from footprint to loveprint

Hello everyone,
God bless! I hope you all had an amazing Memorial Day. We had a very relaxed and enjoyable one.
Spending time with the familia, window shopping and grilling some ribs.  While we were shopping I picked up a few books, ok a bunch of books, they had a sidewalk sale, as many books as you could fit in a bag, for 10 bucks! I was able to fit 22, that's less than 50 cents a book! Love it when I find deals like that!

Books ranged from novels to inspirational to business related to poetry to Bible study guides.  One of the books that I found was a small booklet about making your days matter. Giving back to society, sharing with others. Doing small deeds that can add up to really make a difference. The books gives you ideas of things you can do once a week from Writing a letter to a Military Hero, to Learning CPR, to Donating clothing and blood.  Some of things may not seem as if they are important, or if they really contribute, but it's about small steps and changing one's mindset, and realizing that their life does count and a little can go a long way!

Most people want to contribute, make a difference, and have a positive impact. We want to respond positively when we think about our legacy and the type of footprint we are leaving behind. Do we want to leave one that says we took, all the time or one that also shows how we gave, lived & loved.  You can be ordinary you and do extraordinary good things for those in this world. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves... will you join me in making our footprint into a loveprint, one wherein little by little we change the world!  I think that you will find that while you will be making an impact on the lives of those you serve, they will make an unforgettable impression on your own.

Over the course of the year I will blog ever so often of my experience of making my days matter, and share the love!   As I write this a few songs and quotes come to mind. One is from
 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Everyone has the power of greatness. Not for fame, but greatness.  Because greatness is determined by service."

be blessed & a blessing,
Minda
ps..
let me know about your experience in going from leaving a footprint to a loveprint!

TGIF

By: PriscyMarie

It’s FRIDAY! It’s the end and the beginning.   You might ask, how can that be both?  Of course it’s both, it’s the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend.   In the same way, many things in our lives are both the end and the beginning.  It may be the end of a relationship, romantic or otherwise, but it’s also the beginning of freedom or self-discovery or the beginning of a new relationship.  Maybe it’s the end of a work experience but the beginning of you following your dreams.  It’s the end of your childhood but the beginning of your adventure as an adult.  

God is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.   When we think He has finished with us He has just begun something new.  He never lets up.  It’s quite refreshing a reassuring to know
that our Lord is has a love for us that is renewed daily. 

I am guilty of having thought that when things have ended they stay that way but that just isn’t true. Even in our end, our death, we have a new beginning, a new life.  Keeping this in mind will change your perspective when things change.  Instead of dreading a dreary end you can live a new beginning filled with hope and wonder.  After all, new beginnings start every day and you can make them whatever you want!

Whatever the end, there is always a beginning.

You know Love, Makes the World Go Round

Hello everyone! 

This past Sunday I had to speak at my church and I while in time of prayer I thought to look through a bin of notes that I have and found some information and notes on love.  All about love you see, which was great because this past Thursday at our Bible Study at church, we were speaking about enduring and perseverance that one gains, as love increases.  We were looking at John the beloved disciple, who endured great strife and turmoil, yet still to his dying day, spoke love.  

Since my thoughts naturally tend to be in rhyme or some sort of cadence or meter, I automatically began to hear many old love songs and began to sway.  You know which ones I’m speaking about, those oldies but goodies: from Stevie to Aretha, from Marvin to the Temptations, and a few others mixed in between.  They reminded me of how love really does make the world go ‘round, and how important it is to know the very source of love.  

I was also reminded of all the church songs that praise and uplift the name of God, I thought of the love that we sing about, the love that we long for, the love that God gave His Son for us to have freely... I was reminded of all of these and began to sing a song that Kathy Troccoli sang “I Call Him Love.”  In my trying to remember the rest of the lyrics I ended up writing this poem:

 I call Him loved & He calls me Beloved

Some call him a prophet 

some call him a fake

some feel He’s a distant father that 

they cannot embrace

but I,

I have felt His touch 

& I will 

never ever be the same! 

You see I call Him love,

I call Him love

and He calls me His beloved,

His precious child,

sweet thang.

