​“Breaking for a Purpose”
 
When God breaks us, it is so we can be free in mind, body, and spirit. When we break down others, or ourselves it results in the diminishing in mind, body, and spirit.
 
This thought came to me last night, but I did not get a chance to really ponder it. After a little time, it is making more and more sense. Hurting people hurt people, or hurting people create walls to make it hard for others to cross. In each case, the person is trying to protect his/her heart. As a result, this state of mind and spirit heavily influences one's actions. The stance is fear. Our own personal experience, our developmental years, and our current thought process stifle Opportunity and experience.  As a result, this informs us about what we say and do.
 
If we are not careful, we venture through life trying to be happy; however, the full measure of happiness is not achieved because we live and operate in the bondage of our fears.
 
Some of our fears are created, as a result of our environment (beyond our control at times), while others develop, as we nurture negativity, sadness, and the like. For example, my parents divorced when I was a baby and through my developmental years into my high school and adult life, I have subconsciously nurtured the fear of someone I care about leaving. This coupled with experiences of rejection left me with the personal need to be open to others, while simultaneously being closed. I prepared myself, no matter the type of relationship, for disappointment because in my mind that prevented me from getting hurt—well at least kept me from experiencing the maximum level of hurt. I can think of a number of times where I prepared myself, and in that I am sure I missed moments of pure happiness and enjoyment.
 
Recently, I decided to stop nurturing my fears. With months even a few years of thought, I decided to take some steps to help me get to the root my abandonment issue. This is especially important to me individually and relationship wise with regard to my future family. I deserve to be a whole and complete Jasmin, my loved ones and future loved ones deserve a whole and complete Jasmin, and those I have yet to meet in order to serve deserve a whole and complete Jasmin.
 
This extended thought process has been challenging and exhilarating. Each step propels for toward the attainment of my dreams and goals of yesteryears. I am grateful.
 
My prayer is that you have read something that triggers you to begin the journey for being whole in mind, body, and spirit. We have one life, and we should live it on and in purpose knowing that we are responsible for our own happiness. The quest for ‘life more abundantly’ begins when we accept the love of our Creator and receive the fact that we are worthy to be loved.
 
Affirmation:
 
I deserve to be a whole and complete *Insert your Wonderful Name*.
 
My loved ones and future loved ones deserve a whole and complete *Insert your Wonderful Name*.
 
Those I have yet to meet in order to serve deserve a whole and complete *Insert your Wonderful Name*.
 
Scriptures: St. John 10:10, 1Timothy 1:7, Jeremiah 29:11
 
#dreamforward #my29cents #ministryoftransparency 

2/29, Two Two Nine, 02/29
 
Today was a Leap Day, a day that comes every four years. I remember being in high school the first time I really understood what the day meant. Now, I am a woman of faith operating in her profession and gifts for God’s glory.
 
‘For God’s glory’ is a heavy phrase. It is heavy because it means that no matter what we experience in the natural, as long as it brings Him glory—that is all that matters.
 
That is all that matters.
 
Today, while teaching, I referenced my submitted Personal Statement for my college applications. One thing that resonates in my mind is that at the end of my statement I shared the words: ‘Ultimately, I want to live a life that pleases my Creator.’
 
A life that pleases my Creator calls for a vessel that is surrendered to a divine purpose—a divine purpose that connects to ordered steps that at times to the natural mind seem confusing, but to the faith-filled heart seem orchestrated.
 
I sit here keying this hoping to finish it before 12 a.m./03.01.16.
 
I truly maximized this “extra” day. I had a parent meeting, cheer pictures, two phone conferences, facilitated lessons for my two preps, marked off everything on my to-do list, wrote tomorrow’s to-do list, created an EBay account, made some tilapia, watched a little bit of a movie, packed, played with my dog, tweeted, instagrammed, and a few other things.
 
The most important things I did with this day was start with prayer in my prayer room/war room, call  into a prayer line, and listen for His still voice for indications about “Godwinks”. The most important thing I did today was listen to the voice of God.
 
Realizing that despite my to-do list for any day, listening to His voice through the Word and in prayer are absolutely the best things I can do for my day.
 
I am grateful for a series that I am learning about at church. It is completely relating to my life on the natural and spiritual level at this very moment, and I can’t be at more peace. 
 
