The Follow Up Talk

Hello! Recently, I participated on a women's prayer call as a speaker. After preparing my notes I realized that the preparation felt a lot like writing my thoughts down for this blog. So, I've decided to start a new category on the blog with my notes from the prayer call. It was so good to get together with other women and encourage each other. I hope some of these notes are encouraging to you too. Women's Prayer Call Series: Parable of the 10 Virgins Hi Ladies! I am so excited to share with you and pray with you all today. There is something that is so wonderful and beautiful when women of God pray together. Some of you ladies have prayed me through some of the hardest times of my life. So I know our prayer time together is a gift and I’m glad to be part of it right now. So tonight our discussion is about having discipline and being prepared. We’re looking at the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25:1-13 . Let’s just read those verses from 1 to 9, because I want to focu

Jesus did the craziest thing to show love- He died for us And Who’s plan was it for Jesus to do that? God! The God who we think is unreachable, unattainable, mad and tired of our unfaithfulness  God knew it would take doing something crazy to bring us back to Him. God wants us.  Don’t be fooled- God has always wanted us. It’s us who always find a way to push God away.  Ex: Israelites wanting Moses to talk to God instead of facing God directly Ex: Israelites wanting a king instead of a prophet Us: whenever we rest on a prophet or minister to do the work of going to God for us, without us reaching to God directly. Even with our broken track record, God is so patient and loving that He keeps making a way anyway. Bending to our need for Him by making a way to be in communion with Him. He did the crazy, to claim us for Him. Now, reflect on Abraham and his beloved son, Isaac. God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to prove his love for God After seeing Abraham's heart, God stopped Abraham a

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. Ephesians 5:1 Often I believe God designed parenting to be a reminder, or a beacon, showing us how He is a parent to us. God is full of love for us and desires to be with us. He wants our attention. He wants to give us good things. He wants to teach us. He wants us to mature. He wants us to be strong. He wants us to be leaders. Conversely, we can also look at our children and recognize, as a reminder, what it is like to be a child of God. We want good things from Him. We want esteem and recognition from Him. We don't want discipline from Him, though it is good for us. We want to feel seen and loved by Him. We want Him to be present. Some of my most touching memories is of my mother sitting in a hospital room with me. She didn't take away my pain, but she rubbed my back. Just seeing her concern for me gave me comfort. I love that God calls the Holy Spirit a Comforter. He provides a way for us to know that He, our Father, is alw

Sitting outside on a warm night to get some moments of peace. I catch a whiff of a flavorful aroma. Garlic, chili powder, and cayenne pepper. How is my nose able to be so discerning? Well it’s the exact seasonings I dosed my plants in to deter the terrorist squirrels in my neighborhood. I’m sitting here thinking- there’s a lesson in there somewhere.  I had such a hard night mothering today. Everyday I plant seeds of kindness, mercy, love, patience, self-control, but just one thoughtless act, then in turn, one thoughtless reaction seems to ruin all the effort I’ve put in. While lecturing I lost my cool, took away a privilege and said, “I will not have mercy.” It was totally thoughtless and I doubt I really meant it. Just like what those thoughtless squirrels did to my carefully packed flowerbed, I dug up and scattered those carefully sown seeds. After my gracious husband took over the situation, I spent a long time reflecting over what happened. I reflected on what was said, how frustra

I asked myself today, “How do I show love” when it comes to my children? This seems like an easy question to answer because as a mom, you would automatically say - I show love in so many ways - and list all the things you do for your kiddos from sun up to bedtime. But I’m thinking about showing love after: ...correcting your child about something for the 10th time; ... your kid does the exact opposite for what you’ve said to do; ...they behave as if their beliefs, thoughts, or feelings mean more than anything you could tell them; ...this list could go on and on! How do I show love when the little people you love are not responding to you in the way you’d like (obedience, patience, kindness, etc.)? I show love by going to God first when I am frustrated and asking Him to show me how to get through to my little one. My son said something that shook me today. He said, “No matter what mama, remember that I will always love you.” This was after a long struggle ( I should say battle ) over g

I participated in a Zoom prayer call tonight with other women at my church and at the end I just had that feeling of loveliness. It felt good, it felt connected, and it made me want to connect with God even more. I opened my Bible and read Jeremiah 2:2 .  Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” My thoughts after reading this was: Lord increase my wonder of You.  When things are brand new we have a strong urge to learn more, seek more, engage more. When the shine wears off, we become complacent and less interested. Maybe it’s because we feel we’ve learned all we need to know. Maybe it’s because we are too comfortable in the now. Maybe it’s because we can’t see the possibility of there being so much more for us to gain.  When it comes to my spirit and You, God, please open my eyes to see the expanse of all that you have for me to experience- i

Hello! Hello, hello, hello! So much has happened over the past year. I have a daughter now - thank you God! It has been quite THE year. Life, death, shut-ins, riots... It's been crazy, but one thing has stayed the same. God has been gracious and helps us through everything. I have been blessed and I am thankful. I didn't get to finish writing the summary of my bible study on the book of Peter, but I will return to it at some point. I woke up this morning with a song written from my dreams. I hummed it, wrote it, then recorded it and will share it here! Since being pregnant with my daughter, I've wanted to capture my feelings about grace trumping my fear. God held me and was the strength I needed to stay hopeful that everything would be okay. It wasn't until today that I finally have the right words to pen down. The link to the song is in the title. I hope you enjoy this! Grace Lifted Me (Psalm 23) Verse 1: Though I walk In the valley of the deep I won’t fear Cause grace

