So for those of you who do not know, I LOVE Christmas! So as I sit here looking at the Christmas lights in my apartment with stockings, a mini tree, advent calenders and ordainments hanging from the ceiling. I am in such excitement that the day is near where we have the opportunity to be blessed with family fellowship, sing carols (we already have some stuck in our heads) and eat a wonderful meal. But most importantly celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
This time of year, is seriously the best!

Blessings!

One of the things that I have been thinking a lot about lately is just life in general. My life has been filled of things, good things, great things, hard things, sucky times, blessed events! I am thrilled with the life that I have been blessed with. I am excited beyond words for the future I am working towards.
My parents named me Nicole Elisabeth. And although I do not know what Elisabeth means, Nicole I do know, means VICTORY. This is why the name of this blog is Forgiven.Victory. I am forgiven in Christ and I am victorious in Him through all the stuff in my life.
I am going to counseling, and I am not ashamed that I am. I am thrilled that I am! I am working through things in my life that have held me for years beyond what I am able to remember, and I am excited for the Victory that has taken place in my life. My parents rightfully named me Nicole, for I have become Victorious over much in my life. And continue to win over more.

This picture was taken at Katie and Mike Hughes wedding. What a gorgeous wedding it was! I am so thankful that Cam is in my life, I love him more than the word love can even express and I am excited for the wonderful that God has in store for us!

Blessings! :)

I was sitting here contemplating about life, and my long weekend back home in Surrey with my parents when I came to realize how immensely blessed I am in my relationship with my mother. Of course there are those times when we get onto one another's nerves, when we say things we don't mean and hurt one another. But every relationship goes through those times. Yet despite those times, my mother and I have the typical "Gilmore Girls" relationship. We are friends, we are family, she is what a sister would get to be in my life. And I am BLESSED!
I shared some life changing news with my mother this past weekend, and truth be told I made her cry in the soup aisle at Save-on-Foods. But that is what I can count on, tears of joy when the news is good, and tears of sorrow when I can't seem to find joy in anything. My mother will always be such a huge part of who I am. She has helped shape me into the woman I continue to become, the good in me, the bad in me, the bold in me. It comes from her amazing mothering skills, and overwhelming love. I am grateful for my Mommy, and I am excited for what the end of 2007, and whole of 2008 will bring for the both of us!

I love you mom!

Don't cha love my wonderful art work?... I DO!

I was inspired by my grandmother before the summer, to start painting. My grandmother, Helen Fast-Kroeker, is the most extravagant painter I know. seriously, she's amazing, and Im not even being biased because she is my grandmother. I figured that some of her wonderful talent MUST have rubbed off on me. So... this is my very first attempt at painting, no classes, no previous knowledge, just paint, a brush and me. Along with Traci, Julie and some worship music.

Ive been thinking a lot lately, and along with my new found love for painting, I have discovered that there is so much emotion worth capturing.
My heart has been consumed with tears and darkness lately, lots of things in my life has been weighing me down and I can't seem to break free from them.
I even just discussed with my roomies, the feeling of having to rip off a band-aid, where there is a huge wound underneath. But not wanting to remove the band-aid. Anything else...anything else God, just don't remove the band-aid, don't allow me to see how big the wound is underneath (the comfortable place I have rested in). No matter how self destructive this place is.
I can see, I have been told the things that need to be done, I can see my own behaviors, I understand the consequences. Yet there is the step to take to consciously rip myself from the comfortable place and expose myself for who I really am...

Father God, when I close my eyes, I see myself sitting on your lap, you holding my life before me. Here I can recognize that YOU are in control, that YOU have my life within your fatherly care. I ask for your strength, I ask for you rip off the band-aid of comfortable pain and reluctance, I ask for you to show me that your strength is all I need to get through, that I can do all that you are asking me, that I don't need to be fearful.
Please help me to see that the wound isn't as scary as I make it out to be.
Amen.

Blessings!

"So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." 1 Peter 4:19

I really love this verse. Mainly because we just finished doing a project on it in Hermeneutics class, and secondly because I feel like it speaks into my life perfectly. It may not be that God willed it for me to allow myself to do what has been done to my body. BUT I know that he wills for him to be glorified through it. That he wishes for me to not sit in self despair, hurting myself further, but to get up out of the darkness and walk confidently in who I am and more importantly in who he is. My identity does not come from sickness, not from what I eat, but from Christ alone.

Blessings! :)

I am SO BLESSED! to have such a wonderful house this year at CBC, Amber and Traci are amazing! Everything is so much fun!!!! This is most defiantly my home. Lately I've been thinking of all the things I am blessed with. And I am blessed with more than I can imagine. A wonderful family, a wonderful boyfriend, wonderful friends and school environment. Even the boys next door are like my missing brothers from home. I just can not believe that although I get frustrated, although I get sad and down, that the life I live is beyond what words can express. I am thankful, I am happy with my life and with what steps I am taking to walk in the will of God to make each day better than the next.

Thanks for blessing me! You are appreciated!