Intentionally Grmazing

I work part-time at a local funeral home in my community where I serve as a media & design developer. This is the same funeral home that my family used during the passing of my dear grandmother. This week alone I created three memorial tributes for families that lost loved ones; one was the grandmother of one our of family's closest friends and the other was a cousin of our family. But this morning something happened that I didn't expect. I received a phone call that a very special cousin of mine had passed early this morning. My grandmother's death was difficult for me. Not because I was caught off guard by her passing, but because she was my best friend and one of the closest people to my heart. She knew my struggles, she knew my pain, but most importantly above all else, she celebrated my accomplishments. She was the Titus 2 woman in my life that the scripture talks about: {Titus 2:3-5} "The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holine

Last year I dealt with a situation in my life that I had to deal with a consequence of my sin. Let's be very clear, the bible says, "All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God." So yes, I fell subject to a weight in my life that I hadn't take off yet. I began to cry out to God because I knew that it was my bad decisions that led me to this place. I was saved and suppose to be living a life that represented Christ, but it was one thing that I had taken off. During that time, I had slowed down reading the word and praying. I think it was because I had allowed things that were evil, or maybe a better word would be carnal, to enter my life. Before, when use to read the word of God, conviction would fall and I would feel so bad about the things that I was doing that when the world talked about "sins to avoid" and "commands to obey", I was looking for ways to put those things into action because I truly had a desire to live in the light of C

Over at Hello Mornings Blog last week, I entered into a "PLAN Mini Challenge for an entire week.  The challenge was really simple. Our first simple planning tip was to write down 3 top things that were a priority for that day on a 3 x 5 index card and go do them!  Simple, right? Of course it was! The next day we were challenged to do the same thing but this time we were to add a time next to each item to tell what time of day we would accomplished that item. Simple, right? Of course it was! Well, I didn't really get through all three of the second day.  I only completed two items on my list. So here comes the downward spike... the next few days became so overwhelming that I never made it to complete any of the three items on my list! BOMB SHELL! It was time for me to evaluate the problem. We all are suppose to leave room for error and things that occur that we don't have any control over, but I just felt like it was far greater than that in my life. It was

Todays post takes a different turn. It's really sparked by a conversation that I was having with my mother. Yesterday, my mother began to explain some things that she thought I needed to do to get ready for a certain occasion coming up. Everything that she had expressed was already on my to-do-list. As she was talking this particular thought crossed my mind... Does my mother really know who I am? I know that mothers tell their children things out of their best interests, and really our age has nothing to do with it, because my grandmother was 92 and she always shared her thoughts with my mom so that's not exactly what I'm referring too. My mother is a great mother, and she knows a lot about me but are there some things that my mom don't know about me? YES! We can live with people or around people for the majority of our lives and they really don't know exactly who we are. What I mean by that is....they know your name, your age, they know your style, the

We all like to hear good things about ourselves from other people. Maybe even receiving and award or accomplishment for the outstanding job that we have done. Have you ever thought that the reason some people don't know how to affirm is because they have never been affirmed themselves, or maybe just never affirmed by the people that are close to them.

Grab your Bible! Find your Reading Plan! Grab your Scripture! READY...SET...GO! Now this is the part where I use to get stuck starring at the passage trying to figure out how I can make it stick. I've tried numerous things: Reading the scripture at least 5 times Writing the complete scripture out Listening to an audio version of the scripture  Reading the scripture in at least 2-5 other translations All those things are great to do but they weren't giving me the results I needed! I wanted to be able to study scripture effectively and pull out what I could apply to my life and actually put it into practice. So I decided to come up with a way that was helpful to how I wanted to study scripture more effectively.  Color Code System I decided to use a color code system. There are many color code systems available online that people use to study scripture. Some even use symbols, which I haven't tried yet, but I was looking for something simple and less co

Prayers! I'm not sure about you, but that is something my son needs a lot of. Sometimes I feel like I can't cover all of the bases in motherhood. It's almost impossible!!! But what I can do is pray , and through prayer, I leave it up to God to cover all the bases. In an earlier post, here , I discussed this awesome community of boy moms called, MOB Society , that I connected with through social media (FB, Twitter, & Website) that has encouraged my weary moments , embraced my shortcoming but has also given me hope! Recently posted on their blog was a question that I was glad to see: What if we got serious about praying for our boys in 2014? How many of us are intentional in praying for our children, especially our boys? One of the things that I want my son to understand is how to love God and people. Many times you hear people say that a woman can't raise a man alone, I totally agree, but we can intentionally pray for our boys in areas where God can move and

If you hadn't already taken a moment to read my story and testimony, you can find it here . It will help you to better understand where I'm coming from with today's post. As a single mother for 13 years, I didn't always make the best decisions and some of them cost me missing out on the best teaching moments of raising my son, but aren't you glad that God gives us "GRACE" as mothers. Another chance to get it right, that's if you desire to take it.  A MUST READ FOR MOM'S About of year ago, I was doing some searching online (I love blogs) and stumbled upon a blog by some awesome group of women which happen to be all "boy" moms! The name of this group was called The MOB Society .  This is a community created FOR moms of boys, BY moms of boys is really just this: "To help moms delight in the chaos of raising boys, enabling them to have more peace in their hearts and love in their homes."  (Read their story----->>

Over a year ago I was reading a parent blog that I frequent called EmpoweringParents.com. I decided to click on the link entitled 'Non-Traditional Families.' Well, I had my reasons for checking it out. I stumbled upon a post written by a grandmother called "You Can't Always Send Your Grandchildren Home-Sometimes They Live With You!" "No empty nesting for us! After twenty-six years of diapers, kindergarten homework, first loves, heartbreaks, loud cars, that were continually breaking down, college tuition, and weddings for our four children, my husband and I were ready for some down time, some alone time, and just plain fun time. That was not to be. Instead, we are raising our 11 year old granddaughter." I began to wonder........Is this how my parents felt, but they really never said it? I can think back on those days. With two smart daughters, a year apart, one heading from 11th grade to 12th and the other from 12th to college, things couldn't ha

Last year, I decided that I really wanted to spend more time with God and I wanted it to be intentional. I was apart of two great online women's bible study groups that encouraged my study in the word and also provided me with the accountability I needed for my spiritual growth. One day skimming through a few blogs I found a post entitled, " How to Have Effective Quiet Time with God ." The most important thing that stood out to me was that the blogger created a "Quiet Time Basket" where she kept all of her bible study materials, journal, bible, books and pens that she used during her personal time with God and to meet her spiritual needs. It just made sense. Everything in one place. You don't have to scrounge around looking for your bible here, your journal there and your study materials in another place. You have everything right in the same area.  WHAT A GREAT IDEA ! So I continued to search online to see if anyone else had created a " Quiet T

Don't you just love this time of year? You hear the word " RESOLUTION " uttered through the mouths of individuals via verbal conversations, social media posts and statuses only to realize that some of these goals and tasks that we set sometimes really never get accomplished by 12/31. Well, I decided to do things differently this year. No way will I ponder coming up with a " RESOLUTION " that I fail to accomplish in 2014. I'm taking change one second, one minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month and finally one accomplished year at a time.  You wanna know what that "different" thing is. Well, it's called my "One Word" or as some call it "One Little Word." This one word summarizes where I plan to put my focus and attention this year. It's dismisses the bullet list of things to accomplish but gives me hope and yields a future reward in what's to come as I challenge myself to make this word the pivot of my year.