Inspiration for 2014 – Topic 1 of Blogger Challenge

I can’t believe it is already 2014. My life changed so much in 2013. I gave my life to Christ, I started an amazing new job, I started singing again, I started a BLOG!!!!  There is just so much to be thankful for praise God!  God has really planted so many new seeds in my heart. I felt that 2013 was a year of preparation for me. I felt the whole year that God was telling me, “In order to do this….you have to do that..”  It was a year of really feeling God’s direction in my life.

When the subject for the first 2014 Blogger Challenge went live, I knew exactly the verse that would serve as my inspiration for 2014.

¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 

John 15:16

I declare that 2014 will be a year of implementing everything that God has showed me in 2013. That every struggle, trial, and triumph I went through be used to bear fruit in His name and to bring others to fruition.  That I might be a person of light for someone who is in darkness. I hope that I can be a person like the people I had encouraging me in 2013. I want to help people break chains. I  want to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that when people are around me they feel it too and are completely consumed. It’s my desire to help people know Jesus the way I came to know Him, to trust Him the way I came to trust Him, and to fall in love with Jesus the way I fell in love with Him.

I have always been indecisive when it comes to my life goals….I want to be a teacher, I want to do makeup, I want to move up in my office, I want to go back to school and then some days I just want to be a stay at home mom.  (See….INDECISIVE!) There is just so much that I want to do in my life. I used to feel like I never had enough time. It used to make me crazy. However, God really showed me last year that he has something so much better for me. Something that I don’t even realize I can do. Something that will not only fill me but fill others.  He has a Bluprint for my life.

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

Jeremiah 29:11

I started reading Undaunted by Christine Caine and it really has been speaking to me. For once in my life I feel like I truly have a purpose.

2013 became the year of preparation and 2014 will be the year I live UNDAUNTED! 

Join me and live radically for Jesus!  He is the only one who can fill us up. He is the only one who will love even our imperfections. He is the one in which we find our salvation. He is where we find rest. He is the one…the only one!

This is my first post for the 2014 Blogger Challenge. I hope you were not disappointed! Let yourself be blessed this year! 😉 Love ya’ll and God bless! – Moni<3

My Best of 2013 – New Year’s Eve

Yay for ending 2013 on a good note!  I have never felt more accomplished at the end of the year as I do now! So many good things happened in 2013!

I love it when bloggers do their “best of” posts. It’s cool to see other beauter’s go to products….beauters…is that a word?

Anyway, I decided to share my go to products of 2013. I hope you enjoy!

I’ve become some what of a lipstick junkie this past year.  I love how I can put on a winged eyeliner and a red lip and look fabulous and completely made up….yay for being lazy.  These are my top four of 2013.

<a href="http://www.milanicosmetics.com/p-153-color-statement-lipstick.aspx#!prettyPhotoMilani in Uptown Mauve-$5.49 – I absolutely love this berry colored lipstick. It was great for fall this year. It lasts all day and is super creamy.  Kudos to Milani for this one!

MAC Cosmetics – Lady Danger – $15.00 – I got this beauty for free! Thanks to the MAC recycling program!  This is my go to red! It is gorgeous, creamy and helps whiten my teeth! lol. This photo doesn’t even do this color justice…it is almost a borderline orangey color. It’s perfect.  This has to be my favorite favorite of 2013. Go buy it!

Rimmel’s Lasting Finish Lipstick by Kate Moss – I think I paid about $5 for this. This is the third lipstick I’ve bought from this collection. They truly are long lasting with great pigmentation.  They don’t smell gross either!

Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids in Shocking Coral – $7.49 This has to be my favorite drugstore lipstick. I have about 4 from this collection and they are amazing!  This was my perfect summer color for 2013. Not only is the pigmentation great but it really moisturizes too. This is a winner winner chicken dinner for me!

The next thing on my list is the Naked Basics palette from Urban Decay – $27.00 I got this amazing piece of palette as a Christmas gift from my sister in law last year.  I have used the crap out of it. This is by far the best thing out of the Naked collection. It has all of the colors you need to create both a sultry sexy look or a sweet natural look on the fly.    This baby is with me at all times. If you don’t have this….you need it!  Buy it now!

