Just a Thought

Here are some of my random thoughts and other quotes I have posted on my favorite social media networks:

Relationships

Remember to put first things first… 1) God 2) Family 3) Your Calling / Ministry.

A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. – Ecclesiastes 4:12

God’s Will

I know I am destined for greatness and my promotion comes from God… it’s my heritage and it’s in my pedigree as a child of the KING. I confess today I will faith it, and work it diligently till HE makes it.

I needed to take a day yesterday to shut it all down and slow it down. It ended up being a day of re-dedication…. God is moving and I want to make sure as I move with him that my steps are truly ordered by him vs. my flesh.

Reality checks

It is so not about you. So, some person place or thing or YOU are agitating you. Good! Pass the test. Move on to the next level. How you react now WILL affect not only generations to come, but yours right now.

The desires of your heart God placed there. What you may be lusting after will never equal in comparison. Spoken by a delivered woman who God blessed with her own heart-tailored Boaz

Change is Good!

I am constantly changing… A good friend of mine asked my opinion on something yesterday and my reaction was not what she thought was my norm. In the past my answer would had been ‘I really don’t know about that…’ My new response was ‘Go for it if you have peace about it.’ One response based in fear the other one based in confidence/peace…

When you start to see RED (emotional/fearful over a situation) is a clear sign you need to STOP pray, assess, conquer and then overcome. Relax; Relate and Release are good next steps…

I am still in personal evaluation mode. Here is a question I asked myself after a recent bible study… Whose character are you emulating? God’s or Satan’s? Did you know if you say you are going to do a thing and you don’t do it… You are a liar? I guess that is where that childhood rant came from… “Liar, Liar pants on fire!”

Quotes

“EXCELLENCE is attention to detail, that gives rise to superior performance, which leads to promotion in life.” -Dr. Bill Winston

Learn to settle down and be happy with what you have while the Lord is preparing you for something better – Joyce Meyer

“Sometimes you have to believe in someone else’s belief in you till yours kicks in.” – Les Brown … So why don’t you believe in God’s belief in you? His is the ONLY one that really matters l!

“My only competition is me in the past… Don’t play me.” – Prince

To be continued… I welcome your comments!

Lela Jefferson, © 2010 All rights reserved.

– www.memoirsofablackgirl.com

So… you missed the mark. You sinned. You were disobedient to God’s will / His word. Now what? FYI Its okay, God already knows what you did. Will there be consequences? Sure there will be. It’s okay to go to him and talk about it and get the instruction on how to get back on track. God is God, he created you and he has given you a purpose to fulfill. But first you need to get over yourself… (YOU-R-SELF)…  relax he is waiting for you; he has made an opening just for you in his busy schedule.

Psalm 32 (The Message)

A David Psalm

¹ Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be— you get a fresh start,
your slate’s wiped clean.

² Count yourself lucky—
God holds nothing against you
and you’re holding nothing back from him.

³ When I kept it all inside,
my bones turned to powder,
my words became daylong groans.

⁴ The pressure never let up;
all the juices of my life dried up.

⁵ Then I let it all out;
I said, “I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God.”

Suddenly the pressure was gone—
my guilt dissolved,
my sin disappeared.

⁶ These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we’ll be on high ground, untouched.

⁷ God’s my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.

⁸ Let me give you some good advice;
I’m looking you in the eye
and giving it to you straight:

⁹ “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle
to stay on track.”

¹⁰ God-defiers are always in trouble;
God-affirmers find themselves loved
every time they turn around.

¹¹ Celebrate God.
Sing together—everyone!
All you honest hearts, raise the roof!

© 2011, Lela Jefferson. All rights reserved.

Exodus 34:9 (Amplified Bible)

⁹And he said, If now I have found favor and loving-kindness in Your sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray You, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance.

Did you know a generational curse can be broken and become a generational lesson…? How? If it is received by a teachable heart, humble spirit, which is also willing to make sacrifices and make, changes by faith for the better.

The other day as I was entering my apartment building I was confronted with something that I had wished I hadn’t. Yet, it brought me to the point where I felt compelled to write this article. What I saw was a young girl, the daughter of one of one of my childhood playmates clearly pregnant. The reason why I wish I had not seen it was because just a generation ago, her mother had been in her shoes; under 18 and pregnant with her. Just like her mother, she was very beautiful, popular and book smart. However, again just like her mother, she had let temptations win the battle to bring her to her present state underage and having a baby out of wedlock. To be very frank, she could have been my own daughter, had I made different decisions.

My mother too had become pregnant before she turned 18 and before she was married. Not with me but with one of my siblings our ages span a difference of almost 30 years. Unlike my friend though my mother who was born in the late 1930s; grew up in foster care because of my grandmother’s early death and my grandfather’s inability to take care of his 5 children on his own. He was an alcoholic, and a World War II veteran that had his own demons. When he married my grandmother her family had disowned her. She had come from a prominent family in Barbados and my grandfather was a half black half Native American service man from Virginia.

Due to my immediate family strong influence and their desire not to see me repeat their own iniquities, instead of condemning her, I felt in my own way I needed to empower her. I find that too many times we look at how we meet a person or see them in their present state and typecast them in a sense cursing them. What I wanted to do was envision her future as bright as it could be.

