Thankful Thursday

Thank you God, for teaching me that my life is not about me, but about You.

"Wondering" Wednesday

I wonder...

why we are quick to compare our situations with other people's situation to make ourselves feel better. For example, often times, we are dwelling on our own personal struggle and we often hear others say (or ourselves say), "well, at least you are not in so and so's situation". I get that they are trying to make us feel better and even get us to count our blessings. But I wonder why we ever thought life was suppose to be easy, comfortable, and everything we always planned...I guess we can blame it on the American dream? I wonder where we got this huge sense of entitlement.

I'm slowly learning to accept struggle, circumstances, and situations, even in the smallest sense. Here is how I learned that accepting your struggles just may be one of the keys to life:

"And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal later to us." Romans 9:17-18

To me, this verse gave me a whole new perspective on why we struggle. Sure, we do make our own wrong choices, or evil has a hand in our lives...but I believe that God will use whatever struggle we are facing to draw us closer to Him, to share in Jesus' suffering...so that ultimately we may share in His glory.

Tuesday Truth: Good News

This past Sunday I was driving and saw a man standing on the street corner selling the Houston Chronicle. He also had a sign next to his little newspaper stand. It said "Good News - Jesus Saves". Good news, indeed!

"For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes...This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life"." Romans 1:16-17

Monday Music

I don't have to carry
The weight of who I've been
Cause I'm forgiven

Forgiven - Sanctus Real

Friday Declaration

God, teach me, stretch me, use me for Your Kingdom and Your Glory.

Thankful Thursday

Every Friday there is a newsletter called "The Flash" that gets emailed to all of us at work. It's an internal newsletter at my job. Basically, it keeps people in the loop of what's going on at work, new groups, things for sell, charitable events. I skim it, usually. Well, a few weeks ago, I was taking a look at it...and much to my surprise and excitement...there was some information of a Bible study group that was just starting up and looking for anyone interested in joining. God in the workplace - how awesome is that!? There were enough people that signed up that two groups were formed.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the first group meeting. We are going to study the book of Matthew through a study guide. It was great meeting new people that work with me who also have the same passion for God. People from different departments, different walks of life, different religions...all sharing in quite possibly the one thing they have in common...their love for God.

We all went around, in a group of about 14, saying a little bit of about ourselves and where we were in our walk of faith. I can't believe that I'm about to say this (or type it) but I was so excited that I wanted to cry, right then and there (I didn't, though). I wanted to cry because I was happy about what my group was sharing. I love to listen to people who are on fire for God...it's simply great. Side note: I have an issue with crying...but that's for another post, one day...maybe :).

God, today I am thankful for our Bible study at work.

"I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with his godly people. How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in Him should ponder them. Everything He does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails." Psalm 111:1-3

"Worship" Wednesday

Can you hear me singing? Probably not :) Enjoy!

Sing My Love - Jesus Culture

Monday Music

I tried not to ask for Your help
Cause I didn't want to scare You away

Yeah I was always worried
I was gonna let You down
Oh, it felt like I was standing
In between the lost and found
Til I got to know You


Sanctus Real

Eat, Pray, Love - Part II

Although there technically wasn't a part I to the previous Eat, Pray, Love post...I found my book and wanted to share the best line of the whole book.

"There's a reason they call God a presence - because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time."

That one line above made me realize then, that I needed to do something; I needed to find God. I would have never thought that I'd really be able to find Him, much less know Him and love Him the way I do now.

Lesson 39: Saturday Workouts

This morning I was running on the treadmill. I had been normally running about 2 miles every workout. Except today...I couldn't do it. I rarely work out on during the mornings. While I was running, I couldn't keep up with pace I set (and it's not that unrealistic). I walked more than usual. By the time I hit the one mile mark, I told myself, "well, I might as well just stop since I'm not going to make my goal." Then I thought of lots of reasons that I couldn't finish: tight calves, a morning workout, I hadn't eaten breakfast, I had to move out of my apartment after working out and needed energy for that...You probably get the point. I didn't want to finish because I lost focus, because I wouldn't meet my goal of 2 miles in 20 minutes, because I was thinking about everything else except that I wanted to do. My mind lost track of my purpose, my goal. I stopped.

