, then I'll be doing more in the future!

(Accidentally said February 18th, but it's February 8th. And the video isn't backwards...woops)

The meaning behind the new blog

For a while, I have been thinking about getting a new blog, that was more personal, and saving this blog solely for photography. Hopefully, I will be posting some photos more regularly on that blog. Why did I choose the name I did? My photography business is "Forever Faithful Photography", so I decided I wanted to keep the "Forever Faithful" because that is what my life is all about. Being forever faithful to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, and Dearest Friend. So the name "Forever Faithful to Him" came to me this morning as I was getting ready for the day. Then I decided that this blog was about my journey through life, but not only my journey through life, but my journey of faith in Christ. So "The Journey of Faith" was added to the title. This is the journey of Faith (me) and journey of faith (in Christ). So it has multiple meanings.
I am praying that I will be able to post regularly on here, just different "going-ons" in my life, as well as new insights that God gives me, or ways that God has blessed me recently. This will be my personal blog, and I will save the other one for photography purposes. Please do check out my other blog though, as I do have some interesting posts on there.
Well, I MUST head to bed now, but I was so excited about getting a new blog going, that I just couldn't wait! God bless you all!

Because of His blood,
Faith
Galatians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 15:10