Alli Prince's Blog, page 2

What makes a TRUE friend?

I didn’t get to go to my Grandma’s funeral.

We’re traveling to Realm Makers this week, and with everything, the timing just didn’t make financial or emotional sense to go all the way to Vegas for a day, only to fly back and immediately start more traveling. (It’d be 8+ hours of flying, not to mention the 2-hour drive to the airport, then the 8+ hours it’ll take to get to Realm Makers.)

I’m young, but I’m not that young.

I was lamenting to my friend how guilty I felt for making that choice, for not being able to fly back home and be there for my family, or to grieve her passing myself.

“Well, let’s have a ceremony here.” She said, and it quite literally changed my life.

A Change In Weather

You know how in the movies, it’ll start raining during a funeral?

And it’s always a little cliche, but MAN, it fits the vibe, right? On Saturday, we planned a picnic at Salt Fork, OH. My friends grabbed picnic food, blankets, and we all gathered together in a spot of grass right by the lake. It was gorgeous, and I can’t help but think my Grandma, while not a real outdoorsy woman, would have appreciated the beauty.

One minute it was sunny, with no rain on the forecast, and within twenty minutes the sky grew dark gray and our apps said “rain imminent.”

We prayed against the rain—and immediately got the sense that we shouldn’t be praying for that, but for something else. We gathered under a tree to make a plan, and the moment we did, the skies opened up and it downpoured.

The tree offered little protection, and within minutes, we were soaked head to toe. Cue the Chaos.

One friend started shrieking and giggling at the sheer audacity of the sky. I began to scramble our phones into a dry place. Another friend dove for the food, shoving it into bags. Halfway through our panic, I looked up and across the field to see my dear friend and roommate Vella, who had been a little late, sprinting towards our tree. (The sight of her coming over the hill like a warrior on a mission will never leave me.)

Not exactly what I was picturing when I wanted to gather with my friends to remember my grandma.

We decided to gather at a burger joint down the road, and when we showed up, there was an entire family reunion going on. They all stared at us as we showed up, soaking wet, and stood awkwardly trying to find a table. There wasn’t one.

I was upset. This night was not turning out as I had wanted it to in the slightest, and I was ready to give up and go home. My friends went inside to order us fries, and as I stood outside, waiting for the family reunion to clean up and get out, I started to ponder and ask God why the night had so suddenly taken such a poor turn.

That’s when I remembered the impact my grandma had on my life. I won’t go into extreme detail here (for more about her, you can read this blog I wrote).

While I don’t know if I can recall her ever saying this, there’s one sentence that I would say sums up her life.

“If you get a story out of it, it’s worth doing.”

My grandma was wild. She read a ton, and loved to listen to a good story, fiction or not. There’s one thing for sure: I will never forget getting drenched in the rain with my friends. That night will be talked about for years to come, just like my grandma’s stories about her own life.

So, what makes a true friend?

Sometimes, friendship looks like staying up well past your bedtime, giggling and wheezing about nothing in particular. Sometimes it seems like showing up at a party and quietly enjoying everyone’s company. Sometimes it’s loud laughter, quiet snickers, and shared glances.

And other times it’s crying in the rain with your friend because they’re hurting.

It’s listening to them give a half-formed, rambling speech about someone they deeply cared about. It’s listening. It’s hurting with them. It’s giving them permission to cry, and telling them it’s not their fault, even if they know that already.

A true friend isn’t some characteristic. It isn’t “someone who is funny” or “Someone who always knows what to say.“

Sometimes, the enemy gets in and lies, saying you aren’t good enough to be a good friend. The enemy will lie and attack your characteristics or personality and say, “Look! Here’s proof! Proof of why you are a horrible person and a terrible friend.”

But it isn’t about that. Not in the slightest. Because a true friend? They’re present, like Jesus is.

A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for a time of adversity.
Proverbs 17:17

My friends are not perfect people. They get angry. They get sad. They get grumpy.

But they are present, like Jesus is. I can only hope to be present for them as they have been for me. 🙂

Pictures don’t do justice for how truly soaked we were.

Want a friendly reminder of your worth in Christ? Check out this free devotional!

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Each time you think a thought, you reinforce it. That's why it's so hard to fight the enemy's lies on your own.

 

Each day, for 21 days, you'll get a short email with a biblical affirmation or truth! So let's break those nasty lies and start walking in the freedom God has called us to!

 

SUBSCRIBE! Thanks for joining! Your first affirmation is on it's way.

The post What makes a TRUE friend? appeared first on Alli Prince.

The Freedom of Obedience

Sometimes, God asks me to do something, and my first reaction isn’t a fully committed, enthusiastic “Yes, Sir!”

Sometimes, it’s more of a hesitant, teeth clenched, “You want me to do what?!”

Sometimes I can’t say anything at all and I stand there with a sickening feeling resting in my intestines.

Ever feel like that?

My dilemma with Singing

People tell me I have a good singing voice. It’s not that I don’t believe them, well, not entirely that I don’t believe them. I love to sing. But it’s something that so many people have pressured me to do, so I guess I’ve adopted a sort of rebellious opinion on the matter. Plus, it’s freakin terrifying.

