Avoiding the Apple: Managing Anger

Day 2: Managing Anger

Probably my favorite thing about these devotions was that I never knew what would be reveled to me, and even now as I go over my notes and scriptures again, what I'll have found since then. On this day I got a lot of confirmation that everything I had been going through was only to make me stronger, which I know is so very cliche BUT yet and still very true! Many times we can grow weary of holing on to that peace that God wants us to have and we take comfort in being angry, sad,

Though you have suffered much it was to prove the genuineness of your faith.

In high school a big problem for me used to be anger, I would get so upset over what I felt like was people "trying me" that I just had to prove that I was NOT the one to be tried! This created so many problems for me as though I could always huff and puff the loudest, I would always end up suspended from school, disappointing my parents or even worse the problem would just continue to a greater degree. 

At the end of the day the big bad wolf never gets the pigs, and I had to realize through many chaotic situations and two years of anger management classes that anger is really weakness. You have such a lack of control over your emotions that you let someone else drive you to the point of stepping out of your peace.

I discovered how uncanny it is to approach people with an overwhelming sense of understanding and fairness. Most of the time arguments, anger and feelings of distress can be diffused with time and guidance. And who better to guide you than the lord.

The truth is these feelings of bitterness, negativity, and resentment are not of the lord. They are in fact the direct opposite. When you hold hate in your heart towards someone to the point where is causes you to gossip (look for others to join you), and wish harm, ask yourself this; Is God smiling or is the devil?

Joyce Meyer has a phenomenal sermon on bitterness vs wholeness where she addresses praying for your enemies even if your not sure you really want God to bless them. I love Joyce Meyer because she is candid aka she keeps it real, God knows praying for our enemies isn't something we necessarily take joy in doing, but forgiveness can only bring you peace, and hating them can only keep you down.

All in all anger is weakness, it causes you to talk bad about people, it evokes feelings of distain and keeps our prayers in a box. So I challenge you now, to write down every person that gives you that UGH feeling when you picture them in your head or hear their name. Be truly honest with yourself, even if the list gets long  and think of an honest prayer you can send there way. If they have an mean spirit pray for unexpected kindness to come there way, if they have stolen from you, pray that God blesses them with a spirit of giving. Transform your enemies into recipients of your prayers and God will transform your ashes into beauty. #DBTAE 

Avoiding the Apple: Day 1 Giving God your Best Fruits

Introducing a New Series: Avoiding the Apple

So, as I mentioned last week I started doing devotions every morning for 7 days straight, and they have greatly improved my heart, mind, and sprit. I used various methods for my devotion all of which offered me great bible verses, food for thought, and practical plans of action that I felt instead of moving on to Day 8, I should delve deeper and share here, as I listen to a little Smokie Norful Pandora.

So what might I call this devotional recap? What better for my Don't Bite the Apple Eve readers than....Avoiding the Apple :) 

Day 1: Giving God the Best Fruits of Your Day 

This is the video I began with, and I loved it because it made me ask myself some tough questions that needed to be at the forefront of Day 1.

Key Points 

1. Is God an afterthought or your first thought?

• Many times we like to believe that because God "knows our heart" we don't have to do things like go to church or do devotion because we think about God all day or pray every night. BUT doing these things can only strengthen your walk and your heart. 

•  Ask yourself, what do I spend most of my time doing? What do I look forward to doing when I first wake up, what is my routine? 

• Give God a place in your daily, weekly and monthly routine. You may not like church , but there are plenty of sermons and scriptures online that you can use to help show yourself and God that he is first, and most important maybe even more so than just attending church.

2.What will you leave so your loved ones will know how to follow God when your gone?

2 Peter 1: 12-15 Because the stakes are so high, even though you're up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I'm not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it. 

13 This is the post to which I've been assigned - keeping you alert with frequent reminders - and I'm sticking to it as long as I live. 

14 I know that I'm to die soon; the Master has made that quite clear to me. 

15 And so I am especially eager that you have all this down in black and white so that after I die, you'll have it for ready reference. 

• As followers of Christ we take on the role of a parent, teacher, and friend. Meaning that what we do should be a reflection of what Christ ask us to do.

• Helping bring others to him is the goal, so what will people say about you if you left today? 

