Learning to Trust

Wow, it has been a while since I have last posted, almost an entire year. It has been a whole busy year focusing at work, and school. Trying to seek balance in life has not been easy. I had started my practicum last year, so that kept me really busy. I am currently, still seeing clients as a student counselor, and working full time, and going to school. How do I manage, you may ask? Well, I have a support system. I could not do it on my own. My husband is a huge support, and motivates me when I am feeling discouraged. Life has taught us a lot of lessons. Life challenges are lessons that need to be learned in order to grow, or to take us to the next level in life. I am currently in a stage of learning. I am learning to trust the process, and most importantly trusting in God. It is easy to tell people to just trust in the Lord, and everything will be okay, because we are not physically going through the same trials as our neighbor, it is not our lesson to learn. However, when you are on your knees begging for strength to keep going, and to put all your problems to God, it is when He lift us up, and hugs us with His immense love. In that moment of trial you start learning to trust in God. It is a process. Every lesson learned takes time. Some days will be easier than others. For example, I don’t become a counselor by taking one class, and then BOOM I get my license. Even though that would have been great, I would have save a lot of money, and time, but then I wouldn’t be an adequate counselor. However, I am starting to trust the process, and that each stage I have challenges that will equip me to be a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a counselor. Learn to trust the process. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. – Proverbs 3:5

Together we have a Voice.

Being born in the U.S alone should be a privilege. Privilege to be in a country of opportunities, a country where your dreams can come true. And sadly that is not true; I tear in sorrow and shame of how people of color are being treated. I cannot imagine the fear a person goes through because they are of a different color. Unfortunately it is the country we are living at the moment. Even when the world is going through a crisis people have the bitterness and hate in their heart. God created us to love one another, not to kill one another. It is time to stand up, and not let our differences defeat us. I stand with my brothers and sisters in the black community. We are all one voice, I am a Mexican American, and I am not illegal, or in a gang. Yet, others might identify us this way. We have seen many Americans take advantage of the minority communities, because they think we have no rights or a voice. We are all one voice, and together we will stand for what is right. Let us start by teaching our future generations about love and kindness. 

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.” — Nelson Mandela

Pray for world peace!

The mind is powerful, it has potential to change our emotions, and the perspective we view the world. Because it is powerful it is important for my mind to be fed with the power of God. Today I am thankful for my life, and for being prosperous in health. I am thankful for a loving husband, and a supportive family. I pray for healing in our world. There are people who are hurting financially, mentally, and physically. This is a time people can seek for inner peace. The world is silent. Get off your phone for a couple of days, and enjoy the moment. This week I will seek self-awareness of my physical body, and mind. I will be fasting, and praying for the world. I want my mind to be at peace, and I want to grow my relationship with God. I will be praying for guidance, and direction in this path of life. I will take a moment and acknowledge the love the Lord has for my life.

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. -JOEL 2:12-13

” Bible Study Tools, http://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses.

He has Risen!

Pause for a moment. Breathe and feel refresh. Life is about experiencing moments, and living with a purpose. He has risen to give us an opportunity to seek him whole-heartedly. His word is water to my soul, and a prayer gives energy to my spirit. Everyday I want to strengthen my faith. I can lack in many areas of my life, but through trials I want to run to His arms, and have hope for a better tomorrow. 

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die, Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

DailyVerses.net, dailyverses.net/resurrection.

How to stay Motivated during lockdown?

I want to encourage you to keep pushing in life. Do not let a small problem, or differences amongst other people bring you down. Life brings us unexpected experience, and we go through it like warriors. We all have one life, and need to live it to our fullest potential. It is easy to bring yourself down during a worldwide crisis. However your strength, and potential to fight in unity is stronger.

Therefore, it is important to remember the purpose of living in this world. I have realized that simple moments with our friends and families have been taken for granted. The simple moments of having dinner together, going out for ice cream, or going to the movies have been vanished from our calendars. I had plans to go to my brothers and husband graduation, and both were postponed for further notice. A lot of activities planned for April were cancelled, and we were only left with plans to go to our living room. It is a time in our life that we will always reminisce about.

It is important that I stay motivated physically, mentally, and spiritually. Every week let us focus on achieving each of these areas in our life. This week I have walked my dogs, practiced on my “planks,” I was optimistic during work, and I prayed. It is important to find balance in all of these areas in my life, because it is what makes me a human. I am not perfect, but everyday I strive to be a better person. I challenge you to focus on YOU these next couple of weeks. Make a change. Breathe, laugh and love. 

Marriage.

Marriage is not always easy. There have been a lot of disagreements that we had to compromise in order to come up with a solution. I marry my husband for better and for worst. And even though in the beginning of the marriage it is a little rough, there is nothing like having a partner to talk and listen to. It is not easy living with someone and compromising all the time, it takes patience and love to really achieve it. This June we will be together for nine full years. Oh my goodness nine imperfectly perfect years. 

            We started dating during our teenage stage, and well it is a time of exploration, and identity. At that stage we are trying to figure out the world, and the things it can offer. I left to college. I decided to build a relationship with God, and was a firm believer that everything always happened for a reason. I was confident in everything I wanted in life, but sometimes I would doubt myself. 

