The American "Dream"

What is the "American Dream"? Owning your own house? Amassing a large amount of money? Having the latest and greatest designer clothing or a new car? Bringing home six figures? Being a size 6? Having a full calendar?

Having lived in New York for almost four years now, I think most people believe this is the case. But what if we measured success differently? What if we put more weight on the quality of our relationships, the way we change people's lives, how we share God with people, how we serve the least of these, resting in Him, and how we bring glory to God? Aren't those the things God asks of us? Isn't that all we need? Doesn't God promise us that He will take care of everything else? So why are we worrying about what we have and how others see us?

In the New Testament, James calls us to live out our faith through our actions. He shares with us what God expects from us. Below, James 2:5-17, lays it out for us pretty clearly.

James 2:5-17

English Standard Version (ESV)

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

God has been putting how we define our success on my heart lately. I do believe God has blessed me in a lot of conventional ways. I have a great job, a full social calendar,  a wonderful fiance and a comfortable, beautiful home. However, I think that makes it that much harder for me to put into practice the things God truly wants from us. How are we to put into practice God's desires for us? In a society where we hate to be inconvenienced, how do we step outside ourselves and help others? How do we tell people about Christ? Obviously, its a lot easier to keep to ourselves and worry about making more to have more.

God calls us to change how we define success. I want God to show me what a successful life looks like in His eyes. I want to act out my faith in my daily choices. And as the Lord has always promised us, it won't always be easy, but it will be good. So Lord, I look forward to this beautiful, hard journey to finding Your success. Amen.

How has God been challenging you lately?

An Intentional Break

,,,, And by that I don't mean not posting here!

I am now two weeks into my new job. Things are going well, but boy is it different. The hours are very normal, 9-5:30 to be exact! I'm used to never knowing when I can leave in the evening, so the consistency is nice. Busy season, will mean working a little later, but nothing like the late, late nights at EY. So far, things are pretty quiet at my new office. Its their down time, so very little I'm working on is urgent right now. Because I'm new, I don't have much responsibility yet, so the stress level is pretty low, which I am certainly not complaining about! Everyone is so incredibly nice, but they all tend to keep to themselves. Our whole team sits in offices due to the sensitive nature of working on tax returns, but I think it keeps us from socializing the way we would if we sat in cubicles. I almost miss my cubicle, but not quite!

The great thing about working normal office hours is having more time outside of work. At first I was worried I was going to be bored with not being so busy. The more I think about it, I think its really a gift from God. I am looking forward to having time to pursue things outside of work that I haven't been able to fully devote myself to in the past.  I should be able to focus on finishing projects for the wedding, my weight loss goals, devote more time to Edward, my family and friends, be more involved in our bible study group and be more committed to volunteering with the kid's ministry at church. Most importantly, I'm hoping to be able to find a consistent time to study the Bible and have quiet time regularly. Obviously these are lots of good, important things that I have either not had enough time for or not not made enough time for up until now.

Below is a great passage which talks about what we are to supplement our faith with, much of which I talked about wanting to do. 

2 Peter 1:1-8 (ESV)

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,  and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Does anyone else have any goals for their free time? Here is to using our time well for God!

A Lovely Little Break!

I decided to take a week off between ending my last job and starting my new job, and it was a great idea! Its been a great opportunity for me to get my bearings on life again! Its been a lot like a stay-cation. I have been able to catch up on sleep, spend time with friends, fit in a few extra workouts and time to get the house organized!

Edward and I spent Saturday swapping out winter and summer clothes. Its hard to believe that it took until the first week of May to put away our winter coats (Polar Vortex - grumble grumble)! I also was able to go through all my clothes and decide what to donate. Thanks to my weight loss over the past year, I was able to get rid of THREE trash bags of clothes! (And this isn't the first time I have donated clothes this year either!) I decided to take it a step further and make the storage in our bedroom more functional. I started out with reorganizing our linen storage. I grouped together all of the bath towels in one place, all of the blankets in another, etc. Hopefully this will make it easier to find things when I need them. Now if only I can find my missing bath mat...