Now don’t get it twisted 

it ain’t like you think 

I dont just have fanciful thoughts 

of one I wish to be. 

God’s love surrounds 

and it over abounds

changing my very thoughts 

to the thoughts that 

are His thoughts 

filled with life and love.

You see He is love

the very essence of all 

love’s beauty

all that love endures 

and all it conquers 

it all comes from Him

the maker and fulfiller of it all

You see that’s why I call 

I call him love

& He calls me His beloved

In knowing Him and receiving His love

you will learn what it means to truly love

loving you, all of you 

faults and all

it will allow you to live out that love

and that love that God has planted

that which He has invested in you. 

This is what it’s all about

Loving God,

Love Yourself,

Loving other People.

 & letting love run its full course.

I call Him love & He calls me beloved

I am talking about LOVE folks, Loving God, Loving yourself, and Loving People.  It may be difficult to love someone else, but this is only until we learn of that great unconditional love of God that we can then learn how to love ourselves and when we learn to love ourselves we then can learn to allow love to flow through us unto others!  And that’s when we will then truly let love run its full course! 

Be blessed & live love,

Minda

Doting Doubt

By: Priscy Marie

Sometimes I just don’t understand myself.  I’m a weirdo!  Although I always want to be completely sold out for the Lord sometimes my actions and thoughts betray me and go against my
wishes.  I know that my confidence is in the Lord yet I somehow lose my confidence in myself to be this awesome person but instead am steadfast in thinking I’m horrible and a huge disappointment.   I have realized and accepted that I have a disease to combat.  James, being led by the Holy Spirit spoke on this, DMMD.

Double Minded Mess Disorder!

Yes, you read correctly, DMMD is double minded mess disorder which is clearly spoken about in the book of James.  Specifically James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Many are just like me in that we long to please the Lord and do what the Apostle says here, draw near to God… Purify our hearts, but it’s a catch 22 in that DMMD pulls us away, so,  how am I supposed to overcome DMMD, be healed, restored, if my heart is too torn to stick with the decision?  It feels overwhelming and overpowering.  In fact it feels too powerful for me to overcome.  The Lord is calling me to purify my heart.  

How blind have I been? How long? If it’s now that I realize that all this DMMD is a lie for the core of Satan.  Its what he’s been doing since Adam and Eve.  Planting, watering and harvesting insecurity.  Doubting myself is just an extension of doubting the Lord, who, by the way, purchased my eternal security with His blood.  His pain ridden, tired, gruesome, precious, loving blood paid for me.  Not
just a piece of me but all of me!  He knew the antagonistical schemes I would have to endure and that I would fail many of them.  He knew of each and every offensive thought I would have and every horrific lashing my heart would take.  He knew and knows it all. He saved it all. Now, if only I could remember that His power has raised me from fleshly death that I was already experiencing and that I don’t have to die again.  I belong to Him, the King, the all in all GOD, now my GOD.  So, why is there ever even a droplet of uncertainty?  People say it’s normal but I’m done with trying to be normal. I’m ready to embrace my weirdness and stand out because at the very least I’ll be standing!  No longer will I treat my skepticism, double minded mess as a “normal” reaction that I accept.  From now on, I will believe the unbelievable and hope for the impossible knowing, not wishing, but knowing that God is able and willing to do the incredible.  

I urge anyone who decided to read this, to be honest with yourself and your DMMD and join me in being God’s peculiar people.  Let’s purify our hearts knowing the He who requires it of us, does the actual purifying for us and that the thought that it can’t or won’t happen is again a lie from the
core of satan, the father of lies. 

I am encouraged and expecting great things from God’s people, my people.    

Lights, Camera... SMILE!

Earlier today, I along with the members of the leadership team of my church went for a photo shoot for our church's website. It's amazing how even amongst family how smiling for the camera, can prove to be  fun as well as make one very self-conscious.

I see my niece and nephews smile at once, at the sight of a camera, and recall being just as much of a ham as they were at that age, and then somehow... something happened and my confidence not as apparent. Blushing, when told to give a wry smile, or a serious look, and finding myself doing a terrible job at holding back the laughter.

