Set Apart SPOTLIGHT: Kirsten Neumann

I was reading a book a couple of weeks ago, and in it a character quoted Song of Solomon 8:6 “Place me like a seal on your arm and like a seal upon your heart.” This led me to listen to the song You Won’t Relent by Misty Edwards. 

For the last few years-since grade eight, really, God has been working in me and teaching me about love. It actually all started out because a guy I really, really liked kind of led me on and then told me he didn’t reciprocate the feelings after a few months.

So, God started showing me what love is. And not just Love, but how He saw me. He started giving me verses like Psalm 103: 17 “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children.” Or leading me to books that really helped me see he loves me just the way I am.  

As an unmarried young lady, I’d like to get married someday. I have the whole white picket fence, two and a half kids and perfect husband who is completely romantic while working a good steady job and will never let me down. Unfortunately, even I know that it’s an unrealistic dream.

Set Apart SPOTLIGHT ft. Ashleigh Maynor

It was an October Monday morning, and this morning was different. I had dialed my parents house and was waiting for one of my parents to pick up. They both picked up knowing immediately that something was wrong.

The fact that I was wailing over the phone as if someone tried to kill me probably put them on alarm. I did feel like I was dying though! As if someone had a hold around my heart and lungs and were squeezing them like a rag, trying to get every last ounce of life out of them.

Why, was I so distraught you ask? Well, that was the day that I became…single!

You know, the nine-years-of-dating-someone-and-having-a-piece-of-your-life-that-you-thought-you-had-all-figured-out-end-right-before-your-eyes kind of single.

It wasn’t a bad break up. Neither one of us actually wanted to end things, but God had been tugging on my heart for months. Our season together was ending.

Set Apart SPOTLIGHT ft. Mallory Jones

Throughout high school, I was absolutely desperate for attention from any guy that would provide it. My dad passed away when I was 7, and I wasn’t a Christian, so I had no fatherly figure to show me what kind of love I deserved.

 

My search for validation in boys who were just as broken as I am led to involvement with a long string of emotionally abusive guys--guys who wanted me for nothing more than finding entertainment in using and humiliating me.

 

One relationship in particular lasted six years and is something I just got out of recently. Because of it, I built up sky-high walls. Aside from my best friend Matt, whom I’ve known since I was 10, you couldn’t have gotten me close to a guy if you paid me.

 

I simultaneously craved being loved and was completely terrified of finding it.

Set Apart SPOTLIGHT ft. Emily Posch

There are a million reasons to put something off. We tell each other all about the “signs that God sent us” to do a particular thing, but only when it’s convenient. Only when it’s something we want to do…and more than the other things we’d like to do.  

So after I had spent weeks with one thought in the back of my mind—“why are there no ministries for single Christian women?”—I discovered She is Set Apart via Instagram. And I did nothing.  

Oh, I sure said I would. I told all of my close girlfriends all about it. “They need people to contribute! Let’s share our testimonies!” And I’d pull open Word and start typing…and then realize that it was absolutely necessary to go buy avocados or run the laundry that very second.  

I think my biggest hang-up was wondering how I would convince you, dear reader, how valued and loved you are by your Father. How cherished you are by your Savior. How to not make the same mistakes I did.

7 Reasons You Should Love Yourself





Photo Credit: Arielle Estoria Chroniclesofalioness.com

I went through most of my life wishing I could be someone else. Someone who was popular, went out with friends, had a boyfriend or two, and knew all the right things to say. Instead, I stayed home most of the time, reading books, watching TV, and waiting for the day when something in my life would change.

That day happened when I was in my early twenties and I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

There are many things that Jesus says in the Bible that to most would be considered scandalous. But one of the things He commanded is something that even to the daughters of God can be hard to accept.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hand all the Law and the Prophets.”  (Matthew 22:36-40)

3 Reasons To Put Your Trust In God

Is it hard for you to trust in God?

If I were to answer honestly, I’d say, “Yes!”

In the deepest corner of our hearts, there is a part of us that has a hard time trusting Him. Maybe it’s because we can’t see Him or see what He’s doing behind the scenes of our lives. Maybe it’s because we’ve been hurt by too many people we have trusted in that it spills over.

But the Bible is full of reasons why we should place our confident trust in God:

1.  He will guide your way.  Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

With websites like MapQuest or having GPS on our smartphones, we can become pretty dependent on these electronic resources to get us where we’re going. But they’re not always right. Have you ever put in an address only to get completely lost?

Set Apart SPOTLIGHT ft. Neeta Manohar

My Life never turned out as I expected it to. And boy, am I glad that it didn’t. To many today  I come across as a person who don’t know what it is to feel pain, to feel broken , to feel unworthy or to feel alone , I guess the constant smile on my face gives me away! (Praise God for the smile today)

As I look back at my life, I feel God’s hand on it to turn every plan of mine into a purpose to help me get closer to Him. I was a person to have it all planned. I was blessed to be a natural at tennis and be good at it, so I planned to play in the Wimbledon one day. That was more than a plan, it was a dream , a desire I worked toward . Unfortunately, it didn’t work out because God had bigger plans for me.

I learned that when I saw God using me in my friends lives and using me as a vessel.  I went to college and studied , something that wouldn’t happen if I played tennis professionally. I would not be able to attend college regularly and miss out on life’s teachings that enabled me to be the person I am today.

Brown Girl, Green Lifestyle

I first experienced weight related issues beginning in the fall of 1999. At that time I was a rather cute and chubby little girl transitioning from pre-k to kindergarten. Prior to beginning kindergarten I had not been drastically overweight. I possessed what most people would have labeled baby fat, pudge in my cheeks and belly that may have disappeared as I grew taller. However, the summer before school started I gained a significant amount of weight, most likely do to over indulgence and little physical exercise.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved to go outside and play. I spent many summer days tramping around my grandparents five-acre wooded property: making mud pies, riding my tricycle, and having fabulous adventures in my blow-up pool. But the child’s play I partook in could not compensate for my love of southern delicacies (such as fried chicken, peach cobbler, and gumbo), and my ever increasing waistline.

I was usually allowed to when and what I desired, but the price I paid was the sum total of social out casting among my peers and the resulting mental and emotional torment.