• Let your light shine!

3. A fool listens to himself and thinks he's right, but a wise person seeks council.

• The only way to become stronger in the word is too....READ IT! Meditate on what you have learned and read versions like The Message that may explain it better for you.

• Older people are wiser people, they don't know it all but making it up to this point in life they have seen a lot of pain, happiness, and love so their advice should be heard. 

• Who's the first person you call when something happens bad or good? Lean on the lord for understanding and always thank him first!

In Conclusion: Slow down and praise him daily

Giving God the best fruits of my day for me meant waking up early. The precious extra moments of sleep that I didn't really need but indulged in, are now spent with my heavenly father, and it helps me wake up better than any alarm or newscast ever could. 

Maybe for you your best fruits are you breaks at work or the time in between your classes when you usually call a friend or get online. Maybe it's before bed when you watch Family Guy or listen to music, whatever it is, make sure it's truly your best because God will reward you and more importantly as I found, you will feel worth being rewarded. God Bless #DBTAE 

I'm back and I'm not turning back!

Its a been a while since I've written a blog post, over a year to be quite honest. Every time I've had a moment I felt the spirit was speaking to me I have thought "Dang I should share this on DBTAE" but I won't lay out a list of excuses of why that never happen, I will just say that I'm back.

In the past year God has done so many dynamic things in my life, but I also have fallen back into old habits, distractions and sins that led me away from the lord and my work. Now as us faithful Christians know you will never lose the lord and all he taught you completely even when deep in sin, but that luke warmness is not what God wants to see, and now that I'm back on track I see how much more I could have accomplished had I been whole heartily submersed in his word.

 

The video posted above is a small part of the daily devotion I have been doing every morning on my journey back to being red hot in the holy spirit. Joe of chasegod.tv is a true man of God! I enjoy his videos because they are candid and approach issues that many young people wonder about but could probably never as their parents and pastors. He keeps it real and remains in the teachings of the bible and not of his own thoughts.

I have also been exploring a daily devotional video series by Inspiring You Today. Today I am on Day 7 and upon completing the final video I want to make a post with key points from each day to share with you all. Along with Joe, Inspiring You Today and of course a little gospel and tons of prayer, my daily devotion usually ends with a dynamic conference call that is truly changing lives.

Coach Stormy Wellington, who is now the #1 Network Marketer in the wold created this call and began with I believe 12 people and now the numbers have reached the 800's. The company that has allowed her to see so much success is called Total Life Changes, and they sell teas, diet supplements and things along those lines, but her morning call has nothing to do with pushing the company (I'm not a member his is not a secret plug lol) but everything to do with getting up in your face and making you ask yourself why am I not successful yet and serious calls to action in order to get out of your own way.

I will be sharing more and more about the things I do during my morning devotions, but I just had to come today and let everyone know that I am back. God has given me a big task to prepare for (I'll share soon) along with running my businesses, completing my final year at FAMU, Oh and I also work for Apple now, since I have started giving God the best fruits of my day things have become a lot more clear and so much easier. I've been tested...a couple time lol but I can only imagine how I would have came out had I not been on this path.

I missed blogging for Jesus, and I hope you missed reading my thoughts, I love to hear yours so like, comment, share and always remember Don't Bite the Apple Eve :) 

#DBTAE

Remaining at Peace ☮☮☮

Hello July! How are you? I hope everyone is as happy to see the 7^th month of the year as me, I just decided after reading a blog post about eating more ice cream as a July goal, (its national ice cream month), that I needed to make some goals for this month!  This month is big for me because it’s the 7 month of the year, which means half of the year is behind us, and my website had been up and running for that long as well. It brings me so much joy to work on both my site and this blog regularly, and though sometimes it ca be a bit stressful collecting interviews, doing follow-ups, designing, promoting and just plain thinking about this brand that I call my business, in the end I know that it’s worth it, and it’s what God has given me the heart and mind to do.

 

Recently I decided to try to push my website into an upswing being that it’s the second half of the year, and these include various things; selling hookah, more blogging, video updates, and one thing I am very excited yet nervous about beginning and that is a modeling agency to accompany our hookah sales. I have been researching a lot on this matter, praying, mediating, and asking for advice from all angles, and at some points I felt like I should just scrap the whole idea because it would just be too much work.

