The Little Things

Today was a very stressful day for me at work with everyone out of the office, except for me and the pharmacy dept. trying to hold down the fort.  Anyway, on the way home I was listening to the my usual, christian radio station, trying to get rid of my bad mood, when my 3 yr old in the back started singing and dancing to the song on the radio.  He started doing all kinds of moves and smiling and giggling, which in turn made me start smiling and I was laughing so hard at his little dance moves that I had tears rolling down my cheeks.  For about 3 minutes the car was full of joyful song and laughter.  In that moment I thanked God for that little moment in the car.  It totally changed my attitude and the rest of my evening was fabulous.

All it took was this little moment in the car to turn my attitude.  Sometimes God sends us these little moments right when we need them.  How AWESOME is our God that he gives us these little moments when we need them the most.  I just had to share my overwhelming gratitude that I have for what God does in my life, even the little moments of laughter on the way home.  OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD and always has our back even when we are not looking.

Always look for the blessings that are given to you big or small.  God knows what you need and when to bless you.  Usually it is when you least expect it!!!

Oh yea, check back because this week we are doing a brand new topic!  This month is all about appearance so we will be discussing all kinds of topics!  You don't want to miss it!!

Love in Christ,
Alicia

The "Drive Thru Experience"

I listen to a christian radio station in the morning on my way to work.  It helps me have some worship time before my busy work day and it just makes me feel good.  Anyway, they talked about something this morning that I thought was a great idea and I wanted to share it.  It is called "The Drive Thru Experience."  Basically, you pay for the person behind you.  It could be someone's coffee or someone's car wash.  The ideas are endless, but basically you are showing an act of kindness.  Jesus showed random acts of kindness all the time.  This is just one way to show Christ to others.  I have not done this yet, because I just heard it today and I haven't stopped anywhere, but I am definitely going to do this.  You never know what other people are going through and you just might lift their spirits. 

I just thought I would pass it along.  This can really be an awesome experience for everyone.  If you would like more information or just want to check it out here is the link to do so: http://www.spirit1059.com/DriveThruDifference.aspx

One SMALL act of kindness can make a HUGE impact in someone's life. 

Love in Christ,

Alicia

Lean on me when you're not strong....

Our second winner of the contest was Mrs. C and her question was "Why do some people blame God for the death of a loved one and go through the entire process blaming him instead of leaning on Him in their time of need?"

Disclaimer: The topic that we are about to blog about is different with every person. Everybody grieves differently this is just our opinion. Jana is going to share her personal story.

When I was eight years old my father commited suicide. He was a ex police officer with a major alcohol problem, my mother knew things were headed south but I guartnee you she had no idea this was about to take place. He had been in a mental hospital and was working on getting better. My mother had decided she was going to have to leave him, it wasn't a safe place for me or my siblings. He was realsed from the hospital and hich-hiked to our house. My mother was gathering her things to leave for a couple of days, when my father arrived home he was furious. He loved my mother and my mother loved him but it wasn't a safe place. They began to argue and fight. About what? I probably will never know. They fought for awhile and I guess it snapped in his head. There was one more gun left in our house in my brothers closet. He got the gun, sat on the couch and took his life right there in our living room. My mother was in shock, got the neighbor, and called for help. Being an ex police officer every officer showed up to our house that day, it was the talk of the force and the town for a while. I will never forget when my mom told me; her, my cousins, and aunts were in the room on the bed. I walked in not knowing what was going on. During their fighting back in forth my mother hurt her arm so she had it in a sling. I asked what happened and she didn't respond. My aunt said "Jana, your father has passed." Being eight years old I had no idea what that meant. "I am sorry?" I responded. "Your father died, he is no longer here." All I can remember is letting out the loudest scream and throwing myself on the bed. Pressing my face and body as hard as I could into the matress. Why? Why did this happen to me? To MY Daddy? What was I going to do?
         It was an awful time in mine and mothers life, but what we didn't know was it was a brand new start to an amazing new life. God knew all along why that happened to us, his timing and reasoning is perfect. We began the grieving process. It was slow with ups and downs. Have you ever heard the saying "What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger." ? Well it is true. It has taken me nearly 12 years to fully understand why that happened to me. My mother remarried a wonderful Godly man who loves her, me, and our family so much. God allowed them to meet in a very cool way (that is a whole 'nother story) I have grown in God and other relationships through the death of my father. Do I wish he was here? Of course I do. But I have one awesome story. I don't know...actually I KNOW I  wouldn't be who I was if that didn't happen. It made me fully depend on Him and allow Him to work in my life. It made my family FULLY dependent on Him and only Him because at that time in our life what else did we have? Yes our family but they can not comfort like our God can. We will never know why he takes people away from us but I know from prayer and seeking Him it was for our own good. Like I said before it has taken me awhile but I can honestly say I can now thank Him for that experience, and realize what I DO have. Maybe he did it to humble us? Maybe he did it to make us lean on Him? Maybe He did it to show us HE is in total control?

