2019 Highlights

I don't normally share updates but so many of you now have been through a Bible study with me or heard me talk or even prayed for me so I thought I would catch you up on the significant changes I had this past year.

Before I do share all the good things happening to me I want to add a disclaimer; going into a season of harvest doesn't mean I am more blessed or more loved by God.

I feel the need to say that for a couple of reasons:

Reason 1: Just today a friend of mine posted on Facebook that someone had sent her a photo and told her how great things were going in their life. My friend posted that while she was happy for them she didn't want to see or hear that when her own life was not in a good place. It only made her feel worse. I could totally relate as I'm sure many of us can. We only see the good stuff on social media and if we aren't careful it can make us question ourselves or God.  
While I've learned in life that there are usually good and bad things happening in life simultaneously, a season can have an overall theme to it for sure and it may be a dark season of the soul! In my own life over the course of the past seven years, my brother died, I've had financial strain as I've been building my business, which then led to marital strain and for four and a half of those years I was in chronic pain diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Hashimoto's, and Mixed Connective Tissue disease. There were many times I couldn't read or hear about others in social media posts without feeling depressed and discouraged. And although I knew it had nothing to do with God loving them more or God forgetting me, the flesh is vulnerable and the enemy likes to whisper lies in our ear. It is spiritual warfare for sure!
 
Reason 2:  Around Christmastime, I read a post about little children who still believe in Santa Clause and a wrong perception they can get when they go back to school and talk about what Santa brought them. The advice to parents was to give small gifts from Santa and make larger gifts as coming from mom and dad. The reason for this was because the children whose parents couldn't afford the big-ticket items question why the other children get bigger things from Santa and then they conclude he loves the other children more since they only get small ticket items from Santa. While I would never compare God to Santa, it made me think about the same scenario happening when people get a new house or a new car (or whatever it is that we want) and say God blessed them with it. Someone not knowledgable about the Bible could misinterpret that and think their lack or struggle means God doesn't love them as much or that He isn't blessing them. But we should know that just isn't true. Just look at the hall of faith in Hebrews 11 and see the big disparity between the groups of God's people- all were blessed yet some had riches and saw miracles and some were literally sawn in two, martyred for their faith. God knows what He is doing.  And we know that all things are working together for our good if we love God and are called according to His purposes.

I'm all about giving God the glory for all the blessings but I never want someone to feel less than because they are waiting on God to answer their prayers. I want to be one who weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who rejoice. 

With that said I do want to update you on a couple of big things that happened to me in 2019!

•  My chronic pain went away in June! All the glory to God who did answer my prayers. Just like with delivering me from drugs, He got right down to the root to bring me healing. Also like drugs, it wasn't without me doing my part in obedience to Him. He led me to the right doctors with the right guidance and then gave me the desire and the power to implement the hard changes.

 

•  In September we had our sixth annual REAL conference! 

• The drug and alcohol ministry curriculum written by myself and Pastor Neil Ortiz that is used at Calvary was finally published and is now available on Amazon. 

• I significantly updated and revised God's Way to Success and am really happy with it. I also added journals and new planners.

  

•  I started writing for a local magazine Corrales Neighbors. It has been a great experience for me allowing me to get paid while becoming a better writer.

•  Although I still grieve the loss of my brother and always will, I have felt such comfort and reassurance in so many ways this year from the Lord. I can now laugh through the tears when I think of him.

• I got my real estate license! Actually, I hadn't really planned on it. But the Lord directed my steps that way. I marvel because right before my life went off the tracks in the late '90s, I had gotten my license. I never did anything with it at that time though. I feel this is one of the things that "the locusts ate" and God is now restoring this back to me. I've already helped one buyer with buying a house and am listing another house tomorrow! It works out beautifully with my decorating and color consulting business, Color Smith, which also did better than ever in 2019! And of course, people buying and selling houses many times need a painter so Steve is happy about that for his painting business, PaintSmith.

​