Behind the scenes...

Last year, I was trying to open a new PayPal account and the card I was adding wouldn't go through! It kept like denying money transfers and it was soooooooooo INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING!!! I was liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat IN THE WORLD is going on????

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I'm a busy woman!!! I've got bills to pay, money to send annnnnnnnnnd just some really important things to do...

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike HELLO...

SHOOOOPPPPPPING!!! ;)

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Weeeeeeeellllll NO MATTER how many times I put my bank card in, no matter how many times I put my bank account info in...NOTHING WOULD WORK with my PayPal account! I read and reread the directions over and over again!!! I was getting SOOOOOOOOOOO MAD!!!! WHAT AM I DOING WRONG???

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Finally I tried to call PayPal buuuuuuuuuut whatda ya know, their lines were busy and I was gonna have to be on hold for liiiiiiike a million-kajillion hours and hey, "Ain't NOBODY got time for THAT!!!" ;)

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Sooooooooooo I decided to email the customer care email and asked them what was going on with my account and if they could explain to me what I was doing wrong??? Well, they got back to me the next day in an email and explained to me that I had done everything right with adding my new debit and bank account, but that PayPal does a security check before they allow things to go through my account to make sure it was ACTUALLY me and not just someone claiming to be me. (I'm paraphrasing!) They explained that it could take about two weeks and they are so sorry for the wait etc...

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After reading their explanation, I couldn't really be mad at PayPal anymore! After all, although it was frustrating to have to wait, Identity theft and fraud IS REAL and PayPal really was just looking out for me!!!

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THAT GOT ME TO THINKING...

What if there is a hold up in our lives, because behind the scenes, God is doing a security check??? Think about it, so often we don't understand WHY God is making us wait on something. Why God just doesn't let certain things go through??? You've been waiting SOOOOO LONG for something, buuuuuut...

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 WHAT IF there really is nothing wrong with you??? Sometimes we do need to make changes in our lives and we should ALWAYS be ready to do self-examination. BUT, What if this is just God looking out for you? What if, BEHIND THE SCENES OF YOUR LIFE, God is doing a security check to see if this is THE REAL DEAL!!!! To see if something really is THE BEST THING for you!!!

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In your Bible, Numbers 22, you can read the story of Balaam and his donkey. The long story short the donkey would NOT move forward on their journey because the angel of The Lord was blocking his path with a sword, but Balaam could not see the angel and got mad and beat his donkey to keep going. Then God opens Balaam's eyes and he to can see what his donkey saw. "And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way..."

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There have been times in my life that I just could not understand WHY God did not allow something to work out! It seemed like everything lined up in a row and pointed in that direction to happen, It literally made MORE SENSE for it to happen in my life, than for it to NOT HAPPEN annnnnnnd YET it never did. 

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That's because there was a God-block standing in the way, stopping it from happening. Only now can I see, what God could see all along. There are other things that i may never know and always wonder WHY they didn't happen, buuuuuut I know that I can trust God to look out for me. 

I want to encourage you all today, to know that sometimes things aren't working out because God is doing a security check behind the scenes to ensure that this is indeed THE BEST thing for you. Don't push, or beat or fight against the God-blocks in your life. Seek God on the matter. don't stop Him from standing in the way of something bad happening in your life. If it is right, be patient, it will happen when it has passed through God's security check!!!! 

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"Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." (Psalm 37:5)

♥Mary Frances :)

Are you dumpster diving???

A few years ago, we had a fellowship meeting with the Lacour's church in Cave Creek. During the service Bro. Lacour got up and was talking about NOT forgetting where God brought you from. And he was talking about how he STILL REMEMBERS where God brought him from. He STILL REMEMBERS as a child being so hungry that he would go dumpster diving for food. And I turned to the person next to me  and said, YEAH, I REMEMBER DOING THAT TOO!!! And the person sitting next to me said, WELL I STILL DO!!! So I started laughing and said...YEAH sometimes I still do too AND I don't need to either!!! (Okaaaaaay not FOR FOOD people!  Buuuut ya know sometimes ya just happen to come across a good item that is being thrown away! Like the dresser in my room, and the flowers hanging from my ceiling, my bookshelves...well you get the point...I'm a CHEAP GIRL!)

