Who Are You?

This has been a busy, stressful week (as usual) and during these types of weeks I find it more difficult to stay on top of my priorities.  Usually at work there are various personalities and people who just think very differently from me.  I can imagine this happens at everyone’s work place and in every profession.  It’s hard to be Godly when you want to scream or when it seems like you just can’t get through to a person.   Granted every aspect of our lives have stress factors and we can either dwell in these negative feelings or we move on.  Lately I’ve been pondering on the subject of why we as human beings can’t seem to brush certain things off and why let such small petty things affect us.  Then I wondered why is it that some people’s lives seem so much simpler, as opposed to my crazy hectic life.  These are just a few questions that tend to run through all of the lobes in my brain!  I’ve argued all the reasoning and all of the “answers” in my head, but nothing seemed to satisfy my curiosity until I was listening to someone tell me that I wasn’t really free. 

Freedom is what we think of when Fourth of July roles around or when we think of Martin Luther King Jr., never do we associate it with our daily lives.  It was told to me that the reason I worry and stress so much is because I have not felt True freedom in life.  My reaction was, “what does that mean!”   After reflecting on it, I found the answer in my heart:  When you know who you are, you are truly free!

What I mean with knowing who you are, I mean being aware of all aspects of your life.  For example, I am a Christian woman who pretty much goes to church every Sunday.  Let me dissect that sentence for you: “I am a Christian woman”, why am I a Christian?  Because I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and He is my Savior.  “Who pretty much goes to church every Sunday”, why do I pretty much go to church every Sunday?  Because I feel that God has called me to serve for His Kingdom and to spread His Word.  What I am trying to channel is the fact that the more I know what drives my actions, the more I learn about who I truly am.  By knowing who I truly am, will lead to me standing firm on my beliefs and not let anyone distract me from my path.  When someone wants to insult what I believe in, I will be prepared and not let that person upset me, because knowing the Truth will set you free! 

Someone might say that they are fully aware of whom they are and they don’t like who they’ve become.  We hear people saying all the time: I am fat, I am lazy, I am not good enough; but what you hardly hear people saying is: I am fat but I am going to work out every day, I am lazy but I will set a goal of being more productive, I am not good enough but I am good enough for my Lord and for Him I will rise above the negativity that consumes me!  It goes back to the principles of “life transformation is rooted in mind transformation.”  It takes knowing who you are to help us grow in life and to help us de-clutter from all the stress.  I know it’s not an easy task and it’s one I personally struggle with from the time I wake up until the time I lay down.  People say that you never really finish getting to know someone, well that is also true for knowing yourself and for knowing Jesus.  I am encouraging myself and you to spend more time reflecting on who you truly are, whether it’s through a journal or maybe even a blog; analyze your life and see what is missing.  Maybe Jesus is missing from your picture; I know that for me, the deep relationship with Him is what I am missing.  Now that I am aware of the issue hindering me to be stress free, I vow to spend more time just Jesus and I.  I read in an article that there is nothing more precious than the pure silence and peace that Jesus brings while you spend time with Him.  Well I sure want that peace!  And hope you too can experience it.

This week my husband started his second semester of “bible college” and I am so proud of him because he has found who he truly is and because of that he is happier and not as stressed as in the past.  God always leads you to the things that are important; it’s just up to us to walk through those doors and to be free! 

I Hit the Re-Set Button Today

Not too many people are aware of the fact that since a very young age I've had a passion for writing and my mother has always told me I should write a book or I should become a writer.  I was always hesitant to do so because my first language is not English and the fear of being grammatically incorrect sunk in every time I did write.  However, lately I’ve felt this calling to go back to what I love to do and to also incorporate my other two passions: God and science.  So here we are my first official post on my blog!  My hope for this blog is to have an impact on myself and for it to be a source of encouragement to others.  Being a 21 year old woman who is working on building a relationship with God and at the same studying for  a career in the science department sometimes don’t go so well hand in hand.  Simply living a day to day life and having to learn the art of balancing responsibilities is challenging enough. 

This morning my good friend went through the trouble of printing a motivational sign for me to post somewhere in my office as a reminder of what should really be important in our lives. 
“Life transformation is rooted in mind transformation”, this is what the sign says.  This made me think of the fact that I struggle so much with accepting certain situations in my life, but the main reason is that I do not change my way of thinking.  How powerful would it be if I changed the way I treat people, the way I handle situations, and the way I interact with God if I only transform the way I think.  This applies to the following:  I struggle deeply with my workout regimen, because I see it as a sacrifice I have to make every day in order to look or feel the way I want to.  It is no secret that working out is more of a life-style as opposed to a sacrifice.  Now I see working out as something God wants me to do because he gave me this body, he gave me my heart, my stomach, my lungs and so the least I can do for Him is to keep this body in good conditions.  Now that I’ve transformed my mind, my actions will start to change my life. 

“Therefore, it’s imperative that you set your minds on things above, not earthly things.” (Colossians 3:2)   It is important to remember that we are on this earth for a very short time and we must make every day valuable.  My mind has been automatically set on things from above, so that all my actions here on earth are to give glory and praise to God.  When you change your perspective and focus your life for God, then rest is a piece of cake!  Working out is no longer sacrificial…Eating healthy becomes more appetizing…Having a healthy mind-set becomes your lifestyle.  So hit the re-set button on your mind to be focused on all Godly things!