Meli's world

I wish I was at the point I could just write about being loving and kind all the time. Yet here I am again to tell you of how badly I handled myself in a situation. On Friday, my brother called me so that I could stop to buy him some Publix fried chicken he was craving since he was unable to drive that day. I picked up my kids and nephews and headed that way. Right after making a pit stop to deliver my neighbor some flowers  since she had recently been discharged from the hospital. Kindness was my mission. We stopped at our local grocery store which never fails to have hot chicken ready. Yet to my surprise they only had rotisserie, not what my brother wanted. I asked the lady behind the counter as her and a co worker were loading the fryer and changing the filter and she replied it would only be 20 minutes until the fried chicken would be ready to go. At my brother's request, I waited. All 3 kids and I would stroll the aisles after a stop at the water fountain and...

  If any of you read my 2016 wrap up blog, then you would know the word "Go" is the word from God for 2017 for me personally. And I have been meditating on this verse: Mark 16:15 that reminds me we are instructed to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation". And that has been something I have thought about a lot, because as much as I love Jesus, as much as I write and no matter how much I love teaching, I know I need growth in the area of evangelizing and telling people the good news. A couple days ago on my lunch break, I went outside to about one of the five new picnic tables around our property, A picnic table in the middle of the parking lot is where I sat to blog on my phone. The blog was going to be about a lesson I am learning as I parent Emeli, but instead this is what I got. A man who walked past me in the lot, came back around and asked if I minded him sitting with me. Of course I answered "no". And once he sat ...

That day in the car something changed. I heard God. I felt His love. I saw His forgiveness. I saw my sin. I saw how far I'd come and how much wrong I had done. I saw that I had made the idea of this perfect love my idol. And now that it failed me and it hadn't been perfect, I was ready to give up. I'd made Emerald my idol, and even in my idea of "love", I hadn't been able to love him wholly and pure. All that love wasn't even able for me to extend my forgiveness to him as he had to me in the past. That day had to be the day mercy came down and found me right there in my car. I can't quite explain it. It was like I had been given a new set of eyes. I could feel the hurt of betrayal yet I could feel His love fill my heart. I could see the mess I was in, but I could see the pieces He could put back together. I could decide to quit and have that be the end to my dream, but He showed me it could a new beginning. He wasn't only working in me, but ...

High school started with me trying to follow Christ and  be different. I was meeting new people and had the chance to change myself without any one knowing me. But I can say I still truly hadn't surrendered my pride, my needs or my heart to Jesus. The minute a cute guy told me he liked me I was back to wanting a relationship. It was a battle wanting to live a life free of sin and dealing with the real world and high school and all the temptations it had to offer. But I kept on going to church, learning more of the Bible.... And I kept on longing for a relationship, with respect and no cheating. I wanted love. A couple months into high school, I met my husband as most of you already know. He was so different. He was a senior and more mature than any guy I had dealt with. He was a great student. He was friendly, outgoing, respectful and didn’t have a “player” reputation. We became friends. We ate lunch together everyday and we had so much in common. He was a believer ...

  I never thought too much about the word hope until 2 nights ago. This is when I sat at my church while Australian-born world wide evangelist Nick Vujicic was speaking. This man has gone around the world bringing hope to millions of people in schools, business meetings, and churches. He who was born without legs or arms has traveled around the world, to tell people about the purpose of living. His depression and loneliness he dealt with as a teen, led him to question his purpose in life. This man went from living a life without limbs, to a life without limits.   Have you found your purpose? If you haven't, you haven't found what to live for. If you haven't found what to live for, then you're living for the sake of living. If you're living for the sake of living, you will find yourself searching for more. And nothing tangible will ever satisfy.   Even in dealing with the tragic passing of someone known worldwide like Robin Williams, who was a...

    Is it me or has the world lost its mind? There’s always certain headlines that grab my attention and usually isn’t for the right reasons. The one that has got me completely baffled is one that is not only making headlines in the news but also filling up my Facebook newsfeed and apparently being retweeted and reposted on Instagram. This picture has gone viral and received over 30,000 likes on the first day it was posted. It is a picture of a felon, his mugshot from the police department's Facebook page where he is being held on 6 felony charges. It seems ladies think this criminal is so good looking, that they wouldn’t mind dating him. Some have even made a facebook fan page for him. They are willing to overlook his felonies and the fact he is being held on $1 million dollar bail. According to his family, he is a married father who is working to put his past behind him. And how many of us don’t have a past that we ar...