Joy in all

God wants us to trust Him in every circumstance. Trust is letting go, knowing that God is more than enough. Trust is obedience because what I do reveals what I believe about God regardless of what I say. I don’t think God wastes His direction on a disobedient heart but does, in fact, reveal His plans to those who will obey them. Trust and obedience go hand in hand. The more we obey, the more we will trust and the more we trust, the more we will obey, understanding that He is indeed Lord of all. The result is joy.

As Christians, we should be the most joyful people on earth, heart and soul at rest, because we serve the God of all circumstances.

When we fail to faithfully and continually seek God, we will likely forfeit our joy to human idols and lifeless activities in which we often exchange holiness for tolerance. No wonder we sometimes find life impotent and dismal when it should be powerful and filled with unshakable joy. We are to be vessels containing, and naturally spilling out, the joy of the Lord on those in our lives. That joy is our strength and the salt that makes others thirst to know Him more. Instead of focusing on what is wrong in life, we need to look on the “right” side of life.

Living in the Rain

Yesterday was such a beautiful day here in Dallas then almost instantly the sky got dark and I could hear the thunder and see the lightening before the rain came. It's been raining HARD for almost a full day. I have always loved the rain but today I love it for so much more...

Today's Scripture

"Just as the rain and snow descend from the skies and don't go back until they've watered the earth, making things grow and blossom…so will the words that come out My mouth not come back empty-handed. They'll do the work I sent them to do" (Isaiah 55:10-11, Message).


Today's Word from Joel and Victoria

Rain is symbolic of God's blessing, favor, and refreshing. His Word is like rain that causes us to flourish and blossom in every area of life. The scripture says we should live like a well-watered garden, vibrant and growing. We should live under God's cloud of blessing. How do we do that? In the natural, a cloud is formed when moisture vapors rise up from the earth into the atmosphere. Eventually, the moisture is so abundant that the rain begins to fall. In the same way, your praise is like the invisible vapors that rise up to heaven and form a cloud. Eventually, your praise will activate an outpouring of God's blessing, favor, and provision in your life.

Do you feel like you are in a dry season? Begin to praise and thank God that He is bringing you through to a place of refreshing. Magnify and bless Him for His goodness in your life. As you turn up your praise, God will turn up the rain and you will experience His abundant outpouring. You'll experience His blessing and provision and live as an overcomer in every area of your life.

A Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, today I choose to bless and honor You. Thank You for this day. Thank You for giving me life. Thank you for making me new. Thank you for saving me and filling me with Your peace and joy. Rain on me today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

CHRISTmas 2011

This Christmas was full of love and excitement! This year more then others I felt especially close to our Savior. This year more then any other i felt a real and deep connection with our King. I loved that J and I read the Christmas story from Luke snuggled up in bed on Christmas morning, a new tradition we intend to keep. I am happy. I am joyous! I am full-filled! I am.
Eph 3:14-21

Because of this AWARENESS that our Lord was THE reason for the season my family and I demonstrated His amazing selfless and sacrificial love by giving some pretty awesome gifts. Not that it's about that at all.. We all know it's about the heart...

I was able to make some very meaningful gifts for most of my Family which I enjoyed making almost as much as watching their reaction when I gave it to them. I helped my mom give my dad a new home theater system and helped my dad give my mom a Mercedes! By help I just mean I figured out a creative way to present the gifts lol. I LOVE giving gifts!!

Plus, everything I Got was to further my art making... :) which makes me super happy! and j got me a super cool gift that he put a lot of thought into.

I loved waking up in the house I grew up in. I loved talking to my mom about life, over coffee or in my case caffein-free tea. I loved spending time with my sister, my cousin and my best friend. I absolutely loved waking up to the sound of my nieces talking and playing...

*sigh* I MISS MY FAMILY :( but I praise God everyday for allowing me to be born into such a close and loving family. I am happy. I am joyful. I am more than FULL-filled!

I am so excited about the new year! I know The Lord Has big plans for us. I just know 2012 is going to be a great year!

Does God command us to be vegan?

"Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of this whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.' Gen 1:29

To be or not to be...VEGAN?!

My first normal period after my D&C has brought the pain back with a vengeance. I think I'm more disappointed then anything else. I was hoping that the 4 months I was period free because I was pregnant might act like Lupron therapy. I refuse to take Lupron because of all the side effects but essentially you take it to supress ovulation/period for three months right?

I am so thankful that I am not working anymore because I can try to manage this pain without stressing about missing work. I was for a moment thinking about working again but I think it's pretty clear I need more time to concentrate on my health.

