Hope Unswervingly!

     I haven't wrote anything in awhile. I have kinda let the blog slide and been focusing more on my Facebook Page.  But I am back now! So much has been going on. God has been showing me more that he has ever shown me and for that I am extremely grateful!
     But I wanted to tell you something that happened yesterday.
     I had a kinda weird day yesterday. You know those days where Satan is really fighting you?
     Since I have had my page I have only posted pictures of mine, that I have taken and edited. I don't post  anyone Else's photos. The other day I considered putting a watermark on my photos. So people know that to get more content like that, they can check out my page.  But I thought, who is really going to steal my photos? I mean I think they are good, but why not just share them? So that was the end of it.
     That all changed yesterday evening. A mutual friend of mine and my husbands stole my photo.
I had invited this person to like my page awhile back and I had been posting the same photos on my profile. So when my husband was checking his news feed last night  he seen that this person had posted my picture! I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe it. They didn't share it, either. They literally had to download it from my page and then upload it to there's. Now why would you go through all that trouble when all you had to do was click SHARE? I don't understand it. My first conclusion was basically that she just didn't like me. I have never even had a conversation with this person. Its insane. Although they have made numerous back biting, self righteous comments on my posts. 
So that is really the only conclusion there is. They share pictures all the time, so there is no way that they didn't know how to share it.  I promptly unfriended them. I mean why would you be friends with someone that obviously didn't like you? I mean other than family haha.
     This morning I made a watermark. I put them it on all the photos I have not posted yet.
     You may say that was childish, you may say that it doesn't matter how they share it, at least they are sharing it. And I would agree with everything except the childish part.
     When someone makes it that obvious that they don't like you, every time you see that person in your news feed it is going to feed the anger and unforgiveness that is in your heart. I have forgiven that person and I don't feel even slightly guilty about unfriending them.
     I don't like toxic people in my life and I am a firm believer that you can love people from a distance. No reason to become toxic yourself.  Love the people that love you , pray for the people who don't.
     I don't know if this gave you any hope, but I hope it gives you the strength to cut ties with toxic people.  Then pray for them.
Actually though if you cut ties with those people you may find that you are feeling a lot more hopeful about the future! I know, I am!!

     See my new watermark?! I love it.
ps. I did download some solid backgrounds for some of my new photos! Hope you like them!!


Thank You for Visting Seeds of Hope and Praise! I pray that you leave with more hope than you came with!!

When you are tempted to give up, Your breakthrough is probably just around the corner

     Yesterday was crazy. I was literally on a roller Coaster, all day. But I should be getting used to that by now.
     Yesterday I woke up and checked my Facebook like I do, every single day. I wasn't prepared for what was about to happen. Since this is a public blog everyone can read I will keep it very brief and not mention any names.  For the sake of this post I will call him/her, M.
     There is a person in my family who I have been praying for years. Sometimes I will get a burden on my heart to pray for M so strong, I start crying. When I think of praying for someone to get saved, I always think of M. I know that's not a mistake. God very obviously has put M on my heart.
     In the process of praying for M all these years, I have come to love M in a way I didn't even know was possible. God, through M has shown me what it is like to love someone even when they reject everything you stand for.  It hurts to watch M go year to year and still be so hard and seem to hate God so much. It grieves me. I hate it, but I continue to pray.  
     Through the years I have also watched for a way to witness to M. To show M God's love and to let M know that the things M believes about God are wrong.
     Well, yesterday, that changed. M posted something that gave me the opportunity to witness to M.
At first, I didn't see it as an opportunity, I seen red. I will not lie, I was really angry.
     But ironically  I had a friend on Facebook (a couple of months ago)  post the same thing before. I seen it and was so angry and I grieved for them so much. Grieved for the deception that Satan was obviously playing on them, that they couldn't see the truth. I had A LOT of retorts prepared, but in the end they didn't seem to come from a place of love and that really should be our ultimate motivation when sharing the gospel.
     So this time when M shared the same thing. I was ready, kinda. Like I said I started angry and once again went through the same retorts as when my other friend posted it. But this time, it was different. I calmed down and the Lord gave me the perfect words and it did end up coming from a place of love. Serious Love. I was able to share the gospel with M. I was shaking, I was nervous, I was scared. But I did it anyways.
     After I posted it, we had to leave. When we got back several hours later, I nervously hopped on Facebook to see if M had wrote anything back. M didn't, M deleted the whole post. I don't really know why. But I still have hope for M, since M didn't just delete my comments.
     The next time I prayed for M, I didn't just pray for Salvation. I was able to pray that the Lord would use my words (from Him) to somehow plant a seed that will grow into a marvelous, flourishing tree of Truth.
     I am sure that some people would say that it didn't seem like love, confronting M about this. I mean sometimes lying seems more loving. But what it seems like and what it is, is vastly different.