Stila Make Me Blush Valentines Day Palette – $16.99 This is kind of a cheat. This is the valentines day blush Stila made a couple of years ago. I bought it when it originally came out but I dropped it and along with breaking it, it broke my heart.  This has been my favorite blush since then. I was so excited to find it on Ebay this year so I bought two!  If you can get your hands on it I recommend it 100%!

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Genius Kit – $25.00 THIS….THIS STUFF IS AMAZING!  Kudos to Anastasia Beverly Hills! You have officially won me 100% over!  This year I really got into my bushy eyebrows!  I have struggled with my eyebrows for as long as I can remember. They grow way to fast and way to thick. I have finally found the best waxer and the best product to help me maintain them!  I’m excited to try their other products.  I think this is my favorite product of 2013.

I’ve used Voluminous mascara for as long as I can remember; however, I discovered The Rocket Mascara from Maybelline this year and it is AHHHHMAZZZINGGG!  It gives me the volume and length I need and holds my curl without clumping. I think it runs about $7 or so.  I pair it with my Tarte Eyelash Curler and I get the perfect eyelashes! This is by far the best curler I have ever used. I bought this special edition one at Ulta for $19 but the original is only $16. Completely worth it.  My lashes are ridiculously straight and ridiculously long and usually don’t like to cooperate with anything!

The next thing on my list is my Mac Studio Fix Fluid Foundation -$27 This is a given. I’ve used it for years and I will always love it! I also started using Mac Mineralized Concealer-$20 It really helps with my baggage and dark circles. It really brightens my face up when I use it.  It’s a keeper for me!

The next thing on my list goes with the previous items. It’s Rimmel’s Stay Matte Pressed Powder and is about $5 or so. Once again, this is a given. I’ve used this for a while now! If you are oily then you will love this! It keeps me matte all day!

The final thing on my Best of 2013 post is Beyond the Zone Rock On Volumizing Powder.  $7.49 Although this isn’t a cosmetic item I thought it was important to add this to the best of list.  My hair is absolutely flat. I’ve never had any volume in it. This little magic wonder will do amazing things to my hair. You just sprinkle it in and tease with a comb or your finger and POOF lasting volume!  It’s my only way to get TEXAS sized hair. 😉

I can go on and on about products I love but these take the taco! What are some of your favorite products this year?

Well, I guess until next year! 😉
I hope ya’ll have a safe New Year’s Eve! Love y’all and may 2014 be full of blessings for you and your family! -Moni ❤

I decided to add some photos of some of my favorite moments of 2013 down below. Enjoy!

Hillsong United Concert in Oklahoma City!

Women of Faith Operation Tamales!

Bluprint Marriages!

Family and friends!

…and the biggest blessing…worshipping with my church family.

Goodbye 2013, you were so good to me!

The Season of Giving

It has been an amazing week so far and it’s only Wednesday! It was the idea of some of my co-workers to partner up with a local Spanish radio station here in Amarillo and host a toy drive to benefit the families we work with.  This took place this past Saturday, Sunday and Monday and I am absolutely floored by the response of Amarillo’s Hispanic community.

I was so blessed to see some of these families come and donate bags upon bags of brand new toys. I wasn’t sure I wanted to blog about it but I just had too.  I wanted to share some the special stories I heard while on location.

We had one mom bring all of her son’s birthday gifts. Harsh right? Lol that was my first thought but then she said that she told him if she could donate the 10 toys she knew he wouldn’t play with, she would buy him a toy he really wanted.  Of course he agreed and she brought us a huge bag full of brand new toys.  Not only is she helping our agency and the families out but she is showing her son the importance of giving things we really don’t need.  Although there was a definite reward for her son, maybe when he is a dad he will do the same thing with his kids and bless 10 more people!

We also had a the Army donate 32 pairs of pajamas for our families! What a blessing! Who wouldn’t love One Direction and Spiderman PJs!

A local horse track, Carril San Carlos, came and donated a couple of large remote control toys and some precious life-like baby dolls.

We had plenty of women go in and take their kids; however, I was amazed of the response of the men taking their families and explaining to them that these toys were going to bless someone.

