Serve Regardless

For a few weeks I’ve been feeling like God has been showing me what it means to serve others.

What some may or may not know is that I have a heart that will do just about anything for anyone. If you’re hungry I’ll feed you. If you need someone to talk to, I’m all ears. If you need a ride somewhere, I got you. Etc, etc, etc.

However, at times I’ll notice that I will do for some people and they’ll forget what I do for them. Some can be quick to have an attitude with me or just forget/disregard the things I do for them maybe if things aren’t going their way or if it’s just not a good day for them.

Honestly, it makes me irritated to know that I will break my back for others while my kindness/servitude for them just gets pushed to the back of their mind or isn’t thought about. BUT, I’m just as wrong for getting angry because of that. Who am I to feel like I shouldn’t keep doing for others just because they get an attitude with me? Who am I to be irritated when I have probably done the same thing to someone at some point in my life? I know I’ve done the same thing to God. I have wronged Him so many times and discounted the good He’s done for me. But, no matter what I do or don’t do, He continues to love me REGARDLESS and is ALWAYS good to me.

And this is exactly what God is telling me… To serve, to love, to do, and to give no matter what people do to me or how they may act towards me. Why? Because He does the same thing for me. So seeing that I am trying to walk in His light, I should be taking on the same character as Him.

Father, thank You for showing me this.

Amen

Happy Birthday to Me

Okay I know I was supposed to start back journaling like weeks ago…. Clearly I’m a little late 😉

Anywho, in about 2 hours, it’ll be my 22nd birthday. Earlier today I was on the subject of birthdays with a friend who happened to mention that birthdays are just another day. Immediately I agreed, but then I was reminded that my birthday isn’t just another day. It’s another special day. The unique date, time and hour that God planned to bring me into this world so that He could give me life, teach me life, and show me life the way He intended it to be. God chose my appointed time to breathe life into me and place me in this world on a date of birth that was hand picked for me because of the fact that God has a specific purpose and plan for me in this time. I am so grateful and so thankful to be where I am today. To have been able to live life with those who God intended for me to surround myself with.

Now when I later speak of birthdays, I can’t say my birthday is just another day. It is another special day that deserves a celebration. To first give thanks and glory to God for making me who I am. Then, celebrate and embrace the time and people I been blessed with.

So, thank you God for specifically and intricately creating me on this day. And heyyyyyy. It’s my birthdayyyyyy. Happy birthday to meeeeeee 😀 (well almost) lol.

He Makes All Things Work Together For My Good

I have been reading the book of Genesis this past couple of days and have been really hooked on it. It’s amazing to me how much God blessed people in that book regardless of what they did. He blessed them and generations to come. What spoke to me in that is that God loves to bless us 🙂

Also, there was one person in Genesis that stuck out to me the most besides God. And it was Joseph.

Now for some background on Joseph…
Joseph was Jacob’s son. Joseph’s brothers were pretty much jealous of Joseph and their father’s relationship. So one day they basically decided to sell their brother (Joseph) off and have their father think he was dead. To make a long story short, Joseph was sold to some Midianites and eventually sold to an officer of the Pharaoh in Egypt. While in Egypt, Joseph was a slave, a prisoner, gained favor in the prison, headed the prison, interpreted dreams, gained favor in the eyes of Pharaoh, was released from prison and basically became assistant to the Pharaoh, being set over all the land of Egypt. Thus saving lives because of this.

Joseph, his brothers and his father are finally reconnected one day and many years later, his father, Jacob, dies.

Once all of the mourning passed on Joseph’s brothers finally start to reflect on what they did to him and said “…’It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him’…His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, ‘Behold, we are your servants.’ ”

So Joseph responds: ” ‘Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.’ Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”
Genesis 50:19-21

I love Joseph’s character and the purpose he saw in God’s overall plan for him and that God made all things work together for his good. And we see that Joseph forgave his brothers and promised to provide for them and he comforts them! This is the character of God that I saw in Joseph. And it serves as an reminder to me, that no matter what wrong is done to you, God will have favor on you and bless you regardless, as long as we stay in Him and take on the character of Him, to love as He first loved us.

Today I Will Make A Difference

I will begin by controlling my thoughts. A person is the product of their thoughts. I want to be happy and hopeful. Therefore, I will have thoughts that are happy and hopeful. I refuse to be victimized by my circumstances. I will not let petty inconveniences such as stoplights, long lines, and traffic jams be my masters. I will avoid negativism and gossip. Optimism will be my companion, and victory will be my hallmark. Today I will make a difference.

I will be grateful for the twenty-four hours that are before me. Time is a precious commodity. I refuse to allow what little time I have to be contaminated by self-pity, anxiety, or boredom. I will face this day with the joy of a child and the courage of a giant. I will drink each minute as though it is my last. When tomorrow comes, today will be gone forever. While it is here, I will use it for loving and giving. Today I will make a difference.

I will not let past failures haunt me. Even though my life is scarred with mistakes, I refuse to rummage through my trash heap of failures. I will admit them. I will correct them. I will press on. Victoriously. No failure is fatal. It’s OK to stumble… . I will get up. It’s OK to fail… . I will rise again. Today I will make a difference.