For it is not my place to judge nor did I want to; in my heart and under my breathe I began to pray. First interceding that the strain of sin that seemed to still be active in her family to stop and also let loose a blessing that her child and her would finally learn the lesson and become the generations to be delivered, healed and restored from iniquity.

It only takes a generation to make a difference, and change the course of a family; you can be that generation.

© 2011, Lela Jefferson. All rights reserved.

Just a week ago today was Valentine’s Day and I am still basking in the love and affection shown by my Coach.  There is something to be said about simplicity.  When you practice loving someone everyday it doesn’t take much to impress them.

Flowers die, teddy bears gather dust, but words of encouragement, sentiment that feel as real as a longing embrace and as sweet as a butterfly kiss across your cheek… are priceless!

The randomness of who I am. I was talking to my beau the other day about my hair and he tells me…”Babe, why are you even looking for a signature look?  Just resolve to the fact, you change your hair like the seasons.”  He is right though

I took a minute and thought about his comment further AND the different hair styles I have had since I cut off my dreadlocks in the spring of 2005.  For the 12+ years that I had them, even after they had reach well past my behind I attempted to spice them up with different styles.

I guess that desire in me has not died to always attempt to evolve and change myself for the better.  Specifically speaking in regards to my hair, I have gone from the short Halle Berry signature pixie, to a colored texturized afro, to curly and straight half wigs and weaves in varying lengths to two toned micro braids and Chaka Khan / 70s Diana Ross auburn free flowing tresses.

My next hair style… only my sister-friend that does my hair and I know.  Yet, I can tell you this.  Underneath it all I can honestly say that I love me and the randomness of who God created me to be.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; …” Jeremiah 1:5

Totally random… So I have this love, really a lust relationship going on with Reese’s peanut butter cups lately.  Well, today I went to Kmart to pick up a few items and they had jumbo bags of them on sale for $2!  In my weakness I picked up 2 bags and brought them to the office.

However,  me and God are working on something in regards to my weight and making healthier choices when it comes to my eating habits…the gym is for another blog article

Going back to the chocolate, instead of hoarding them in my desk drawer and slowly eating both bags over the course of a week, and feeling guilty for doing so, just because I got them on sale.  I decided to share both bags with my co-workers and in the process made a few new buddies.

My point in sharing this little victory is that if you don’t take the time to calculate the cost of your actions, their price in the long run may inflate to a price beyond what you thought was originally a savings.

I was wrong with my initial intentions of buying the bags of candy.  However in the end I was able to make a U-turn from the detour off the path of gaining more discipline in my life and in the process made more connections at my office vs. gaining extra pounds from a though delicious chocolate binge

Totally random thought. I think I am just recovering from mass transit (bus and train) lag vs. jet lag.

Its three days since I came back from my Labor Day weekend day trip to CT and I am just starting to feel like myself. It could be the fact that when I got ALMOST home the trains/subway stopped running only hours after the Brooklyn Labor Day Parade ended.

Where? at Prospect Park. If you are from New York and know the Caribbean Day Parade (Labor Day Parade) route, you know most folks that live in Flatbush, Brooklyn NY board the train at Prospect Park.

So, after waiting for a bus for a half hour. When one did arrive it was crowded. I took it in stride. I decided to walk home. This was also because no yellow cabs or livery ones were stopping either and I was certainly not getting on one of the infamous Dollar Vans. Surprisingly, so the police were not stopping them (Dollar Vans) as they were picking up riders at the bus stop. Come to think about it.

Either way I was thankful for the hedge of protection I reinforced that morning in prayer and my angels on call. Like the song from the 80s the “Freaks Come Out at Night”; especially on Flatbush Avenue after the Parade. For initially I felt the same way I felt when I was walking home during the Northeast Blackout of 2003; just exposed and out there.

In summary, I arrived home in record time under 30 minutes and slept like a baby.  Praise God! However as I mentioned at the top of this post, I did experience Mass Transit Lag   You heard/read the term first here lets see how it spreads!

What is the purpose of purpose?  Is it not what motivates us to get up in the morning to pursue things that seem so far off that if only a dream?  For what is a dream?  The stuff of our imaginations slowly peeking at the walls of our containment; slowly taking form in our reality if only we dared to believe… AND step out.  I purpose to dream… BIG what about you?

Totally random thoughts this morning or maybe not; this past week I have been in self examination mode yet again.   I purposely put in my schedule time to check my actions to see if they were lining up with the WORD of God or were beginning to be based in fear and just plain selfishness.  Whenever I feel this happening it is a clear sign that I need to stop and recharge my spirit and body.  Basically I needed to check my spiritual thermostat to see if I was running on empty, versus my overflow.

Areas I needed to examine were my volunteerism (spiritual employment), my relationships with people and my finances.  Ultimately was I being moved or lead?

There is something most folks don’t get when they accept God’s call in serving HIS people.  There is a heighten level of accountability and responsibility that goes along with it.  That means you need to make sure that your actions are lining up to HIS Word.

It is not okay just to agree with the WORD of God or anything you purpose your mind to study you must engage it.  Allow it to speak to you and change you from the inside out.  Every leader (that means you) has responsibilities and is accountable to someone.  You don’t believe me do something and watch what happens…

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