Posts Tagged ‘blog’
Friday July 2nd, 2010 – I woke up this morning with a new spring in my step. Today, I am Houston, TX bound for the first time. I am spending July 4th weekend with my sweetie and his family. I packed the night before while being coached (over the phone) by a professional, my sweetie coaches, football. As he stated, his major boyfriend duty was to make sure I went to bed with enough time to not be cranky in the morning. Mission accomplished.
Leaving for work, I said my goodbyes to my pets. My plan was to head for the airport after work. Auston my dog I could tell sensed I was leaving. He stayed even closer to me and gave me those sad puppy dog eyes that normally melt my heart. My cat Tigger on the other hand was more concerned about his next meal.
I was so excited about the day. I arrived almost 45 minutes early into the office. This will be my sweetie and my second away trip, as a couple and once again outside of me booking my flights he is planning our entire itinerary. See, for the average person this would not seem to be a big deal. However for me, there is never anything average. Professionally I assisted in and planned complex events that hosted from less than 10 or more VIPs to thousands of attendees weekly. From the venue selection, to the vendors and fine tuning of the guest list, so me having the faith in and ability to trust him completely in the planning of our trips activities, once again tells and speaks volumes.
With arriving to work early I had time to check in with my sweetie and my sister-friends. After which, I began tracking the weather conditions out of Houston and my flight. Well, what I thought was my flight. It turns out I was tracking the wrong flight all day! However I will get into how I found out about that later. I didn’t get upset however when I saw that there were delays due to extreme weather conditions (Thunderstorms and flash flooding.) I just began praying for the passengers and flight crew. I giggled with my co-workers saying I would be able to finish a book or get some writing done while I waited for my flight to arrive. Little did I know my attitude through the entire ordeal would be a testimony in it self.
When I got off from work I had two options from Penn Station to get to the JFK connector station; the subway or the LIRR. I decided after getting some sage advice from a co-worker to not take the LIRR. Instead I took the less crowded and less expensive E train (subway) to catch the AirTrain to JFK International Airport, NY Mass Transit’s greener alternative to get the world famous portal to the world. My total commuter cost to JFK was $7.50 ($2.50 for the subway and $5.00 for the AirTrain fare.)
Walking to the E train, talk about perfect timing the train arrived just as I was going through the turnstile. The complete ride was an experience. After only one stop I was able to get a seat. By that one stop I knew for a fact that I was on a train with a host of characters. From the African American young man dressed as Edward Scissorhands with his reflecting contacts, sporting two cell phones, to the little Hispanic girl that instinctively used my shoulder as a pillow; I told her mother I didn’t mind. As a child I remember doing the same thing myself while on long train ride J
When I arrived to my destination Supthin Blvd; I was already pumped because I knew I would have some stories to write about. Getting on the AirTrain I checked “my flight” again. The report was showing the plane was getting ready to taxi leaving Houston for New York. I called my sweetie who was picking me up from airport to tell him the status and he was still shocked at how calm I was and the fact I was giggling, though it looked there was almost 4 hour delay. I was just really enjoying myself. The AirTrain takes you for a full loop around JFK and I was taking in the beauty of the airport and its terminals.
When I reached my terminal, I again found joy just ridding the moving walkway. The inner kid in me wanted to ride it again on the opposite side. I didn’t though. I took a picture at the top of the escalator before going into check in and when I got my boarding pass was kind of shocked to see my ticket said my flight was leaving on time. The funny thing is that actually ignored it and checked my bag, however was led to look up at the flight board and back at my boarding pass and was pleasantly surprised to see my flight was leaving on time. I had arrived to the airport within 90 minutes of departure. My exact words were “Glory to God!”
After calling my sweetie to give him the update and my sister-friends, I sat back and marveled at God. Though I had made the error in tracking the wrong flight, he still showed me favor. My entire flight was wonderfully smooth. I know that is a testimony to how I maintained my attitude and through the power of prayer done by my intercessors. The flight time was cut from 3 hours and 50 minutes to just 2 hours and a half. I arrived in Houston almost an entire hour early.
“Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.” Isaiah 46:10 NLT
God has a mighty BIG sense of humor. This has been a, connect the dots week for me. I have been taking a trip down memory lane as I reconnect with my old friends, family and colleagues more and more. They give me the opportunity to take a look at my life in hindsight….
