Beauty in your life- change your thoughts for a positive outlook
What gives you direction in life?
The direction in my life comes from my sense of purpose. It stems from my personal values, passions, and goals.
I believe challenges like failure or loss can disrupt direction, but they can also refine it by forcing us to reevaluate our lives.
Ultimately my direction comes from balancing what I control, my choices and my mindset.
My deep faith in God as well as my morals, and values give me direction in life.
A positive light in any situation can be a powerful tool for positive change in healing. Generosity, especially spiritual generosity can be a weapon in warfare, helping to overcome negativity and bring about positive changes. Generosity can become a transformative act that nourishes the soul.
The world is often driven by self interest and material gain, and the practice of giving can take on a profound spiritual significance. Generosity goes beyond the active, giving material possessions, it encompasses a spirit of openheartedness, kindness, and sharing. True generosity arises in the place of abundance, recognizing that we have much to offer -our time, attention, resources, and love. It is a way of acknowledging our interconnectedness and affirming the worth of others. Sadly in today’s society these actions cannot be seen to often due to cultural biases.
Generosity doesn’t just bless -it disarms. It can break down barriers and foster understanding. It can also be a powerful tactic to overcome opposition.
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
A quote I live by is: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall” -Nelson Mandela
The core belief of trusting in God to defeat our enemies is having faith that God has divine power, protects us and will provide justice. It is rooted in the idea that God is sovereign, all-powerful, and ultimately is in control of every outcome, even when our human strength or strategies fall short.
When we see God as our deliverer who fights on our behalf when we rely on Him.
We see in scriptures like Psalm 18:2,
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.”
Or Exodus 14:24,
“The Lord will fight for you, you only need to be still.”
Which emphasizes surrendering our fears and conflicts into God’s hands. There are a few key elements that go along with these scriptures:
This boils down to praying for protection, seeking wisdom to navigate our conflicts along with finding peace in the middle of our struggles, rather than taking matters into our own hands. It’s less about the literal battle today and more about the resilience or overcoming adversity through spiritual conviction.
What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?
For years my favorite holiday was Independence Day. It marked the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 that symbolizing the birth of American liberty from British rule.
The beginning of life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness which lays down the foundation of America’s values.
I love the fireworks, and the barbecues and time spent with my children and husband.
We don’t seem to barbecue much anymore, but I still have the awe of seeing fireworks in my heart.
Our human flaws, vulnerabilities, and struggles shape us. Our little imperfections tie beautifully into trusting in God to help us in our fight to defeat our enemies, if we connect the two, those cracks -our weaknesses, doubts, and broken pieces can be where faith steps in.
Our imperfections aren’t failures but an opening for divine strength. If you think about 2 Corinthians 12:9 when God tells Paul,
My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
The belief here is that God doesn’t just patch over our flaws but works through them, turning what feels like a liability into a conduit for something greater.
On a human level, our cracks might be where we feel most attacked by our external enemies, like hardship or our inner fears. But by trusting in God we can surrender to Him, handing over those fragile, imperfect parts and believing they won’t become our undoing. It’s like how cracked pottery can still hold water or how in the Japanese art of kintsugi where broken ceramics are mended with gold, making them more beautiful than before.
Have you ever been camping?
I have camped over the years. It was a good learning experience for my children to teach them respect nature.
But now as I’m getting older and the children as raised and I won’t be doing it. I might have to try glamping.
What if I told you that the brokenness you feel in your life isn’t a sign of weakness, but a sign that God is preparing you for a breakthrough?
Too often, we give up and check out right before things are about to the around because become overwhelmed with trying to keep everything together by ourselves. We were never called to keep it all together. We are called to surrender to God.
I want you tell you to never run away from brokenness but instead follow God because he can shine through brightly all the cracks we have.
I have a nephew who loves playing with Legos. He likes to make things, but he also enjoys breaking them apart to see if he can rebuild them into something new. Sometimes we have to buy more legos so he can make new things.
In comparison, our creator God also enjoys building, creating and making new things. This means He can’t build something that’s already established which means He needs prices to work with.
We may desire to keep it all together, God likes us broken. How many times have you said to yourself “I have got to keep myself together” or told someone to keep it together?” God wants us broken because when we’re in pieces, so He has something to work with.
