Start Something That Matters

Hello fellow bloggers and readers,

I wanted to take the time to share with you a great book recommendation before the summer comes to an unfortunate end- even though it’s only June. I am sure everyone’s reading lists have grown exponentially with it being the summer reading season, but I promise this book will be well worth the three to four day read. I took a beautiful Instagram picture of the book below (I will take compliments on my fabulous photography skills later). 😛

Anyways, the book is called Start Something That Matters, and it’s written by the founder of TOMS Shoes. It’s an in depth story of how TOMS Shoes got started, the challenges Blake faced starting the business, and the life lessons he’s learned along the way. If you’re into books that are sincerely inspirational and insightful, I would take the to check-out, rent, buy, or borrow this book. It’s a quick read, but leaves you thinking critically about the difference you can make.

Start Something That Matters

Love Does

Love Does- Brandon Heath

This one goes out to the world changer
Shining your light in the face of danger
Oh, tell us what you know
You’re a saint, you’re a son, you’re a promise keeper
Bottom of the well, still digging down deeper
Oh, how far you gonna go

Chasing down hope
Moving on dreams
Taking that path
Maybe it’ll lead you home
Maybe it won’t

Nobody knows why your heart is broken
Nobody cries while your prayers are going up
But Love does
Nobody walks on the road you’re paving
Nobody sees all the souls you’re saving
Oh, but Love does
Love does

Friday morning listening. This song is one to help you conquer the day. If you’re a lyrical person like myself, then you would appreciate this song. My challenge to you: listen to the lyrics and think about your motivations. Are you motivated to impress others? Are you motivated to be better than others? Are you motivated to impact? If so, then please let these lyrics sink into your soul.

As I have written about before, it’s human instinct to compare yourself to others and be motivated by such, but human instinct isn’t an excuse in my mind. Motivation should be pure. It should be influenced by love, faith, and the intent to better yourself based on your experiences in life, interactions with others, and relationship with God. When you listen to this song, I hope you have a better understanding of where I’m coming from. “Nobody cries while you’re prayers are going up…Nobody walks on the road you’re paving.” Think about it. Nobody cares, but love does.

My favorite part about summer is you. <3

After two and a half years of distance, we finally get to spend our summer together in the same city. It’s been a long time coming, and I couldn’t be happier. 🙂

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Pedestrian Bridge

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Pedestrian Bridge

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Abe Lincoln Memorial #kissesforthegentleman

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Chillin’ with Abe! 🙂

Defining good.

It’s safe to assume the human race over uses the word “good.” We use it to describe our moods, our attitudes, our dispositions, our feelings on certain issues, our physical state of being, and/or the physical state of our environments. When you really think about it, we use “good” in hundreds of different contexts.

According to Dictionary.com, the word good means to be “morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious.” Have you ever thought about how this definition came to be? As a society, how did we decide that good was going to stand for what is morally excellent or righteous? Heck, who is to say what is morally excellent and righteous?

Lately, the sermons at Midtown Fellowship in Columbia, South Carolina have really evoked deep thought and meaning in my life. More importantly, they’ve really inspired me to reflect, make meaning, and write what’s on my heart. Today, Pastor Adam was continuing his talk on Galatians, and somewhere in his speech he made a comment about how we perceive what is good and what is not good. In summary, Pastor Adam said that as a society we make meaning of what’s good by comparing ourselves to those whom are not good. He states that,”what is weak, strong, and good is only defined by whom we surround ourselves with.”

Now, call me crazy, but I found that to be the most profound and eye-opening statement. We are constantly comparing ourselves to each other; consciously or unconsciously making ourselves out to be more strong or “good” than each other. Sometimes we even compare ourselves to each other making ourselves seem inadequate or incapable, but why? Why are we always in a state of comparison?

—->I wrote the top half of this blog over a month ago, but saved it in my drafts and never published it. This morning, I revisited my prior thoughts with the intent of bringing this post full circle. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the right words to really drive my point home, but I do want to challenge my readers to think about themselves and think about others. Do you compare yourself to others around you? If so, why? How does it leave you feeling?

Trust me, we all do it! Like I said earlier, we often do it unconsciously. However, in those moments when we find ourselves at an all-time low of self-esteem and self-worth, we need to reflect on what made us feel that way in the first place. (Let me tell you, insecurity is the enemy of intimacy.) Then, we need to re-prioritize our hearts and minds and turn to Jesus. A heart that faces Jesus never feels unworthy or less than. Whether you identify as Christian or not, I challenge you to change your heart. Turn to your beliefs and have faith that you have an intentional and unique purpose on this earth. Don’t compare your walk of life to another’s walk of life because you’ll never reach your fullest potential. Listen to your heart, embrace your belief system, and learn from others… but never compare yourself to others.

2012 in review

I want to sincerely thank all of my readers & followers for making this blog a personal success. This coming year, please look forward to more insightful and motivational posts, as well as an update on my life! If you are interested in seeing the success of my blog, please select the link below to view the entire report. (Quick shout out to WordPress for being an amazing blog host website.)  The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

It’s How We React to the Uncontrollable.

“Often it is at our lowest points in life that we learn the most. We say, “God this is too much. Life has disappointed me beyond all belief.’…Those low moments are the magical moments. They are the beginning stages of our journey.”