With each day we have a choice to operate in faith or fear. We have a choice to commit our day to God, or make our own decisions. We have a choice to walk in love, or to walk in discord. We have a choice to take God at His Word, or doubt. We have a choice to align ourselves with His plan, or continue to rationalize and “logicize” things for ourselves. We have a choice. In that choice, we should have peace and contentment. If we do not, we should seek the reason, as to why.
 
Those are some of my thoughts for this “extra” day.
 
Blessings.
 
‘Your happiness comes from God and you.’ –Alice Hermean Johnson
 
*unedited*

 The animal kingdom. The animal kingdom can teach humans a thing a two. I am in no way a biologist and I am uneducated in this arena, so please just humor me for a second.

Consider the lionand the lioness. The lion has the beautiful mane and the lioness does not. In Jasmin-speak with my twenty-nine cents, I totally believe that it is equated to the fact that the male species has to work to attract our attention. The
lion parades around to capture her attention, whichever one intrigues her is generally the one she responds to.

Carry that over to humans. Combining my constant pondering, desire to understand, reading, and self-awareness that causes me to reflect A  LOT coupled with an ongoing reflection, I have decided that:

A man is like a lion and a woman is like a lioness. Considering my own personal life (which I don’t directly talk about often in a public forum and of course I am pondering what that means), day to day/weekend to weekend, there are any number of men directly and indirectly attempting to capture my attention. It is the law of nature. It is by design. I say attempting to capture because I am focused on my assignment/purpose like Ruth of the Bible. Boaz found Ruth working, which I translate to being
focused on my assignment in present-day terms. So at any given point there are a number of attempts; however, the ones that resonate with me are the ones that capture my attention and simultaneously intrigue me. Intrigue me to the point that I pause and consider and actually allow space in my mind to say:  “Hmmmm.”  While saying Hmmmm, I am still in motion taking care of what needs to be taken care, while filing the moment or moments in my mind. At this point in my life nothing happens with my level of intrigue, if I am not directly approached.  When I was younger, I got so excited with the indirect attempts that I sometimes became to a certain degree immobile and became distracted. 

Some say I am old-fashioned. Some say I need to step into the “new millennium,” which translates to mean: “Get with the times Jasmin! Go after what you want.” Now, I have no issue with anyone who decides to do that—none at all. But just like I tell my students I stay in my zone according to my comfort level with a little deviation every other blue moon. Deviation that tells me to slow down or to stop frowning (I’m thinking when I frown) or simply to relax.  With that being said and connecting it to the animal kingdom and humans, men no longer hunt solely for food to provide for themselves and their families. And because they do not hunt for food, I say they hunt for women. Hunting/Seeking/Pursuing is innate. It is innate, but dormant in a lot of men because of this outbreak of new age or millennium women that take the initial steps of pursuit and in Jasmin-speak run men down to the point they cannot even express interest because of the bombardment. This dormancy has caused some men to be lazy and to even act as if they in fact are the ones who need to be pursued. I do not know how many times I have heard: “What’s wrong with you? You’re not acting right.” Have mercy!  I’m not acting right? Or is it that I am acting according to the fact that I know I am the lady-the one to be pursued. If men by design are hunters, then they hunt/seek/pursue what they desire. It is a simple as that. If a man desires to pursue a woman, he will do it directly with no questions asked. I truly
believe that some people who mean to concern themselves with my personal life enough to comment on it and offer an unsolicited opinion do so because they are contending with something internally that has nothing to do with me, except that
my desire to live life in my season is apparent.

The tailor-made woman for tailor-made man will be his rib, his rib and not a thorn in his side. And if two people are tailor-made for each other there is no need for games and reasons to look to the outside world of social media, music, etc to guide and inform their interaction.  We look to outside and exterior things entirely too much to inform us on matters of the heart that are communicated through dialogue and interaction. 

Because we live our lives according our own terms  encompassed by personal beliefs, standards, and convictions, we honestly have  no right to down anyone else’s decision to do or not to do, to be or not to  be.  Life essentially is about
choices and at many points some of those choices can provoke us to launch into the deep or stay in the shallow end. It is all a matter of choice. 
 
