INSIDE OUT!!

 

 

The movie Inside Out was really entertaining as well as informative. The storyline is about a little girl named Riley who has these have these five characters of emotions that live in her mind Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. They are always in a fight to drive but Joy tries to override them all, she is the leader, it is her job to keep Riley happy, especially in this time because Riley and her parents moved to a new state. Joy has to try to make the transition smooth. I noticed that all of the other emotions were trying to control Sadness, because I don't think they even knew that sadness had a place in headquarters plus no one wants Riley to ever be sad. So they try their best to ignore that sadness is also a part of the emotions that lives in the mind of her. If Sadness touches any part of a memory it automatically will turn blue and making that memory a sad one. So Joy drew a small circle and told Sadness to stay within in the lines isolating the character Sadness from the others Joy is doing this not because she was trying to be mean but because it was Riley’s first day at her new school so Joy wanted everything to go right. Riley was asked to stand up and introduce herself and where she came from somehow Sadness must have left the circle and triggered something in her mind because Riley began to cry in front of the class Joy tried to intervene and somehow got sucked out headquarters (Riley's mind) along with Sadness. So while Joy and Sadness are out of the headquarters, that left Riley with the other 3 emotions, Anger, Disgust and Fear driving the console of her mind trying to keep Riley emotional state stable. That was a disaster because while Joy and Sadness try to find their way back they are noticing the memories that shaped Riley’s core islands meaning the core memories like family, friend and goofball that made Riley who she was, started to crumble one island at a time. It was getting so bad that Riley became isolated, very distant from her parents, she became a little depressed and the other 3 emotions did not know what to do so Anger took control of the console making Riley so upset that she chooses to run away and she decides to get on a bus back to Minnesota. Joy and Sadness makes it back to headquarters finally, Now their job is to try to get Riley to change her mind but Joy was unable to do that, so she asked Sadness to take over and when she did, Riley changed her mind and got off the bus, she ran home as her parents were in a panic but relieved to see her, she walks in and tells them the truth, which was that she tried to be happy about moving to a new city but she misses her old life and they hugged her, they told her that it was ok to be sad about moving to a new city and they also told her that they themselves missed Minnesota, it was at that moment with a hug of course that Riley embraced her new life with a smile. All is well with her well at least for now.

What stood out to me as I was watching the movie was one that Joy treated Sadness, differently from the other emotions, like she didn't respect Sadness. She would give Anger, Disgust and Fear assignments but she told Sadness just to stay away because her job was to always keep Riley happy and never wanted her to experience sadness. They treated the character Sadness like she had no place in the mind of Riley. But in the end Sadness was needed in order for Joy to take control. Sounds so familiar to me because I myself hated to feel sad because it leaves you like you have no control over things, I so often set sadness in the little circle that was meant to keep sadness out of my expressed emotions instead I allowed anger, fear to drive my emotions and just like it was disastrous in the movie, same in my personal life. I was a mess…. I said all of that to say that your emotional state is very important in your personality and the only way you can control them is by acknowledging how you feel be truthful with yourselves, if you are sad then you have the right to be sad and work on what is the cause of the sadness but never dismiss the way you or anyone else may feel that is the worst thing you can do. I can make things a lot worse in the end if you don't deal with it as soon as possible. And try not to substitute sadness with anger. You don’t want to do that because anger is always accompanied by disgust and fear. God didn't give us a spirit of fear. It is a fight to control our emotions because sometimes the negative emotions need some air time lol!! Even before you get out of bed on some days, something in your spirit isn't right, you just woke up, but you feel some type of way, you have to pray that spirit away because it will only bring out the negative emotions and possibly ruin your whole day. You know when someone cuts you off when you are driving, what emotion takes control? Or when you have to do something that you never have done before what emotion sets in? What goes on in the inside of you will be played out on the outside. Pray at night don't bring the problems, the bad emotions of the day into your bed, empty them give them to God.

Philippians 4:6 ►Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. What happens if Joy is not in control of your emotions? I am so glad you ask! You have pray to get her in control again, by using the Word of God to fight any negative emotions. 2 Corinthians 10:5 we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. You have to get to know God and His will for your lives. When you find out all the promises He has for us you will not allow any stinking thinking to stop you, if you ever see this movie, I want to point out how the emotions were fighting over what emotions was going to take control of console of the mind if something happened. It is a fight to have Joy and peace no matter what is going on in your life, you will have capture of thoughts and fight to control your emotions but I believe it is worth it.

Trust and Believe.

 

Apply the Word!!

 

God Bless.

Snap Out Of It!!!

