"Holding On To What You Believe..."

There's one thing I know for sure that God is the Healer of all diseases, sicknesses, infirmities; be it be our physical bodies or our spiritual soul...
I don't know why God doesn't heal everybody no matter how much they pray for healing. All that I believe is that He knows what's best for us. And we'll know all the answers when we get to Glory.
I never really understood the message of the Cross until I started listening to SBN. Our faith as believers should focus on what He already finished at the Cross for all entire humanity. 
He died for all of us, sinners. 

In the book of Luke 15:1-7 which is the Parable of the Lost Sheep tells us that if anyone has a hundred sheep and loses one of them that he should leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. 

There's no doubt in my mind that the teachers and the Pharisees of the law were silenced by the truth of what Jesus just told them. And then again in the book of 2 Peter:3;9 says," The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So, I'm holding on to what I believe. I am looking forward to that day when Jesus comes to meet us in mid air, in the sky. In the book of Matthew 24:30-31, describes his glorious return. "They will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the end of the sky to the other."
I'm here to tell you that if you're willing to believe that we're just traversing here on earth. Our eternal address is Heaven. You don't need to carry anything with you; not any of the material possessions you have accumulated including your money in your bank accounts.
Oh, what a glorious, beautiful promise is that!

When you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord, your life is enriched in the things that concern Heaven. You want to share the good news, the safe passage of God; that His second coming is near at hand.We are told to be vigilant and not go weary waiting for His coming.There is a propensity for spiritual battle and we should know our spiritual adversary--the devil if you allow him and if your faith is not solid.
In closing, the kind of healing we should be asking God is spiritual healing. We should pray for Peace that passes all human understanding, for wisdom that comes from His Word, and a compassionate heart to preach the Lost.
How funny we could be sometimes asking God for miracles when in fact the only miracle we need is our eternal salvation, We need to persevere as rampant evil is happening before our eyes. Just remember that God is for us.
Good night.
  

"Writing About Writing As As An Art..."

It happened midway third grade when I started uncovering that there is a seed of passion for words in me. I read all my textbooks which we were allowed to take home for a week at a time except books that deal with physical sciences. I also gravitated to shows and programs that highlight the eloquence of broadcasters, t.v. anchors, commentators. Literally, I was mesmerized and even dreaming that one day I would be doing their craft. Never happened!
What I'm trying to say is that you can't freely write if you're not in tune with reading, listening, watching and experience the thrill of speaking the words.
Started journalling or writing in a personal diary in the fourth grade. I write them as they happened. That's how I started.
When I reminisce my work as a form of art, it delights me enormously, how it makes my childhood and adolescent years a very memorable one.
They say that you write what you know, what you're good at; others say write and share your personal experiences and you can also write somebody else's life story. I say you write impulsively when your emotions are running high and when you're alone at night and every in your household including your dogs have gone asleep. There are also times when I just write when everybody is busy doing their own thing. I could stay on the corner side of the room, watch what they do and write about their countenance. Better yet, I can just write about myself which is a layer upon layer of unpublished books.
What makes me deplore about writing is when you're beset with a writing block. It's not happening. Your thoughts are suspended in the deep recesses of your mind. You can't dispel them into the open and unto a page. Sometimes we need a fresh inspiration. Many writers call it a muse in writing aesthetically.
For whatever it is, I intend to write my personal views and experiences. It may not be tasteful to many but that's okay. I write because I just love words. If they're the only thing I could keep, I'll do. But of course, it's not like that.
However, I can tell you this, writing is really fun. Out of your craft, there will be many naysayers and critics about your work. They will just read your title entry and perhaps the first sentence of your blog and if it didn't grab their attention, you thinking then that you didn't bring it on--what they want to hear.
For me, I write because it gives me altitude on things that are important to me. it gives me pure joy knowing I may have had stirred or encourage one soul to keep going through life. That it is a beautiful life that is lived through by many artists, writers, poets, musicians & actors.
You can, too, have a life full of words that rhyme, dance, and soar within you...
It's time to echo your truth to others.
Start writing even when you're bored and clumsy. Words have a way of positioning themselves.
Create them as they dance to your mind and to your heart...

"Make Your Words Couth & Count..."

