And love… wow! I am more the silent revenge type of girl… This is something to work on and pray about.  To love unconditionally, and to leave the pay back to God.  To do what is right in the eyes of everybody!  Especially when you feel they have wronged you and in your mind they are an “enemy”.  Oh man… pray for me on this one!

So I got off to a great start and BAM!  I fell off the bandwagon… fell away from my commitment… thought I had it all handled… I got this!

So let me get you caught up…

Since we last spoke, I have lost 20 pounds and have been hit with the fact that I am delusional.   Seriously though… I have not been putting in the work I need to to reach my goals, but wondering why I haven’t reached my goals! LOL

So anyway, here’s what’s on the agenda and what I plan to be journalling about everyday!

From today until the end of August I will be studying and conquering pride and increasing my humility.

From today until the end of August I will be increasing my exercise and watching my nutrition and will lose another 30 pounds.

From today until the end of August I will treat my business with the discipline and commitment as I would a job and will increase it by $2000/mo.

Everyday, I commit to counting my blessings and being grateful for everything God has given me!

I put things and habits in place last night, hence why I got up at 5am this morning!  I’m working through a schedule that will work for me and allow me to do the things I need to in order to bring my goals to fruition.

One more thing I am going to do… I am going to buy myself a size 6 exercise outfit and start taking pictures in that outfit with the goal of creating a video that will show my weight loss progression.  I’m already down 20 but i have approximately another 70 to go!

So there you have it!  I hope I still have people willing to go on this journey with me…

Article I’m currently reading.

I was studying Matthew 22:36-44 and 1 Cor 13 the past week and didn’t really blog on it until I went to church today and had a gentleman talking on the very subject that has been on my heart!

So God speaks in one voice… He speaks the same message.  I’ve been hearing it all over from Michael Jackson’s all for LOVE to Mariah Carey singing about I wanna know what love is to my Bible study.

So the question is, what is love?  What does it look like to be loving?

Anyway I recorded this guy speaking on love and really hit my heart.  I’m just going to share some of what I got from his talk:

He spoke of a story of his physically challenged son who is wheelchair bound.  When he was 11 he was taken to the schoolyard.  Teacher was supposed to be watching him the whole time and she decided to go away to talk to another teacher and left him alone not looking at him.  One of his classmates came and told him to lift his head. (He is not able to lift his head) When he didn’t do it the classmate poked him and told him again to lift his head.  When he didn’t the classmate his him hard enough in the face to leave a dent.  When he still didn’t the classmate took his arm and twisted it hard enough to almost fracture it and then scratched him.  The mother got a call to come to the school.  The doctor tending to him was so mad because of the cruelty to this boy unable to defend himself.  The guy speaking went down to the school.  The school policy is the student who did the offense must face the person they did the offense to.  So the student came in and the father at this point was ready to hurt someone very badly!  The student came in… she had no nose bridge, no cheekbones, very wide set eyes, and stubby fingers.  Do you know what that means? She is a severe case of fetal alcohol syndrome and so she would not even comprehend that what she did was a problem.  All of a sudden the dad felt he had no one to beat up on because he had no one to blame.

Here’s the question: Why should I love someone any less in the same situation who is total sane?

Could you forgive her?

Is it easier to forgive her because she’s fetal alcohol syndrome?

What if she was not… could you forgive her and love her?

There are 10 commandments as found in Exodus 20… however… if we take it down to basics go to Matthew 22:36-40

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

And now to John 13:34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

First and foremost we must do these 2 basic things.  The challenge is.. we can’t do this.  There are sometimes situations in life where horrendous things happen to people where they can not see how God can love them.  They can not see how they can love like God.  They can not see how God is love.

You have to start this way… at Matthew 7:1-2 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Some people who can not see God’s love will be called sinners by others.

Some people who are trying their best but don’t know how to motivate themselves will be called lazy by others.

Some people who at a weak moment took something will be called a thief by others.

You don’t know where they are coming from… what gives you the right to judge them?