One day last year when I was at home in bed taking a nap, my lights were cut off. OMG!! Really I couldn't believe it because it was my first day home on one of my R & R from being overseas, I was so tired but I totally forgot paying the bill, I just wanted to get some rest but when I heard the ac and the lights go out all on the same time, that is when I realized what I forgot to do. I jumped out of bed and began to run around like a chicken with its head cut off. I panic...ked; I wandered around for about twenty minutes couldn’t think. I was trying to put on my clothes trying to find keys like I had to get out of there. I literally didn't know what to do. I was so focused that my lights were off, I was really crazy that day. I had to calm myself down literally and I said to myself Carolyn just pay it, the money was in the bank call it in and just pay it. The solution was just that simple!! I don’t know why that affected me like that like I didn’t have the means to correct the problem……

I said that to say to stop panicking, stop running around in circles, losing your mind because you are so busy focusing on that problem, that circumstance , like we have no hope, don't get me wrong I am not comparing my minor inconvenience to your major situation, all I am saying is everything is fixable in Jesus. I know when we experience gloomy, dark, or sad moments unexpectedly, our first reaction might be to panic because some are very painful, scary, doubtful or just sometimes seems to be unfair, I mean you didn’t know where this came from but you suddenly in it. I want to encourage you by telling you to be still, be prayerful and listen to what God is saying about your situation and know that everything will work out. The problem is already solved; the solution is already laid out. Whatever you might be facing today or in the future the Word says in Psalms 23:4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Stand on that because we will have to experience moments that is designed to kill, steal and destroy us but in Isaiah 54:17 No weapons that are formed will prosper. Don’t allow your situation to diminish God's promises. I can attest to that!! . I pray for peace on any situation that is troublesome, bothersome or just a plain annoyance to you. Power of Jesus is limitless trust Him in all things!!!
Side notes
1. Even though it was my fault that I was in the dark because I forgot to pay it, I still experienced this period for a short time it was back on in the matter of an hour. This will only be temporary.
2. Sometimes God will allow the lights to go out to turn the lights on in your memory to do what He told you to do and get you out of that comfortable zone that you been laying in for quite sometimes. lol
3. Panicking is just a waste of time literally!! Be Blessed!!

It's their wrong why don't you feel right!!!

2 Samuel 13 Summary
 
Amnon fell in love with his half sister, Tamar, the full sister of Absalom. He was frustrated to the point of illness because he couldn’t sleep with her. One day, his cousin, Jonadab asked him why he look so sad. Amnon said he is in love with Tamar. Jonadab suggested that he pretend to be sick and lie on his bed. When his fatehr come to see him, he should ask for his sister Tamar to come and prepare food so that he can see her and eat it. Amnon did as Jonadab suggested. When David came to see Amnon, Amnon requested for his half sister Tamar to come and make a special bread so that he can watch her and eat the bread from her hand. Tamar did came and prepared the bread.
When she brought the bread to Amnon, Amnon refused to eat. Instead, Amnon bade everyone in the house to leave then he instructed Tamar to bring th ebread to her. As Tamar brought the bread to him, he grabbed her and raped her. Tamar rebuked Amnon for doing that. Tamar said Amnon could have asked the king to let him marry her but Amnon would not listen. Amnon was strong so he overpower her and raped her. The daughters of the king used to wear long gown. After Amnon’s servant sent her out, she tore her garment and put ashes on her head and wept aloud as she walked away. Absalom heard about it and soon Tamar moved into his house. Tamar was always pitiful because of the incident,

Things that stood out to me:  
Amnon allowed his flesh to control him which in turn made him ill physical and mentally.
He had people around him that came up with scheme to fulfill his fleshly desire instead of helping him through the situation the right way.
Tamar tried to reason with him but he didn’t listen to her to do it the right way so he raped her, his so called love turned into hate not because of anything that she had done.  I really think that he didn’t want to really face the truth about his actions so he just treated her like she was in the wrong like some many other people.
After being violated by her own brother, Tamar was the one that walked away with the shame because of his decision to do such a horrible thing. And this was really my main point that I wanted to get to, some people who become victims of someone else’s bad decisions bad actions turn them into the walking dead.  The bible said that Tamar lived as a desolate woman.  Unfortunately this is still common today  I have seen some women who are living their lives the same way  because of betrayal, violation, divorce,  break-up, whatever the reason that has them scared and scarred so severely that they feel that they could never recover from it.   Do not get me wrong what happened to Tamar was horrible and I don’t and  would  not minimize her pain that she endured and that goes for the women who had been betrayed, violated, divorced and experiencing a break up because they are life altering experiences but I can say that God heals and he restores. I pray that whoever this might be for please seek God and allow His love and His plan and the blessings that He has in store for you to be manifested.  Tamar couldn’t get passed it so her life was limited to that day.  Don’t allow your life to be limited to that day the betrayal or that life altering thing that happened you can move pass it, don’t allow the bad decisions of others to be a door blocker to your future.  Trust and believe!!  Be blessed!!







