Finding Joy

While driving home with my kids in the car my tire shredded on the highway. With a crying one year old tired of being in his car seat, and a curious three year old constantly asking questions as to why we weren’t moving, this seemingly small problem began to grow into a mountain.  I slept terribly the night before, and so I was already a bit cranky as I sat on the side of the road in cold 1-degree weather.  I started to feel very frustrated and upset.

It was then that I was reminded about “foot soldiers.” A foot soldier is a soldier that fights on foot and performs basic tasks. They fight on the front line during battle and you have to defeat them before you can get close to defeating the horsemen.  The foot soldiers represent distractions, irritants, inconveniences, etc. The Horsemen are more skilled and more equipped for battle. They represent actual hardships, trials, adversities, etc.

“If you run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with the horses?And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?”

Jeremiah 12:5

In Jeremiah God is saying that if the footmen have tired you out then how can you stand to fight the horsemen? This issue I was facing was only a foot soldier trying to wear me out and steal my joy. For a few moments it seemed as if the foot soldier was winning the battle. My joy and my peace were starting to slip away but then I was reminded that “The joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). 

 I said “Okay God! I need you to fix this”!

Five minutes later a tow truck came and offered to change my tire for free. What would have taken over an hour waiting for my scheduled tow truck, only took a few minutes from a random tow truck driver who happened to be passing by the area. Great! I went to the tire shop and my tire that was now shredded was changed and fixed for no charge. Thank God! Afterwards I laughed because what I thought was a big problem was actually no problem at all.

There are so many things in our life that we have allowed to become foot soldiers. Many problems have unknowingly stolen our joy without us realizing it. In the middle of my problem I had to decide to find joy. I’ve found that as long as I kept my joy I overcame the problems that tried to wear me out.

What are the foot soldiers in your life? Are you choosing to have joy? In the middle of whatever you’re going through…..Find Your Joy!

Don’t forget to subscribe, like, comment, and of course, any questions or prayer requests feel free to send me a message. Stay Blessed and get into the word of God, spend time with him, and get to know him so that you will find joy in everything, and defeat every foot soldier that comes your way.

Time to Unplug

This subject is a much-needed topic that often times is left forgotten. We are constantly on the run, and our day to day schedules can get so filled that the word “unplug” is far from our agenda but on our “to-do-list” in the future We plan to take a break, or to give ourselves some time alone once we complete a certain tasks but sometimes we can hit a wall of exhaustion physically, mentally, and spiritually that forces us to do the very thing that we tried to postpone, which is unplug

A few months ago it was my time to unplug. Not because it was on my schedule but I too had tried to put off taking a “self-care” (I’ll go into explaining this word in a minute) moment to myself. I got so caught up in tasks.  As a mother, for example, there are always tasks to do, and it seems like the list never ends. Even when it was time to relax or end the day I found myself trying to complete just one more thing. “Oh! There was something I forgot to do today!” I thought. I would mentally add it to my list for tomorrow. Although it seems like we are doing the right thing and was getting things done this is also where enemy likes to creep in and try to attack.  These lists or busy schedules never seem to dwindle down and we soon find ourselves tired, burnt out, feeling unappreciated for the million things we do, and even spiritually famished.

Your plan could be to pray or read your bible after you get done with your day. So after you’ve spent time with everyone else and done all there is to do by the end of the day your exhausted. You can barely keep your eyes open to spending time with the person who should be the most important person in your life. God.

I had a dream that my husband and I was preparing to go minister, and he took all his time preparing and I got upset. While he was taking his precious time getting ready I was attending to the kids and getting them dressed and by the time it was time for us to leave I wasn’t ready, and there was no time to spend preparing myself. In my dream, I thought he was selfish because we didn’t share the time. I told my husband about the dream the next day and his response was that it sounded like Martha and Mary.

38 as Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” 41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it and it will not be taken away from her.”  Luke 10:38-42

That could be another way to look at it. I told my husband, but it could also mean that you were being selfish (ha-ha). Fast forward to later that night as I was showering I recalled the dream and my husband’s response. I thought he was very one-sided and was not trying to see his selfishness in the matter. Right at that moment, I heard God say “Martha”. “Martha?”  I said. “Yes, Martha! I was showing you in the dream that you had taken the role of Martha”. God said. Speechless was beyond the word I felt. It was a quick check from God to re-examine myself. I knew then that I needed to unplug immediately.

It wasn’t about the works of service that Martha did but what mattered the most to God. What really tugged on his heart was spending time with him, which is what Mary did. The first thing I decided to do was shut down my phone. This meant closing down all those apps like social media that you find yourself constantly on out of habit. The only apps I chose to use was Kindle to read my books and the Bible app. In a world full of so many things to do we can sometimes say to ourselves that there’s not a lot of hours in the day. The question is what are you using those hours to do?