Sure, I can sing a little, certainly not well enough actually to do anything impressive, though. I’ll sing when I need to, and maybe when I want to—if I’m totally and completely alone or with someone I feel really safe with.

I feel like this even during worship on Sunday mornings. I worship, don’t get me wrong, but I always have to fight that little voice that tells me I’m being too loud—that I’m bothering the people around me, taking away from their worship.

When I said No to God

Once, a year or so ago, my church had a random Sunday when they needed someone to lead worship. The worship leader was out sick, and my pastor asked if I’d step up. I’m really ashamed to say I laughed, shook my head, and said, “No way!” He accepted my answer, but said that if I changed my mind, I should show up at 9 AM at church to practice. I shook it off, promptly forgot about it, and went about the rest of my day.

The next morning, I woke with a start at 7:30 AM. I sat up, confused why I would wake so early and so suddenly without an alarm on a weekend, when a thought crashed through my brain.

“I’m up early enough to have plenty of time to get ready for singing today. I should do that.”

Fear like ice grabbed my heart, and I slammed myself back into my pillow. No, no, no! I didn’t want to do that.

“Don’t ask me!” I hissed. “Don’t do it, God. I won’t do it. I’m saying no!”

“Okay,” I heard him whisper. I lay in bed for the next two hours trying to fall back asleep, but I couldn’t.

God respected my answer. He’ll do that when he asks you to do something. He’ll respect what you say. Conviction was a close friend to me in the following days, and finally, I repented of being disobedient in my heart, even if God never technically outright asked me to, I know his heart. I know he wanted me to.

I asked God to help me work up the courage to be able to say yes to things like that. I asked him for opportunities to say yes again.

We don’t always get second opportunities. When God brings something to you, sometimes, you gotta just say yes.

But this time, I got a second opportunity.

My friends host a worship night once a month during the Summer in their backyard. There are speakers, microphones, and lots of good food. It’s a grand time. I’ve always loved coming to those revival nights.

She asked me to lead worship and sing, and I felt that familiar sense of dread and fear. But I wasn’t going to outright say no this time.

“Sure, but I don’t want to lead. I’ll sing back-up, but maybe someone else can lead the songs.”

That was my loophole. Because as much as I wanted to be obedient, my fear was still greater than my faith that God would handle it. I asked my friend, the worship leader at my church, if she’d like to sing with me. After a brief conversation, she caught on to my loophole and said she’d only come if she could sing backup.

“God is calling you into something, and I’m not going to let you cower away from it,” She told me.

Get you some friends like that. Friends who won’t let you cower away from the call God has for you.

You’ll be pleased to know that I did lead worship. Ten whole songs and I only forgot the words twice. And guess what? It went great! I even had fun doing it. But there was something even better that happened after.

(Here’s proof I sang)The Reward of Obedience.

I showed up to church the next day, sat in my seat, and got ready to worship. As the first song started, I waited for that familiar feeling to show up—that feeling that I was being too much or too loud. But as I sang, I felt something loosen in my vocal cords, and suddenly I realized, it wasn’t about that.

I knew, logically, worship was about singing praises to God. But for the first time in my life, I realized that I didn’t have to worry about whether I was bothering the people around me because my church doesn’t care if you’re too loud. I realized that I didn’t have to worry about upsetting anyone because everyone was too busy praising Jesus to pay any attention to me. I was free to sing to God because if anyone was paying attention to me—listening to see if I was on key, if I sang the words right, if I was too loud or pitchy—then it was their issue. All I should be concerned about is lifting my voice to God and praising Him. Everything else doesn’t matter!

I sang, and God set a part of my heart free—no more restriction, or fear, or sick anxiety in my stomach. I could sing, and I was free.

Sometimes, I wonder if God calls us into obedience not because He needs us to do something, but because He wants to set us free from something.

What’s God calling you into now? Let me know in the comments!

Want to see freedom in your thought life? Try out the 21 Days of Affirmations!

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Each time you think a thought, you reinforce it. That's why it's so hard to fight the enemy's lies on your own.

 

Each day, for 21 days, you'll get a short email with a biblical affirmation or truth! So let's break those nasty lies and start walking in the freedom God has called us to!

 

SUBSCRIBE! Thanks for joining! Your first affirmation is on it's way.

The post The Freedom of Obedience appeared first on Alli Prince.

3 Steps to Overcoming a Lie

Life has been “life-ing” lately, y’know?

A lot has been really good, don’t get me wrong. Copper Lies got #1 Best Seller, my brother graduated from BootCamp, I’m being published in an anthology, Fantastical Summer (which comes out tomorrow!), and I’ve finished the next round of edits on my time travel novel.

But there’s hard stuff, too, of course. That’s what life is, right?

What sucks is when life start’s “life-ing”, so the enemy thinks he can sneak in and start lying.

The Enemy Prowls

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since I found Jesus, it’s that the enemy is really not happy with the fact that I’ve found Jesus. Say what you will about what we’re up against as Christians, but I know from the word that we do not fight battles of flesh and blood. Isn’t a huge part of that battle defeating the lies that we believe about God, others, and ourselves?

