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1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.

i was having one of those weeks. you know…one of those weeks...

the blaaaaaah kind of week.

i was thinking angry thoughts. i was being bitter. i was not being a lovely wife to my hubby. i kind of got away with it by blaming it on pms. but you can’t fool your soul. you just can’t. and you can’t fool God. oh, no you can’t fool God.

i was feeling sorry for myself. (note to self, feeling sorry for yourself is never a good thing)

i was getting mad about life and opportunities and i was feeling ugly things. 

and then i got a slap in the face. the good kind of slap in the face. the slap in the face that makes you fall to your knees. the slap in the face that opens your eyes and makes you see clearly. i heard His voice. His strong yet gentle voice. have you heard that voice? 

He was calling me. my heart heard the words, “laura, why are you so focused on what I didn’t tell you to do?” and then i heard the words that i had read only a few days before, “obedience is better than sacrifice.” 

and then i had the thought, maybe, just maybe He had closed certain doors so i would focus my attention on what He had called me to do. 

obedience is better than sacrifice. in 1 samuel 15 God was grieving. He grieved because king saul didn’t do what God asked him to do. God asked saul to “go, attack the amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them.” He gave very clear instructions. very, very clear instructions. (fyi the amalekites were very mean peeps, do some research and you’ll see that they attacked and killed the israelites when they were on their way to the promised land. and they didn’t attack the strong, able bodied israelites. they attacked the end of the line, the weak. the elderly. the children. that’s a big no-no.)

anyways…king saul didn’t do what he was supposed to do. he kept the best of the best of the amalekites stuff and kept their king alive. 

1 samuel 15:10  Then the Lord said to Samuel, ¹¹ “I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command.” Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the Lord all night.

God was sorry that he had ever made saul king in the first place. the niv says he was “grieved”.  

and the craziest thing was saul had no idea that he did anything wrong..scary…

And Samuel told him, “Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lordhas anointed you king of Israel. ¹⁸ And the Lord sent you on a mission and told you, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead.’ ¹⁹ Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?”

²⁰ “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. ²¹ Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

²² But Samuel replied,

“What is more pleasing to the Lord:
    your burnt offerings and sacrifices
    or your obedience to his voice?
Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,
    and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
²³ Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft,
    and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
So because you have rejected the command of the Lord,
    he has rejected you as king.”

obedience is better than sacrifice.

lesson learned.

i stopped striving to do what God didn’t tell me to do. even though it’s hard, even though i don’t quite understand, i will obey Him. 

oh sweet Jesus, thank You for Your grace.

-s.s.♥.

HALLOWEEN ADVICE

i’m rocking a skull scarf today in the church office. i’m dressing up as a cat tonight, but decided to leave the ears and eyeliner at home as i don’t want to scare a sweet little old pentecostal lady. 

i personally like halloween..a lot! i love candy. i loooove chocolate. a holiday where i am given chocolate for free? COUNT ME IN.

i also love dressing up. in my teenage years, it kinda bit me in the butt as i didn’t know my true value as a daughter of God. i didn’t respect myself, so i used halloween as an excuse to wear as little clothing as possible. sad.

but today i stand forgiven. set free. redeemed. i stand with a new mindset. one that is being constantly renewed by Jesus. 

i read a blog post this morning from one of my fave bloggers, joy the baker.

she’s incredibly rad + real + down to earth. and she loves God. it seems like i know her personally…i don’t but i wish! ha…the blogging world is kinda creeepy…

anyways last year she gave some incredible halloween advice…

1.  If you find yourself browsing Etsy in search of a tie to turn your cat into a businesscat for Halloween, you’re doing things right.

2.  If you find yourself entranced by the candy aisle at Target, you’re really on to something.  Although… if you’re contemplating Halloween peeps I would urge you to reconsider.

3.  If you think a gorilla costume seems like a good idea… for Halloween and just to have around the house: spot on.  Well played.

4.  If you’re considering entering a haunted house, INSIST on positioning yourself in the middle of your crowd of friends.  If you’re first or last in the group you’re probably going to die.  Haunted houses are scary and you’ll probably die.  I’d die.  Seriously.  I don’t belong in a haunted house.  I’d get my murder scream on.  No one likes that.

5.  Haunted Hay Ride?  Suspicious at best.

6.  Listen… if you’re buying the shoes for your Halloween outfit at a shoe store that also sells skimpy spandex outfits and furry handcuffs, I’m really really going to need you to stop that right now.

7.  This brings me to a very important point:  the slutty bee/nurse/policewoman/fairy/cat/warrior/French maid/girl scout/bomb inspector/hipster/moose/panda bear/zombie/Strawberry Shortcake… is SO PLAYED (major lame).  Ladies.  We’re better than this.  We don’t need to take everyday things and make them slutty.  Why!?  Why are we doing this!?  Did you know that we have the ability and freedom to dress like hussies everyday of the year if we choose?  Seriously.  It’s Wednesday, go for it.  Be bold!!  Why take the respected and regal bumble bee and turn that into a hot mess? WHY!?

