Mouth Update

I'm finally done with the appliance for correcting my bite. Now it's onto the painful stuff. I get my spacers this Friday. I hear they hurt more than braces. Thankfully, I'm doing Invisalign. (Well, thankfully for my mouth, but not my pocket.) So, the spacers will be the only thing involving pain. I think... You never know what can happen with me. Afterall, I am the freak who had 5 wisdom teeth. lol.

Anyway, I wear the spacers for 3 months--top and bottom. Then it's on to Invisalign. I can't wait. Hopefully in no more than 2 years, I will have beautiful, nice straight teeth. Just in time for wedding pictures (please, please, please)! Yay!

Lukewarm = No bueno

So, I'm reading Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" (finally... I've been meaning to for awhile now!). So far it is very thought-provoking and convicting, at the very least. =) Right now, I'm in Chapter 4 - Profile of the Lukewarm. Francis lists a bunch of signs of a Lukewarm Christian--one trying to live for both the World and Christ, which is impossible. Like Francis says, a Lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron.

Anyway, one description really stood out to me:

LUKEWARM PEOPLE do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don't have to trust God if something unexpected happens--they have their savings account. They don't need God to help them--they have their retirement account in place. They don't genuinely seek out what life God would have them live--they have life figured and mapped out. They don't depend on God on a daily basis--their refridgerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.

(See Luke12:16-21 and Hebrews 11 for scripture that Francis gives for rebutting this characteristic of a Lukewarm Christian.)

Wow. Talk about convicting. We are such control freaks in this day and age, that we don't want to have to depend on whether God might help us out in a bind. We want to make sure we have a back-up plan.

How dare we have a back-up plan to God!

I may not have a savings account with more than $100 (no, seriously... lol). I may not have elected to have the best retirement plan the County has to offer. I may even appear to be very reckless when it comes to my future by the world's standards. Yet I know, however, that despite appearances, I don't always completely trust that God is going to take care of me. For example, I don't always tithe as much as I should when I know that I barely have enough to buy groceries and some gas before my next paycheck. Instead of just giving the Lord what I owe Him, I hold back a little to make sure I can get a few extra things from the market.

How shameful. I'm basically telling Him that I don't think He will sustain me for the next few days so I'm going to dip into His account... the money that is RIGHTFULLY HIS. Wow! WOW!

Lord, forgive me for not fully trusting in You at ALL TIMES. From now on I will go hungry before I act like a Lukwarm Christian:

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. - Revelation 3:15-17

Training up your kids...

I was watching Charles Stanley this morning and he gave a message about training up your child in the ways of the Lord. I was going to give a summary of the message, but when I took a look at my notes for a second time, I realized they are pretty much self-explanatory:

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart
from it. Proverbs 22:6

1. Spend quality time
- Investment in their eternity
- You are most important in their life

2. Listen to them carefully, so they will listen to you
- No education is needed to give your kids time or to stop and listen
- They deserve your undivided attention (the Lord gives us undivided attention when we come to him)
- They will go to someone; better you than someone else

3. Admit when you are wrong
- Tears down barrier and builds relationship
- They won't mind coming and talking to you when they are wrong

4. Love them unconditionally
- Despite their looks, attitude, brains, etc.
- Not bringing up past wrongs
**Love never fails! (1 Peter 4:8)

5. Discipline them motivated by a desire to protect them
- You want them to grow up to be a good person

6. Motivate them to be all they can be
- "Look your best; Do your best; Be your best"
- Do you think Jesus did anything less then His best?
**Correct without demeaning

7. Lead them to fully understand that their ultimate accountability is to God
- When you aren't around, they still answer to God
- Being accountable to themselves is a disaster - they will try to play God

8. Most important thing in their life is their personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ
- If you don't have one, you can't teach them to have one

9. Teach them to spend time daily in the Word of God
- You won't live a godly life with a closed Bible
** "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" - Psalms 119:105

10. Teach them to obey God and leave all the consequences to Him
- Will teach them to 1)recognize the sovereignty of God; 2) recognize His personal interest in them; and 3) trust Him

Most important: PRAY FOR YOUR CHILDREN!!!!!


My main reason for recording this is so that I can come back and refer to it when I finally have children of my own, but also because this is direction that all parents need.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

In His shadow...