Through these strangers acts of kindness God really spoke to me.  I realized that even something as small as donating a toy can bless so many more people than just those who receive the toy. I was absolutely blessed. I went home so emotional and amazed.  We always say we live in a horrible, cold world….but the fact is….there are still so many good people out there. People want to give…sometimes they just don’t know where their donations or time could be used. A big thanks to Viva Media and La Super Economica for helping us so much and giving their time!

I challenge you to look in your community to see if there are any shelters, non-profits or even just families that could use some help.  Some of the kids your child goes to school with may or may not have food to eat when they get home….they may or may not have heat….they may or may not have the warmth of love…ALL YEAR AROUND. You don’t have to do it by yourself! You can serve as a light for your community and just like fire that light will spread. You could get your place of employment to put together a small toy drive or maybe get food together.

My desire to be a light in my community has grown so much this year. It has filled me up so much more than any paycheck or materialistic thing could ever fill me. It’s a high! Who would like to get high with me!  Be blessed!  – Moni ❤

Through Him I Can

It’s finally Saturday! Whoop whoop! I haven’t gotten much sleep this past week and last night was no different. I have so many things going on in my mind, people to help, parties to plan and my house to clean.

This week has been pretty heavy. I work with low income and high risk families here in Amarillo and with the holidays coming up we really want to make this season special for these kiddos. This week, with the help of a local radio station, my coworkers and I started to plan a huge 3 day toy drive. God is so good to our program. We thought the station was only going to help us do a quick 4 hour, Saturday morning toy drive…but noooo they want to do a 3 DAY toy drive!

That being said, the enemy has really been attacking me. Putting negative thoughts in my head like, “What if we can’t do it.” Or “What if we don’t receive enough donated toys.”

It’s really ridiculous that I would even think such a thing.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestockand the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. 12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

Wow.

How beautiful is it that God rewards us with his blessings for our obedience to Him…and most of the time we don’t even have to ask for them!

The enemy tries to slither in to tell us we aren’t able…or that we lack the qualities to accomplish…but God is here to tell us…with me ALL things are POSSIBLE!

AMEN! I want all that GOODNESS our Father has to offer…because he is…he is so so good to us.

I woke up with this message on my mind, worship in my heart and the song above in my head…and now I’m a big ball of emotion…good emotion. 🙂

If the enemy is telling you that you can’t, you are not able, you are not worthy, you are not qualified, you don’t have it in you, you are too tired…I want to tell you that YES you can, YES you are able, YES you are worthy, with Jesus you are more than qualified, you are alive in Him, He will restore your energy if you look to Him.

It’s a beautiful cycle.

Live through Him and the rest will fall into place. 🙂

I needed this message today. 🙂

-Moni<3

Lord, I seek you this morning with a humbled heart. Thank you for your blessings…blessings that I sometimes don’t even deserve. I am human and stray from your path often, but Lord you are so good to me that you continue to carry me even when I am broken. Father I ask that you take the reigns of every seed I have in my heart. That you guide me in the direction I need to go. I pray that you fill me with your supernatural energy to live for you every day…that may everything I do glorify your sweet name and that every person I come in contact with be blessed in your holy name and that they may be touched by your Holy Spirit. Lord I thank you. I thank you for this beautiful life you allow us to live. I pray that you help me continue to live it for you. I pray all these things in your beautiful name.

Amen.

Living a Thankful Life

It’s November ya’ll!  I can’t believe we are approaching the holiday season so soon. This year has been a year on ups and downs…but mostly ups. I’ve learned to live…in Him…laugh…at the enemy…and love…just to love. I started a new job. I started singing again. I built new relationships with amazing friends. There is just so much to be thankful for.

I’ve never been good at the whole 30 days of thankfulness on social media.  I usually start late or forget a couple days.  I don’t mean to bash anyone that does it; however, we should be this thankful every single day of the year.  If we made it our mission to post what we are thankful for every day, our blessings would noticeably take over our burdens.

I started a new job this year in working not only with lower income and less fortunate families, but families that are dealing with tough situations.  It was an absolute eye opener and made me realize how selfish and inconsiderate I can be sometimes.

