I really have nothing to say apart from, this is my motivation for life: being more and more like Christ as much as I possibly can on this side of glory. In every thing I say and do I want Jesus to be reflected in me; I want his being alone to define me, and his glory be satisfied through my life. Thank you James Fortune for this song, you music is changing lives.
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It’s Been a While
Oh my!!! It’s been so long since I’ve posted and I actually have things to finish writing. On top of that so much has been going on, so many emotions, many tears, many prayers, many smiles, good days, long days, productive days, and lazy days. I’ve been in the studio, broken a phone, lost a friend and realized how much of a friend I had in someone else; I’ve encountered evil spirits when I was sent to pray them out of an apartment. I’ve been sick, hoarse, bitten, challenged, and put in the hot seat. I’ve learned that beating around the bush 9 times out of 10 helps no one, so in situations, I’m striving to be less passive. I’ve meet two celebrities, and learned how to do love knots, bantu knots, comb and finger coils, french braids, and 2-strand flat twist. I’ve been studying the book of Job in the Bible and it’s blown my mind and sometime soon I’ll share what I’ve learned. It’s just awesomeness. Likewise, I’m apart of the study of Jonah as created by an aspiration of mine, Priscilla Shirer, and yeah she’s awesome. “Navigating a Life Interrupted,” loving it.
Yet, for the sake of this post, I’ll talk about what I’ve learned just today. In the Priscilla Shirer study actually, in the book she questioned our place in life. This assumed that in some way or another coinciding with the “life interrupted,” we may not be in a place we thought we’d be in or what we may be doing may not be as grand as we imagined. Nonetheless it made me think of the verse Matthew 25:21:
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
In my life now, as I’m sure many of us are we are quite where we wanted to be, or where we thought we’d be, not forgetting God totally debunked your original plan. Still, even if we yielded and are in God’s will, like me, have the urge to go out and do more and reach more. Yet, for some reason you are home; you aren’t going out to the masses; your territory grown maybe and inch; you may not be getting the calls that you thought you would by now. When this verse came to mind, I was immediately humbled. God has me where He has me for whatever purpose, and if one thing is for sure my patience and faith is being stretched. As I read in James 1:3-4, I’ll be in this spot until His work is completed in my patience and perseverance.
So, in enduring during this interesting time of my life, no matter how much I want to explore and leave and force my dreams to come true by midnight tonight, and meet so many new people, I have to be faithful to where God has placed me, at this very moment, using and developing the gifts and talents He gave me. He promised me that if I am, my oh my, He’ll entrust me with so much more. His work in my life in this stage isn’t complete but when it is…well you’ll just have to see ;)…Ironically though I am scared out my mind, but I know He is with me.
A Day Like Today
So to keep this short and from putting people on blast, today did not go my way. I was in a competition, and while singing the mic started to act funny then it just went smooth off. First fail of the day, then on top of that I was the last one to get there, but was somehow the first to perform. What in the world?! I was so not expecting that. Then there were the other acts which were cool, including my sister who did phenomenal. I knew one of us had it in the bag, until my fiasco lol. Anyhow, my sister won. I can’t lie and say I didn’t, but I really did want to win…real bad. But, I sucked it up. I had to she was my sister ☺. So after that we were waiting for her prize and all that jazz, and long story very short, she wasn’t able to receive it, due to a conflict of interest. I knew something was wrong, especially when she came back to me crying. Oh snap! It was about to be a wrap. But I held it together; I had to. There was really nothing that I could do. Still, for my sister to cry that protective mode kicked in quick and…yeah, and then my momma apologized because of how the whole thing went down. Man oh, man. Got my emotions all jacked up.
All that to say, this is the second time when I expected something to go one way, my way, and it didn’t, but I accepted the next best thing and that didn’t pan out either. Each time all I could say was, “God what in the world?! What is the purpose ’cause I ain’t gettin’ it?”
The first time this happened, it’s been about 2 years, and the Lord pretty much took away my dream. I had one plan, and it didn’t work out the way I had originally planned, so I settled with what I thought was the next best thing, but would ultimately get me where I wanted to go. Needless to say, once I figured out that plan was so null and void, I never felt so lost in my life. It was then I discovered and accepted God’s control over my life. It was hard because I had it all planned to a ‘t,’ and He stripped it away. So I was left with nothing. Or so I thought. Now what happened today wasn’t as dramatic emotionally and spiritually lol, but it just reminds me that God is God.
