Beautiful Eulogy- Entitlement

This is SO GOOD. 

Humble Beast !!!! 

YEEEE! lol

Watch it

Bless yall :)

August can't come sooner...

I seriously miss this place so much! I love UCF & everything about it,  my home away from home!! 

That's all I have to say, God bless! 

The infamous Proverbs 31.. (Part 1)

    Welp I have been on this quest to find Bible commentaries and studies and dictionaries with greek and hebrew definitions and all that so I can get deeper within the word and study more and I found this AMAZING program called e-sword and its just so awesome! Like there are so many tools to help study and there is a Strongs dictionary which is Greek and Hebrew translations of just about EVERY word in the bible lol. So I was SUPER excited to download it for FREE! BUTTTT... theres a catch for me at least. Since I own a Macbook and its obviously not Windows I can only use the program for 13 days :( ... its sort of a long story but pretty much the makers of e-sword do not have a compatible download for Mac users and Apple products ; there's only a download for the windows program :( WAHHHHH. So anyways that might be very irrelevant to your life but I just though I would explain because I have been going crazy using it and I am like anxious because 13 days will go by SO quickly lol! But I would STRONGLYYYY ENCOURAGE those who are interested in something like that to download it. It is free but they kind of get you when it comes to downloading other versions of the bible. It comes with Kings James Version and other ones but like NIV & NLT are not free :( But its kind of okay because KJV is like the original version after greek and hebrew of course so its like good raw version to study from! & you can always just read your own NIV and compare which is what I did using NLT! 

       ALRIGHT so the point of this was obviously NOT to tell you about all that but to just talk about Proverbs 31. The ultimate guide to being a wonderful wife & woman! And im not going to lie, Ive gotten so frustrated lately with all the girls who are like obsessing over the 31:30 verse "Charm is deceitful...blah blah blah" lol. DO NOT get me wrong, like I think it is such a wonderful verse for us females to carry with us and im sure it has helped many girls become better and forget about their looks so much. But I guess I was just frustrated at the fact that MOST girls are ONLY looking at that verse and disregarding the depth of the whole chapter! Like I get frustrated about stuff like that a lot. Please dont get offended. Im just the type of person who likes to look at the FULL context and meaning of the Bible & scripture. I hate when the Bible isn't presented as what it is supposed to be for and when people use it for their own intentions and comfortability... soooo pardon me! lol

Okay so lets get into this!!!

Well when I first started to study Proverbs 31, I tried to get my mind off of everything I have ever known or heard or read about it lol. I wanted to dig in with a fresh mind, and I think I somewhat accomplished that lol.

So yeah King Lemuel (technically) wrote this proverb and there are some interesting facts on him! 

1. He is a King... and his name means "devoted to God" or as the hebrew text says "belonging TO God" The first part of his name literally means a 'prolonged meaning' of the word "to" and "for". So this guys name was SERIOUS. It was meant that he was FOR God. All or nothing type of deal! Pretty cool!
2. Next. He was a mommas boy! lol jk... But he was a King who received a lot of teachings and prophecy from his own mother & thats really all that theologians know about him, which is cool if you think of it, he was remembered by the teachings of his MOTHER ;) ! (Wise brotha ;) ) And pretty much everything from Prov.31 is from her. Pretty cool also.
3. From the commentary of my handy dandy e-sword it says that From verse 10 & on, Prov 31 is an alphabetical poem of an admirable picture of a good wife! I found that so interesting! We are that special we get a whole poem! lol jk. But obviously we cant see it as an alpha poem because the english texts we read it in almost every verse begins with "She". But in hebrew each verse begins consecutively with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet! Thats so cool right?! I thought so! I wish I could read Hebrew *sigh* one dayyyyy! lol

       Alright so the first part of this proverb is my man Lemuel's mother telling him how to act right! BOOM! I picture like a mother getting her son ready for like prom or something and fixing his collar & tie and pointing her finger nagging him like "do this & do that!" ahah but yeah we know this by the second verse saying "...O son of my womb, O son of my promises...". Anyways I love the third verse she's given him some GOOD wisdom! It says "do not waste your strength on women,on those who ruin kings" and so i looked up the meaning of a few words here. 