I’ve been on this journey of overcoming lies for a few years now, and I’ve found that with each lie I come across, there’s a bit of a process to overcoming it. Sure, sometimes there’s a moment where I recognize something as a lie, and then I go on to never ever struggle with that concept ever again.

And then there’s how it usually goes…

Step 1: Recognize The Lie

This is when I come face to face with the hideous untruth I’ve been believing and recognize it logically as a lie. Here is a great opportunity to confess that you’ve been believing a lie, repent of agreeing with the enemy, and then replace that lie with the truth. (If you want some help replacing those lies with truth, check out my 21 days of Affirmations!)

Then, I go to step 2.

Step 2: Accidentally fall back into the pattern of believing the lie, and return to Step 1.

No matter how much, logically, I know that what I believe is a lie, sometimes, it is easier to fall back into old patterns and react to the world like that lie is a truth.

Sometimes, I go into situations believing I’m a burden.

Sometimes, I react to the world like everyone is out to get me, feeling like I can’t trust anyone.

Sometimes, I fall back into my old thinking and berate myself for a simple mistake instead of giving myself grace.

But just because it’s easier doesn’t mean it’s true. It’s called a battle for a reason. It takes effort, it takes energy. It takes commitment and time. When you get to Step 2 and realize you’ve fallen back on old ways of thinking, it’s time to get to Step 1. Sometimes, I have to go back to Step 1 multiple times a day.

But Step 1 isn’t the end—and neither is Step 2. Because I recently discovered a secret, third step!

Step 3: Suddenly recognize years later that you’ve won the battle

There comes a day when the enemy will realize you won’t go down without a fight. That no matter what he throws at you, no matter who says what, you’re going to fall back on the word of God and trust what He says over that lie.

The enemy doesn’t announce his retreats, in my experience at least. He quietly slips away into the shadows to wait for a better opportunity or a new lie to try and trip you up. Sometimes, he’ll wait years before trying a particular lie again. And one day, you’ll be sitting there, minding your own business, and suddenly realize it’s been years since you’ve struggled with the lie “I’m worthless“. You’ll realize you haven’t thought, “I’m unlovable“, in such a long time that the very idea that you used to struggle with that is absurd.

The battle is hard right now. I get that. I never said that fighting lies was easy. But you won’t stay in that battle. You will see victory one day. Because guess what?

We’re on the winning team. 🙂

I’ve got a story in Fantastical Summer that’s really all about overcoming the lie “I’m unlovable”. It’s a short story about a world where everyone is born with a soul mark, a special sign to show you who you’re destined to fall in love with. Everyone except the main character, of course 😉 and I’m SO excited to see it published! Check it out on Amazon.

What would you do if you started growing a fluffy tail every time you felt embarrassed?

A mermaid outcast, a girl who can steal stars, and a high schooler suddenly affected by gravity in a gravity-free world—these are just a few of the fantastical premises you’ll find in this collection of short stories.

Weaving classic coming-of-age themes into magical versions of our world, fifteen Christian writers each bring a fresh perspective on childhood, loneliness, and identity.

Save a spot in your beach bag, because this collection of clean, fun summer stories is more than a fluff read. This beautifully brave anthology leads us to ask hard questions while staying grounded in the truth of the Bible. You’ll want to revisit these thought-provoking stories throughout the year!

Get your copy!

The post 3 Steps to Overcoming a Lie appeared first on Alli Prince.

When Your Friends Hate You…

Sometimes, things just don’t work out.

It doesn’t matter how much effort you put into the relationship. It doesn’t matter what you bought them, what you sacrificed for them. Sometimes, things just don’t work out.

And that’s okay!

There is a time for friendships, and a time to move on from friendships, and a time to make new friendships.

It’s okay, but let’s face it… It’s still hard. So, what are you supposed to do when your friends hate you?

My friends – A Tale of Shorts and Ghosting

I bought a pair of shorts once. They were shorter than the shorts I usually wore, which went down to my knees (at 5’8, with most of that height going to my legs, those are impressively long shorts). It was at a time in my life when I had gained a bunch of weight due to my health and stress. I was 22, and wasn’t feeling that great about myself or my body.

But I looked fine in these shorts, so I bought them.

And my friend immediately called me a very particular word for someone who dresses for a very particular activity that is very frowned upon.

Yikes.

I’ve had many a friendship not work out in my life. Sometimes, because I was tired of being treated poorly, and other times because of something stupid I did or said. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God, after all.

It sucks when a friendship doesn’t work out. It really sucks when you fight with a friend and then wind up not talking to that person ever again. It sucks even more when you don’t think you really did anything very wrong, but suddenly that friend is cold, won’t answer your texts, won’t answer your calls. One day they’re just…gone.

There was a time in my life when I looked around and realized that every friendship ends one day. This was right after I graduated from high school. All the friends I’d made as a teenager were moving on, growing up, getting lives, getting jobs, going to college.

Every Friendship Ends…for a time.

If there’s a time for a friendship to end, then there’s a time for a friendship to be restored…even if that friendship isn’t restored until Jesus comes back and the world is made new.