            I was a Christian with high expectations in life, but I would doubt a LOT. I knew that those feelings were not coming from God. In an instant I started doubting if He was even real. I grew up in the church, and knew that He was real, but during times of confusion and being alone you tend to get lost… I got lost, and stopped seeking the Lord, and decided to do things with my own abilities. I decided that being “religious” and always being the “good kid” in the group was not convenient, and then I decided to stop living. 

            It brought issues in my relationship with my boyfriend (my now husband). I was rebellious, and wanted to live the college life. I then tempted him to have sex with me. I knew I should have not dragged him in my problems. But I was hurting, and needed distraction. He then was in my same boat. However, he was stronger in everything, and I was sensitive, and selfish in the relationship. He decided that he would be patient with me, and prayed for me. He never judged me, or put me down. He was healthy mentally, and wanted me to get better. I became anxious, depressed, and self-conscious about myself. But my boyfriend motivated me, and was there, he listened and loved me. 

He could of walked away and left me there with my own problems. But he made my problems his, and worked along with me. I then realized that love is not always flowers, letters, jewelry, or ect. It is the act of love, showing up, being there, and loving you regardless of your flaws. I learned how to love myself, and truly Love others. My husband met this perfect Christian girl nine years ago who was confident, and sometime during the relationship she went downhill without looking back. His patience, and his Faith in God saved me. God saved me. And through my Husband I was saved by His Grace.

Listen to the Whisper of Love

Laughing our problems away. There were times I would take life so seriously, and wanted life according to society’s timeline. I know a lot of people have said “everyone has their own time line and to not get caught up with what society wants”. I understood soon enough that life was not a rush nor a competition. I had to take one step at a time. I had to stop at every step and enjoy it. I always had a an agenda with goals and plans of life. And boy, if that did not go accordingly to my plans, I would freak, and get anxious. However, this year I have let life be. Just going with the flow and started accepting where I am in life, and visualizing where I wanted to be without compromising myself or people around me. We are all uniquely different, and have so many gifts to share with this world. Gifts are not always materialistic things, it is sharing your love, joy, and kindness to others. Sometimes people just want someone to just listen, and to be there. You don’t always have to understand the thoughts or acts of people. You can listen and love.

Learning to be Patient!

Today I woke up grateful about where I am at in life. I may not have much, but I do have an amazing and supportive man as a husband. Now, I was not always grateful, I nagged a lot about where I was at in life, and always lived life wishing. Wishing to graduate from college, wishing for a better job, wishing for a better car, wishing for more money, wishing to be married, wishing, wishing, and wishing. It was never an end to my wishing. Do not get me wrong it is okay to desire, and have big dreams. However, it is important to desire it with a good attitude, and trusting the process in life. I would always ask my husband how he maintained a positive attitude during our hard times, and he would always say, ” I trust in God”. of course, I would look at him and say “SO DO I!! But I am still anxious!” I wanted to run and achieve my goals in life from one night to the next morning. I had to really learn the term PATIENCE. I worked with children with autism, and really thought I had this whole patience ability down. I was wrong. Patience is not only tolerating children’s behavior without getting upset or frustrated. There has to be a fundamental process to gain patience. I had to seek for an internal purpose in order to have the patience. My purpose as an RBT therapist, is to give a quality session that will make a difference in the long run. I may not see a difference in the child’s behavior the next day, but I probably will in a couple of months. I had to really take a look at my life, and analyze my purpose of being in this world. Live life step, by step, and enjoy the present.

Choose Joy!

My husband is very patient, loving, and kind. He shows me his love by covering me with the sheets when I fall asleep watching a movie. He takes care of me when I am sick, and he always makes sure I am comfortable. He always wants to make me happy. Is it not the dream of every girl? That the men make their wife happy. We all heard the term “happy wife, happy life”. Well, yesterday a speaker at our church, said that husbands are not to make us women happy, but to make us happier. So let’s break this down. Happy is only a temporary emotion. Now, it is important to understand that it is a huge responsibility allowing men to make us happy. It is the reason I believe it is important we find joy with oneself before we get into a serious relationship with our partner. It may seem that happy and joy fall into the same term. However, Joy is meaningful and internal. It comes from our spirit, so being joyful is not defined with pleasures of entertainments, but with moments, experiences, and achievements of others. It says in Romans 3: 3-5 “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Regardless of our circumstance God will bring joy to our heart lasting a life time. Be joyful in the moment You are living.

Dream…

So it is now August! Where has time gone. I mean were we not celebrating New years yesterday??? Life can past by us at a fast pace that we do not have time to even breathe, and look at the world outside of our bubble. So let lets remember to enjoy the moment we are living at. We might not get that exact moment ever again. Take time to breathe, go for a walk, meditate, talk to a love one or an old friend, make today meaningful. You don’t have to wait for that career, or for financial stability to live in the moment, all you need is to be breathing. I remember waking up some days and thinking what a bad day it already has been, and just wanting the week to end. I now believe I can turn my days around by just doing something I love, rather than contemplating about life. Let go of anything that is bringing your spirit down, and let God take control of your path. Listen to his voice, and you will go places you wouldn’t imagine. Dream BIG.