I will spend time with those I love. My spouse, my children, my family. A man can own the world but be poor for the lack of love. A man can own nothing and yet be wealthy in relationships. Today I will spend at least five minutes with the significant people in my world. Five quality minutes of talking or hugging or thanking or listening. Five undiluted minutes with my mate, children, and friends.

From Shaped by God by Max Lucado

🙂

September Tune

Take my dreams. Come and give them wings. Lord with You, there’s nothing I cannot do.

Hello Love

Soooo I’m up! And it’s a little after 4 in the morning. And why am I not sleep? Ummm maybe because I’m unoccupied and unemployed! Well kinda lol. And I also fell asleep earlier than expected and woke up in the middle of the night.

On a side note, this job search has been slowwww. But God always provides. As of today I will be tutoring a couple of hours a day, Monday through Thursday. It gives me some source of income so I am grateful. So I thanks be to God and all glory to Him. Now to find a job to occupy my morningssss. So I let that journey begin and keep me in your prayers. Muchas gracias 🙂

Okay so now to what really I want to share with you all…

This evening I decided to do some long overdue worship. Sunday’s message at church was about basically learning to praise and worship God no matter what. May it be good times or bad times we were made to worship and praise is what we do! So that just reminded me that I need to have a time of praise and worship more often. Especially since I have the time on my hands to do so.

Towards the end of my worship time I had today…. (or to be technical yesterday since it is like four in the morning! Lol)… I decided to sit. To have a seat at the feet of my Father while in His presence. I knew the Holy Spirit was there in the room with me and I just wanted to be still and know that He is God. While I was sitting and I put my hands over my heart. I felt my heart beating faster than normal. It wasn’t the fast heart beat you experience at the peak of a workout. Nor was it the fast heart beat you may get when you’re nervous. I had been sitting calmly and peacefully and when I decided to put my hands over my heart, I felt a calm fast heart beat. Then what crossed my mind was that the Spirit of God is with me and in me. So in that moment, that’s what I felt God was pointing out to me. That His spirit is with me and in me. And He wanted to physically show me that through me feeling the beat of my heart–the feel of two heart’s beats. Not at the same time but alternately. One after the other.

A few minutes later I decided to move to my bed so I could get my journal to write down some thoughts on my heart that I felt God wanted to say to me. So this is what I wrote: “Because I live inside of you, you have enough love for everyone. So do as I command and love as I have first loved you.”

God gives us His spirit to live inside of us. So that we can have what we need to carry out what He command of us. And the greatest of these is love. And that’s what God reiterated to me today. That I was called to love. Why? Because He first loved me and still loves me and I need to share His love that’s in me with everyone.

Do Not Be Afraid

An ever recurring theme I have been encountering is the fact that God is here with me. To not grow weary of my purpose. To not give up. To not worry. And to not be afraid. God does not give us a worrisome or fearful spirit.

As I was doing some reading today, this is what God was speaking to me: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Isaiah 43:1,2

God Is So Good…

A few days ago…actually on Friday to be exact… I set my phone down on dad’s truck and slipped off and hit the ground. I ended up with a front screen that was shattered/cracked. I was pretty bummed about the situation. First, because while it was an accident, I should have been more careful with it. And then, I knew I probably would want to get it replaced which meant $$$ involved. So, I immediately started looking into how much it would cost to get it replaced. To fix the front screen on my iPhone 4 with Apple, they charge $199 + tax to replace it. If I were to go with another business to replace it, I was looking at atleast $100. The last option would be for me to report my phone lost and get a new phone that way, but then for that my deductible on my phone insurance was about $170…and with that option it would mean me being dishonest about what happened to my phone. Regardless, all of my options were pretty expensive for me to invest in at this time. Additionally, I upgraded to my iPhone back in February for $199 and wasn’t too thrilled about paying the same price to Apple just to replace my front screen.

While I was looking on the internet and reading up on other’s experiences with having to replace their broken front screens, I read a few instances where people brought their phones into Apple and got their broken front screens replaced, free of charge. When reading about those cases, I noticed a lot of them were just completely honest about how they dropped their phones their front screens cracked. This gave me so much hope and relief to see that there was another way out of this.

So I decided that I would go to Apple to openly and honestly explain my situation with hopes that God would handle this…free of charge.

That night I made an appointment with the Apple in Victoria Gardens for Sunday afternoon to get the situation handled. But then I felt like I was kind of rushing it because my little sister, Clarissa, would be at Victoria Gardens on Tuesday and I could just go with her. The good with going on Tuesday is it would leave me with time to pray, pray, pray and trust that God would do something work this out for me. So I decided to just wait and pray.

As the days passed, I felt myself kind of worrying about my phone, but then I was reminded by my mother that it was just a phone. Later, I was reminded by God to not worry about anything but to pray about everything, because worrying meant I was not putting my trust in Him. From this, I knew it was time to stop worrying, to start trusting, to let it go and pray.

