Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
Quite a few years ago, I was volunteering at an organization when I was asked to be the president of my town chapter. They were in a tough spot, but the past one up and quit with no warning. It began as a year commitment. And then longer is a want to.
I worked my butt off, doing fundraisers, working on bettering my community by donating money to the food pantry, and helping the veterans get disability, and assisting in getting their needs met.
The issue was I was doing in with one other lady, and the other 9 who were volunteers also, said they would help but when it came down to the wire, they would back out. I would call them out on it, and it would become a “drama fest.”
I did my year of service and then stopped. It was an extremely stressful period of time for me. It would have been great if people would have worked together instead of making everything stressful.
I have a difficult time with volunteering for something and then being lazy and not helping. If people aren’t going to help they shouldn’t volunteer for anything that requires them to give of themselves.
If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?
I think the word or slang word that I dislike the most is “bruh.” It’s probably not the word itself, it’s because it just sounds disrespectful.
Bruh is supposed to be a slang term for “bro” or brother. And can be used to address anyone. But it just sounds wrong, I am okay with “bro” but not “bruh.“
There is a big difference between God strength, and our strength. We will never make it by depending on our strengthalone. God is the one who will stand with us and strengthen us in our journey through life.
Friends and family may forsake us, and others may forsake us, but when we know where our true strength lies it’s then we know everything will be alright.
We must depend on God’s strength because our human strength runs out too quickly. Human strength relies on earth, food, sleep, exercise, water, and sunshine. But, these things are not enough to make us strong in the Lord.
We must have and use the divine strength of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that is never in short supply.
“Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, says the Lord of hosts” –Zachariah 4:6
When we depend on God strength, it strengthens our whole person, soul, mind and body.
Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:16-17,
“At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”
Paul knew that God had called him to teach the gospel to the gentiles, and we must also know what God has called us to do in the world. It is then that God will stand with us and strength us, no matter what comes our way.
Paul would have never made it without depending on God’s strength because he endured many trials and persecutions than any other apostle. He took pleasure in his infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, and distresses for Jesus’s sake.
“For when I am weak, then I am strong” -2 Corinthians 12:10.
The Bible says,
“Let the weak say, I am strong” -Joel 3:10
This verse refers to being strong in the Lord, and when we are, we are strong in divine love, grace and peace. There is no ego in those things. When the right hand of God is moving for us, we have nothing to fear.
I am not strong as a person, but I am “God strong,” and Grace strong. I would not be who I am today, had it not been for God giving me His strength and His grace.
We are strong in God through His grace, we must depend on that sufficient grace. The Lord told Paul,
“My grace is sufficient for you. for My power is made perfect in weakness” -2 Corinthians 12:9.
When we are weakin our human strength, the strength of God will show up in us through His power. His love and His greatness.
Our flesh is too weak to perform spiritual things or fight the power of Satan. That’s why Paul said,
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh” -2 Corinthians 10:3
Through divine strength, we are able to pull down the powers of satan and stomp them under our feet.
Paul was an educated man before he was saved, he held one of the highest seats in the court of the Jews. He depended on his education, his position, and his authority and had confidence in his own strength.
After he was saved, Paul realized how weak his flesh really was, and he no longer had faith in it. He became circumcised in his heart and worshipped God in the spirit, and rejoiced in Jesus. (Philippians 3:3).
It is miraculous how God can take sinners like us and make us His children for the most High King.
Our flesh is weak but the Holy Spirit that comes to live on the inside of us is strong.
People with a lot of “higher” education can become so caught up in what they know that they can leave God out. This is why God takes people who are considered simple in the eyes of the world and makes them magnificent witnesses. No one needs to be highly educated to be able to understand God’s good news. It only takes a consecrated, dedicated, Holy Spirit-filled person to understand it.
When people are redeemed by God from all their sins in their souls they become perfect. James 1:5 says,
“If any on you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
God is willing to give us His wisdom, but we must be willing to give Him all the glory for it.
Everyone knows what it’s like to be angry. Our hearts beat faster, our chest tightens , we feel fixated on the person or thing that caused our anger, and we start thinking about how we can get even.
Anger is a natural human reaction to situations that we don’t like, but it isn’t a very effective one. If you take a moment to think about the consequences of anger, you might realize that it rarely solves whatever the problem was that provoked it. If we become angry about another person‘s behavior, it probably won’t result in changing their behavior. if we become angry about an unfavorable event that happens to us, our anger will do nothing to reverse what has happened.
What’s worse is the anger inhibits our ability to respond to the situation intelligently. There have been psychological studies that have shown that people process information less thoroughly and judge others more harshly when they’re angry. This can cause us to behave in ways that only perpetuates anger instead of addressing at cause.
In short, being angry, makes us stupid. We make horrible decisions, and most often regret the things we’ve said in the heat of it.
Anger is fully related to our instinctual fight or flight response. Anger is marked by psychological activity that prepares our body to fight off an aggressor, such as a release of adrenaline in our brain and increased blood flow to our muscles.
