November is official over so now it's Christmas time! In my house, we have had our Christmas stuff up for a long time but I'm so excited to actually be in the month of December. We put our house lights up two days ago and it is so fun to see them when I leave the house.
My eczema during November was pretty good. I only had one flare up that was decently-bad but that is okay. Bodies differentiate so it's expected to not always have good skin days. When I did have this little flare up, I got upset. I was just frustrated because my skin has been doing so good and my face even swelled a little bit with this flare up. My face hasn't swollen in a really long time. I went into my room, because I can have the fan on high and the cold helps my face calm down and I sat in there alone for a little bit. My dad and sister were playing games in the living room at the time. I finally decided that it does me no good to sit in my room and mope about something I can't control in this moment so I went and played games with them. Sure enough, my face swelling and redness had gone down a fair amount. Worrying makes my skin worse so when I finally just let go and had fun, I stopped worrying. Even though my eczema is definitely not as bad as it was, I still deal with worrying about my skin. Most of the time, I can keep it under control and not let it bother me. But every once in a while, I just freak out and my skin shows it. That is something that I have been working on in my mental journey with having eczema.
November all together was a really good month. I have been in a season of learning with my faith. With my church, we do homegroups which is around 10 girls that come together on Sunday nights to just talk about God and do life with each other. I have learned 2 things that really stuck out to me during homegroups. The first one is a technique for living out the Bible in everyday life. It is called S.O.A.P. It is an acronym for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. You basically pick one or a few verses a day (that's the scripture part) and you ask God what He wants you to see in these verses (observation). Then whatever God said that stuck out to you, apply it to your life (application). Live out these verses to grow and become more like Jesus. Then pray about it (prayer). Pray that God can help you live out these verses and to take them to your heart. I have been doing that almost everyday now since they talked about it at homegroups and it's really helpful. It is such a good way to focus on God during the day and it only takes about 5 to 10 minutes to do the whole thing. The 2nd thing that has stuck out to me is that we need community. I have learned so much from homegroups and it really feels like a mini family. Community within believers is so important to help each other grow and walk alongside each other. Galatians 6:2 says, "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Sometimes we can't carry things alone. We need people to help us, guide us, and push us to be more like Christ and love others always.
On Thanksgiving, I posted three new pictures on the gallery. In case you didn't see them, here they are.
Thank you to Kyra and Miranda for being my models. I love taking pictures and want to take and post them more regularly!
JATS