Most Recent Blog Posts
Moving Forward With A Burning Fire
Moving Forward With A Burning Fire
4 Key Elements of Faith-Based Goal Planning + My Winter Goals
4 Key Elements of Faith-Based Goal Planning + My Winter Goals
Advent Study: Wonderful Counselor
Advent Study: Wonderful Counselor
The Last Minute Advent Study
The Last Minute Advent Study
 
 

Hi there! I’m Jena. I’m so glad you’re here!

i’m passionate about living my

one beautiful life to the glory god.

 
 
3.3 lr-1.jpg

I like to hang out on instagram.

I’d love for you to come and join me there!

He is risen!! What great joy it is to celebrate the greatest event in history!! As we celebrate what Jesus has done, let’s also celebrate what he is bringing to life, resurrecting, making new ALL things in the name of Jesus! May we continue to celebrate this work he is doing in our lives each and every day! The resurrected king is resurrecting me! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Last night at our Good Friday Service I had the opportunity to take photos of the baptisms. Getting to be up close to capture the emotion of fifteen people, both young and old was such a powerful experience. I was overwhelmed by how universal pain and suffering is. That no matter the age, we get things wrong, go the wrong way, and end up in dark places. Hearing young kids share about how they have gone their own way, not honoring God was so humbling as what great hope they have in their faith to help them navigate their future. Particularly middle school, high school and into college. While I thought I had faith at that age, I had no clue what it meant to live dependent on it. Seeing these kids and young adults commit their lives had me cheering on the sidelines. Praying they cling hard to their relationship with Jesus as they begin to navigate their next life stage. As for the adults getting baptized. I was an emotional wreck watching them break down emotionally as they sat on their knees in the water as their testimony was read aloud. While the enemy would love to shame grown adults for breaking down emotionally, I couldn’t help but see just how cleansing their tears were. That as the tears fell for all the pain their own lives had caused, that the water they were soon to be dipped into would cleanse it all. To symbolize how all their sin and shame has been washed away. While the pain and tears will continue to come on this side of eternity, it was such a beautiful reminder that baptism points to what we will experience in heaven where all tears are all washed away and where Jesus life, death and resurrection has the final say.
God alone has the power and love to make the greatest good come out of the most tragic murder. The only reason today is good is because of how great our God is. 💕
Happy Birthday to my amazing husband! I love living life as one with this man. Each year seriously keeps getting so much better. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for him this next year! 😍😍😍
This might just be my favorite day of the year so far! Normally I'd have an epic prank lined up my favorite holiday, but instead I'm annoucing the start of my Patreon page! (Link is in profile!) I've spent the last few days getting everything set up and I'm so excited for you to check it out! I wrote a letter (and also have an audio version it which was equal part exciting and terrifying to record) that introduces my heart behind my Patreon page and more on the topic of the month which is Obedience. This letter/audio is available for free to anyone who visits my page! For those who decide to subscribe (and know it's month to month so you can easily cancel at any time) I have a playlist, bible study and soon to be posted publication all on the topic of obedience! Again, my letter does a much beter job explaining it all which can be found when you visit: www.patreon.com/onebeautifullife (link in profile)! I'd love for you to share something God is calling you to be obedient to this month! And if you have any questions for me in regards to Patreon please share them below! I will either go live or record an IGTV talking more about it! PS - I have something SO special planned for the first people to sign up so be sure to include your mailing address!!
As I go to start my Patreon page, I want to take each step because I trust God and desire to be obedient to him over anything. Which is why I chose to have the first month on my page dig into the topic of obedience. And then yesterday happened. It was the day I had planned to get everything up and running and I feel like I fell on my face. I got all wrapped up in my head and my agenda. After hitting a low spot, I walked away and asked God to speak to me in this place. The words He said: This isn’t a performance. Sharing that makes me feel like a failure because I passionately desired do this for him. Yet once again I believed the lie that needed to show up perfectly and have all the right answers. So after a self-prescribed nap and a good heart to heart with my husband I’m here and ready to start a new day. While feels like my window of opportunity has passed and my feelings want to be my driving force. I see the fruit of believing this is a performance. When I look at what God has for me as a performance I fall into one of two camps. I believe I failed or will fail and so