What has God Been laying on your heart and mind lately?

Good Afternoon All,
   The idea for this blog came to me when I was reading a facebook post the other day.  It's weird how all of a sudden, when on facebook, some people's posts really speak to me and they begin to make me think about certain things and in specific areas of my Christian life.  Let's just jump into the Bible Verses that I chose for this particular blog topic.  "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." ~1 Peter 1: 8-9.  In other words, the Bible Verse means this: "Faith will be rewarded and evil will be punished.  But what should we do until then? The Bible's answer is very simple, but definitely not easy: Because we know the future, we must faithfully serve God here and now.  If today that means resolving a conflict, mending a hurt, working a real dull job, confronting a belligerent child, rebuilding a marriage, or just waiting for guidance-you have to do it all with the joy of God, who will return with his reward!" 

   This brings us to the title of this blog: "What has God been laying on your heart and mind lately?"  My answer to that, is quite a lot actually, I'm sorry but I have to vent here, please forgive me.  Anyway, there has been a lot of crap going on lately and I really hate it, especially when it involves my family.  I'm not going to go into detail here, because it's way too complicated to write about.  I'm just going to share my feelings and reflections on this topic.  I'm not the one to judge anybody, but God is and when he does, you better be prepared because it will not be pretty, you can trust me on that.  If you have faith in God, you will be rewarded, but if you don't then your in big trouble, all this evil will be punished on judgement day, if you repent now and want to be saved before it's too late, you better do it, because The Lord is waiting to hear from you so that he can forgive you and bless you abundantly with a better life.  Recently, the Lord has spoken to me, and I would like to share with you all what he said to me, through his own words.  Here we go: "My child, you are going to do great things." That was it, that was all he said to me.  Now, when I heard that I was shocked, because lately i've been struggling with myself about this online styling business that I started exactly 3 months ago; I have not seen any orders yet, but there are tons of people viewing my website and I appreciate that, but I can't help but wonder about how will I do all these things and why aren't certain people buying from me? Is it because I mentioned Jesus on my profile page for that website? Is it because they don't trust me? Are they skeptical about anything being ordered from online? I have all of these unanswered questions constantly going back and forth in my mind and on my heart.  But the bottom line is that I need to learn how to trust God with all of those unanswered questions, and I need to understand that God will answer me in His ever so perfect, timing.  So, until then, I'll keep praying and keep trusting that God has a plan for me and when he's ready, he will unveil it and bring it to my attention, I'll be waiting Lord.  

   I also chose a separate Bible Verse earlier to go with this blog too; here it is: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." ~1 Peter 1:22.  In addition to what I've already posted, this Bible Verse is telling us this: "Sincere love involves selfless giving; a self-centered person can't truly love.  God's love and forgiveness free you to take your eyes off of yourself so that you are able to meet others' needs.  By sacrificing his life, Christ showed that he truly loves you.  Now you can love others by following his example and giving yourself sacrificially."  Does everybody understand what this is telling us?  I hope so.  I'm still trying to understand what exactly it is that The Lord is trying to tell me through this one verse.  I think what he's trying to say is that we all must learn how to give to others' selflessly.  There are way more people out there in this dark world who are worse off than we are, and we should be willing to look out for them and try to help them with certain aspects of what any of them may want or need.  I'm not really a people person as you can probably tell because I'm the shy one and keep to myself, but if I ever saw anyone that wanted or needed help, I would try and help them because I feel really bad for them.  But the truth is that that particular thing scares me, and I'm not at ease about that as you can tell.  However, I'm switching point of views here, if I were a homeless person, I would want somebody to reach out and help me, with high hopes that they could possibly help me to have a better life.  The current experience that I'm going through, isn't a fun one, but it has been quite the humbling experience thus far.  