God doesn’t want us to be self-made. He wants us to be God-made. The Bible tells us we are his workmanship, we are his masterpiece that he is in the process of making. He is building something greater than ourselves. But it’s a process of building, forming, and moving us into what He desires.
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 tells us,
“Seeing it is God who said, light will shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Yeshua the Messiah. But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.”
God will break us to build us – to build us back up, but he also does it to let light shine through.
An egg must be broken for the nutrients to come out. A woman’s water must break for the baby to come out. Darkness has a break for light to shine through.
Breaking is painful, but it’s not always bad. We’ve grown to believe that brokenness must be avoided at all costs not realizing that brokenness is necessary.
We avoid brokenness because we think it makes us weak, but in the upside down Kingdom of God, it is brokenness that makes us better, it makes us stronger, it’s a very mechanism. God uses to allow His strength, His light, and His power to shine through us.
Yes, we can strive, and fake it, and cover it up to keep it all together because we’re afraid that if we are not in control, everything will fall apart, but what we’re really afraid of is that we will fall apart, but that’s the point. That our ways will be disrupted, that our cycles will fracture, and that our hearts will break so that God can do a greater work in us because that’s the only way His glory will shine through the cracks of our mistakes, our missteps, and our weaknesses.
In Genesis 12:4 we see that there was not just a building up, but a tearing down when God created the Earth.
“…And God separated the light from darkness”
In order for light to shine through darkness, it had to break. In order for the light of Christ that is in us to shine through, God sometimes breaks our hearts, but a broken heart doesn’t mean we have to lose heart .
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, stuck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also by manifested in our bodies” -2 Corinthians 4:8-10
Contrary to common belief, brokenness will not destroy you, but trying to keep it all together will. Maybe it’s time to let God have His way. When we cry out and let go of what we try to control, and let the pieces fall where they may, and let God put us back together as He sees fit because His is always faithful to do so much better than we could have ever imagined.
I’ve learned over the years that when it feels like I’m breaking that must be the sign of a breakthrough.
When do you feel most productive?
Being productive in life hinges on aligning our actions with our goals and maintaining balance and wellbeing.
It involves setting clear goals while prioritizing tasks and well as using time management.
I am most productive during the early morning hours.
My main goal every day is to please God. Psalm 19:14 says,
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
God saved me over 13 years ago. He watched over me and protected me all my life. Even sometimes when I didn’t want to be saved, very sure in some instances where I wanted to die.
I think of it metaphorically through many Bible narratives. God resurrected Jesus so we could be resurrected. The resurrection is the central base of Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20, which is known as “The Gospels.”
Jesus’s tomb is found empty, and this event is celebrated as a triumph over death. You could say that God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, robs the grave of its hold on Jesus, turning it into a place of finality into a symbol of victory.
The grave is meant to claim bodies permanently, is left empty handed.
1 Corinthians 15:55 Paul taunts “Death, where is your sting? Sheol, where is your victory.”
Death is swallowed up in victory. God’s power overrides the natural order, reclaiming life from the clutches of the tomb. The resurrection isn’t theft in a literal sense since God is the creator and holds dominion over life and death. But, metaphorically it’s the divine reversal.
I love Crowders gritty song “Grave Robber.” It’s an upbeat take on the resurrection, that was inspired by the story of Lazarus in John 11-1-44, where Jesus calls Lazarus’s dead Body out of his tomb.
He sings it as a personal anthem, where Jesus as the “grave robber, snatches him from spiritual death, washes him clean, and brings him back to life.
I think sometimes God steals us as the grave robber. He picks us up when we have hit rock bottom. Jesus is the rock and rolls our graves away in a divine rescue to save us from the grave.
Jesus conquers death, not just literally like with Lazarus, but spiritually – pulling people out of sin and despair.
No matter how bleak things get, it’s good to know Jesus can overturn it, because He beat death. He’s got everything else covered.
What are your favorite emojis?
I would not say I have any favorite emojis. But I use smiles, praying hands, and WoW quite often. And hearts for family members and very close friends that I am grateful for.
From Pity to Praise