Everyone knows I already have a pretty strict diet: gluten free, no processed sugars, no caffeine, no red meat or pork, no dairy, ect.. but now I think I will be going vegan. on my Facebook page for Endo support there gas been one particular women you had recommends to me before to go vegan but I didn't really look into it since I had thought my pain was gone or at least wouldn't cone back for a while. For the last two days I have been in some serous pain and honestly am willing to try anything to prevent from having to go through this again... So I am declaring that I AM GOING VEGAN! wish ne luck!

Miscarriage (Blighten Ovum)

Well it been quite sometime since I have written. I know I posted about the Royal wedding but honestly I think I was just trying to stall.

I'm sure you can figure out from the title that I had a miscarriage. I was about 10 weeks along but sac was only measuring 6 weeks. Never saw baby or heartbeat. I'm not sure why its taken me so long to write about it.

From 8 weeks until my D&C at 10 weeks I was pretty miserable. This was I was very nauseated and very tired. I did nothing but lay on the couch all day and night. I was utterly useless. This was basically the whole last half of March and the first half of April that I was rendered incapacitate. It was horrible. I literally did not want to do anything. I didn't even want to think. LOL Seriously. I never made dinner once, we were always getting take out and I let our monthly budget go way out of hand bc again I didn't care about anything. Its funny to me now how utterly useless I was.

So let me backtrack. At 6 weeks we had a "suspected" blighted ovum, which basically means an empty gestational sac. I wanted to be 100% positive that what it was so we had an ultrasound every week. Technically no doctor can diagnose a blighted ovum until you are at least 8 weeks. I desperately wanted our lil seed to miraculously come up on the sonogram screen with a string heart beat but that was not meant to me.

I am not sure why but I have actually been quite ok with it all. I know some women take a miscarriage very hard and there is nothing wrong with that but I only had 1 day where I was really sad. It was about a week after D&C and we went to go visit my new niece in Amarillo, TX. I was so excited to see her but when I walked into the house I could literally smell the baby and oh boy when I saw her face I nearly lost it. I had to get to the other side of the room before I started crying uncontrollably. Th entire time we were there I couldn't hold the baby much less look at her. The next first half of the day I was a mess. I was very sad and would cry about anything. The dramatic hormonal drop that occurs the first week after a D&C is pretty harsh so logically I knew what was happening but it still did nothing to help with the way I was feeling.

Luckily my husband had the sound mind to let me wallow in my sadness for just the right amount of time before he came swooping into our room to try to get me out of it. We hugged, cried and hugged some more. Prayed ALOT and by that evening I was able to go to the family's Easter Bar Be Que. I still didn't hold the baby but I was completely fine with being there.

I am very good. My mother said I have been dealing with my loss very well. I'm not sure why. I expected to be devastated but I am surprisingly calm and still thankful for everything. I think part of my peace is that I KNOW we will be having children soon. My sister went through the exact same thing and 3 months later she had my niece so I am VERY hopeful! God is good and he promised me that he will give me what ever my heart desire as long as I love for him... so I am confident!

Once we got back to Dallas I had my 2 week post-op appointment. My Doc said my uterus had already shrunk a significant amount. He wanted to check my beta HcG levels every week until they drop below a 5. Once they are below a five he said to count 30 days layer and that's when we can actively start TTC, until then we have to use condoms.

My first blood work about 3 weeks after D&C was at 100. AT 4 weeks they were at 30. I got back this week so hopefully they are already below a 5.

I still haven't gotten my period and honestly I am a little worried about it. I guess a positive thing from all this is the fact that since I was pregnant I haven't had a period for over 3 months. That's a lil over 3 months with NO endometriosis pain!! I think i have actually started to forget the all about the pain until I remind myself I should be getting my period soon. I am believing, through the power of Jesus, that at least one of my prayers were answered. Healing me from endometriois!

I'll keep ya'll informed.

The Royal Wedding Homily by Dr. Richard Chartres, Anglican Bishop of London

I hadn’t planned on watching the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton live, but I’m so very glad I did.

I wanted to share the words of Bishop Chartres’ absolutely marvelous homily from this morning’s wedding at Westminster Abbey.

It is, quite simply, the best wedding homily I’ve ever heard and among the very best homilies I’ve had the pleasure to hear on any occasion.

Here is what the bishop said to William and Kate after they exchanged their vows and her brother James gave a beautiful reading from the Book of Romans:

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.

Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.

In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.

William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another.

A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.

It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. And people can dream of doing such a thing but the hope should be fulfilled it is necessary a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.

You have both made your decision today – “I will” – and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.

We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.

Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:

“Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon,

Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon.”

As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practise and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.

I pray that all of us present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today, will do everything in our power to support and uphold you in your new life. And I pray that God will bless you in the way of life that you have chosen, that way which is expressed in the prayer that you have composed together in preparation for this day:

God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.

In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.

Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.