     Well in the KJV it says "Give not thy strength unto women nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings" and here in the hebrew it says give means to "use with great latitude of application" in other words 'to apply'. And strength means 'force' or other resources of a man like 'valor, wealth,virtue or strength'. Then ways means 'a mode of action' or a 'road' . And the word destroy interestingly means to "stroke or rub"in order to erase something... This made me think that his mom was talking about some kind of adulteress or seductor... a woman who is sort of a temptress and deceitful with her touch and uses it o abolish or wipe away something (touch, wipe and abolish were all apart of the definition also)

I guess the moral of this story is that his mother was really just warning him to not trade in all of his wealth and value and strength for woman who's only road and action in life is to ruin and destroy that which is good and royal (the meaning of king). This is a good for us women to know also. Its not wise for a man to go after a girl like that! Thats not the type of person we should be or strive to be. I guess just another thing to put on our "not to do list". His mom was smart in laying out whats not good first. Then she gets into what we as woman SHOULD be!

But before she actually gets into that verses 4-9 are more of her instructions to Lemuel as a king. Which I also find to be very wise and which is pretty much opposite of a lot of rulers or even husbands and heads of the home today. She tells him as a King not to get drunk or as KJV says "strong drink" which in Hebrew (shêkâr) is an intoxicant that makes someone become tipsy! (it actually says tipsy! lol).  She tells him it is not a Rulers job to get drunk but the sick and poor (which obviously was tradition in that time). And she ends with verses 8 & 9 that say as a King he should speak for the speechless and give a voice to those who are suffering from injustice! Good word woman! I wish I could meet his momma! I love her already and she's only talking about kings! ahah


But yeah so thats the gist of the first 9 verses of Proverbs 31 ya'll! And obviously... OBVIOUSLY I am no theologian or whatever so its not like i think you should quote me and this isn't even really that deep of an explanation of verses, im probably barely getting beneath the surface since i dont have King Lemuel's mother sitting next to me explaining it lol. But i know my resources are valid and my interpretation isn't too far from what the Bible is actually saying. But im excited to get into the poem part (verses 10 & on) of this proverb.

Sooooo stay tuned folks this post is "To be continued..." 

Because im special ...

BAHAHAH.... oh my.
"I canaan tell a lie" hehe

Peace out.

What happens when you read the Bible before you go to sleep!

    Seriously... God is blowing my mind... I needed this so much!
Sorry all my post are becoming about what I get from God & a copy & paste of my devotional but this blog is pretty much just me letting everything out and hoping that what I get can help others.

This was seriously incredible. Gods timing with encouragement was so right on its crazy.

& obviously I cried the moment I read the title because im a big baby when it comes to confirmation and when God speaks to me... 

Ive been struggling with what my future looks like and holding onto hope now because im unsure of what the future holds. Its crazy how conditional even our hope can become as humans. Especially for me, its so much easier and I am so much more eager to have hope when I KNOW what the future holds. Like its easier to read a book when you know the ending. Or trust in Gods salvation because you're sure of heaven. But for me lately I've been struggling so badly with contentment and hope in my future because its so dreadfully unclear to me, more than it ever has been in my life! (Thats HARD! D: ) It makes me sad and frustrated  & im constantly in thought of it. But honestly as I prayed and asked for God to help me with this before I went to bed I opened up my youversion reading plans and found this, which put a lot of things into perspective and made me want to renew my mindset on the hope I have in God for the future. Not in the hope i have in the future ( people, plans, dreams, etc.)... for the future.

    Without any more rambling, here it is, might not mean much to you, but this is something im going to have to live by for a long time.

Are You Hopeful?

When you think about the future, are you hopeful? Or do you struggle with a sense of dread?

People who have seen God's faithfulness in the past tend to be very hopeful about the future. They know a bad situation can turn into a wonderful testimony in a matter of minutes.

On the other hand, people who have lost all hope view life from the perspective of dread. A close cousin to fear, dread steals the ability to enjoy ordinary life and makes people anxious about the future.

