Let Go & Let God.

First time I saw that quote was when I was watching an episode of Jersey Shore, believe it or not! Ever since then I started believing that if you truly let go of whatever you are going through in life, God always comes through.

Lately I got a new position at work, which is letting me make more money and work more hours. I know my calling in life is not to work in retail. Jared and I are called to the ministry! We both have had that on our heart before we even started to date. Jared has started to look for a ministry position….(not in RI).  I started doubting our calling for a second. If a church wants us to work for them, Jared will be hired. Not me. I will have to find a job doing God knows what. I got discouraged because I am doing so great here in RI at my new job! Why would I get this promotion when I could potentially leave in a week….a month…who knows! But then God spoke and I shut my mouth. God is showing me I have the ability to become and do anything I want to! I don’t have a college degree and frankly, God is reminding me that I am amazing no matter what.

I might have a great job now, but God has something in store for me that is 10x greater. I just need to “Let go & Let God!” He is in control. He can see the desires of my heart. I know that no matter where we move…..God will have a job waiting there for me. He always takes care of his children! We always just need that reminder once and a while! 

L-O-V-E.

My mind has been thinking about the concept of love lately - in all it's aspects. I love a lot of things. I love coffee, I love sleeping, I love my family, I love long car rides, I love watching movies, I love reading, I love...and the list goes on and on. Yes, a person can love a lot of things, but do people always necessarily think about love in their actions? Ha; made you think.

See, my mother always told me I was a kind person with a "sensitive spirit"; and I guess I never really knew what that meant, or how it was significant to me. Okay, I am a nice person, I mean, lots of people are. But, in talking with other people, apparently I am overly nice, but to me, that's just me being me. Yes, I am that girl that knows her valet friends won't take a tip from her, so she buys them pastries at a local bakery to thank them, or throws their mother a surprise birthday part after she's had a rough few months. I do that, yes. But what drives those kinds of deeds? Love. 

1 Corinthians 16:14 -- Do everything in love.

God tells us to love thy neighbor, but do we really love everyone and treat everyone with love? It's easy to tell people we love them, it's just words, right? But, to really mean love, you have to show it. No, you don't have to be entirely fond of people, you could possibly think they are the ickiest human to ever walk the planet, but you should still treat them with love. Open the door for a stranger, in love. Buy the person behind you in the drive-thru line their coffee, in love. Smile at someone, in love. It doesn't take much to show someone love. Just think of the great Samaritan, he did what he did out of love, and impacted a life. You never know what another person could be going through and your simple gesture of God's love through you can make their day, heck, their week - maybe even impact their life. 

I am not the best example of loving everyone, because I am human like you. But, I have been working on it. Some people would call it "being the bigger person" when you are being kind to someone who was rotten to you; but you were rotten to God for sometime and He still loved you anyway, am I right? The correct answer is YES. 

So, go out and live in love, and God will most definitely reward you.

Matthew 25:40 -- "And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'

* Also, check out my personal blog Glitz & Giggles.

The Art of Loving God: Our Thoughts.

“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” -- Luke 10:25-28

For the past week, I have been reading the book The True Christian’s Love for the Unseen Christ by Thomas Vincent. The book has pricked at my heart, causing me to realize my own lack in love and passion toward the savior that I claim to live for.  When I think about Christ, how he is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of God’s nature, how he made purification for sins, how all things were created through him and for him, and how he loves us, I realize that I owe him all of myself… and even when I think that I am giving everything, I usually am not.

It is an art to love God. It is an art to take very part of my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength and give it to the God of the universe on a daily basis. It takes discipline to keep my hope set only in Him. It is work to love Jesus.

We are to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all our strength. One of my greatest challenges is to love God with my entire mind. I know that I fall extremely short in this area; I lust, I pride, I worry, and I don’t meditate on God nearly as much as I want to.
After a little meditation, I identified three areas to evaluate our mental state of loving God:

1 - Our thoughts which are sinful in the sight of God
2 - The nature of our thoughts about God3 - The frequency of our thoughts about God

According to many of the old Christian writers that I enjoy, what we think about God, and how frequently we think about him determines a whole lot about us. To be honest, about six months ago I was in a place where I was constantly meditating on God and His word, and sinful thoughts were in remission because of it. (It was an absolutely marvelous place to be – completely in love with thinking of the Lord!) I attribute this to Philippians 4:4-9, which tells us to have prayer and thanksgiving instead of anxiety, and then the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. When we are seeking to truly love God and follow his teachings, we have to fight to set our minds on Him – He is the only one who is wholly noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. When we set our minds on him, the lesser-thoughts begin to fade and the love of Christ fills our minds in a way that is so powerful that it cannot be described! I want that back! By the grace of God, when we seek Him and tell him that we want to love Him with our entire mind, he will provide us the strength and wisdom of how to get to that place.

Only to sit & think of God, Oh what a joy it is!To think the thought,
To breathe the Name,Earth has no higher bliss. -Frederick W. Faber

What will your legacy be?

I love old movies so when I saw “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” was on, I literally stopped everything I was doing and sat down to enjoy this Elizabeth Taylor classic. The story is about this couple who is dealing with a troubled marriage and an even more troubled extended family who have all gathered together to celebrate the birthday of the family patriarch “Big Daddy”.

As I was watching this absolute gem of a film I was struck by the character Brick and his relationship with his father, “Big Daddy” It’s was a tempered one where the each couldn't really talk to one another and finally, near the end of the film, when both parties are trying to hash out their grievances Brink tells his father that the material things he has left for him mean nothing because when he dies theses things can not love him.

