You Got It...

What are you working with?  Does it really matter?  The truth is that what you have to work with is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it. How many people do you know that have become successful, even spectacularly successful, but they started with nothing?  All they had was desire and commitment.  How many do you know that even though they started out with every advantage in their favor, they ended up accomplishing very little?

How often have you heard that the race is not won at the starting line?  It may seem helpful to be at an advantage going in, but in the end does that matter?  The most emphasis should be in what got you through the race.  You have to realize you were equipped to win.  God has placed in you everything you need to persist through any situation, to tackle any obstacle, to conquer and succeed.  What matters is the going through.

If you wait for the perfect situation, or the perfect job, or the perfect business opportunity to come along, you’ll be waiting an awfully long time.  The funny thing is that most of the time it turns out to not be worth waiting for. So rather than hold out for the perfect situation, why not work with what you have right here and right now. So let the others wait for what they’ll probably never have, meanwhile you can be moving ahead using what you already have available to you to win.

Your best resources are the ones that you can effectively utilize in pursuit of your goals and dreams. Guess what, those are the ones that you already have. Even though what you have may not be ideal, what you have is precisely what you need to move forward toward success.  So I encourage you today to make use of what you have, and you will move toward whatever you desire.

TOODLES

Angelic-1

Worry...

Whatever you worry about, you give it life, energy and influence over you and your world. Just think..the more you worry and focus on the things that you do not want, the more likely they are are to happen and the more possible you make it.

Think how awesome your life would be if every thought of worry were replaced with a positive, creative thought or action. Instead of giving power to your worst fears, you gave life to your best possibilities.

Now there are plenty of things about which you can be justifiably worried. But there is nothing to be gained by spending time and energy on worry.

Do you have any idea just how powerful and influential your thoughts can be, whether they are negative or positive. The more positively they are focused, the more surely will your thoughts lead you forward.

Choose to redirect the intensely negative energy of your worries into positive, productive actions. Don't worry about what you don’t want, put your time and energy into creating what you do want. There is much that you can worry about, there is also much that you can achieve. The determining factor is where you put the energy of your thoughts and actions.........and it is up to you.

Who has their eye on you...

Often times we get so caught up in trying to impress others that we lose sight on who we really are, of our genuine self.  We spend way too much time and energy trying to impress those people whose opinion doesn't matter to us anyway.  My philosophy is that if you are not paying my bills, supplying my food or one of my parental units, my sibling or family member your opinion has no weight in my world.

How far do we go to impress someone?  What are we really doing?  It is true that actions speak louder than words..it is not what people hear you say it is what they see you do.  As parents, we should be cautious of our behavior because children will mock the behavior that they see.  That same mentality can be applied for anyone in any situation.  Many of us are role models, examples, heros, and mentors and don't even realize it.  There is always somebody watching, taking note of our actions.  Most of the time we don't even think about it.  What kind of impression is really being made?  Are our actions reflective of the words we speak?  When we think nobody is looking does our behavior change?

We should strive to always do our best and do the right thing. Our actions are influential to the circumstances and people that surround us.  Just think if we put as much time, energy and effort into ourselves as we do trying to impress others.  I like to say if you are going to invest, why not invest in yourself.  

Our lives are nothing but a stage play, and we are the main characters.  Each performance should be better than the last.  The world is our audience and in it there will be critics.  We just have to work hard at always do the right thing.  After all, we never know who is watching.

                                                                                                                ~Angelic-1

                                                                                                                       

SOW GOOD SEEDS

My family has not had a garden in years.  My Dad and uncle however have decided to plant one this year.  There is a list of crops they are hoping to grow.  They will till the ground, sow the appropriate seeds, then water and perform the necessary maintenance in hopes that they get crops that look just like the pictures on the seed packets.  Aren't we all like that?  Isn't that what we are supposed to do?   We have a garden of life. We sow seeds everyday.  You know Galatians 6:7 - Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 
It is true that what you put out in the universe will come back to you in multitude.  The same concept as planting seeds in the ground.  The crop that we receive looks nothing like the seeds we plant.  However, we have an ideal of what we will get.  I say that to mean, you can't keep sowing bitterness, gossip, hatred, jealousy, negativity and such into the world and expect good things to happen in your life.  That is not how it works.  
I encourage you to live and work from a place of love within you.  Strive to be a good person.  Strive to be positive, kind, and generous on purpose.  Watch what starts to happen to you as you grow in love.  Those seeds you are sowing will begin to come back to you as blessings, opportunities and acts of kindness from those around you.
So as you go about your day, sow seeds based in love.
Remember God loves you and so do I.

Angelic-1

I  luv me some U

Life altering...

