Made New

As I reflect on this past year I am so overwhelmed. I've had some good days and not so good days but I made it! I made it because God walked with me through every moment. There were times when I thought I wouldn't make it, times when I wanted to give up, times when I questioned why me? Through those moments God sustained me, He caught me every time I fell. He provided for me more than I could ever imagine! He blessed me more than I deserved because He is so GOOD! He's removed some people from my life and brought some pretty amazing people into my life. God is good, He is so good! So many times I tried to control things that I couldn't but God could and He did!  He is always in control and I pray that you all know that! I pray that you go into this new year knowing how much God loves you, I pray that you all know that God is with you through every moment, the good and the bad ones. God loves you so much He gave his son so that you could live! I pray that you walk into this new year living the life that God has called you to live, a life designed to bring Him glory! Know that you identity is found in Christ, you don't need anyone else to validate you! God has already done that! You do not have to walk into the new year carrying shame, guilt, anger, or bitterness! Lay it down at the cross, give it all to God! In Christ we are made new! Know that you deserve the best of everything God has to give you! I love you and sincerely pray that you go into this new year truly knowing that you are so loved by God and He wants you to have the very best for you! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

More Blessings to come

Thank you God for my life.... All that you are, all that you have received and given praise his name and give thanks. God never stops giving he blesses us beyond imagination. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18  says Rejoice always ; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks ; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Amen.... This year started off a little rocky for me but after learning how to pray and meditate on my prayers, learning how to depend on God and not myself , letting go of stresses and anxieties finally the will was there and the way of the path was laid for me and my family. In 2015 we prayed for a new home so that we did not have to struggle to raise our children with the scrutiny and judgment of others not being in our own dwelling.

Our prayers were answered and then some my husband was made permanent at his job which came with a huge pay raise and we ended up moving into a house big enough for our family. I have also had an unexpected excitement we just recently found out that  we are expecting a baby our 5th child. Things are panning out so positively I give him all of the glory and praise. I am so happy I feel like I was in a storm, drowning for such a long time and when I let it go and asked God to solve the problem he did all in his own time but right on time. Going into 2016 let's stay positive and remember that all things are possible with God and all of the praise belongs to him..

Amen 2016 see you soon

You are ENOUGH!

How many times do we tell ourselves that we are not good enough? How many times do we compare our situations to other's situations? How often do we not attempt to do something because we fear that we will be judged or rejected? Do you know that you are ENOUGH? God created you to be the exact way that you are and that is enough, who ever feels that it is not enough or makes you feel as though you are not enough needs to be removed from your circle.  Often times we keep people in our circle because we are comfortable with them, even though these same people never uplift or encourage us and make us feel bad about ourselves.  It is ok to love yourself! It is ok to believe in yourself! It is ok to want the best for yourself! These are things that God already knows about you to be true!

When you feel inadequate, remember God says: You are CHOSEN.

“‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he’” (Isa. 43:10).

When you feel unloved, God says: You are LOVED.

“You are precious and honored in my sight, and . . . I love you” (Isa. 43:4).

When you feel forgotten, God says: You are REMEMBERED.

“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isa. 49:16).

When you feel insecure, God says: You are SECURE.

“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders” (Deut. 33:12).

When you feel unable or unstable, God says: You are ABLE.

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights” (Hab. 3:19).

When you feel worthless, God says: You are CALLED.

“You are a chosen [woman], a royal [priest], a holy [daughter], God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

Go into the New Year loving YOU! 

Today I looked at myself in the mirror and said "You are amazing and I love you" it felt weird doing so, but it also felt invigorating! Other people can compliment you all day, every day, but if YOU don't love you, then those compliments bounce right off of you.  If you don't love you, when people compliment you, you feel as though they aren't genuine and they are really judging you for your imperfections.  Leaning to embrace my flaws is something that I work on daily and its not easy.

I once had a friend who told me she felt ugly that day, I told her she was beautiful, she told me I would not know what it was like to have days when I don't feel beautiful. It really hurt my feelings that a friend of mine would view me like that, I never thought I came across like that, but to her I did.  I have have days when I feel horrible, I just want to wear sweat pants and a mask to work! Others days I feel like a run way model! These things are normal, but I want to always remember that God loves me just the way that am and I am learning accept my imperfections! 

I love you all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thank you God

Let's start off with (Ephesians 5:22-33) So having a spouse is a good thing and I am grateful for mine. Us as women tend to complain about what our men do not do and we hold them in the highest regard, as if they can not make a mistake or fall short. We are all imperfect individuals  but with prayer and supplication we have God's grace. The other day my husband was late coming home and in my mind I was mad at him I was thinking "how rude and inconsiderate", I called him No answer it was 7:00 p.m. already and I knew he got off at 6:00 that evening. I was going to let him have it when he got home, I mean I was boiling, I had keep up with the house, homeschooled our children, cooked all meals etc... I was thinking like how do I deserve this?

