Representing

OMG...Imagine the shock of driving down the interstate and seeing your face on a BILLBOARD....wow..amazing.

I know in this picture it looks as though I am representing the University of Southern Miss, and thats not entirely false, but I want to let you know that I represent so much more. I represent Christ and what his love and grace can do. When you look at this picture you see a woman who is an overcomer. A woman who despite the odds that were stacked against her, found herself doing and accomplishing things that others thought could never be, all by the grace and the love of God.

When I look at that woman smiling on that billboard, I tear up when I think about all the things that she had to go through to be there. When you see her you think wow, she is in college, she is doing big things etc., but oh if you only knew!!  The enemy had other plans for her but he must've forgot that God had plans of his own that were written even before she was formed in her mothers womb , so no matter what the devil threw her way GOD always had her back. The smile you see in the pic and the smile she wears everyday has been attacked since she was born. The enemy has used every thing possible, from molestation, neglect, poverty, teenage pregnancy to stop her from fulfilling her purpose but can somebody say BUT GOD!!!  (*insert praise break here)

USM is using the slogan "Stay Here Go Far" to encourage students to get there degree here at USM and go out into the world and do great things with it, while representing their alma mater, but, I want to encourage you from another angle.

I want to let you know that the only way to "GO FAR" is to to "Stay with GOD". Only in him can you speak to mountains and they MOVE , Only in HIM can walk through doors that have been closed in your face, and ONLY in HIM can you have ETERNAL LIFE. Be blessed and Stay with GOd....

Do you do Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!
     - Holly Golightly


I just finished watching one of my all time favorites, Breakfast At Tiffanys. While watching this I started to think about my own personal breakfast at Tiffany's. For those of you have never seen this movie, (it's now streaming on netflix if you have that), Audrey Hepburn plays Holly Golightly and she loves Tiffany's the famous jewlery store with the cute little blue turquoise boxes. She can't afford to buy anything out of there but just walking around the store or even looking through the window while eating a crossiant and coffee, soothes her. There is a lot of other stuff going on in this movie as well. If you like good ole classic movies then you should definitely check this one out.

Now, back to my original thought..

What is that I do to decompress, what makes me happy on those days when it's hard to find things to smile about. I use to use food as a coping tool, but as I have gotten older and the weight gets harder and harder to lose, I have found healthier ways to deal with those stressful times. I go for a run , walk the dog, call a friend and vent, but most importantly I pray. I pray and ask God to give me the strength to make it through what ever is going on, and to help to deal with it in a non self-destructive manner, i.e eating or shopping.
How do you handle stress?

Let Your Nays Be Nays

One of the things that I have noticed in life is that many people have trouble "just saying NO"! It seems to be one the hardest things to say to people. My question is WHY!!!
Well this is my theory: While growing up one of the first words that we learned how to say was NO. Eat your greens , "NO", Come here "NO", Ready for a nap "NO", Give me kiss, "NO", Say bye-bye "NO" and the list could go on and on, Im sure many of can all come up with many things that we said "NO" to. The problem tho, is that once we began to use this new and wonderful word, our parents quickly corrected us and let us know that the word "NO" was not very good. In my case, the word "NO" led to a lot of meetings with the wooden spoon lol. The older I got the less and less I used it, and that even carried over into adulthood. For me, I had to change my way of thinking when it came to using the word NO, I had to learn that word could still cause me pain, but in a different way. Not being able to say not people has caused me a lot pain in the past. I have found myself saying yes to things and committing to things that I didnt want to do or even had time to do. This caused me some serious STRESS! All because I just didnt want to hurt anyones feelings or looked at as stuck up or rude. Often times after say yes to something, I would find myself wondering , how did i end up doing this, or being here. I would overbook myself and find myself running around town like a chicken with its head cutoff (lol..country quotes). This would not only stress me out but it would stress out my family as well. I would be so tired and angry I would lash out at them like it was their fault. I soon realized that I cant  keep living like this, there has to be a better way , and there was, all of this could be fixed by just saying NO. No to people and even no to self. I had to learn how to stop making decisions at the spur of the moment , and tell people that I couldnt answer them right now I would have to let them know later. This gave me time come home see what plans the family had or see what my schedule looked like and most importantly to PRAY about it. If I felt like it was too much or if I didnt want to do it, I just simply told the person NO. I ofcourse did it tactfully and in love but I said No all the same. This led to a less stressfull me. I use to still feel bad about it but now its just like second nature..lol..NO..Im not just saying no them but im also saying no to stress and conflict.
I hope that you all can find the inner strenght to say Yes to your sanity and No to things try to come against it..lol..God Bless