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I really do remember though as a child going DUMPSTER DIVING as a family for food...we were THAT POOR growing up! We would pull up behind the Safeway grocery store and sometimes there would be all kinds of produce my mom would cook with, outdated bread that was still in the package, canned goods, Now you all know why i'm NOT scared of an EXPIRATION DATE...Hogwash I tell ya! If your hungry, YOUR HUNGRY!!! My mom always said, "Beggars can NOT be CHOOSERS!" You may be reading this right now and feeling appalled and DISGUSTED, but don't judge until you've been that poor that you didn't have a choice, till dumpster diving was your ONLY option.

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Now if you go dumpster diving for food and you don't NEED to, you've got issues!!! Your probably never going to hear about Bill Gates going dumpster diving for food! Rich people don't NEED to go dumpster diving. But once you learn the trade its something you'll never forget and every once in a while you'll be like ME, whispering to my friend on Saturday, "Sometimes I STILL DO, and I DON'T NEED TOO EITHER!!!"

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There was a time in each and everyone of our lives, when SPIRITUALLY we were SO DESPERATE that we would SPIRITUALLY go dumpster diving. A time where you found yourself a midst a HUGE mess in your life and you were scrounging around amongst all the muck of hopelessness and despair, TRYING to find something edible to fill the empty aching in your soul. Maybe I can find it on TV , a radio preacher an uplifting song, good deeds, anything to try and feed your soul and bring meaning to your life! We were DESPERATE!!! You found yourself like the Canaanite woman, begging for just the scraps. "And she said... yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." (Matthew 15:27)

We were POOR! We were begging for just THE CRUMBS that were leftover from the blessings of God's table. However, we have overcome that kind of a life. We were drafted into God's kingdom! We were called to a higher life! We're chosen people! Living for God is a BLESSED LIFE!!! We have been adopted in to God's family! We are no longer beggars!!! We are no longer orphans! We are children of God! We are THE KINGS KIDS! We get THE BEST! We are royalty!!! Yet I ask you this question,

HOW OFTEN do THE CHILDREN OF GOD, find themselves SPIRITUALLY DUMPSTER DIVING, and they DON'T NEED TOO????

Our daddy is RICH!!! There is a feast of SPIRITUAL goodness that is laid before! A table that is spread with the good things of God and yet we don't eat of it. This food that has been prepared for us, its THE BEST there is! Our father has THE FINEST of EVERYTHING prepared for us! No generic brands for daddies kids! Its NOT Mr. Pibb, its Dr. Pepper! Its THE REAL DEAL!!! Its THE GOOD STUFF!!!This feast is not some ghetto Chinese buffet or even the elite Golden Corral. Each plate that is served has been specifically cooked JUST FOR YOU!  Because, daddy knows just what each and every one of his children needs! And yet each plate you push away, your to busy, your to tired other things fill your belly and after just few bites your done. 

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Then all of the sudden life happens, problems, heartache and confusion come your way and suddenly your desperate. You don't know what to do, your hungry, your thirsty, OH if only you had eaten a little more of daddy's food. And you begin to search for it! You scrounge around for the leftovers that have been thrown into the trash because you wouldn't eat! Where's that scripture? Where's that preaching message? Your spiritually dumpster diving, AND YOU DON'T NEED TOO!!! Your RICH! Your the King's Kid! Your ROYALTY!!! You don't need to go dumpster diving,

JUST ASK DADDY FOR ANOTHER PLATE!!!

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King Saul was a SPIRITUAL DUMPSTER DIVER!!! "Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her..." (1Samuel 28:7) The king allowed himself to come to a place in his life that he was spiritually so desperate that he would go and seek answers from God through a witch. He never would have gotten to this place of desperation if he would have just listened to the man of God in his life. But he wouldn't eat when it was laid before him.

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How twisted was this man's mind that he actually believed he could get answers from God THROUGH A WITCH???  But that's what can happen when you allow yourself to get desperate. When you allow yourself to become so spiritually deprived. You don't eat and then you find yourself in the middle of life crisis, Spiritually dumpster diving, and you don't need too!!! There is a feast, THERE IS A FEAST, a fine, well prepared meal that is spread before you!

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Are YOU dumpster diving??? You don't need too!!! There's a feast awaiting you! You say, "oh I'm too tired, i'll just sleep a little longer"...NO, Get up and EAT...Its time to PRAY! "Well I think I'll just skip reading my Bible today"...

NO! EAT!!!

