letters.

dear bff,
thanks for always being there. when people started to make fun of me at camp, you stood up for me. that time i sneaked into your neighbors yard, you told me that i shouldnt, but i didnt listen. then when your dad saw me, you took the blame. you do your best to agree with what i say. and, until the third grade, you let me believe that santa claus was real. youre awesome.

dear someone,
you drive me crazy, ya know? am i annoying to you, or am i a good friend? speak up, dude!

dear 4h leader,
one word describes you: awesome. i love ya! you have been helping me develop my talents since i was nine. you drove me to fair everyday when my mom had younger kids and couldnt just leave at six a.m. you let me ride your horses. you even let my lamb stay at your house, and you feed him in the morning!

dear piano teacher,
first of all, congratulations! you are going to have a baby this week! im sure the little girls are gonna be a big help with taking care of him (although the two year old told me she wouldnt go near his diaper). thanks for helping me prepare for my recital on june 8th, even when you were eight months+ pregnant!

dear readers,
like my lower case post? :) thank you so much for reading {growing up grace}. its because of you that i blog. you guys are amazing!

dear jocee,
thanks for the inspiration to do this "letters post"! i love your letters to eli, and im sad hes gone. i look forward to more of your posts!

Here is Jocee's button!

having a crush on someone ( a repost).

This was re-posted from Beloved Star by permission from Nela.

Honestly, haven't we all had that feeling before?
Let's say that you have this really great guy friend since childhood, and as you both get older you start to notice him far more as you did when you were younger. Then from out of the blue, you find yourself actually liking him! Has that ever happened to you?
Or maybe one day at church a new family comes to visit and they have a son that's close to your age, and suddenly you can't stop thinking about him?

I'll admit it can be hard sometimes to keep our relationships with our guy friends as brothers in Christ.
Some find it easy to do, while others...eh, not so much.

So here are top 5 ways of keeping yourself emotionally checked when it comes to dealing with crushes.

#1. Don't be flirty around them
It can be hard to keep our emotions checked when we're around our crush. Sometimes you can't help but do something to get their attention. Instead treat them with respect and honor, and don´t go over board by showing too much attention to any particular guy.

#2. Dress modestly around them
Now girls, we should all know that guys see us differently than other girls do. It can be hard for a guy to keep his thoughts emotionally pure if you're dressed "immodestly" in front of him. So why don't we help our brothers in Christ out by dressing and acting in a Christ-like modest way?

#3. Support your local chivalry
When a guy offers to do something nice to you, accept their offer with grace and gratitude. As godly ladies we are to encourage our brothers in Christ to be gentlemen and to ready to assist those in need.
And try not to let any of that chivalry go unnoticed! Remember to say thank-you, and perhaps tell them how much you appreciate their help. :)

#4. Be kind
As Jordan from Blimey Cow once said, "Don't be nice to him just because he's the guy that you like, be nice to him because you're nice to everybody." Couldn't have said it better myself. ;)

#5. Be yourself
If he's the right guy for you, then he will like you for who you are. Not for who you pretend to be. It's better to be true to who you are than to lie to others about what you're really like.

Well there you have it! 5 easy steps to treating your guy friends as brothers in Christ.
Hope these tips were helpful to you. :)

_____________________________________________________

A note from me, Grace;)

I decided to ask Nela if I could repost this because I know this is what a ton of girls struggle with - how to handle a crush! If you have a crush, remember to keep your mind pure. See them as a friend instead of a "boyfriend," especially if you are younger, like me. I believe that dating as a preteen or early teen--which is very popular--is not okay.

COMING UP ON GROWING UP GRACE: A letters post, inspired by Jocee

google search.

{Click here} and read the first half of the post.

Haha;)

our society.

i found this one day while browsing tumblr:

and as sad as it is, it's true. unless you have a face like kim kardashian and the body of a victoria's secret model, you're thrown into the pile of 'wannabe, but you'll never be.' and it hurts. how can they decide what we're supposed to like and not like? how can they decide who's beautiful and who's not? how dare they?

even the boys do the same thing. they only want the girls who would give anything to be with them. and sometimes the girl is the accessory, not the priority. it's because of the girlfriend that they get all the attention, and then they leave her because she's weighing down his reputation. she was always putty in his hands, but couldn't he see that maybe she had feelings, too?

who do you think you are? telling us we're not pretty enough and not tall enough and not rich enough? it's almost like there's a bar. a bar that holds your standards. and once we get close to reaching the height, you raise the bar again. like an endless staircase. the top is so far away that we'd be dead before we found ourselves worthy of you. and quite frankly, i'm tired of it.

dear society, you're the reason countless numbers of girls worry their parents because they're not hungry anymore. they try and try to become skinnier. to have the perfect blonde color or the perfect brunette. their skin to be perfectly tanned. and it's all for you. you influence the world with your rules and regulations and as if it's not enough you flaunt your flawless skin in our acne-filled faces and laugh at us. why? because we can never be like you. it's just too hard. some of us even commit suicide because we're so dedicated to being perfect. but we saw that it wouldn't work. so we decided to end it before any other trouble was caused.

dear boys, you're the reason we just can't seem to stop crying. we genuinely like you, and yet you throw us aside like you're that embarrassing picture your mom just couldn't help but take out. we throw up so we can have that perfect body for you. and you act like i'm not even here.

who do you think you are, running around leaving scars. collecting your jar of hearts...

today it's time to take a stand. post something you hate about today's society, or about how boys treat girls.

we don't have to stand by and watch while our best friends bend over toilet seats throwing up what they just ate. we don't have to stick botox up our faces to have a face like heidi montage or miley cyrus. we are beautiful just the way we are. tell the world who the real star is. we are stars. in our own individual way. we don't have to be pushed aside to make room for the next up-and-coming model or actress or musician. because we're people too. let them know that.

dear society, and dear boys: make way for the genuine. you better watch out.

This was re-posted from The Cupcake Dictionary.