Off To Texas!

I am gone for over a week to visit my best friend from growing up in Midland Texas! I am really excited because this is the first time I have gone on vacation by myself since I was married so I am really excited to get to go on a trip by myself! Traveling is so much fun, I love to fly and feel so cosmopolitan. Sipping my drink in the plane while I read Vogue Magazine! Lol, no, but it is fun to pretend at least that my transportation is a plane and I do it all the time! Well, I hope everyone has a great week!!! Ohh, get out and vote!!! Every vote counts!

God Bless!

Love In Freedom, Nicole!

Wanna Chat?

I have been thinking that we could try to get together and chat soon...

I am not sure what day, so how about you all shout out a date in the next weekend or week and we will see what works out!!! It will happen!

Let me know!!!

Can't wait to catch up with everyone!

In Freedom, Nicole!

Happy Birthday Matthew

A little bird told me that it was your birthday today!

I hope you have a marvelous day,

filled with God's grace,

filled with amazing joy

filled with the peace that surpasses all understanding!

You are such a blessing and I am so glad you were born!

Fear Based HYPE

It’s easy to get scared in this world with the unpredictable economy we are living with these days and all the hype it has gotten in the last month. Things seem a little uneasy when we think we won’t be able to make it financially in the months and years ahead. I watch too much Fox News to not be scared about this crisis. I have heard several case scenarios that would scare anyone if they truly believed every word they heard. How we are going into the second greatest depression, or a huge recession that will leave us high and dry financially, and blah blah blah blah. Okay, the mass media has been really good to put fear in the hearts of people. It’s their job, they are paid to make news, and what is news if it isn’t bad anyways? They of course will explode every last detail of bad news they can come up with and give these scary scenarios to spike interest in what news they have, even if it’s struck by fear, people will still be worried and listen to what they have to say. It’s good to be cautious about what is going on in the world and this financial crisis that hit wall-street not too long ago. However, I have to always think back to who my provider and protector is? Is it our jobs? Is it our finances? Is it our home? Is it our possessions, or our greatest assets we have? ABSOLUTELY NOT. My Father is my provider and my protector and it is His job to take care of us and provide what we need on this earth. I have to remind myself that Father is bigger than this problem, or any other problem we may face. He is BIG enough to take care of us. Even if all HELL breaks loose, God is still big enough to rescue us and provide what we need. My trust is no longer in this world but in my Father who cares deeply for me! So, chin up to those who are down and out about this whole financial crisis, Father is big enough to take care of you!

Thoughts Roaming Inside Nicole's Head

I always had a hard time relaying my opinions, thoughts, convictions and really just the way I live my life. I always stumble over words, trying to get my point across or ideas to mean something other than nothing to some. It’s hard to explain to a person why I don’t go to church. My faith is not based on whether I go to an institutional congregation, although when I was attending, that was my life or where I put my identity. However, I have become so disillusioned by all of that which used to grab my attention in the institutions. I used to think that going to church kept me out of trouble, or grounded in so much good. But now, I feel the opposite. It’s not like going to church is now looked upon as a bad thing, or in my case it wasn’t bad, but, it sure hasn’t been as productive as one would think… Even that isn’t a good way at looking at it. No, I think that in my case, as like some, the institution is now looked at as a system in which takes from you then gives or adds life. In order to be a part of it, you must give something; money, gifts, time, effort. This giving wasn’t focused on God, nor was it for God, really, it seemed more for keeping the institution running… Like a business, in order to keep it open, you must put forth money, time, and effort. This is what a lot of churches look like in America. I don’t think I have ever attended an institution that didn’t want something from me. This isn’t really how the body of Christ is supposed to run, nor does it really produce real family life with other believers either. It’s focused on how much you ‘do’ or ‘give’ than on whom you are in the family of God.

Here are some questions to ponder on…

Are you experience true family life with other believers?

Are you attending an Institutional Church because you think you have to in order to be right with God?

How deep are you willing to go with God?

