Thursday, January 17, 2013

Perspective

Perspective...that's an interesting word, even more interesting is its definition...the facts known to one.
Facts known to one...FACTS...truths as one sees them, TRUTHS...
Perspective is a choice.  How I choose to view things, is a choice.  I have learned this well.  I could look at my life from many different perspectives.  I could see it through the eyes of my family (who all have their own perspectives), from my friends, from acquaintances, even from those who don't know me.  I could see all the things I don't have, or I could see all the things I do.  I could look at my brother's situation and see hopelessness, failure, rejection, disappointment, and a "lost cause."  OR I could choose to see what God has done...that Shawn would not be where he is today (spiritually speaking) without going to prison.  I could CHOOSE to see that he is not the same, he is stronger, wiser, and he's for sure spending eternity with the Lord.  I could look at my relationship with Tracy and see failure, pain, rejection, mistakes, disobedience, hurt, etc. OR I could see it as good, but knowing that there is something BETTER.  It's the perspective that you see.
When Jesus died on the cross, I am sure that there were people who felt hopeless...this promise of a savior and yet all they saw was death, pain, a dying man.  But, what if there was one who saw a chance for redemption, a dying man who would rise as a SAVIOR to the world?  Perspective.
Yes, I don't have a job.  I don't have a car.  I don't have a place of my own.  There are a lot of things I DON'T have, but the way I see it...God has a lot of room to show off:)  He has alot of room to work miracles, to blow my mind, to fulfill promises, to knock my socks off, and to receive all the glory through every detail!!:)
My challenge to you is maybe you need to CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE:)

Dreaming His Dreams,

Andrea 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Blessings...

Blessings...it may look like I don't have alot. It may seem that way, from your perspective. From your perspective, you have many blessings, many 'possessions.' Change your perspective. What I have is not temporal. What I have is peace that passes all understanding, everlasting joy, promise for a future, hope unending. I have an intimate relationship with the Great I Am. My name has been written down in the Lamb's Book of Life and my future is secure! My sins have been forgiven, my past forgotten, and my future bright!
So, while to you, it looks like I am not blessed-right now, I have no job, car, home of my own-that is farthest from the truth. I am more blessed in this moment than I have ever been my entire life! While your 'blessings' will fade away, mine will last for eternity!
Thank you God, that I am blessed beyond comprehension; that my eyes are not on what is seen, but what is not!:) you are my life!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

It's personal...