We are born with such a great confidence knowing not that there is another option. Due to words we've heard, things that have occurred, or images we see, we are led to compare ourselves to one another and begin to believe we are not good enough or less than what we should be. It is insecurity that yields us to have difficulty at times to do something as simple as smile.

At the garden, Adam and Eve had it all, and were essentially perfect; they knew nothing else than that which the Lord shared with them.  Then came that day, when the sly serpent would come and twist the truth just enough to cause them to wonder, if maybe God was holding out on something great.  He also caused them, to want something, that they already had, to be in the image and likeness of God.   The serpent, planted those seeds of insecurity and inferiority, which led Adam & Eve to sin, and well the rest is history...

I want to remind you that you were indeed made in the Image & Likeness of All-mighty God and that though, Adam & Eve's actions, did cause a separation from God, Jesus' redeemed & restored us unto Him.   We once more can walk in the fullness that He made us to be.  You are beautiful! You are his marvelous creation! So great is the love that the Father has for you that He sent Jesus, His one & only son.  He sent him, so you can recognize who you are... His, so Smile!

be blessed & a blessing,
Minda

Just a little Faith

by: Priscy Marie

I tend to live in my own world and walk to the beat of my own personal drummer and sing songs no one knows. But, every so often I lend myself to see to world around me for what
it is.  I see sadness, insecurity, rejection and complexes to fill every galaxy above.  People doubting their faith or being told they need more.

Makes me think; who has faith?  Is it the optimistic go getter or the Debbie downer?  The truth is, everyone has a measure of faith that’s been gifted to them by God.  The difference lies in where the faith is put.

Faith is the certainty of things hoped for and the conviction of what’s not seen

A few weeks ago I was faced with an opportunity to use my faith either for me or against me.  I was really low on funds and had some large expenses being drafted from my account.  I had no way to come up with sufficient funds in this short amount of time and was faced with two main options; the obvious and easiest, “oh no I’m going to over draw my account and have to pay twice as much in fees”, or the more difficult, “hey Lord, You are my provider and You make a way where there is no way”.  I struggled because although it was easy to say the latter, it was challenging for my heart to truly submit to this confession.  I had to make my heart
compliant to the faith I wanted and needed to have.  Even if I were to have gone with the easier path my faith would still have been exercised but it would have been working against me.  The Lord made a way out of NO way and was just in time!

It’s sometimes perplexing to me, how I would ever choose to have faith in heart ache or pain
or just plain negative things.  It brings me back to realizing that I need to get to know my loving savior a little more because if I knew Him I would know His thoughts and hold on to the ones He has for me.  Use my faith to work for me in the hope and future that He has planned for me.       

What is your faith in?  What is your confession?  What is your heart proclaiming?

Use Your faith to work for you and not against you as you walk in the plan the He has for you.

Have faith, know that He has a plan for you, and it’s a good one! J

Ever Near

These past few days I have been reviewing some of my poetry and lyrics as I have had some services and poetry jams to attend and there is a poem that I kept coming across and was able to share with some teens and friends.  It goes like this:

Distant

There are times when I feel

So distant, 

Distant from you.

I don't know where You are 

Or has it been 

That I moved from close to You?

There are times that I just feel

So lost, 

Lost oh so lost, 

I don't know what to do.

I look al around 

All I see

Is darkness that blinds

'Cause I am,

So far,

So far from You.

But You haven't moved 

No You haven't changed 

No I was the one who walked away.

'Cause You haven't moved

No You're always the same

Your arms are open

waiting for the day.

You arms are open wide 

Waiting for the day

That I come back to You

You haven't gone away

You gave me so much love

I didn't,

I didn't know what to do

I was overwhelmed, 

Oh how could this be true

I decided to take 

One more look 

At that life, 

That life I left behind 

And ended up 

Further from you 

Further than the first time.

No, You haven't moved 

You haven't changed 

No I was the one who insisted on walking away.

No, You haven't moved

You haven't changed

You're always the same.

ⓒ  Minda Montero - 2007

In Malachi the Word of the Lord tells us that the Lord our God doesn't change, He is a constant in this ever changing world. And even though when we come to Him with sincere hearts and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we at times glance and gaze at others longingly, and forget about that overwhelming love, for He is Love. All that we know about love, truly comes from Him.  And it is in that amazing love, that He patiently awaits our turning of our hearts toward Him once more, because just as in that 1st day when we accepted Him and He made his dwelling place in our lives, He has not departed... He said he will never Leave you nor Forsake you... 

