give + get

Hello lovely friends!

If you donate $40 or more to a lovely cause {Mission Year, Love 146 or Morgan's Sweet Sixteen} before the end of February, I will let you pick either an Infinity Scarf:  Bulky or Way Cooler Than Your Grandmother's Afghan Scarf from the Made With Love page and send it to you FOR FREE!  Please forward your donation receipt to me for verification along with your desired style and preferred color {emilyelizabethnewlin@gmail.com}

What is better than giving?  Getting some love in return, of course :)

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth

an ode to my forever valentine

check out The Newlinweds for my post!: http://tinyurl.com/4mpywme

the Love that sustains all love

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day...a wonderful time to reflect on all the love we receive from people in our lives, and to thank them for just that.  I have been forming a theology of love in the last few years.  In 1 John 4:8, God is identified as love:

{Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.}

So I began to think about how people tell each other that they love each other...but can those who do not know God really love?  Then there is the scripture in 1 Corinthians 13, that I adore.  The love chapter concludes with:

{Love never fails.}

Those who have experienced the harsh reality of loveless relationships think this scripture is not true.  But what if they never understood that it means, "God never fails."  And the love that only He provides will never fail.

This Valentine's, I reflect on the love that God has provided me to share with others.  This is through His Holy Spirit, who lives within me and breaths the breath of life through my words and actions.  This provides a way for me to check myself.  Am I being selfish?...then I'm not allowing God's love to be reflected.  Am I being petty?...then I am choosing to love with "Emily love", rather than God's love.

This is a great concept, but most of us can't understand God's love because we don't understand how He can love us so greatly.  During this month o' love, I encourage you to check out Brennan Manning's Abba's Child.  

Manning always does such a beautiful job describing God's undying love for His children.  Treat yourself with a few moments of basking in the love and grace God wants to bestow upon you daily.

Much love,

Emily Elizabeth

ramblings of a shopaholic

{NOTE:  Not a usual Say "lovely" post...but this is a place to share about what love looks like, and in my marriage...choosing not to shop is out of love for my husband...it's the little things, right?"

Ever since I knew what fashion was, I read InStyle magazine (the one mag my father, a mailman, hates to deliver).  Nevertheless, this magazine was present in our home all of my teenage years, and in my dorm room during college.  When I went to Chicago, I didn't really have the money to buy InStyle every month, or enough heart to look at all the pretty things that I wouldn't even be able to afford cheap replicas of...so I gave it up, and never bought another issue since...

But the passion for fashion still thrives.

I look into my heart and search for the reasons clothing has brought me so much pleasure in my life...I could say that it is a form of self-expression (if you have seen the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic, I am the cheap version of the main character :)), but everyone knows that is what I use my mouth for...I had always asked God what this passion was for...and I think I have an answer (so be shared later)...but it does not give me the right to spend so much time and money on what I wear.  I will always love consignment and thrift shops, the hunt of a good deal will always be a hobby to me...but I must become less, and He must become greater.

Oh God, may I reflect Your love through my daily choices.  Help me to love and honor my hubbs through my conscious choice not to shop and help me to rejoice of the small victories of a dollar saved here and there.  Let me learn how to love through my purchases...beyond self-love.

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth