The Cheese Slicer Won...

Well today was an interesting morning at work. About a half hour into prepping our meats and cheeses for the day I had a battle with our meat slicer. Needless to say, it one and took a chunk of my right thumb with it. My boss came and i went to workman's comp and got 5 stitches and all bandaged up. I took the rest of today off but should be and hopefully will be ok to work on saturday. My poor right hand! 5 years ago I got 7 stitches in my pointer finger. Of course I'm right handed! The Lord has a sense of humor! He got me through it and I'm so thankful!!



Keep me in prayer, stitches aren't very fun and my thumb wont be the same after this. Love you all and thanks in advance for the prayers!

A Series Of Fortunate & (Not So Fortunate) Events!

Well it has been a while since I have written a blog so I figured I'd take this time to update you all on what's been going on during this wonderful summer! These last 2 1/2 weeks I have had the lovely pleasure of having Jovan around since he has been on his summer break from work! We've been spoiled being able to see each other just about everyday which is so very rare of us. Our usual reunions occur once a week at the most for only 24-36 hour intervals. So we've taken turns spending time with his family and friends in La Habra and spending weekends here in Riverside. It has been wonderful because we've been able to try new things to do with our time together that we wouldn't have time for otherwise.

We went miniature golfing with his friend David and girlfriend Melissa...(it should go without saying, I owned them! lol) It was super fun! We also went to a Nickle arcade in La Habra which I have to say is a genius idea and they should build one in Riverside pronto! While he has been in Riverside, I had decided to do something special and take him to one of Riverside's beautiful parks, Fairmount Park, that is 2 minutes away from my house and have a picnic for the two of us. It was such a relaxing time and we enjoyed it so much. We fed ducks afterwards and just had a great time walking around and just talking. Thank goodness the weather was super ideal! :)



I can now begin the countdown until my graduate school program starts and as of today I have T-Minus 19 days! :) I'm nervous but excited to start this huge chapter in my life, I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for me! Now moving on to not so fortunate news. During my once a month or so visits to the high desert I broke down on the way back to Riverside. Luckily, I didn't get very far down the Cajon Pass, but needless to say I needed a tow truck for the poor boat. I have to say though this car is a champ! It has super low mileage on it for being almost 16 years old and it has put up with me taking it everywhere and anywhere. Thank the good Lord it was a quickish fix and just have to replace the catalitic converters. I get my sweet ride back tomorrow afternoon. After that I will give it a good wash to let it know how much I've missed it! lol



Till next time....<3 and blessings!!

The Gift of Prophecy...

A couple weeks ago on July 4th I attended a new church with a friend of mine to a place in San Bernardino called Kingdom Culture Worship Center. My friend Chris has told me about it amazing it is and although it's a small and growing church, the Holy Spirit is so powerful there and it's such a free place to worship and I needed to experience it. He also shared with me that the pastor there, Sherman Dumas, who has the gift of prophecy. I was scared and to be honest a little skeptical about the whole thing because I had never experienced anything like that before, but only read about it in the Scripture. I knew that type of gift existed but I just wasn't sure because people these days, especially in America, use that type of gift as a rouse to con people. I did a lot of praying about it and after I heard so many positive things about it from respected believers, I decided to go to their morning service.

It goes without saying that I was blown away. The worship time was probably one of the most liberating and blessed worship times I've had with the Lord in a long time. I felt so free and at peace with the Lord and there was no doubt about it that the Spirit was full of life there! The message was wonderful and it talked about how we ourselves should be offering ourselves up to the Lord as sacrifices and how to worship Him the way we were design to worship Him. And at the very end after the offering was given, Sherman got up and looked at me and asked me to come down because the Lord has showed him something and He had a message for me. I was blown away by what was said and I knew it was the Lord because a lot of what was said were things I had only prayed about with the Lord. Here's the video (I'm a couple minutes into the video with a blue flannel shirt) If the video doesn't work use this link:

http://www.livestream.com/kingdomculturetv/video?clipId=pla_60118474-bff8-4abb-b6f5-40929cd2812c

kingdomculturetv on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

I left encouraged, inspired, overwhelmed, and so very blessed! Since then I have heard God more clearly and sought to be a better child of God for the benefit of what God's purpose for me is in this life. I pray you are blessed by this video as I was. God is mighty and powerful and so very gracious! To Him be all the glory forever and ever!!!

My Journey Through the Word!

I mentioned a couple posts back that one of my goals was to go through the Bible in one year or less. Along the way really meditating on what I am reading and learning about while taking copious notes to help me absorb all the rich knowledge and wisdom also doing my best to live out what God has shown me each day. I am happy to say that I am on Day #11. These last 11 days has been an incredible time of just eye-opening information and wisdom. I look forward to stories I have heard before and seeing them through the perspective I have now through all of my years of biblical studies classes. Also, I seem to just relish in the new stories that I had never heard before and really getting a beautiful image of who our Creator is and and how He used people in the Bible. I feel so honored that I get to see their lives just unfold and see their Author of their life stories just beautifully illustrate their purpose and His will for their lives.