Here I am, writing again. This blog, over the past couple of years, has been an outlet. Here is where I have shed tears, shared my pain, frustration, and confusion. This is where I expressed my anger at God when everything happened with Shawn; Where I expressed my hurts, my sorrows; This is where I wrote about finally finding love and where I wrote, with tears falling down my face, about losing that same love, grieving for it. This is where my hopes, dreams, fears and failures found a home. This is where I open my heart and share everything that I'm feeling with no regard to what others will think. This is where I am human. I pray that it encourages, strengthens, and gives hope to those who read. I hope that it inspires you to press forward in your own lives, in your own struggles, in your own pain, to find the hope that lies ahead, the joy that comes with the morning. This has been my release.
So here, today, I come once again to express my deepest thoughts.
2012: there were some things, some personal things that I closed out in 2012, that I "put a period on." Things that I refused to take into 2013 with me, so I closed them. What I realized through this was, for me, healing. If you have been a reader of mine for a while, you have walked through the greatest heartbreak I have ever experienced. You have seen, through my eyes, a love lost, a heart broken, a choice made. It's funny, I have really learned (I always knew, but learning first hand is something completely different) the effect that people's choices have on one another. You see, Tracy made a choice to leave Waxahachie, to go back to Austin. I believe he made the wrong choice. I believe that this is where God wanted him, and absolutely not because of me. I believe that even if Tracy and I were not together, that this is where he wanted him. God had things He wanted to teach him, places He wanted him to go, people He wanted him to impact, to minister to. God left the choice up to him. It's almost like those books I used to read as a young girl, the adventure ones where you got to choose the ending...if you chose A, this happened, if you chose B, this would happen, and so on. God gave him a choice, doing everything He could to show him exactly what the "right" choice was...Tracy chose option B. That ONE choice, led to another choice, that led to another choice, that now has him living a life that I know he would never have planned for himself. A life that isn't what God had chosen for him either. He never had the strength, the passion for God, to make the tough choice; to choose the harder of the two. He chose the "easy way out" as one would say...and is now seeing the repercussions of those choices.
I also made a choice. I chose to stay. When I couldn't hear anything else, I heard "Be Still." When everyone around me was telling me what they thought I should do, what they thought my next move should be, all I heard was "be still."  When the very love of my life believed that the only choice I wasn't making was him, I heard "be still.". He didn't understand. He believed that I was just rejecting him, that I wasn't choosing him, oh how wrong he was...I was just doing the ONLY thing I knew to do, the ONLY thing that I was hearing...I was "being still." I tried to make him understand, but the more i tried, the more angry he got. My heart would break over and over again at the thought of him thinking I didn't want him, that I didn't want to be with him. I loved him more than anything in the world. I loved him with every fiber of my being, my every breath, but I loved God more. Everything was so uncertain, everything, even my relationship with him...but the one thing I was hearing more clearly than anything else was "Be still." So, that is exactly what I did...as I watched the one person I loved most dearly, and everything else that I had, get stripped away from me. I made a choice. The difference between the two is that I can sit here today as I type, once again with tears streaming down my face, that I don't regret my choice. I chose to "Be still." God didn't ask me to "be still" alone...He never asked me to "be still" without Tracy, He just asked me to "be still." Tracy chose to walk away from me, He chose to not trust me enough to "be still" with me. He chose...and so did I.
All of this to say that I realized I still held some anger, some resentment, some hurt, and feelings of rejection towards Tracy. It wasn't what it was by any means, but it was more than I wanted in my life. What's done is done. The choices that we made have been made, and we are both living out the blessings and consequences of each choice separately, we can't go back, I won't go back. I once heard that falling in love with someone, giving them your heart, is giving them the power to hurt you more than anyone else on the planet. How true that statement is. I loved Tracy more than anything, and he was the one person who had the "power" to hurt me more than anyone else; And that he did...whether it be intentional or not. My flesh wanted him to feel at least a little bit of the pain, the hurt, the rejection that he made me feel. I wanted him to be alone. I wanted him to acknowledge that he hurt me, that he chose someone else over me, that he broke my heart, that he made me feel like I wasn't good enough for him. But I didn't get any of that-he moved on with his happy little life and premade family and I got to be alone.
That last day of 2012, December 31, I sat on the floor in my room and just cried. I cried because I had been hurt, and cried because I had allowed that hurt to turn into something that never should have been. So, I laid, face down humbling myself before the Lord, and I cried, I wept. I repented to the Lord for holding on to such pain, for not allowing Him to heal the little parts that I was still holding onto; and I prayed for Tracy. I prayed that God would bless him, that He would pour out blessings on him in such a way that he can not deny it came from the Lord. I prayed that we both would only remember the good times, the times we laughed, the times we were happy.  I prayed that when he thinks of me and when I think of him, that this is how we would remember "us."  Who we were in the beginning.  The "us" that laughed together, prayed together, dreamed together.  The "us" we were before all the junk, before those choices were made.  I want to and I want him to remember this "us."    

In that moment, I prayed that all the hurtful words, the pain, the sorrow, and the grief would be buried, and only the good would remain.  That when I think of him or when he thinks of me, that this is how we would remember "us."   I loved him and I know that at one time he loved me...that I will be forever grateful. There was a time when he made me laugh, most of the time at his expense, but I still laughed;) He taught me that I was lovable, that I was beautiful, that the very things I disliked about myself, were the very things that he fell in love with. I choose to remember these things...and I pray that he chooses the same. It's in this moment that I truly, with my very heart and soul, forgave him.
I can not speak for him, but I do not regret my choice to "Be still." Trust me when I say it was not an easy choice, it wasn't. Maybe it should have been, but for me it was the hardest choice I've ever made, the hardest one I ever hope I have to make. Through this choice, I learned that God is enough for me; That even in the midst of what felt like a tsunami, He was enough. He will never leave or forsake me. He loves me more than any one person will. He has big dreams for me. He has a husband, a family, a ministry for me that I can't even imagine...all rewards of just "being still."
I thank God for revelations. I thank Him for loving me enough to not allow me to stay the same. I am thankful that His love for me never changes, that He never rejects me, turns His back on me, lies to me, or hurts me. I am thankful that His best is what I yearn for. I'm so thankful that I am not the same!