One valid speculation that you can draw an inference from regarding the words that you blurt out or speak reflect who you are. Regardless your words were forced to come out or perpetuated by a past event, you and I have the power to think and bridle our tongue if all we have to say is embroidered with criticism, faultfinding and judgmental attitude.
You don't want to be around people like that. 
I had worked with somebody before for years that she couldn't help but cuss or say a bad word in every form of discourse.. It seemed to me that cussing is a part of her psyche. I believe I told her one day not to curse when I'm around because I'm offended by such uncouth behavior. I told her in a nice way. I thought I had to say something with conviction before she lures me to talk like her. Then that woudn't be right. I think she kind of mindful of it but lasted very shortly.
You see, you don't make excuses for people for their bad behavior. You can't just ignore it either or worst, go with the flow. That would be a collossal mistake if I stayed and continued to work with her. I used the most refined words, uplifting words I could with her but her pride had prevented her to change her tone and language.
If something or someone is making your life miserable, pestering you with her/his stupidity and obliviousness, don't be naive and stay quiet. Don't keep all your grudges and deep-seated emotions go unexpressed and unresolved. I always believe strongly in the saying that ,"if there's a wil, there's a way. I'm an advocate for myself: I go for trying and taking second chances. If my good intentions still fail, at least I'm freed with suffocating assumptions. I have to go with my "guts" and "grit" in doing things at the right moments.
The same principle applies when you're trying to negotiate with your credit card debts, hospital bills, insurances, and school loans. Before you consolidate all of your debts, write them a good letter explaining your argument why you believe that you deserve a generous adjustment, or just plain and simple, their financial grace and favor.
I remember two years ago when I incurred a lot of hospital bills despite of having my school district employer's health insurance benefits.And I even found out that I didn't really need those tests, screenings and ultrasound procedures. Most of them anyway.
So I did write the hospital billing department detailing them my financial situation. In short, after reviewing my case in just a few weeks, I got a check in the mail for the amount of money I had already paid into it. They also wrote to me that my remaining balance will be paid in full by them. By the grace and the power of our Almighty God, I know that he has worked it all out for me.
For me and in reference to my experiences of dealing with company managers, I am almost certain that everything in the world of business is negotiable. Be it be a five dollar discount to your dish network/ISP Provider, phone or even to your grocer or pet food supplies, I do them all just to save a little, here and there.
I take pride in living a life that is manifested by God's  favors. I have faith that He gifted me with the right words to say and what not to say at the right moment. After all, He is the God of Provision, our El Shadai.
In closing, I do reiterate the good balance of  words that convey strength, honesty and humility.
How you use your words supported with good tone and good body language  will enormously impact others.
Let God use you for His kingdom...with your words filled with His love!

My Random "To Do List" Today

Having "To Do List" for Today is a necessity. I easily get distracted by the nuances, the noise of busyness of life and the silent ramblings of my daily walk--become too much that I have to have reminders, otherwise, whatever I do next is a trite...
After work, my first on my list is to go grocery shopping at Walmart. I couldn't shove items to the cart that I don't really need. Smart shopping is what I have to adhere. That definitely cut down my expenses more than half of what I used to spend. I almost bought a bag of medium-sized fuji apples but I said no this time. I just picked three apples that I know I will eat and not let half of the bag get rotten. I did buy a fresh pineapple, 4 green, just right avocados, tomatoes, and bananas. 
Since we're doing a corporate Fast at church for 21 days, I stayed away from buying red meats.
I thought I did well for not falling into temptation.
I also make a point to take my cart back to where it should be returned. Just imagine if every customer will just leave the cart anywhere that might cause an accident or can cause people to stumble and get hurt. 
My next stop was to get some gas. My first full tank of the year. I fill up my tank to the same gas station, Chevron. You might say gas is the same everywhere, the same content.I don't think so, though.
My list for Today also included walking my dogs. That didn't happen. I spent too much time putting groceries away and preparing dinner. I also can't watch any Netflix or t.v. programs and to tell you the truth I realized that I was spending way too much time watching dramas & comics. No wonder that it's making me feel like I'm reliving my own dramas. As they say, what you watch, listen, and read say a lot about you...No kidding.
Reading the book of Psalms per chapter a day is a must to do list each day. This is where I want to start my reading and will continue even after 21 days.
However, my favorite time of the day is right now...when I can just write freely without the inundation of editing, I just write what flows in my mind. Not really worried about my thoughts whether or not they're making connections to the rest of the sentences. That is the beauty of writing. If you find ambiguity in free writing, it's fine with me. This is helping me in refining me and my craft.
You may find this "to do list" so minimal and it is. I don't want it to bore me that I lose my intention to write about it...
Today I just want it to be simple. No stressing out about some things that if you think about it, they rarely or never come to pass. So, you just obliterated the rhythm of life which is taking your sweet time to be grateful that you're alive to walk on open doors of opportunities to love and be loved!
So, that's my pitch tonight. Not too revealing and zesty but just my honest and true self!
Good night and God Bless

