MyLeslieNotebook

(Awesome t-shirt in photo can be found at Rags and Royal .) Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I think it always has been, but even more so now that I'm an adult and I can count my blessings one by one. This past Sunday, I had the girls in my class make a name tag that told three things they were thankful for...but they weren't allowed to say "my family," "my friends," or "America." Those are given. :)  So I've challenged myself to do the same. I am DAILY thankful for my amazing family and friends. It takes very little world knowledge to be thankful to live in America.  So, more? I am thankful for the things I don't have to think about . I don't wonder where my next meal comes from. I don't worry about losing my home, losing my children, or losing my mind. These things are very real for some people.  And as a dear friend watches her husband face cancer and another friend deals with the loss of her unborn child, I am th...

I always have a focal verse each month. As one month comes to an end, I look forward to God revealing to me His next Word for me. And when I saw this month's verse, Psalm 93:5, I was consumed. Still am. I read it first in The Message, and this is what the psalmist wrote to God: "What you say goes--it always has. "Beauty" and "Holy" mark your palace rule, GOD, to the very end of time. Beauty. Holy . Maybe you've never thought about those two words together before. So let's look at them together. Holiness  refers to God's otherness , apartness , sacredness , separateness . It points to everything that makes Him not like us . His perfection, His power, His love, and His omniscience make Him holy. The Hebrew word (something like qodesh ) is used 519 times in the Old Testament, all of them describing God or things set apart to God. Beauty  in Psalm 93:5 is actually a verb that means "to be beautiful" or "to be befitting...

Julie Holmes Photography One of you asked for a blog on this topic. And though I write this at one girl's sweet request, I've written this letter dozens of times , for many girls over the past fifteen years.  "What would Mrs. Leslie say about marriage?" [Insert: If you're old enough to be married, you can just call me "Leslie" now, okay?] First of all, required reading: Ann Voskamp's blog on The Unexpected Secret about Boring Men and the Women who Love Them . Seriously, any woman who is married, is engaged, or thinks one day she might be married MUST read this.  It's maybe the best marriage article ever written, and provides you with the freedom for your expectations of your husband. Not only that, but I can testify that I married a "boring" man. So did my mom, and so did many of the women you know. Talk to them about their marriage, their husband, and the boring-ness of it all. It will rock your world.  What I'm abo...

It's the thing we ask God to just give us. We'd rather not practice it. It's something that drives us crazy when other people have none but, if we're honest, we don't have much, either.  It's a fruit of the spirit, it's a command, and it's a quality of love. Patience. When I asked for suggestions for blog posts, one of you said simply that: "Patience." What a loaded topic. First, a quick overview of what the Bible says about patience: Romans 12:12 "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer"  Galatians 6:9 "Let us not grow wearing of doing good..." Psalm 37:7 "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him" Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" 1 Corinthians 13:4 "Love is patient and kind..." Galatians 5:22 "But the fruit of...