 I mean how I could be getting so worked up about a simple idea, that hasn’t even yet come into form just imagine what it will be like if I actually start planning and spending! All of the various reasons to give up on my dream for right now seemed to make a lot of sense, but something in my head kept telling me, that I can do it. And once I meditating, prayed some more, and just relaxed a little, I realized that I don’t need to stress about the who, what, when where or why, but just remaining at peace about the whole situation and remember is that god gave me this mission “All girls are Pretty. All girls are worth it. All Girls should know it.” So with this truly being the mission, as long as I touch at least one young woman, I can never say I failed.

My future is something I plan for constantly, especially when it involves my business pursuits. It’s like the one thing I allow myself to worry about from time to time, but in the end worrying only seems to make me feel uneasy, and with or without this anxious ness, God makes a way for it all to happen. Remaining at peace has been a goal of mind for some time, and it takes me back t a quote I heard on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, “When you’re worrying about the past, you are suffering. When you are worrying about the future you are anxious. When you are living in today, you are at peace.” And isn’t that all we really ever want to be? It is for me at least.

My be at peace tattoo (upper fore arm) April 2014

So no, I don’t know how this modeling agency is going to begin, or how any of the future in this next 6 months of 2014 will go, but I have to say I know that if God is going to continue to be as good to me as he has been all my life, then nothing ca stop me from holding my head up and facing life every step of the way, and I hope you will to J #DontBiteTheAppleEve

Meditation Realizations: Dealing with an Ask hole

Hello everyone!

So I’ve decided to add a new category to the blog called “Meditation Realizations” I have begun mediating daily, today being only my 4th day, and the Holy Spirit has already reviled so much to me, that I could not just keep it to myself! So whenever I come to a revelation that I feel is big enough to put into word, I promise to share it here with you J

(Read: “Success through Stillness” The book thathelped me start meditation)

Dealing with Ask hole’s

 

I’ve come across this funny meme a number of times on Instagram and Facebook, and every time it gets an overwhelming amount of likes and amen’ s the reason most likely stemming from the fact that at some point or another we all encounter someone we spend a good amount of energy pouring out advice to, only to have them turn around and make the exact misguided decision that you warned of. This can be very frustrating especially when dealing with people you care about like friends or family but I’ve come up with a few things to consider to ease the stress of  dealing with a total ask hole.

      You’re just an advisor

The opposite of an advisor, would be a manger, and you don’t need to be trying to manage anyone else’s life but your own, unless it’s your child or employee. As an advisor your only job is to give this person just that “advice” this doesn’t necessarily mean that they will take it or not, but just the fact that you gave them the option should be enough to leave you satisfied.

Remember sometime people have to learn on their own

Sometimes the best way for people to figure something out is by trying it for themselves and either failing or succeeding. Advice can come from a million different places but in the end only one person can make the final decision, and once they do their only ones who will live with them so hopefully they chose what made them happiest.

 

Maybe…you’re wrong

As difficult as it might be to admit that you may not be right all the time (especially for someone like me) when your trying to help someone out really your just on the outside looking in, and though you may think you know all the details you still can’t actually feel that persons emotions or hear the thoughts in their head. Your ultimate goal in giving advice should be to lead the person to what’s best in the long run, but also what makes them happy, and no one can determine that happiness but them.

Don’t give up

While the definition of insanity maybe trying the same thing over and over and expecting new results, miracles happen every day and if you truly believe in the advice your giving, you can’ get tired of preaching it, who knows maybe this time they will listen. The important thing is to be supportive no matter what they choose and not to say I told you so if and when you are right J

A Message from American Baptist Church

Today I had a unique experience in the lovely city of Fort Collins, Colorado, where I am so blessed to be interning for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the chance to go the American Baptist Church and hear the lovely preaching of Mr. Bill Prather. As like most new Church homes I encounter, I stumbled upon this church in passing actually while taking a wrong turn past our Colorado State University dorm and decided to give it a try this Sunday since my Church home is also Baptist. While I will say there are many differences between a “Southern Baptist Church” and an “American Baptist Church” one being the short and dare I say sweet length of service which was almost exactly one hour, the word is the same wherever it is preached with a pure heart and open ears, and I was blessed to be in the house of such welcoming church members.  