"What Would My Younger Self Say To Me Today?"

An astronomical number that is not surprising to me including me wishing a "do-over"  given a chance to go back and change things when we were young.
It may even be a fact that all of us do wish that in our humanly imperfect perception of things and people, we get to fix our past and our colossal mistakes.
There is no way that we could have known better if we didn't go through all the refining, purging, experimenting of what we're up and against with.
I tell you what...I could have probably been more honest, open, tenacious and still remain couth on everything that matters most. I could have trimmed down my ideals/principles/ guidelines and just be down to earth on my choosing to whom I'm going to experience a first love relationship with a man. 
You see, when you're young, you operate on your emotions solely. You don't listen to your folks who have already drunk a drum of relatable experiences and wiser... We think that they don't love us because they're opposing our random responses. But that wasn't the case with me. I had an open dialogue with my parents. I remember I told my mom that somebody is coming to visit me at our home and that I asked if I could and she said yes. That was the beginning of an ordeal--me feeling stuck and that carried me in my adult life. I thought I was in a good relationship because we never had arguments on anything. That it would be so uncharacteristic and selfish of me if I ended it. However, I wouldn't minimize the fact that he was my first love. 
God knows what's best for me. I just refused to admit it then.
All of my younger self, I had created this wrong mindset about a love relationship. I didn't have the nerve or the vein to correct my emotions. How do you make them right when you're stuck with a lie and just stayed there for there was nothing better? Or how do I know then that I didn't need to nurture my wrong judgment on men? Having been schooled and educated didn't have a full bearing as to what I should do. Or maybe being young legitimizes some of your wrongdoings.
But not anymore...
I'm pretty much together in all areas of my life except that I'm not wise enough when it comes to building lasting relationships. Or maybe my problem was I settled for second- best not realizing that I'm worthy of the best. Maybe, if I had this personal relationship before with the Lord already, I may have had gone for taking risks on more challenging dreams, not the dreams of chasing someone who couldn't even go near what love is; what real love encompasses!
I hereby say that there will be no more maybe's, and excuses. Only absolutes and reality. 

So, what I have to tell my older self now is thank God that there is a sovereign God who loves me. They could be all gone for all I know including my stupidity in my younger self. One thing I know now and for sure I believe in myself now 100%. I always seek the Lord's guidance in all my circumstances, big or small, or in between spaces, that I am experiencing His manifestation of His grace and sharing His goodness to whosoever listens with an open heart.
My younger self-had gone a very tumultuous longevity of deception and lies brought about by the wrong mindset. And Today is the greatest day of your life if you know the truth about what God says about what you're doing and that's forever freedom and peace that only the Almighty One can provide.\Did not really elucidate on further details but I know you do get my point.
Praise God.

"A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed..."

If you have big old pieces of furniture or household items, the utility/water department in your city will pick them up for free of charge. They usually collect and shred them by that monstrous machine they have in their truck, once a year usually in the month of November.

That day that I needed their service was last year. I had a big, bulky, heavy sofa and a couch in my shed. It had been raining for days and everywhere you walk on was puddles of mud and a few mosquitoes roaming outside.

The problem was I needed someone with strong arms to carry the sofa and couch to the curb. Everybody I called at that time was nowhere to be found. They're either out of town or working.

