Happy Tuesday!

I will admit, I didn't care for this song when I first heard it, but it's been in my spirit for a while and it has ministered to me in this season. I hopes it blesses you!

Media: I will Lift Him Up!

Happy Thursday Luvs!!!!!

Happy Thursday!

"I Love Their Love": Spotlight on Warryn and Erica Campbell

 You all know that I am HUGE Mary Mary Fan. And I admire the Godly marriages they have. I consider them something to look up to. Sooooooo look-ey what I found: Warryn and Erica's wedding on TLC's A Wedding Story! I know how I missed this because I use to be addicted to that show. 

 

AWWWWW I love their LOVE!

and look at them now!

I thought it was sooooo cute that she sang the same song to him on their "Baby-Moon" that she did on their wedding day. Oh on day the Lord is going to bless me with MY OWN bond like that, and it's going to be the best thing in the world because God would have created it just for me! 

Feature: A Lesson from A Celeb Marriage- Teddy and Tina Campbell

I am a HUGE fan of Mary Mary on WeTV. I love the way they represent Christians in this day in age and relationships. They keep it real, and they are transparent. In the second episode of the season, that was a convo between Tina and her hubby Teddy about her appearance. Yes, when she is in "Mary Mode", Tina is all doll-ed up, with the hair, make-up and dress, but on the everyday tip, she's plain and comfortable, which how I feel most of us women are (especially me). This is a realistic and very relevant topic of convo that should be discussed. Do we as women get too lazy and too comfortable when it comes to appearances?

"When I'm home and I go into a Tina space, I'm Tina. I'm Teddy's wife, I'm these kids' momma, I'm her; don't look for Mary. It's a lot of work to be ON; ready for the camera. I can't be ON all the time; it's too much work "

"This is the man that I intend to spending the rest of my life with. He can't tell me there's something he wants, something he needs, something that makes him happy and I'mma disregard it. That is what we call a fool. Why would I do that? How I'mma keep him if he ain't happy"





When this episode aired, I had a convo with my mom, (it's kinda funny because my mother is kinda on the low, trying to groom me for marriage, and she has starting PLANNING MY WEDDING! It's quite funny because I'm not even dating...so I kinda laugh it off, but I do take what she says to heart because it's wisdom) but she was saying that it's important that you keep your appearances up. Now any one who knows me, know that I LOVE fashion! But I can admit that I do get lazy with it at times especially during the week, mainly because I do work from home, right after work, I'm heading to school, where I have to wear a uniform, and I rarely go anywhere until the weekend, and more than likely it's church and I do get GAWGEOUS  for the Lord. But, yes I can do more.


A couple of weeks ago my clinic for teacher (who is a male) joked that if I stepped it up I would more than likely get asked out more. I didn't too much offense because to know Mr. Ed you know that he cracks on everyone. But it was food for thought. I can remember recently running into a guy that I am interested in and I wasn't to the nines. I wasn't bummy but I wasn't looking my best and I feeling a little embarrassed because I could have looked better. So I'm going to challenge myself to step it up. Keeping my hair flawless even through the week, working to get my skin back together, actually ironing (lol somehow I got out of that habit in college with all the hustle and rushing) even if that mean getting up earlier.  A lot more can be discussed on this topic so I'm going to try my best to remember to do a part two to this.




Do you think you could step it up a little more?

TD Jakes Live On Purpose Pt. 2

Ready or Not?

This poem was really piecing and convicting! What are your thoughts?

 

Why He's NOT Asking You Out (an interesting thought)

Happy Hump-day!! (Vid Post)

Listener Beware!

While listening to my Jill Scott station on Pandora, I noticed that I had to skip a lot of songs. Now, there was not thing wrong with these songs. The Jill Scott station never disappoints. It's really the only secular station I will listen to because, it's real music! But I had to skip some songs (which were in the past, some of my favorite songs) because they were emotional triggers for me; causing me to remember intimate moments with a past partner who I had a strong soul-tie to.