Through these last 11 days it has inspired me to take a deep look at myself and meditate on what God wills for me and how I'm doing at being more sensitive to His calling and desire for my life. I have learned so much and look forward to each day I get to spend in the Word. I have come away with a refreshed appreciation for the privilege I have by just being able to openly spend time in the Scriptures while other parts of the world have to keep it a secret and risk their lives preserving God's Word. I am humbled by that fact and just come to God in awe and thanks for His mercy and grace on me as well as my brothers and sisters across the globe who share His Spirit.

Please pray for me as I take this journey through Scripture, that it would never become just a routine but that it would fill me up everyday and allow me to break down the walls around my heart so that I may grow in Him more and more. Pray for all those I come in contact with that I would display the Joy of Him in my life and the courage to share His mercy. Pray for growth and maturity and continuing to attempt to be in God's will each and every day!

Love & Blessings to all who read this!

It Was Love At First Touch....

Thanks to my amazingly kind, giving, and wonderful boyfriend...as a belated Graduation gift, I picked up my new iPhone 4 yesterday! After several years of waiting, I'm happy to say I'm a proud and very excited iPhone owner! :) Sadly, the hardest part was picking which 6 GB out of my 28GB filled iPod (Athena) to transfer to my new phone without overloading it. That was a rough filtering process, but after about an hour-I'm satisfied with my musical stylings of my amazing new phone! Now I'm just awaiting my pretty blue case and my scratch proof frosted screen shield to come in (hopefully in a week) so that I won't have to carry around my new phone like it's a newborn child!

My favorite free app so far would be my Bible App where I can look at any translation and it helps you set up one of dozens of reading programs to get you through the bible in a year or discipleship programs and so much more! It'll be my new best friend! :) What an awesome thing! Thanks for listening and sharing in my joy of my new amazing gift that'll help me to do so many things more efficiently and give my Max (my awesome 12 inch, 5 yr old laptop) a bit of a breather!

Goals-To Get Started You Must Have A Destination

As I write this I just am amazing on how quickly the month of june has gone by and how july is already around the corner! This whole concept of time has flown by much quicker than I remember it when I was younger. The Lord has really brought to my attention just how precious each day, each hour, and each moment is and how important it is to rely on Him in these short spans of time. As most of you know, I am a constant "goal-maker." I make goals for every school year, golf season, and every summer. It's a habit I've had most of my life and it's my way of doing my best to fulfill a purpose the Lord has for me. Well for this summer my goals are as follows (but not limited to by any means lol):

1. Drink the recommended amount of water per day (easier said than done)
2. Trust God whole-heartedly with my finances and giving. I've always struggled with this one but sure enough the moment I began doing it and letting go of what control I thought I had, the Lord blessed and abundantly provided
3. Give away anything I don't use or need or have any intention of using. (I've found boxes of clothes I'll never wear again and electronics that are just gathering dust. Goodwill and I have become closer)
4. Do my best to see God in every situation and to also trust Him in every situation
5. Instead of tapping into my default settings and worrying about all the "what if's" in my life, I'm praying instead...how theraputic!
6. My ultimate goal-I'm going to read the Bible in a year (or less). I'm on day 6 and have already learned so much

Please pray for me as I continue to work through these and live my purpose that God has intended at this point in my life! So many things have been happening and I just am seeking God's will and design for all things! Any encouragement and accountability would be greatly appreciated! :)

What Are You Waiting For?

I have become more than complacent over the last couple of years than I care to admit. With my spiritual growth and search for wisdom that is. It has just come to my attention how lukewarm I have become in regards to spiritual life and how difficult it is for me to make it a priority. This is not easy for me to admit, nor am I very proud of this however, it deserves to be said and it deserves to be rectified.

Through the last few weeks I have been slowly working through Francis Chan's book Crazy Love. It has punched me right in the stomach some days and has really forced me to really examine myself as 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine." I have found that I am guilty of being lukewarm and of not going outside of what I feel to be comfortable. I've done what I can to be "godly enough" and acceptable enough to see the Lord when He decides my time is up, but I have come to really ask myself, "Is that really helping anyone or is it just pleasing yourself?"

I have let a lot of people down but most importantly I have let down the one person in my life that has been with me through thick and thin, death and life, joy and pain, growth and setbacks....Jesus. I have not given Him the attention, love, and worship that He deserves and I have come to find that I cannot change on my own but only through His Spirit. I can only learn how to love Him more and more genuinely with His help. My prayer is to love Him more and to want to love Him more. It won't be easy because I'm such a faulty human being but with the Lord's help, anything is possible.

This is a prayer from Francis Chan's book and it spoke volumes to me today and it will be my prayer that will guide me to the place where I need to be:

"Jesus, I need to give myself up. I am not strong enough to love You and walk with You on my own. I can't do it, and I need You. I need You deeply and desperately. I believe You are worth it, that You are better than anything else I could have in this life or the next. I want You. And when I don't, I want to want You. Be all in me. Take all of me. Have Your way with me."

Amen.