For example
If I had just boarded a flight to New York and the person told me they were going to Florida, would it be more loving to just let them go to New York and let them find out on there own?? Of course NOT. You would tell them that apparently they had got on the wrong flight and they still had plenty of time to make it off the plane and get on the right plane.

It's the same way with witnessing. It is NOT LOVE to hide the truth. Love tells the truth.


     M probably is not very happy with me right now. M probably is very angry with me. But we have to love people enough to risk that relationship and their approval to tell them the truth of Jesus.

Thank you so much for Visiting Seeds of Hope and Praise! I hope that somehow God uses this post to give You the Strength, Hope and Courage to share the Gospel.

Worship God if you want the best! Worship opens doors to all of his goodness!

     Leaning on the Lord. Trusting the Lord. Relying on the Lord. If you are a Christian you have heard those phrases a million times. They are almost cliche now. When someone tells you to "trust the Lord"  is sounds so easy.
     Ok, I am going to go trust the Lord. I am going to depend on the Lord, not myself. But what does that really even mean? It obviously doesn't mean go sit in a corner and "wait on the Lord" I mean that would be ridiculous, well unless that's what he told you to do.
     So many times we throw these phrases around and although they sound really good, they are not normally followed by any practical information. So your basically left with, "what's next? What do I do next?" It can be so frustrating. There are things you can do like read your bible, a lot of times God will reveal himself through that alone. Other times it's through pray, sometimes lots of prayer, sometimes one prayer and then bam he answers and it leaves you flabbergasted. Those are the times that it strengthens your faith. Then you know God is listening. There also those "God winks". Those times in life where God just does this funny little thing, that everyone else sees as a coincidence, you know that he just answered your prayer, but only you seen it. For me personally he has used song lyrics, devotionals, people, I could go on for a long time. He has a long list of resources haha.  One thing though that is not normally spoken of when you are wondering what God wants you to do is worship. I don't know understand why this happens, I just know that God loves for his children to worship him. Singing, dancing, playing instruments, he loves it.  Worship should be natural for a believer, radiating from a place of thankfulness, delight, and Love.
     So next time you are wondering, "what's next Lord?" Sit down, read your bible, pray, start noticing whats going on (God may be Speaking to you!)  and then worship! Worship! Worship! But don't do it just out of routine, do it because God is really good. You can be sure in the end that God will come through for you!

What do you think of my new graphic?! Its kinda wild :) :)
 Thank you for Visiting Seeds of Hope and Praise! I pray that you leave with more hope than you came with! And be sure to follow me on Facebook for daily encouragement!

Your Story Is Not Over.

     For the past two days I have basically been trying to get the hang of this whole graphics thing. It may look easy, but it is NOT.  Especially since I compare my work to someone who actually went to school for graphic design. Yesterday I made 4 different quote graphics and wasn't completely sure about any of them. I guess it has gotten to the point, instead of trusting my gut I am trying to please people. Hoping that people would share and like them, so maybe more people would like the page.  Not as an ego thing but apparently Facebook has this quacky way of displaying posts. From what I have read, when you first make a post, they only show it too a couple of friends and if those people do not click it or like it, then it pretty much stalls the post completely. Yay. (not) So who knows if the people that really need to see it are seeing it? Not me and definitely not Facebook. So here I am trusting God and pretty much determining my success by my people reached. (how many people have seen it) Of course, it is aggravating, but it is making me take this much more serious. I am spending more time on them and researching much more.
     As in the case of everything, it has its ups and downs. One the up days, I am feeling good and successful. Finally I am getting something done for God, oh yeah. I am optimistic and hopeful and every other good emotion you can think of. Ain't no clouds in my sky.
     Then the bad days come. You can't even remember what it was even like to feel optimistic. Everything is sad and miserable and yucky, just awful.
     Then, if I let it, hope comes on the scene. Hope arrives and tells me that tomorrow will be better. Hope gives me the strength to get through the bad days and hopefully I remember the bad days during my good days, then conclude that this is pretty normal. And I don't have to let the bad or the good days control my life! I can stop right at that second and not determine my happiness by the success of my day or by people's approval. I can stop and realize that God has already approved of me.
     He approved of me 2000 years ago and I can be sure he knows about "ups and downs".
I mean this is the same guy who this happened too

____
  A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!^"

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
_____

     And then a week later, his friends had left him, he was beaten, mocked, and hated. Then murdered. Thankfully that is Not the end of the story. He died, but he arose. So he went from good to seemingly bad to good again. He understands the hopelessness and the pain.
      The story is not over for me or you. Jesus died so you could, I could, we could, have hope.

     Thank you so much for Visiting Seeds of Hope and Praise! I pray that you leave with more Hope than you came with!

Also I would love for you to come visit, like and share my Facebook page. Seeds of Hope and Praise!