I distinctly remember when the whole slutty Halloween costume entered my life.  I was 16.  I was an old lady (with shawl, wig, crazy lipstick, and glasses).  My best friend Andrea was a French maid.  Yep.  Lines were drawn.  I knew who I was….

8.  Don’t be slutty.  Slutty on Halloween is DUMB and predictable and DUMB!  Dressing majorly skimpy on a random Tuesday is edgy.  Remember that.

9.  You might consider:  Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth, Kate Middleton, Mila Kunis in Book of Eli, a random Jennifer Garner/Alias get up.  Other suggestions: dress up as your best friend.  Be the secretary to your businesscat.  Be a California Raisin.  Be a bonkers bride.  Be Frida Kahlo.  Be Michelle Obama… and don’t be slutty Michelle Obama.. that’s just straight disrespectful.

Oh my goodness, aren’t those awesome! i whole-heartedly agree with everything she says. Read the full post here…doooo it!

Young girls, old girls, any girls, do yourself a favour and choose the non-slutty route this year, you’ll be happy you did!

and all you haters on halloween..read this article from shelovesmagazine… http://shelovesmagazine.com/2012/being-a-christian-on-halloween/

happy halloween!

s.s.♥.

DIARY // PUMPKIN PARTY

oh sweet weekends. i love you.

don’t get me wrong, i love my job. i am extremely blessed to be able to do what i love..but sometimes i get really, really, really excited for the weekends. come thursday 9pm my mind is in weekend mode. 

this weekend was pretty low key..which i loved. lots of chill time with my man.

i spent my day off on friday doing loads of laundry and getting up to date on vampire diaries…ha…i did squeeze in a run around cedar hill golf course, breakfast at jam with my lovely sister, catrina and coffee at uvic with whitney.

saturday night we had our friends thomas + chenoah over for some pumpkin carving fun…

my cold-weather fave…baked brie + roasted garlic..mmmmmmmmm

here’s my creation…mickey!

i heart fall.

hope you had a fabulous weekend!

xo,

s.s.♥.

THAT TIME WE WERE 10 FEET AWAY FROM RYAN GOSLING

it’s fall. i love it. i love it. i love it.

i love leaves.

i love mist.

i love scarves.

i love pumpkin anything.

i love grey skies. i love it all.

oh, and i love halloween. 

around halloween i get the urge to watch hocus pocus (best halloween movie) and eat lots of candy corn. 

i also get the urge to listen to halloween music. this really isn’t halloween music but it really is halloween music. it’s not labelled as a typical halloween song but it’s spooky and talks about your body being a zombie.

have a listen…

spooktacular hey? and believe it or not, one of the voices singing is the ryan gosling. yeah, THE RYAN GOSLING. 

so if you were a single girl circa 2009 and your bestie lived in vancouver you’d totally pay money to see a really, really crappy band just because ryan gosling was in it?

riiiiggght?

here’s how it went down…

inside our heads- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!noah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!it’s him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

outward appearance- oh sweet, i love this band, yep, total fan.

one of my friends, who shall not be named, went extremely kinda ballistic . it was really cute.

inside our heads- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!omgeee!!!!!he’s totally looking at me!!!!!!!!!!!

outward appearance- ohh, i love this song, it’s my fave. (doesn’t know any lyrics)

inside our heads- !!!! i’m so jealous that those stupid 13 year old get to stand so close to my future husband!!!!!

outward appearance- how artsy and unique of them, to use a children’s choir

happy wednesday!

xoxo,

s.s.♥.

DIARY // SALTSPRING

this past weekend james + i had the pleasure of adventuring to saltspring island. i had gone to saltspring as a young girl for soccer games but that was it. we didn’t get to see a ton of it, but what we did see was awesome. as i said on friday, we left for saltspring to stay the weekend at a friend’s cabin.

the cabin was sooo cute. rustic-chic. all wooden with a wood stove + a loft bedroom. it was a dream..and the view..oh the view…talking about it won’t do it justice.

that picture definitely doesn’t do it justice. it was magical. so very magical. we had a delightful weekend of feasting (my goodness we ate a lot of food!), playing many, many rounds of boggle, exploring around the island (loved the hippie market), listening to chronicles of narnia (bbc did an incredible recording of all the books, i highly recommend listening to them!) + resting.

rest was exactly what we needed and it has fuelled me for the week ahead. i’m very excited to practice sabbath living weekly.

so funny about this picture above… that morning james prayed that we would see crazy wildlife. we pulled over at this stop because of the cute historic buildings and then all of a sudden all these turkeys waddled towards james. they ventured right up to him, it was so crazy!

saturday afternoon we went into ganges and discovered that ice cream was on sale…i’m a girl who loves the sales, so i couldn’t resist! we caught the last day the shop was open! the owner closes up shop for the winter months and heads down to palm springs..what a life. ice cream was $1 (ridiculously tiny scoops though) and all candy was 50% off. ice cream + pop rocks..why not? deliciousness. 

we also drank a lot of coffee. overall it was incredible.

hope your weekend was just as fabulous.

tonight we’re celebrating james’ parents 25th wedding anniversary. so incredible! + then i’ll be making butternut squash soup…i’ll let you know how it goes.

xoxo,

s.s.♥.