"The Unexpected Change of Weather"

The Wonderment Of Weather Change...

Here in Central Texas, to see more than two inches of snow is a strange thing. So it snowed. It's freezing. May be it's just me . I'm wearing double-knitted socks, sweaters that overlap each other and still I'm cold. I know the heater is on... I don't feel like writing but I have, too. It's a good thing that our school district has delayed 2 hours to its opening schedule. Thus, I could stay up after midnight. I keep on forgetting that it's still winter and for anything for our wonderment, it's virtually the weather change that saps my energy. Especially tonight. What makes it different from all the other nights? I'm not sure what it is. It could be all because of the unexpected drop of winter chills. I'm not even writing 500 words tonight. I'm making tonight an exception. Words are not flowing as I would like them to be. Tomorrow will be better, that I know. Good night.

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"Words That Never Depart"

 "Write these words on your heart: Remember I love you..."

 One delightful afternoon, our church had a box of books for your taking. I thought I must have been so bored that I had to scavenge books left at the Pastor's office hallway. No one was grabbing books except me. I guess because books have always been the closest ally to my heart, I tend to show my veracity of their treasure by putting them in my hands. 

One of the books I chose to keep was called, "Remember I love you" by Charlie W. Shedd. In this book, "he writes with lyrical passion from the depth of his soul, describing his early courtship and marriage; his life as a young pastor, and his growing love and appreciation of his wife, Martha, whose wisdom, compassion, and spiritual awareness were a constant source of joy and inspiration."

"In this book, Remember I love you, the author also describes his wrenching grief, his debate with god, and his search for courage and comfort in the months following his wife;s death. This is a book of refined and tested faith, a telling narrative of the meaning of matrimonial union, love & conflict, humor and tragedy. It will deeply touch lives of those who read it with its compassion and insight. 
It touched me more than words and my heart can say...

"A Litany for Those Who Suffer... is a compilation of Verses from the Old Testament Book of Lamentations, Amplified Version, with adaptations; selected and arranged by Charlie and Martha Shedd on February 1, 1988."

Here it is:

"How solitary and lonely sits the city...Behold our sorrow and suffering...Our sighs and groans are many...Our emotions are deeply disturbed, and our eyes overflow with tears. 
We walled about, and we have been brought into darkness...Perished is our strength, and our ruin seems measureless.
Yet because of the love of the Lord we are not consumed...Great is thy faithfulness...He remains and reigns forever...Therefore we hope in Him and expectantly wait."

I thought I would share. And read the book. For all its worth, "I love you" are still the most powerful, reassuring, encouraging, healing, exciting and endearing words one can give and receive at every heart. And it should be said with reverence and without a tinge of doubt. These transforming words should never be overused or be taken for granted. It should sound like heaven--

My Favorite Scripture Today:
Test everything.
Hold on to the good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21, NIV

Thanks for reading and you  take care always...
God Bless

"Taking Full Responsibility for our Own Actions"

" Taking Full Responsibility For Our Actions..."

We all did it. Conscientiously... I'm talking about situations and we're rendered two choices; disobedience to do the God- thing or obedience to your carnal desires. And sometimes we even play them both squarely. In the Biblical way, that's being lukewarm that is: you're serving two masters--you're playing games with idolatry. 

For me, timing and waiting were my big proponents to understanding life after divorce. Perfect timing  was never on my side; all it seems that my mind has gathered is waiting. For all I know, I've missed pivotal cues because I was hovered with unforgiveness and blame in my heart. It doesn't bother me now to talk about it for God had delivered me from it.

Dispensation of pride inappropriately in your life makes you not see the lesson from every relationship you've been through. You rationalize until blaming the other person is the only thing left for you to do. It felt right to justify that kind on thinking when you're self-absorbed. Taking full responsibility for what needs to be done after divorce was the most challenging chapter of my life. I had to learn how to betray all the emotions raging in me; settling them in my brain. I made a pact to myself that my two sons are going to be nurtured with my love & commitment to raise them as my labor--to love & life.

I don't remember a moment that the grace of God wasn't upon me. The Lord has been and will always be my sole provider of all things that I need. The spirit of the Lord was my highest counselor when I needed His presence during parent-teacher conferences. My youngest son was the one that was affected with the perils of our divorce with his dad. He was only 9 1/2 at that time. Didn't deserve to be confused. I tell you, all the best things in me as a mother and as a human being, I gave it to that child, to both of them...
  I still remember the countless hours when I had to teach my boys how to drive. Getting their license was a breeze but driving a vehicle away from home each time poses threat to my health. Thank God Almighty, they're both excellent drivers with good records to support it.

I take courage upon God's working on my behalf. Without the support of my family and some good friends of mine, I would have lost it big time. After all, I was promised to never walk alone in this journey. Somehow I knew who I am with God in the midst of a storm and carried me  through year after year.
 "Out of sufferings, I emerged as a strong soul and  aware that many more challenges to come my way...And with the pent-up emotions I bottled somewhere in my mind had long been disintegrated. I may have shed a reservoir of tears and questions unanswered but the power of love & dedication to my children are my greatest pillar whom I draw fresh breath of inspiration. When you want to win some in this life...it better be in the full investment of bringing up your children in the eyes of the Lord. They may depart from it for a season but in the end, God's love prevails. It always does. No need to worry!