For our early ancestors, anger was auseful motion. It helped them control or kill animals, or other humans who pose a threat to their life. Angers, natural intensification of “us or them” making also might have been useful for protecting the tribe during conflict, increasing the individuals chances for long term survival.
The survival benefits of anger in rendered mostly obsolete in modern civilization. Physical assault and murder are not acceptable in our society. Today we are expected to solve interpersonal disputes, using logic, reason and understanding. This is much harder to do when we are angry.
Anger is not caused by what happened to us, but by how we habitually think about things. For example, if a stranger on the street makes a rude comment toward us, we can view it in one of two ways, as a personal attack on our character, or an outburst that reflects more on the speaker than on you. If we think about the situation in the first way, we are much more likely to become become angered.
There’s a way to change our thinking so we are less angered. The first step is to desensitize ourselves to our environmental triggers.
If we make a list of every situation, we can think of that typically makes us angry and then imagine these situations in our mind. Then we can concentrate on each one and take slow deep breaths. With practice, we can become much better controlling our emotions and staying calm when confronted with our anger inducing situations.
Once we are desensitized from our anger, triggers, then we can work on reframing our thoughts about them.
Once we take some time to think about the things, we are angry about, we might discover it was usually because I assumed the worst intentions.
If we work on changing the way, we think about the situations that anger us, we will find in time that anger no longer controls us. This is also the best way to help ourselves make smart, effective decisions in anger, inducing situations instead of ineffective, stupid ones.
What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?
I have been working on getting stronger after surgery. I hope that by August I will be able to hike and get back to swimming like I was before the surgery.
Getting my head in a place where I can accomplish these things is the first battle. I believe our bodies can do amazing things but the battle lies in our minds.
Dear younger self high school get into college and focus on your dreams and passions. You can’t runaway from your problems. You have to face your giants dead on or they will always hunt you.
Don’t allow yourself to be in any romantic relationships while you are working on your life. Always choose yourself first. Love yourself because no one will ever love you if you don’t have yourself figured out.
What image of God do you hold in your mind and heart in our spiritual journeys, we often form assumptions about the nature of God, based on our upbringing, religious teachings, and personal experiences. What if some of these bleeds are faults or incomplete?
Many of us hold misconceptions about God, based on our upbringing, cultural influences, and personal experiences. These fall through include images of God can impact our lives.
Some of the common misconceptions about God I have had in my life include:
God punishes: many people with that God punishes us for our mistakes or sins. This punitive view of God was harmful and hindered my spiritual growth.
God was distant: some people perceive God as being far away and uninvolved in our lives. This can lead to feelings and loneliness and abandonment.
God was a rigid rule maker: Other see God as a stripped enforcer of rules and regulations. This legalistic view God can relate to fear and a sense of unworthiness.
When reflecting on our child who upbringing and how it influence, our spiritual perceptions, it is important to consider the images of God that we may have been exposed to. these images, with accurate or not can shape our believes and understandings.
Some have been taught to see God as a harsh judge, ready to punish any wrongdoing. This can lead to feelings of fear and unworthiness.
Others have been raised to God as detached from human affairs, creating a sense of abandonment and loneliness in our relationship with God.
Believing that God‘s love and acceptance are contingent upon our behaviors or beliefs than can lead to a performance based spirituality. Where we must constantly strive for approval.
When we recognize and challenge these false images, we have of God we can begin to cultivate a more authentic understanding of who God is.
Is process of deconstruction and reconstruction our spiritual, we can lead to a deeper connection and true nature of God, as loving, compassionate, and ever present in our lives.
The fear of the Lord is a deep reverence and awe God‘s power and authority, often seeing as a positive attribute in religious contexts.
While I religious spirit typically considered a negative term because of overly rigid adherence to the rules and traditions often associated with a lack of genuine relationship with God and potentially stemming from a spirit of fear and judgement from a spirit of fear and judgment rather than true devotion.
The fear of God is a healthy respect and submission to God‘s will, which leads to a desire to live righteously, while a religious spirit and manifest as a controlling, legalistic attitude, focused on outward appearance, and strict adherence to rules, often neglecting the deeper aspects of faith. We see an example of this in the Bible with the pharisees.
The fear of God is motivated by the recognition of God’s power and a desire to please Him.
I really, really the spirit can be driven by fear of punishment or the need to appear pious devout.
A person who carefully considers their actions before making decisions because they want to live in accordance to God‘s will has a fear of God.
Someone who hardly judges others were not following specific religious practices to the letter, even if they’re motives are not aligned with love and compassion has a religious spirit.
Small talk is boring to me, but then I thought of something. Maybe small talk is essentially checking out the other person or whether people are interested in talking or not. We either have an opportunity to give short answers or reply with standard phrases which signals our disinterest in something without being rude. It is a ay to scope people out.
The other person will think they have interesting things to talk about. But if it’s something you’re just not interested in.