It amazes me that I can say I have NO regrets. If I had the power to magically undo ANYTHING I have done thus far, I wouldn’t. I’ve spent too much time in the past doing, the “what if I had?” dance. Mentally nailing myself to a cross and using past actions to halt me from moving forward; oh how I was deceived.
To paraphrase one of my mentors from a far Joyce Meyer “My greatest testimony is that I am still here!” My second is that I am redeemed and saved by the grace of God. That I have the ability to plead the blood over my life and say the name that is above every name… Jesus and get my prayers answered from my heavenly father.
I say that God has a mighty BIG sense of humor because if I was to have seen where and how my life has gone to get me to where I am today… 20 years ago, 10, or even 5…. I would have probably looked at God like he was crazy. Good thing he is the only one of us that sees our end before the beginning…
Lela Jefferson, © 2010 All rights reserved.
I read having a Mary Heart in a Martha World – Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver over the summer. A book I now highly recommend for all women, young and old to read. I have been actually sharing my findings as I journey through the accompanying Bible Study Mrs. Weaver placed at the end of the book on my blogs. Here is the latest question I studied out and gave commentary on.
Questions for Going Deeper – Day Eleven
5) In Mark 4:34-41 the disciples echoed Martha’s question: “Don’t you care?” What does this portion of Scripture teach us about the difficult times in our lives? (Consider Isaiah 43:1-2.)
What these two passages of scriptures teach us is that even when it looks the most difficult; God has already said in HIS word (referencing Isaiah 43:1-2) that he would be with us. We need to stop having stock, believing in what we see with our natural eyes and begin to have faith in what he has promised us in his word. Jesus who was the word made flesh was in the boat with the disciples (referencing Mark 4:34-41), yet and still they had fear that they would perish. They were still in a state of disbelief. For even after he had calmed the waters and the winds; they could not comprehend the matter of man Jesus was. They still did not understand the authority or blessing they had amongst them. Praise God for our sake they eventually did!
To be continued… I welcome your comments!
The previous article can be found here.
Lela Jefferson – http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com
Folks, I have a new set of blogs for you to check out, written by the MommyWriter
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Dominique is a wife and mother to a very active 12 month old in NYC. In addition to her full-time job she is also a freelance writer, blogger, and non-profit organizer. Her writing topics run the gamut from book reviews, parenting, education, Christianity, freelancing/publishing, and a lot in between. Dominique in her own words… While I write mostly about parenting and education issues, I also write about Christianity, writing/freelancing, and any other topic that come my way. As you will notice on this blog and on my webzine Balancing Act I I started this blog to chronicle my journey in the freelance writing industry, while hopefully offering some lessons from the trenches to other writers who are beginning their careers . Besides my writing I am also the founder of Mommy Writers, a non-profit organization built to offer a community to writing mothers. TheMommyWriter
http://www.blogher.com/blog/mommywriter FreelanceWriterForHire
http://freelancerforhire.wordpress.com/about “A blog beginning writers can really sink their teeth into. Practical advice alongside the encouraging, sometimes funny, but always relatable experiences of a beginning writer. Read along as I search for freelance success." – Dominique Rambert |
. A young military wife that is living 
There is something about obeying that small voice of reason otherwise known as the Holy Spirit…
This past Saturday after attending church, I was led to go book shopping at Borders. I had been debating for some time with myself about buying a Message Bible. See for the past year when I did my home bible study, I would use the website Bible Gateway to look up the Message Bible translation of a verse for a deeper understanding. My main reference translations have been the King James and Amplified up until then. I was first introduced to the Message Bible by a minister from my church’s parent ministry during a service he taught us here in NY.
Fast forwarding back to the present, the message my pastor had taught on that evening had been on acting on the voice of God behind the word of God we hear or read. The word I kept hearing as he was preaching was that it was time for me to get my Message Bible. Being obedient I did get to Borders which is just outside of the venue where we had service that evening and proceed to go on upstairs where I knew the bibles was housed.