Listen to me. Friendships are hard. People are silly. We’re stupid and immature, and we get our emotions hurt over things that really don’t matter. We have very little grace for one another and assume other people’s intentions all the time. That friendship that you’re mourning? That friendship you’re struggling with? It’s not over. This isn’t the end of the story.

Yes, it hurts, and it’s allowed to hurt. You’re allowed to mourn it. But I want to give you hope.

One day, you’ll open your eyes. The world around you will be literal perfection, your body made new. The battle is over, the enemy locked away where he belongs. You’ll look up and meet the eyes of that friend—that friend that has caused so much pain, or that you have hurt just as deeply. You’ll meet their eyes, and you’ll both realize at the same time how stupid it was to fight, or how sorry both of you are that it got so out of hand.

Jesus is going to restore all things.

He will make all things new. If all things are new, that must include that broken friendship.

And that is a very good thing. 🙂 So take heart. This hurts right now. That’s okay. Bring that hurt to God, let him comfort you, and then rest in the hope of his promise, that all things will be made new.

God is all about forgiveness and restoration. Maybe it won’t take until Jesus comes back. I’ve seen plenty of times where a friendship that I thought was over was restored! Or maybe, just maybe, that friendship needs to end for a time, so God can bring you different friends for a new season in your life.

It’s not over.

If you liked this blog, check out my friend Vella’s blog on the same topic! Click here.

Lies are hard to fight—especially when you accidentally give those lies life in the form of a mechanical dragon!

This week, my book Copper Lies is on sale for just a dollar! Get it before it’s too late!

Copper Lies

If you make something, and then that something accidentally comes alive and destroys your entire town…would it be fair to say that you destroyed the town, or can we just blame it on the thing?

Lillian Booker is dying to experiment on the strange glowing rocks hidden inside her adoptive father’s workshop—but the professor forbade it before he left on his journey. As Lillian learns all she can about the stones without breaking the professor’s rule, she finds herself stuck between two worlds.

Will she live the life of a brilliant inventor or give up on her dreams and become a respectable lady instead? What will make her happy? Most importantly, which will prove to the professor that he didn’t make a mistake when he chose her?

When Lillian secretly builds a mechanical dragon, one mistake leads to another—the strange glowing stones collide with her creation and the dragon roars to life. Lillian must make a choice…lie and keep her dragon a secret or finally face the truth?

Will any of it matter anyway if the town’s already been destroyed?

Get your copy before the sale ends!

The post When Your Friends Hate You… appeared first on Alli Prince.

You’re More Important Than You Think

My grandma died last week.

The last time I saw her was about a month ago, when I surprised my family and flew down for Easter. It’s selfish, but I hated visiting her. She had bad dementia, and it was hard to see my grandma, the strong, powerful woman I grew up with, withering away in a bed.

The last time I saw her was the worst. I don’t think she could see anymore. I don’t know if she even knew who I was. She’d been in hospice for three years. My dad told me, in her final moments, that he, my mom, and my older sister got to shower her with kind words, tell her how good of a mother and grandma she was, things like that.

It made me wonder if she knew the impact she had on her family.

It made me wonder if any of us know the impact that we have.

A wild teenager in the 50’s…

My grandma was a really wild woman. She grew up as a teenager in the 50’s on the coast of California. She rode motorcycles, shallow dove off broken piers, and burned her gym uniform in her senior year—and only got caught because her name tag wasn’t flammable.

I know these things because, from 2005 to 2012, my family lived with my grandparents. I spent countless afternoons sitting in her lap, begging and begging her to tell me another story about the crazy things she got up to. I remember when I was six years old, listening to my grandma recount her own life, and deciding that I wanted to be that person. The person who had stories to share.

My grandma, inadvertently, made me a writer. I don’t think she knew this. She was diagnosed with dementia a year or two before I decided to pursue this thing professionally.

My grandma took us shopping constantly. We were always waltzing through the mall, giggling over clothes or funny kitchy signs. She helped me plant dozens of purple flowers on our hill in California—then, laughed with me when we realized we both forgot to water them and they died less than two months later (ADHD is a genetic trait, did you know?)

I had so much joy in my childhood because I got to live with her. Thus, the universal truth you can apply through this story.

You provide joy to others. That’s the truth.

The truth is, we never know the full impact we have on others in our lives. Don’t let the enemy convince you that you don’t have an impact. That you, your light, doesn’t matter.

It can be so easy to look at others and compare yourself. We understand the impact others have on our lives because it’s our lives being impacted. Think of all the times you feel loved by someone, you feel joy because of someone, and you don’t say anything.

There could be just as many moments others experience because you showed up. Because you are in their lives.

The enemy wants to convince you that you aren’t important. That the people around you don’t actually care about you. He wants to isolate you and destroy you.

My grandma was not a perfect woman, and neither am I. But we love others because Christ first loved us. We can provide that joy because Jesus showed us that joy.

I’m going to miss her more than words can describe, but I can’t wait to meet back up with her in Heaven. I can’t wait to cozy up by a fireplace with her, each holding a cup of heaven-brewed coffee.

I can’t wait for it to be my turn to tell her the crazy, wild things that I did with my life.

Alli and Mimi (2011)

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Each time you think a thought, you reinforce it. That's why it's so hard to fight the enemy's lies on your own.

