Who is she?!

                 I want to tell you a story today and regardless of your gender, place yourself in the girl's place. There was a young girl and she had a crush on a boy and wanted to get to know him more. They talked every once and a while and to her surprise, the boy noticed that she was interested in him, so he went up to her and asked if she would like to go on a date.  Without hesitation, she said yes. That night she dressed up, spent hours getting ready, and they met at a restaurant that belonged to his father. They sat down together at a beautiful table and started to talk. He wanted to get to know her more, so he asked her many questions about herself. She started opening up and  tell the boy everything about her.Her dreams, her experience growing up, her fears, everything. As she spoke to him, she realized how much this boy was willing to listen and pay attention. She even opened up about this things she never said before, because he made her feel comfortable. Regardless of all the things she said, he still looked at her with a smile and acceptance. They get along so well that night and they decided to go on a date every week. Weeks went by, and  they started to get to know each other better. However, something strange happened. One night on their date, the girl suddenly lost interest in him. When he was trying to talk to her, she would be texting on her lap, thinking he wouldn't notice. While he talked to her she would be distracted thinking about other things. She would even be yawning and falling asleep when he was talking to her. This continued to happen over the next couple of dates, and she started being very cold with him. Many times he would call her, to see how she was doing, but she would ignore his calls. He called her many times to go out for lunch, but she would make excuses to avoid him. He loved her so much, but he realized that she no longer wanted anything to do with him. So he decided to stop insisting because he didn't want her to be pressured to talk to him nor spend time with him. One night when he was helping his dad clean the restaurant, the dad noticed he was sad. His father asked him, "Son, what's going?" The son replied that he was sad, because he missed spending time with her and talking with her like before. He said, "I want something more with her, I want a marriage with her. A commitment to be with her and her with me, for the rest of our lives.  I even bought her this ring, as a symbol of my love for her. The dad smiled and said, "Don't worry, at the right moment she will come back and when she comes back it will be forever". He wiped his tears and nodded. 

             Time continued to pass by, and this girl began to miss him. She felt alone and incomplete without him. She missed all the times they would spend hours talking together, making each other laugh. She realized that he was her other half and didn't want to lose him or be replaced by another person. So, one night that he was working at the restaurant, she went to go see him. While he was clearing the tables, he looked up and saw her at the door. He dropped everything he was doing and ran to her with open arms. They hugged each other so strongly as if it was the last hug they would give each other. She apologized for they way that she was acting but he didn't let her speak because he was so happy to see her again. He didn't want to waste a second, so he got down on his knee in tears and asked her to marry him. To be his other half for the rest of their lives. She was speechless at what he was asking, and she replied.....

           Let's pause the story here, because this is where you tell me what she said. You're probably thinking, "But wait, I don't even know this person". In reality you do, because no matter if your a girl or boy, this girl/person is you. I want you to read the story again, but instead of the picture above, think about this setting picture below. And picture the boy a Jesus. How will the story end?

                                    

             

If I had Another Chance

        Have you ever seen a movie or tv show where someone does something terrible or they didn't do something and then they end up saying "If I only had another chance, I would....". Or, have you seen where a person makes a bad choice and in the end it was only a dream? I've seen that so many times. But my question today is, why do we wait until it's to late to make the right choices or start to do something. This applies to every area of our lives. There are several examples I can give. That young boy that dreams to be a famous musician, but he grows up and is brought to "reality" that it will never happen and so he gives up. Then he grows up telling himself that if he only had another chance he would have done things differently. Or, if he has children he tries to make them live the dream that he could not. We have heard this many times. This may even happen in your house. Your parents didn't accomplish something in their youth or they made a bad choice and to unload this burden of their past, they put a lot of pressure on us so we can live their dreams. Or, they become very protective so we do not make the same mistake they did. However, they do this because they regret the decision they made in the past and don't want us to grow up lamenting over the same mistake. Another example of this topic, is death. I'm not going to scare you and talk  about hell (but it should be in your agenda to work on your salvation) but rather, I want you to picture this. Imagine you died today and you appeared before God. You don't know what is going on and God tells you congratulations, your name is in the book of life. We would be very happy, right? Well, we would be happy that we have our salvation, but would you be happy with what you accomplished during your life? Would you have any regrets? Do you picture yourself telling God, "If only I had another chance to live, I would ..."?

     If you find yourself saying yes, then maybe it's time to wake up and do things differently. Why wait?

It's Not Easy

                         Have you ever tried to do something new and  someone tells you, "No, you can't do it, it's not as easy as you think". I know I have. As we grow up we hear a lot of these phrases: "You can't do it, your too small", you're just a kid", you are aiming too big", "If I couldn't do it, how can you do it?" The sad part is a lot of us grow up believing in these words and when we want to reach our goal, all these voices come back. Sometimes we mess up or fail in the progress and we tell ourselves "Who was I kidding", "I knew I couldn't do it", "Maybe if I was more like him/her", etc. The reality is, most of our goals, if not all, are not going to be easy. If it was easy, what joy would we have in accomplishing it? Just I was told, I tell you today. What you want to accomplish with your life is not going to be easy, maybe it will even be out of your reach, BUT it's not impossible. Oh and another thing. Don't compare yourself to others. I used to do that, but at the end I realized there is no better person at being Claudia, than me. 