Then I called my friend; not for her to come help me but if she knew somebody who can. She just got home from running errands and of course, tired. Besides the fact that even if she would have had come, there was no way we could move the sofa and the couch to the street together. But guess what, she came without me imposing.
So we had to carry that sofa first one step at a time. We were laughing and giggling how we couldn't find any man on site to help us. We could have just pushed it slowly but it was still drizzling and was dark enough that if we weren't careful with our steps, we would have fallen in the mud.
So God helped us with the instant supernatural strength to finish our goal. What else would it be? After that particular event, I knew then that my friend Senaida is a friend for life. She had shown me that she is my very good friend and my sister in Christ. We've known each other now for eight years.

The only anchor that holds a lasting friendship is God's guidance on your growing friendship. It is very hard these days to build a solid friendship. Our society is full of evil forces that one may easily fall prey to destruction.
I thank God every day for blessing me a friend that makes me want to grow and better myself from learning together on how to look at difficulties and hurdles and challenges in life from the vantage point of God's Word. 
I believe that what sustains our good friendship is that sense of honesty and unselfishness. There should be no disbelief or suspicion in friendship. And that's what we diligently do.

I love the fact that we're both educators. We talked about our kiddos in school not to make judgmental comments but talk about the better strategies on how to facilitate learning better. We each believe that God had divinely appointed us where we are and we make it a big responsibility to be great stewards of what was placed in our hands: that is to teach well.
It also gives me joy that we both love the Lord. Although we both have our own churches to go to, we share the same Christian values and principles. I think that's the pinnacle of friendship is when you both want to be better ambassadors of God's Word. And you do it in Spirit and in Truth.

I am beyond grateful and thankful... 

"Be Good To Yourself..."

I was just done taking down the Christmas tree, garland greeneries and all of the Christmas lights. Halfway done I may say. The rest will be taken good care of tomorrow. 

Decorating my home especially at Christmas gives me pure delight. From changing window curtains to beddings; holiday doormats to tablescapes setting, you name it I do it all. There's something very special and magical about it. I also love sending out Christmas cards to friends and loved ones and wrapping gifts that will mean something to them if they dig it.
This is also the time that I don't mind gaining a few pounds due to eating a lot of finger foods, sweets, appetizers, chocolates and of course more cups of coffee with cream.
I also tend to be on the couch just watching Hallmark movies or Prime Netflix. No delving into outdoor exercise since the weather had been fiercely cold. 
But that's over now...All of my eccentricities and idiosyncracies about how I celebrated it is in the past. I'm learning very hard not to think or become nostalgic of the things in the past. It could easily become your nemesis and you don't want that happening again.

I think what I'm trying to say here is that go back to find what moves you; what makes you more loving, kind and compassionate to yourself...because if you're not then you can't be anything good to anybody. 
They say that we actually teach people how we want us to be treated. So if you're second-guessing your self-worth as a person that God created you as his/her masterpiece, then you're allowing people to treat you undesirably which is contrary to what the Lord sees you as beautiful and perfect in His sight. We do tend to value how others perceive us. That usually is the case if we're  gullible about our moral compass, not knowing how to put up boundaries because we all need to build fences with those people who want to harm us. 
Think about you multi-dimensional gifts that God has blessed you and me. Whatever you're very at doing, take that and use it as your platform to change somebody's life. It doesn't have to be a multitude, one soul is enough to share your nuggets of wisdom and talents. 
To tell you the truth I'm learning how to do that without having second thoughts or reservation. Every day I ask God's grace that I may recognize His gentle voice and will lead me to be a blessing to someone. It could just be lending an ear to someone; praying for someone I had neglected to pray for or uplifting/edifying someone from despair. 
Two days before this New Year, I decided to go out and vacuum my car. I was about to go when an adult man approached me and asked me if I could spare him a couple of dollars. He even mentioned that he and his younger sister had not eaten yet. It was a good thing that I had a five dollar bill in my wallet and gave it to him without preconceived notions.I got to see him through while driving back home; he went inside to a fast food restaurant. I wasn't even looking over my shoulders at that time that he approached me. The vacuum service place was empty at that time I went. Thinking about it now, I know that the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob is with me always.
And that is Biblical...He is with us, His hedge of protection and covering over us!