 

Each day, for 21 days, you'll get a short email with a biblical affirmation or truth! So let's break those nasty lies and start walking in the freedom God has called us to!

 

SUBSCRIBE! Thanks for joining! Your first affirmation is on it's way.

The post You’re More Important Than You Think appeared first on Alli Prince.

Has The Enemy Silenced You?

I used to think affirmations were stupid.

The idea of speaking “true” things to myself, out loud, was an idea I scoffed at. So, you can imagine how I reacted when my mentor gave me a list of affirmations as a school assignment.

“Affirmations are stupid and new-agey,” I had said, my arms crossed tight over my chest. “They sound like you’re trying to ‘manifest‘ something. I’m not about that.”

“Is it ‘manifestation’ if what you’re saying is already true?” He asked.

I had to stop and think about that one.

You see, I hated the idea of speaking affirmations over myself. It was mortifying. What if someone heard me? Worse, what if someone heard me and needed to “correct” what I was saying about myself? What if what I was saying wasn’t actually true?

Are affirmations and “speaking truth over yourself” really that important?

The Time I was on Channel 8 and Ruined My Own Life

The News, channel 8, wanted to interview us, because when I was fourteen, we adopted a sibling set of six kiddos. We went from a family of 5 to 11 overnight. That’s a pretty cool story.

I was nervous when they threaded the microphone through my shirt and clipped it to my collar, and when they sat my sister and me down together and started asking us questions. I took a breath, squared my shoulders, and decided to be honest.

Two weeks later, we huddled around the TV, waiting for our interview to air. Our segment started playing. I leaned forward. Then my face flashed onto the screen, and I saw myself pouring my heart out. (The video is long since gone, but they have a blog so: Proof!)

I talked about how hard of an adjustment it had been, but how God had taught me so much through it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I talked about how, when you suddenly get six new younger siblings, you have two different ways you can go: babysitter-mode, where you scramble around to appease everyone to keep the peace, or dictator-mode, where you try to control your out-of-control circumstances.

“At first, I was almost like a dictator,” TV-Alli said. “And I really had to learn how to be an older sister and let go of that need for control.”

My phone went off once—twice—three times. I glanced down. One, two, three different people had all texted me the same thing at the same time.

“HA! You’re a dictator?!” “Hello Dictator.” “I’m going to call you dictator from now on.”

I tried to laugh it off. After all, I should have chosen a better word or been less honest about how I’d experienced things. But then they kept calling me a dictator. They changed my name in their phones to “dictator”, and when I tried to explain, to tell them how I really wasn’t a dictator—that the point of what I was saying was that I had grown and please, please stop calling me that—they’d shut it down, pull up the video and tell me how I was a control-freak, that I hadn’t grown or changed at all. I was a dictator, and I always would be, and “aren’t you glad we put up with you and are still your friends even though you’re such a dictator?“

I don’t tell you that story to make you feel pity for me, but to prove a point. Words have power. I had tried to fight the things they spoke over me (and trust me, Dictator is the nicest thing they ever called me). But eventually, you grow tired of fighting, you stop arguing, and you let those vile words wash over you, and something deep inside of you starts to think, “Maybe they’re right.”

That’s when the enemy has an open door he can walk through.

I’ve struggled with insecurity and putting myself online for years because of this (and other) things that people said and did to me. When you think a thought, like “I’m a dictator“, then that thought forms a pathway in your mind. The more you think a particular thought, the more that pathway forms.

By refusing to speak the truth about myself, I unintentionally gave them (and the enemy) a megaphone to speak into my life.

What you refuse to speak into, the enemy will.

Affirmations are essential because they’re literally forming new pathways in your mind to change the very way your brain thinks. Affirmations are how you take back that megaphone and shout truth into your life instead of lies. They’re not stupid or silly or childish, like I had felt like they were, and those feelings came about because I did believe the lies the enemy had spoken over me. It was the easiest pathway for my brain to take.

21 Days of Affirmations

It can take up to 21 days to break a habit. 21 days to form a new “pathway”. That’s why I created the 21 Days of Affirmations. For 21 days, you’ll get a short email in your inbox to remind you to speak a true, biblically based, affirmation over yourself. A reminder to start forming those new pathways!

Don’t fight the enemy alone!

If you’re anything like me, then you know how hard it is to fight off the lies you believe on your own. So, don’t do it alone!

God is pretty cool, and guess what? He thinks you’re pretty cool, too. So let’s speak the truth over ourselves, break those nasty lies, and start walking in the freedom God has called us to!

Start Fighting Back!

.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_content { background-color: #b5b5b5 !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container .et_bloom_form_header { background-color: #efefef !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .wedge_edge .triangle { fill: #efefef} .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #f594af !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_fields i { color: #f594af !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_custom_field_radio i:before { background: #f594af !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #f594af !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container h2, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container h2 span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container h2 strong { font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, sans-serif; }.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container p, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container p span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container p strong, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container form input, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_18 .et_bloom_form_container form button span { font-family: "Lora", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; } Did you know it can take up to 21 days to form a new habit?

Each time you think a thought, you reinforce it. That's why it's so hard to fight the enemy's lies on your own.

