I just thought I’d throw it out there. Yes, a man is supposed to earn his wife but that means her respect, her trust, her love and her support; not her body! Scandal isn’t real life so stop thinking that everything in your life will work out like it did in Olivia’s because you haven’t seen the end yet. Yea, I know they make it look easy but what’s glamorous about being the mistress or even about being the one that’s the mister? Since when is it cool for the mistress to be chosen and your marriage vows thrown away like yesterday’s trash? Don’t you know Hebrews 13:4 says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous?” Yea, I know we all make mistakes but don’t think just because you have now been chosen as number one; it makes it right because it doesn’t. Oh, let me tell you; I enjoy Scandal just as much as the next person but do you think I’ll pattern my life around it, NO! Why not, you ask? Because Scandal isn’t real life! But now because Olivia told Fitz to earn her, you got all kinds of text messages going out today saying the same thing but baby if you’ve been giving up the goods for a few pieces of change already; he’s earned it and so have you. You’ve both earned a fast ticket straight to hell unless you repent and get right. TV is for ratings and not for imitating. Get your life right!
Daily Devotional – 5/2/13 “Do you know what today is?”
Well … It’s my birthday (and you guessed it, my sister’s too)! Yep! But let me first stop and give praise to God because every time I turn around, He keeps right on blessing me. See, not only has He allowed me to see 36 years of living but also 15 years of marriage; so I am indeed blessed.
Have all the years of my life been great? No, but they have been lived so I am blessed. Have all of the years of marriage been great? No, but they have been together with one another so we are blessed. See, we sometime take time and people for granted until time is no longer on our side or we’re standing at the casket of our love ones. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had those moments before but then I began to realize that tomorrow isn’t promised to me because I’m young because kids are dying every day and I’ve also come to understand that marriage isn’t for everyone but it’s for me. Yes, it’s hard work but any relationship is. The relationship with your children, coworkers, church members, gym buddies … are all relationships that you have to work on and it is hard work. I am in no way saying I have the perfect marriage but it’s mine and the way to keep it that way is to keep folk out of it. See, not everyone who is around you is pulling for your relationship. Yea, some want it and some want you! Yep, I said it! Some want the relationship you got and some want you to be available whenever they call because they are miserable and you know misery loves company. All I want you to get out of this post today is this; value the relationships you have. Will there be some wanting to give up moments, wanting to throw in the towel days, crying and yelling, some arguing and maybe a few cuss words; yes but that’s all a part of it just don’t give up on it unless it’s the only option you have. For 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.”
Daily Devotional – 5/1/13 “And I am?”
Just who I am! I am a sinner who was saved by the blood when I walked up and sat on the mourner’s bench (in revival on night), confessed my belief in God and His power, accepted Him into my life and was baptized in the water. I am a sinner who sometimes sin, lie, curse, occasionally drink, dance to worldly music, sometimes worry, sometimes say no when I should help, sometimes stay when I should go, sometimes miss the message from the messenger and sometimes frown instead of smile. I am a sinner who sometimes falls asleep without praying and eat without saying grace. I am who I am. I am a person who makes mistakes but I repent for them. I am a person who is sometimes tempted but I hold fast. I am a person who sometimes gets discouraged yet I pray. I am a person who sometimes gets sick but I’m living. I am just who I am. Do I always read my bible, no. Do I always do what God says I should, no? Do I always walk the right path, no? But I am who I am. Do I always use my gift, no? Do I always encourage those who are discouraged, no! Do I always pray for folk instead of myself, no! But I am who I am. I am a girl who was once broken but I’ve been healed, once hurt but now I’m well, once cried but now I have joy, was once in the dark but I’ve seen the light shining from on the inside of me, was once on the wrong path but with God, He made it right, was once dying but now I’m living, was once singing “I was battered, bruised and cast aside” but that’s been replaced with “Now I got the Lord on my side.” Oh, I am just who I am!