To me, small talk is superficial and lacks deep thought and emotion. But I’m aware avoiding small talk cuts me off from meaningful social interactions. I never learned any social skills, but I always thought people would never understand what was going on at home if I let them get too close. Which led to my complicated social navigating skills in social settings, and also played a role in my introverted tendencies.
One of the greatest blessings Jesus obtained for us, is the love of God. Jesus came into the world and gave His life that we would know and enjoy God’s love.
The love of God is unfailing, so measureless, so perfectly suited to the needs of our souls, that it is all we need to live a full and satisfied life. it is the only thing in this world that is able to make us truly happy.
Moses prayed in Psalm 90:14,
“Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
Yes, prayer was made in the middle of very dismal circumstances in the wilderness. Moses felt that life was short and filled with suffering, but he knew that God was able to fill our hearts, able to satisfy us, and causes to sing for joy and be happy all of our days with His love.
There’s a quote by A.W. Tower in the book “The Pursuit of God, that reads,
“God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious, and deep as that nature is.”
Once we come to God with our deficiencies, and adequacies, and emergencies, our work pressures, marriage difficulties, rebellious, or straying children, and emotional problems and every ever need we have experienced in our lives. We learn that God knows all our needs within us and all there depths, and meets each one with a love that is beyond measure.
When we read the Bible, we see the way people found joy and satisfaction in God‘s love. We might ask ourselves do we really understand the love of God? I have asked myself when I’m experiencing problems in my life because Ive forgotten not the love of God
Maybe the most important thing of all is experiencing the love of God in such a way that I love Him. John 4:19 says “we love Him because He first loved us.”
God gives us free will, but how many of us can say his love has touched us in a way that we want to love Him, please Him, obey Him, and radiate His love to others?
The last thing that Jesus prayed for His disciples, was for them to know an experience God’s love. John 17:26 says,
“I have made known to them, and will make it known, that the love with which you have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
The Father love us with the same love that He has for Jesus. Jesus, prayed that we would know that. Jesus, prayed that the Father’s love would be in us.
Paul said in Ephesians 3:17-19,
“He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that you may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man, that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the width and length, and height and depth, to know the Messiah’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled will all the fullness of God.”
The highest human experience is to be filled with God and His love.
God’s love has a curing power in our hearts that nothing else does. His love, gives us such a deep sense that we are held, and loved and cared for, that creates security and stability. We lose our need to control others, and to control circumstances in order that we may feel happy and safe. We know we are safe and the love of God.
If the love of God does not flourish in our hearts, then our insecurities and fears flourish. We won’t feel safe around other people or safe in the turmoil of life. Our wounds remain unhealed and we’re offenses, we become defensive and critical, and we just don’t care about others.
Without the love of God, we are easily defeated in life. But with His love, we can overcome anything.
Romans 8:35-37 says,
“Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, for our sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
The love of God is big enough in our lives, no matter what happens to us. Even if all hell breaks out against us.
God loves to take us all the way to maturity, holiness, and spiritual health. Jesus showed love to the woman caught in adultery by protecting her from vicious cations of the Pharisees, but He also showed loved to her by saying, “ neither do I condemn you. Now go and send no more.” God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us just as we are.
God’s love does not affirm who we are, in our sin and brokenness. It is compelling and transforming. it changes us, conforms us to the likeness of Jesus. His love calls us out of darkness and into the light.
God love enables us to love the imperfect people around us. Dick Staub said “Only those who experience God‘s loving presence, and the deepest places of their souls can be a loving presence in the soul of others.“
The Bible is clear that there is a completely unique realm of love that the Father has for those who follow Jesus. Understanding this love and experiencing this love can be much more than it is.
There are three ways to know the love of God, and grow in it,
There has been a trend in America toward a healthier and mindful consumption of drinks. Prioritizing wellness with compromising on flavor.
There have been many attempts to have different flavors infused in Coca-Cola and Pepsi to try and drum up customers from the younger generation. But I rarely see people at the grocery store buying soda.
The so-called healthy carbonated drinks with pre-biootics and pro-biotics infused in them are a new trend. As well as $7.00 coffee from places like Starbucks are in.
For me it’s either coffee or green tea that are my favorites.
Have you ever wondered why our favorite people hurt us the most? Maybe it’s because we are more vulnerable with them, we share our deepest thoughts, feelings, and dreams, which means that when they let us down or act in a hurtful way, the impact is much greater due to the level of trust and intimacy we have established with them. The closer we are to someone the more potential there is for deeper pain we have if they hurt us.
When we love someone deeply, we open ourselves up to being hurt by sharing our vulnerabilities, and expectations with them.
Because we care so much, we have higher standards for the people we love, which makes us more likely to be disappointed when they don’t meet those expectations.
Sometimes, we can repeat patterns from our childhoods where loved ones hurt us, which leads to similar dynamics in our adult relationships.
Close relationships can sometimes lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations which can escalate into hurt feelings.
Some people put up walls to keep them from being hurt. But those walls not only keep the hurt from us, but they also keep love away from us. It’s up to us to decide if we are going to risk the chance of being hurt, for the sake of true love.
From Pity to Praise 