Thursday, May 28, 2015

Rebuilding

Rebuilding 
From the old to the new!


Sometimes I sit back and look at things that are old and remember when they were new!  I found an old bible in my closet that I couldn't throw away!  It has been placed here, then moved there, I would always tell myself one day I will try to fix it.  As the years passed it was still in the same condition. 


It had notes from years past!   It had comments from the quiet whispers of Gods acknowledgement of struggles I was wallowing in!  Those moments are a distant memory that now are seen in a different light and in a different place.  
I sit back meditating in my heart did I learn the lesson God was wanting me to learn.  Did I take responsibility for my part in the situation I was dealing with.  Was the struggle worth the growth?  

The past can be positive if you learned from the lesson that moment empowered you to become better! Past can also be dangerous if you don't move on!  If you stay there.  Past can create a  bitterness if the wounds aren't healed by forgiveness or surrender that only willingness to be teachable can bring!  The children of Israel in the bible always set their tents toward the east and the back of the tents toward the west.   Its funny how you place yourself in you mind or even heart matters you are the tent.  Are you facing the west where the day ends and where the past is still in view?  Or are you facing the east where the sun rises and a new day starts?  The children of Israel were told how to place themselves. 


 
 
Always look toward the east.  Paul says, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."  Phil 3:13  We can't grab the new if we are still holding on to the old.  Because the old will poison the new, it will tarnish the vision, corrupt the sight, and make you ungrateful because you still long for the old. 




I have learned that bitterness comes when we blame others for why we are suffering in the past.  The bible says if you suffer for your own wrong you should take it!  And if you suffer for no wrong of your own and take it honorably then that is commendable with God! 


Few have been the time I suffered for no wrong of my own. Many times I have to have a mirrow  on my own appearance and acknowledge that I did have part in the wrong!  Missing the mark which means to sin! Is not the worst condition I have learned.  We are all failures and sinners and no one can come to the Father without Christ! As a matter of fact to be a Christian it is an acknowledgement that we are sinners it's even a standard to receive Him as a savior! The funny thing is people throw stones at Christians saying, " I cannot believe they are Christians . "  Its like saying sick people shouldn't go to hospitals!  Jesus was a healer, a doctor, a counselor of the crazy mind, and a physician a Dr. Jesus Christ he is!   We should come to him because we are sick, broken, needy, even crazy, and take off the fraud . 


I have seen that sickness is a qualification to experience healing only Jesus can bring!  We have to acknowledge our wrong and the worst condition I have found is when others don't really take an honest look at why they are where they are!  


Are we thinking a nice car or fancy house can satisfy the nakedness that sin has ensnared us with!  
The exterior fixes are not fixes!  Like a falling apart house with rotten wood cannot be fixed with a new paint job!  

I have a friend who had a small leak on her house!  I kept telling her to fix it when it was small!  She just rolled her eyes and let it stay in that condition!  Now it's a large leak destroying the roof, the wall structure, now there is mold, and now the weakness of the rotting wood has given enterance to rodents into her attic and the wall has now give room for rats to enter the home!  She is now over come by the enormity of her laziness.  She never thought her house could come to this! 

I think that how life is.  We ignore our debt, we ignore our children when they are young, we ignore that we are divorcing, we ignore the nagging wife or asleep husband.  We don't deal with problems when they are small many of us.   We see bad behavior and ignore it.  Excusing the problem as if it will disappear.  Then when they are large we are overcome.  We blame God as if its his fault that we have a mess.  When he would whisper the warning that we ignored. 


If we can't change where we are at then Christ would of never wasted his time to Die.  He says I came to give you  a life .  Are you ready to do it His way is the question?  When I came to him I was completely disgusted with who I became and was tired of trying to figure it out on my own.  I realized my way wasn't working and I wasn't getting anywhere.  To the point of suicide I told God I will give you a full chance.  I will give you everything.  



 
I sat for a full day reading this old bible.  Devoting my time to figure out this Jesus everyone was telling me about.  As I went to sleep I planned for my last day thinking nothing was changed. 
 

