Before I Die By Kirk Franklin
A fighter prepares for their fight by exercising, eating healthy, sharpening their boxing skills and techniques. They also look at their previous fights not only of themselves but of their optants to study their techniques and patterns. I have never been much of a boxing fan except for when it came to Mohammad Ali and watching Rocky, but they encouraged me to keep fighting though our techniques maybe a little different. No matter what they never stopped fighting. The biggest struggle I think during a fight is when we have been fighting for so long we become tired, weary and hopeless to the point that we even stop fighting back. We lose our vision along the way as we began to focus on the background noise, the things that surround us. We have taken so many blows that we began to lose sight of our optants that were swinging at nothing but air. Our problem is that we keep going, but seldom take the time for to catch our breath, regroup and then go at it again. We need to shake ourselves, wipe our face, refocus, square our shoulders up and go in again. You were built for this, catch your second wind. I may fall down sometimes, but it will never make knock me out. A good fighter never stops fighting even when they lose a battle.
#CLEANTHISHOUSE
Category Archives: Inspirational
Go Through The Process
Yesterday when I went to get my mail I received something from the Red Light Enforcement Program. Scratching my head I opened it up and there were 3 shots of my car which included one of my licenses tag. Apparently I was being issued a ticket for running the red light. Right! With my mouth wide open all I could say was WOW! I remembered the moment very well as if it were yesterday. I was trying to get to my destination by a certain time and as I approached the light and it was turning yellow instead of my cautioning to stop I put the petal to the metal thinking I had a little more time and went straight through the light. Speed doesn’t mean progress and nor will it insure you to get to your destination any quicker. I still would have had to go through the process of waiting at the next light. So what if I were a few minutes late. What if someone would have taken a chance at the same time that I did, it could have be worse than just a ticket. Sometimes in life we must take chances, but some chances can be fatal if they aren’t the right ones to take. We have to learn to stop taking short cuts and chances that at one time or another worked for us so we thought. The next time it could cause us major damage or something more fatal. Is it worth taking our life or the life of someone else. Everything that we do effects no only us but someone else. If I would have paced myself I would have had more time. Time management. Preparing my clothes the day before, getting plenty of rest by going to bed a little bit earlier, wake up a little bit earlier, leave out a little earlier. This would not only help me to get to my destination on time if not earlier, but also prepare me for any delays that might come along the way. Even though I reached my destination on time I had to gather myself before even getting out of the car because I felt rushed and on edge. If we get anything in life before it’s time especially when we are aren’t ready for it the same thing that was meant to be bless us could turn around and curse us. The things that we learn while going through the process become much more valuable when we have reached or destination at the appointed time. #CLEANTHISHOUSE
Looking Beyond What I See
I’ll Be There by Tiffany Evans Cover by Kadesha Barnard
I was driving to work this morning and I ended up behind a handicapped bus and the 1st thing that came to my mind was they are going to take forever. The Lord reminded me of my impatience and my wrong perception. I immediately asked the Lord to forgive me. My mind then went to a conversation me and my spiritual son had last night. At the age of 12 he had a gun shot wound to his head. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was an Administrator at a Home Health Agency at the time. The Dr’s gave him zero chance of survival. They said if he survived he would be a vegetable the rest of his life. He would have to feed from a tube, never able to talk or having any feeling in his body. It is 6 yrs later and though he is paralyzed I was able to hold a 2 hr conversation with him. He can just about eat anything he wants, he no longer has a trach, he still has some sensations in parts of his body, he is back in school and is graduating this yr. He still has the desire to go off to school to be a lawyer. I encouraged him to look beyond his present condition and go for it. In life our situations and circumstances will change, but it doesn’t change the call or the anointing God has placed on your life. We may have to go another way and it may even take a little longer to get there, but with God ALL things are possible. Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” Don’t allow your circumstances to disable you, cripple you or handicap you from fulfilling the purpose of God in your life. #CLEANTHISHOUSE
What Your Feeding On Could Eventually Feed On You
Almost 3 1/2 yrs ago I found out I was Gluten intolerant so I had to go Gluten Free. What is that actually, what does that intel, what does that mean for me? I have never heard of such a thing. I felt it was the worst timing ever to try to change and adapt yet to another thing.