Dreaming His Dreams,

Blue

Monday, December 31, 2012

I declare!

Today is the last day of 2012.  Wow!  This year has been full of so much...heartbreak, pain, frustration, tears, confusion, doubt, love, joy, happiness, hope, God...This year I have learned so much, about myself, about God, about my future, about love--what is truly is and is not...2012 is not at all what I expected it to be, but it was everything that it needed to be.  Now, 2013 is going to be amazing!  It is going to be full of God's favor in my life.  This year He will provide for me a car, a job, a home of my own, new friendships, and maybe even a new love.  This year will see the miraculous, orchestrated only by God, supernatural release of my brother from prison.  This year will see many dreams ans hopes come into fruition.  This year will see a supernatural provision for my entire family, my sister, brother, parents, and myself.  I declare that the year 2013 will be a year of salvation for my lost family members and a new level for those who know Him already.  This year will see the release of books, starting of businesses.  This year we will see the glory of God in our lives and in our church like never before.  This year will be a year of blessing and favor.  This year, the year of "rebellion and satan" (what the number 13 represents), we will see the complete opposite of that---a year of complete and total humility and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and a year full of His power, His grace, His mercy, His faithfulness, His love, His provision, His Spirit, His peace, and so much more!  This year, I will experience Him in a new way, on a new level.  This year, He will activate the "above and beyond" in my life, while I learn to "Just Breathe" and trust Him. 
This year is going to be amazing!!!  Are you ready?!?!?!?

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Ugh! yet, not really:)

Sometimes I hate that I remember dates so well...Don't get me wrong, I love that I remember birthdays and anniversaries for the ones that I hold close...what I hate is that I remember birthdays for the ones who broke my heart, the ones who I no longer a part of my life...I hate that they are still a memory...I have a quote on this blog that says, "the beautiful thing about memories is that they are yours, whether they are good, bad, or indifferent...they belong to you.  And no matter where life takes you, your memories tie you to where you've been."  I just want to forget...I don't want to remember birthdays...maybe with time I will forget, or I will just remember the good memories and not the bad ones, the painful ones.  Just maybe...
On another note, it's almost 2013!  Do you know what happens in 2013?  My brother comes home!!!  YAY!  I am so excited, I just can't contain it!  This will be the last Christmas, the last New Year that we will have to spend without him...I can't wait to see what God has in store...I can't wait to see how He will move in my life, in the life of my family:)  I can't wait to write it all down and then read it later!  How exciting will it be to read it all, to share all that God has done?  I'm so ready to start writing some good stuff, to start writing about all the "Above and Beyond" stuff that God will be doing in 2013!!!

Friday, December 14, 2012

Remember...