The Pickle Jar

                        

                       Have you ever gotten frustrated while trying to help someone? For example, let's say I'm trying to open a jar of pickles. For the sake of this example, pretend you are a professional pickle jar opener. Now, how would you feel if I spent my whole day trying to open the jar by myself and I couldn't. How would you feel if you saw my crying, screaming, yelling because I couldn't get the darn jar open? Imagine if I spent every single day of the week trying to open the jar but I could't and I knew you could help me, what would be going through your mind?  I don't know about you, but if I saw someone struggling especially if it is someone I care about, I would try to reach out to the person and help. If the person didn't want me to help him or her open the jar, I would feel very frustrated with the desire to just snatch the jar out of their hands and open it. Right? But let's say I tell you, you can help me open the jar, but you have to open it while my arms are wrapped around it. Will you be able to open it? No, because I'm not giving you the jar so you can open it. What I am trying to get at with all this? This is how we are many times. A lot of us go through so many battles every day. We may carry a depression since we were little kids, we may be seeing our parents at the point of divorce, you might have a problem dealing with your aggression or anger, you might have hate towards someone, maybe you have so many problems in your love life, etc. We each have our battle we deal with everyday. Imagine God's frustration seeing us crying, yelling, hurting ourselves, feeling lost, when He is right there with the solution. Imagine how God feels when He loves us so much and He sees us miserable and torn to pieces. God is right there, saying "Let me help you. You don't have to suffer. My son suffered already in your place". Sometimes we may even say, "Well, I asked God to help me, but nothing happens". Read this part again:

"But let's say I tell  you, you can help me open the jar, but you have to open it while my arms are wrapped around it".

Sometimes, if not many, we say we want God's help to overcome a problem, but were not willing to hand him the jar. Or we hand him the jar, but we don't let it go. God is willing to help us, but the problem is we want to be helped our way. If you want God to help you resolve that problem you have been dealing with for so long, then make a decision. Remember, all of us have barriers, but most of the time, the biggest barrier is ourselves.

What Baggage Have you Been Carrying?

 

                    After I watched this clip a few minutes ago, I sat down alone in my room. I started to think and I asked God, "What have I been carrying all these years?" A lot of things came to mind regarding baggage. A lot of times were tired of all the put downs, all the insecurities, and the negative things that happened to us. Many times we even say, I would never do this to my friend. I would never do this to my children. I would never want this person to go through what I went through. However, without even realizing it, we end up doing to others what was once done to us. Why? Because we got so tired of carrying the baggage of that memory or that pain, that we just want to get rid of it somehow. But like the man says in this clip, when we try unloading our baggage, it backfires on us. We end up hurting someone we love and care about, because of someone that was done to us in the past. I don't know about you, but I don't want to carry baggage around my life. If you choose to carry it, you will reach a point where you will feel like the world is on your shoulders. You will feel lost, like running away. Eventually what will happen is that you will fall to pieces and trip over your baggage. God wants to set you free today. Are you ready? Are you ready to ask God to remove all the baggage of your past and of your sins you can be free? If so, use this moment to talk to God. 

                                                                       God Bless.

What are you willing to do for Jesus?

For Jesus: I don't want to go to Church, I had a long day and I'm tired
For Me: I can stay up all night texting

For Jesus: I don't have time to pray
For Me: I spend hours on the phone

For Jesus: It's not necessary to dress up to go to church
For Me: I spend hours getting ready for a date

For Jesus: I don't need to read the bible
For Me: I have to read the latest magazine

For Jesus: I'm too shy to talk about Jesus to someone
For Me: I invite all my friends to a party

For Jesus:   I's sorry I don't have an offering today, I would if I could
For Me:      Mom, Dad can I borrow some money? I really really want to buy this
                   I'm going to look all over the house for change, so I can go buy a snack
                   I really want to buy this video game, I'm going to sell this
                   I've worked really hard to save up this money for this object


                            What are you willing to do for Jesus?
                 
                 

                 

What have you not valued?

            This morning I was cleaning the refrigerator, and I throw out a lot of food that went bad. I filled the trash bin with all the food that had to be thrown away. As I was taking out the trash bag, I stopped to think. How many people do not have food to eat today? How many starving children would have loved to eat this food that I am throwing away? I felt really bad. Why is it that many times, we don't value what we have? I'm not just talking about food. Look at how people are in this world. Siblings fighting with each other or not even talking to each other, when there are youth that wish they have a brother or sister or maybe even lost their sibling in an accident or sickness. The youth that says he or she hates her mom or dad, when there are youth that have never met their parents, or they got separated, or even died. The youth that harms his/her body with alcohol, drugs, smoking, cutting, when there are youth dying of cancer that wish they could have the long life we have. The youth that is too lazy to walk, when there are people who cannot walk. The youth that has to be dragged and forced to church, when Jesus voluntarily walked to be sacrificed on the cross for us. 

                                                        What have you not valued?