There are certain events that take place in our lives that change us forever.  Mine happened three years ago in the span of eight days in May.  
The morning began as a happy one, celebrating my Father's birthday.  That joy quickly turned to sadness with a phone call that my Aunt had been found dead in her home.  She was not just your ordinary Aunt, she was so much more to so many.  To me, she was my mother away from home, my decorator, my stylist.  We playfully fussed every chance we had because we were so much alike.  As much as my heart hurt for my loss, it bled even more because I couldn't take the pain away from her sons.  I could not fix their shattered world, and that hurt me more.  
So I numbed myself to be able to do the things necessary for the family.  Just going through the motions, things can become a blur.  A week passes and it is the night of the Repass.  A hard night was escalated to difficult with a phone call from the hospital that Grandma had been rushed to the Emergency Room and they needed the whole family there.  I tearfully made it through the night only to have to face the funeral of my Aunt in a few hours.  Concerned about my Grandma, but prayed up for her comfort and recovery, I struggled through the Celebration of Life.
The call came again that the family was needed at Grandma's bedside, this time they gave us the news that she would not make it through the night.  It was an out of body experience for me.  As I sat there, my mind was flooded with memories of our talks, our laughs, our love.  My Grandma had been my everything, my number one fan.  In her eyes, I could do no wrong.  She found pride in everything I did.  Even in her last days, she would smile at the mention of my name.  But now God needed her.  He wanted to take her out of her misery here on Earth.  
If you have never sat and waited for a loved one to take their last breathe, I tell you that has to be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.  I was frozen in time, mesmerized by the clock ticking away seconds.  Each tick seemed louder than the last, and in between I could hear Grandma breathing.  As I tried to focus, I began to hear her whispering to me.  But nobody in the room seemed to hear it but me.  I could hear her saying the numbers 2 2 4, over and over, as if she was sitting right next to me.  I tried to shake it off, but those numbers stuck in my head.  
The minutes turned into hours, but we remained at her bedside speaking words of comfort and love.  The doctor had instructed us to encourage her, it was okay to let go.  We kept telling her that we would see her again.  We told her that her job her on Earth was done.  We told her she was free.  As we talked to her, her breathes became shorter.  Then at exactly 2:24am she took her last breathe.  That is a sound that I will never forget.  At that moment, I saw her Spirit rise up and take the hand of the Death Angel that awaited her.  Together they walked off into the light.
Just like that, my world that was already shaken up was shattered.  My Grandma was gone.  Life as I knew it would never be the same again.  My heart would forever be missing a huge chunk.  Everyday my heart yearns for her.  
Today on her anniversary, I can reflect back and I can smile through my tears.  I know my Grandma is smiling down on me, still my number one fan, still proud of anything I do.  It is true that the pain subsides.  It does get easier with time.  I don't love or miss her any less, memories we shared have grown that love.  But these eight days in May three years ago have surely changed my life and my outlook on it.  Life is too short to do anything but love.  I love my life and everybody in it.  I am grateful for all my loved ones that God has called home because they helped make me the person I am today.
I end my thoughts today by telling you God loves you and so do I.

Toodles

Angelic-1

Through new eyes...

I have been taught that what God has for me is for me.  Nobody can beg, borrow or steal my blessings.  Nobody can block them, not even myself.  Now I am sure some of my decisions in life have delayed them, but eventually God will reveal them to me.  I have come to realize that often the blessing I've been praying and fasting for has been right in front of me the entire time.  If it had been a snake it would have bit me. 
The blessings never changed.  They never do.  God knows what I need, before I know myself.  He has a blueprint of my life and the way it is to play out.  He knows all the points of my life.  The highs and lows and the blessings needed to move to the next stage of my life.  
But if the blessings never change, how do I miss them or not utilize them.   The change has to come within myself.  It could be that my perspective shifted, my priorities got reorganized, my standards evolved, or maybe I have matured.  I do know that God will not give it to me until I am ready; and He will never give me more than I can handle.  All it takes is to get closer to Him.
The closer I get to God, the better my vision becomes.  I am seeing the world in a whole new light.  There is new color in the horizon. Things that were dim and dull are shiny and bright.  It is amazing that my blessings were right before my eyes the entire time.
The closer I get to God, the bigger my blessings become.  I serve a big God therefore I should expect nothing less than big things.  
I receive my blessings with a heart of gratitude.  My eyes are open wide to take in all that God is showing me.  He has placed some amazing things just within my grasp.  I don't want to blink because  I just might miss a moment in this wonderful new view.....all because my eyes are filled with Love for my God.  

Angelic-1

APPRECIATE EACH MOMENT

In the past week,  I have attended the home going celebrations of two people that I have known for quite some time.  It made me realize more than ever just how precious the moments are that we are given.  I know that God orchestrates our encounters.  I believe that the people we meet either add to our lives or take away from our lives in all capacities.  Nothing is ever by coincidence.  God is always in control and He never makes mistakes.
Our time of departure from this Earth is never known to us.  For this reason, I encourage you to cherish the life you have been given.  Live your life today for tomorrow is not promised.  That does not mean to fill your days with foolish activities, instead fill them spreading love among your family and friends.  Strive to remove the negativity.  Refuse to spend your moments being angry, revengeful, bitter or anything not like God.
Life is made of moments.  Some will be good and some will be bad.  The choice is yours as to how you  embrace your moments and react to them.  Your decision will directly affect your attitude, your outlook, your overall being.  I encourage you to make them all positive and as a happy as possible.
Our moments become memories.  Long after we have left this Earth, it is memories that heal the pain of our loved ones.  It is memories that make us smile for no reason.  It is memories that we have long after the moment has passed.
Personally, I strive to embrace my moments.  I take every opportunity to make memories.  Tomorrow is never promised.  I am often asked why I am so happy, so carefree, and so 'unique'.  The answer is that I choose to be that way.  Those in my circle, especially my nieces, hear me repeatedly say that you have to make great memories out of the moments we share.  I want to leave behind a smile when you think of me.  I want there to be a memory of the moment we shared.  I choose to appreciate the moments I am  given.

Angelic-1