My refuge. My Rock.

1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” True Forgiveness. What does this really mean? After much pondering and meditating on this question and after reading the above scripture, I could draw one conclusion. True forgiveness is simply true love. If we love deeply we forgive, period. It may take some praying, some talking about our hurts to other loved ones, confession, and even fasting if needed. At the end, we must forgive. So I’ve asked myself what does true forgiveness look like to me? How do I know when I’ve truly forgiven? I came to another conclusion: When I can think of/be with/talk to/ the person that hurt me and no longer think or feel any form of resentment about how they hurt me. It’s almost like I’ve forgotten what happened. Wait. Forgotten? How is that possible? Well, technically we can remember if we want to, but in our hearts, "forgotten" feels like what that person did or said to hurt us-never ...

Many people know the story of Abraham. Although we know of at least some of his weaknesses (anxious and fearful), we also know that God used him in great ways. Seeing Abraham’s transformation from being a self reliant man to a more God-reliant man gives me a sense of hope. I have weaknesses just like Abraham did, and let’s admit it, many heroic figures in the bible also had many weaknesses as well. However, we live in a world that feeds us many lies. The world defines success and heroes in one way, making it seem that to be successful or heroic, one has to have little or no weaknesses and maybe it can give people a sense that we can’t grow and change. This is a big lie. Abraham’s story helps us understand that we can indeed change. But we cannot do it just by some emotional decision or reading self help books. The way to change is by living in God’s presence. So what does it mean to live in God’s presence? From Abraham’s example, it means seeing life in all relation to him...

  They say the number 7 is a lucky number. I say that it has it’s lucky moments, but lucky or not, 7 has become somewhat significant in my life. At the age of 7, I became a big sister to the youngest in our family-an unexpected but such a welcome and wonderful surprise for all of us! 7 years later, I sadly left my friends and the only home I ever knew and moved with my family from New Jersey to Miami. At the age of 18, I made Jesus Lord, was baptized, and started a new life.  7 Years later, I had the honor of becoming a mother.   7 years after that however, I went through the most difficult part of my life to this day-my divorce. Although I will say that I am very thankful that I did learn much from it and it have grown in such great ways since then. Now here I am 7 years later, about to celebrate my 39 th birthday (tomorrow). What a difference 7 years can make! At age 39, I am the proud mother of two wonderful boys! I am grateful to and more in love with...

Jesus was and still is the most amazing man I’ve ever known! His heart of serving, giving, loving, and sacrificing is unlike any I’ve ever seen or heard of. I know that no one can compare to Him. But I have always hoped to one day meet and fall in love with someone that closely resembled him. Just about two years ago I met this man and just about 2 months ago I fell in love with him. I fell in love with a man that’s so much like Him in more ways than one. I wanted to share a little bit about this special man. He is always ready and willing to help and is such a great gentleman. He’s not only this way with me, I’ve seen him be this way since the day we first met. I’ve seen a warm, sincere man who has such a pure heart for God. This man takes time each week to visit his friend in prison. He volunteers to serve as the singles ministry leader in his hometown church making every effort to meet the needs of the people in his ministry. He makes sure to spend quality time with his...

Many of us grew up watching movies like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and often other romantic movies that always had a happy ending with a princess finding her prince. Now while I love these movies (and by the way romantic comedies are among my favorite!), I also believe that they have taught us to set unrealistic expectations about love. What I have learned in my life up to this day is that real love is just not possible without knowing God. God is the very definition of love. He was the creator of love, just like He was the creator of the universe and all that is in it. In the bible there are numerous examples of actions that spoke love. The ultimate action was a dad who loved his son like no one else and who made the choice of sacrificing his son’s life for the sake of all of human kind (also his special creation). True love is not selfish. To me this means that if I desire to have or find love (particularly romantic love), the motive should not be merel...