 

Each day, for 21 days, you'll get a short email with a biblical affirmation or truth! So let's break those nasty lies and start walking in the freedom God has called us to!

 

SUBSCRIBE! Thanks for joining! Your first affirmation is on it's way.

Comment below, what are some things that you speak over yourself to fight back against the lies of the enemy?

The post Has The Enemy Silenced You? appeared first on Alli Prince.

Why we should all be more like ducks.

Do you know God cares about the little things?

Sometimes, I think we forget that God doesn’t just care about the big things. Of course, I don’t mean to say he doesn’t care about the big things—he most certainly does. But sometimes, we forget that he cares about the little things, too. He even cares about the things we don’t care about very much.

But I find that he especially cares about those tiny, insignificant things, that are so important you couldn’t possibly tell anyone about them.

What we care about

There’s a quote from a Jane Austen book that has helped me express myself in this regard.

That’s how I feel about a particular writing project of mine. It’s something dear to me that my sister and I created together. We have a character in this story who has a very particular saying. Whenever a different character is struggling with something, this character says, verbatim, “You need to be like a duck.”

“A duck?” The other characters respond.

“Yeah—Water off a duck’s back. Quack Quack!”

(Trust me, this is important for the point I’m making.) I don’t tell many people about this story…okay, I don’t tell anybody about this story. It’s silly! And I especially don’t tell them about the weird little saying of his. Why does it matter, right? It’s such a tiny detail for a story nobody but me and one other person cares about.

Well, God showed me how important it was, and my extension, how important I am.

When God Shows Up

This past weekend, I attended a conference on emotional healing. We dove into scripture and got deep into what God says about our pain, our emotional suffering, our tragic backstories, if you will.

I don’t want to speak about this like a victim, because I’m not. It’s a thing that happened to me, but it doesn’t define me—at least, not anymore.

As a teenager, I didn’t make very good choices in friends. They didn’t bully me in the classic, shove your head in a toilet and give you a swirlie, kind of way. It wasn’t stealing your lunch money or beating you up and shoving you in a locker. Maybe if it were I would have been able to recognize it as abuse sooner, who knows? No, it was the holding you down and telling you you’re worthless and refusing to let you up until you verbally agree with them type.

They spoke words over me that were vile. They let the enemy use their mouths to condemn me. And that’s all good and “woe is me“, but I made a vital mistake in this. I began to agree with them. I said, “Yes, those vile words are the truth”.

And that’s when the enemy started to win.

I’ve done a lot of work on getting rid of those lies. Of not letting the enemy abuse me through those people. It’s been a constant, uphill battle—one that I’m tired of. Just when I think I’ve gotten past it, something else pops up, and I realize that there’s a whole other layer I hadn’t recognized that I have to deal with.

So, I’m at this conference, right?

I’ve learned a ton about healing, verses that point me to Jesus, and it’s the last day. The leader of the conference offers to pray for whoever wants it, and I’m all about seeing Jesus move, so I thought, why not get some prayer, right?

So, I go to the front to get some prayer and this leader, Brett, looks at me, smiles, and says, “I think God is telling me that people have spoken horrible things over you, and that God is telling me that those words are going to be like…they’re going to slide off you like water off a ducks back.”

My eyes widen. Brett smiles, then, with a goofy grin, says, “Water off a duck’s back…Quack-Quack!“

Three things became apparent to me at that moment.

1. God knows me deeply.

God could have told Brett anything in that moment. He could have told him to say, “I know you were bullied, and God wants you to let that go.” He could have said literally anything, but God told him to use a specific phrase from a childhood story I’d created…And that phrase got to me more than anything else ever could.

How cool is that? God knows me.

2. My fight isn’t really my fight.

I had a lot of rewiring of my brain to stop agreeing with the words the enemy spoke over me. There are things I need to do (like speak the truth) to stop those lies from spreading. But those words, those evil things that were spoken over me? Jesus died for those things. It’s not my fight—not really. It’s God’s, and he’s got it handled. He’s handling it way better than I ever could!

3. My story is important.

If my story—silly, little, and as insignificant as I believe it to me—was able to minister to me so deeply in that one instance…who else could it help? Who else could benefit from it? Probably at least one other person, right?

The words God gave me are important. The stories that I love that, in the grand scheme of life and salvation, really don’t matter that much—but God says they are still important.

Me, in all of my being, my personality, my flaws, my pain—God thinks it’s important.

And if God thinks it’s important enough to bring up in a healing conference with complete strangers…Maybe I should think of it as important, too.

So, if you’re having trouble with something someone said about you, or even something you said about yourself…be like a duck.

Quack quack!

Want more helpful tips on letting the enemy’s lies slide off your back? Follow my newsletter!

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Don't fight the lies of the enemy on your own! Join my newsletter and I'll send you weekly encouragement and truth! vsd

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The post Why we should all be more like ducks. appeared first on Alli Prince.

Are you hiding?

I’ve loved to write since I was little.

I remember staying up late, dreaming up story ideas, intricate plots, and compelling characters. I have dozens of little books I made with the odd bit of paper I could scrounge up and a couple of staples. As I grew from a young child into a teenager, I still wrote hundreds of words, but I kept them hidden. Bullying will do that. Make you hide things you’re passionate about.

