Hope you and your family had a fantastic Father’s Day!<3
Our minds are not good stewards over themselves. Left as the sole caretaker of our thoughts, emotions and feelings…it performs poorly every single time!
“I carry it and I care for you.” -God
There is “it” and then there is “you”. “It”, is the problem/challenge you are facing, a temporary irritant. Whereas “you”, is the spirit within, the dimension of you that will live forever in Heaven. Since we can’t identify God with our physical sense, it is easy to forget that He cares about our earthly existence and well-being, just as much as our eternal.
Whether you are struggling with an “it”, “you” or both, know that God is heavily invested in all that you are and is with you until the end of time and beyond!
Last Friday, everything seemed to be “off”. I got stopped at every light, someone was in my park and I left my spoon for applesauce. On my way to my car (after my supervisor was late returning from lunch, delaying my departure), I saw a rainbow on the asphalt. I was amazed at how two little sticks could be perfectly positioned in a circle rainbow…in the middle of a busy, windy parking lot. It was as if it was placed there for me!
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” -Proverbs 16:9 NIV
The vision of my Friday didn’t include being antsy or slurping up applesauce with a straw. However, my idyllic day also didn’t include seeing a wonder of God in the parking lot either!
Ten days, ten months, ten years from today, I have mental pictures of where I want to be and what I want to be doing. Yet, my mental pictures don’t include all the pre-arranged blessings that God has already interwoven into His plan for my life.
God had unimaginable ideas when He was creating you and as He guides your steps, He reveals them to you!
I am somewhere between being a busybody and an intellectual junkie! Although there are benefits to seeking intellectual challenges and mentally-stimulating activities, there must be a balance. Spoiler alert: I haven’t found it yet, but everyday I know that I am getting closer 🙂
Today, God told me that I need more “quiet time”, time that I am not contemplating life, planning my life 10 years from now or doing any other mentally-draining activity.
We all have counterproductive habits that sometimes seem impossible to kick. However, whatever those weaknesses may be (mental/overthinking, physical/under exercising), you can be confident of two things:
Jesus experienced the same struggle and was successful as a man (Hebrews 4:15)
God is more than willing to supply wisdom and advice, when you ask (James 1:5)
Here’s the good news, you already have the victory and dominion over your bad habits! The process of changing them won’t be easy, but you can find comfort in knowing that you win in the end!
This past weekend, my beloved orchid of three months, finally surrendered its
blooms and entered a resting period. Although I was sad to throw away the-now
lifeless blossoms, I knew that she would bloom again in next year. I always
amazed by how perennial flowers die, lie dormant all winter and then burst out
of the ground during the springtime!
In John 15, Jesus talks about how God is The Gardener, he is The Vine and we
are The Branches. God is constantly revealing and pruning the ‘weeds’ in our
lives, that drain our energy. In life, as we seek to act, love and look like
God, we are regularly undergoing the process of dying and reawakening.
The ability to ‘die’ and rise again, better than before, is testament to inner strength and determination! As a healthy, living man, Jesus wasn’t much help to us, concerning our salvation. Yet, as a resurrected man, he was the antidote for sin, supplying us with grace and mercy!
I like guarantees! Any company/business that is willing to guarantee their products and offer me a full refund, if I am not satisfied, have an edge over those that don’t. However, nine times out of ten, establishments boast those guarantees because they know that their quality is consistent from order to order.
God
gifted us the most reliable and renowned invention to-date…Jesus! Through Jesus
and grace, we have salvation and unlimited access to God.
“Every good gift bestowed, every perfect gift received comes
to us from above, courtesy of the Father of lights. He is consistent.
He won’t change His mind or play tricks in the shadows.” -James 1:17 VOICE
On top of guaranteeing us things we don’t deserve, He also gives us daily good gifts. Now, that’s a bargain bundle! We get air in our lungs, protection throughout the day, favor to guide us, a permanent home in Heaven and so, so much more!
Today I caught myself “pramplaining”, which is praying but complaining, at the same time. After taking the time to count the blessings in my life, I couldn’t help to say, “God, there is so much good around me and I am seeing You in all of it!”
My heart is appreciative to all the families that have lost loved ones and/or made sacrifices, so that my family and I could live in peace! It takes special people to willingly sign up for the military, knowing the (potentially fatal) risks involved.
There are many things we could complain about, but our blessings will always outnumber our gripes. Your life was ordained for a purpose, one that Jesus and soldiers both felt was worth dying for! We could never compensate for the price of a life, but we can govern our lives with intention and gratefulness!
Life is precious but expensive…I am so thankful that I didn’t have to pay the price!
God am I disposable, or are you shielding me from those that don’t mean me well and are incapable of loving me the way I deserve?
God and I have been having discussions about my social life ever since I found my books to be more reliable than human beings! I hate to be bleak, but after a few not-so-pleasant encounters with some of God’s special children, I tend to keep to myself!
Sometimes, I feel like people only think of me when they need or want something. It’s like I am some sort of unfeeling, robotic voice-machine that is available at their disposal. However, it’s not my feelings that govern my life but what I know, which is that Jesus always prioritizes me and he never asks for anything in return!
Not everyone is interested in getting to know you or developing a relationship (business, platonic, romantic etc.) with you. Not everyone will be able to see past how advantageous you are to them. And that’s okay!
God always has a way of revealing people’s true intentions and protecting us from them. You’re not disposable, but irreplaceable and anyone who can’t perceive that, can be escorted out the door they came in 😉
If you want to know anything about me…ask God and my mother! Those two together, know me better than I know myself!
Apart from loving me unconditionally, I am grateful for how God convicts in the spirit and my mother corrects in the natural, both with kindness. The old saying is true…it’s not what you say, but how you say it!
Satan likes to paint mental pictures where constructive criticism towards us is perceived as a threat to our worth. And in moments, when we are hearing things from The Holy Spirit and/or our loved ones that we would prefer not to hear, it’s easy to mistake Satan’s counterfeits as authentic.
God always operates through grace, not spiritual condemnation and our loved ones (most of them) have sincere intentions!
I was nominated by Dawn at Drawing Closer to Christ for the Sunshine Blogger Award. In the (almost) three years since I have been doing Anomalous Darlings, I have never been nominated for ‘blogger award’, so thank you Dawn! It truly is an honor and I am ecstatic!
(She always has something interesting and refreshing to read <3)
Here are the rules:
• Thank the blogger who nominated you.
• Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new
questions.
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award in your post/or on
your blog.
Questions for me to answer:
1. 1. If you could
move to another country, where would you go? A Spanish-speaking country, probably the Dominican Republic.
2. Are you a morning person? If I get
eight hours of sleep, yes!
3. What is your favorite color? Anything
in the red family.
4. Tell something about yourself you would want others to know? This is silly…when I was four, I ‘sharpened’
my finger…ouch!
5. Do you have a pet? No.
6. What is your favorite number? 13!
7. What is your most memorable vacation? Disney Cruise during my 8th grade Fall Break.
8. What is your favorite memory? Ones
that involve my family, those always make me smile.
9. What is your worst memory? Getting
lost and dropped by my GPS when I was 16.
10. What do you enjoy most about blogging? Three things: 1) Being vulnerable, 2) Connecting with others and most
of all 3) Allowing God to speak through me.
11. What do you like most about yourself? My creativity, sometimes I think to myself, “Wow, you did that!”
