All posts by Treva Barnard

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About Treva Barnard

She is the mother of 3 beautiful girls, an author, a mentor, an inspirational writer and a minister in the gospel.

Beyond The Grave

Inspirational, , ,

Love Never Felt So Good by Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake

I came across this song tonight and it reminded me of some of his classic songs like “I wanna rock with you and PYT petty young thing” With technology now it allows us to do so many different things that we never thought were possible. I thought to myself how he is dead and gone, but yet his legacy which was his music still lives on beyond the grave. No matter what he did in his life he will always be known for his great music because it speaks the loudest. Nothing ever stopped him from achieving his greatest goal which I think was to touch others with his music. He is by far and will ever be one of the greatest music geniuses of our time. I then thought about my life and what will it speak once I am gone? What will I leave as my legacy and will I still be remembered when my life here is through? No matter how many mistakes you make, how many times that you may fall because NONE of us are perfect, but above all what does your life represent? I don’t seek to be famous, I don’t care to own millions of dollars, I don’t even care to be known all over the world as nice as all of that sounds. None of that matters if I live that type of life style or live my life and haven’t touched anyone. What I want my life to show more than anything in this world is that I loved God and that in my life He was glorified and shinned bright. Sometimes we live for the moment and never think down the road about what I do today will affect my tomorrow. If we can’t see beyond today we will get stuck in our tomorrow. Live out loud #CLEANTHISHOUSE

What’s In Your Garden

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Mary, Mary quite contrary, tell me how does your garden grow?

I’m finally starting to see some life being produced from my garden. Something’s were planted last year and something’s a couple of months ago. Every seed that is sown doesn’t produce at the same time. They each have their own time in which you will see evidence. Some of them I never noticed they had grown until oneday I happened to look in that direction and said, “Now where did that come from all of a sudden”. I never even watered it, but it still has grown and is strong. Some of them I have had to water every other day so the roots can set beneath the soil. The fact that the buds are beginning to blossom means that it’s working. It’s going to take a lot of work, but anything worth having is worth the time, energy and investment in order for it to grow and then doing what it takes to maintain it so it will stay healthy and continue to grow strong.In your garden you will sometimes produce seeds that you didn’t sow for. I realized that when cutting my grass there are some weeds that are constantly growing. Though some of them are beautiful because they actually look like flowers if not cut off at the root they will spread and can be deadly to other things that I am growing. There are some seeds that have been planted that you need to keep, but you need to let it grow to maturity before uprooting and replanting so that it will survive. Good seeds produced in it’s proper season can be benefical. My daddy said that I have a couple of cherry trees growning. I said, “Well how do you know?” I can tell by it’s leaves. His advice was to keep watering and let them grow a little before replanting them. One plants, one waters, but God gives the increase. #CLEANTHISHOUSE

The Merry Go Round

Inspirational, , , , ,

From time to time, I occasionally go help out at another one of our offices. It seems like every time I go there is a red robin that constantly runs into the window. It’s been almost a year since I’ve been there and as I was sitting there I heard a loud thump. There was that red robin again running himself into the window. You would think that after that long period of time, he would have learned by now, but they say that he does it every day. I said to myself, doesn’t that hurt. I’m surprised he hasn’t broken something because he would hit the glass so hard that it would startle you. After awhile, you would ignore it. But you would notice when he stopped and when he started again. We would all say there goes that red robin again. Have you ever found yourself going in circles as if on a Merry Go Round? You seem to end up in the same place, but only a new scenery. Seems like the same relationship but only a different face. You kicked the last habit, but only to pick up another one that put you back in the same place of the habit that you just kicked. What about when you get into a particular place and it feels like deja vu. It seems like I have been here before. Round and round you go…Where you end up nobody knows. The fact of the matter is, you don’t have to continue in those repeated cycles of your life. Only you can stop the cycle. Sometimes we have to get sick and tired of being sick and tired. You can’t shift the blame on others, the change begins in us. They say we attract what we are, so what is in you that keeps attracting negative energy or keeps you going through those same patterns. We have to be willing to do some soul-searching and some self-evaluation and see what in us do we need to change or stop. The power is within us to determine how to stop the merry-go-round, but we have to be willing to get off and not get back on again. #CLEANTHISHOUSE