In a dream He came to me!  In a vision of my oldest brother telling me that everything was going to be okay.  He looked to the heavens and said, "it is beautiful up here.  Don't give up."  My brother spoke to me that I was going to have a son in His Image and my other brother also was going to have a son.  Just this beautiful light shone around me as I was looking up to the heavens listening to my brother speak to me.  I woke up as if water had filled my insides and it filled me for the first time.  I felt almost washed from the inside out. 



I guess this was around 1992.  I went and told my brother he was going to have a son made in God's image.  At the time me and my boyfriend who were living together couldn't get pregnant.   

The desperation of wanting to feel whole. Dealing with my problems with external fixes which weren't fixing anything.  Before that day of surrender  but  Months later I found out that I was pregnant and my other brother too was expecting a son too. 

I had to allow surrender to come and take over by truly being serious to commit my heart and life to this wonderful savior.  That truly did save me.  He saved me from myself.  He knew exactly what I needed.  I just had to be tired of my way.  So I could do it His way. 

He says, "I am the truth, the way, and the life."  He really is.  Since my life has been so different.  I have been loved by a God that is close and not far.  A God that loves me enough to allow me be the worst possible person and He says he still wants me. 

I know what He did for me is for all of us. 

 




 



 

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Monday, May 18, 2015

Whole cloth designs

Wholecloth
My new adventure! 



Love this video I learned so much!



One of the designs I liked!



Looks interesting !




I'm so excited! 

Graduation 2015



Graduation 2015
So excited that it's all over!! 

This how it was in the back! 

The experience was wonderful! 


This is after we got our diploma !!  I had to get a picture of what it looked like from my perspective! 


These are some of my friends behind me!  Trying to force them to smile! 

What's next!! "A Masters sounds like my new journey to travel."  I'm thinking about it but not sure yet!  Or become a master quilter??! Hehee. 

I may make a quilt with my graduation robe!!! Or just quilt, or get a job, or just enjoy life since tomorrow isn't promised to anyone! 

The blessing is, its mine to decide!  what I will do tomorrow.  

That's freedom when you decide to listen to your heart and get all the others opinions out of your life! 

  No one can determine who you will be if you believe in the God  that is able to take you where you didn't think you could go! 



Saturday, May 16, 2015

Love me some longarm quilting Toys



Quilting toys

Lisa Calle had a sale and this is what  my heart was want for quite a while!! 


Arc rulers, circle even set, spine ruler for my long arm quilting.  Just  the juice joy of quilting toys, gadgets, and tools that make my heart pitter patter with joy.


Excited!!! To learn and try something new! 


Thursday, May 14, 2015

Feathers we all want to quilt like that!!

 Feathers

We all love them and want to get great at quilting them and I just wanted to share some of the skills I learned. 



Some great resources I found that really help on starting the quilting journey.


 
 
I have been busy getting ready for next week.  Taking some exams and catching up from the back log of  house work and getting my house in order after a long month.   I am also planning for next weeks awesomeness.!!
 
 
Surprise the world by being extraordinary!  Be yourself and find that divinely appointed self.  The bible says, " your are fearfully wonderfully made in the image of God!"   Be a stand out simply because you look like your God!!

Monday, May 4, 2015

Finish Lines

Finish Lines

     Finish lines are so hard to get to.  It really takes some internal persistence that only finisher have.  

     I have noticed when I have started different projects in my life. 
In the beginning there are the nay-sayers.  When I started my embroidery company.  I heard people say that I was wasting a lot of money on nothing.  See to them it was nothing, but I had a vision.  I knew myself and that I could do something with my decision.  People buy diamond rings and brag about them as if the status of having a certain caret ring defines them.  That is fine too if that's what you enjoy.  There is pleasure in wearing  jewelry on your hand and it continues to reward you even years after you bought them. 


 I wanted to invest in something that gave me back.  At first it was emotional pleasure of making beautiful embroidery designs and being rewarded by the creativity of it.   As I grew in the skill I became a very talented embroiderer and have done a lot of work for many people. 