So today marks Tuesday. This morning I was talking with Clarissa to see what time she would be leaving to go to Victoria Gardens so that I could go with her. She said that I didn’t need to go and that she would just go to Apple for me. So I told her to explain to the Apple representative that would be helping her that it was my phone and to explain to them how it dropped. I reminded her to just be real and honest about what happened.

Once it was all said and done Clarissa called and let me know that I got my phone replaced for free 😀 …And from the words of the Apple rep, that was my one freebie!

God put the right people in the right place at the right time. And regardless of how small the situation was in comparison to the array of problems going on in this world, He remained the good, upright and gracious God that He is.

All glory, praises and thanks be to God! And thanks to all who helped me out and to all prayed for my situation with my phone ♥

Hallelujahs In The Night

While I was just drafting up my last post, I’ve had a song on repeat. It’s such a beautiful song and one of my favorites right now. It’s called “I Will Wait For You” by Phil Wickham.

This is my favorite part of the song…

I will wait for You there. Down on my knees where I met You. Cause life is a war front with tears. But You are the strength I hold on to now. I’m calling for You. And with outstretched arms, I will sing out melodies. And my beating heart will pour out a symphony. Hallelujahs in the morning. Hallelujahs in the night….

Newness

Thursday was my last day of my undergrad class at Ucla. I was taking some summer classes to complete my education at Ucla.

As I begin a new phase in life I thank God for where He has brought me today. I thank God for the people He chose to join me in this journey.

I’m excited for what He has in store for me. I’m look forward to the space and time He has created for me to spend time with Him

♥

Thank You Lord for Your Presence…

A dear friend of mine asked me to pray with her today. After we prayed we were talking about how we wanted to make praying together a weekly thing and just be intentional and open about what’s going on in each other’s lives.

When it was all said and done God led me to this verse: For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. -Matthew 18:20

When we gather in His name, He gathers with us   (:

Immanuʼel. God with us

Wake Up My Child & Come Spend Some Time With Me

I woke up this morning around 7 something. I told myself last night that I was going to sleep in since I went to bed late. Well at least that’s what I thought, God knew differently.

So I woke up. Went to the restroom. Put some laundry in the dryer…. What to do next? I wanted to sleep but then I was reminded that this is a great time for me to put on some worship music and read my bible… Free from any distractions and any interruptions that may occur as the day progresses.

[[Joy comes in the morning]]

Patience

When driving. I lack so much patience. I’ll low key get annoyed and irritated when someone gets in front of me and slows me down or when people are just cruising and adding to the slowness of traffic. I noticed I was doing that yesterday; getting annoyed and irritated. So what do I do? Speed up and find away to get away from the issue or get in front of the issue. Sometimes I’ll even be talking to the car in front of me with my windows up (mind you they can’t hear me) and I’ll say things like “What are you doing!?!!!!” Or “Get off the roaddddd.” Or if I’m cut off or someone gets in front of me and goes slow I’ll respond with “What an idiotttt!” I know. I have issues right. Lol

But today God had to remind me that I needed to slow all that down and be patient. Not let the little things get to me because all they do is work me up. And even more, to hold me tounge! If I don’t have anything nice to say, then I don’t need to say anything at all. Even if they can’t hear me.

My practical remedy for this: turn my worship music up and just sing my praises to Him. And when someone isn’t driving to my liking. Be calm. Take a deep breath. And still worship!

Why?

A few nights ago my little sister noticed me updating and rearranging this blog. So she goes, “Candice, you’re blogging? Why do you have a blog?” …I had to think about how to really explain it to her because, I dunno, this a different move. First because writing is my least favorite thing to do. And thennnn to want to committ to writing on a blog (and not just keep it simple by writing in a journal) is different. I think she found it odd for me to randomly want to blog lol. So I proceeded to tell her I want to go deeper with my relationship with God, and I want to share it with others and hopefully inspire or impact them in some way. And that’s just it.

A word has been given by a some people that this summer is a summer for us to go deeper. For me, that means going deeper and more intimate in my relationship with God. A time for me to be REALLY be committed and not have a two week high or a a one month period where I’m all on fire for God and then just let that passion die.This is a time for me to NOT get too busy or let other things consume my time when I should reading my bible/praying/spending time with God. A time for me to NOT push God to the side. He needs to be the first and not the last.

My desire is to take it this deepness I’m seeking even further. By being intentional about spending time with God and making time for Him; not because I feel obligated, but because I want to. Not only is it necessary for me to be in His word and praying, but it’s necessary to spend time in His presence…soak up His presence…worship…and be still because I know that He is God. I want to fully let God in… let Him invade my space, take up my space, be all up in my face 😀

So however this looks or plays out, I’m just gonna go with the flow and see where He takes me.

With you all (and whoever else may come across this blog), I want to share my experiences, my encounters, and my thoughts . My hope is that God uses me and my writing of this blog to serve as some inspiration, motivation, or whatever else may come of this.

So with everything said, I am expecting God to show me some amazing things, to do some amazing things, to change some things, and to take me to a place I’ve never been with Him. Why? Because I know that He will. He never fails.

Enjoy mi gente!

P.S. – Mi gente = my people, for all you non Spanish speakers 😉