When I got upstairs, I actually almost missed the aisle of bibles. They have them so far back in the store that I thought that they had relocated them somewhere else since the store is currently undergoing renovations. When I did see the titles I saw there were several of them actually with funky book jackets in different colors, versions and formats. The one that called to me; however was a parallel copy that included the TNIV (Today’s New International Version) with the Message REMIX that was in a convenient travel size. The complete bible title in itself looked like a hardcover novel; that could easily fit in my day-to-day hand bag!
Ironically the bible was even priced less than the first one I looked at and included as I mentioned the Message REMIX which includes bible book introductions and general scripture references to do cross study. Talk about favor! Before leaving the store, however I was led again to see if one of the authors/poets I wanted to do a further study on collective works was in the store.
This brought me to one of the store’s kiosks, to check their inventory. The poet I was looking for was Nikki Gionvanni. Once it was confirmed that a collection of her works was indeed in the store by an associate I proceeded to go towards the downstairs escalators. Upon reaching the main floor, my eyes were drawn to the clearance rack where I found a treasure for sure!
Just sitting there so sweetly was this volume called Poetry Speaks Expanded- Hear Poets Read Their Own Works from Tennyson to Plath. The volume itself includes 47 of the world’s most renown poets ever recorded complete with brief bio and essays written about them from living legend poets such as Sonia Sanchez and three CDs of the poets reading their own works. The oldest recording is from the 1800s! Originally priced at $49.99 now $9.99!!!
To make a long story short, I left the store with four titles; the fourth was a book for my pure leisure The Devil Wears Prada. A fifth book was purchased. However, it was one donated to local charity that gives books to grammar school kids. I was just blessed beyond measure with my selections and in the end was blessed to be a blessing. This was all because of being obedient to the voice I heard behind the message.
For your quick reference here is the purchase information for the books I bought:
- TNIV The Message Remix Parallel Bible – Zondervan
- Poetry Speaks Expanded – Hear Poets Read Their Own Works from Tennyson to Plath (Book w/ CDs)
- The Collected Poetry of Nikki Gionvanni 1968 – 1998 P.S. Insights, interviews and more…
- The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger
Bible Gateway | A searchable online Bible in over 100 versions and 50 languages
Lela Jefferson, © 2009 All Rights Reserved
http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com
I recently finished reading having a Mary Heart in a Martha World – Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver. A book I now highly recommend for all women, young and old to read. For the next 12 weeks, I plan to share my findings as I journey through the accompanying Bible Study Mrs. Weaver placed at the end of the book.
Questions for Going Deeper – Day Ten
1) In this passage how did God minister to Elijah in the midst of his discouragement (1 Kings 19: 1-8)? How has God ministered to you when you felt alone and were hurting?
In this passage of scripture Elijah is ministered to by God with the answering of his prayers. He told the Lord that he felt he was not strong enough to continue on to fight Jezebel and her maneuvers; that he was no better than his fathers before him. God being true to his form; gave Elijah what he asked for. He released him from his assignment, but at the same feed and protected him.
When I have felt alone and hurting. God has presented me with others to minister to, to keep my mind off myself. To show me that what I think may be bad only pales in comparison to what someone else maybe going through. Other times he has even humbled me; by allowing me to hear the testimonies others that endured and were able to praise God in the end.
Nothing that the world can toss me I cannot overcome, with God and through my faith in him!
To be continued… I welcome your comments!
The previous article can be found here.
Lela Jefferson – http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com
I recently finished reading having a Mary Heart in a Martha World – Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver. A book I now highly recommend for all women, young and old to read. For the next 12 weeks, I plan to share my findings as I journey through the accompanying Bible Study Mrs. Weaver placed at the end of the book.
Questions for Discussion or Reflection – Day Eight
1) The story of Mary and Martha stirs up memories of sibling rivalry for many of us. What battles with your siblings do you remember the most? What did you do to get your parents to notice you?
I didn’t grow up really with my older siblings, due to a 15+ year gap between most of them and myself. I was raised as an only child until my niece moved in with us when I was 10 years old. She is just a year younger than me. I remember the first night she officially to moved in. She ran to hug me and in the process she knocked me down. I landed on my ankle, sprained it and ended up also with scratches on my arm. This was only round one, of our ongoing battle royale in the end we came to a truce… love 
I didn’t try to get noticed by my parents, I actually wanted to make sure that I DIDN’T draw any unneeded attention. I was what they call goodie two shoes; good grades and good behavior.