I hope this explains or helps if you are questioning God on this type of situation. Every person reacts differently to situations, we just have to trust in Him and His love!

"I may walk through valleys as dark as death, but I won't be afraid. You are with me, and your shepaerds rod makes me feel safe." Psalm 23:4 CEV

Love in Christ
Alicia and Jana

Hello, I am talking to YOU!

My 3 yr old has learned at an early age how to tune me out.  I can tell him 3 plus times to go pick up his toys and he will sit there and ignore me.  I know he does not have hearing loss, because in the same sentence I can mention anything that has to do with Thomas the Train or going to play outside and all of the sudden I have his total, undivided attention.  Sometimes, it gets very frusturating when trying to get him to do something and I know he is ignoring me.

I am pretty sure this is the way God feels when He is talking to us and we are tuning Him out. God longs to speak to us and He longs to show us His ways.  When we ignore Him, we miss out on so many blessings.  Thankfully God does not give up on us and continues to "tap" us on the shoulder in order to get our attention. Sometimes, drastic measures might need to be taken in order for us to listen, but sooner or later He will get your attention. God wants to give us numerous blessings, but if we tune Him out we miss out on those blessings.  So, the next time God is trying to get your attention, don't tune Him out, because you never know what blessings you might be missing out on.

This 'blurb' kind of goes with our blog topic from yesterday, "Take the Do Not Disturb Sign Off Your Heart!"  I just wanted to add to it because I have had personal experience in tuning God out and Him taking drastic measures to get me to PAY ATTENTION.  Here is the short version of my personal experience:  I was head over heels in love with this guy back in college.  There was NO WAY anyone or anything could stop me from marrying him.  He had already put a down payment on the ring and we knew we were going to get married.  Well, God had other plans for me and he kept "tapping" me on the shoulder and giving me all kinds of signs for why I should not marry this guy.  I kept blowing Him off, tuning Him out!  I was in denial, I wanted to get married and I wanted it to be this guy!  Well, God had enough of "tapping" me on the shoulder, so He gave me a wake up call that would totally remove me from the situation.  I was diagnosed with PTSD(post traumatic stress disorder) and completely shut down and withdrew.  My family completely took care of me and it was a long road, but I am so happy that God allowed this drastic circumstance in my life.  It saved me from a marriage that I know now would have been a complete disaster and would have ended in divorce.  It took a drastic act to get me to listen, but when I did everything became so much more clear.  At the time, I was not sure why or how, but now I know and I thank God everyday for allowing it to happen.  I am now happily married to the man I know I am supposed to be with and we have a precious son.  I learned very quickly to listen when God speaks.  God wanted me to have this blessing and what I deserve even though I don't deserve it.

So, the next time you hear God speaking or feel Him "tapping" stop, listen and obey!!  He has blessings  waiting for you!  God WILL get YOUR attention one way or another!!!

Love in Christ,
Alicia

Take the 'DO NOT DISTURB' sign off your heart.

We ran a contest a few weeks ago and asked people to give us topics they would like us to blog about. We had two great topics that we could not pass up, so we decided to declare both ladies the winners and blog about both topics.




The first topic we will blog about is from Mrs. D. Her suggested topic was “Tell us what to do when we grow ‘stale’ in our relationship with Christ.”