Recently I have been doing a lot of research on soul-ties. A lot of us have soul ties to people and don't realize it. According to www.newwineonline.com, "A soul tie is the joining or knitting together of the bonds of a relationship. Godly soul ties occur when like-minded believers are together in the Lord: friends, marriage partners, believers to pastors, etc. Relationships that lack ‘God-centeredness’ can result in ungodly soul ties between friends, parents and children, siblings, marriage partners, former romantic or sexual partners, domineering authorities, etc."  In my sitution, this would be a ungodly sexual tie. Now the person, I have this tie with is not a bad person at all, but God was not the center of the relationship and there was the present of lust and premarital sex. This tie held me bound for many years. Although it doesn't phase me as much, I realized recently, that it hasn't fully dissolved, so I still have work to do with God to completely break it. 

Proverbs 4:23 NLT "Guard your heart above all else,for it determines the course of your life."

Taken and Zeta Phi Zeta Christian Fraternity and Sorority Inc.'s Poetry Slam  that featured Jeanette-ikz and Ezekiel 

In the process of breaking soul ties, we must recognize the importance of guarding our hearts from ungodly influences. Had I continued to listen to those songs that causes emotional triggers for me, I may have felt the need to call that person and tried to re-kindle the same ungodly  relationship. God just keeps showing me the dangers of premarital sex. And this particular subject just keeps coming up in my life lately. For example, last week I went to ISU, and my Sorority sponsored a poetry slam, in which we featured Jeanette-ikz  and Ezekiel from P4CM as headliners. Jeanette-ikz, spoke about the dangers of soul-ties before preforming "I will wait for you", also, I went to an open mic at my church on Friday and a young lady did a poem on soul-ties (just confirmation). 

Donald Lawrence- Your Righteous Mind (This song has really blessed me).

When you have sex with a person, they make a deposit into you. I'm not just talking about the natural deposit of semen that occurs, but i'm speaking of the spiritual ejaculation that happens when someone enters you. These unholy spirits and bond are almost impossible to break with out God's help. Although I haven't had sexual intercourse with this person in over 2 years, breaking this tie is still a day by day walk for me and an internal war. I'm not as attached as I use to be, but there is still something there that triggers my flesh to "reminisce" (#danger). I choose to thank God for deliverance in advance. This topic is one that God has placed on my heart to write about, and I will continue to focus on this for a while. If you have anything that you want to share on the topic of soul ties, feel free to email me and with your permission I will post it as a featured post. Love you guys and please stay prayed up. 

"Made in his image"

Here's some food for thought:

Happy Thursday!

Laughter is good for the soul! I'm feeling good today so I want to share my joy with you guys and make you smile. Enjoy this video on enjoying you love.

SMOOTCHIES XOXOX

Platinum Lovers ft. Proche & Brandon (BYFKZ) from Gary Beauford on Vimeo.

I Hate to Admit it but Lil Wayne Is On to Something.

I'm not a huge Lil Wayne fan because just like a lot of the hip hop artist nowadays he spews out and promotes ignorance and things that are completely not of God, but I came into my living-room one day, and my brothers was watching 106 and Park on BET as usual. A video came across the screen that completely grab my attention and has me actually giving kudos to Mr. Carter for sharing some sad truth. The video that was playing was Lil Wayne's "How to Love". This video visually displays the powerful words he wrote, describing the poor emotional state a lot a young females  are experiencing now, in not knowing how to love. What is your take on Lil Wayne's "How to Love"?

Now here is a 2 part video response to this music video by Jaha Howard expressing what true Christ-like love is! 

Check out Jaha's channel here.

The Painful Truth

In the past I have had what some people would call "bad luck". It just seemed like things never went right. I would be up one moment. Life would be going good. I seemed to accomplished every thing I set out to do. I was in college, had my own apartment, my own car, and a pretty good job with full benefits. But soon everything just went south. My hours were cut at work, I couldn't afford my apartment any more, someone hit and totaled my car. I found myself sleeping on the couch of a friend, with the worst credit ever! Now the natural side would be saying, "God why did you do this to me." And I did. I blamed God, but it was actually my fault because I was not living in His will.

As you may know, and if you don't, you will soon find out about me; I LOVE Pastor Justin and the whole P4CM. (Since I'm in school at night and can't go to bible study, I get my weekday Word from watching him on youtube), But I was watching his sermon today about pain, and it pierced me and gave me revelation about my life and my situations even now. I have found out that God allows us to go through pain for two reasons. (1) To bring us back to our senses and back to Him and (2) to give us a testimony to help others.