You have a right to judge what they DID.  You stole that… yes this is the truth… you are a thief… what a cruel thing to say.

How do you know that person is lazy?  How do you know how much effort it took them to motivate themselves to write three words?

You don’t know these things!

What gives you the right to think you are better than another?

Many will look at their successes and use that as a gauge of being better.  They attribute their success to themselves.

Your success is in part a result of being lucky of getting the parents you got, the family you got, and if I didn’t get that I wouldn’t be who I am.

We tend to pick out the worst things in others to comment on when there is so much good in a person that can be commended.

For people who can’t see God’s love we should do the following: 1Cor 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

So for people who can’t see God’s love we must be patient, kind, without envy, without boasting, without pride, without rudeness, others-seeking, without easy anger, forget the wrongs done (what was done wrong last week is not discussed or thought of ever again!), does not delight in evil (see I told you he would do that!), rejoice in truth, protects, trusts (ok someone did something wrong to you… forget it and trust that it won’t happen again.), hopes, perseveres.

Yes, you will possibly get burned doing these things but you must do what is right anyway.  No where does it say to love those that are lovable.  Nowhere does it say to extend love to those who you like or who is nice to you.  You must do it to everyone!  You must love the kid next door and the murderer all the same! Wow! I know!  Tough one!

So to do all of this is difficult but we must strive to do our best and just get better and better.

God will help us to do this by helping us to keep our focus and every little thing that we do will make us better and make the world better.

So why do we do this?  Do we do it because we’re being good so we can get to heaven?  Do we do it because we think that by doing it we somehow will get some kind of reward?

This is why we do it.  Because we want to make God’s people happier.  Because we want to love our neighbour as God has loved us!  Because we love God and he asked us to do it!  Not anyone else!  We don’t do things to please another human being… we do it to please God!  We do it because it’s the right thing to do.

And it will get to the point where you will care about others more than yourself.  You will self-sacrifice for another and not even think about it!  Because God will help you.

Lastly, Matthew 18:4-5

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”

Be willing to do things God’s way… humble yourself.  Just be willing to try it His way because it’s His way and you love Him.

What an amazing powerful and simple message! One that I have let take root in my heart.  One that gets challenged on a daily basis and one I continue to fail at…

…but I’m getting better.

Well Amway Global will match your donations if you donate through their site!  Why not!  If you are going to donate anyway, might as well double the amount going to the efforts… right?

So here’s what you do:

1.  Click on this link http://www.quixtar.com/Login/Default.aspx

2.  Go to the I want to be a customer portion and choose your country then begin registration.

3.  Fill out the form.  When you get to the part of “referring IBO” use IBO “879183″ and Key “COX”

4.  You will get a client number which you can log into the site with.

5.  So log in… and after you do that type in “Haiti” in the search bar

6.  Choose your donation amount.  It’s in $10 and $25 amounts but you can “order” as many of those as you want.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for donating to Haiti, for putting your LOVE in action, and for being smart with your money!

Well I’ve been in a very sombre mood with all the “natural disasters” happening.   Can you guys believe it?  Check this out:

Jan 3 – Solomon Islands – 7.2

Jan 10 – California – 6.5

Jan 12 – Haiti – 7.0

Jan 15 – Venezuela – 5.6

Jan 17 – Argentina – 6.3

Jan 18 – Guatelmala – 6.0

Jan 19 – Grand Cayman Islands – 5.8

Jan 20 – Haiti – 6.1

Today – so far nothing… thank God!

Absolutely crazy… now I don’t know if I’ve just never really noticed before, but it seems to me like an increase in earthquakes since we hit 2010!

So while I’ve been sombre, I’ve been very thankful.  Thankful that nothing like that has hit any family members.  Thankful that I have been blessed and in a position to help financially (although not even close to what I would like to do).  Just thankful for life.

So today I start my day reading The Ideal Combination from The Finishing Touch

In here, Charles Swindoll asks his daughter “what is your favorite feeling?”  His turns out to be accomplishment and his daughter’s is relief.  In thinking about it he says they kind of go hand in hand like a great combination.  We work so hard to accomplish and then when it’s done there is the sweet relief of finishing the task.