   You see, we all need to really realize that we are very lucky, and we have been very fortunate and abundantly blessed so far.  You should learn how to love and accept things as they are and you need to try not to change them.  We all should be incredibly thankful for what we have and we need to learn how to be content with what we have and not be a greedy, self-centered person who always will want much more than what they already have.  You all need to learn how to focus on what you've been blessed with so far, and keep it at that.  You have to stop focusing on what you don't have, and just trust in God and have a strong faith that God will always provide for us, no matter what the issue is.  You have to ask God for what he wants to do with your life and you will have to receive it with an open heart and open mind.  As soon as He tells you what His will is for your life, you better do it.  Do not disobey God, and do not use Him casually, or only for when you need Him for some foolish thing, don't even bother, because he doesn't want to hear it.  Yes, He is a very gracious and loving Father, but you cannot go to Him for any type of selfish thing.  You must have a humble heart when you bow before God.  We were made to be His servants down here on earth, he doesn't care if you want to do it or not, it's not about you, it's all about Him.  He has to be the center of all of our lives.  "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all else will be worked out for the best."  God has to be the foundation in everything from your business, your family, your relationships, everything.  If you do that, then you are all set.  All we need is God, Amen?!?  I can't hear you, let's say it again and together, Amen!?!? Thank you and God Bless!

~Emily P.

Jeremiah 29:11

Good Evening Everyone,
   I know that it has been quite a while since I've updated this blog and I'm sorry for taking so long to update it as well.  Anyway, when I wasn't updating this blog, I've been busy trying to promote my online styling business blog instead, and it hasn't been easy, that's for sure: however, it'll be worth it in the end.  This brings me to the inspiration of tonight's blog, it has been inspired by something on my facebook page called, Jesus Christ Savior by Beliefnet.  This is what the Bible verse said: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." ~Jeremiah 29:11.  In other words this Bible verse is trying to say this: "We're all encouraged by a leader who stirs us to move ahead, someone who believes we can do the task he has given and who will be with us all the way.  God is that kind of leader.  He knows the future, and his plans for us are good and full of hope.  As long as God, who knows the future, provides our agenda and goes with us as we fulfill his mission, we can have boundless hope.  This does not mean we will be spared pain, suffering, or hardship, but that God will see us through to a glorious and victorious conclusion.

    This verse couldn't have come at a more convenient time as I am trying to promote my online styling business with Keaton Row.  During this time, it hasn't been an easy task as I have mentioned it above in the previous paragraph.  I've been feeling greatly discouraged with the online business because there are a few people viewing my web page, but none are buying anything and I still have no clients either, so I'm trying to expand my customer base at this point in time; that definitely isn't easy either because I'm not a real laid back type of person who likes to talk and socialize a lot, I'm known as an introvert whose shy and has very little confidence in the things that I do.  I'm putting my full faith and trust in the Lord on this particular subject, it is on His time and not on mine.  He's the one who knows exactly what his plans are for my life, that he has abundantly blessed me with.  It does take a lot of time and patience for these things to start succeeding, this is a very difficult goal for me to achieve, as you can probably tell.  The Lord has provided me with a great opportunity here and I'm trying not to ruin it, if this is God's Will for me, then I will reign victoriously after all is said and done, do you see what I'm saying here? 

   There are certain people in my life who don't exactly have confidence in what I'm trying to do here, they think that I'll fail, grow discouraged, and give up.  But I'm not going to give up on this business that easily, this is something that I truly want to do and am passionate about, but I cannot do this alone; I cannot do anything on my own, I need God's help with this big task at hand.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.  This is a learning process and I know that there's a lot that I need to do before anything specific happens.  However, there are also a few people in my life who support me fully in this task and they would really like for me to do well with this business, and I don't want to let God or them down if I should fail.  I decided to give this a try and to see what will happen.  It's only been a few months, but I am hoping and praying that I'm doing all the right things in regards to Keaton Row.  I've been posting my looks on my own facebook page, twitter page, on blogspot, google, and even random people's facebook pages and I have received mixed comments on this styling subject.  I've been told that I need to become a better writer, I need to have more confidence, and that I'm a religious freak, and then on a more positive note, I was told that my writing is good, but I need to work on my punctuation a bit more, and I need to have a different way of writing when it comes to this consulting job.  It's really a challenge to keep my Christian life separate from my business life, because being a Christian plays a big role in my life with both my religious life and business life; so I need to learn how to balance both aspects of my life and that will not be easy, but I can do this.  So, I just want to share a big thank you and appreciation for those that are both supporting me and criticizing me in this next large part of my life, I look forward to hearing further comments in the future on my styling business and my writing.  Thank you and God Bless!

~Emily P.