"Lord...bless me the gift of faith to be renewed and shared with others each day. Teach me to live this moment only, looking neither to the past with regret, nor the future with apprehension. let love be my aim and my life a prayer.
Let my soul take refuge...beneath the shadow of Your wings: let my heart, this sea of restless waves, find peace in you, O God, in whom I trust.

As always, thanks for reading and you guys, take care. God Bless

"My Favorite Leadership Quote..."

My Favorite Quote of Martin Luther King:

 "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." 

In my inbox reads,  "Leadership Quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. by Joseph Lalonde. It felt right & compelling to read all 25 quotes from one of the greatest leaders in the African Civil Rights Movement. I read it unhurriedly; put my heart in every word in which he expressed unmistakably good, bold & passionate. 
Thereafter, I could only wish that I was born in that era where I'm holding a sign that says," Liberty for all mankind in my left hand and another sign that says," God loves all people," in my right hand. I know that sounds petty now but in reverence to Martin Luther King's Jr. day, I find his quotes are provocative, triumphant and final. 

I have a dream...He meant that dream.  And his dream became our dream. The only difference is that, in achieving our dream... there is hesitation when faced with adversity; we give ourselves mundane excuses for not chasing our dreams; we seek for constant "push" for direction and we seem so uninspired  that we lost that unquenchable fire for standing what is truth and what really counts in our lives. 
The dream is still there but chained to the circumstances we have. We might get up from falling from everyday trappings but we don't challenge ourselves enough. With the bombastic hit of "electronic gadgets" in our lives, our critical thinking in building relationships is less admirable. We easily grow impatient and in return resort to amicable solutions. Even our conversations have become infused electronically. We also used to read every word when we read a book, an article or any reading material. Now we don't. We scan them. We just read what "hook" us, usually that happens in the first and second sentences of a paragraph. Worst, if we don't like the title, we assume the rest of the blog or a story is time consuming; in short, not worth reading. But these are premises conduit to how strong we want something done in perils of our aspirations...

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says in his quote, " When we become silent about things that mater, our lives begin to end." Not doing anything about something that is important life is just merely existence. We stay afloat with the dictation of what's trending, of what's hot and we better strike it while the iron is hot. So we all become statistic. I 'm furious at myself when I allow myself to be a by-product of my surroundings and not a as a result of  honorable principles and values we once upheld so high at home in our hearts. Why is that?

It irks me when a famous person says something about where he or she stands on morality, Christian family values and then retracts, modifies his/her statement the next day or a a few hours after he/she realized  that "ratings" equate money. How convenient is that for them? If that's what matters to them--maintaining their spot on magazine covers, then, they better learn how to bridle their tongue before using Facebook, Twitter or other social networks as their platform.

The bigger picture in this quote is "sounding off the alarm" not only for yourself but to the multitudes. It won't click if what you stand for reverberates a few...or just yourself. Your dream should echo how you may serve humanity and most of how all these things that are important to you are also God's vision for your life. If they are, there is no doubt  that you reflect Martin Luther King's  passion for the mountaintop.

Thanks for reading and you guys take care.
God Bless as always.  

"K-Love 30-Day Challenge"

K-Love 30-day Challenge..

This year (2014) marks my third year participating K-love 30-day challenge. Doing this--just listening to Gospel/Christian songs on K-love  is really what it is: transforming. It teaches you
self-discipline. I refrain myself from going to you tube. That's hard because I'm a big fan of soft rock, ballad , classic/instrumental, and some country music. I find time surfing the good old ones. They're so many beautiful timeless songs but for now I'm only focused to listening to K-love. 

Why subject myself to a couple of challenges at the beginning of the year? Well, I look at this
as a good partnership like my covenant experience with God. That is allowing Him to reveal
the things I need to work on with my life. When you saturate yourself with only Christian music
expect a conversion in you spirit of worship. It's not about nostalgia anymore where you
have flashes of the past and start dreaming again. I know that's a fact and I could relate to that.

There is something evidently good in listening to Christian music. They're songs of hope, faith, love and God's grace & mercy. After all he is the king of lyrics, dance and creativity. I realized 
how clever it is that we have a rainbow of colors and so much more. Our world is formed 
by the authority of His word. Look around us. We don't have to go to far to have a profound appreciation of His creativity. All of these are imbedded in the songs that K-love station plays.
They also get their listeners participate in their Q & A contest and their answers do
reflect their knowledge about the Bible and also questions about the artists/singers 
they subscribe.

The best part in participating this challenge is that it inspires me to be creative myself. 
Also it allows me to be more appreciative of the arts, and grateful for this present time.
Remember King David book of psalms...he's written all of them as a testament of his worship, faith, and love to God. 

 Some of my favorite Christian artists are Sidewalk Prophets; Michael W. Smith; Hillsong United; Tenth Avenue North;Steven Curtis Chapman, Natalie Grant, and many more. Oh there so many of them that can sing.And I'm glad that they inspire us with their songs 
of victory in Jesus. 


Another good thing about listening to K-love is that people can call at anytime 
to share their testimonies about how listening to this station have helped them and even 
have saved them from feeling isolated, lost and depressed. There were even numerous occasions where listening to K-love music have been instruments to for non-believers to come to Christ.
Or even believers that backslid in the faith and came into realization that 
God works in mysterious ways. His grace abounds in the melody, lyrics of the song and of course the artist that gave a voice, a platform to which we can all be a part of the transforming process.
That I say is more than a benefit. It's a blessing...

Thanks for reading and you guys take care.
Till tomorrow and God Bless