What is #TheRibLifeJourney?

For about two years now, I've been brainstorming this project. I wanted to birth a space where young women could come read about my chastity story and journey to marriage. Now, no I'm not preparing to be married today, tomorrow or anytime soon--this journey, in fact, has more to do with me and my commitment and relationship with God, than anyone else, including my future husband.

So...what is #RibLife?

My junior year of college my best friend and I were talking and just coming up with random names and hashtags for this project. At some point throughout our conversation, I blurted out #RibLife. At the time, my brother-in-Christ was engaged and I remember whenever he would post something about his fiancé on social media, he would refer to her as his rib. If you look in Genesis 2:22 it says, "Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out the man, and He brought her to the man" (New International Version). In this text, God is referring to the creation of Eve, whom He had created from the rib of Adam, her husband. Hence where my brother got the reference from!

When I blurted out #TheRibLifeJourney, a host of different ideas came about-I knew that I wanted to tell my chastity story and my life after rededicating my temple back to God, but I also wanted to be transparent and honest about the life that I am living now. I wanted to show the development of who I am becoming as a woman and inspire other young women to be patient in their journeys to womanhood and journeys to marriage.

#RibLife is simply a journey; it's the journey of godly women, consistently consecrating themselves and going before God, reevaluating the character and heart of who they are as women before they pursue courtship and marriage. The journey of #RibLife doesn't end with marriage--in fact the journey continues. #RibLife prepares us young women for our lives not just as wives, but as prepared women equipped to spiritually withstand in our homes, in our careers, and in our spiritual journeys.

Within #TheRibLifeJourney, young women are transparent because let's be honest, this walk gets hard! Temptation is real y'all--too real sometimes. But that's when the support system of other #TheRibLifeJourney sisters comes into effect. Through this page and through my blog in general, you will observe my life as transparent as can be, especially within my poetry. My poems are my most purest thoughts in their most purest forms of expression. I am nowhere near perfect and you'll see that within my poems, but more importantly, through my posts and testaments on what I am experiencing in my life, you'll see that this life is not easy. I've come to the understanding that in order to live this life accordingly that there will be certain things that I just cannot do, certain places that I just cannot go, and people that I cannot be around--that's hard! I am slowly, but surely, adjusting my life to where I know God is taking me and while it may press me and put a lot of pressure on me at times, I know that it is for my good.

So! That leads me to this: I will try my hardest to blog as much about my personal life without being too "mixy." I believe that one of the biggest misconceptions about this journey and life as young Christians is that it has to be boring and really "cookie-cutter." I have fun y'all! I go out with my friends and we have a good time! We enjoy each others' company and just being good girlfriends to each other. My tightest group of friends range from the ages of 20-22 years old and we are taking on the world. We travel, we dance, we laugh, we have fun, but more importantly we are your average 20/22-year-old women finding themselves through this journey called life. We stumble and fail a lot...and that's okay. What I realized early on in my faith was that God doesn't wait for you to be prepared for you to get Him; He, himself, prepares you. As my pastor says, "You don't get right and then get Christ; you get Christ and then He gets your right."

I pray that this entire blog, from the poetry to this specific page, all the way to my journalism blog, blesses you and inspires you to live a life of peace, love and abundance as you continue to develop and grow into the woman that God has called you to be.

Peace,
xo, Nic.