I give up. Or I begin to strive because I can’t fail so I push hard to make sure that I succeed. Since Jesus doesn’t call us to performance but obedience I want to look for a new way. Any step of obedience I take will always give God the most glory and love others most. Performance doesn’t do that because it makes it all about me. While my fear is loud, and wants to continue to derail me, I also know my fear is a liar. And just because something is loud doesn't mean I need to listen. God calls me to listen and learn His voice. This is what fuels obedience. And as much as I get desperate for a clear idea of what the future will hold, God continues to call me back to His truth. That He is faithful to illuminate my feet right where I’m at to help me see the next small step before me. That’s what He is most interested in. 💕
I was reading in 40 Days of Decrease, and the author posed a question I had never considered before. When Jesus entered on a donkey, and the people were shouting Hosannah, what was attitude and expression towards the people? Jesus knew what was coming and that they would soon turn on him and be shouting, “Crucify Him”. The author went on to ask, what would Jesus have to have known to show joy entering the city? I answered with how I think the fact His greatest desire was to do what His Father had for him. It was only because He trusted His Father that he could be obedient in light of what He was about to face. This got me thinking about what God desires me to be obedient to. How I take even the most simple steps of obedience and fail to trust and instead result to control which steals all ability to have joy in the face of adversity. So what is a step of obedience God is calling you to today? If you’re struggling with fear, what’s one way to get to know your Heavenly Father to help grow your confidence and ability to step out in faith? Let’s share below to spur one another on towards getting to know Him better! Stay tuned as I’ll be sharing more about how I’m fighting for joy in the midst of fear as I wrestle with taking the next step of obedience God has for me in this season!
I need your help! I shared in my stories how I started listening to the book, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind. This is shifting the way I look at cleaning as much as KonMori did! Which leads me to where I need help! How do you all clean your floors? I don’t have a good system and need to step up my game! (We have this flooring in our entire house.) As for the book, my biggest take away so far is that I’ve look at cleaning my house like a project. My brain always thinks in terms of projects for everything in life. I love projects! The planning phase, doing the work and then the enjoyment of finishing. This is how I look at my home. Which results in me only able to accomplish the most pressing items because that’s all the time I have. And creates a yo-yo effect when I want to no longer do any house work once I accomplish something because that’s the reward of a project. Being done. Another problem with projects as they take more energy making cleaning your home pretty much impossible as keeping up with that many projects would drive anyone crazy. She helps reframe your thinking big time. In the matter of three days, my house is so clean and I’ve felt like I haven’t put out any effort to get it there which is crazy! Now I’m ready to tackle new things! So I need help with my floors! :)
I find the moon rather fascinating. I’ve been learning that as women our monthly cycles are connected with the phases of the moon! And if we had more direct access to it’s light we’d sync up. I try to look at the moon any night I can to try and reconnect my body to what it’s designed to do. So if you started today you’re cycling with the moon! My body actually cycles the opposite which back before modern civilization the people who cycled backwards were the ones who took care of the majority of people who cycled with the moon. How crazy is that! Seeing that it was a super moon tonight and last one for 2019 I didn’t want to miss it. As I stood outside (thank you Jess for the warmer weather) I couldn’t help but think our life is to be like the moon. We exist in dark places and reflect Christ’s light as does the moon. We go through seasons and days where our reflection might be limited in some way, but we also go through times where like this super moon we’re reflecting as much glory as we possibly can. May the moon serve as our reminder to seek His face and obey His word so that we can shine brighter each day!