Pastor Justin of P4CM's Sermon "The truth behind why there may be pain and difficulties in your life"

Now, I know that things that I went through in the past (mostly through my college years) was God trying to get my attention. I was very stubborn, like most of us can be. I delighting myself in worldly things and expecting good to come from it. But the pleasures of this world are only temporary. My foolish self could not, at that time, understand why everything kept falling apart. God wanted me to come back to him, but instead I ran to fornication and alcohol to make myself feel better. Pastor Justin used a great saying in the sermon, "God sometimes has to set the building on fire to get you to come running out." It wasn't until I made a complete fool of myself and brought a stigma to my name for me to get it together.

In recent times, back in April, I started dating a guy. Now, we dated some years back, and back then I wasn't that in to him because I view him as being super clingy and it completely turned me off. Plus, at that time, I wasn't trying to settle down. Now, I'm more open to a serious relationship. So I decided to give it another chance because he was really nice guy, I truly believed that he love me and during a time were all the guys I was encountering couldn't deal with my celiebacy, it was refreshing to find a guy who was willing to DEAL with it, grew up in the church and "wanted a relation with God" (this is key. It wasn't that he was trying to celiebate on his own, he was doing it for me....red flag. He needs to do it for God and love God more than he loves me). Everything seemed to going good in the relationship, but my spirit really wasn't settled with it. I would notice that every time I invited him to church, there would be a reason why he could go. So I prayed to God, "Lord if he is not suppose to be here, please remove him." Shortly there after it came out in a very public way that he was doing dirt and appearantly not trying to live a lifestyle that was pleasing to God. 

Personally he was good a person, but we were not equally yoked. If God had not taken me through the pain of the break-up (and yes it was very painful: we were seriously talking about marriage), I would still be in that relationship and end up in a marriage which was not in the will of God. Now, all of this could have been avoided if I had trusted God and waited on Him. When we get inpatient and say "God you know what, you just taking a little too long for me, so I'm just do this right here." God takes a step back and allows you to learn the hard way. He dosen't force His will on you, but His Word will not return until him void. Now the road you take to get there depends on you and your willingness to trust and obey.

Being honest, there are times were the enemy will try to feed me negativity, making me want what's not best for me. I have my lonely moments when I think like "dang, I wish he would have done right, because things else was perfect between us before I found out." I have to fight those feeling and call the devil a lie, because I know my destiny in God and anything contrary is not of God. I have to tell myself that it was in fact a blessing, because I would have just caused myself even more heartache, staying there because we were not equally yoked. How can two walk together less they are agreed [Amos 3:3]. The man is suppose to be the head of the house and the spiritual leader of the house, how can that be if you are with someone who can't even get a prayer through? You have to look at like you dodge an unhappy bullet that could have stunted your growth in God, and that God has something better in store for you, but you have to trust Him. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and learn not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." [Proverbs 3:5-6] What does that mean? You have to trust God, even though it may not make sense to you, you may not understand how you are going to get your blessing or fulfill your destiny, but trust that what God said is truth. For He is not a man that he should lie. "In all thy way acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."  Make sure your ways acknowledge God; that your light is shining. That you are walking up rightly before Him, and living a life that is pleasing and acceptable in His eyes, and He will direct your path.

This is something I have to remind myself of everyday. Although I am "alone" in the natural, I am never alone in the spiritual. God is working on me, and preparing me for my blessing. How is God going to bless you with something that you are not ready to receive? How does he give you a man after His own heart, when your relationship with him, ( the one that comes first and foremost before all others) isn't together?

"Commit to having a fruit bearing relationship with Jesus Christ before dating" - Pastor Justin.

This poem by P4CM is really food for thought.

P4CM: Generation EX

I previous discussed my Ex in this post. Who is your Ex? Are you bold enough to proclaim it to a dying world?

April Mason's "Is The Black Church Keeping Black Women Single?"

I ran across this video, via a post on Facebook by one of my sorority sisters, and I found it very interesting. APRIL MASON talks about how we, growing up in the church, were always told to keep busy in the church and not to look for a man, because the Lord would send one like He sent Boaz to Ruth. Here she argues that Ruth, in fact, positioned herself to be found. What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you agree with April?

Discuss this and other topics on the live chat (today only) or start an open forum.