Tough Questions

Here is a little Q&A session I had with God:

1) I asked the Lord for patience. He said, “No. Patience is the product of hardship. It’s not something that I can give you, it is for you to CONQUER.”

2) I asked the Lord to take away my pride. He said, “No. I can’t take it. You have to GIVE it to me. ”

3) I asked the Lord for riches. He said, “No. Learn to DEPEND on ME.”

4) I asked the Lord to heal my friend. He said, “No. It is a process you have to go through. I will make it work in MY TIME. Understand that, child. Because I am God”

5) I asked the Lord to mend my people (my country, my world). He said, “No. First you have to humble yourself. Where ever all people humble themselves and in my name I AM PRAYED TO, I will restore, and I will forgive.”

6) I asked the Lord if He loves me. He said, “YES! You finally understand that sometimes I will say Yes and sometimes, you’re just going to have to wait.”

I learned that even when He says NO… He still pleases me.

It is His will. He is my keeper, my guide, that whatever the Spirit says, it will be. Because in you and in me, God reigns. He is the ruler of our lives.

Ride of your Life

Roller coasters have a lot of different traits and characteristics: fun, scary, surprising, boring, slow, fast, nauseous, risky, etc. To me, I get on a different roller coaster everyday. This week, I got on, strapped myself in (with prayer) and swoosh, it starts. At first, it was fun and exciting. I found out I passed my Texas Teacher Certification Exam and opened up a lot of doors for my career. Suddenly it became pitch black and I was scared. I received a blank college transcript, my certification prep class became a hassle, and at the end of the day found out a close friend tragically passed away. I began to panic, cry, and lose self-control. I was sitting on this ride that seemed perfectly fine, fun, and adventurous from a distance, but was now stuck with no where to turn to. I was going to just get off and see if I could make it on my own but I couldn't. I had forgotten for a second that I had "strapped myself" to God in prayer. Suddenly, I saw the light, and the ride continued steadily.
How often is it that we forget He's there any time we need Him? How often do we act on emotion and not faith? The Bible says in Colossians 3:15 to be led by peace in making decisions. God wants us to put Him first.
One of my favorite books by Joyce Meyer is Managing Your Emotions, where she states the following: "Jesus is referred to as 'The Rock.' You can depend on Him to be stable—the same Jesus all the time, always faithful, loyal, true to His Word and mature. He’s not one way one time and another way the next time."
Remember the ground you stand on when you feel like falling. Remember to strap on that seat belt of wisdom in prayer everyday. This roller coaster called life can one day turn you upside down. Are you ready?

Play Nice

Gotta love 'em.
The REAL Football. :-)

Don't Shrink!

Faith is being confident in God and His Word. You probably have a good relationship with God and have no problem trusting Him, but when it comes to trusting yourself to do the right thing, you shrink. At this point, you allow fear to control you and pull you back.
God once showed me that if I wasn't able to trust myself, then I am not able to trust Him. Ouch! But, as much as it hurt to realize that, He showed me the most beautiful lesson of all: He is living in me, and directing, guiding, and controlling me because I asked Him to do so. I needed to believe God's promise, not my emotions or thoughts. Of course, any one of us can walk right by God, miss Him and make mistakes. We think we are going in the right direction and then discover we are wrong but it's not the end of the world, nor is it anything to become terribly stressed about. If our hearts are genuine and we are sincerely seeking God's will, even if we do mess up from time to time, He will intervene and get us back on our path. Quite often, He does it without us even knowing. (I love it!)
I highly encourage you to believe that you are being led by God unless He shows you otherwise, instead of always thinking you are wrong and living in the anguish of self-doubt. Just as God has promised in His Word (John 16:13), trust Him to lead you by His Holy Spirit into all truth. If we are on the wrong path, God will help us get back on the right one.


"And my righteous ones will live by faith.
But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”
-Hebrews 10:38-

The Choice is Yours

I have been looking forward to our leadership meeting for The Awakening class for a while. Planning events, class topics, setting leadership roles was just the beginning. As soon as the meeting started everyone began throwing ideas around and it was like vinegar and baking soda... It just BLEW (In a good way)! We ended up changing the entire class model and I can't wait to see it in action.
Not everyone agrees with all of these changes. Many take the side of "if it's working fine now, then why change it?" and I respect that but, take a few steps back and look at the BIG picture and the facts and figures. It's like when you work out and you see you're losing weight and all the sudden you're stuck; you're not losing nor gaining. You've reached your plateau. What do you do? You change it! Either kick it up and start a boot camp class, or add more weights, run a little more... just change it!
If what you are doing with your time is not bearing good fruit, then change it. If you're not getting enough rest, make a change. If you are not disciplining your students and their behavior is causing you a lot of stress, then make a change. If you're not taking care of yourself, make a change. If your friends are taking advantage of you, then make a change! Are you getting the point? Stress can be relieved if you're not afraid to make changes.
You may be afraid of change but it is also possible that even if you find the courage to make the necessary changes that other people in your life won't like the changes you make. Don't be afraid of them either. You will get used to the changes and so will they. If you don't take action now you will be complaining about the same thing a year from now, and a year after that, and ten years after that, and there will be no end to your misery. The time is NOW!

"Boldness takes action, but fear breeds inactivity and procrastination. The choice is yours."
- Joyce Meyer

First Blog Ever - Hey, Why Not ? ?

I love writing. I decided to go to school and get my degree in journalism, write a bunch of editorial columns, sell millions of books and be on Oprah. Well, I haven't quite really gotten there yet, but I realized that I had not even taken the first step... Start writing! Ever since I graduated last year, I have not written a single article, or published work. So, I decided to start a blog. I created this blog about a month ago and never "got around to it". Typical, right? To be honest, I was scared. I had no idea how to start. I was not passionate about anything really... Or at least I didn't think I was. Until now.
A lot of people may know this, but I'm a bit of a "hot head". I like to state my opinion whether you agree with me or not. There is a lot of room for improvement, but I've noticed that when I write, I tend to "be careful" of exactly what I say and how I say it. I really wish we had a "backspace" or "delete" button for what we say sometimes. But, like my mom has always told me (and I think my mom is the smartest person in the world because she always seems to be right), "the world needs people like you, but remember to listen." We do that a lot don't we? It's that famous light bulb we have over our heads that all of the sudden decides to light up whenever we have an idea. So, what do we do? We interrupt the other person's passionate view of the situation and say, "wait, I got it..." What we don't realize is we just stopped them in their tracks and completely disregarded what they were trying to say.
You may not be this person who likes to put their foot in the door and say what they need to say regardless of the situation, but you may know someone like that. If you do, say something. I want to be told if I ever do that. I HAVE been told when I do that and it feels great! It's a smack on the back of the head, I'll admit it, but that's how we learn sometimes.
Now, if you know you're a little bit like a "hot head", take the time to re-evaluate yourself and maybe write things down, put it away for a day, and go over it. You'll realize how much your perception of something can change and you'll see all the little things that can be edited in or out. Also, ask a close friend or relative to be honest with you and tell you if you are a "hot head" and to help you avoid it as much as possible.
God gave us all different personalities, and like a good dish, some spices are needed to kick it up a notch and make things interesting, but like my pal and chef Emeril Lagasse would say, "juuust enooough pepper and BAM! There you have it folks, a great dish". Spices should be used to accent the OTHER flavors, not eliminate them. Because if you use too much, all that hard work you put in to the other veggies, the meats, etc... will be taken over by this ONE spice.

"Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry."
James 1:19