Back to my second story, it was when I just waited on God and did what I could do for Him in the mean time. He developed a new passion. This year is the year that what He has been doing in my life since I graduated in 2010 is coming to fruition. On a day like today, I was reminded that things will not always go my way, won’t always go smoothly, and won’t always make sense no matter what way you look at it. Still, God’s favor is real and He knows best. Many times we don’t see what He is up to behind the scenes, and so the only purpose we have sometimes is just to show up and do just what He had for you to do, and trust that God will bless our efforts. I know this because even though things didn’t go how I desired, I still made connections and even got a singing gig ☺.
So if you get nothing else from this post, I encourage you to seize every opportunity, even when it may not be all you hoped. There is always good, we just have to find it and keep it moving. Your purpose depends on it.
Jewel of the Garden: Woman
The more I hear and think about the story of creation and consider all the characters and 
the events that took place, the more I am fascinated by the creation of women. I’d like to think of us, women, as the Jewels of the Garden. Unfortunately, in today’s world it’s hard to feel that beauty and value, when it is often times measured by the superficial. However, God knew what He was doing when He created woman. He had a special purpose for woman that makes her so unique, which is why as women, we have to find our identity in Christ alone, so that our greater purpose can be fulfilled. He already has proven his love, in that he loved us enough to die for us, therefore, we should love him enough to live for him. Nonetheless, the whole story of the creation of woman shows what David meant in Psalm 139, and how we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
To start off, I read a book by a great author named Donald Miller. In this book he laid out the events that took place before God brought Eve to Adam. First, He created the world, then He created man. However, the point he made was that right after God created him, He put him to work. He told Adam that he was to work it and watch over Eden, and on top of that to name all the animals…ALL of them (Genesis 2:15-19). Can you imagine how long that would have taken. Think about all the animals, in the land, water, and sky. More so, all of them had mates…except Adam. The interesting thing is that even before God told him to name the animals, He promised Adam that He’d give him a suitor, because it wasn’t good to be alone. I don’t think Adam quite understood the significance of what the Lord had promised, until he began to see the mates of each creature and how they complemented each other. Thus, seeing pair after pair, and watching their interactions, he was probably more excited to receive his. It had to be a very long process. Think about it, naming everything, then after a while you have to make sure you don’t use the same name, and then having to classify the types of creatures.
So, when Adam was finally finished working, God put him to sleep. It was then that He took from Adam’s side, his rid, not the ground, and formed Eve. I heard my dad preach one time, that in pulling out from Adam, to created Eve, He took all that was feminine out of man and produced woman. This explains why there is such the connection between male and female; the very make up of a woman He took out of man. As a result, how do you think Adam felt when He first saw and met Eve? I would think excited, in awe, but most of all appreciative. I think he recognized the undeniable value and irreplaceable blessing of the gift God had given him, and the uncompromising purpose he saw within her. So if Adam felt this way about Eve and appreciated her ever so much, why would a woman settle for a man that treats and feels about her any differently? God’s purpose was never that a woman be abused, taken for granted, mistreated, and or neglected by any man. You are the precious jewel of the garden, God knew it and Adam knew it. David O. McKay said it best:
“Women were created from the rib of man to be beside him, not from his head to top him, nor from his feet to be trampled by him, but from under his arm to be protected by him, near to his heart to be loved by him.”
God already called you beautiful (Song of Songs 4:7) and truly takes delight and sings about you (Zephaniah 3:17). You are like a jewel in His crown. Do you know your worth?
Worthy
This does apply to my dudes, but particularly for my ladies: when you really see yourself as God sees you, and when you truly understand find your value, worth and identity in Him alone (not $$, men, sex, education, body-image, material things, job-status, children, family back ground or the lack thereof, personality, talent, skills, clothes, or even your sign) I guarantee, you will be set free and be changed forever.
Too many times we as women subject ourselves bad circumstances, searching for love and wanting to feel like we’re worth something, more than what we feel about ourselves. So, we enter into unhealthy relationships, become promiscuous, stress ourselves out with school and work trying to become a somebody, do things to get attention (too many times from men) – often those things we never thought we would do (for good reason) – buy shoes we know we cant afford to impress our friends, and even sell out our dream to get our parents’ approval.
But God has such a greater purpose for you than you may have for yourself. You are His precious jewel from Eden. Don’t get swept, trying yo prove your worth to whomever, thinking you’re dirt. God didn’t make you from dirt 😉 (that alone is another blog to come ☺). He doesn’t want to change who you are, He wants to enhance who you are. Although, inadvertently some things will have to change.
So I ask this question, where does you worth lie?
Be You for a Purpose 