Hope is the opposite of dread, and a close relative of faith. When we have faith in God, it leads to hope, and our outlook on life and the future is positive.

Hope allows us to leave our unanswered questions in God's hands; it empowers us to remain at peace, and it enables us to believe the best about the days to come.

You can have hope when you trust in God's love. He has the power to provide for you and lead you through every situation.

This was from her devotional. On youversion. Look her up! Its amazing!!! :)

      P.S- I encourage ALLLLLLLLLL girls to check out Joyce Meyer, she is so incredible & has blessed me in enormous ways with her wisdom and words from the Lord. I got into her by following her on twitter and watching her sermons and doing her devotional everyday. Its called Joyce Meyer: Promises for Your Everyday Life - A Daily Devotional that you can simply use on youversion.com its short and sweet and in plain english but its JAM PACKED with Gods love and truth & helps push me through hard times like this! lol  & honestly its good for anyone, gender, age, anything! Hope ya'll check it out!

Time is not my healer. God is.

This made me cry. God never fails to speak to me through My devotional : Holy Emotions , never fails. 

Heres what it said. Hopefully this can touch someone else's heart.

There is a well-treasured saying that even Christians take comfort from during times of duress and tragedy, "Time heals all wounds."

May I just tell you loudly - I OBJECT!! Time has no inherent healing power. Only God has healing power! I know women who are just as bitter and angry today as they were ten years ago. Time hasn't healed their souls. I know women who are playing the blame game louder today than they were 30 years ago. Time has not healed these exhausted, hoarse women.

Only Jesus has healing power and so if you have a broken heart and long for comfort, then you must burrow into His presence where miracles happen not because of time, but because of Him. Are you allowing the nurturing closeness that He gives especially to the brokenhearted to heal your heart today?

No one can mend a broken heart but the Lord. Other people's words will encourage you and bring a measure of healing but the ultimate healing is always from the Lord. Kind deeds and gestures may remove the sting from a broken heart, but nothing and no one other than the Lord can place that crowning healing touch on your life. He has the power, love and divine skill to actually cure you from the extraordinary pain that you are going through.

God is able to restore your soul and perform a spiritual heart transplant if that is what it takes to move you into health and hope again. This seems impossible when you have a broken heart but it is not impossible to God! The will of God is always restoration and healing.

We can easily understand the concept that the Holy Spirit is endeavoring to communicate through the psalmist in the phrase, " - and binds up their wounds." The word picture that is being painted through the Hebrew language is the beautiful illustration of a tailor gently mending and sewing together that which was torn apart. If you have a broken heart, friend, I know Someone who has the expert skills to easily and perfectly mend it. Not only is He able to repair your broken heart, but He has the desire to do it.

God bless every one of you.

Hebrews 6:19

Holy Emotions

This is just a snippet from my devotional called : Holy Emotions- Biblical Response to Every Challenge.

This devotional (that you can find on youversion.com and do yourself) has blessed me so much, every day I do it , im like blown away. lol 

Just something I wanted to share. Sometimes we feel so defeated because our flesh is so hard to kill, but we must understand that if it was easy, then it wouldn't be worth it. Next time you find yourself struggling with fleshly desires, think among things like this: 

Anyone who desires to be used in a consequential way by God, understands the divine prerequisite in overcoming one's own fleshly responses to life. Your flesh, which also can be recognized as your human emotions, stands in opposition to your spirit and to God's Spirit in you, unless you have learned not only to discipline the flesh but crucify it as well.

 If we want to be used by God and prosper in our life like he has individually promised, then 'flesh killing' is essential, dont beat yourself up for it. Use it as ammo, you know the devil will tempt you the MOST when God is using you for His kingdom!

Peace!

Live.Laugh.Love *CAUTION* - Much rambling going on - lol

I hate that saying SO MUCH.

How about Love the Lord your God with all your heart & your neighbor as yourself?

"Live, laugh, love" is so vague to me.

Theres so much more to living

Laughter is only a small aspect of joy

and well never even know true love until we meet Jesus! 