As I sat there watching this scene a thought filtered through my mind: What are we leaving behind for those coming up under us, what will your legacy be? 

In Philemon 1:7 it says: "Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints."

Whether you are a sister, friend, a teacher or whatever we all are people of influence and I don’t think working all day just so you can have enough money to buy that fancy new car or that designer bag is what God intended us to do with ourselves, not to say you can’t have nice things Lord knows I’d love a new car :), but there should be a balance  we should all be pouring into someone  the love  of  Christ because that love is eternal can have lasting effects for generations to come. 

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

I heard the alarm and after pressing the snooze button about ten times I finally got out of bed...very slowly I might add.  I looked at the clock and saw that it was 7 o’clock!  I needed to be out of the house by 7:30 for my 8 o’clock class.  The only thing I had time to do was wash my face, brush my teeth, throw on clothes quick, grab a water bottle and a granola and run out.  I get to campus and I’m not only running late but as I look at my reflection from outside of my car I automatically start the day in a bad mood because I do not like what I look like.  So I’m in a rush and I’m scrubby. 

I am way too concerned and critical about what people think of me.  Now I know that all women can relate to that and have felt this way at some point.  Basically what we do is allow the enemy to control our thought process.  I mean let’s face it that’s his job to steal and destroy our joy! But here’s the good news…we are royalty; daughters of a King which makes us princesses; yay! 

If I really sit and think about this I am in total awe of God.  He is my Father and he specifically created me to be just how I am because he loves me so much and he didn’t want to make me like anybody else.  That goes for you too. I encourage you to find your identity through Him.  I guarantee you your life will change.

These next two verses show us how amazing we really are: 

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” - Psalm 139:13-14

We are fearfully and wonderfully made! Do you know that FULL WELL?  If not it will be a process but once you desire to know God will show you your worth.  He loves and cherishes you more than you know.

Hungry, and want more?

I married a bible college graduate. Ask Jared anything about the bible and he can quote the verse and scripture. Want to where you can find a certain story? Oh, he knows that too! I called him "bible boy" once and told him its crazy how well he knows the Bible. And then I got convicted; I should know the Bible the same way he does. And I can; if I study His word.

Lately, I have really felt in my heart to start studying who Jesus is, and go deeper in the Bible…. like, read between the verses and actually study the Bible like I would study a  book. “Why?” might you ask? Whenever I talk to someone about God, I want all the facts. I just don’t want to say “Jesus died on the cross for you!” HELLO: Everyone knows that! That’s obvious. But even though He did die on the cross, Jesus did a whole lot more then that. I’ll admit, I don’t know every story told in the bible. But I want too! I want to know of all the wonders and miracles He did!! I want to make sure I know the bible, so when someone asks me a question about God, I can back up my answer with a scripture!

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

That scripture has been on my heart and I wanted to share it with you today. I am motivated to learn about God so I can share all His wonders with people I know. Our job here on earth is to reach the lost. If we ourselves do not have the knowledge of the Bible…then what good are we? As Christians we should be excited to learn and study His word.

I challenge you today, read His word. Study His word! The bible is basically a map for us to follow in life. God has all of us on His path and it’s our job to guide ourselves down the path by following what the bible says. We should be hungry to read His word. His word fills us up. Maybe next time you are actually hungry, instead of driving to get Chinese…open the bible. I bet you anything you won’t be hungry after that!! Read His word and get full!! Then, go tell someone what you learned! Spread his goodness! After all, he did die on the cross for you! ;)

A Walk to Definitely Remember.

"A Walk To Remember" is basically every girl’s favorite movie!  If its not, clearly you have not seen how adorable Landon Carter is. Even though that movie is a complete tearjerker at the end, it’s worth the watch every single time.

My favorite part of the movie is when Landon takes Jamie to the cemetery, (side note: I’ve never seen a guy turn a cemetery into such a romantic place; Go Landon!) Anyways, he takes her to the cemetery and sets up her telescope so they can star gaze. While he lays out a blanket, he reaches into his backpack and shows her a map of the stars and asks her to find him a specific one. She asked why, and he simply said, “Because I had it named after you.” HOW ADORABLE!

In Psalms 147:4 it says 

“He determines the number of stars; he gives to all of them their names.”

In the movie Landon named a star after Jamie. But in reality, God has given every single star a name. Every star is uniquely named and shaped in God’s image. Just like us! When God looks at us, He sees perfection. Just like the stars, we are his creation.

Sometimes I wonder what my purpose here on earth is. Am I here to make people smile and laugh or does God really have this spectacular plan for my life? I tend to forget that God has placed a calling on my life. I know I’m not alone. I know some of you can relate. We get caught up in the busyness of life….like college, work, friends, relationships, and so on, and maybe we neglect to focus on God and the calling He has placed on our life.

It is not too late to follow the plans that God has for you. No matter your age, God will use you in this lifetime at his perfect timing.

For me, God spoke and said, “I have named the stars. I have named you. And how the stars shine is how you will shine when I use you.”

If that’s not something to be excited about, then I don’t know what is!! Life is crazy! But if you take this walk God has for you, you will one day look back and always remember… “Just like He named and created the stars, He named and created me to do great things for His kingdom.”

Never give up on the plans God has for you. I am sure they will be spectacular, just like YOU!