  Outside I heard our truck pull in the driveway and I was so prepared to go off on him but what saved him is that #1 our kids were all still awake and #2 I was on the phone with a good friend of mine and I didn't want her to know how mad I was. My husband came in the house I did not even get up to open the door being in my feelings and he immediately went to the kitchen I didn't even look at him . At that moment he walked over to me and just stood there and I finally looked up at him with a grimace and he handed me a card and a bunch of chocolates wrapped up in a box. How foolish I felt the reason why he hadn't answered the phone was because he was busy showing me affection with gifts. I carefully read the card that he gave to me, it was so cute and right on track with our relationship.

My mood instantly changed instead of thinking about what he had not said or done I was thinking about my mood, how could I have been so selfish thinking it was all about me. I had not showed him any affection or appreciation at all lately and he was nice enough to go out of his way to do something nice for me. I had to re-evaluate my attitude, I quickly hugged him, hung up with my friend and thanked him over and over for showing me appreciation because really that is all that I wanted and he knew that. For now on I will tell him how much that I appreciate him and respect him for loving me and just for going to work daily for the greater good of his family.

Immediately I  thought of how the bible at the end of the scriptures that I quoted earlier at Ephesians 5:33 it says however, each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

The Power of Prayer

Over the last week I have been studying biblical prayers in the bible, while studying this topic I have really felt convicted. Conviction is not a bad thing, to me its simply the Holy Spirits prompting for me to improve in certain areas of my life, its not the first time I've felt conviction and I'm sure it won't be the last time either. Truthfully my prayer life is not what I'd like it to be, it's not even close. Depending on how tired I am often determines if I pray, how long I pray or sit and have quiet time with God. Praise God that the love He has for me is not dependent upon my prayer life! No matter how much we pray, there is always room for improvement in our daily prayer lives. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to "pray without ceasing or to pray continually." Just off that one verse alone I know I can do better...a whole lot better. Imagine how much different our lives could be if we truly prayed all the time. My God! I believe we would be filled with the peace and joy of God through every circumstance, hardship, and trial that we ever faced! How amazing would that be! I want to do better, I want us all to do better in our prayer lives, not just praying for ourselves but others as well.

Let's be truthful most of the time when we pray, we are praying for situations or people directly related to us or praying for God to work things out in our favor. I know I'm guilty of this on a daily basis. Since I've started reading over biblical prayers in the bible I've realized how self serving my prayer life is. OUCH! It hurts to admit that out loud but it's the truth. If it's all about me or people that are apart of my life how can I expect to accomplish anything for God? How many times in the bible, does it say "honor others above yourselves?" Praying for other people instead of constantly praying for ourselves is "honoring others above ourselves." Let's not stop there, how about praying for people that we've never met or encountered before? In Colossians 1:9-14, Apostle Paul is praying for the Colossians, whom he has never met before. He's not praying simple prayers of blessings over them, no he is praying for them to be filled with knowledge and wisdom through the Holy Spirit, he's praying for them to live lives pleasing and worthy to the Lord, he's praying that they bear fruit in every good work, he's praying for them to have patience and endurance, he's praying for their salvation! I've never prayed a prayer like this for people I know let alone don't know. I mean yes, when there is some kind of natural disaster, we all say a prayer for the people effected but how often are we praying for their salvation, praying that God would use this natural disaster to draw people near to him? I don't know about anyone else but my answer is never, never have I prayed those kinds of prayers but I want to start. I want to start because we are commanded to pray without ceasing and called to be disciples, we are called to go out and make disciples and there is simply no way to do that without prayer!

I believe we underestimate the power of prayer. Prayer gives us 24/7 access to God. Prayer is the key that unlocks all doors and not just doors for us or the people we know but for people we don't know as well. What if your praying for a complete stranger is apart of the plan for their salvation, would that give you any incentive to change the way you pray? My goal for myself is to start praying for future believers, truthfully I know this will be a bit of a challenge because it's a change and sometimes change can be hard but well needed. I know I can do it with the help of Christ because with Him "all things are possible!" I hope you all are as inspired and encouraged as I am to pray at all times, I truly believe if we all prayed this way and for people we don't know this world could be a better place. Besides when your so busy praying for others, it shifts your focus from your needs to the needs of others, giving you less time to worry, giving you more peace of mind and who couldn't use a little more of that?

My challenge for you all is to change some things up in your daily prayer lives, pray more! Get out of the routine of just praying for yourself and others you know, pray for the homeless person you seen walking down the street, pray for the people in the car accident you just passed, pray for people in the unreached areas of the world! Pray without ceasing!