Who are you? Are you who you are supposed to be or are you hiding behind what the world say you should be? Somebody said you weren’t wife or husband material but look at you now. Somebody said you weren’t deacon or usher material but look at you now. Somebody said you’d never preach in anybody’s pulpit but look at you now. Somebody said you weren’t motherly but look at you now. Somebody even said you’d be a deadbeat like your dad but look at you now. Somebody said you’d be broke but look at you prospering. Somebody said you’d be nothing but look at you rising. Somebody said you wouldn’t make it through high school but look at the diplomas on your wall. Somebody that’s probably close to you said that you’d always be dancing in the club but look at you now dancing at the altar of God! Somebody said you’d be flipping burgers the rest of your life but look at the manager title on your badge. Somebody said you’d always be catching the bus but look at the keys in your pocket/purse. Somebody said this but who are you? Somebody even said that but who are you again? As for me, I am exactly who I am, who I will be and who God has made me! I am just who I am.
Daily Devotional – 4/30/13 “And you are?”
Just who you are supposed to be, so why do you doubt your God given abilities? You let folk talk you out of your blessing like a car salesman talking you out of more money. You let folk decide what you’ll do with your life instead of being the best you that you can be. You let folk tell you that you won’t ever do this or you’ll be just like him/her but what do you want? It doesn’t matter if your mom used to walk the streets, you don’t have to follow in her footsteps because your footprints won’t match hers anyway. So what if your dead was a drug addict, it doesn’t mean you have to be because your fingerprints won’t match his anyway! Don’t you know that God says (me paraphrasing) “Before I allowed your dad’s sperm to meet with your mom’s egg, I knew who you were?” Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Yes, God knew the path AND the detour you would take in this life because He paved it! Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Why would He allow you to be abused, because it made you stronger and an advocate against violence? Why did He allow you to get a taste of the world only to tell you not to conform to it, because He wanted you to then allow the world to conform to you? This is why Proverbs 16:4 says, “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” Oh, I just wish you could see the potential that you have. I just wish you could see the good in yourself when you look in the mirror. I just wish you could have enough faith in yourself the way you do in that chair you’re sitting in. For once trust the purpose that God has for you the way you trust yourself to walk through the house in the dark. You are just who God made you. The mistakes of the past no longer matter unless you allow them too. Who people call you only matters if you answer to it. Stop trying to please folk and please God because once you do this, He will be pleased to please you. (You’ll get that in a minute) While you’re trying to worry about folks you need to realize that the one behind you wants your spot, the one in front of you don’t want you to take theirs and the ones on the same level as you is trying to get before you so they’ll say anything to make you doubt yourself but like Jesus asked in Matthew 14:31, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” So how will you answer when someone ask, “And you are?”
Daily Devotional – 4/29/13 “Well then!”
I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what to write and nothing would come to mind. I asked God what He would have me to share with His people on today and still nothing. I saved 2 topics in my phone on yesterday but they didn’t even fit this morning. I thought about not doing a devotional today but even that didn’t fit so here I am wondering yet again. Wondering why someone like me would be an encourager to someone like you. How could I encourage someone? Why was I blessed with this gift but then one of the scriptures I jotted down yesterday came into my thoughts which says in Romans 9:20, “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Ok God, you got me there. Oh but hold up because God wasn’t finished getting me back in line because Romans 9:21 says, “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” (He told me!) See, here I am trying to question why when God has already answered with why not? Here I am trying to see the logic in me encouraging you when it’s been you that has been encouraging me all this time. Yea, I know I am the one that writes this devotional that is shared but it isn’t simply about that but it’s about the lives that are affected because of it.
See, someone is going to read this and may be angry over things that are happening in their lives at this very moment but have you stopped to think that maybe you’re going through is the way to your break through? Yea, you wondering why you have to be the one who’s sick but baby can’t just anybody rock a bald head from chemo, the scar from transplant surgery or open heart surgery. Can’t just anybody tell a drug addict or an alcoholic how to live after the drugs and alcohol. Can’t just anybody tell a testimony of how God raised you when you should have been buried in that dusty grave, how that bullet should have blown your brains out but it grazed you instead, how that car should have claimed your life but it left you with only bruises from the seatbelt, how that abusive husband should have snatched your life but instead he made you strong for the husband that God was waiting on you to see or how that job thought they had defeated you when they said no but they were simply moving out the way for your career. Oh, I’ve got to leave this thang alone because it’s causing some shaking in my spirit but you needed to know this morning that you shall overcome, you shall be greater than that which is against you, you shall be better than those who want to see you fall, you will live and not die, you will be victorious and not a victim and you will win and not lose! How do I know? Because I’ve been promised by a King that everything you ask for will be given!
Lakisha, the Author 