I tackled my closet next. Most of my closet was pretty organized, but the way I stored my purses and gym bag was less than ideal. And by less than ideal, I mean they were just laying on the floor! As most New Yorkers know storage in older buildings is not so fantastic. I wasn't really maximizing the vertical space in that part of my closet, so I knew that would be part of my solution. I did a little brainstorming, consulted with my friend Gretchen, and took some measurements. I decided that a cube bookshelf would probably work best in the space.

The before:

The shelf from Home Depot:

The after:

A little side-by-side action: 

I made a quick trip to Home Depot and picked up the shelf and some cloth drawers, all of which are from Martha Stewart's collection. The shelf went together in about 15 minutes thanks to my handy dandy drill! I was able to place my most frequently used purses and some other bags in the cubbies. They contain my belts, ballet flats and sandals. The belts were hanging and the shoes were stored under my bed in a basket. The basket on top was a "street find" in my old apartment building several years ago. Someone was getting rid of it and I was happy to rescue it. Its the perfect spot to keep my over-sized gym bag. I'm fairly certain this setup will be a lot more functional for me. It has been great so far and is obviously much easier on the eyes!

I'm hoping to do some more organizing this week and I hope to be as happy with it as I am with this update! Do you have any spring cleaning or organization projects in the works? If so, please share in the comments! Happy spring cleaning friends!

- Ashley

A new beginning

If I were to pick a theme for this last year, it would be change. Good changes, bad changes, and changes that I can't say were necessarily good or bad. This week brings about a change that I have trouble categorizing - leaving my first job out of college. Most of you who have heard me complain talk about my job are probably wondering why I can't say with ease that this is a fantastic change.

This may be surprising, but I do not like change. Change is scary and new. I am a person who appreciates the familiar and the mundane, even if it means working 80 hours a week for far too many consecutive weeks. It took a great deal of courage to actually leave my job. Well that, and a pretty handsome job offer!

I have worked at EY for nearly 4 years now. Four very long wonderful years. There are days I truly loved working there and days where I seriously questioned why I was there, but I learned more than I could have ever imagined. I have logged more hours and shed more tears there than I care to admit, but its time to go. Friday will be the last day that I head to Times Square (which I will not miss one bit). But, as I mentioned earlier, I do not like change. I have wanted to leave my job before, however, my fear of change stopped me in my tracks twice before.

A few weeks ago at church, our pastor talked about courage. He said that courage is fear coupled with prayer. I had never put much thought into the relationship between fear and courage. At first thought, they sound very different, but they aren't. When you pray about your fears, God gives you courage. I have made a point over the last few weeks to pray about my fears and God has listened. God gave me the right opportunity. God gave me clarity. God gave me courage.
 
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you.”— Isaiah 41:10

Have I not commanded you; Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. — Joshua 1:9

On Friday, I will leave my office and I will say goodbye to my co-workers and friends. On Friday, I will leave my office and God will be with me. On Friday, I will leave my office and welcome change.

- Ashley

Well hello there!

Blogs have always intrigued me and I can often be found reading the blogs of complete strangers. Somehow, this has compelled me to start my own blog. Crazy, right? Well, if you know anything about me, you probably know that I never have a shortness of words. I can talk until I'm blue in the face.

If you don't know me, you probably should know the basics. My name is Ashley, I'm an Aquarius and I'm 28. I was born in Pittsburgh the day the Challenger blew up (I just gave away one of my two truths for Two Truths and a Lie), went to college in Atlanta, graduate school in Austin and currently reside in the Big Apple. I'm a Yellow Jacket and a Longhorn and I love college football. I am engaged to Edward, the handsome guy in the picture below. Lucky me, right? When I'm not busy planning our wedding, I work in tax in the Financial Services industry.

My interests lie all over the place. I really enjoy fashion, fitness, cooking, baking, and home decor. Most importantly, I love Jesus. The truth is, I don't really have a theme in mind for this blog, but I think I have some great ideas and I'm excited to share them with you.

So how do you come up with a blog name when you haven't decided on a theme? I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish regardless of the theme. Once Edward and I get married my new last name will be Espejo, which is "mirror" in Spanish. Mirrors often tell us a lot about ourselves, so with this blog I hope that you and I both learn more about ourselves and find joy in the process. Hope you will keep reading!

- Ashley