It's funny how being praised can sometimes cause you humility.

Today, God has used quite a few different people to let me know how appreciated I am. I'm talking all day long.... I was even told that I am at a corporate level when it comes to my skills. Wow. I guess when my mom brags to people about how I could be an administrative assistant to the CEO of a big company, she's not the only one who thinks so. Hahaha! That sounds so egotistical!

Seriously though, you would think it would be blowing up my head, but it actually embarrasses me and reminds me that in the grand scheme of things, I'm really not all that special. I'm just an average person. I make mistakes and fumble up all the time. BELIEVE ME! At the end of the day, I can do NOTHING without my Lord.

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. -Philipians 4:13

He gave me my skills--I didn't give them to myself.

All this also comes from the LORD Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom. -Isaiah 28:29

I was nervous about coming to my current position. I was scared that I would be bored and, even worse, I was scared that I would be too intimidated by my boss' boss to function, but it's been almost quite the opposite. I say almost because my boss' boss still does intimidate me, but not the extent that I can't still do well at my job or make a good impression on him.

Right now, I couldn't be happy or feel more blessed. I am EXACTLY where the Lord wanted me and to top it off, I am surrounded by believers. It's so good. I know that He is watching out for me and guiding my steps. Not to sound redundant, but HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING!

Thank you, Lord. You are too good to me...

Forgiveness... It's what's for dinner

As followers of Christ, we are instructed to forgive. In EVERYTHING, forgive. Jesus even told Peter that we should continue to forgive even when someone sins against us multiple times:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21 & 22)

Man, that is one tall order. It's already hard sometimes to forgive someone when they do something bad or hurtful to you the FIRST time, let alone if they do it again... and again, and again.

Personally, I admit that I am prideful (hey, I'm Mexican... lol) and it's very hard for me to forgive. As hard as it is for me though, I'm really trying to work on being more forgiving and less sensitive. I think this is something the Lord really wants for me. When you are quick to forgive there is less to worry and suffer about. You aren't allowing yourself to be repeatedly injured by what happened, which is what occurs every time you remember it or bring it up because you haven't forgiven.

Right now, I'm struggling with having a forgiving heart towards one of my sisters at church. We met at my first Women's Bible Study last year and I love this girl to death. She is funny, quick-witted, and outgoing. She's the kind of person everyone likes to have around.

So, what did she do? Well, she kind of flaked on my birthday, which also includes flaking on my baptism. She told me she would be there, but never showed for either the actual baptism or the dinner afterward. I ran into her son in the parking lot at church and asked him if they were coming to dinner. All he said was, "No," and then walked away. Rude.... but then again he is a 13-year-old boy. What do they know about manners?

Anyway, I then sent her a text telling her that her son had told me that they weren't coming. No reply. No, "I'm so sorry. I forgot and I volunteered to serve tonight" (which I'm pretty sure is probably what happened). Nothing. I understand if she forgot and was helping at church, but the least she could have done was acknowledge my text. I mean, I took a whole day off of work to go to Disneyland with her for her birthday. The least she could do was let me know she wasn't coming to my birthday dinner.

Well, I was upset and hurt, but I went ahead and forgave her. I didn't want to have a strained relationship with a sister from church.

Then a few weeks ago, I ran into a mutual friend who told me that my friend had hurt her knee very badly. I felt bad and decided to text her to see how she was doing. She answered my text letting me know that the doctor has her off her feet for three weeks. I told her I would pray for her, and her reply was something like, "Yeah, I need all I can get." That was it. She didn't even say Thanks or mention my birthday. Plus, it seemed like such a short answer... the kind you usually get when someone is upset with you.

Again, I was hurt. I haven't heard from her since. Now I'm wondering if I did something to make her upset and that's why she didn't go to my birthday and why I haven't heard from her. Or maybe she feels guilty about missing my birthday and sometimes, for some crazy reason I've never been able to explain, when people feel guilty about something, they decide to flip the guilt on you and become angry with you instead of feeling bad for what they did.... ????? Maybe she's not even angry with me and has just been wrapped up with the whole knee issue. I don't know anymore!