Imagine if we did that with God. Gave up on Him every time we were uncomfortable. I know I've done that plenty of times. Quit on Him because of our circumstances. I am a goal getter, and history has shown that if I don't see myself attaining my goal, I quickly become a quitter...you know, so I don't fail. This is exactly what God does NOT want us to do with our relationship with Him. If we mess up, make bad choices, or just have bad things happen to us...that's not a reason to give up on God...there is never a reason.

I've learned that God does not require perfection from us. He is in control of that; not us.

"With one sacrifice He made perfect forever those who are being made holy" Hebrews 10:14

Here is what Max Lucado says about "perfection" and the verse above:

"God doesn't improve; He perfects. He doesn't enhance; he completes...Now I realize that there's a sense in which we are imperfect. We still err. We still stumble. We still do exactly what we don't want to do. And that part of us is, according to the verse, "being made holy". But when it comes to our position before God, we're perfect. When He sees each of us, He sees one who has been made perfect through the One who is perfect - Jesus Christ."

Friday Declaration

God, You make ALL things work together for my good...even when I don't see it this way.

"Wondering" Wednesday

I wonder what kind of birthday parties God throws in heaven?

It's amazing how things can change so rapidly. Today, I had lunch with Felix, Erica, and Juls. We tried to celebrate Zavier's first birthday as best we could. In the past, we'd come up with reasons to celebrate and go out to eat, this time we tried to do the same since it has been a long time since we've celebrated anything. It wasn't the same though. We reminisced and talked about how last year at this time right before Zavier was born, we had Erica walking around the track and around the mall to get Zavier out here with us :) We talked about how we would celebrate every pregnancy milestone over dinner. We were always celebrating something...this time it just wasn't the same.

We know Zavier is up in heaven and is having the best party we could only dream of.

Happy 1st birthday Zavier...I will miss you always and forever.

This is me and Zavier on his birthday, 9/15/09.

Felix Zavier Barron (9/15/09 - 1/8/10)

Sometimes it's still hard to believe that my nephew, Zavier is not here with us. It's hard to believe that tomorrow he would have been turning one year old. I remember the last time I saw him - New Year's Eve. I never would have thought that would be last time I would see his smiling little face. He had just started to giggle. I remember that on New Year's Day, Sam and I drove out to Galveston to check out the beach. I wanted to stay at my sister's just to hang out. Sam said that we needed to give them time to adjust to their new little family of four and that we couldn't be there all the time. He was probably a little right...but we didn't go over that entire week. I didn't stop by once in the week to see the little guy :(

For Christmas, Zavier was 3 months old; I didn't even get him a Christmas present...not a real one anyway. I got him a last minute little Santa's outfit. Why? Because I thought he was too little...and I thought "there will be next year and all the rest of the years to come for me to give him something...when he can actually remember."

This is the last time I saw my nephew, Zavier. A clip of our happy little Zavier (and family in the background) on New Year's Eve.



Every day my heart breaks for my family. I wonder if it will ever stop breaking.

Monday Music

I need to be still before I make a move
I need to be humble with nothing to prove
I need Your Word to show me the truth

Before I can find my voice
I need to hear Your voice

Stop the World - Matthew West

Friday Declaration

This world has nothing for me. I will follow You.

Lesson 38: God Power

God Power:

Now, that I'm not "not" drinking, I've tried (as stupid as it may sound) to get drunk...just to see how it feels. I'll have one drink...kinda like it. Then comes the second...and that's it. There is something inside of me that is stopping me. Want to know what it is? It's definitely not will power. It's God power. My head is struggling with my heart. My head tells me that I do want to keep drinking and my heart says "no, you don't".

This is God's power shining through. He works best in our weakness.

Monday Music

Who I am is all I've got
And I can't be who I am not anymore...

All I need to be - Fireflight

The Greatest Joy

I've been listening to Jared Anderson's song, Glorified alot in the last few days. By alot, I mean I have it playing on repeat whenever my Ipod is on. The lyrics are great. Here is one of my favorite lines:

The greatest joy I found is to lay a crown before my King.

For me, when I am focused on God, there is an unexplainable joy that I have. It's kinda like knowing all is well, all is right...even when it really isn't...if that makes any sense.

How do we lay a crown before our King? Well, I don't know exactly what it means. But I do have an interpretation. To me, to lay a crown before my King is really to take all that you are, the good and the bad, dreams and fears, praises and complaints, and put it before God, letting Him know that it is Him in who you put your trust. No other king, no other god...just Him.

In my life, the greatest joy I have found is to lay a crown before my King.

Friday Declaration

Because You're with me, I will not fear.