If what is ahead scares you, and what is behind hurts you, just look above, He Will Never Fail You

So today is Sunday so I was not planning on doing a post.  But when I looked through my photos I took yesterday, I just had to see how they would look edited and when I did I found 1 shot that I absolutely loved!  I hope you like it! As I said yesterday I am trying to figure this whole graphics thing out, so I spent a little more time on it. I hope the more I do, the better I will get!

Thank you so much for visiting Seeds of Hope and Praise! I pray you leave with more hope than you came with!

God not only sees where you are, He sees where You Can Be!

     Wow, I can not believe it has already been a week since I felt that the Lord wanted me to start Seeds of Hope and Praise! Who knew so much could happen in a week?! I went from doubt, to insecurity, to anxiety, to happiness, then doubt again and now today? Happy. Very happy. It was so hard to step out and obey the Lord. I actually had no idea how hard it was going to be! I started out thinking I would make a separate page on Facebook (apart from my account) and not even tell my friends on Facebook. Now that would have been the easy thing to do. No putting myself out there and risking rejection. If it failed I could have just deleted it and went on like nothing ever happened. But for some reason the day I got on to do it I didn't. I put it on my page and held my breath, shaking and nervous about how it would be received. It was traumatic for me to say the least.  Then I took it a step further...I invited people to the page! Not a lot of people, just people I was pretty sure would like it.
Then the next day I invited a couple more and then a couple more. I also posted a status update telling people about it. I was really stepping out of my comfort zone. (I am still shocked)
     But I know God gave me the strength to push through the anxiety and insecurity. He has literally carried me through this whole process.  He has shown me more in the past week than probably in the past 6 months. Its exhilarating!
     One thing he has showed me is the value of perspective. During the first couple of days I invited quite a few people and only a couple liked the page. Instead of focusing on who did like my page, all I could think about was why more people didn't? Was it something I did? Or my pictures weren't good enough? Did they just not like me? The more I focused on the people that didn't, the more upset I got. But the Lord let me know that those few people who did like my page, mattered. They mattered a lot.  I don't understand why some people didn't like it, but its not my job to find out. Its God's job to make sure the right people see it. And all that really matters is the fact that I can spread Seeds of Hope and Sing my Praises to him!!
       Of course with now having more likes on my page, I am actually feeling a little more pressure to post really great stuff. I don't want to let people down. But as I say that, I know God is going to continue to provide, content and pictures opportunities. 

     


Thank you so much for visiting Seeds of Hope and Praise!! I pray that you leave with more hope than you came with!!!

     
    
    

My God, in him I will Trust

     Yesterday I told you about my message from God (pink clouds!) What I didn't tell you was that, on that same night five minutes after we seen those pink clouds, storm clouds covered them up.
It was looking like it was going to be a doozy of a storm.   As we drove the very short distance to the grocery store, I could see the line of rain where it had not reached us yet. It was freaky.  I tried to get a good shot of it, but this was all I got.

 

Sorry for the blurriness.

As you can see we were literally on top of this storm and the clouds above us looked like they could bust open at any time.  There was flashes of lightening and I was sure we were going to get rained on.

We somehow managed to skirt the storm the entire way home. I don't think I have ever been so close to a storm and not even get wet. It was pretty surreal.
     At this time I realized something very profound.
     Or God just gave me more content for my blog :) Which I have been praying for. You know the old saying, "The will of God won't take you, where the grace of God will not keep you."  So if God really did want me to start this blog and tell people about Jesus, he is gonna give me some content. So far, He has!
     Back to the profound thing he showed me.
     For the past, maybe 5 years, things have gotten progressively worse in the world. In the past year things have went from worse to much worse. Persecution of Christians is at all time high, being slaughtered daily in some parts.  Antisemitism is back in full force around the globe. I am daily hearing of killings and beatings of Jews. Even our country is persecuting Christians for not having the same world-view. We are called horrific names, daily,  for not agreeing with what they are doing/saying.  It feels like a godly- worldview is vanishing. The ideals that once made this country great, have been run into the ground. And now the icing on the cake is ISIS. The worst terror threat in the history of the United States.
     I am not going to lie. I am scared. I am hopeful, but I am scared. I believe we are living the days of Christ's return , but woah, how bad is it going to get? That is the million dollar question.
     Then came this storm. A storm that by all means was going to hammer us with rain, thunder, and lightening. But.... then it didn't.  I couldn't help but draw parallels between the storm and the world today.  And then God reminded me of a verse. (love it when he does that!)
     I just looked it up to get the exact verse and then realized that the whole chapter is appropriate.
 Its Psalm 91. I won't post it here but I encourage you to look it up. The way I knew the verse was through a lady on youtube who does scripture songs. 

                             This is the song! It is so beautiful and makes it easy to memorize.


Thank you for visiting Seeds of Hope and Praise!! I pray you leave with more Hope than you came with!