Do you have something you love, but hide from others?

I wasn’t completely alone, though. Writing is fun, but it’s much more fun when you write with someone. That’s when I found my friend, C. K. Slorra, on a little site called Figment. As a teenager, I was desperate for that online Christian community to write with. Unfortunately for me, Figment was not a Christian site. My friend, C. K., was the only believer on that site.

And let me tell you, we had a blast together.

Once we found each other, we wrote countless stories with one another. But it wasn’t without it’s faults. For every story we made with themes of faith, we had people join our stories and try to add filth to them. C. K. was quick to kick them from our group chats, but damage was done. We were exposed to lots of different ideas about the world.

It was fun, but it wasn’t safe.

Flashforward ten years, and now we’re both published authors (check out her awesome book here!), and Figment as a site is but a figment of our imagination now. (They shut down the website ages ago.)

But that experience left me with a question…where can we have a place where young authors can write together in a safer environment than what I had?

Allow me to introduce to you…

The Spring Writing Challenge!

Starting April 21, The Company is going to send you a weekly writing prompt each week for six weeks. Maybe you’ll have to write a short story that takes place in space—or write about a character that only has a week to live! Whatever the prompt, you’ll have one week to write a 1,000-word short story.

If you win the challenge and write all six stories, they’re going to mail you a free laptop sticker to celebrate! It’s all completely free.

But the best part about this is the team portion of the challenge. When you join, you’ll be added to a team. That team will meet weekly over Zoom to discuss writing and encourage each other. Better yet, you’ll be able to read your friend’s interpretation of the prompts and they’ll get to read yours! It’s a win-win situation.

I get to run the challenge this year. So don’t wait! Stop hiding what you’re passionate about, get out there, and write some prompts!

Go check out the details for the challenge and make those writing friends or better yet, send this blog to a friend of yours and compete in the challenge together!

Join the challenge!

The post Are you hiding? appeared first on Alli Prince.

What To Do When You’re Split In Two

I’ve had many callings in the twenty-six years of my life.

I’ve been a daughter, a sister, and a friend. I’ve been a nanny, a balloon twister, a college student, and most recently a writer. Most of the time, these things can coexist with each other. But sometimes, something crops up—a problem I wasn’t expecting or an issue I might need to deal with—and that leaves me with a question…

How am I supposed to know which is the more important calling on my life?

Should I be loyal to my family, above all else? Perhaps writing is what God has truly called me to. Or maybe it’s some other, third thing, I’ve yet to discover.

What should I be loyal to? What gets my whole attention? How do you decide something like that?

Sometimes, I feel so pulled in so many different directions, I feel like I’ve been split into two different people, and I have no idea which version is the real version, the real me.

Do you ever feel like that? What does God have to say about that?

Vegas Alli VS Ohio Alli.

I’m not going to lie, Vegas Alli is pretty cool. She’s got a lot going for her. She’s funny, charming, and above all else, loyal to her family. She spent the majority of her teen years running after her younger siblings, ripping them out of mischief and keeping them from killing each other. She knew what her calling was. It was to her family (and they’re super awesome).

(I mean, seriously, look at how cool these people are!)

But then God yanked her out of Vegas and placed her in Ohio, and suddenly, without her family, she didn’t know what to do. She sat in her empty apartment, without the sound of running, shrieking children echoing off the walls around her, and realized for the first time in her life, she was by herself. She was alone.

And she could do whatever she wanted to do.

That’s when Ohio Alli first sprang up.

Ohio Alli really enjoys her me-time. She is brave, a little sassy, and most importantly, dedicated to her mission. To write books that fight the lies of the enemy. (You can check out those books here!)

Both Allisons are me, but both Allisons had different missions. Vegas Alli was loyal to her God-given mission to love her family and Ohio Alli is loyal to the ministry God has called her to.

When God calls you out of one mission and into another.

At first, I really struggled with this transition. So much of my life had been dedicated to my family (and that was a really good thing!) But then, when God called me to a different mission, I didn’t know what to do with myself. How could I still be loyal to my family, be there for them, and serve them in all the ways I had when I lived over 300,000 miles away?

The enemy loves a good opportunity. He loves to come in and create chaos and confusion. (He’s a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.) His weapon of choice? Lies.

Here’s the lie: I was betraying my family by pursuing writing.

When I first moved to Ohio, I loved my new life, my school, my work—all of it. Even the crappy apartment I had that got infested with wasps and all manor of creepy crawlies. I adored it.

And I felt horribly guilty for it. I felt like I was betraying my family by choosing this career that God had put on my heart.

But that was a lie. I wasn’t betraying anyone. It wasn’t a question of which purpose I thought was more important or not.

It was a question of whether I would be obedient to God or not.

Here’s the truth: God created you on purpose for a purpose, but your identity—who you are—cannot be your purpose. You have to get your identity from God.

Because that purpose can change based on the season of life you’re in. I felt like two different people because I had allowed the enemy to lie to me, to convince me that my identity came from what I did.

You are not your work.