Don’t Jump

Inspirational, , , , , ,

She was standing at the edge of the cliff trying to tell herself why she had no reason to live but something said,
DON’T JUMP
She said to herself, will anyone really miss me, will they even notice that I am gone? She heard that voice again,
DON’T JUMP
She started to step back away from the cliff and she turned around to see if anyone was there but she saw no one.She turned back around and started back towards the cliff.
She then began to wonder how far down would she have to fall before she died and as she started to step off the cliff ìt was as if something grabbed her and pulled her away, but when she opened her eyes she saw no one. Scratching her head as if to be puzzled she realized it was God telling her to LIVE.
Though I wasn’t physically at the cliff, ìt was as if I had been there for real but the Lord saved me just in time.
I was saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, married with kids, but still felt like my life wasn’t worth living.
How do we get so down in life that we feel like dying would be the easiest way out.
We allow the pressures of life, people and our own self images of ourselves play over and over again in our heads. That moment seems to last forever.
That was years ago, but I made the decision to LIVE instead of die.
It hasn’t been easy,but I take it one day at a time and I trust God and his leading.
When I changed my way of thinking it changed my perspective, so no matter what I went through or had to endure I knew God would be with me through it all.
When I think about how God gave his only begotten Son that I could live and to know that I could live in peace and walk in freedom and total victory makes my life worth living.
Because He lives I can face tomorrow
Because He live all fear is gone
Because I know, I know, I know who holds my future
And life is worth the living just because He lives
#CLEANTHISHOUSE

Don’t Drive on (E)mpty

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Give Me You by Shana Wilson

One of the things that I hate most is pumping gas. I will almost run out of gas before I go fill up until one day I actually ran out of gas. I was on my lunch break and my light came on which indicated that I was low on gas. Some cars will either give you a red warning sign or it will make a ding noise to let you know that you need to fill up. I kept ignoring the warning signs thinking I had a little more time. I tried to guess what I could do before I went to go fill up. Something kept telling me to go now, but I was a little ways from a gas station. By the time I decided to listen to the inner voice as I was coming around the corner in heavy traffic my car stopped on me. It put me in a very bad situation. It was hard for me to even get out of my car because of the traffic, I backed up traffic, people were blowing their horns at me and I was embarrassed. I was hoping no one would see me. It’s just like trying to withdrawal money from your bank account that you don’t have. Depending on how you are withdrawing the money out it will either say insufficient funds, declined, or it will put your account in the negative. The end result is that you end up paying more out than you anticipated which could be avoided if we learn how to budget and not over spend. But just like we have to put gas in our car for it to run or to make sure we have available funds in the bank before spending it is the same thing we have to do in order for us to properly function. Have you ever been in a place where you felt bla! to the point of filling tired and empty? In most cases it is because we are running on (E)mpty. We have given out and we haven’t taken the time to be refreshed, restored or renewed. If we continue in this pattern it will cause our bodies to break down, we become sick and at times on the edge of having a nervous break down. You are all that you have and if you don’t take care of your body which is the temple of the Holy Ghost no one else. What good are you to anyone if you are broke down. 3 John 1:2 “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul proseperth” Don’t get to the point of (E)mpty that you ignore the warning signs that you need to be refilled. #CLEANTHISHOUSE

We Built It From The Ground

Inspirational, , ,

http://www.citizen-times.com/videos/news/local/2014/03/29/6953849/

20140401-223046.jpg

Treva Williams
with her daughters, Cierra, 10, left, and Corrie, 8, at their new
Reems Creek community home earlier this month.

“Surprise don’t get much better than this.”