Training them up

Today was a trying day, we finally are settled and getting acclimated to our new home. I feel like I've had to defend and or explain myself several times today. The topic of the day why do you homeschool? My husband Kevin and I felt that it was best to remove our children from the traditional school environment and do things a little differently and thus far I can honestly say that it is working.
Galatians 6:9 (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
My story starts here I felt like my school aged children were being  judged by school officials in a negative way. Our family was not quite settled in our surroundings and our children were suffering because of it. I could see a struggle with in my eldest son his learning, he would not get it at school, his teacher was impatient and not willing to repeat her lessons on what was unclear to him. He would come home crying because he felt dumb and he thought his brain was not working. Other students would laugh at him because he wasn't reading as fast as them I voiced my concerns to the teacher, to the principal, to the office and board of Education no one seemed to care, after tutoring help from the school and various of other different courses of action I had a serious epiphany,  I was going to research home schooling him.

Spending a lot of time and energy into parent meetings and such I was loosing track of my other son whom at the time was a new Kindergartener, he was also struggling. Don't get me wrong I've always spent time with my kids and taught them myself but I assumed that them being in school  was the best option, not with 1-2 hours of home work a night per kid the traditional school thing was Horrible.

I now have 3 out of 4 completing lessons with me, it took some time finding out what works best for them individually but the reward is so awesome, seeing my babies have confidence with learning and having fun while doing so is so worth it. In Psalms 127:3 it says Children are a heritage from the Lord, Offspring a reward from him, I couldn't agree more. Summing up my explanations for everyone we homeschool our children because we know we love and care for our children, they are not taught to the test they are not condemned by there peers, still socialized and have a deep respect and love for God, themselves and our household. Homeschooling allows me to be more hands on and focused on each child individually, I love it, it works for our family at this time and Our children will prosper in the Lord.

Learning to ask for Help

The process of buying a car has been beyond overwhelming and frustrating on so many levels. I was expecting to literally go out and buy a car in one day. Anyone buying a car knows that it takes time and research. How unrealistic was that? I was very unrealistic and so are a lot of other views I have as well. A lot of times I don't want to wait for things to happen, I always want everything right now. This mentality has gotten me into trouble quite a few times, particularly with cars. The last three cars I've gotten were because I didn't know how to be patient and wait on God. Either financially they were out of my budget or I got into trouble with the cars needing repairs. At the end of the day, a lot of the problems I encountered were because of my inability to delay gratification, to patiently wait on God, and to trust in His promises.


This time around I am determined to do things different. See, "when you know better, you do better!" This time around I decided to do something that I absolutely, positively don't like doing, which is asking for help! For a long time I thought asking for helped reflected weakness because after all, "I'm supposed to have it all together." Actually asking for help actually show humility which is the opposite of pride and truthfully I was being prideful. Pride will get you into trouble as it did me.  See God has a way of humbling us when we let pride get the best of us or get in the way of His plans. Matthew 23:12 says, " For those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted." I believe that one way God humbled me was through the loss of "my brand new car." A brand new car that I couldn't afford and the end result of that was my car being repossessed. I was so embarrassed and ashamed but it was my fault. I got a new car I couldn't afford because everyone around me was getting a new car and because I worked so hard, I "deserved" to have a new car. No, actually I deserved what I got because I went ahead of God thinking what he had already given me wasn't enough. The truth is, what God gave me was more than enough but I was ungrateful, I had this false sense of entitlement. God's word says, " He will supply every need of ours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.-Philippians 4:19. God supplies all of our needs according to HIS riches and going ahead of Him will always lead to trouble as it did with me.  LESSON LEARNED!


This time around I've enlisted the help of two very wise men, a financial counselor and a mechanic. These two men are very determined to help me, help me make better decisions, and put myself in a better situation for a better future. At one point I would have never asked for help but if I didn't I would have kept making the same mistakes over and over again expecting a different result! Really? That's insanity, literally! As much as I hated to ask for help, I'm glad that I did, I can see the fruit of that big step for me. God has blessed me in so many ways using theses two men outside of the ways I was originally seeking their help. Asking for help was a big step for me but has opened my heart in so many ways. I'm more open to the idea of asking for help, I'm also more willing to accept help when it's offered. I don't think of myself as weak and I don't feel ashamed when asking for help now. Truthfully we all need help no matter how good of a situation we think we're in. I am so truly humbled because so many people have reached out to help me, whether it's about budgeting, buying a car, or coming along side of me to help me with my son. So many times I thought I knew what was best for me or I thought I knew what I wanted but I didn't. What I have learned is God's ways are better than my ways and His thoughts are better than my thoughts. I have to choose whether I will honor Gods plan for my life or honor myself. I've decided to choose God because I know He always have my best interest in mind.


God is so good and he continues to reveal himself to me on a daily basis and sometimes he does it through some pretty amazing people. I am beyond blessed, I am beyond grateful, and I am so humbled by our Lord God Almighty. One of the most important things I have learned is, "my helps comes for the Lord, who made heaven and earth.-Psalm 121:2. When we need help all we have to do is ask and God is there without a shadow of doubt!