Act 2: 1-21 (excerpt from verse 12-21)

12 Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?” 13Others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.”14-21  That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen: “In the Last Days,” God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people: your sons will prophesy, also your daughters; Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams.When the time comes, I’ll pour out my Spirit On those who serve men, women and me both, and they’ll prophesy. I’ll set wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, Blood and fire and billowing smoke, the sun turning black and the moon blood-red, Before the Day of the Lord arrives, the Day tremendous and marvelous; And whoever calls out for help to me, God, will be saved.”

1.     The winds of change relieve us from the Sun.

·       For 40 days Jesus visited his disciples and told them of a comforter that would come.

·       This was the Haunting of the Holy Sprit, which is the power released by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

·       The Church came with the Holy Sprit, a community to witness and attest to the works of God.

2.           All people shall feel the sprit

·       You cannot control the power of the Holy Sprit; it is poured out onto you, not conformed by structure.

·       The Holy Sprit can shatter barriers, and reveal us all as children of God no matter the color of our skin or our denomination.

·       We must learn to hear the sprit as either a gentle wind or a strong wind like a ghost (a friendly ghost).

3.     Ask yourself what the Sprit is calling you to do

·       Let the Holy Sprit possess you and lead you to your divine purpose.

·       The winds of the Holy Sprit will cause you to dance amongst his glory.

·       Release the control of your own life into the hands of the lord and you shall be free.

What I received from this message was that the Holy Sprit is like Jesus lasting gift to us that will guide us all the days of our life until we can get to heaven. The Trinity of the Father Son and Holy Ghost are all something that as Christians we must engrain into our daily doctrine. As children of God we must learn on him for our understanding and want to be filled with the power of the Holy Ghost just as the people in the scripture, because it will never lead us in the wrong direction. God Bless you for reading and Happy Sunday! 

#DontBiteTheAppleEve 

Why I'm not excited to go to Colorado...

So I haven't been to church in two weeks. I know that's not good, but I also know my God understands. We do speak regularly and I have made it a daily habit to spend time in meditation reflecting and allowing him to guide me on my next path as well as work out some issues that could only be the result of my own mind trying to find solutions on it's own. I know how important it is to not forsake the assembly of the church, but if you've been like me lately and have not made it I'd just like to remind you that it's much more important to have a continual relationship with our father, rather than just the one on Sunday Mornings. So don't feel so bad, Daddy understands :) 

Anyhoo, my upcoming internship in Fort Collins, Colorado is swiftly approaching, I'll be working in the communications department of the USDA. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited, and of course I am happy and oh so blessed for this opportunity, but for some reason, I cannot identify with the specific word "excited." Usually for me excited mean, anxious, the feeling of "Oh I just can't wait",but now a days since I've been practicing being at peace, I also have a constant reminder in the form of a tattoo on my right forearm, I can't seem to feel excited anything more than the next.

Nowadays it seems like everything excites me. Th simple joys of life are what I draw my happiness from. Every breath I take is exciting, every smell I smell is exciting, every color I see, every texture I feel, and every move I make is exciting. The problem for me in the past has been that I was always waiting for the next big thing to make me feel happy. The issue with that is, once it comes and passes, I would just be left waiting for something new. 


The journey of being at peace for someone like me, who constantly has 1,000 thoughts and plans and to do list trapped in her brain, is to just be still. To be happy with nothing to do, to not be worried about the things I do have to do, and to not plan 21 more thing for myself to do before I can be happy. God has opened so many doors for me, that I never even knew I had the key to, so I figure if God is in control, maybe I should just sit back and enjoy not having to drive. 

When I am finally in Colorado I do believe that I'll feel excited, I've never seen this place before besides in pictures, I'll be staying at Colorado State University, working at a new job, making money, meeting people and doing all sorts of cool and "exciting" things. But until I get there, I'm just excited to be right here, in Orlando,Fl, smelling my mom cooking fried chicken in the kitchen, being surrounded by my crazy family, seeing palm trees that will soon be mountains, being at peace, and thanking God for blessing me with it.

#DontBiteTheAppleEve