After doing my research I found out that if I didn’t get it under control that it could eventually turn into Celiacs Disease which could lead into cancer. I also found out a lot of the symptoms that I had been dealing with for well over 7 yrs may have been a result of that. At that time Gluten intolerance was uncommon and not very common when I found out about it. I am a person who doesn’t like to take a lot of medicine, so the best thing I could do was change my diet. No more wheat, whey or barley which was in just about everything. The 1st year was sooo hard for me. It was almost like going through rehab and going through the periods of withdrawals. I couldn’t do fried foods, most sweets or pastas. I lost a lot of weight which I didn’t need to lose. I had to look at all ingredients when I shopped and when going out to eat I had to ask. The things that I started to notice were having very little to no headaches, abdominal pain, constipation, depression, fatigue, etc. My thinking was clear, I felt my energy coming back, I was feeling better than I had felt in years, I was getting my life back. After being on it for a while I could tell if I ate something I wasn’t suppose to because those symptoms would come back. Sometimes it would affect me right away or it would be several days after consumption. I think about how we eat off of or consume the things that aren’t good for us. Unhealthy and ungodly life styles, relationships, the things we allow others to dump on us, what we even speak out of our own mouths. We know what it will or what it would eventually cause down the line, but yet we still do it. The things that produce outwardly in our lives are the things that already existed and was growing on the inside. Whatever you feed the most is what will grow. If you don’t want to see it manifested in the future then watch what we intake today. Be careful the things you inhale good or bad will come back out eventually and will double sometimes triple it’s size of consumption.#CLEANTHISHOUSE
The Finished Canvas
This too shall pass by India Arie
“For we know that all things work together for the good of them that love God and are called according to His purpose” Romans 8:28
If I would have never failed I wouldn’t know what it was like to overcome
If I was never sick I would never know what it means to be healed
If I would have never experienced a broken heart I would never known what it was like to be mended
If I never suffered I wouldn’t know what it means to endure
If I would have never gone without then I wouldn’t know that God will supply
If I never experienced a weak moment I would never know what it means to be strong
Somethings that we have gone through at the time didn’t show a good scenario or picture. At times it almost looked hopeless, but the more that we trusted God and followed His lead things still worked and in some cases better than what they were. Just like the painter in the beginning stages of the painting it may not even look appealing and it may even cause you to wonder how will it all come together, but once the picture was completed it turned out to be a masterpiece. God will take the broken pieces of our lives to make a masterpiece. It is because of our experiences in life that has caused us to be who we are today. Nothing that we have gone through in life goes wasted. He will still turn it around for our good. #CLEANTHISHOUSE
For Every Mountain
As I was traveling today and I was coming down the mountains as if to go into the valley, there were several things that I noticed.1. How windy and narrow the roads were.2. The barriers and fences they had over certain parts of the rocks to protect the road in case of an avelanche.3. The closer I got to the valley which almost seemed to be in the heart or middle of the mountain felt like they were closing in on me and I started feeling smothered as if I couldn’t breath. The mountains seemed right on top of me and I became overwhelmed almost to the point of fear.4. Half way down the mountain my check engine light came on and my car began to sputter when my speed got up to 50 – 70. I prayed Lord please let me make it safe to my destination. Nothing like already going through and now here comes something else out of no where.5. As I began to get back on level ground the mountains that seemed to be on top of me I could now see them at a distance, the roads straightened out and that changed the way I felt. My breathing changed, I no longer felt overwhelmed or had any fear. Even though it didn’t solve the fact that my engine light was still on, I was closer to my destination than I was before and I had a sense of peace.In life we will have experiences that will almost seem like we are on a roller coaster ride, but we can’t stop in middle of it we have to keep going. It is what we do in the midst of it that will sometimes determine the outcome. We will come up against some mountains or giants, but God has given us everything we need to fight and to overcome them all. Just like the barriers they had to protect the highway in case of a rock slide are some of the barriers God will put in our lives to protect us. We have to trust God even when we don’t understand. Life circumstances are only temporary, but with every challenge He will give us away of escape. God will sometimes use the engine light, caution lights, red signals as a warning sign. How often do we pay attention to them? A lot of times we will go right by them or ignore the signs and then when something happens we question God when He already forewarned us but we chose to ignore the warning signs.#CLEANTHISHOUSE
Its Never To Late
