ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

if you're new to this series, start here:  part 1   |   part 2   |   part 3   |   part 4  |   part 5 so, by now you know that he told me he loved me twice within a few months' span and i didn't say it back either time. well, a few weeks after the "second time" occurred, we were sitting in my room and he was making me laugh as always. [remember, he was funny?] in the midst of laughter, i just blurted it out: haahaha,  i love you , haha... wait. and we both paused. and panicked. i didn't even intend to say it, it just came out of my mouth and now i can't take it back!?! and i'll never forget the look of disbelief, coupled with relief, in his eyes. i can see it right now in my mind and it still makes me melt. like i had just made his entire year. his entire life. by loving him back. i'm pretty sure it was very quickly after that i knew i was going to marry him. crazy, right? fifteen years ...

i have always loved this verse in Isaiah 66, and just ran across it again the other day: "This is the one I esteem: He who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My Word." i learned [from Beth Moore, obviously] that "esteem" means to "have respect". God has respect for the humble, contrite in spirit, who tremble at His Word. wow. here it is in printable form: as always, go here to buy.

i sort of can't believe i'm posting this right now... just as much as i can't believe i actually got up and did it in the first place. this morning i shared a song that i wrote. i shared it with the women in my Bible study. it was the last day we would meet together, so they called it "sharing day" and lots of brave and beautiful women stood up and shared what God had done in their lives through the last nine months, as we all studied "Breaking Free" on our own and together. i ended the sharing time by sitting down to the piano and playing for them.  i was nervous and emotional, after all the testimonies i'd just heard, but i was also confident that God would use me. after all, His Word does not return empty, and most of the song is based on Isaiah 61. also, i know He asked me to do this, and He gave me every note and every word of the song in the first place, so i wasn't really thinking about anything but being obedient to His calling. the peace...

just wanted to pop in and leave you with this morsel... we finished our Breaking Free video series last Thursday and as Beth Moore was explaining our new role as freed women, she mentioned that we are His brides [as opposed to wives]. she pointed us to Isaiah 61:10 and i thought you'd love to read what it says: I delight greatly in the LORD;  my soul rejoices in my God . For he has clothed me with garments of salvation  and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,  as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels the word "rejoice" in that verse means "to spin around or twirl" . so that second line literally says:  my soul spins and twirls in my God . i'm sure you can picture it. you put on your wedding dress and twirl around a bit, watching the hem grace the floor just so. but this wedding dress is one that you never have to take off. you are His radiant bride for all eternity. embrace it fr...

well, even though i said i didn't want to finish my Breaking Free study, i did! and here's what i just had to share with you. i write in a prayer journal. and my prayer this morning started out like this:  [copying straight from my journal... not something i'll do very often since these prayers are sacred and precious to me] Lord God, You are creator of the heavens and the earth. Your timing is perfect. it is everything. so Lord, please be my strength as i wait on you... you are the EVERLASTING God. nothing surprises you, nothing is too difficult for you. You do not faint, You don't grow weary. help me to wait on You, and as i do, increase my strength that i might soar on wings like eagles. and then i opened my last Breaking Free lesson, and you wouldn't believe the verse she asked us to look up and meditate on. i've made it pretty for you so it sticks in your mind.  [ feel free to print it out if you want, it's 5x7. just right click and save to your c...

i thought it might be appropriate today, as we round the corner to Palm Sunday, to share something i learned a few months ago through my Breaking Free Bible study. maybe it will change your lif e like it did mine? i want to talk about peace today. probably because i'm really busy right now. this may be more for my good than yours? i tend to get overwhelmed pretty easily, especially if there is more than one outing or event on the calendar in one day. for me, right now, compound that with multiple events, planned for the same day or the same week, 4 really important singing commitments in three weeks [i actually backed out of one of them yesterday, the fifth one, which is a whole 'nother post] , preparing for the queen bee market, and the keeping up with daily life... that's my calendar right now. it makes me crazy just thinking about it. i get stressed and flustered easily, especially if i sleep in and don't have my quiet time before my daughter wakes up. i need p...

tear down the lies. put up the Truth. bow to the Truth. that is [in a really short nutshell] what Beth Moore teaches in Breaking Free, for how to live in freedom on a daily basis. reject the lies that the enemy throws at you, replace them with Truth from God's Word, and then listen to that Truth. do what it requires of you. last week, as part of our weekly study, Beth asked us to practice these steps in the area of forgiveness. she wanted us to write it all out, look up specific verses, bring it to our group when we met. i'll be honest. i didn't do the exercise, because i'd already [more or less] done it in real life just a few months earlier. i wanted to share my personal story with my Bible study group last thursday, but we ran out of time. so i'm sharing it with you now. not the in-depth details, but the most important parts. it's pretty long, but i hope you'll stick with me to the end. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  a few month...

this is sort of like a part 2, to my last post . if you haven't read it, click here . well, i wrote that post, and then i went to my thursday morning Bible study the next day. of course, i was ready for something along these lines since that's what we've been studying, but no one could have prepared me for the message that our dear teacher, Amy, would present to us. i wish i had some way to link to her, a video of this message, something to introduce you to her... but i don't. what follows is generally, pretty much, Amy's concept and writing (there is a part where i have her exact words, and the rest i'm writing myself, from her original concept) so don't credit me with this! first, she started out by reading psalm 45 from The Message, to introduce the Bride (you and me) and the Groom (Christ Himself): You're the handsomest of men;    every word from Your lips is sheer grace,    and God has blessed You, blessed You so much.  Strap your sword to Your ...

this week i am being actively and earnestly pursued by a God who wants to romance me. yes, you read that right:  romance me.  i'm reading Captivitating (as recommended by Leslie ) and i'm doing Beth Moore's Breaking Free study . [i happen to be in week 6 of the study, and we are learning about a woman's heart, which is right in line with the message of Captivating] . this week, all at once, God is flooding my heart with this earth-shattering reality that He wants to romance me. i've always known that "the king is enthralled by [my] beauty" and that i am the "bride of Christ" . but honestly, i never really sat to think about what that really means until this week. my husband is not romantic, and neither was/is my dad. based solely on what i've observed through life circumstances, i've always believed that romance was only for the movies. i never knew that it was appropriate for real life. i never knew that it was actually authored by Go...