Life is Like A Mixed Tape

Here I date myself.....

Anybody remember mixed tapes? Hours spent making them. Hours spent listening to them? Contemplating orders of songs and choices. What was the true message of this mixed tape? These were serious questions! You laugh but if you were a child of the 80's or even 90's you understand.

I find that at 40 life is so much like those mixed tapes. When life is going by it is important for us to always chose the next song. In this beautiful life you will find many adventures. Some welcomed with excitement and joy and others with a heavy heart simply endured. The great news is that we don't just have to sit back and wait for what "life" has for us because we know a God that has created us full of purpose and life!

Don't live your life on Pandora...waiting to see what song they'll play and where "they" will take you. Take reigns of your life and make your own Mixed Tape.  

If life is giving you a valley with a slow beat you have the choice to change tune and make it the journey you imagine your Mixed Tape of life to be!!

Plan the next song and dance my friend!

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."-Psalm 30:5

Rose Bushes

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”- Abraham Lincoln

I never really liked roses. I never really understood why but I always knew.

When my husband and I started dating I asked him to never send me flowers. They just didn't mean to me what they meant to most girls. I'd prefer a box of chocolates thank you very much. So years went on like that. I never questions my discomfort with roses. They just annoyed me.

Recently we moved into a new home. A very pretty spanish style home that was cared by a lovely lady who loved roses. (of course) The entire front yard was riddled with roses bushes. Every color and all kinds! (I never even realized there were different kinds) I was annoyed by this view of my porch. So one day I decided to cut them down in preparation for a nice green lawn. I took shears and started cutting away.

A few bags later my husband walked by. I asked him what the point of such pretty things with such thorns!? It's then it all came to me. I rarely have moments where things hit me all at once but this was one of the rare few. I recalled going to buy flowers as a little girl with my Dad. Always believing they were for my mom and I but somehow they never made it home to us. He would say he never actually bought them or that they died in the car from sunlight. In this far memory I found the root of my distaste for roses. What flowers were meant to represent in our society as love and friendship actually represented betrayel and the feeling of not being "enough" for a man I loved.

There it was. So little. So simple. So sad. I finally realized that it was never about the roses but something the enemy had planted within me so many years ago. As I continued to cut these bushes that morning I said a simple prayer. "God, as I cut these out physically help me cut it out spiritually from where the roots grow. May no one ever plant what is not of you within my me. Give me the sight to pull it out not only of myself but of others around me!"

Funny thing.... a few weeks later I walked onto the porch to enjoy my coffee and saw that every single rose bush had regrown. Oh, but not just regrown but grown anew! Taller, fuller and brighter than before. So many little rose buds staring right at me! What????

I started reading articles on rose bushes and came to find out that "You could never prune a rose bush in a wrong way." Why? Because it would simply outgrow the incorrect pruning and grow anyways!

It's simply beautiful how God will never allow his children to be pruned incorrectly and will always correct the mistakes and continue to grow us!

So again I quote:

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”- Abraham Lincoln

Holy Spirit whispers

As I was driving my kids to school this morning my daughter asked if she could tell me a story. Now, at 7 years old there’s only so far these stories normally go and they usually end the same however, this morning I felt a whisper from the Holy Spirit to really hear. As I listened to her story I was well aware that this story was exactly what God wanted me to hear today. I would love to share this with you!

A story from my Leilani:

“There was a little girl and she was really great at a lot of things. People always told her she was great and she liked it. She could sing, dance, act and was great at anything she did. One day she decided she wanted to do a show for her family and friends because she was so wonderful at so many things. She practiced and worked really hard. On the day of the show she did everything amazing and was so excited at the end when she took a bow for her friends and family but she didn’t hear a single applause or cheer. She didn’t understand and was confused until she looked up and looked to see why and then she noticed that during her entire show she forgot one single thing…..to open the curtain!”

Isn’t it funny how we all get caught up into thinking we are skilled, gifted or purposed at something when others applaud us? If we don’t keep our focus on God we begin to think it’s all about us and that we don’t need anyone’s help! How great would it have been if this little girl allowed her friends and family to be part of the show and depend on someone she trusted to open up that curtain!

The great works we do are nothing if we do not include others in the progress and if we forget to open the curtain what is it all for? Do you have people in your life helping you improve your story? People that hold the crucial role of opening up the windows and doors of your life for others to see the wonders God has done? God created us for community and one talented person will never go as far as a group of talented people! So invite your friends to the beautiful story you are writing and make it a beautiful show for all to see!

