Old Girl Dead, New Girl Reborn.....

Hi Family!! So was with my family talking football when God decided to ask ME a question in the topic of discussion. So my son's middle school football team won their first game in apparently a very long time last week. And by a very large spread. My son was talking about the team photo they took at the end of the game and how he was trying to get the cheerleaders to come over to be in the pic as well. I usually play around with him about the cheerleaders. Me:  Why you want the cheerleaders in the pic for!? They didn't put in on this win man! (in my Chris          Rock Voice) Son: Well they are part of the team, they were cheering! Me:  But they were NOT on the field doing the real work!! Suddenly, God stopped me right there. Who have I been? Have I been part of the team, doing my fair share? Putting in on those wins? Or have I been on the sideline? Cheering on other people who are putting in the work to get those wins? Have I been the lineman? Keeping my family d

Hey Family, I was talking to a teammate at work yesterday and we were talking about different good feeling "sayings" and suddenly he says this one. It immediately did something. And it also reminded me of a t-shirt my husband designed. A Diamond Is Still A Diamond, Even If Its Thrown In The Mud... I now feel the need to remind my beautiful sisters and handsome brothers that you are all Unique Rare Diamonds!!! You might not see it. YOU might see dirt, deformities, scars, dents. But there is no denying, that you are still a diamond.  In your life, someone may have cast you aside because you look like a simple dark stone. You may seem rough on the edges. Dented from life and being thrown around. You may even have landed in the mud quite a few times. And while you were there in the cold, thick, wet mud, it rains even more and you sink deeper into the mud. You are then fully engulfed in the dirt. Completely covered. Not a glimmer of the sun to be seen. Then you feel the pre

Hello Family! I woke up quite a few times in the middle of the night Sunday night into Monday morning, and at least the last few times that I woke up, those 2 words came into my mind. Growth, Development and Leadership. I am not quite sure why they came to mind the way they did. But I don't deny that God may be trying to do or say something. It truly is a year of growth and development for me. Even at church, most if not all of the ministries have had a focus of Growth and Development. It really does not matter what you are looking for in life. Whether it is in family life or politics. Your job or your church. You look to someone for guidance. Whether you do it by their side or in their shadow. Then this happened. You have no idea that you are someone else's leader. There is someone who is watching you for guidance. How to handle certain types of children. How to handle a difficult boss. How to manage things in the day to day of married life. How to walk the walk of a

Hey Family, Something hilarious just happened to me. Those absolutely closest to me know why this would be so funny. So, it's a lazy Saturday. I, for once, have nothing on my calendar. Which means it's a day to really just be. Aaaaand a day to catch up on laundry after a really busy week, of course. So I was just watching.... correction..... baby girl was watching her favorite channel. Disney Jr. And they just played Tarzan. The old cartoon one. Throughout the movie, I, being the emotional person that I am, found myself tearing up. By the end of the movie, I have to admit, I had to wipe away the tears. Yes Momma. I hear you already. I know. I'm a water-bucket.   Once I got finished giggling at myself in my mind, all I could think of was "Man, if that were me, my heart would be exploding with excitement! Oh my God! What an amazing way to go left in your life!" It made me realize that thinking that way is a form of having Compassion. See, when you thin

Hey Family! So I'm not sure what it is. No, let me correct myself, I DO know what it is, It's My God At Work. So it's been an awesome week. It had a lot of accidentals. But accidentals in the natural, but I'm sure it was planned by My God. I got up and started my Monday as normal. Got on my way to drop Sami off at daycare, only to find that she was closed for the holiday. Silly me didn't even know that it was a holiday. Shoot, how would I know? School was still in session and I was going to work, why would I think it was a holiday? Oh well, I ended up with a 3 day weekend. I only worked a part day Friday to try to handle the first part of this Journey, but I was still at work. Well, I figured that I'd make the most of my day. Me and Sami got to hang out by ourselves so we got some mommy-daughter time. But all day, all I could think of was the appointment that I had set up for my child for that afternoon. Well, I did some cleaning, I did some praying, I did

