My refuge. My Rock.

Well, I thought July was the best month ever this year, but this month is starting to top it! From July through today, God has been working in ways I never even imagined in my life. In due time, I shall reveal more details but in the meantime, I will share what God has been teaching me. For one, God is teaching me to trust Him. Okay, so yes, I think He’s always teaching us to trust Him one way or the other, but this time, it’s with things that are very, very close to my heart. I’ve seen surrender in prayer turn into results that were unimaginable to me! I’ve seen God working in the hearts of my children. I’ve seen God working in circumstances surrounding me that seem impossible to turn around. I know God is powerful, but I don’t really stop often and ponder on how powerful He is in my life personally. I also don’t ponder enough about each day that goes by God is holding me in his hands-literally! I often don’t feel worthy of His love, and in essence I am not worthy...

Most of us have had or will one day experience our first love. I remember mine. I was 15 years old! It was such an amazing feeling. Years later I realized that although it felt like love, it was really a big crush. In the moment though it felt like so much more. It took three years later to me to meet my true first love. I met Jesus. I fell in love because He loved me first. He loved me like no one else had ever loved me. In this new relationship with him I learned so much. Unfortunately twelve years later I became ungrateful for this amazing love. How could this happen? Although it seemed complicated at the same, the answer ends up being simple. I made someone else my true love. My husband at the time became my true love. Well, you may ask, aren’t our spouses supposed to be our true love? The answer is NO. Not when we’ve made the decision to make Jesus lord of our lives. Yes, I believe our spouses are supposed to be the one we love most on this earth, but only on this earth. Wh...

As of October 22 nd , 2015, I will be 20 years since I decided to make Jesus lord of my life. At 18 years old I was just starting college still not completely sure of what my future career would be. I remember walking along one morning and stopping at a vending machine while waiting for my next class. Out of nowhere comes this girl and invites me to a bible talk (discussion group). I said “sure, why not, I have a little time”. Here I was thinking that it’s a nice thing that college students do this and it’s something you don’t see all the time. I can’t remember the exact lesson, but I know it was in the book of John and it was about Jesus. I remember seeing Jesus like a real person, for the first time in my life after that lesson. I grew up Catholic so it’s not like I didn’t know about Jesus, of course I knew. I even went to a Catholic school for three years, how could I not know? My parents taught me about God and they took me to church (mass) every Sunday. I was no stra...

So you say you want to get married. You say your want to find the one. You want God to deliver the person of your dreams. You want to find true love. I have just one question for you. Are you truly ready? Before you give an answer, ask yourself the following questions: 1.    Are you ready to accept the person for who they are? (Romans 15:7). 2.    Are you ready to pay attention to that person-not only when it’s convenient, but at all times to make sure they receive the daily encouragement that God calls us all to give? 1 Peter 1:22. 3.    Are you ready to adjust to the person? This is one of the toughest ones to do, by the way. Ephesians 5:21 4.    Are you ready to constantly forgive, even when it hurts so much? Ephesians 4:22 5.    Are you ready to appreciate this person and show it by your actions? 1 Thessalonians 5:11 6.    Are you ready to show affection to this person (most ideally) on a dai...

There’s a song that I really love and the lyrics go something like this “I’m waiting, I’m waiting on you Lord, and I am peaceful, I’m waiting on you Lord and it’s not easy, but patiently I will wait...I will move ahead bold and confident, taking every step in obedience, while I’m waiting…I will serve you...I will worship...while I wait..I’ll be running the race, even while I wait. Over the last four months, this is the lesson I’ve been learning, to trust and to wait. I decided in June to become more surrendered to God and just to let Him lead. For years I never really understood what this meant. I would think to myself, “What does this mean?” “How do I let God lead and how do I know I’m letting Him lead my life?” I think we all want something to happen, whether now or in the future, we all hope for something (or many things). As parents we may hope that our children grow to love God and one day choose to follow Christ. As married people, we may hope to have chil...