Thank you to my little Leilani for the story that opened my heart today! And thank you Holy Spirit for your quiet prompting whispers!!!

"I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me!" ..so run!!

Hello friend,

This is a letter to you. Yes, you. I want to remind you that you can do everything you want. Maybe someone, something, somewhere in the past told you that you couldn't and you started believing it. I did. Well friend, they lied to you! The devil is a liar! (John 8:44)

A true friend will always tell you the truth out of love. One of my biggest desires is to see all my friends fulfill the dreams God gave them long ago. Why? Simply because someone did it for me a long time ago and my life has been forever changed!

Maybe you're a student with a full load, a stay-at-home mom caring for your family, a working woman learning the ropes, a successful career focused chick, a young girl lost & searching for the right purpose, a hard working mom or a single mom just trying to do it all. The truth is, I have all of these ladies in my life and I LOVE it!!!

Here's a brief list of some of my friends:

• SHE lay her career down to raise her baby & help her husband with his business.
• SHE followed her husband across the ocean to be closer to him as he serves our country.
• SHE just had her second baby and loves them dearly but can't wait to get back to work.
• SHE had her third baby and stepped back into a busy career caring for others.
• SHE is a full time Doctorate student, employee & encourager...all while taking the bus!
• SHE is a busy ER nurse and uses her testimony to witness to many.
• SHE is a single mom working a demanding career and raising her kids alone.
• SHE is lost and searching but determined to stay connected with healthy women.
• SHE left to Africa to become a missionary in her 40s.
• SHE refused to let her addiction overtake her & now coaches young women.
• SHE dedicates her life to loving the homeless and marginalized.
• SHE refuses to let the past keep her chained & chooses freedom on a daily basis.
• SHE refuses to be broken and continues to search for purpose and calling.
• SHE works full time, takes care of her family and is determined to make a difference.  
• SHE is single but does not worry and focuses on her purpose & career. 
• SHE homeschools and sets her family up for a win while leading other moms to health.
• SHE refuses to let cancer define her life even in the midst of chemotherapy.
• SHE runs the good race! (1 Corin 9:24)

Maybe you see yourself in this list or in several of these women. Congratulations my friend, you are doing it all through CHRIST who strengthens you. The lie from the past has no hold on you. The truth is friend, you can do what you choose to do. The question is, are YOU choosing to do it? 

I would love to challenge you. The question does not rest on your "capacity" but on your focus and determination to just DO IT. Is something holding you back from just going for it? Is it fear of failure? If you at least give it a shot then you stand a chance!

The difference between what I could have become and what I am was all weaved through choices. I grew up in East Los Angeles, child of immigrant parents, abused and with addictive tendencies. I had to set my focal point high and run! There were no mentors, coaches or leaders that took me under their wing but I knew there was a need for them and that one day I would bridge that gap.

So today, when you see me busy with a full time ministry, a mom of triplets, a wife, a friend, a student, a mentor and a pretty darn good cook....don't compare, don't judge and don't suppose that it's a front. I am no better than you, I don't have a larger "capacity" (whatever that's suppose to mean), I didn't have more means than you, it's not a facade. All I did friend, was choose to believe the word of God and not the enemy that I could do it all and I ran! You can too! Your "all" may look different than mine and at the end of the day, only you and God can judge what lane you choose. So look up my friend AND RUN!!!

One last piece of advise that I'll share that a wise person once told me.... "you can do it all but that doesn't mean you have to do it all....right now." ....Of course the latina comes out of me wanting to ask... "Right now, right now? or just right now." (this is only funny if you know George Lopez or any members of my Cervantes family!) and there you have it, another little crazy side of me!

See you on the journey!

****THANK YOU to all my beautiful friends represented in this post. your example and friendship fuels my soul! I live vicariously through the stay-at-home mom, the single girl searching for purpose and the women in the midst of the battle but choosing to fight the good fight! My life is full because of you!*****

This is the BEST LIFE!

 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

During the holiday seasons we all need a little reminder of the great plans God has for each one of us. Whether you're on a beautiful mountain peak or a lonely valley remember, HIS plans for you never change! The enemy is an expert on confusion but you my friend...are an expert on how HE loves you!

So go LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE!

Even this in-love wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter and Pastor can use a reminder once in a while!