Joy8Ten

A few weeks ago I cleaned up my room and came across my old year books and decided to crack them open and see what kind of memories lay within the pages.   They were filled with H.A.G.S, K.I.T, AIM screen names, home phone numbers, and “see you next year” messages.  Ha-ha wow, I’m really showing my age here: P   after glancing over at all the signed pages, I inevitably had to go my school pictures…

That’s where I was surprised with a little lesson from God.

While looking through all my pictures I was reminded of the things I had experienced over the years, the good, the bad, and yes I’m going to say ugly (I saw the end of that western movie boooooring...”

Then I came across this…

Me Sophomore year of high school, don't you just love the shirt that matches this lovely expression haha

Needless to say mom was NOT pleased…I don’t remember the punishment….probably because it was so bad I am repressing it ha-ha

Anyway, as I’m looking at this oh so angsty teenage mug shot of a school picture, I started tearing up…

Ha-ha Yup that’s right, I just start crying over some silly picture, but it wasn’t from embarrassment, it wasn’t  from remembering something awful that happened that year (to be honest it was kind of a blah year), and it wasn’t because no longer having that shirt (I really did like that shirt)

They were tears of joy!

This is probably 1 out of less than 5 moments I have actually been so joyful I cried!

 Well if you don’t mind me going back a smidge farther, last month I gave my testimony to a ladies small group I co-lead with one of my buddies from “The Mix”.  It was tough, but it went really well and received a lot of encouraging feed-back!

So back to my original train of thought…

When I saw this picture, and at the same time thought about what I mentioned in my testimony I couldn’t believe out of all the people who have come in and out of my life and out of all the awful things I have endured…James 1:2-4  is completely dead on!

“Consider it pure JOY my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.”

The last several months I have been so much happier and that’s crazy because I’m not even taking anti-depressants!  So the only real explanation is that my joy has to have come from some crazy other worldly source…like….I don’t know….going on a hunch….but I think it could be from the Holy Spirit….lol

According to Galatians 5:22, one of the fruits of the Spirit is in fact “joy”

Acknowledging that my joy is coming from the Holy Spirit, THAT’S when I started crying.  The reason I have been doing so well is because I finally decided to tell God EVERYTHING I was thinking and feeling, no matter how unholy it sounded.  I held NOTHING back when it came to opening up to Him.  Whether it was as trivial as feeling sad because I was feeling left out of something, or  I was so angry I had nothing but obscenities pouring out of my mouth...God already knows what is going on in my heart. So why bother trying to sugar coat my prayers?!? 

It was because of this way of praying that I was able to calm down regardless of what I was thinking or feeling and find peace (also a fruit mentioned in Gal. 5:22), and in that peace I found joy from relief from the burdens, and then the strength needed to take on whatever came to me.  I got to agree with Nehemiah when he said

“For the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10)

Understanding and applying joy to my life as helped me have a more positive attitude!  Sure I still have a lot of things I still struggle with when it comes to following Christ’s ways….but having at least the prayer aspect down is sure going to help!

Belated Birthday Post

Two weekends ago my favorite male sibling (he’s the only one so the pickins were slim :P jk) celebrated his 20^th birthday. My “wittle brudder” is now in the same decade as me…crazy!!

I know this is a bit of a belated birthday post BUT hey, a late post is better than no post right?!?

Anyway, so this kid being the only male out of 3 female siblings has certainly put up with A LOT; however, he certainly doesn’t act like he’s been pushed around.  He is one of the kindest, pure hearted, lovable kids, and it’s impossible to hold a grudge against this kid.  Even if it was someone elses fault, he wouldn’t fight about accepted their punishment, and if it was his, he would fess up to it quicker than the amount of time it took to mess up haha

So do try and give back a little bit of sanity I’m sure me personally I have chipped away from him, I decided to concoct a homemade birthday dinner fit for one of the cheesiest guys I know.

 Michael requested: shells&cheese, mashed potatoes, green beans, chicken cordon bleu, and strawberry cake which all of it I made myself!

 

Hope you had a great birthday little bro, thanks for all you put up with!

My Current Journey Down a Brick Road

It’s been quite a journey for me as far as my college career goes.  I started back in fall of 2007 at J. Sergeant Community College because I thought that just like my parents, I would find my “one true love”, get married by 21, and have kids by 24 and become the world’s greatest wife/mom just like the iconic June Cleaver….

 

I feel like I have mentioned before in pasts post that school doesn’t come easy for me like it does for some, so I felt that the only thing I was ever good for was simply just being a wife/mom.  That sounds bad because A)being a wife/mom isn’t simple AT ALL..and.. B)It is completely ridiculous to believe one can only be good at one thing and one thing only.

So most of you all who follow me on my various forms of social media have heard the crazy awesome news that I have been accepted into VCU’s Psychology program…if not well…Hey guess what dot dot dot surprise!!

  

My belief is that there is a big difference between not having faith in yourself, and not having faith in God.  I believe you don’t have to have faith in yourself to have faith in God. I know for me for the longest time I got the two confused. I felt that if I didn’t believe I could do something then that meant I didn’t have faith in God.  WRONG!  What we lack for in abilities, God more than makes up for whatever we lack…hello…if we felt confident in everything we did…then why would we turn to God for help or thank Him when it turned out right??? We would be in the mindset of “Oh I did a great job go me!” instead of “I never thought I would get through this, but God you totally helped me out, thanks God!”

After forcing myself to get up and just  turn to “Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”(Ephesians 3:20) for guidance and help, I found  myself staring at a letter of acceptance to my first choice school and to a program I have been hoping to get into ever since the thought was laid on my heart to pursue a field in Psychology.

 So whether your still just a kid figuring out where you might want to go to college, in college, out of college, questioning if you should or shouldn’t even go to college, or just doing your own thing, remember this:

  “Do what will make God happy, Do what you feel is right, only but one thing matters…

Learn how to live your life!”

-Relient k