2) Read Luke 10:38-42. Have you ever asked Martha’s question, “Lord, don’t you care?” What was the situation? How did God answer your question?
The only real time I can remember ever asking the Lord, if he cared… I was young only barely of age (when I didn’t know any better) and faced with the possibility of all I had worked so hard for in life coming down like stones at my feet. There were no funds available for me continue my schooling / college. That was 12 years ago and God is still answering the question. He is developing me for his glory!
To be continued… I welcome your comments!
The previous article can be found here.
Lela Jefferson – http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com
I recently finished reading having a Mary Heart in a Martha World – Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver. A book I now highly recommend for all women, young and old to read. For the next 12 weeks, I plan to share my findings as I journey through the accompanying Bible Study Mrs. Weaver placed at the end of the book.
Going Deeper – Day Seven
8 ) What spoke most to you in this, chapter.
The morning my mother the beloved Thelma B. Jefferson went home to be with the Lord in the spring of 2006; I was very audibly awakened by the Holy Spirit. It was the first time I had ever been awakened in such a way and at the time in the morning. It was just before 4:00 AM. Being obedient I got up and began to pray in my heavenly language / tongues. The night before I had been told I was being recommended for a position to work full-time in ministry and was not completely sure about taking up the offer because it was not in one my strengths area. I knew it was my destiny to work in ministry, however I was not sure if it was the right season or timing for it.
So, as I began to pray my heart at first was heavy. As I was led deeper into the spirit and began praising God I felt a peace. At the end of the hour or so, I lifted my hands up and said ‘Lord, whatever people places or things you must remove out of my life in order for me to walk in your perfect will. I promise I will not become angry with you.’ As I stated above that was the morning my mother went home to be with the Lord…
Additional life changing events began to unfold shortly thereafter…relationship testing. I accepted the position and was released and brought back. Learned my boyfriend/fiancé of 6 years was cheating on me. My finances were hit, the list goes on. However through it all I kept my promise of not getting angry with God.
Yet, our relationship became one of duty bound because I was trying to shield myself from being hurt again, versus one of release and restoration. Reading this chapter and doing the Bible Study showed me that. Real power comes from learning how to release your cares wants and desires back to God. He has a specific purpose for each of us and if we are bogged down, with burdens he did not want us to carry, we can miss the mark. Then what most of us do is look towards God and asking him why? When, we were the cause of it all; for we had stepped out of the protection that is found in being intimate with him.
To be continued…
The previous article can be found here.
Lela Jefferson – http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com
I recently finished reading having a Mary Heart in a Martha World – Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver. A book I now highly recommend for all women, young and old to read. For the next 12 weeks, I plan to share my findings as I journey through the accompanying Bible Study Mrs. Weaver placed at the end of the book.
Going Deeper – Day Six
7) Read Matthew 11:28-30. Circle key words and mediate on these verses-really think about Jesus is saying. Then memorize this passage phrase by phrase. Write it on an index card, and refer to it frequently, repeating it until it becomes a part of you.
Mark 11:28-30 (King James Version)
28And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?
29And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
30The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.
Mark 11:28-30 (Amplified Bible)
28And they kept saying to Him, By what [sort of] authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do them?
29Jesus told them, I will ask you a question. Answer Me, and then I will tell you by what [sort of] authority I do these things.
30Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer Me
What I received from this passage is this. Before you question someone else’s motives for doing something, evaluate your own. Jesus was baptized in the natural by John the Baptist as it was preordained in the scriptures. However, he was given heavenly authority to do what he did on Earth by God. He was heavenly appointed. The voice of God was heard audibly that day; it was manifested and could not be mistaken. If you read the verses before this passage and after, you will see it was the chief priests and scribes of the temple of Jerusalem that asked him this question. However, because he knew who he was and who had sent he was able to BOLDLY ask the same question they had asked him. Their reply was “We cannot tell.” Why? Could not these men of God answer him confidently? Simply, because they were more concerned on what the people would say or do. Their reverence was misplaced.
To be continued…
The previous article can be found here.
Lela Jefferson – http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com
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The Writings and Experiences of Lela Jefferson.