Meli's world

The sun rises on 2017, as the sun set on 2016! And a new year is always time to reflect on what has been. At the beginning of 2016, God gave me the word MORE. Which I thought was so vague. Yet looking back, I see God makes no mistakes. And the word more was going to describe and encompass so many areas of my life. First it started with more GROWTH. More seeking God's direction for my life. We started the year off in a church wide study entitled free and even joined Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes. This series along with these classes convinced us there was more to living than being slaves to debt and that God has called us to have freedom to be generous givers. This was just the beginning of the journey this mentality would send us. There was also more serving....in the kids ministry. Yup, Saturday nights remained our night to teach, to lead and to give God our time to sow into kids lives while their parents get their time with Jesus. It has been ama...

Finally today I can say I have a brand new windshield! This past Friday, when I was leaving work I noticed my windshield had two small cracks. I don't park under a tree and it wasn't obvious it had taken a hit by anything. It was two lines that you couldn't even feel and I had no idea how they got there. It didnt seem to have a point of impact. It just seemed to have cracked within the glass itself.   I immediately went home to check where we could replace it and how much it would cost because I was worried it would break even more. Of course because of the weekend, the estimates we got were extremely high and I didn't want my weekend to be interrupted by having to take it somewhere to be fixed. The weekend went by and the windshield made it through so we were determined to find a place to take it to monday. When Monday came and I shared the story with my awesome knowledgeable coworker she told me it should be covered under my insurance. Duh!!! Why didn...

  I know it's been a while since I last wrote, so why not break the dry spell with what I've been going through and what I'm learning. School started about a month ago here in Florida. For my little one Emeli, that meant starting pre-k. I'm not sure what she envisioned it to be but she was super excited. She talked about it for weeks, we went shopping and she couldn't wait to start. The first week went ok. Then the next week, she hated the place. She was refusing to go. Crying about it at home. Didn't want to talk about school at all and just was making herself miserable and anxious about it. So we did what every parent would do and switched schools. She started there fine too. And it seemed to be a more hands on and playing curriculum than the other school. However a couple days into it, again she was refusing to go. Except this time we knew she loved it. She was coming home talking about her friends, all she did and how nice her teacher was. Thi...

As 2014 comes to an end, and people.make all types of plans to change for the new year I can't help but just reflect on the wonderful year its been. If anything, its been the year that God has taken me out of my comfort zone. I always thought I was outgoing and daring until God started putting things in my heart, then fear and doubt I didn't know before started to set it. The enemy is always working hard at delaying what God wants to accomplish in your life. This year started out with me turning 25, and feeling like I was finally an adult, a grown woman. I know. Don't ask me why it didn't happen when I got married, or had kids, or bought a house. Something about 25, made me feel like I finally am getting older. I've always loved writing and had a passion for telling people about God and my experiences since he radically changed my heart. But it wasn't until February I felt it was time to start a blog and venture out in faith. I wasn't sure if anyon...

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 ...