"Valentine’s Day"

"The legend of the origin of Valentine’s Day surrounds a Roman priest from the third century named Valentine. Emperor Claudius II, ruler of Rome, had decided to declare all engagements and marriages between young men and women illegal.

He believed that eliminating the longing for their wives and family would make for more loyal and effective soldiers. Claudius saw wives and families as a distraction that made his military force appear weak and incompetent. His decision caused a great deal of grief and sadness among the young men and women of this time.
Seeing the sadness this caused many of these smitten lovers, Valentine defied Claudius. He continued to perform the rights of matrimony in secret.

Eventually the emperor learned of Valentine's actions. Claudius reportedly imprisoned him and sentenced him to death.  The date of his official death is reported as Feb. 14, 270 AD. It was his tragic death that led him down the path to sainthood and sparked a movement to honor his memory on a day of celebration. 

In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts in the United States. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates packed in a red satin, heart-shaped box. In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for giving jewelry.The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US. Half of those valentines are given to family members other than husband or wife, usually to children. When you include the valentine-exchange cards made in school activities the figure goes up to 1 billion, and teachers become the people receiving the most valentine."

We all have our particular way of celebrating and I just love this day! I taught my kids to give cards and chocolates, lots of chocolates! Still do! My favorite way that I love is to expect my own big box of “Mon Cheri” Chocolates and sit down all by myself and eat it all in one day!! Ohhh I just love it! This is my ritual! Ha even my kids know that I do that and know that they can’t ask for none, anyways I do not share this day!! It is fun for me!! I celebrate love! And I celebrate friendship!

I love to celebrate friendship! To have a friend is so important because we all need someone to be around and just talk or do whatever.  The Bible says that it is better to two than one! It makes a rope more stronger if has three cords and a friend loves more than a brother.  Friends make life more livable and alive! That is the Lord for me. He is my friend and He is my constant companion.  Sometimes I don’t share Him and want Him just for me, like my own chocolate box!  I just have a day for that I guess when you want the Lord’s full attention and I suspect you do too, you want His full attention! The best thing is that He does give us His full attention! He becomes that close friend that meets with you and listens to you although there is a world of people out there waiting for God to listen to them also! Isn’t that awesome from part of the Lord, He gives us His full attention! He stops squats down and puts His ear close and listens to each word and receives our tears and our pain!

Oh Lord you are so marvelous! Lord you are so out of this world! Lord I love you and I am so thankful! I give you my praise! I give you my all! Lord you are the best friend and I give you my chocolate heart! I give you my life! I give you my soul! I give you my everything! There is no friend like Jesus! We can all try to be like Him but Jesus is the greatest any friend can be! He is a true friend!

May all of you friends have a great Valentine’s Day!! And may you eat a lot of chocolate, (and not even gain a pound) receive a nice postcard and whatever you hinted your spouse, friend or family what you wanted this special day! Celebrate love! Celebrate friendship! Celebrate life! Above all Celebrate God!!

Love ya’ll my friends!!!!

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  John 15:13 NIV

"Doing good"

This week I started jogging early in the morning.  I wake up to jog at 6:30 am to add something different to my workout and because I received a book that I got "Complete Book of Womens Running" and started reading it and doing the Journal at the same time. I was surprised to find in the Journal on Week 2 this verse: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6.9 That blew my Mind!

If I do good in keeping up with my jogging routine I will reap a better health and a better body! Ha! Right now all of me hurts but if I keep on I will get to my goal!! All of me feels like eating but if I change my eating habits I will reap goodness for my heart! So definitely trying to keep motivated on my jogging! So what about the rest of me? Well got to do something good for my soul! God promises that if I do not give up I will reap a harvest for my soul!

This week I was planning to give up on blogging and Facebooking (my new term) kind of felt no one was interested and in that moment I opened  FB and the first thing I read was a positive comment on my last post on this blog not only one I received two.  I think God was telling me something there.  So here I am taking my time and my love to tell you all that If we do not give up on what the Lord has promised for you and me, we will reap a harvest!

The Lord has promised me blessings and a ministry that He has put in my heart and although I still do not see anything with my eyes, although the doors have not been opened for me to minister and all has been continual changes and discouragement the Lord has promised that if I keep on doing good, if I keep on writing, encouraging and spreading His love through this media, at the proper moment I will reap a harvest, if, I do not give up! Isn't that a beautiful word!

So I can't give up! And I do not want you to give up neither! Run, jog to your dream, your goal, your vision because in the proper time, in God's time,  you and I  will reap a harvest! We will get there!

Don't give up!!! No te rindas jamas!!

Remember always God has plans for you! Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you the future you hope for!! Jeremiah 29.11

Love ya'all!! Blessings!!

Good Housekeeping

This morning I was flipping through one of my favorites writers Barbara Johnson's book and found this poem that made me think alot::

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

Lord, it is not the dirt and clutter in plain sight that nag at me.

it's the hidden dirt....you know, behind the refrigerator,

in the closets, under the bed.  

Dirt that no one sees or knows about but me.

It's the same way with my life, God

It's those hidden sins that I can't keep up with....those

pretty little grievances, the grudges, the resentments, 

the unspoken harsh feelings the superior attitudes.

thoughts and feelings that no one else knows about but

me....and You, God.

Help me Father, to clean my heart as I would clean my home.

Take away all dust and cobwebs of pride, ill feelings and prejudice.

The dirt behind my refrigerator will never hurt anyone.

The dirt in my heart will.  -Author Unknown

Let the Lord come into your heart and give Him those very intimate parts that you are hiding and have been letting it become dirty, dusty and dingy.  Let the Lord do a clean up in your life, in your heart, give Him everything that is not letting you go forward towards your goals.  Remember The Lord always wants the best for your life!

New Year Resolutions?!

"A New Year resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a personal goal, project, or the reforming of a habit. This lifestyle change is generally interpreted as advantageous. A New Years Resolution is generally a goal someone sets out to accomplish in the coming year.Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals."


Happy New Year to all my friends! May this year 2011 be a year of great changes and awesomeness to all! Definitely lots of Blessings to all!! 


Every new year people all over the world start with a resolution list: improve health, improve finances, improve self, etc. I have never written one complete list because I know I will not do it or I will procrastinate because we expect to do to much and don't give a time frame for it.  So I decided this year "one step at a time resolutions" Today I am working on one of my resolutions, to write on my blog once a week! So I am going to be speaking out more often this year! haha! Well I guess that will be less depressed and more inspiration! I can try!


Setting new goals and changing lifestyles is never an easy task but if you work on it and ask God for help you can do it! last week I was watching a program on TLC "Hoarding" (general terms for the accumulation of food and other items) and it impacted me alot! They accumulated so much "junk" they were buried in there garbage! Well what impacted me the most was the percentage of women hoarders, the one common trigger, depression.  Dear God!  depression can  get you to be like that? Yes it really makes us so bad you forget who you are and what you were created for! The other trigger was being left by a spouse or a partner (divorced or dumped).  That made me so mad what we do because another person hurts our feelings! We should never let ourselves be mistreated or misguided by another human being yet we do give other the authority to make us feel worthless!  I know it is hard because I have done exactly that I let another human being treat me like junk! Got so depressed and almost lost my life for that junk! 


These people (hoarders) lose alot and are so low self esteem it made me wonder and ask myself :How can we let ourselves get into this type of situation? God doesn't want us like this! God didn't make us to be depressed! God made us to worship Him! God inspired me through that program to work on another resolution and also started it immediately and I love it, it is making monthly scheduled lunch with a friend that I haven't seen in a while or that I feel is passing through a hard time of her own, lunch or coffee and it has been rewarding more to me than any other thing I can imagine to do!


We have to change our lifestyle and stop suffering alone and letting the bird build a nest in your head and poop on us! Change who you go out with, change what you eat, what you listen to, what you watch, who you hang out with, speak out let someone know about your emotional turmoils, look for professional help, join a prayer group, a support group! Do something positive this 2011 just for you!! and for your family's sake! Make this change a "New Years Resolution"! give it a time frame and enjoy new goals and life changes!


Always remember: 
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29.11


Porque yo sé muy bien los planes que tengo para ustedes —afirma el Señor—, planes de bienestar y no de calamidad, a fin de darles un futuro y una esperanza. Jeremias 29.11


God always wants the best for us! It's that we always forget that little detail! Detox your mind from negative thoughts and change your thinking to positive and blessed thoughts from the Lord!


Many Blessings to all!!


Your friend Evelyn!! 

"A lesson from Dexter the TV drama"

"Dexter is an American television drama series that centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a forensic bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police who moonlights as a serial killer. He is a true psychopath who enjoys killing he was taught by his adoptive dad a way to channel his violent urges towards people who "deserve it". Dexter's victims must be killers themselves who have murdered the undeserving and will likely do so again."


Well I am a fan of Dexter, never thought I would be but just got hooked on it. Started hooked last year and this year even got in touch with my other FB childhood friend that would send me a  resume of the episode till my cousin told me a link to watch it the next day.  My husband bout me the 1st season and he also got hooked.


Well to the point, this season was very tense and interesting he became attached to Lumen a women who he saved from being killed but had various issues of her own. You see she was raped and being held prisoner to be killed by her rapists.  Truly a very hard situation, I do not know how a raped person would feel but it I went to a conference that the speaker referred to it as  "Asesinato del alma" "Murder of the soul" and that stuck.  I imagine the pain and the terror and all the stages that person goes through.  Lumen was very overwhelmed and destroyed when Dexter finds her.  He teaches her how to kill and together they hunt down each one of the men that were involved in her rape and kill them! By the way she really needed counseling an intervention but that is not the point.


The true moment after all that Lumen and Dexter been through came when they finally had the author and the bully of the group of rapist.  There they were he finally was rapped up ready for the "killing", I always close my eyes and in that precise moment when Lumen (the rape victim) takes the knife and kills her rapist, the final one I looked and ugh it was so fast but something came to my attention, Lumen's face! Her gesture, her relief sigh..I cried and still do in that part and the following minutes.  She had done something she needed to do kill that person that made her suffer so much! Believe me I am not seeing it in that literal way, that person was eliminated from her life! No more pain! In that moment she was free!


I saw it in the spiritual rem when we finally get too that point, that moment when we let go and it doesn't hurt no more, that is the way I saw it! She had her breakthrough!! She was ready to go back home and be the person she was destined to be: a stronger women!


How many of us in this moment haven't let go and still holding on to those things that hurt, that makes our lives miserable and does not let us get our Breakthrough!! Lumen didn't go through the proper channels she had help from a psychopath, but you can receive help from the best, you can receive help from the Lord! and yes I truly encourage help from a professionally trained  Counselor, Therapist, Pastor or any other medical expert.  We need our breakthrough to get to the other level in our lives! We need inner healing of our souls!


Fight for your Breakthrough! Don't be slave of that person, persons that made you suffer! Don't hang in to your past! Let it go! Don't be miserable! My God love yourself! Kill that in your heart! in your mind! "Sueltalo!!" "Dejalo ir!!" "Entregalo a Dios!" y el hara!"" Let it go! Release it!! Give it to God now!! He will do it! He will give you peace, joy and your freedom!


Always remember: God wants the best for you and for me! Receive the peace of God! I declare  spiritual and physical healing in Jesus name! (Isaiah 53.5) Amen!


Love you and ya I'll keep on watching Dex who knows what other lesson he'll give me!...


Receive the blessing of the Lord!

"Writer's blah"

"Writer's Block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work."


I haven't been creative this past month kind of got into that "blah" moment. Last month was a very intense month for me had too many negative emotions and obstacles to deal with that truly minded my creativity.  I just had to look for the moment that it became more manageable and really felt like writing again. 


Well finally felt like expressing myself! Uuf man it is a little difficult but necessary for me at this moment! You see "blah" moments come from stress, depression  or boredom.


What I have learned is that stress leads to depression and leads to boredom all at once.  There are moments that you want to get inside of a person and change them and do things the right way so definitely that leads to "stress". As a mom I forget that I can"t do that, I can not get into my kids mind and change there attitude! Not even God does that to us. God lets you and me decide if you want to be miserable or not! He gave us free will so either I can be miserable or not!  Cool ha! I thank God for a special friend that I have been in touch through Facebook these days that helped me out in my situation dealing with my kids situation.  She gave me truly  good word of wisdom.  So funny I know her since very young, I used to fight alot with her and now she is my counselor.  And then came other stressful moment for me to see people that just leave and take for granted the calling of the Lord in there lives and simply think they are doing right and don't even take a moment to think  that their decision is not effecting others so unreal moment for me! ! So definitely I got a littles stressed, depressed and bored!   


So funny I just had to deal with those moments and keep on but I let it make me have a "blah" moment!  I wonder has God ever have a "blah" moment in our lives? You know what? I think He has!!! I think He 's gotten bored on hearing the same coming out of our mouths! O Lord this situation! but we do not let Him do His job! Really if I were God I would get bored! Thank God I am not God!! Haha!


All I had to do is let go! Not easy when your children are involved but hey our parents let us go! But noooo we love to keep hanging on to them! Let her go! 


The other situation well it's time I finally learn to handle is never put your vision and trust in man.  Men offer lots of different alternatives that sometime sound just great and ideal but truly are not! So I decided to go back to basics! God is in control no matter what men can offer and declare that is making the difference.  The Lord opened a door for me and I just decided I am going ahead and move forward! and you know what? Feels good!! I decided to take the leap and not question the Lord no more!


"Blah" moments will come and go! It all depends on you and me if it is going to be for a wile or for long it's  in your hands. You  will be miserable or you will be great! It's up to you! 


Remember: 
The Lord has great plans for our lives! Plans of welfare and not calamity! Plans to prosper you not to harm you! Plans for good and not for disaster! Thoughts of peace and not of evil! Plans to give you a hope and a future!


Blessed be the name of the Lord!!  Love ya'all

Afterthoughts

"Reflection after an act"

Finally could make it! Here I am try to bring my thoughts after an experience a couple weeks ago!

I was assigned the task of preparing a one day Woman's Retreat at the church where I go with my husband Mario. Not an easy one but I finally got to the making of the retreat.  Even was one of the speakers! That was quiet an experience for me! First time in charge and first time as a speaker! Cool!

Definitely it is a life changing experience when you are the one organizing and speaking in an event it was simple but you always want to give your best, (at least I do) specially if it's to reach out to woman in behalf of the Lord.

God gave me words of wisdom and I was able to deliver my best.   Now I can say that all the hard work and sweat and tears were worth it just as different women came to me and told "me that word was for me" "I passed through that same situation" those words make you feel that truly God is in control and knows the needs.

When you see the finished work of your labor definitely feels so good! I just can't stop imagining how is God looking at His work in progress! This retreat passed and I felt it was a victory even though not all the women that were invited assisted.  I felt like the Lord does when only one person comes back and thanks Him for what He has done for him.  Joyful!

I thank God for what He has been doing with me and all that I have been going through! He has big plans for me and promises to be with me in every step of the way!


Always remember that the Lord has plans for the best for you and for me! Your pain will go and your life will change and if your trust in the Lord your change will be for the best! Better things will come and after they come you will sit down and look back and say "It was worth it!" Your afterthoughts will bring a smile to your face and an ahh moment to your life!


Be blessed dear friend and expect the best form the Lord always! Gozas del Favor de Dios!!

Love ya'all!!

Thank you Mario for your unconditional love and support! Blessed!