Your gonna need it for the journey! "Ugh, I'm just in a rotten mood, I think I'll skip church today"....NO you HAVE TO GO! Its the biggest meal ever...Stuff your face and then some... EAT!!! Don't let the feast, the well prepared meals go to waste..You've got to EAT!!! There's PLENTY! You can have all you want and there will ALWAYS BE MORE!!! Daddy keeps the storehouses stocked, just ask for MORE, He'll NEVER RUN OUT!!! Its TIME to give up your dumpster diving...

TAKE A SEAT AT THE FATHER'S TABLE...

LETS EAT!!!

"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever." (Psalm 23:5-6) 

♥Mary Frances :)

How to get stronger...

Have you ever tried to

physically become stronger?

 Although I'm not an expert, I have spent some time dabbling in woman's weight lifting. Physically speaking, I'm a pretty strong person to begin with, BUUUUUT, no matter HOW strong you may be, if you want to become stronger, you don't get there by starting with your goal. 

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In other words, when I was weight lifting, I started off with being able to press about 60 pounds over my head, with my person trainer spotting me for safety precautions. However, if my goal was to be able to bench press 100 pounds, I didn't get there by just picking up 100 pounds and start pressing it. I made small changes, adding on 2-5 pounds weekly, slowly but surely getting stronger with each weight added on to eventually reach my goal.

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Now for a woman, I am naturally stronger than most, but not as strong most men. Physically speaking, we are all made differently, men naturally have a tendency to be physically stronger than woman, but we ALL have the potential to become a physically stronger person, IF we work on it. 

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Spiritually speaking, it works THE SAME way. Some of us are naturally just a stronger person than others. One of the strongest people I know was my mom. She was such an emotionally strong person. When she decided that she was going to leave behind everything she had once religiously embraced, she never looked back. She didn't care what anyone thought or said about her, her mind was made up and that was that. No matter what came her way, she just gritted her teeth and kept walking, she was a VERY STRONG PERSON. 

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However, NOT all of us are naturally strong like my mom was. God made us all different. We are not all the same, some of us are just naturally a spiritually weaker person, YET, just because we have this tendency, does NOT mean that we don't have the potential to become a spiritually stronger person. Built inside each and everyone of us, is the capacity to become spiritually stronger.

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How can we spiritually become stronger?

Spiritual exercise is how we spiritually become stronger. Spiritual strength comes from seeking after God. We seek after God through prayer and studying His word. Yet, just like physical strength building, we don't get to our goal, by starting with our goal. We reach our big goals spiritually, by staying consistent with the small changes we make, working towards our ultimate goal. 

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At the Bible college I attended quite a few years ago, there was a class I took on prayer. Our instructor taught us that everything in life has a beginning and that includes our prayer lives. If you want to pray an hour a day, you don't have to start off with that goal, you can start with something small and add on. You can start off with praying for 5 minutes every day, CONSISTENTLY, for a month, then the next month add on another 5 minutes and start praying for 10 minutes a day. Slowly but surely, you will spiritually begin to have a strong prayer life.

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OR if you don't want to set the timer, you could turn on some good Christian music and say, ok, I'm going to start off with praying through one whole song on this CD, then if I get lost in the spirit and end up feeling to pray longer, I won't become distracted by a buzzing timer. The same thing goes with reading the Bible, you don't have to start off with reading THE WHOLE Bible in ONE DAY. But everyday, CONSISTENTLY read a little bit of your Bible and eventually you'll have read it all the way through. It doesn't matter where you start out spiritually, you have the potential to become stronger.

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EXCUSES

Well, I'm just not a strong person you say and that may be true, some of are just naturally emotionally and spiritually weaker individuals, BUT the question isn't, are you strong? The question is: ARE YOU DOING ANYTHING to make yourself stronger??? If your thinking, well I'll NEVER be as strong as So and so, that's ok, God is NOT expecting you to be as strong as them, BUUUUUUT, he is expecting you be the strongest person YOU can possibly be! 

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Don't be lazy, 

START YOUR SPIRITUAL

STRENGTH BUILDING TODAY!!! 

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:5-8)

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♥Mary Frances :)

Doors!!!

Have you ever noticed HOW MANY different kinds of doors there are???

There's doors that have to be PUSHED to be opened, there's doors that you have to PULL to open. There's sliding doors, there's car doors, there's revolving doors, there's glass doors, there's screen doors and there's automatic doors, there's locked doors and I'm SURE, many more!!!

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WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A DOOR???