Taste of Goodness Have you tasted that the Lord is good? In 1 Peter 2 , right off the bat,  Peter makes a side comment that is very interesting. He asks whether we’ve truly ever experienced that the Lord is good? His question makes the point that if we have, this should make us yearn for God and the life sustaining power that God offers. When we have a real yearning for God, we want to be brand new people living new lives that emulate God’s likeness. We should ask ourselves: Do we actually feel this yearning? If not, maybe we should first ask God to give us a true taste of his faithfulness and his love. Getting a real experience of God’s goodness can change our hearts and give us a yearning to be more like God. Succeed in Your Deeds In chapter 2, Peter is very concerned about Christians doing good deeds. To him, it’s not only about professing your faith in Jesus. As he’s talking to exiles, people living in places and in situations where they lack power and influence, Peter realizes tha

While reading the Book of John, I became very curious about the ministry of Peter.  I plan to explore the other books of the Bible to learn about him and I am currently reading through Peter's letters. Similar to how I studied John, I will jot down some of my thoughts from the Books of Peter here. I'm finding these chapters interesting and full of good truths to ponder over. What strikes me is how it is plain to see how Jesus has taught Peter to be passionate about his commission and loving. This love is evident in the advice that Peter offers in his letters. Let's look at 1 Peter, chapter 1 together. 1 Peter 1 I thought about how Peter is talking to people exiled from their homeland and living in different places. It's interesting how he encourages them to behave in a new way - a way of holiness. To me, it would seem like the natural thing to tell a person living in a strange land is to either: (1) blend in to fit in with the people in their new surroundings; or (2) st

I've come to the end of my study of John with this post. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I didn't know I would enjoy reading from John's perspective so much. It's a good exercise to read a whole chapter and sit back to think through what was written. I gained so much from just doing that. There were other thoughts that I reflected on and didn't write down. I plan on doing another study of a book of the Bible and share my thoughts here again. Now, on to the last chapters of John! John 19 : What Moves Us? I’m touched that Jesus while dying thought to care for his mother, and also sickened at the thought of a person watching their family die in front of them. I’m reflecting on how calculative the priests were in their arguments in order to make sure they persuaded Pilate to crucify Jesus. Sometimes, we too are so stuck on our agenda that we will make any kind of argument to persuade others into seeing things the same way we see things, or into doing something

Worthiness...That's a word on my mind today as I think about this past week. I've had a few examples of friends showing me that I am worthy of love, at work and at my church. I'm reflecting on that word as I think about how God showed the world his love by sending us Jesus. We are all worthy of love, despite our background and situation. Jesus commands us Christians to love, something the book of John repeats over and over - and why is this? Because the world we live in and the people in it are broken and have a very hard time showing true love to each other. I hope everyone experiences this truth - that you are worthy of love - from the people and community surrounding you. Below are some more of my thoughts from my study on the book of John. John 15 : Worthy Investment Jesus invested a lot of time and teaching into his disciples. Verse 27 says, “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit and

Hi there! Here are my thoughts after reading a couple more chapters in John. John 12 : True Worship & Testimony My first thought is about how I show gratitude. Mary was a perfect example for us to copy. For her family, Jesus had brought Lazarus back to life and probably did other things that we do not know. We do know that they were all close. Mary literally poured out her gratitude to Jesus by giving him an expensive and precious gift and by serving Jesus in one of the most humblest of ways- anointing his feet with oil using her “crown of glory”. Her actions remind me of Revelations 4 where it depicts rulers bowing before God and laying their crowns down to him. This was Mary’s way of laying down her crown and honoring Jesus. How do I honor Jesus? What is most precious and valuable to me? How can I lay it before Jesus to show that I am thankful he’s my God? How can I use it to honor him, in private and in public? These questions are worth asking to help bring us to a place of tru

Before last night, the highlight of my week was smelling the aroma of lily of the valley from my backyard. I had cut a few stems and brought them indoors to enjoy. These flowers are beautiful and diminutive with bowed heads and a powerful punch of a scent. As I stared at them, I was reminded that when we are bowed down to God in worship, we create a sweet aroma to God. As I said, that was before last night. Last night our church had a Zoom "Ladies' Night". It was supposed to be a time of fun and enjoyment, but our leaders decided it would be best to change it into a time of prayer. I grew up being surrounded by prayerful people, but in my older years had left some of that atmosphere behind. I wasn't attending prayer meetings as much as I had done in my teens - mainly because of laziness and because it just didn't seem like I saw people doing it as much, so when I saw a special meeting for it, I would shy away. When our ladies night was turned into a prayer night o

Another week has passed and I hope it was a good one for you all. One of my highlights was my son waking up super early and looking for me. He found me in the living room reading my Bible and said he would love to join me for devotions! It was just too cute hearing a four year old say that, and super sweet getting some cuddles while reading the Word - before the day really starts and I have to wrestle him to get any extra cuddles! Here are some of my thoughts while going through a few more chapters in the book of John. There are so many things to talk about in each chapter, but I focused my thoughts on the first things that jumped out at me. John 9 - God's Purpose in our Weakness Here we see an amazing miracle of Jesus giving sight to a man who was born blind. The disciples asked Jesus - whose sin caused this man to be born with blindness? Jesus replied - neither; his blindness was meant to fulfill God’s purpose. ( verses 2-3 ) What is confusing for today is whether the answer Jes