I sit here watching the news, and reading all my facebook friends post, about the shootings of 20 innocent kindergarten children, and 7 adults--by a 24 year old man.  All these posts talk about the evil in this world, about the sadness and heartbreak that they feel for the parents and families of these innocent people...yes, I do feel heartbreak...I am not a parent, but the thought that this could have been any one of my nieces, or my mom who is a teacher, saddens me, the reality of this world.  However, for me, the tears that I cried were in part for the soul of the one who pulled the trigger over and over again.  He was a human being also.  He was a sick man, yes, but he was still a human being.  The Savior of this world, the One who died for me, the One who has given me so much joy and freedom, spared my from so much pain and suffering, is also the One who died for this man.  Jesus loved him just as much as He loves me.  He died for Him just as much as He died for me.  I am sure that His heart was grieved today also, but not only for the children, for the innocent, but for the one who did this.
This is how I know that God has changed me...that He has changed my heart.  I am angry, but not at the man who did this, rather the one who so deceptively controlled this man's thoughts, actions.  Yes, this man made a choice...a really bad choice, but God still loves him.  I can't help but wonder if he ever heard the name of Jesus.  I can't help but wonder if anyone ever reached out to him.  A teacher? friend? neighbor? co-worker? classmate? mailman?  pastor?  Did anyone ever pray for him, really pray for him?  If so, did they pursue him?  Did they fight for him?  Did they constantly love him and get in his business, make him talk?  I wonder.
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood...So, as you process the events of today, I challenge you to remember who the enemy is...to remember that we have been called to be the salt of the earth, the light in a darkened world...Greater is He who is in us!  I challenge you to speak life into all those around you...you may never know how dark their world is, you may never know how powerful your love, friendship, encouraging word, or prayer is to that person.  I challenge you to listen closely to the voice of God, the Holy Spirit as He leads you to the hurting and dying people of this world.  I challenge you to remember that for God so loved the WORLD...we must love like Christ loves, we must embrace as Christ embraces, and we must forgive as Christ forgives..."Father forgive them, for they know not what they do"...sound familiar?

Dreaming with Him,

Andrea

Thursday, December 13, 2012

New Beginnings!

I've been thinking alot about this year...the year 2012...about the things I had hoped for, the dreams I had...etc.  As I look back, as we are about to close out 2012, I remember so many things.  I remember what my life looked like this time last year.  I was emotionally connected to someone that I loved with my entire being-who was becoming connected with someone else while I wasn't looking.  I was sad, I was depressed, I was confused about my purpose in life, what I wanted, etc.  Honestly, I was living a life of disobedience.  Satan is sly like that...he gets in and then before you realize it, you are in deep.  I was lonely and I wasn't seeking God like I should have been...when that happens it's a setup waiting to happen.  I gave him a foothold...by the time I realized what had happened, what I had done...it was too late.  I was already so in love that I figured I could "him.  I could make him want the same things I wanted, love God the way I thought he needed to, be who I knew he could be...THEN I went to this thing called "THE RAMP" and my life was forever changed.  I can't explain what happened, and I can't believe that it hasn't even been a year yet.  God drastically changed me.  He gave me hope, joy, delivered me from the fear of man.  He showed me that He has a destiny for my life and asked me to dream His dreams for me.  I came back a different Andrea.  Completely different.
Throughout this year I lost love, I felt pain.  I know what it feels like to be betrayed, to be cheated on, to find out that everything you believed to be true was a lie.  I know what it's like to grieve the death of dreams, love, life as I knew it.  I know what it's like to have everything stripped away from you and to be left with nothing, or at least what feels like nothing.  I know what it's like to sacrifice.  You see, God has always chased me, pursued me.  He has always been trying to get my attention, to take me to a greater level with Him.  No matter what I wanted, what my flesh wanted, my spirit, my soul, ALWAYS wanted Him more than anything else.  My flesh wasn't strong enough to give everything up on my own, so my prayer was for His help...and although I would have saved myself alot of pain and heartache if I would have done it myself, He helped me.  Even though I let Satan deceive me, to distract me from God's dreams for me, God was still pursuing me.  He was still chasing me.  He is still chasing me, still pursuing me.  This year of 2012---as I mentioned in an earlier blog--I learned that He is enough.  God is enough for me.  I have learned about the kind of love I deserve, the kind of love I desire.  I don't want to be pursued by a love that is selfish, that turns to another when it gets to be too much work.  I have learned what is and is not okay.  I have learned that God loves me so much that He has created a man out there for me that is praying for me.  As I pursue the Lord, and as he pursues the Lord, God will lead us to pursue each other. 
So, although 2012 was a year that I was asked to sacrifice much, to walk away from much, I am thankful for the lessons learned.  And I am more thankful that soon I can put 2012 behind me and look towards 2013! 2013 will be a year of new beginnings! A year that puts my "above and beyond' into action!  So, keep your eyes on this blog, I will write about my new beginnings, the new things that God is going to be doing in my life, in the life of my family.  2013 will see my brother being released from prison, it will see my new job, new car, and who knows, possibly even a husband:)!  You never know...

Still dreaming His dreams,

Andrea