For 10 months, Treva Williams and her 19-year-old daughter, Kade’sha, kept a whale of a secret from Williams’ two
younger daughters, Cierra, 10, and Corrie, 8.A new house.
“We built it from the ground up,” Williams said, cooking dinner in the
kitchen of her new north Buncombe home as Cierra and Corrie set the
table.
A supervisor at the Mountain Area Health Education Center,
Williams, 40, participated in the Mountain Housing Opportunities
Self-Help Home Ownership program, which provides low- or
moderate-income families a pathway to homeownership.
Participants reduce their mortgage payments through “sweat equity” — working on their home and others in the development on weekends.”We started in November of 2012 and worked through August of 2013 — in the cold,
in the rain, you name it,” Williams said. “We had two contractors on site giving us instructions, step by step.”They put in 17 hours a week, usually working Saturdays and Sundays.
Going through a divorce at the time, Williams told her younger daughters she and their older sister were working on “a project” on the weekends when
they went to stay with their dad.They kept the secret until August, when they blindfolded the younger girls and took them inside the two-story home in the Compass Park subdivision.”It was the hardest thing for me to keep this away from them,” Williams said. “I’m big
on surprises.”When the girls removed the blindfolds, they didn’t know what to make of their surroundings. Until Williams told them it was their house.Then the girls dashed upstairs to claim their rooms.”It still brings tears to my eyes,” Williams said, choking
up. “To be able to provide that for my daughters. I couldn’t have done it without my daughter’s help and without God’s help. If it can happen to me, it can happen for somebody else.
“Williams’ older daughter attends college at Amada Musical Arts School in Los Angeles now, but for 13 years she, her two sisters and their
parents shared a two-bedroom apartment in MHO’s River Glen
Apartments. Williams received information about the Self-Help
program in the mail and jumped at the chance.
The program combines
the sweat equity of multiple families helping build each others’
homes with financing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
NeighborWorks America, and Buncombe County.
The girls love the new house, with its spacious living room and laminate wood floors. And
they like not having to share a bed anymore.”We can have our own
room, and I don’t have to sleep with that person,” Cierra said,
pointing at her sister.”Me either,” Corrie chipped in. “She’s such kicker.”Williams, who has a strong Christian faith, thanks Mountain Housing Opportunities and God for her blessings. She knows how tough the Asheville housing market is.”Like in most cities, you have a cost of living and your income that would balance out,”
Williams said, gesturing with her hands for emphasis. “In our area,
the cost of living is very high, but the income is low. It’s hard to raise a family and make it without three or four jobs. “Mountain Housing Opportunities homeowners have built 26 homes so far in the Self-Help program in Leicester, Black Mountain, and the Reems Creek
area of Weaverville. Six more are under construction in Reems Creek, and the next neighborhood will be in Swannanoa. More than 700
hours per homeowner of construction labor creates “sweat equity,”
which serves as down payment on the home, so there is no cash down
payment required. Homeowners in MHO’s Self-Help program typically
have $25,000-$30,000 of equity in their home when they complete
construction and move in.MHO Executive Director Scott Dedman said
homeowners in the Self-Help program “accomplish a Herculean task to
build their own homes.”
“Treva’s story is especially inspirational because her oldest daughter, Kade’sha, worked so closely with her
throughout construction, and then they surprised the younger daughters with the finished home,” Dedman said. “I believe that Treva and her children appreciate the value of owning a home as much as any family could.”An Asheville native, Williams says she
makes between $20,000 and $30,000 a year. They were paying $445 a
month for rent at River Glen, and now her 30-year mortgage comes in
at about $675 a month.Paying the mortgage beats paying rent any
day.”I calculated what I spent in rent, and I would’ve had half a
house paid for if I’d started then,” Williams said. “To me, I think
about how it’s an investment, not a debt.”

Don’t Ignore The Signs

Inspirational, , ,

Potters House by Tramaine Hawkins

I came into the house and I laid my stuff down. Of course my shoes are the first thing off. I went to hang up my coat and as I stepped onto the carpet I noticed it was wet. I kneeled down to see how wet it actually was and how far it went out into the carpet. The first thing I thought of was to call my contractor to see what I needed to do being that this is a fairly new house and everything is still under warranty. As one who has helped to physically build my home I knew the layout, so the next thought was to find out where the leakage was coming from. I noticed that the water was fresh so it had to have happened sometime within the course of the day. As I was describing what I saw to the contractor he asked if I saw any water leaking from the ceiling or if I noticed any water coming from out of the walls. The fact that we didn’t see any signs of those was a good possibility that it wasn’t a busted pipe. The hall closet is underneath the washer and dryer room so I immediately went upstairs and right before I reached to the top of the steps I noticed some dark spots. I felt the carpet and it was soaked which lead all the way out to the hallway. I knew then it was coming from the washer and dryer room because of the direction it was coming from. As I went in I saw water on the floor and in between the washer and dryer. I stood still to see if I could hear any water dripping and sure enough it was coming from out of the vials. My contractor told me to call the plumber, but being that it was after hours I probably wouldn’t be able to get in touch with anyone. I thought I would try anyway, but I had to leave a message and wait until the following day. In the mean time I started to lay down towels to soak up the water within the carpet and the water that had gotten on the floor. We determined the problem, what was the source of the problem, how to fix the problem and were there any long-term damages. The contractor said it is normal and over a period of time things become damaged or loosed. It could be a simple fix or if it isn’t caught in time there could be long-term damage. Just think if I would have ignored that or not noticed it what I could have walked into or woke up to. It is important that we take care of our natural as well as our spiritual house. Over a period of time there are things that need to be repaired, tightened up, things we need to get rid of or clean up like our attitudes, our thought process, a broken heart, the company we keep, the things we entertain, etc. If we ignore the warning signs that something in our house is wrong over a period of time it will cause more damage than what it’s worth. #CLEANTHISHOUSE

