Beauty in your life- change your thoughts for a positive outlook
What is your favorite form of physical exercise?
My favorite kind of exercises are hiking and swimming.
Both of these are endurance exercises that improve cardiovascular health. And while I can’t hike the harder distances after a knee surgery a few years back I still enjoy the easier trails.
In a world of hostility toward truth, a world infatuated with sin, a world full of broken people who want to rule themselves. That’s the world that Jesus was born into. That’s the world Jesus received, one with hatred. We shouldn’t expect to be received any different.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you” -John 15:18
In a political climate and culture wars we are harshly reminded that all isn’t right with the world. Total justice has yet to be served. We are a nation of lost souls who need the rule of Jesus the King.
Right now rather than joy and peace flourishing, tensions are high and truth is a battle to be bought. Jesus came into this world, freely and joyfully, and He walks closely with us.
Every day, a person either gets closer to Jesus or falls away from Him, there is no neutral ground that exists when it comes to knowing the Son of God. Each passing day, the lines get easier to see. I think this is why Jesus asks, “But who do you say that I am?” -Matthew 16:15. How we answer reveals how we relate to Jesus, and how we relate to Jesus determines our eternal future. Those stakes could not be higher.
When Jesus heals the demon-possessed man the crowds fear Him and want Him to leave (Luke 8:26-29, Mark 5:1-20). The refusal of Jesus, the only Son of God. This refusal continues today, as people reject Jesus’s kingship, hate His light, and are offended by His truth.
If we are following Jesus, we might feel like we are in similar circumstances, especially as a result of our faith in Jesus. Jesus knew the outright refusal in a hostile world.
I imagine the increasing tension Jesus felt, of being preyed on by His opponents, because they wanted Him to mess up, and some actually enjoyed thinking it happened.
This was Jesus’s reality. The spiritual elite stuck close to Jesus not to follow Him, but to frame Him. Their supposed commitment to truth led to Jesus’s incriminating on the cross. Even there as He suffocated until His death, they cursed Him.
The world is clouded with hostilities of earthly accusations. It’s our greatest enemy at work. We should be comforted because Jesus knew the accusation of a hostile world, and He walks closely with us.
Jesus is a Savior who was abused, but He is also the Deliverer of abusers. Only the Son of God, with all love and justice, could appeal on behalf of His torturers.
One day Jesus came into a hostile world. The kingdom of God was broken into reality through human form, a promise proven in Jesus that His people would be governed and enlightened by Him from their darkness (Isaiah 9).
“For you will not abandon my soul in Sheol, or let your Holy One see corruption” -Psalm 16:10
One day when Jesus returns to crush the serpent’s head once and for all (Genesis 3:15), His reign and victory will be ultimately finally proven and our battle against hostility will be finished forever.
Jesus came to conquer this world. And He walks closely with ours.
How much would you pay to go to the moon?
I personally would not pay anything to go to the moon. It’s a place that I have no desire to visit.
What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?
I’ve worked many jobs in my life from serving meals at a college to working with the elderly. But in the end I’ve always wanted to do something that helped people. Maybe it is because of the way I grew up. I hate to see people hurt.
I think about my past work and most of it involved helping people. I can’t see me doing something that wasn’t helping someone whether it be someone who was hurting emotionally or physically.
I have been very blessed that I have had the opportunity to be a wife and a mother. If I had to change my life’s work It would be a counselor or a life coach.
We as human beings are very clock-driven. We plan entire days around time. We design work, family, recreation, and even worship around tightly fashioned schedules. We might even think that our time is our own. It’s not. It’s His.
In Psalm 31 David expresses His belief that all of life’s circumstances are under God’s sovereign control. In his cry of deliverance he says, “My times are in Your hand.” It’s a climax with a beautiful confession of faith, “But I trust You, O Lord.” David found hope, strength, and relief in the hand of the Time Keeper.
I find it interesting that the Hebrew Word picture for time is conceived as an opportunity. Its root meaning is duration, experiences, and filling of time. I think what David is really saying is that my times of opportunity, all experiences, and filling of my time are all in Your hand. What a powerful revelation.
We are told that Solomon was very wise. He was blessed with the wisdom of God after he had, lived a long prosperous life. He wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes 1:3 he declares that, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” God’s purpose.
Acts 17:26 tells us, “He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and boundaries of their dwellings that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” God determines our appointed seasons. There is no such thing as useless time. There is a set time and set season for everything that the Lord has in store for you in life.
Understanding your time and seasons will help prevent you from making a lot of mistakes in the future, and it will also help you from making wrong turns and unwise decisions. If we understand the season, we will know if it is the right time to make a move.