 

Stop Looking Back

Stop Looking Back
Carolyn McCardell

When watching scary movies like Friday the 13th, when the villain Jason was chasing his victims though the woods I noticed that the victims always seem to fall and end up getting caught. I know it was just a movie and I should not put too much thought into but I could not help but to wonder why is it that they always seem to fall.  I noticed instead of them looking ahead to get escape the danger they were always looking back. It was the looking back that caused them to fall.

 This reminds of me Genesis 19:26  Lot ’s wife when she disobeyed the command of not looking back she became a pillar of salt. The Hebrew for “looked back” means more than to glance over one’s shoulder. It means to regard, to consider, to pay attention to.   When God is trying to move us to safe place we must trust Him enough to know the place He is bringing us out of can’t compare to the place He is taking us to.  We get so fixated on the past we until we become stagnant staying in that place of danger and pain.  Sometimes He removes people and things from our lives in order to save us. It is so hard, nearly impossible to move forward looking backwards. Looking ahead is what is going to get you out of your situation. There is no point in looking back about the relationship that failed, no looking back about the person who had wronged you, no looking back on the things that you cannot change. I love this prayer “Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” There is no sense in looking back on what happened yesterday or years ago. Let it go and start moving forward. Your past does not define your future. The only reason you need your past is to reflect back on how good God is. Don’t be a victim of your past.  God Bless

Don't Fall For It!!

Don’t Fall For It.
By Carolyn McCardell

In the movie, I was speaking of "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Bolt Thief" when Percy found out who he truly was, and the powers he possessed, he decided to take a journey in hopes of rescuing his mom his mom who was taken by Hades because of stolen the Lightning bolt. He only had a short time to get everything done. He was on track until he arrived in Las Vegas at the Locus Hotel. Everything in the hotel was just charming and seemed so accommodating to him. The hostess were serving appetizers which they called Locus flowers, he was just living it up laughing and what seemed to him was fun and games and he lost his focus and forgot the reasons that he was there. But what he didn't know was that this was a trick from his enemy to keep him there forever. What the locus flower was doing to him was interfering with his senses, it was distracting him from his journey, when Percy Jackson finally came out of the trans he found out that he had lost four days of the Journey.

This really spoke to me about how when we as Christians have it in our minds to pursue our journey (walking with Christ) the enemy tries to distract, detour us from our purpose. Sin is one of our biggest detour we get so caught up in the things that seem and feel desirable. Sin is a set up just like the locus hotel, was it is a trap to keep us there forever. It interferes with our spiritual senses we become dull to sin we are unable to discern what is true. It disconnects us from God.

How do we keep from falling for this trap by putting on the full Armour of God? In Ephesians 6 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Just like Percy, it is possible for us to fall into the same traps and fall into sin which can be adultery, fornicating, substance abuse or whatever has us, we have to do what one of my favorites song the lyric says "We fall down, but we get up" by Donnie McClurkin. When we get up we have to repent and keep on striving on our journey without looking back. In 1 John 2 1: My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if you do sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God completely.2 He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes not only our sins away but the sins of all the world. And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By obeying his commandments. 4 If someone says, "I belong to God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth. 5 But those who obey God's word really do love him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in him.

Keep in mind Percy's enemy was not only out to kill him but to distract him from his purpose. The enemy does not only try steal, kill, or destroy us but also tries to steal our time by distracting us placing things that are extremely pleasing to us that is outside God’s will for our lives like adultery, fornication, and etc. Percy had lost four days of his Journey falling for the tricks of the enemy. We can get back money, we can get our relationships back, but one thing we cant never get back is time. Lost time is something we cannot ever recover. How much time are we willing to lose? I want to enjoy the fullness of God. We can obtain the fullness of God by applying and living by His Word.

Remember when we find out who we are in Christ be prepared for the tricks and lies of the enemy and the only way we can recognize them is by the truth which is the Word of God.

God Bless

Is your marriage in a state of complacency?

Is your marriage in a state of complacency? 

I see so many marriages that are in trouble and they don't even see it. Complacency is the root of this trouble. This word means : self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies. Being complacent is dangerous to your marriages because people become lax and lack the motivation to safe guard their marria

ges and this can cause other things to creep into it....which includes finances, adultery, the act of singleness, a lot of other things that I can mention that are destroying marriages.