With using that launching analogy, I have to share this again:

I do not understand why some fisherwo/men fish in the shallow end get upset when they catch the lower-end of the spectrum of fish. That does not even make sense. How can s/he expect salmon, but drop line in a pond or lake, instead of the ocean? If we are not willing to launch into the deep or unfamiliar territories, then we should not complain about what we reel in. 

We have one life to live. Live it out loud, on purpose, and with purpose. Be proactive. Seize the day. Seize the moment. Seize the seconds that lend to living a full, well-balanced life.

That’s my twenty-nine cents.

Blessings. 

Now, I don’t know if this is all even connected and I’m sure I will have to go back and reedit, especially since my wheels are still turning.
*I do not particularly care for the current connotation of the word “female.”
*This is an initial draft. I will edit/revise adding vivid verbs and omitting linking verbs, etc.
*My third read/edit. Revisiting soon.

I am completely looking forward to meeting each of my students tomorrow. I'm grateful for this summer. It was my busiest ever, but it was also my most fulfilling spiritually to this point. I took a lot of time to reflect on things and I have to say I grew leaps and bounds. Well, maybe I didn't grow leaps and bounds, but I definitely reconnected with things. Things that I lost sight of with the tumultuous events of last school year. They were tumultuous in that I was taken out of my comfort zone and stretched. I was stretched liked William Wallace in"Braveheart." In that stretching I discovered and rediscovered, who I am in Christ. I had to be reminded of a few things- He's with me always, I need not fear "the arrows of night," "No weapon formed against me shall prosper," and  "I am more than a conqueror" to name a few.  At many points last year I felt like I couldn't get my footing, but even in that He still blessed me to encourage my students. With that, all of the turmoil was worth it. Completely worth it. My prayer this year is that I remain focused on the charge at hand, while taking each experience as a meaningful lesson that is in sequence propelling me toward His desired plan. I never thought I would be here today. If I followed my plan, I would be a lawyer and probably living on the East Coast. I am so thankful for guidance and direction from God. I couldn't imagine my life any other way. I truly understand now the meaning of resigning my will to Him. I couldn't imagine not being a vessel of encouragement for Him. Serving Him while serving my students is absolutely one of the greatest things I have ever done. I am humbly thankful that He trusts me to educate, enlighten, and empower my students, no matter what the cost is to me.  #queenesthermoment #educator #vessel #future #worthit

Choice.
The power of choice.
We all have the ability to choose. 
We have the ability to choose to do the right thing, to choose to do the wrong thing, or to choose to do our own thing.
We have to a right to justify what we do and criticize others. We have the right to criticize ourselves and praise others.
We have the right to do just about anything we please, if we put our minds to it.
We do.
It's just that simple.
We have the right to be proactive, reactive, or dormant.
We have the right to choose.
We were created as free-thinking beings.
We are on the top of the food chain.
We are intelligent, or at least have the capability to be.
We are all of these things and then some, yes we are. And it's easy to think that because we have all of these capabilities-that we can explore all manners of thought, that can create and manufacture just about anything-that we have the right to impose our views, standards, and expectations on others without regard to their feelings, sentiments, or opinions.
We can do this without consideration of the fact, that they, too, have the right to choose.
They have the right to choose to think differently or act differently.
It's their choice.
We all have the right to choose.
With this right to choose, many of us are neglecting to acknowledge that what we choose has unyielding results, some good and some bad.
Many of us aren't willing to accept the results of our actions and therein lies the issue.
We aren't willing to accept and if we aren't willing to accept, then we aren't willing to acknowledge.
With this fact, we can't get anywhere.
We can't get anywhere in our lives, individually or collectively, if we aren't willing to acknowledge.
We must choose to acknowledge, no one can force us to do so. I must do it,  you must do it, we must do it. Period.

This is not at all what I thought I was going to blog about tonight. I'm still having an ongoing thought dialogue in my mind. I'll see how I connect it (if at all) later. I'm not even sure why I manipulated the margins. We shall see.

That's my Twenty-Nine cents for this evening.

Blessings.

Hello everyone!!! I've been on a writing hiatus, but I'm back!! I'm looking forward to sharing and hearing your amazing feedback! Take care!!

That's it. Believe the best. Expect the best. Give the/your best. Do your best.

That's my  (brief) twenty-nine cents. Blessings.