*taps chin and makes thinking pose*

....

You know what , maybe we can "Live.Laugh.Love"

Maybe it could be a a springboard to have joy, purpose and love in our everyday lives!!!

Wow Lauren, you just shut yourself up! :) haha

BUT , I dont know,I still think most people who say that, aren't thinking of what I just said. To them its just something to get by and cling onto to "make"  it through life instead of turning to God to fill their void.

I guess there are two spectrums to this. 

& I guess I just rambled along and found myself  in this lol.

GOD BLESS!!!!! :)

Nahum : Answering Questions...

Im reading the book of Nahum in the bible (obvi) and I only read the first 6 verses of the first chapter and I've gotten to much out of it already! lol

Its not necessarily for me. But just the commentary my bible gives is awesome!

OKAY, 

Nahum 1:3 -

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet

Now, most of us know this. The Lord our God is slow to anger and His word tells us to possess that same characteristic. This is a given.

But this scripture explains a lot ...

You know how people ask "Well if God really is all powerful and nice and loving, why does he let so much evil in the world...blah blah & whatever else?"

I feel like this scripture pretty much answers that question. lol

The commentary in my bible says this
"They dont realize that because God is slow to anger, he gives his true followers time to share his love and truth with evildoers. But judgement will come, God will not allow sin to go unchecked forever. When people wonder why God doesn't punish evil immediately , help them remember that if he did, none of us would be here. We can all be thankful that God gives people time to turn to him"

This sort of kind of blows my mind, maybe my mind just wasn't open wide enough to take this in as common sense, but what the heck? We were ALL BORN SINNERS. We all fall short of the glory of the Lord. If were gonna sit around and say that all the evil stuff in the world should be banished right this second, we better be prepared for judgement because we ourselves are technically evil. Were all sinners, whether its Kony, Hitler, sexual immorals or idol worshippers. We all do it!!

Thats just crazy to me. lol

Another thing is that when those people ask that question, I feel like their picking and choosing Gods character to benefit them.

It is a part of Gods character to be a gentlemen and to be all knowing and all powerful JUST AS MUCH as it is a part of his character to be slow to anger & great in power. You cant put God in a box and limit him to being ONLY all-knowing or all powerful and forget that he still has a plan to erase all sin and wvil from the earth, Hes not playing us, like "mwuahaha im going to let evil rule the world and the earth and pretend i dont see it" NO. God knows, hes loving and hes going to come soon to get rid of all of it. 

So if they are questioning him and saying He is hypocritical because hes a "mean god" because he lets evil dwell, then they arent fully grasping the fact that thats just how loving He is, to ALL of us, hes slow to anger because he wants to give those who follow him a chance to bring those "evil-doers" back to Him.

Thats just my two cents ;) 

& how I think Nahum answered some important apologetic questions.

Now i'll go finish reading the first chapter! lol

SHA-LOM. 

Dont get stuck

in the idea of things.
like relationships
       fame
       fortune
       education
      ...etc

You have to realize what YOU HAVE NOW in life, these things are here, RIGHT now.
I get caught up in the idea of having a boyfriend/fiance/husband and getting married.
Or the idea of being a nurse and pursuing my passion to help people.
Or having a family and being the best mom I want to be.

But those things are literally IDEAS that I have, God has the truth instead of a theory about my life.
So when things fail or go bad or break apart, I get crushed because my idea and theory has been disproven. But in reality God is just constructing it in his way.

This, my friends, is a harsh reality.
So if you're stuck in the idea of (______) < fill in the blank, and you see it not working out, come out of the idea and give it to God. All your dreams and aspirations and even simple wants and needs are HIS! I need to start giving mine to him because without his direction and input my ideas can develop into something man made and my ship will sink.

Hopefully this makes sense. lol
Im just rambling along! lalalalaaaa


God bless!

I was thinking

of posting two different things tonight, but they would of contradicted each other, so this one shall suffice.

