You are free to be YOU.

Lately, in life... I've been experiencing some funkiness. Yes, I've been in a FUNK. It comes and it goes... and it sucks.

Well last night I was cleaning my room... I saw one of my favorite pens and got the urge to start writing. Immediately I knew... I felt it in my spirit to write to Poppa :). My thoughts and emotions started flowing... I just wanted to thank Him and express to Him all of the love that I felt. It was almost as if my heart was really gonna burst from so much joy and love!

I have a tiny journal.

Well its not tiny... but, I like to write big... so to me... it's tiny. Anyway! As I was writing... I could hardly contain my speediness! lol I was trying so hard to stay in between the lines and still freely express myself on paper. It wasn't working... either I wrote neatly and sacrificed some of that raw emotion... or it got really raw and the writing was out of place. hahaha That's when I felt the Lord speak to me in the softest, purest, most tender way.

I don't want you to stay inside of the lines.

I want you to FREELY be yourself.

Freedom from the thoughts of others & be unapologetic about it.

 Freedom from their perceptions.

Be whole in Me & do not be phased by anything else. 

Oh boy! God is great. Amen?! Amen. The freedom that I felt after this! This funk is gone. My "ugh." is replaced with "woooo" We have a Father that turns mourning into dancing, y'all. I will never cease to be amazed at how much Abba loves His children. 

I started to reminisce (as I tend to do every year on my birthday ;D) and I can't help but to be humbled in COMPLETE REVERENCE. I have been taken out of so much junk, removed from toxic relationships, and protected so much by God. Even when it's hard for me to identify what it is that is going wrong inside of me... He knows... and if we listen closely enough, we can hear Him speaking to our spirit.

O Lord, You have searched me. 

You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 

You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. 

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, Even the night shall be light about me; 

Indeed, the darkness and the light are both alike to You. 

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.

Psalm 139:1-18 NKJV

Your Heavenly Father knows every single aspect about your life... the good, the bad, the ugly, and all of the potential that you carry inside of you. I pray that you are able to accept this freedom of being YOU that God has blessed us with. 

LORD, I pray that the person reading this right now can receive the freedom to him/her self. Break the chains of other people's thoughts, opinions, or perceptions of them. I pray that they are able to see themselves as You see them, not as the people that surround them do. In Jesus' name, amen. 

I love you all soooo much! God bless and have an incredible day... every day ;D

-Alyssa

The Most Prized Possession

Hello! I'm Davinah. It's okay if you can't pronounce it. Sometimes I can't either.

I'm here to share something encouraging for someone. It may just be me, which is totally fine. But I woke up this morning with something on my heart, and I hope it speaks to you.

Long story short, I was raised in a single parent home with a mother anyone would kill (maybe not kill) to have. My mom is incredibly strong, selfless, and nurturing. Church was not something we did on a regular basis. It was mostly on holidays and when a family member would pass away. I was raised a Christian, though-- if that makes sense. I believed in God, and I believed in Jesus. I knew in my heart that there was a higher power, but making a personal connection was never something I really desired until I was in college.

I'll save that story for another day, because I really, really, really want to share what is on my heart this morning.

I just finished an intensive 2 year graduate program that took me out of my church community for 9 long months. I felt dry, isolated, cut off, separated, and most of all I felt forgotten. At the same time, my mom was battling the fight of her life-- stage 2 breast cancer. Between my school papers, her chemotherapy and surgery, reading textbooks, working, and trying to keep my head above water this last year has been an absolute blur. I was barely able to function at the end of my program, let alone understand what God was doing in my life.

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Now, imagine this-- you buy a nice gift for yourself and when you get home and open the box, it's in pieces. You have to put all of the pieces together just right, so that it will function correctly. You put this gift together and here comes the moment you've been waiting for. You get to press the on switch.

As you turn on your new shiny, prized possession it begins to do exactly what you want it to do. It's functioning correctly. Let's fast forward 5 years. Your prized possession is a bit blemished, sometimes it works and other times it barely moves. You really, really, really love this prized possession so you have no choice but to take it to a repair shop. The technician tells you that he can fix it, no problem. He'll even do it for free because he sees the prized possession and it's purpose.

That prized possession my friend, is us. God created us to serve a purpose.To love each other. To connect with one another. To serve in community together.

As time goes on, life happens. Let's be honest! Things happen that sometimes darken our hearts, damper our spirits, and suffocate our hope. The off switch gets pressed, and sometimes we just don't want to turn ourselves back on.

But there's someone who fixes that. For free, because He sees our purpose.

He doesn't charge you when you cry out to be renewed, refreshed, or restored. He does it because He knows exactly what you were designed to do, and He will see to it that every fiber of your being recognizes His intentions for your life.

So two weeks ago, after 8 months of feeling absolutely desolate-- God met me. He met me in an encounter that I will never forget because I felt my heart open up again. Do you know why He met me? Because I cried out, and I trusted that God would do something in my heart to heal the hurt that I had felt, but I also trusted that He was not done with me yet.

So whoever you are, reading this... I hope that it speaks to your heart. If it didn't, well that's okay.

I love you.


Davinah
(http://www.daybysnap.blogspot.com/)