God has called us to love one another, and that can look completely and totally different every season, every month, even every day. It doesn’t mean that your mission and what God called you to wasn’t “real” before, or that it wasn’t what you were supposed to be doing. It just means that how God wants you to fulfil your mission has changed.

I am supposed to love my family. But I am also supposed to pursue this ministry God has called me to.

One is not more important than the other, and my identity shouldn’t crumble around me when God calls me more into one of those purposes than the other. For this season, God has called me to be a writer, and I need to obey that.

Don’t let the enemy lie to you and convince you that you’re only here on this earth for your purpose, or that you’re awful for your obedience! God loves you for you and not for what you can do.

Has your mission in life ever changed? Tell me about it in the comments below!

It’s hard to remember God’s words sometimes. That’s why I created these free phone backgrounds for you! Each one has a reminder that God doesn’t just love you. He likes you too.

.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content { background-color: #ededed !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container .et_bloom_form_header { background-color: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_fields i { color: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_custom_field_radio i:before { background: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container h2, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container h2 span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container h2 strong { font-family: "Lora", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; }.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container p, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container p span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container p strong, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container form input, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container form button span { font-family: "Lora", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; } Don't fight the enemy alone!

Need that daily reminder that God not only loves you but likes you, too? I've got some free phone backgrounds for you to use! 

Get your phone backgrounds! Your phone backgrounds are on their way!

The post What To Do When You’re Split In Two appeared first on Alli Prince.

Newsflash: You’re an Irredeemable Monster!

I made a really bad joke once.

I was with a group of friends, and I was trying to make a different joke. But what came out ended up being really bad. I accidentally implied one of my friends was fat. Everyone around me looked shocked, for good reason. I really didn’t mean to call that friend fat, and they aren’t fat, which is why it wasn’t even on my mind that my joke could be taken that way. It was a complete and total accident.

But what was said was said.

I’d called my friend fat in a large group of friends and had to live with the consequences.

I went to bed that night feeling horrible and tried my best to forget about it.

Time went on. All my friends forgave me and forgot about it. But no matter what I did, the memory still made me feel horribly guilty. A deep, cold ball of shame lodged in my chest, refusing to move.

The thoughts started creeping in…

How can they still call me their friend after a joke like that? I must look like a total jerk. I am a total jerk. One more wrong move like that, and you’ll need to move across the country again—get a whole new friend group! What must they think of you? What must they feel about you?

“This was nearly an irredeemable mistake,” a voice slips into the thoughts. “You?”

Wait…was that my thought, God, or…something else?

It can be hard to distinguish your thoughts. Sometimes, it’s so loud in my brain that I actually have no idea what’s going on. But that’s how the enemy can get in there. It can start with your thoughts. You feel bad about something, so you meditate on it, you sit awake at night thinking about it. Then, the enemy slips in a thought or two of his own. This is how you can come into agreement with lies, how he can convince you things about yourself that just aren’t true.

Choose which voice to agree with.

You gotta make a choice. Are you going to agree with what God says or what the enemy says? It’s easier to agree with the enemy sometimes. It takes work to agree with God. After all, you have to go to him with that memory and actually ask him what he thinks about it.

Listen, I let that memory torment me for months. I hate to admit it, but it was only a week ago that I finally brought the guilt and shame I felt over that to Jesus. I do my best talking with God as I drift off to sleep at night. This is an especially good time to invite Jesus into my room too. Otherwise, I might just keep myself up scrolling Instagram reels or thinking horrible, untrue thoughts about myself.

I lay there and tentatively asked him if I was really all that horrible for that joke I made.

“They forgave you, and so have I. Why can’t you?” He asked. I sighed and shut my eyes.

“I don’t know…thank you, Jesus, for giving me good friends. I’m so glad they love me, despite my flaws.”

“They don’t love you despite your flaws. They love you for you. They’re not sitting awake at night like you are, thinking over that memory and considering if they should still be your friend. And neither am I. I love you, even when you mess up, not in spite of when you mess up.”

It’s a subtle heart change.

Do you love people despite their flaws, or do you just love people?

God doesn’t love you in spite of your flaws. He isn’t sitting up in heaven thinking, “Oh, gee, I’ll love them, but I have to consider it for a second because they aren’t always obedient/faithful/fill in your weakness here.”

God just loves you. Simple and plain as that. It’s not some great debate he had with himself. He loves you, and he likes you too.

So, which voice are you going to agree with today?

It’s hard to remember God’s words sometimes. That’s why I created these free phone backgrounds for you! Each one has a reminder that God doesn’t just love you. He likes you too.

.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content { background-color: #ededed !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container .et_bloom_form_header { background-color: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_fields i { color: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_custom_field_radio i:before { background: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #84644a !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container h2, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container h2 span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container h2 strong { font-family: "Lora", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; }.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container p, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container p span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container p strong, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container form input, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_17 .et_bloom_form_container form button span { font-family: "Lora", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; } Don't fight the enemy alone!

Need that daily reminder that God not only loves you but likes you, too? I've got some free phone backgrounds for you to use! 

Get your phone backgrounds! Your phone backgrounds are on their way!

The post Newsflash: You’re an Irredeemable Monster! appeared first on Alli Prince.