This summer has been so far the best summer of my life! I don’t even know where to begin to state the reasons why. It’s difficult to share absolutely everything (more will be revealed in future posts), but I will share what I can. First of all, I’ve had the opportunity to travel more than any other summer of my life! I now have imprinted in my heart and memories some unforgettable adventures. I got to experience new places both on my own, with family, and with new friends I’ve made along the way. I’ve seen God working every step of the way. While I wrote about my trip to Massachusetts in my last blog entry, I still hold memories and friends made there so close to my heart. Most recently I took to trip to my home state of New Jersey. The purpose of my trip was to fly to Lima, Peru so that I can spend some time with my grandmother. God had other plans. Instead my brother and I stayed in New Jersey and were able to spend some great times with some old childhood friends. Th...

Gratitude. That is what I'm feeling right now. It's funny. We plan things for whatever reason, and then God shows us that there was an even bigger reason why we planned them and why they happened. I planned a trip to Boston a few months ago having in mind to only visit the city of Boston. Then, as it turns out, I found out about an event that many of the singles throughout New England were having in the Western Mass area (Six Flags to be exact) and so I added that to my itinerary. Then even more happened. I was invited on a group date to Six Flags which turned out to be so much fun!!! During my time there my date and dear friend suggested I knock off one of the items on my "bucket list". So he put together a group of people to hike up Mount Skinner, and in the midst of the struggle to get up there (with my soar legs after walking many miles through out Boston and Six Flags combined), he became my motivational coach to keep going until I finally made it! Then we prayed...

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness” (2 Peter 3:8). These words bring tears to my eyes. Not tears of sadness or tears of joy, but tears from my heart being so humbled by this truth. I am impatient. That is my constant struggle. I’m not short tempered, or easily angered, but I am impatient when it comes to the things I desire in my heart. You see, I am a visual person, a very visual person. I can envision things that I want to happen in my life. I can envision my sons’ future and all the wonderful things in store for their future. I can envision my family and closest friends overcoming their biggest challenges. I can envision our singles ministry flourishing like never before. I can even envision my future husband, not what he looks like (I still have no idea), but what he’ll be like, according to what I feel I need an...

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Particularly last week, around the days of my birthday. Since being restored to God I never thought I would feel the way I did last week. I was faced with a temptation and it was not something I even foresaw. It was Satan at his "sneakiest". Like a snake that is quiet and appears out of no where, that is what my temptation was like. Thanks be to God and his holy spirit along with the deep convictions that I have built through reading the word daily and prayer, I did not fall into the temptation and so that was a big victory! However the emotions I felt the next day were tough. As women we all want to be loved. We want to find that "special someone" who will encourage us with words and an embrace that tells us "I love you". We want (and need) to feel protected, like having a hero in our lives, second only to God. If you've read my blog from the beginning, you'll know my story...

I LOVE my relationship with God. I treasure it like I treasure nothing else! I don't know where I would be, the kind of person I would have become by now if it were not for having a personal daily relationship with my Creator.  From time to time, I go through things in my life that leave me no choice but to draw close to Him. It is in these times that I fall in love with Him...again and again. This world is so evil, full of so much darkness and lies everywhere. It would be so easy to get caught up in it if I didn't have my Refuge, and my Rock by my side every day. It's not easy sometimes. I do make sure to spend daily quality time with Him reading his word, hearing what he has to tell me, learning, and being challenged to make changes in my heart, and spending time to pray and talk to him and often times cry out to him. However it's not every day that I "feel" as close to him as I do on other days. My emotions can toy with me sometimes, I have days that I...

I don't know why but I can see more clearly every year that God meant for our lives to be a story. A book. A testimony. "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:16). The last two years have been so amazing. I had the chance to build a great friendship with a spiritual, intelligent, respectful, honorable man, who by the way has amazing integrity. I met him at a most unexpected time in my life. We built a friendship for 10 months before he asked me to be in a steady dating relationship. Then we dated for 14 months. I learned so much during this time. God knew what I needed to grow in and He certainly made sure to give me some great lessons. Having a long distance relationship for this long is not easy. In fact, it is very difficult and there were times that I wanted to give up. God, however made clear to me that I couldn't give up and that this is exactly what He was trying to teach me: Patience and Trust in Him...