Being a Christian is not easy, it is something we have to work at all the time. It is a full time job that has great rewards along the way and the ultimate reward of eternal life. God expects us to put Him first but more often than not He comes in last.
    Alicia and I have personal experience when it comes to putting God last. A lot of times our mornings start at 5am with the gym, to work, dinner, showers, ministry, and anything else that day throws our way. Sometimes in our hectic day we don’t think to talk to God. On the days we leave God out of our schedule we feel there is a void that has not been filled. The days that we do put God first we can see a difference in our attitudes, how we react to negative situations, and just an over all lift in our spirit. Although we strive to put God first everyday we are not perfect therefore we sometimes put a “pause” on our relationship with God. It is good to know that although we sometimes put God on “pause” he has NEVER put us on “pause.”
    How do you keep your relationships with your friends, spouse, family, and co-workers from fizzling out?  You talk with them and show interest in them. Your relationship with God works the same way; you “talk” with Him through prayer and you show “interest” in Him by reading your bible. Some other ways to keep your relationship growing is to surround yourself with Godly people and listening to Christan music. Good things in makes good things come out.
    Your alone time with him is SO important. It can be just 5 minutes of worshiping Him through prayer and song or 30 minutes of a bible study. There really is NO excuse for not putting your relationship with God first.




A few verses that we found for this topic:




“Young people can live a clean life by obeying your word. I worship you with all of my heart. Do not let me walk away from your commands. I treasure your word above all else; it keeps me from sinning against you. I praise you, LORD! Teach me your laws.” Psalm 119:9-12 CEV




“Create pure thoughts in me, and make me faithful again.” Psalm 51:10 CEV




“Relationships are like water. They must be cared for and nourished. If we do not water a plant,it dies. Likewise, if we do not nurture our relationship with God, its fire begins to dull. Reigniting our relationship with God takes work. It also takes time, effort, and diligence. Once we reach out, however, God is always willing to reach back. Therefore, the work is always worth the effort.”
-by Angela-Edward (E-HOW contributor)




So, go ahead and take the ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ sign off your relationship with God...He’s waiting.




Love in Christ,
Alicia and Jana

WE HAVE T-SHIRTS!!!

We now have "Be The Girl" T-shirts!  They are super cute and you can get yours today!  Adult sizes are sm-3xl and are $18 and youth sizes are xs-xl and sale for $14.  You can place your order via our email or facebook page.  When you order make sure to leave your address to where you would like the shirts to be sent to.  There is a 5.00 flat rate for shipping and handling as long as it is shipped in the U.S.  So come on and order your shirt today! 

Facebook: Be The Girl Ministries
Email: BTGMinistry@yahoo.com

That's What She Said...or Did She?

Gossip is defined as one who chatters idly or repeats rumors about others

An all familiar situation at one time or another:
Mindy told Sue that Mark and Sally went to the movies with Sarah and James. Sue told Courtney that " Mark and Sally went to the movies."  Courtney told Jamie that "Mark and Sarah went to the movies." Jamie told Sally that "Courtney saw Mark and Sarah at the movies and they were holding hands." 

Now Sally is upset and angry because of the rumor that was spread around school about her boyfriend cheating, when in fact it never happened.  THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL GOSSIP!

The bible has a lot to say about gossip. Proverbs 20:19 says "He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, Therefore do not associate with a gossip."  Even though this verse says do not associate with a gossip, we feel that there are other ways for YOU, yourself not to gossip.  Doesn't necessarily mean to stop being friends with one that gossips, because I am pretty sure that you would not have any friends, seeing that everyone gossips, rather it be a little or non stop.  So, some things you can do are to remove yourself from that situation by walking away or you can say that you are not going to talk about it and change the subject.

The words that we speak can build a person up or completely destroy them.  Like with Sally in the above scenario.  She was completely heartbroken for what she had heard about her boyfriend.  One little word left out or one little white lie can totally break the chain of what the true conversation was about.  It's like playing the telephone game, one person starts out with a true statement but by the time the statement reaches the last person, 9 times out of 10 it is not even close to what the original statement was.

Another verse that the bible has on gossip is Proverbs 18:21(this is a powerful verse)"Death and life are in the power of the tongue."  Let's repeat that, death and life are in the power of the tongue!  Going back to what we talked about in how the words we speak can build one up or tear one down.  That is exactly what this verse means.  Another great verse to live by is Proverbs 21:23 and it says,"He who guards his mouth and his tongue, Guards his soul from troubles." So with this verse the bible is basically telling us how to prevent ourselves from Gossip, which can lead to a whole lot of trouble.  By watching what you say and thinking before you speak you can avoid a whole world of trouble.

Word to the wise:  Don't pass on everything you hear because, as you probably have been told again and again, "You can't believe everything that you hear!"

Friends Don't Let Friends Gossip!!!