Slump

I have been in a serious slump all week and I have not a clue why.  What I do know is that if I don't put forth the effort to get myself out of it then it will last a lot longer and morph into depression and inactivity.  That is not the journey or job that God has for me at this point in His assignment for me.

One of the things I have learned is that we only sink as far as we allow ourselves to sink.  If God has given us a task and we don't do it because we don't have the energy it is not His fault when we slide into depression.  I have been down that out before and it wasn't pretty so I now know what I need to do to come out of it; pray and move, move and pray.  Not get too comfortable in the funk of it and move it out of the way. 

For those feeling less than 100% and you are not sure why, don't sit trying to figure it out for too long, just ask God for guidance and help with climbing out of it and then climb out of it.  Pray and move, move and pray.  He is always there and always helping but you have to allow Him in when He knocks.

Peace and blessings wonderful people!

Walk in your purpose!

Jai Ar

The Cover-up

Yesterday while on social media I watched a video of a young lady applying her make-up.  She took us through the entire process and it must have taken her somewhere around 30-40 minutes to apply it but she time lapsed it so it was narrowed down to just over 8 minutes.  When she was all done she looked like a totally different person, you could not decipher any of her original traits, well accept her eye color.  My comment on the video was “she really invested a lot of time and money in this process”. 

 

Watching that video made me think about a few things;

 

1. Do you dislike your looks so much that you would invest the time and money it takes to not only make yourself over but really make yourself look like a totally different person, even lighter in complexion (she had several scars and dark patches on her face)? 

 

2. What else could she have invested that same time and money in? 

 

3. Does she know God, I mean really know Him?

 

4.  If I were a guy getting to know her better I would be totally upset that she doesn’t look like the face she put on.

 

Now I can make all kinds of assumptions as to why she has gone through the trouble to do this to herself and because I don’t know her I will have to assume.  While this young lady did have several scars on her face, very dark patches of skin and dark circles on and under her eyes, she was not unattractive.  I can suppose that she did this because she was not pleased by her looks and is working on accepting herself exactly as she is without the cover-up.  I can suppose that she has received years of negative reactions from men that she may have found attractive and wanted to date.  I can suppose that she is not happy with her darker complexion and wanted to be just a tad lighter, the layers and layers of makeup she applied made her at the very least a shade lighter than her natural complexion.

 

Because she did such an excellent job at application and her technique was amazing, I wonder if she has gone to school to become a makeup artist and if she gets paid to do this for others.  She is an expert at what she's doing.  I wonder that because the process took quite a bit of time to complete and she used several products, which means she’s invested a decent amount of money in cosmetics.  It would only make since that she’s received an education, certification and is hired to make others over for a nice sum of money.  If not, what else could she do with her time and money that she spent on “perfecting” her looks?

 

I ask if she knows God because my hope is that if she did know Him then she would realize that there was no need to take 30 minutes or more out of every day, not to mention the touch-up time, to totally look like someone else.  God made her in love, to love not only others but herself.  If you have that kind of love for yourself, that God love, then it will not matter what another person thought of your looks because you are not conforming to society’s definition of attractive but God’s definition of beauty.  Love God above all, then love self, then love your neighbor as you love yourself.  How are you loving your neighbor if you can’t even love yourself.

 

Lastly, if I were a dude that met her in a club, at church, in the grocery store or a laundry mat I would be pissed.  Why?  Because she’s false advertising, she sold me a bill of goods but there was nothing good about it.  If I got to know her better as a man and we spent more time together, sure I would say she’s wearing makeup because it would be obvious but it would not cross my mind that she’s wearing that much makeup and looks so different without it.  Being vain about someone else’s looks would not be the issue, the issue would be that I would feel lied to, betrayed, taken for a sucker and I may want nothing more to do with her no matter how much I’d learned to like her as a person.

 

One other thing; this transformation is major and I only want to be transformed this completely by God.  I want to be who He wants me to be.  Please understand that I am not judging this young lady, I am not condemning her at all but  watching her tutorial really made me think about those that do this major cover-up on a regular basis.  It makes me ask; what are you really trying to hide?

 

I say all of this to say, people be happy with who God made you to be.  By happy with how God made you and if you become scarred along the way you have to be able to look at yourself and say my beauty comes from within because God planted it in me before I was born.  He created me in love.  My beauty is not in what others think of me, it isn't even 100% in what I think of myself.  My beauty is in what God has said about me.

 

I was going to post her video here but decided that getting sued was not on my agenda, so I'll just say go to ytube and look up makeup tutorials.  She's a pretty African American young lady who makes you think of the pink haired female rapper.

 

Walk in your purpose people!

 

Peace and blessings wonderful people and love yourself.

 

Jai ar

a sermon and a movie

two things that I've seen today,a sermon and a movie, have provoked a couple of questions.  Are you a misfit?  Where do you see yourself in 5yrs.  now those two questions bring about two more questions; are you where God put you? or are you where you put yourself?

I thought about these questions for a while and one thing came to mind; I grow where God plants me.  when He sees I am no longer flourishing in that spot, that my growth is being stunted, He will uproot me and place me elsewhere.  it may not be the most comfortable position, it may not be the prettiest scenery but wherever He plants me is where I have to grow until He says it's time to move on or He says this is where I stay.