The first day of Spring feels almost as good as my birthday! (which is coming up!) Not just because I'm excited for the warmer weather and all the beautiful flowers in bloom, but God has allowed me to see a tiny bit of what he's been growing in me this past winter and I couldn't be more excited to share it with the world!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you would have asked me even a month ago, I would have felt so in the dark with zero ideas for where I'm actually headed. But much like starter seeds, God has given me the slightest glimpse into something that's growing! I've been a little quiet behind the scenes tending to what God is growing. But it's been deep and serious work that He has been SO faithful in each and every step!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ With each step of obedience, and even with I trip up along the way, he continues to move me forward with traction and momentum that I've never experienced! As he continues to illuminate the next right step, I try my best to walk in obedience to His way!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And what he has revealed is WAY beyond me so depending on him is the only way this is going to come to life! I've got a few logistical pieces behind the scenes that I'm finishing up and then I plan to announce where I'm headed with will include a BIG invitation for you to join me in a really new and exciting way that has been a God thing through and through!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But enough about me! What do you feel like God is growing in you that you want to step into in this next season!? Share below so we can encourage each other on in our next bold step of obedience! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #embracereality #joyintheordinary #prioritizepeople #my8to15 #youbelong #lessworkmorelife #lovedoes #theeverygirl #christianblogger #wellwateredwomen #wordbeforeworld #coffeeandjesus #biblestudymovement #intheword #jesusfirst #butfirstjesus #goodmorninggirls #shereadstruth #first5 #womenlivingwell #livingonmission #discipleship #pursueyourpurpose #forhisglory #truelovestory #hopewriterlife
The season of Lent begins today. Growing up with Christian traditions I was never aware of Lent. It wasn't until the past few years as I began to see Christian friends participate in it, that it began to get my attention. Still not really aware of what it looks like to be faithful in it, the past few years I've picked up some sort of reading plan or guide and do my best to stick with it but always fall short. This year, I didn’t want to start something new as I just don’t have the space for it in my life. However, when I saw @tshoxenreider share about the book 40 Days of Decrease it piqued my interest as I don't have the capacity to do anything more, but intentionally decreasing, tell me more! As I do with every book recommendation I find interesting, I searched for it on Hoopla and the eBook was on there. In most cases, I'd favorite it to come back to later. However, it seems timely so I downloaded it. The fact I can rent it for free with my library card and have instant access makes it an easy decision too! I’m so thankful I did as day one talks about fasting from Lent as a project. This is what I needed as that's been my approach. I look to other IG accounts and see what they are doing which spurs in me a desire to do something too. The problem is when I see it as a project, I already project that I'm going to fail so I don't even want to start. So instead, I’m starting this season knowing I’m going to fail and because I can fast from Lent being a project that’s perfectly okay. I can use this season to enter his presence with intention & bring my focus to Jesus. Not because this season is different than any other time of year, but because this season brings a unique way we can savor Him in light of Easter. So what about you? What’s your experience with Lent? Are you doing anything specific? How does the thought of giving up Lent as a project help you? I’ll have more in my stories about what Day One has to share so be sure to check it out! :)
Hi friends, would you pray for my dear friend Lee. She has battled a myriad of health issues the majority of her life. I’ve been planning to share her story on my blog but she continues to face new health challenges daily and after another night in the hospital, my heart just breaks, and want to ask you to pray. She isn’t on social media but does have a blog that I’ve linked in my profile. She’s been a mentor to me for over ten years and when I met her she had already been battling multiple issues for at least that long. From surgery on her brain stem to being in coma where her family said their goodbyes all while she was awake on the inside. She has modeled the life of Jesus to me and God has used her to help build the faith that I have today. Just last week she was sharing something and my husband leaned over and said, “she sounds a lot like you”. To which I thought, It’s more like I’m the one that sounds like her, which is my greatest honor. While my passion and drive for Jesus may align with her, my experience with suffering doesn’t even come close compare. Even writing this post is hard because it makes me face the pain and reality of my hurting friend, who is still pouring out her life for His glory. I hope to soon share more of her story, but until then I’d love for you to check out her blog and be praying for her. She has an autoimmune disorder that affects her connective tissue which makes everything all the more complicated and dangerous. Yesterday she developed a spreading infection on her hand from the injection site where they had an IV when she was in the hospital the other week for seizures and extremely low blood pressure. She shares more about this on her blog. I encourage you to check her story out and her most recent post on if waiting really is suffering and have your hope & faith in Jesus restored because His strength is on display in her. There truly is no other explanation for it. ❤️
 
 
 
 
3.3 lr-8.jpg