We should make the most of our time, and conduct ourselves having the fear of the Lord (Holy fear) during our time on earth. Knowing that God loves us and cares for us enables us to stay steady in our faith regardless of what time we are living in. It keeps us from sinning foolishly by taking the time into our hands in God’s timetable.
‘See then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” –Ephesians 5: 15-16
We need to rescue the time that remains in our lives. We can only redeem today and plan to redeem tomorrow, because yesterday is gone. We alone are responsible for using what God has given to each of us -time. When we do that something amazing happens.
“He makes everything beautiful in its time” -Ecclesiastics 3:11
What food would you say is your specialty?
I don’t really have a food specialty. If I eat or see something that looks or tastes amazing I attempt to make it.
My new favorite is pork carnitas rice bowls. I know many people don’t eat pork, with cilantro lime rice but you could also make it with chicken, or beef. My tip is use sour cream or cream Mexicana on top.
Facing hardship and brokenness seems to be a necessary path we must take to get to spiritual maturity, a deeper relationship with God, and a more authentic life.
Challenges can break down a reliance on ourselves as well as earthly desires and make us more receptive to God’s plan and presence. When we can embrace brokenness it can lead to a more genuine and fulfilling existence that replaces a self-centered life with one that is guided by God’s purpose.
There are a few ways that brokenness can lead to true living.
In practice this means we should embrace hardship. Instead of fearing challenges, we should be open to how God can use them to mold and shape us through them.
We should try and let go of the urge to control our hardships. This involves a willingness to let go of control and cry out to God, allowing Him to put the pieces back together in His way, which is often better than we could have imagined for ourselves.
Finding strength in our vulnerabilities. This means acknowledging and embracing brokenness is not a sign of weakness but a path to a greater connection with God.
Acknowledging our earthly brokenness comes from recognizing that we live in a broken world and will face difficulties. But also recognizing that there is good news, that overcoming brokenness is possible with faith.
Jesus is the only one who can break spiritual chains and deliver people from the power of darkness, and that’s exactly what He came to do. He is the chain breaker.
Jesus has the power to liberate people from spiritual, emotional, and physical bondage. This includes breaking the chains of sin, death, fear, and addiction. His blood was the ransom paid to liberate our souls from sin and death.
Jesus put on our chains of sin and broke free. When we become alive in Christ Jesus we are able to see that our past, present and future don’t have to drag us down or hold us back because Jesus is victorious and has overcome the grave.
The way I see it, is every morning we have a choice to make. We decide whether we will put on the heavy coat and put the chains back on. Or will we exchange them for garments of light clothes of freedom that Jesus offers us?
We are loved. We are chosen. We have been forgiven. God has good plans for our future and He is always faithful to keep His promises.
We must fight every day because living in freedom that Jesus bought for us matters. The blood of Jesus washes us clean, so we never have to writhe in darkness again. We shouldn’t sit in darkness when we can be standing in the light of His presence.
We all have seasons of isolation on those days, when you feel the darkness creeping in remember that Jesus’s hand is stretched out towards you.
What major historical events do you remember?
I remember the Vietnamese war mostly because my father used to talk about it a lot – being a war veteran himself. He was against communism. He believed as most people did the socialism and communism is bad for the average citizen. It is big government wanting to control everything. The key strategy was to prevent communism from spreading beyond where it already existed.
I fight it interesting that is what we are fighting against in America -big government wanting to control everything. Most citizens want small government and be allowed to live their own lives.
What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to?
Most people take the biggest risks out of necessity, survival, or hope for a better future.
The biggest risk I am willing to take right now would be to travel alone to see my son. He lives in a large city and with things the way they are in society I know it wouldn’t be very safe to travel alone. But if it became a necessity I would take the risk.
I watched a movie years ago, and the main theme was God is good all the time. If this is true why don’t we feel it more often? Throughout my life I have found it difficult to find God’s goodness.
Then I realized that I didn’t find it. I wasn’t sensing His goodness because I was yearning for His provisions more than His Person. I was latched to the externals for fulfillment, my hobbies, and certainly my physical comforts. Sure he gives these things, but above all He wanted me to develop internal contentment with Him.
Meaning that there was no more bargaining, begging, tantrums, or pity parties, but a motivation to delight in Him. Psalm 37:4 inspires us to this at the highest level, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Perhaps the highest desire of our hearts is Him.
Delighting in Him is easy when we first soak up His delight in us. Zephaniah 3:17 tells us, “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you, in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
We should be encouraged to stop and feel this truth -all the time. He already greatly delights in us.
From Pity to Praise