Today was an overall good day, actually pretty great. I was able to  look past the little things that disappointed me & praise God for the good in my life. But im realizing now that the devil is so conniving and evil that he can creep into your "actually pretty great" day and take your ability to be content in life's situations and turn it completely around and bring you back to square one! I dont really know what this post is supposed to mean, except that I now know how important it is to not only have the garment of praise on throughout your day or your life in general, but its soooooooooo important to KEEP IT ON instead of changing your clothes by letting the devil dress you in his oppression. Just a little thing I learned this evening.

For everyone out there who had a bad day, moment or few seconds, (& im most definetley speaking to myself here), keep praising God & wear your garment of praise, because what the devil wants most to do in this time is strip you down to your feet!

Hopefully tomorrow I can put this into practice... 'cause im in definite need of it now! lol
Shalom people!




P.S-This says (the verse below this sentence) to rejoice in the Lord, not only on Sunday, or when things are perfect, but ALWAYS ... think about it....

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 
-Philippians 4:4


3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
-Isaiah 61:3

Beautiful lies, yeah I know it ain't right, but I bought it...

...but thats the Price of Life

This song is just so good, I wish more girls would listen to it. Especially all those "Barbies" and "Models" out there. I honestly think this song is for you, and love is all it has to offer!

BTW Lecrae just had his mixtape go PLATINUM on datpiff.com! YAYYY! lol If you havent downloaded it already, I HIGHLY SUGGEST you do so!

If the video dosent play, click on this sentence :)

Is it even necessary?

     Its always been something that crosses my mind when I am around a certain group of people. Its always been a plagued me with judgemental thoughts... heres what im talking about.
As a christian its always bothered me so much to see other self proclaimed "christians", my age.... SCRATCH THAT ... > Its always bothered me so much to see young people my age doing stupid stuff.
I talked to a kid tonight about the musical group "Odd Future". I dont know if he was a christian or not (ALL of his friends proclaim they are so....) but when he walked up he was talking about how he just got done smoking and hes clearly still underage (to smoke ANYTHING lol). He then proceeds to go on about the group odd future. I voiced my opinion , and I honestly tried to be polite about it because I do have legitimate hatred for the group. Long story short, he ended up saying that the group was "anit-christ"  but not devil worshippers and he loves them because they say the things no one else will say.
I was going to get into a long discussion on why I completely disagree with him, but what bothers me even more is how corrupted this thought process of his even is!

    I just feel like its completely UNNECESSARY for kids my age or younger to be thinking this way... am I getting old? Too mature? I just dont understand why SO many kids are smoking, drinking, cussing, being provacative, listening to "anti-christ" music, being disrespectful to peers and adults , and having an "idgaf" (i dont give a ___) apathetic attitude!! Its really so crazy to me, im not sure why but more than anything it gives me a righteous anger and breaks my heart at the same time.
Is this lifestyle something they think is "good"? Necessary? Half the time the things they are doing are illegal and they are in constant hiding from parents or authorities and having to be on the down low like 24/7, is it even necessary to have to go through that JUST to have the label on your life as "good" and just to be seen as someone who dosent care and is a rebel? like foreal y'all?
I was talking with a friend about this subject also and it was a mutual feeling between us that most people just live for a title and to be recognized as a "pot-head" or as "sexy" or even the cliche "cool".


     This just makes me think more and more how important it is for me and you and others to SET an example for our own generation, I feel like ever since I went off to college, I've been noticing so much more corruption and God is giving me a piece of his heart, but thats not something I am ( or you ;) ) are supposed to ignore. Whether or not I agree with how my generation is living , its just fuel to my fire to keep fighting the good fight and living for God; putting HIM on display!! 



1 Timothy 6:12 (NIV)

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

This whole week...

I have been considering starting a blog. But I havent gotten around to it because I have been SO busy with chemistry and studying for my test! ANYWAYS , when I noticed that today was the first day of wonderful June, I thought, what better time to start my blog?! :)

Most of the time this blog will be me pouring out my heart and saying how I truly feel.

I want most to encourage people (especially females) with what God is laying on my heart in a loving way :D

I pray that , that will actually happen!! Im very excited! yayyy.