It was at the age of 21 that I found out I was pregnant. It was in my life at that time that had God come back I was probably catching the 1st plan ticket to Hell. My life was sooooo jacked up as I was struggling with low self-esteem, trying to fit in, find my identity, looking for love IN ALL the wrong places. So much had happened at that time in my life the last thing I needed to do was get pregnant. The 2 things I thought were my daddy gon kill me, what church folk gon say, my daddy gon kill me. Regardless of the matter all I knew is that I was going to have this baby and I’m so glad that I did. I have always told her I felt like God gave me an Angel when He gave me her and that he sent her to save my life. I was at the point, on the very edge of letting go. She has been my rock through out the years and Lord knows I couldn’t have made it without her. And look at her now. “ALL things work together for the good of them that love God and are called according to His purpose” Looking back I loved God, but I wasn’t in love with him. I didn’t have a true relationship and I didn’t know who I was because I didn’t know Him. Now that I am truly in love with Jesus Christ, I have a deep relationship with Him and because of that I know who I am. My desire to love and please Him has become greater than my desire to please my flesh, to have sex outside marriage and wait for my Boaz. Stop believing the lie that it is too late. Holiness is still right and you can live Holy. God can purify you, sanctify you and make you whole again. No it isn’t easy, take it from one who has been married and is now single, but it’s a choice and a life style. I’m determined to live the life I preach and teach about. Don’t always make the mark, but I don’t stay there I get back up and try again. The cleaning starts on the inside out not the outside in. #CLEANTHISHOUSE
Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover
A couple of days ago my front desk received a new credit card machine. I had the option to take the new one or to keep the old one and of course with the excitement of it being “new” I took that one. It was smaller than the other one, had new fancy gadgets and because it was “new” it probably was more efficient. The 1st day I noticed that in fact it was faster in speed but every time I made a transaction it went off-line and had to reconnect again before accepting the transaction. Then today I made an error in the dollar amount and needed to void the transaction which was a longer process in itself. On the older cc machine all I had to do was press void and enter the ref#. Well with the “new” one there was no void nor cancel button. In fact I had to call the 1-800# to get help with making a void transaction. What I thought would be an easier, quicker or more efficient process ended up adding a lot of unnecessary steps all because I judged a book by its cover thinking it would be better and actually it wasn’t. Now I’m stuck with it. It is just like us in life we up grade our cars, our homes, our churches, our friends, our spouse or our relationships all because we think the grass is greener on the other side when in actuality it’s not. Don’t get me wrong , some up grades are necessary. It’s all how we look and value what we have. Like a house that over time builds up equity we look at it as a debt instead of an investment. In a relationship we only scratch the surface of who they really are because it is too much work, but if we ever dug beneath the surface, underneath the dirt and hit the core of who they really are we would find we have a diamond in the rough, a jewel of great value. If we can ever learn to take care of our own grass flowers will grow eventually. #CLEANTHISHOUSE
Delayed But NOT Denied
What’s Coming Is Better by Deon Kipping
As I was looking out the window today and I was pondering on somethings I found myself questioning God, Lord how much longer do I have to wait? Have you ever been right at the threshold, but for God to say not yet. You can see it on the other side of the glass and God says, wait just a little while longer. What seemed so far away is now standing in your face, but yet you haven’t been granted the access to enter in. We live in a microwave generation where we want everything now and don’t want to wait for anything. There were times I was stuck in traffic and how impatient I would become because I had somewhere to be, but to later come across an accident. Standing in a grocery line that would just not move, but someone in the parking lot just got robbed. We may never understand the reason for waiting, but we must trust God still. “Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season you will reap if you faint not” Gal 6:9 When God has us in awaiting or holding position it is because it isn’t time yet. It’s not that we have been denied access, but only delayed. He’s preparing us for something that we can’t handle right now. While in waiting it’s so easy to lose hope,to give up, become discouraged, to turn around and go back to the familiar. The process is necessary so don’t give up, don’t lose heart. He will do just what He said. #CLEANTHISHOUSE
Shinning In The Midst of a Dark Place
We were leaving out one morning and I realized how dark it is now. When we first moved into our new home I realized we had NO street lights and it was pitch dark. I would have to turn on the porch light so we could see. So I went to get some of the lights that you stick in the ground to keep you from stumbling in the dark or fall off into the ditch. I asked one of the sales clerk for assistance because I had no idea how to use them. I asked him what kind of batteries do you use when they go out and he said that they are solar so they charge in the light during the day. It is amazing that we know that night is coming, but what do we do to prepare for it? We get comfortable and relaxed in the day time when things are well that we don’t take the time to build up our strength through fasting, through prayer and reading God’s word that when night comes we are still stumbling in the dark. I put the lights in the ground right before it was getting dark and I noticed how they started flickering one at a time until it was strong enough to stand on its own and it would shine bright. When I would drive around the corner and though the lights were small because it’s light shinned bright I could see it a far off.#CLEANTHISHOUSE
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