June Monthly Recap

 

Hey, friends!

 

Normally, because it’s a Tuesday in the summer, we’d be doing a Bible study on one chapter in the book of Hebrews. However, because I need to get around to doing it, it’s time for a June monthly recap instead. And anyway, breaks are good!

 

Wow. I can’t believe that the year is half-over already. Can you? June’s gone and here we are in July. Let’s get onto the recap!

 

On Living With Purpose (+ really exciting announcement)

 

I announced the launch of my Purposeful Pages link-up in this first post of the month. I’m still so excited to see how it takes off. And if you’d like to see the actual link to the link-up and questions, here it is: Purposeful Pages Link-Up Launch!

Welcome to the Hebrews Bible Study!

 

Our weekly summer Bible Study began in the book of Hebrews! I’m really happy to be doing this – I’m learning so much, and so enjoying all of your lovely comments.

Crushes + True Love: Twenty-Seven Things I Wish I Knew When I Was Twelve

 

This is probably my favorite post I wrote this month. It’s so easy to be infatuated with someone and assume we’re in love (or something…), but love is so much more than feelings. I’m not married, and not even close to it, honestly, but here I shared twenty-seven practical things I’ve learned about love in my sixteen years of life – things I wish I’d known when I was twelve.

Who is Jesus to You? (Hebrews Bible Study: Week 2)

 

Week two of the Hebrews Bible Study happened! Here, we discovered more of who Jesus really is – and how our identity relates to that.

How to Effectively Deal With Burnout

 

I wrote this because we all deal with burnout from time to time. It just happens, especially to us goal-oriented people. Life’s tiring! Here I gave four tips that have helped me as I work through burnout myself.

How Simple Belief Rescues Our Souls (Hebrews Bible Study: Week 3)

 

The third week of our Bible Study was a success! I enjoyed writing this one a bunch. I think that we can, as Christians, sometimes overemphasize works and underemphasize belief in Jesus. Not to say there’s anything wrong with doing good things; we just need to always go back to remembering how we were saved. And that’s in believing on Jesus alone.

Find Joy in The Journey

 

This was probably my other favorite post of the month. Sometimes, we get so caught up in life and forget to actually live; we look to what’s ahead and miss what’s right in front of us. I’m learning more and more that every day is a blessing from God, and that the present is just as important as the future because what we do now is so instrumental where we are later.

Why Grace Brings Us To True Rest (Hebrews Bible Study: Week 4)

 

This was definitely my favorite Bible Study post of the month, because in all this talk about why rest is important, we have to remember what real rest is – and it’s so beautiful. Read the post about it!

 

 

The Benefits of a Spiritual Journal

This post was fabulous. Friends, I can only encourage you to cultivate your relationship with God so much, but this post brings a fresh perspective to such a valuable topic and I can’t recommend this it enough. Thanks, Jonathan!

 

Dear Future Husband…

AAAH this post was amazing. Girls so often put this pressure on guys (whether real or imaginary) to be their Perfect Prince Charmings – and that’s so not right. Because love isn’t about “me,” ultimately, or even “us.” It’s about God. This heartfelt post encouraged me so much. Go read it, I charge you! Thanks, Shantelle!

 

We’re Broken People

This post basically just made me love twenty øne piløts all the more. It just put my feelings for this band into cohesive words AND IT IS BEAUTIUFL. If you have not before listened to tøp, or even read some of the lyrics, you should do so now. *squeals* Thanks, Aimee!

Being a Writer is Powerful

These are such cohesively beautiful words on why writing is so impactful. I want to write to make a difference. This post is so reinforcing of how important writing is. WOW. Thanks, Katie!

 

 

Gracious, guys, I only read two books this month. But it added up to being over 1,000 pages, so it wasn’t too bad.

 

Read:

 

Winter by Marissa Meyer. 5/5 Stars.

 

This book is HUGE. 823 PAGES. So it took me forever to get through, but it was awesome. I loved seeing all of my Lunar Chronicles friends together and getting sort-of Happily Ever Afters.

 

Storm Siren by Mary Weber. 5/5 Stars.

 

GO READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW. Some of my friends on Twitter were RAVING over this book and demanding that I read it encouraging me to pick it up. AND I DID. Oh my, that book made it onto my favorites list. The characters were amazing, and the themes were so deep. Miss Weber is a Christian, and signed to Thomas Nelson/Zondervan, so even though the story isn’t a Christian one per se, themes of worth and purpose are masterfully woven in. EEP.

 

Currently Reading:

 

Siren’s Fury by Mary Weber. Loving it so far.

 

 

I didn’t write a lot this month, probably only 1,000 words in my book, BUT I AM DOING CAMP NANOWRIMO AGAIN. And it’s so incredibly much fun. I’m with five people that I did it with in April, and five new people. We have the best discussions, from writing to blogs to faith and church and praying for each other, to siblings and friends and books and spatulas and sourpatch. I’m so happy to be doing it again, even with a lower goal of 7,000 words. So glad to be writing and be encouraged!

 

 

I’ve been waiting to share some of these new things for the past couple of weeks!

 

If you’re on my site currently, you’ll see that I’m using a new header with a new tagline! And I am so happy with them both. I now have more whitespace in my header, and my tagline is no longer “One Christian Teen Girl’s Contemplations” – it’s “By Amanda Joy Beguerie.” Which…isn’t totally a tagline, but it gets my name to be what people associate with Scattered Journal Pages. So YAY.

 

I updated my About page! I feel as though it’s more accurately representative of who I am, and of my writing style. Happy about that too!

 

I put up a new menu for the Purposeful Pages Link-Up! It just launched on July 2^nd, though the page has been there for about a month now. There is the HQ for all the latest information, basically.

 

I put up a new menu for My Book. There, you can see what’s going on with it, as well as segments from it, et cetera. If you’re on Twitter, you can look at my hashtag #WIPaj for snippets I post all the time.

 

Purposeful Pages launched, and you’re welcome to participate! See this post for all the details. And if you’re even more excited, you’re welcome to grab the PP button from my sidebar.

 

 

Oh goodness, what even do I have coming soon?

 

Every Tuesday, we’re gonna have the Hebrews Bible study continuing, of course! And for those of you who haven’t been participating or reading the posts, please don’t be intimidated by them. Of course I’m not going to make you do it along with us, but instead of thinking of each study as long, cumbersome, theological headaches, think of each Tuesday as a breath of fresh air into one of the most amazing books of the Bible. Feel free to join in when you can, and you honestly don’t need to do them all or even in order. Just enjoy. Find inspiration. Rest your weary soul.

 

I have a list of post ideas in my notebook, and I might use some of them this month. Some of the topics are:

 

• What it looks like to truly love and to be loved
• Why pouring into people is an incredible thing to do
• Why it’s actually okay to not be okay
• Setting boundaries for media choices
• (As an extra) The most helpful and crucial things I’ve learned in my blogging experience

 

I can’t promise these particular posts on specific dates, but I’m totally up for you guys telling me what you want. Which topics sound the most interesting to you? Do you think I should take a short break from the Bible Study, or keep on going with it?

 

You all are awesome, and I can’t wait to chat with you in the comments! Happy July!