Meanwhile, I'm starting to feel upset with my friend and totally rejected for no good reason, and it's getting harder to be so forgiving. I feel like I've proved myself to her as a friend and all of a sudden she's letting me down big time. Well, okay.... it's not even like I really hold this grudge. I'm really more disappointed than anything because this is the kind of stuff I expect from non-Believers. Then again, we are all sinners--believers or not.

Although I'm not necessarily angry with her to the point where I don't want to be her friend anymore, the way I feel just makes me become prideful to where I feel like I don't want to communicate with her anymore unless she initiates it. Even though though on the surface it's not all that deep of an issue, I guess I still feel like I need to forgive her (apparently... since I'm writing this big old long blog about it... lol).

I'm going to choose right now to just forgive her, but not to press the issue with her. Hopefully, I will have her in my Bible Study again this year and hopefully we can work out what's going on right now.

I can't wait for Bible Study to start. I'm not good with unresolved issues....

No intention....

I was reading this article on Boundless.org and the author said the following statement, which really stood out to me:

"If you have no intention of getting married for the next decade, then why in the world are you dating in the first place?"

Amen, brother! So many people (men AND women) are out there dating people for long periods of time with no intention of marrying the person they are "with." What a way to waste someone's time. There are so many (seems like mostly women, but there are men too) who DO want to get married and get into a relationship with someone with hopes that it's going to lead somewhere... and somewhere is not dating for a really long time or moving in together to "play house" for a while and see where things go. It's a lifelong commitment and partnership of marriage.

Those of us who are marriage-minded are not dating just for the fun of it and for something to do on Saturday night. We are dating to try to find that special person that God made just for us so that we can do the thing that God created us for: leave our families and create new ones by marrying. So it's really unfair for people who are not marriage-minded to come along and use up our precious time when they know they don't want the same thing. They are just getting in the way of us finding the people who do want to get married.

This is why I hate the whole game of dating. Why can't we just be real and honest about what we want. No. Instead, society tell us (mostly the guys) not to allow anyone to put pressure on you and to run from anyone who wants to "tie you down." Don't ever grow up. Please! If you would just be real about not wanting to commit, the rest of us can move on and find someone who does, and you don't have to freak out that someone is trying to cut your fun time short. It's selfish. You want your cake and to eat it too. Meanwhile, those of us who want to settle down are still single into our late 20s/early 30s, lonely, and don't know who we can actually trust anymore.

It's really sad how our society has changed so much for the worse. Despite what the world would have you think, Feminism and the Sexual Revolution have messed it up for us all. Men are living self-destructive lives (that "seem fun") instead of marrying, having families, and, as a result, living happier, longer, and fuller lives. Women are being abandoned, having kids out of wedlock with no real promise that the father will stick around or being stuck to raise them alone, OR choosing to abort their children only to go back out there and get pregnant again. All this because we no longer think it's a good thing to pursue marriage...

Sounds like progress to me!

Well, keep your progress. I'll take marriage... Now if only we could identify and immediately avoid the losers who don't want a commitment, then we could find the winners who do a lot faster. They should have a Tag & Release program or something....

ObamaCare is a bunch of ObamaCrap

And I think MANY people all across America agree with that. Although the media and the current ruling party in the White House would have you believe that all those angry people showing up at Townhall Meetings are fake and being paid to be there. Riiiight! Let me tell you something: If angry people weren't showing up to those Townhall Meetings, I would be asking myself, "why the heck aren't more people angry about this?!" I'm just glad to see that I'm not the only one fed up with this crap!

Why in God's name would you want the government handling your healthcare? Just like Obama said himself, it would be run just like the Post Office (or like that other fun, government-run business, the DMV). GREEEAT! I really want to show up to the doctor and be ignored for 20 minutes, only to be sent away because I don't have all the right paperwork and blah blah blah, all with attitude to top it off and NO OTHER OPTION. Yes, that's how I like to be taken care of.

When I moved in with my dad I had Comcast as my cable company because that was all that was offered in my area, unless I wanted to get satellite, which I cannot afford. So, I took what I had available to me. Then Time Warner took over and they almost immediately pissed me off, but what pissed me off even more was the fact that I had to essentially put up with their crap because there was pretty much no other option and they know that. Now, yes, I can go with Satelite if I really hate it that much, but I'm just trying to make a point here.