I think about these questions a lot. I thought at one point that going to church was the time to sit down, listen and not speak. No real transparent deep fellowship happened even though these church settings such as this were called fellowship! I did used to think that in order to be right with God I had to go to church on Sunday. I think I found times outside of the church walls deeper times with God than inside. Even though it felt like church was a time set aside to spend time with God and go personal. I hardly did, I just sat there and listened half-hazard like.

House Sitting

Yesterday as I was housecleaning at one of my client’s house, as I was leaving he asked if I could house sit while they are out of town for a week. I was so excited because I could use some extra cash and who wouldn’t want to stay in a beautiful huge house that has many luxuries for a week! Wow, it is so amazing. Their house is way up in the mountains surrounded by forest, they have a hot tub, and a large flat screen TV with dish network. What a great unexpected surprise to wake up in this beautiful mountain house. I told Jonathan that it feels like we are on vacation and we are getting paid for it!

Praise Him!




Vinny


Eva

A Reflection In Time

The first note in a new song always catches me off guard. Then following are the next several notes that run smoothly in its course. I pause and listen, waiting impatiently for the chorus, and once I hear it, I am nothing but satisfied and currently find myself in my past remembering my life as a child, once as a little girl who lived in a happy home, completely satisfied. What did I think about back then? What do little girls think about? I was always in a hurry to grow up. The older I was the more things I was able to do, so what I thought, but what about my innocence? Was I to know it would be damaged or taken from me when I was older, or losing a life that was so near to me that I couldn’t imagine life without him, until he was taken from me? My mind was back then, filled with butterflies, flowers, dreams, expectancies of what life would bring. Never to think that life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Pain, loss, dreams fade, events take place that literally can and will catch you off guard that will take months and months, even years to re-define and find yourself again. And so it goes for me, if only I could have put the brakes on time, and slowed things down so I would be able to take a good look on where my thoughts were taking me, and what exactly I found to be important in life back then as a child. What were the things that built my future to make it reality today? Events, memories, family, God? What does God think about my life? I can remember that he never left my side, even if I felt like he wasn’t there. He was somewhat quiet, never in a hurry to speak, and always was patient with me, even as a little girl, when I was not listening or obeying my parents, he would sit on my bed with me and just be there with me. Did I realize his presence back then? I was always told to pray, but talking to God was more to me than saying a prayer. I would write it down, so it would never be lost in the void of time, but always there to reflect on where my heart was and where he was in it. My past is just a reflection of notes that were played, and how the song sounds as a whole. But this song is not over yet, for it still has more notes to hit, and choruses to play and the Orchestrator of life is who will define me.

A Pierce In The Darkness

If you were in a room that was pitch dark and only a tiny speck of light was peeking through, wouldn’t you be fixated on that one speck of light than on the darkness that surrounds you? In each person there is, I believe, that one speck of light hiding in the depths of their souls. Even if their entire life is filled with sin and evil, don’t you think there is a chance that they may have an ounce if not more, light and goodness buried in their hearts somewhere. In the Gospels, many times Jesus did what no other Jew had done, He talked and ate with sinners and treated them like his own. He took the time to talk with them and be there for them like no other. That goes to show that Father saw good in them, and knew that they would turn away from their wrong doings, not because Father was forceful and condemning, but because He loved them unconditionally and He showed this to each and every one of them. He wasn’t afraid of their sin or what they have done, but expressed by his actions that nothing else mattered but how much he loved them. I want to be like that, I want to shine light on the good in every person and not allow their sin or things they do to get in the way of putting forth light on the good that is in their hearts. In this day and age, we are so fast to judge and put forth speculation on what their heart is made up of when we don’t even know them. If I am a disciple and called to bring people to Jesus, I wouldn’t get very far by conjuring and pushing people to God by putting utter fear in their hearts and manipulating them to come to Jesus… Fear is not the tool that Father uses to draw us closer to Him. It is out of pure and unconditional love that draws us closer to Him. He uses the power of love that points out the good that we have in our hearts and always acknowledges that we are good in the worst of situations that we may find ourselves in. Never does He use guilt and manipulation to bring us to repentance. I want to find that speck of light in everyone’s heart, even if it is hard to find.