Family, I know I already did a post for today, but you know that sometimes I have something extra. I don't know if this is going to be a personal testimony. I guess it is. Maybe it's a testament of faith. Maybe it's my own testament of endurance. Maybe it's Gods way of letting you know that the struggle is real for someone that you know. But I know that I need to give you my own personal journey as I walk a particular part of my walk In Faith. So this topic that I will always call "My Personal Journey" will be multiple entries until God brings out what He is looking for. I am allowing you to be a spectator to see God move in real life for someone. I guess my Pastor was right... My Family Was The Next Coming Attraction. But know that I am only documenting this for YOU. I just want my pain and my success to be something that pushes you to go a little further, pray a little more. Get what God needs from you and for You. I'm the last person that wants a spot

Hey Family, So our poor Joseph, I can imagine, had to deal with a lot of emotional rejection from his own family. He had a lot of pressure of making sure he could emotionally deal with the negativity that came from the people that were inside his own home. He didn't have to go far to find someone that hated him. Someone that was jealous of him. Someone who preferred to see him fail than succeed. I can imagine having to live in that type of environment on a daily basis was an emotional roller coaster. Even if he could feel the love from his father, because he was "daddy's favorite", that "love" had to be pretty warped. I thought if someone loved you, they truly loved you, they want to best for you regardless. And when Joseph told his father about his dream, his father joked him. I bet his father made him feel small. Made him seem like that kind of dream will NEVER happen and was ridiculous. Its amazing how much this happens in the 21st century family. So

Hey Again Family, I just wanted to give a little encouragement. There are quite a few of you going through right now. I just wanted to let you know that you are NOT alone. I am praying for you all in your respective areas. I don't need to know your business to know that you are going through. We are all going through something. In our minds, in our homes, in our finances, in our families, in our communities, in our workplace, in our marriages.... We have all been hit, or are being hit in any of these places at any given time. For some of us, it's in multiple places at the same time. Just know that God sees it, and sometimes He is just waiting for you to get to the end of your "I can fix this myself" rope and finally cry out to Him. Believe me, I've been there and some days at any moment of the day, i'll reach the end of my own rope and have to cry out. You are not alone. You will make it. You will not lose your mind. You will not lose at all. What looked

Hey Family, I've had some things on my mind when I started thinking about a certain story in the bible. There was a young, teenage boy names Joseph who had these prophetic dreams. They told about his own rising to  place of power. They told about how people would bow to him. Now, Joseph told his brothers about his dreams on a few different occasions. Each time, they rejected him. They couldn't stand him to begin with, so they would never imagine themselves in a position where they would bow down to their younger brother, daddy's favorite baby boy. Joseph, I could imagine, went away from his brothers with hurt feelings. Probably knowing that they didn't like him too much, and now this. He didn't quite understand or fully believe the dreams he was having himself. But I bet the reality of his brothers NEVER accepting the idea had to hurt him to his soul. I can imagine he may have desired his family's full love, but unfortunately could not get that. He only w

Hi Family! I was having a chat with my middle daughter about preparing for high school and college. We were talking about how having a degree makes a major difference in the struggle with money/income. I forget how unrealistic some kids can be about household finances and what a person has to do in order to make things work. I realize that a majority of my kids think that our family is rich! Well, we sure are. Maybe God hasn't manifested that fact in our bank account... yet. But there is NO denying that we are rich in many ways. So We Praise God For That!! But our conversation got me to thinking about the things we do for money. The endless hours we spend studying in order to get a degree that will prayerfully skyrocket our careers/income. The odd jobs we accept in order to get the extra cash we need. The jobs we hate but we endure because of our NEEDS. The long hours that we need to spend away from our family in order to keep that job that actually DOES provide. The nighttime