A door is a moving structure used to block off, and yet still allow access to something, an entrance to a place, yet a closure to a place within an enclosed space, such as a building, room, closet or vehicle.

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In life, there are MANY doors that we will walk through and some that we will SEE, but NEVER walk through. The question IS, HOW do we know if a door is meant for us to walk through or NOT???

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So often you will hear and probably even say at some point, "I'm JUST waiting for GOD to open the door before making a decision." AND while this is good to a certain extent, SOMETIMES, we're waiting for God to open a door that says PUSH or PULL on it!!!

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Sometimes, the door has a LOCK and only God can unlock it but there are other times that the door has a lock and GOD has given us THE KEY and now it us up to us to take that key and unlock the door. Sometimes we have to KNOCK and WAIT for God to open the door, And YET there are other times, when God locks a door and it will NEVER BE UNLOCKED!!!

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Sometimes, there's a revolving door, and God wants us to go through something before we can get to what is on the other side. Sometimes you just gotta shut the door for a little bit, while your riding to your destination and THEN its time to open that door again! Sometimes there's sliding doors and you gotta figure out if you should SLIDE that door all the way open, or if you should just partially slide it open to not let anything IN or OUT with you.

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Sometimes there's a glass door and you can see very clearly what is on the other side and weather or not you should open that door! Sometimes there's a screen door, and you can only kind of see what is on the other side, but you'll never really know, TILL YOU OPEN THE DOOR!!!

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Sometimes in life, there are automatic doors. There are things in our life that are just automatic. They just happen without us trying or doing anything for them to open. Church, school, family, those were automatic doors for me that just happened without trying. Waking up and going to sleep are just automatic doors. And you'll find blessings that come to you in life, that were just automatic without you doing or saying anything to have ever gotten them!!!

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There are automatic things that God expects us to do. I remember hearing someone once say that they kept bumping into someone, they didn't know what God wanted to do, but they just wanted to pray about if they should witness to them or not. Bishop Abbott spoke up, WELL, I can tell you what God wants to do for that person, HE WANTS TO SAVE THEM!!! Sometimes we over-spiritualize the OBVIOUS or THE AUTOMATIC!!! Should you witness??? YES!!! The Bible says that God is NOT willing that ANY should perish, BUT that ALL should come to repentance! Should you repent??? Should you obey God's word??? It's an AUTOMATIC DOOR!!! YES, you should!!!

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As a female, sometimes, its good for us to be a lady, WAIT and let a man OPEN THE DOOR FOR US, but sometimes, you can't always wait around for someone to be opening the doors for you.

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I've seen AZ females, usually in the dating or newlywed stage of life, SIT IN THE CAR after reaching a destination, in 120 degree weather and NO AC, WAITING FOR THE GUY to get out of the car and open the door for her. Now, I believe in chivalry, I like it, its nice, I appreciate it, BUT, in 120 degree weather, I'm OPENING MY DOOR AS QUICLEY AS POSSIBLE AND HIGHTAILING IT TO THE CLOSEST PLACE WITH AC!!! Why??? BECAUSE ITS HOT OUT!!!! Sometimes you just need to be PRACTICAL!!! The original intent of chivalry was NOT the romanticized version that we know about now. The original intent of chivalry was for a man to do something for a female, elderly person, or child, that they could NOT do for themselves.

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There are times, when you need to wait, trust in God and LET HIM OPEN THE DOOR! There are times in life, when there is NO WAY you can open the door yourself and the only thing you can do is WAIT for God to open it. However, while YES, God IS indeed a gentleman, SOMETIMES, there are things that YOU CAN DO FOR YOURSELF!!! Sometimes, you just gotta OPEN YOUR OWN DOOR!!!

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HOW DO YOU KNOW IN LIFE, WHAT TO DO AT EACH DOOR YOU COME TOO???

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The KEY to knowing how you should proceed at each door in life, is THROUGH PRAYER!!! Jesus says in John 10:9 "I am the door..." THE KEY to knowing, IS SEEKING GOD or THE DOOR!!! We have to continually seek God in prayer for His will and direction in our lives. "The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God." (Psalm 14:2)

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Should I wait? Should I PUSH? Should I PULL? Should I knock? Should I get a key? It can seem so complicated knowing what to do in life, and yet, its SO SIMPLE, PRAY!!! God wants us to PRAY!!! We will know what God wants us to do at each door in life, when we seek Him for His will and direction in our next step.

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“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” (Psalm 32:8)

♥Mary Frances :)