Now there is that financial aspects that is rewarding and the social contact of my business clients.  I have had my embroidery machines and they have gladly paid for themselves ten times over financial and even if they didn't bring that in.  The emotional reward of being creative, loving what you do, and passion of sharing your art can't be valued by dollar bills.

The funny thing is that I didn't know that the nay-sayers would want in on my vision.  The truth is they didn't want in on the vision they wanted in on the money their dirty eyes looked upon.  

Visions have to go beyond money.  They have to have a richer value and be bigger in personal definition.  People without vision only look at money. They are greedy for gain and will be willing to sell you and your vision to the ground  for their own self interest!   Take heart that greed is like poison to the soul it devours the deepest wells of prosperity it can paralyze the heart and destroy morality and the freedom of creativity!  It will tarnish the initial vision and after a while you will find your self far from why you chose to build the vision in the first place! 


I had a vision that they didn't see.   The bible says, "my people perish for not having vision."  We are not to only look at where we are today.  We are to look beyond this moment and plan for the tomorrow that isn't here yet.  When I make decisions I really do look what tomorrow will look like.  The consequences, the repercussions of the decision, and also the rewards.  I

 look at the safety of making a hard decision for the whole family or for the whole paved road I want to plan to travel.  The bible says, "count the cost," make sure the vision at hand is able to be paid for.  You don't want to build, then not have the ability to finish it, because you didn't consider the cost. 

If you have a vision do  not let no one detour you from your plan.  If you know that in the end the reward will overflow the cost.   Don't be afraid to try. Don't do something for the reward of money.  Do something for the reward of love, satisfaction, and emotional benefits.  Being happy should be more valuable than money.  I heard a famous singer who was famous in Canada but was no one in the United States say, "there is no shame in being poor.  I'm richer than the richest man.   I sing every day.  I'm doing something I love."   The funny thing is he really was rich financially but that didn't move him.  Singing moved him.   See vision is beyond money and your vision has to be based on doing something you love.  

Vision will always bring more than was expected.  The rewards will go beyond even what  you thought it would do. 

I had a vision of going to college.  Going to college has rewarded me  beyond the paper that is going to be earned.  The knowledge, the wisdom, the personal growth, and the total investment in myself is beyond any financial benefit that it could give me.  People are inspired by people who have vision.  They are the delight and inspiration of what we all strive to be.  Be like them.  Know they were challenged, even rejected, and totally desecrated in character. The vision was beyond even self interest. 


 Sometimes vision are challenging the way the world works.  Look at Jesus challenging the church, challenging the religious, challenging the sinner, and challenging his own disciples to become greater than where they were.   Still Jesus is challenging us.  To love when we aren't love, to bless when we are cursed, to pray when people spitefully use you and say all kind of things to you or complain about you.  Its insane how when I look at my savior and say what you want me to do what.  Didn't you see how they wanted evil for me.  Really pray, love,  and forgive.  Oh, Jesus please teach me how. 

I'm finishing several courses in my life and the people that deserve to cheer me on to the finish line should be people who have been there all along.  I have noticed that people show up as if they feel they have a right to cheer at the end of the line for you. 

They never saw the tears, the struggle, the late nights, and are there  as if they were.  These are the ones that didn't even think you could finish.  They were even surprised that you were doing something when they were telling everyone that you were nothing.  They are the critics, gossipers, slanders, and cry babies that try to trash your name.  Some of them are the nay-sayers of your vision.  Some are the critics that want to pose with you when you get to the end
They feel they have a right to be their and get some of the spot light.   Fame seekers, groupies who hope that they can benefit from your hard work.  Hoping that the change will drop out of your pocket so they can increase by doing nothing but flattering you.


Honor the builders of your life.  Those that have your back when the vision was under construction.     The ones that pushed you to go again.  Those that spoke life into your purpose and believed that you could and cheered when you tried. Lifted you up when you failed and helped you keep going.  They deserve to be at the finish line.  Who wont sell you out even if you don't give them what they want.  They will love your regardless of you and wont be jealous when they see you succeed and grow and flourish.  They know they were part of the investment and they are honored when they see you grow. 

 They deserve to be honored.   Those that saw your vision and understood where you wanted to go!  
Were willing to go the whole distance with you !