Some families in our community have NOTHING. Parents are sleeping on floors to let their children sleep on the only bed they have. Kids are going to school hungry. Some families are struggling with illnesses and parents are doing without medication to be able to put food on the table. It is a very real truth here in the Texas panhandle.  Although many families in our community struggle for very different reasons I have found one thing they all have in common…they are THANKFUL for what they do have.

I have yet to meet a family that is bitter because of the situation they are going through. I always sense a speck of HOPE and GRATITUDE.  I can’t help but think…Gosh, I’m such a horrible person. I have a home. I have a healthy family. I have food. I have a job. I have transportation. I have so much more than I could ever need…but yet sometimes I so easily let the enemy get in the way of my gratitude. That, my friend, is a sad situation.

In a season when it is socially acceptable to want…want…and want some more, I’m challenging myself to make it my priority to be excessively grateful for the life God has blessed me with. I encourage you to do the same.  I know it will not only bless you but also bless any who witness your gratitude.  I also encourage you to give a little more, not only material donations but give your time and share the love that Christ has shared with you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

-Moni ❤

Ps. I’m thankful for painted skies!

Believing in the Power of Prayer

 

I’m a rookie at prayer.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve prayed for as long as I can remember (as you can see above hehe), but my prayers were somewhat selfish and with no power of belief behind them.  I prayed…but deep inside I thought that my chances of answered prayers were slim.  Today I realized I was cutting myself short. We talked about this situation a little last Wednesday in my Bluprint class.

Jesus said, ” 21 Truly I tell you, If you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:21-22

Until recently, I hadn’t realized how much I truly relied on God for everything in my life. I only realized this after I began to analyze my earlier relationship with God….a relationship without faith.  I was never really specific with my prayer. It was usually something like, “Thank God I got this and this,” or “Please do this and this for me God.” It was never a heart felt, faith filled, honest prayer of what I truly desired….and that was just for my personal petitions. I had never prayed for anyone else other than myself, family or close friends.

This year has been an amazing year of ridiculous miracles for two reasons.  1.) My salvation. 2.) My faith in God.

This January was when I admitted to myself that I was trying to do things within my own will and not Gods. (Proverbs 3:5-6) 

One of the first habits I changed was the way I prayed. I truly gave every burden, every desire…everything to God. Then things started to change. Bills were getting paid…things were getting fixed…hearts were being healed. My life started moving forward and to this day I haven’t looked back.

It’s October now and I feel like God is taking me to the next level…to my next season. Although I’ve improved on my personal, silent, in my head prayers, I stuggle tremendously with praying out loud. Which is weird because I have no problem talking in front of big groups or singing in front of people…but praying…that is something that I just can’t bring myself to do confidently.

That being said, I know God is calling me to be comfortable with it. God is placing people in my life and telling me, “Ok now go pray with them.” But you see, my God is so good to me. He’s not just going to throw me out there and set me up for failure, but rather ease me into it and what better way to do it but through facebook!

I want to share a little testimony…the testimony that led me to blog about prayer.

A couple of weeks ago an old friend from high school posted on her Facebook that she was pregnant. I hinted a negative tone and being pro-life I decided to privately message her and remind her what a blessing children are. She explained to me that she was happy about the pregnancy but that the doctor had told her that since she became pregnant while using a certain kind of birth control the she was at risk of losing the baby once they took the birth control out. She was pretty worried and asked me to pray…so I did. You see I have known multiple women in this same situation and they ended up with not so good results. I didn’t tell my friend that, instead I prayed to God trusting that He had both of their lives in His hands.

Yesterday she messaged me with good news! She told me when the doctor went in to remove the birth control IT WASN’T THERE. Apparently, it had fallen out…or something. I know how big those things are and I know it would be hard to miss it falling out. I’m not sure how it happened but God answered our prayer. He took the situation in his hands. I BELIEVE completely that He did this.

I was absolutely moved by her testimony. It reminded me how powerful and how important our prayers for others are. Also reminding me that God has called me to be confident in my vocal prayers for people.

A couple of days ago I came across this photo. It spoke directly to me and the trial I am facing.

If you are struggling in this area of your relationship with God, I want to encourage you and assure you that as long as faith backs up your prayer, you are already one step ahead.

Be blessed – Moni ❤