-(Handbook for the Soul, Melody Beattie)

I am reminded of this most recently as I attempt to make sense of the confusion that dominates my heart. Things happen in this life we have no control over, but it’s how we react to the uncontrollable that shape us and keep us on this ever-learning journey. We are often faced with disappointment and hurt that takes over the root of our happiness. The sorrow and frustration infect our hearts and are immune to the positive thoughts we try to feed ourselves.

Often, mistaken selfishness can be a cry for selflessness. My heart breaks in disappointment because of your actions but cries out that God will touch your soul and use this accident as a life-changing lesson. Life is a blessing; an unique opportunity to define, discover and love. Unfortunately, we all take it for granted and I feel we are only reminded of how fortunate we truly are when someone loses their opportunity at life- or is close to losing their opportunity. We must cherish those miraculous moments when God is present and chooses to keep our loved ones here with us. We must value those moments when God gives us a second chance.

Although this post is more personal, I hope it’s a reminder to all. It’s at our lowest points in life when we learn the most. It’s the times that we go without when we have appreciation for what we have. It’s the moments we say goodbye that we cherish all of our hellos. It’s the close encounters that teach us value, meaning and the true depth of love.

*Dedicated to my big brother.*

Let Go…Let God

Dear Readers,

Happy Sunday evening. I hope the weekend brought you the relaxation you most certainly deserve, and I hope your summer is off to a great start. For me, it’s been a summer of transition and change in environment. I just graduated in May from the University of Tampa and after an amazing two week vacation with my mom, I  moved to Columbia, South Carolina. The reason for my move to SC is because I am starting my graduate work at the University of South Carolina come fall. Until then, I am interning this summer in the Leadership and Staff Development Office on campus, which is part of the Department of Student Affairs (the career field I am pursuing).

After the chaos of graduation and moving, I have been trying to keep up with my blog and post things that bring happiness and inspiration to my readers, but I feel I have been rather disappointing in my efforts. For that, I am sorry. Tonight, I  have been racking my tiresome brain of things I can write… Then this picture came to me.

It’s quite humorous how things just come to us sometimes. Things like this are just reminders that we’re not alone. He is always watching over us. Even in the hardest transitions of our lives, He never leaves our side. We sometimes take for granted His comfort and assurance. We don’t always listen to His reminders or look for His signs. We question His grace, and doubt His blessings. But at the end of the day… when we truly look within us, we must know He is in our hearts. When we feel His warmth in our hearts, that is when we know we need to let go and let God.

I hope this is something you can carry into the new work week. Remember, when we are at our busiest, this thing called life happens. But no matter what, we must let go and let God.

A Wonderful Fact to Reflect Upon

(This post goes out to my recently acquainted friend, Matthew Galewski. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet you at GARP, and have spectacular memories of that weekend with you and our GARPhamily. There is something about you that draws people in, and once their in, they don’t want to leave. You are extremely intelligent, charismatic, humorous and motivating. Most importantly, your caring ways genuinely reflect the size of your heart. All of that wrapped into one package…pssshh…now that ain’t right! lol)

“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.”- Charles Dickens, A Tale Of Two Cities

This quote was introduced to me by Matt during our Graduate Assistant Recruitment Weekend at the University of South Carolina. Matt, myself, and our friends Kelsey & Supaphen decided to take a stroll through the education building when we happened to stumble upon an empty classroom. Without hesitation, Matt goes to the front of the empty classroom and pretends to be our professor. His lesson consisted of writing quotes on the board, and we, as students, had to guess the person being quoted. Anyhow, he writes Charles Dickens’ quote on the board…and of course, we guess wrong, but afterward, the quote itself got me thinking.

Just to introduce my readers to the individual I am quoting, for those who don’t know, Charles Dickens was a famous English writer/novelist during the Victorian period.  His two major works include A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1861). Just for fun, I would like to mention that Charles Dickens and I share the same Zodiac Sign. By no means am I saying that we have the same writing abilities, but since he is an Aquarius, he’s probably one cool dude!

 The quote in its entirety reads, “A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!”

Personally, I think Charles Dickens is so eloquently stating that we, as humans, need to reflect upon our judgments of others. Each of us is a profound secret to the other. We are all a mystery in the eyes of one another. Therefore, how can we justify the right to judge a mysterious creature of this Earth when  we ourselves are mysterious creatures of this Earth? It goes back to the simple phrase of you cannot judge a book by its cover. Look at it this way, we are all books… There are billions of us that make up the compilation of this Earth, and each one of us is filled with different content. We are filled with different languages, feelings, stories, pictures, memories, humors, thoughts and directions. Most importantly, we are all influenced by different characters.

If all of us are different, then on what basis can we judge one another? Even Charles Dickens quotes, “every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!” Meaning, sometimes the people closest to us don’t always know the mysterious of our being. Even the hearts that beat closest to our own cannot pass judgement.

I understand this is simply my interpretation and my interpretation only, but I hope it doesn’t hinder anyone  from wanting to comment below. I am open to all interpretations and opinions… that is what quotes and blogs are all about! So, please, comment below if you agree, disagree, or have no idea. 🙂