What we give the most time to become our god. This was something powerful I heard that struck a chord with me to re-examine my life. Someone might think well I have to work eight hours or take care of my kids but If God is the creator of your kids and even your entire being. He created the job position and chose to put you in, so how can we put the “creations” over the “creator”. The bible says that it is in Him who we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). We need him for every part of our lives. Our very existence still stands and breathes because of him. The word “self-care” comes to mind and a lot of people talk about self- care being an important part of your life. However, self-care is nothing without time with God. You can go on all the retreats, and get all the time off of work and massages you want and can still feel empty, depressed, and can go right back to work and feel those same problems go back on your shoulders. It’s God the creator that removes depression, burdens and fill the empty void in our lives.

We can’t fix ourselves. We the creation needs the creator God to step in. It’s like my 11month old son trying to change his own diaper. He needs me, his mother to change his diaper for him. He can try on his own and will make a mess and track it everywhere he goes. Eventually making an even bigger mess and the only way to clean that mess up would be for him to come to me so that I can help him.

Another word that comes to mind is “self-diagnose”. You know when you start to get a headache or some other physical pain so instead of going to God we go to Google. We type the symptoms in and try to figure out what it could be and “self-diagnose “ourselves. Then we become more worried or stressed because Google told us that these symptoms can lead to death. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) Go to God first because he has all the answers.

Listen, it’s time to unplug, and plug into more of God! You know the things you need to remove, or pause from your life but most importantly while you are taking a break from those things SPEND TIME WITH GOD. Let him transform some things in your life. Read his word, talk to him, all he desires is for us to spend time, and to have a relationship with him.

I pray this blesses you as much as it has blessed me and that once you unplug you’re able to seek after God with your whole heart. Any prayer requests or if something you read helped you, and you have a story to share please share or send a message. Subscribe and Share and most importantly unplug!

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Tired, stressed, exhausted, frustrated, running on an empty tank? These are some of the things that drive you down the road of being overwhelmed. I’ve hit that road plenty of times and it always lets me know I’m running on my own strength, and I’ve hit my limit.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”. -2 Corinthians 12:9

This is the scripture I continued to quote as I looked at toys surrounding the floor. My oldest son had decided on this particular day that he wanted to throw his food on the floor because the spaghetti that he loves to eat every day if possible was no longer a favorite for him. My infant who was teething and crying did not want to be in his play pin, highchair or pretty much anywhere he felt restrained. Instead, he wanted to roam as freely as possible and get into everything that was off limits. I, on the other hand, was running off of no sleep from both kids being sick, fighting to get over the cold passed on from the kids, and mother nature seemed to kick in at the right time. I was officially overwhelmed! At this point, I needed some supernatural strength and a clone of me so that I could drop everything and go rest.

In my moment of weakness, I could only look to one person who could fix it all. The bible says to cast all of your cares on God because he cares for you. (1Peter 5:7) While I was trying to figure out everything and running on my own strength, I had to remind myself that I needed God in every aspect of my life. This includes even the minor things. This is something we might know already but we can often lose track of that when life starts to crash in on our day. Overwhelmed, stressed, and frustrated are signs that we have not allowed him to take control in that particular area of our life. Instead, we’ve closed him off and let ourselves lead.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” Isaiah 20:28

It’s impossible for God to be overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated, etc! Lean on him! There is a saying that says don’t put all your eggs in one basket. This is true when it comes to putting all of your cares, etc into a man or women because we are then disappointed or hurt when that person doesn’t live up to your expectations. However, there is someone that you can give all of your cares to no matter how big or how small, and that is God. So I want to give you a few practical ways to keep from getting overwhelmed.

1. Find a scripture that relates to your situation and speak that scripture over and over and over again. –write it out, post it everywhere you need to so that every time you think about getting stressed say No because God said (insert scripture)!
2. What is your attention focused on? What we give all our attention or energy to becomes our god. Instead turn your attention to God.
3. Prayer does change things- spend some time in prayer. –God loves when we talk to him. He wants you to have deeper relationship with him where there are no formalities, just talking to him like a friend.
4. Turn on some worship music or sing unto the Lord-I’ve done this more than I can count. When the kids are screaming or crying and it seems like chaos I turn on some worship music and change the atmosphere. I worship God and they calm down. It also teaches your children at an early age to shift the atmosphere but that’s another topic will discuss later.

These are just a few things that will help keep you from being overwhelmed. I pray this blessed you and I will list some of my favorite scriptures that I quote when I need that extra grace, peace, strength, and help below. Stay tuned to the next blog and read others if you haven’t already. Subscribe and share!

Additional Scriptures: Psalm 61:2, Psalm 142:3, Isaiah 40:31, Ephesians 6:10, Genesis 28:15.