Stop The Cycle

Inspirational, , , , , ,

Break Every Chain by Tasha Cobbs

One day my two smallest girls had gotten into an argument and my baby girl started yelling and stormed up to her room. At that moment I had a fast forward picture of an older version of me and I heard the Lord say stop the cycle. To myself I said we are going to stop this now because she will not wait until she is my age to learn how to communicate and express herself correctly. So I called her back downstairs and I asked her what happened and to talk to me about how she feels. She immediately began to cry. I told her that I’m not fussing and that we are going to do whatever it takes to walk through this process. It was ok for her to feel the way she felt and what she had to say was important, but it wasn’t ok in how she responded. I would sometimes have problems with communicating what I felt and wanted to say so in my frustration I would not think what I had to say was important so I wouldn’t say it, I would hold it in until I exploded and 9 out of 10 it was on the person who didn’t even deserve it. Because I had no one to help me through it, it became and formed other unhealthy habits that became worse as an adult. They say that some habits are hard to break, but every cycle can be broken. A lot of it was learning how to forgive, let go and how to effectively communicate. I explained to my daughter why it was important and that I didn’t want her to wait until she was an adult to learn what she can now. It’s just like a hamster who get’s up on the wheel and once it learns how to make it turn it continue’s the cycle. It may occasionally stop and get off, but it will get back on it because overtime it became a habit and that was all it had been shown. Until it learns something better it continues the cycle. In life we continue the same cycles because it’s all we’ve known, been shown or we didn’t learn from the time before. We have the power within us to break every cycle that has been handed down to us through generations or things we have picked up over the course of our life. Just like the hamster we can get off the wheel at any given point, but it’s up to us to make the choice to stay off the continued cycle and form a more positive habit that will cause us to live a long and healthy life. The question is are we willing to do what it takes to break every chain? #CLEANTHISHOUSE

Even Damaged Goods

Inspirational, , , ,

Never Be Same by Shana Wilson & Tasha Cobb

When your buying fresh fruit it is originally whole. It’s not torn apart into pieces, damaged for the most part, but intact and complete. If you were to start peeling away the skin it would no longer be whole, but in parts. You could try to piece it back together but it would never be whole again. Some fruit may look damaged on the outside and in most cases would be overlooked because we would consider it damaged, rotten or no good. Like a banana it can get brown pretty quick on the outside, but when you pull back the skin it could be perfectly fine. Not all fruits are bad because of what they look like on the outside. It’s after you pull back the layer of skin and get to the core of it which is the best part and what will benefit you most. I am reminded of the nursery rhythm: Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and the Kings horses and all the Kings man couldn’t put Humpty together again. Yet we look to imperfect people to heal us when yet we have a righteous and all-powerful God. But even a broken egg can produce a meal. Some fresh fruits like peaches, pears and mangos you don’t want to buy them when they are still firm or hard because they won’t to be ready, but the longer you let them sit, over a period of time they become soft and you can smell their scent that means they are ready to be picked. It you pick or use anything before it’s time or out of its season it want taste as good and not only will it affect you, but everything that is connected to you. When you wait on the direct timing of God it will all fall in place. You may not see it initially or even feel that anything is happening, but if you follow His plan it’s working. #CLEANTHISHOUSE

Even On Broken Pieces

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It Belongs To You by Deitrick Haddon

It was in August of 2002 when I was married at the time that we found out we were pregnant. We were sooo excited because we were trying to have a child, but yet in the midst of what should have been a happy moment I had this unsettling feeling that I wasn’t going to carry this baby to full term. I tried to avoid what I was feeling from within and still carry the mask of happiness when inside I was worried and afraid of “what if?” A month later I started bleeding which only confirmed what I was feeling. We went to the hospital and I had taken all the necessary test to confirm that I was having a miscarriage. And if that wasn’t bad enough they wanted me to have the rest of the miscarriage at home. I can’t even began to explain to you what I was feeling at that time. Later that evening I was in the bathroom still crying and for a moment I lost it as I took the glass and threw it up against the door. As I watched the shattered pieces fall on the ground I began to scream and ask God why did he do this to me. I was angry with God and the fact that I was home by myself. Days later when I came to I realized God was really protecting me. What if something was wrong with the baby, would I be able to handle that? I realized it just wasn’t time. Even though I trusted God, over a period of time I began to build more walls because I never let go of the fact that I was home alone. As women we have this natural habit of feeling like we have got to handle it all. Probably because somewhere in our childhood we had to defend ourselves, in our marriages, relationships, raising our kids even though the men were present yet they were absent. So when things happen we go in defensive mode, we build up walls and shields in thinking we are protecting ourselves when in yet we are hurting ourselves. It is in our brokenness that we can be restored, we can be healed and be made whole. It doesn’t mean that we are weak, but that we are still in need of him. He can’t help us if we are still trying to handle it all. He says come to me all ye who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. He never told us to bear it but to cast all of our cares upon him for he careth for thee. God will take all the broken pieces of ours lives and make us whole again, but we have to give him every broken piece.#CLEANTHISHOUSE