I have had a lot of thoughts running through my head over the last week or so, some are valid and some are not.  what I have to do is use my gift of discernment to determine which is which and proceed accordingly.  God always listens and He always answers, all we have to do is be still and listen for Him.  He has me in a situation right now that will promote my growth if I allow it to and when He sees that I have outgrown this pot He will uproot me and plant me in another one, larger so that it accommodates the next phase of growth.

I love when He speaks to me because it puts my mind at ease when those thoughts run through my head.  better yet His voice reassures me that I am in the spot I need to be in to do what He needs me to do, when and how He needs me to do it.

I want to be wherever He places me in the next 5 years, not in the place I put myself in.  do I want to fit in?  not so much in the world's thought pattern of where I should be but where He has placed me.

so ask yourself those same questions and really meditate on them before you answer.  are you a misfit? where do you see yourself in 5 years?  are you where God put you or where you put yourself?

peace and blessings wonderful people and walk in your purpose!

jai ar

Mother's Day

My youngest son and I had a real heart to heart on Mother's Day.   He was sad because he spent some time with his grandmother, my mother, and was both disappointed and feeling protective in and of her. 

It made him sad to see how she has gone down in her health and life in general.  We discussed that there was really nothing that he could do for her other than pray because the bottom line is she needs to want better for herself and we can't make her want or do better.

We talked about life in general and how there are choices in life that we have to make and those same choices affect our future, not only our future but the futures of those we are close with and even those that aren't here yet.

In the midst of the conversation we got really deep about some of the things that have happened to me when I was younger and he asked if I had ever been molested or raped and I answered him honestly.   From there we discussed forgiveness and God's impact on my life and my increased relationship with Him.  How my faith and belief in God is what brought me through those and other hard times.

I loved that we were able to talk at that level and that we trusted each other enough to talk and be open and honest. 

God is important to me,  my faith is important to me,  my children and their children are important to me.  My God is amazing and loving and caring and kind.

Peace and blessings wonderful people!

Jai

there is a blessing in obedience

there is a blessing in obedience.  when I was younger and my mother would tell me to do what she said or else, I did it because she was mom and I didn't want a beat down or to be on punishment.  when I was told to do what the teacher told me to do in class, I did it because they were the teachers and I didn't want a bad grade or be sent to the disciplinarian's office or worse, have my mother find out.  for my obedience in either case the reward was always better than the punishment, of course.  I got to stay up later, got to watch tv a little longer or got to go outside and play when I did what my mother said.  I would get an "A" or "B" on a test or got to be the teacher's helper when I did what the teacher said.


I had not made the correlation between my training in obedience as a child or younger person to the task of being obedient as an adult in this growing and maturing relationship that I have with the Father.  the reward for obedience is so much greater than the consequences of not being obedient to His call on my life.  when you know better you do better.


there is a blessing in obedience. 

peace and blessings GoOD people!

jai ar

Life is precious

Yesterday I had to take my husband to the er. 

He has diabetes that is easily controlled with meds, diet and excercise however,  he hates taking the meds, does not like eating the healthier foods I prepare and hates excercise more than I do.

What set this stressful episode off was our trip to Puerto Rico where we celebrated his birthday, we spent 5 1/2 days there and he drank alcohol every day several times a day and only took his meds once while we were there because he believed that drinking while on meds would not have a good outcome.  He chose drink over meds.  He also consumed a lot of water and soda and complained of a dry mouth the entire time.  

We returned home and he still consumed liquids, alcohol included, until the beginning of June which marked the end of his birthday month.  He complained still of a severely dry mouth and fatigue.   It concerned me the entire time because I knew he was harming himself but he refused to listen to me.  I continuously asked him to check his sugar count and take his meds but he would not.  Finally I got him to check it and it simply read "Hi", no number just "Hi".  I asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital and he said no, I asked if he would go to our doctor and he agreed.

We get to the doc's and they measure his blood sugar and it read almost 450, they sent him to the er.  We were there for over two hours while they pumped fluids in him and gave him insulin.  One of the things they stressed to him was had he waited any longer it could have led to a diabetic coma.

I have told my husband, more than once, that I am too young to be a widow.  I mean that, burying him and mourning him at my age is not on my life agenda.  I pray that after this episode he finally realizes that life is too precious.

Peace and blessings wonderful people!

Jai ar

making it through the storm

ok, so there is a video that I watched on fb that just ministered to me, I mean really.  so much so that this is what I said about it as I shared it on my page.

"babyyyy, this right here! this is so real and so pure and so eye opening, it puts things back in perspective. notice where she says "your little bitty, temporary storm", that's how you have to look at the things that you go through. stop... making them bigger than the God you say you serve and claim as the head of your life and as was relayed to me yesterday by Evangelist S. Hall, midnight only lasts 60 seconds. before that it's 11:59 pm and after that it's 12:01 am

minimize and put an expiration date on your storm, that is, if you acknowledge Him as the head of your life. that's my soapbox moment of the day (maybe), lol!

peace and blessings GoOD people!"

 

if I can find this video on another media outlet that allows me to share it here I will do just that because it just blessed me and I know that it will bless you as well.

 

peace and blessings wonderful people!

 

jai ar