And then he finishes with a statement that hit home… we don’t need more strength or more knowledge to get the task done.  God supplies all we need.  What we need is the will to get the task done.

Just get er done!!!!   I fall into that trap a lot.  Think I don’t have what it takes to do what’s being required of me.  How can I lead?  I’ve never led before.  I need to learn about leadership!  Oh the trap of thinking we are imperfect and therefore can not do what God is asking us to do!  Satan’s lies at it’s best!

God takes us where we are at and uses us.  He knows our strengths; He knows our weaknesses.  He doesn’t say uh wow… Candice is quite the project… think I’m gonna have to postpone my plans with her until she reads the 12 self help books she’s goal setting to study this year.  HE’S GOD!!  HE CAN DO ANYTHING!

John 17:1-8 – Why am I so emotional over this Bible reading?! Wow!  Read this for yourself by clicking the link!  Actually it makes me think of Theresa Danzik (Theresa Tsuruda at the time) when she was caught up in drugs and alcohol and her life was going no where.  Then she was shown the opportunity of a business and committed to God that if he would glorify her that she would give all the glory to Him.   To see the success she is now (financially, spiritually, physically, mentally) is to truly grasp the glory of God.  It is a true miracle.

I guess I’m emotional because of two reasons… 1. I have to question if I’ve really given the glory to God?  Has my motive been to give the glory to God?  Or has it been to give the glory to… *gulp*…. me?  2. Now more than ever I feel that I am nothing without God.  That I have a HUGE impact to make on this world and it scares the daylights out of me.  That I CAN NOT do this alone.  I can only do this with God power.  So I understand about giving the glory to Him… because it is Him….not me.

I pray you all will watch the changes that happen with me this year and KNOW that it is not me. It does not mean things will go smoothly.  It just means, with a greater perspective, we can handle the crapola when it arises as we know it’s part of the plan.

So I pray that my life will show you what happens when you give your life to God.

I’m going to do one post per day and will just talk about my day… how I stayed accountable, wins, things to improve upon, etc.

Well today did not go the way I had hoped…. but the big win for me is in the past I would have beat myself up with negative talk “what’s wrong with you?” kind of talk.  Today, because I know what I am striving for, there was no failure… just feedback!

So with what I learned today, I will go forward into tomorrow, armed with feedback so I can tweak what I did today, and make tomorrow that much better.

I also didn’t do the hour of running I had planned today, however I did do 15 mins.  My previous all or nothing attitude would have seen this as a failure as well.  However, I DID SOMETHING!  I made a decision to work with what I had and I moved my health forward!  I am not settling for as I will do the hour tomorrow.

So Wednesday is a new day that I am looking forward to with eager anticipation!  Tomorrow I will be better!

Good news is my eating has been way better.

But the exercising has been… a chore that has been left undone for three days!

Anyways, drawing a line… what caused the breakdown and what is the solution moving forward.

1.  I need to look at my daytimer and FOLLOW the plan.

2.  I need to either not schedule things in my designated work out time or reschedule it for another time.

3. I love exercising, I love the feeling I get after exercising.etc. – I need to reframe my view of exercise.

Moving on…

Well I believe I have made huge strides in this part of my journey over the past quarter.

It’s time to continue and to have faith in where God wants to take me.

We have lost the art of authenticity.  In this reading it talks of both Christians and non-Christians being very similar and the crazy things people would do for 10 million dollars. (25% would abandon their family, 23% would become a prostitute, 7% would murder a stranger!)  Can you believe it.  Makes me think of this Michael Jackson song:

So the challenge is to start modelling truth.  To  think, confess, face, love, pursue, walk, talk truth.  All truth!  Nothin but the truth!

Wow!  What would I do for 10 million dollars?

1 Kings 2:1-4

I need to walk in the way of the Lord and keep his commandments.  Really, when I do this, there will be no need to lie!  My life will be an open book!