Thank God I'm finally unstuck and I've returned to a place of contentment in life.  I've had lot's of breakthrough and revelation in the past two weeks, and as a result I am sad to say...I think I'm about done with xanga.  I never really post anything anyway and I think it's takes a lot more effort than it's really worth.  Besides, there are things that I should probably focus on making more consistent in my life...posting on my xanga site is not one of them.  I will still keep the site up in case I change my  mind and of course so I can keep up with all of you folks.  Holla at me every now and then when you think about me.  It's been real...

Love ya lots,

Jacinta

p.s. Amy come home.  I miss you 

Just when you think you ARE love, God reminds you how much more you could stand to love people.  True love is selfless and if we are not willing to lay down our lives for others we may need to reevaluate some things. 

I had to do this recently as I read I Corinthians 13.  I had become impatient, unkind, prideful, rude and easily angered with one of my friends, as well as keeping a record of his wrongs.  However, if you asked me if I loved him I would say yes.  How contradictory!  I had to begin to lay down my supposed right to my opinions and my supposed right to defend myself and a whole lot of other things I somehow thought I had the right to do.  All of this in an attempt to be kind, among other things, and love my friend.

It's funny because as much as I thought I was helping him by not responding the wrong way, I was really helping myself by dying to myself and allowing God to refine my character.  God is so amazing, because I'm sure this was His plan all along.  Goes to show how much we know!

Someone shared with me a great way to journal as opposed to keeping a diary about your Christian life and it's really been helping me.  Maybe it will help someone else too.  Instead of dishing out all of your problems an issues on paper, as most of us girls tend to do in our journals, when you wake up in the morning write out to God what is on your mind.  From that, take the one thing that God seems to be dealing with, find it in the word, use a concordance, commentary, or whatever helps you out, and see what God has to say to you about that topic/issue in His word.  Try it and let me know if it helps you.   

Currently Reading Lies Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free By Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Elisabeth Elliot see related

It's been a while but I've learned a lot and would like to share a little of it with YOU!

A couple of weeks ago I watched The Incredibles with my good friend Shaun Johnson (a.k.a. Dash) and I think I somehow thought I was a lost member of the posse. What I mean is at some point in the last month (actually more like  a year and a half, I just noticed it in the last month) I started trying to do everything that I had the strength and time to do and somehow thought it was the will of God.

Well, a few weeks, and a bout of exhaustion later, I found that I was wrong (besides I couldn't think of a superheroine name for myself). While reading the book above I stumbled upon the fact that God gives us the grace and strength to accomplish His will for us and all of that other stuff is usually just us striving for one thing or another.

It's absolutely amazing how I now see the things that I do in which God's grace is virtually absent. I'm talking about how things that I have planned to the most minute detail have completely fallen apart or just not happened all together. If nothing else, I have learned how to tell where God's grace is not! Hopefully, slowly but surely, I will be able to eliminate these unfruitful branches from my weekly routine or list of responsibilities. It's funny that as I was reading this amazing young lady's site she mentioned the same passage of scripture that has helped me to understand this whole concept. John 15.

You see I failed to realize that just as verse 4 says "No branch can bear fruit by itself it must remain in the vine." I wasn't asking God about ALL of the things I was doing, I just sort of took them on because I THOUGHT I was CAPABLE of doing them and they were ministry-related, or good things, so they must be right. Right? Wrong!  As a result I was STRIVING to bear fruit in these areas all by myself.  It's funny because I know I've heard this sermon preached many times in many different ways and have even been here before, so maybe this area in itself is a fruitful branch that is being pruned.  Maybe God is dealing with a problem within a problem.  Okay I'm confusing myself.  I'll move on.

I thank God for His grace to do the things that He has called me to do with the gifts and talents He has given me, which, by the way, are the things that I find I tend to do well. I don't know if this has helped anyone, but I do know that Rev. 12:11 says that we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, so I had to tell you anyway. Find your unfruitful branches and allow God to cut them off.  Remember that God's word promises us in II Cor. 12:9 that His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in our weakness. 

On a funnier note I just showed Shaun the picture of me on my site and told him that I took it when I was four, and he asked me "When was that...last night?"  Kids are funny.  He's a character.  Oh, in case you were wondering, me and my SUV, Jimmy Green, are doing great together.  Sorry if I confused anyone.  To all of those taking finals...Godspeed to you. To those graduating ...Congrats. To everyone else...love ya...later