So, I'm pissed because Time Warner is my only option, even though I do have an alternative if I'm willing to pay for it, but with ObamaCare, just like the DMV, there is no other option and that would make me BEYOND just pissed. There will be no competion--no other option even if you are willing to pony up the cash for it. You have to suck it up and take it up the you-know-what. Yes, that sounds like a great plan, Mr. President. All the while, if one of your family members gets sick, he/she will never have to wait as long as we will have to wait for care, and there certainly won't be an attitude about it because everytime you get around people, they get all googley-eyed anyway.

Whatever....

Competition is what makes this country great. If Domino's pisses you off, you can call up Pizza Hut or Poppa John's. You don't like Disneyland? Go to Magic Mountain. Target too expensive for you? Go to Walmart or the Dollar Tree. Options, people! You have them. They are good. They drive down prices because people are going to go to the cheapest place causing the other place to lower there prices so you'll come back. This is how a good economy works, yet Obama wants to take it away from us.

Yes, healthcare needs to be improved in this country, but socialist, "single-payer" (a.k.a single-OPTION) ObamaCare is NOT the route we need to take, people....

My 1-1-1 Project

This month will be one year since I started my "1-1-1 Project."

About one year ago (on 8/28/08 to be exact), I was running really late for work. The 60 was horrid because of an accident so I tried to take the 10, which wasn't any better. Frustrated, I got off the 10 and tried to take the streets. I was running VERY late, but God had a reason behind it. As I waited at red light after red light, I listened to Focus on the Family. That day Lee Strobel was speaking. As a former Athiest who went on a scientific quest to disprove the notion of a Creator, only to prove that there is One, he is definitely someone who's insights I like to hear.

Well, it got to a point where he started talking about prayer life and how we need to pray for people we know who are not saved. He got into how at his church they started a 1-1-1 project: Pray 1 time a day at 1 o'clock for 1 person who is unsaved. Well, it turned out to be a huge success. Almost immediately people were coming back telling him about the miracles and work that God had done as a result of their project.

This message fired me up and as soon as I got to work I wrote an email to my saved friends and family asking them to join me in doing the same:

Basically, it's a call to pray everyday at 1 o'clock for 1 minute for 1 person in your life who doesn't know the Lord. They had started this project two months before Easter and wanted them to pray for their chosen person everyday until Easter to see what happens... to see just how many people are changed by it. Of course, within weeks, the stories started pouring in about people who were giving their lives to Jesus. This moved me so much that I just started crying (I literally ruined my make-up for today!). That's when God put it on my heart to share this with you and to ask that you join me in doing the same thing.

I definitely have more than one person in my life who is lost and needs the Lord,
but I'm going to choose just one for now and pray for that person everyday at 1 PM for 1 minute, but I'm personally not going to do it for just a certain amount of time. I'm going to do it until that person has come to the Lord. Even if it takes years. (You can set a time limit if you want to. It's up to you and whatever God lays it on your heart to do.)

Won't you join me? Prayer works! God is faithful, even if He doesn't answer right away... We all have someone in our life who is lost, whether it's someone who just doesn't know enough to make the decision, or someone who has completely turned his/her back on God all together. We may not have the ability to personally bring them to Him for whatever reason, but He does. He can change their lives! He has the power.

God Bless you guys! I hope you can give just one minute of your life each day to ask the Lord to save one persons life for eternity....

Well, I have kept my promise to pray every day all the way up until now, except instead of 1 person, it has changed to 3 (and I usually do the praying at night before I go to bed). I've been praying for these three people for almost the entire year, and although none of them has accepted the Lord, I have still seen some work in their lives.

The biggest work I've seen through this project , however, was that I began to see big blessings in my own life since I started praying for others. I believe it is what opened up the door for me to finally get over myself and start to surrender to the Lord. A little after I started this project, I began Women's Bible Study, went to the Women's Retreat (where I surrendered my life fully to the Lord), and started to get more involved in church, including volunteering for Children's Ministry.

Everything is not all fine and dandy though at times. I admit that sometimes I get frustrated and impatient because I'm not seeing the progress that I would like to see with these three people, but I have to remind myself of what I said in that email: Even if it takes years! I will keep praying until my last breath if I have to. If it's to happen, it will happen when He ordains it. My only job here is to keep praying, and to rejoice in the little bits of progress I do get to witness.... God really is SO GOOD!