Surely, I'm blessed. Absolutely, I have problems.

For the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. (Deuteronomy 20:4)

As I wrote the title of my blog post, I realized that the Notorious B.I.G. might have just been right - "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems".

God has overwhelmingly blessed me, especially within these last 6 years....

• In 2016: After a word from Him to go, I left my sales job at Charlotte (that I was miserable at). Ended up moving back home with my mom & little sister. In the midst, began a battle with anxiety and depression

• In 2017: He lifted me out of that hole and allowed me to experience joy again. He blessed me with an amazing job that I pretty much love everything about - the work, the reason, the flexibility, the staff, etc.

• In 2018: I went on a 9-month weight loss journey and He brought me from weighing 200 pounds to 142 (56 pound weight loss!). No special diet plan - just prayer, working out, eating well, and drinking lots of water.

• In 2020: I re-met the man I met on an ambush blind date 10 years ago - mannn was he fine! lol We ended up making our relationship official on July 5th that year (SN: Our first kiss was on top of a mountain - how perfect! SN2: BTW he was my first real boyfriend...at 28 years old!)

• In 2021: On our anniversary, he got down on one knee...I said YES! (with much back and forth in my head - I'll probably talk about this in a future blog post)

• In 2022: Whewww this year has had some amazing milestones - For one, I turned 30 this year (which I still feel like my mind is catching up to this reality) AND...I got married to the love of my life on September 25th! :) Talk about God blowing my mind! Marriage also lead to another milestone: I finally had sex at 30!

Sooo yeah. As you can probably tell from this list, God's been pretty good to me!

With these many blessings, among many others, I still experince the yucky stuff. The stuff that, if God asked for my opinion for how my life should go, I probably would skip past them like:

• Feelings of inadequacy

• Navigating change (positive change or not, it's still a new thing to adapt to)

• Fighting for my sanity

• Feeling lost

• Clinging on to my faith for DEAR LIFE!

As Christians, we sometimes feel like we should be exempt from trials and problems because we have Jesus. The reality: even He was not exempt from issues in this life. In fact, he suffered them all so that we wouldn't have to deal with the real issue: a life separate from God. Thank you, Jesus!

From my 30 years of life experience, I've learned that it's true what the Bible reiterates: "suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:3-5) Essentially, I've learned that God often uses our frustrations and obstacles that we go through to build something in us. So what often brings me peace in trials is: 1. knowing the character of God - that He's faithful, all-powerful, and unfailing in His love and 2. knowing that, whenever I'm going through it, God is building something in me (hope that this perspective encourages you if you're going through a tough time).

I started this blog as both a way to recount and be grateful for my blessings and a safe space to navigate through any circumstances that I'm going through. Writing has been such a refuge for me ever since I can remember but, especially, during this time in my life.

I'll admit: I'm a big dreamer. I've been allured with social media's life-changing effect on people since I was 11 years old. I would love for this blog to branch out into apparel, speaking engagements, book deals, an actual community of people...

...but I can't focus on that. For now, I will use this as a platform to share my faith in Jesus, my testimonies, and from an honest, vulnerable just-turned-30 perspective. I pray that God will get the glory and use my sharing on this platform to minister to others (...even myself!).

Well, for whomever is reading, I look forward to sharing my life (often) with you and learning/growing together!

Live your life in YELLOW 💛