So, let us be reminded of His goodness, of His love, of Him, and turn your hearts toward the one that made You His dwelling place, and you will see that He is indeed not far or distant at all.

Be blessed & a Blessing,

Minda

A Quick Look at Stress

By Priscy Marie

Stress!  You feel it in your neck, your back, and head and all over your body.  You can even see it, like around your waist line.  It amazes me how during times of stress we either go on an involuntary fast or become compulsive overeaters and others’ bodies store fat during this involuntary fast and create unwanted insulation that is quite visible. UGH!!!! STRESS!  I feel bloated just thinking about it.  Even when it’s related to a good thing like a wedding or promotion, stress is, in itself, not desirable.  Why would God let us go through stress that makes our hair fall out or turn grey, our skin denourish and wrinkle up?  People can die from stress.  It kills us!

Is stress a sin?  Hmm… I wonder.  According to Webster’s dictionary it’s a constraining force or influence.  That does not sound pleasant to me at all.  When we stress, are we, sometimes, doubting that it will not work out well?  I believe that when we doubt that God will come through.  We are doubting God’s faithfulness and in essence doubting God and in that, sinning against Him.

Stress leads to frustration and frustration is work of the flesh.  I don’t know about you but I don’t want my flesh leading me anywhere.  When the flesh leads, it usually ends with time lost in regret from decisions hastily made. 

The truth is that God always makes a way and He tells us to cast our burdens on Him and that He will carry our load.  He is our God.  He is faithful.   He is the provider of all because He is the creator and we as His creation, are reapers of His provision, including constraining forces.  It’s great to know
that we don’t have to stress and that He actually prepares us before situations happen.  We just have to open our eyes to see that He’s there and has been there all along.  He never leaves us.  He is waiting for us, waiting for us to give Him our burdens. He tackles all the good and bad and ugly.  He takes it all and works it for our good.  All we have to do is love Him. And if love Him then follow His ways.  So, let’s stop stressing and regain our waistlines and youth.  Let’s live the life God wants us to live and not just believe He has us but KNOW it.           

Hesitant, yet hopeful

    We shall all remember Sunday, May 1, 2011, when the President of the United States announced the death of Al-Qeada leader, Osama Bin Laden.  We shall also remember the tragic events of September 11th, when so many were killed so quickly and unexpectedly.  These along with many others have marked the history of our nation, and the lives of thousands will never be the same.
 
  I remember wondering if the death of one man, can save a nation from the perils of terrorism that have changed our nation since 2001.  Will his death mean an end to the efforts of this group?  What does this mean for this "war on terror"? And I continued to ponder on a hundred, "What Ifs".

  While so many rejoiced upon the death of this man, I will admit I was hesitant.  I hesitated, not because of the questions that flooded my mind, but because this is a man, a life, for which Christ died for.  For, while we were all still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, that includes Bin Laden.  Or have we forgotten that?
 
  He is one more life that was so overtaken by evil, that he slay so many lives without regard for the value of life. Did Bin Laden reap what he sowed? I would say yes, for the wages of sin is death.  It is an eternal death that all sin yields, if we do not remember, recognize and honor the One that died to free us from the slavery to sin and to give us life, Jesus Christ.

   Slavery to sin?? Yes, that's what it is. Bin Laden, was unable set himself free from the holds of sin, even if he wanted to.  He was bound to this evil, allowed hate to take root and bloom that which it did. Maybe it's not murder or overt evil that you foster, but what are you allowing to take root in your heart, and what is coming forth?

  So while I know that the evil that led Bin Laden is still around, the victory of his death is short lived.  I pray that those who are willing to foment the works of evil and hate will see how the life of one man only leads to death, including his own.  But that through us, be able to see that the death of another brings forth life, and Life Everlasting.

Yes, evil exist but Jesus Reigns! And His life -exemplary, His death -redeeming, His resurrection -transforming!

be blessed & a blessing,
Minda