Marriage could be one of the hardest if not the hardest merger that you might experience in your life time. It is a partnership, if the partners of a company spends 80 percent of their time doing things that doesn't benefit the company really spending time trying please themselves and try to build a strong profitable company with the other twenty percent then that company is doomed to fail. Like wise you can not have a successful marriage putting twenty percent of work in that is so impossible. People who do this have become have become complacent.

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it's so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.
--Jimmy Carter American, President

When God is in your marriage there isn't anything to hard for Him to correct. He can correct the complacency in the marriage. If He isnt in it then it is so possible that your marriage is in trouble. You have to make a decision that you are going to put in the effort to ensure that you have a strong marriage which means that you have to become more than roommates.

When two people actually become one they have to give up part of themselves in order to do that. I always said if you are doing everything you want to do then someone is suffering. Don't take each other for granted. The enemy is looking to come in and destroy marriages don't give him any room. There are instructions that you will need to follow in order for you to have a marriage that glorifies God and it is located in His word . His love letter to us. Spend time together reading it, and applying it. Making sure that you guys have quality time together is really needed. Take time to date your spouse dating shouldn't ever stop. In order not fall in the state of complacency I took some pointers from one of my favorite movies 50 first dates. The main character was dating this woman who had a head injury that affected her memory and in order for them to be together he would have to get her to fall in love with him everyday so he came up with different ways to do this on a daily basis I just love that concept that he loved her that much that he would go so far to keep their love alive and I think we all can learn a lesson or two from it. Communication is major in any area of your life especially in marriage. People change everyday by communicating with each other you can learn of that change a make adjustments accordingly.

Be aware of the state of your marriage. It is dangerous for your marriage to be in a complacent state. Start praying before things get to this stage. Pray for revelation of deficiencies that you might have that will hinder you for having a marriage that glorifies God. We have to learn how to be married. I look forward to experiencing the marriage that God intended me to have. I am praying for you guys and really know when your marriage is centered around God ,you will overcome any obstacles that the enemy will try to throw at you. When you start living for Him things will start to fall in place, it wont be perfect but I promise you it will be a marriage of purpose. Be blessed!!

The Source

"The Source"

By: Carolyn McCardell

I took my youngest son to the movies awhile back to see “Percy Jackson and the Olympians the lightning thief”. The story was about Percy Jackson who was a Demi-god (son of a god and a human). The main character in the movie (Percy) was falsely accused of stealing the lightning bolt of the Chief God Zeus and had to retrieve it before the earth is torn asunder by the warring gods. Percy always knew it was something unique about him, but he didn't realize to what extent, until the lightning bolt came up missing. His mom and his protector had to take him to a training camp for people with special powers like him. He had no idea of his powers or how to use them. In one part of the movie Percy was thrown into a fight as a part of his training with the daughter of Wisdom, who simply tore him to pieces. After the battle, Percy was just lying down bruised, and counted out by the spectators. While lying on the ground, he heard a voice which was his father Poseidon (the god of the sea), telling Percy to go to the water, because it is the source of his powers. So just by placing his hand in the water his wounds began to heal, and his strength was not only renewed, but he was stronger than before. As he started to approach his opponent again this time he had the courage and confidence. The change in his demeanor was so noticeable that his opponent got extremely nervous and knew instantly that she was defeated.

My son loved that part and so did I because that particular scene in the movie spoke to me because Christ has given us the living water the Holy Spirit. We can only get our strength from Him. He is the one who heals our wounds when we have been beating down by our adversary. Whether it is a divorce, broken/bad relationships, destructive decisions that we have made, Christ is the one that we need to turn to so that we can face our adversary with courage and confidence. What I didn’t mention about the movie, was that Percy was always drawn to water, but he never quite knew why until the voice of his Father told him that the water was the source of his strength.

On the spiritual side, if you are not hearing the voice of our Heavenly Father by reading and hearing His Word, you will never know how powerful you are through Christ. It is physically impossible to survive without water. Likewise, spiritually we cannot live without the Living Water that Christ provides. He is the source for our lives. Just like Percy you might feel awkward but just don’t know why or you feel an insatiable thirst that cannot be quenched by the World. I was reading John 4:13-14 it says “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

It is my prayer everyone will be Applying Biblically scriptures for Life Essentials, so at the end of the day you can say that I’M A.B.L.E. Being a Christian is not only a title but a lifestyle. By applying God's Word to our daily lives, we can have the victory over our trials and tribulations that we might encounter but here is the challenge, we cannot apply something that we don't know.  In order to know Gods word we have to diligently seek Him by studying and meditating on the Word of God, followed by daily prayer should be a daily. By doing this, we have the privilege of drinking from His presence by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Remember the power of the (Living Water)!

God Bless!!