What We Become Is Our Gift To God

Today, I woke up with my Tia Ofelia (Sister Celine) on my mind.  I really need to plan a trip to see her soon.  She is an amazing woman and the closest to God's miracle that I have ever known. Her life and the obstacles she overcame are just a testimony to God's love for her and what He can do for us and through us if we just allow Him in our hearts. I'm so blessed to have her in my blood line!  Her life is a complete gift to God and to others!

For those of you who don't know much about my family line.....my biological grandfather passed away when my grandmother was pregnant with my Mom.  So, my Mom never met her biological father.  My great aunt is his only sibling and the only connection I have really ever had to my biological grandfather on my Mom's side.  The love my Great Aunt has for her brother (my grandfather) is exhibited by the love she shows to my Mom, my aunt, my cousins, and my sister and myself.  She loves us so much!!!!!!!  She makes me happy just thinking about her.  The picture below is a picture of three of the most important women in my life!!  I cherish this picture so much! It makes my heart happy to see all three of them together.  (my mommy is the one in the beautiful pink dress that my sissy, step-dad, and I gave her as a gift one year) Aren't they all beautiful and lovely!?!? :)  I'm truly blessed to have such amazing women in my life!

As I thought about my tia this morning, I thought about all that she has taught me.  The one thing she taught me is that no matter what life throws at us or what cards we were dealt in life, we always have a choice to become what God created us to become.  We always have a choice to be a good person who honors Him in all.  Her beauty surpasses any beauty I have ever known.  Her soul truly belongs to Him and it's seen in everything she does and in everything she says.  I can only hope to be a quarter of the gift to God that she has been for Him.  Because of her, I know that God loves me and has big plans for me!  She is the reason why I try my hardest to spread His word and His love.  She showed me that kind of love since I was a baby and it really made a BIG impact on my life.

I hope today you will go out and show somebody God's love and make an impact!  Let your life be a gift to God and let your light shine!

Favorite Memories of 2013

2013 was filled with good times and bad times....mostly good times.  Here is a break down of some of my favorite memories of 2013

I spent Valentine's Day with my sweet Daisy..... she always makes the best Valentine.

In February I also started my job at Covenant and met some wonderful friends.

My family celebrated two birthdays and I enjoyed every moment of them.... Kylee and Uncle Chon.

My Mommy, Daisy, and I hopped in the car and took a girl's trip and spent St. Patrick's weekend with my sissy and met some of her sweet friends who sang praise and worship music, which Daisy adored so much as you can tell in the picture below.  On the way home we stopped by to visit my amazing Great Aunt.

Regina and I celebrated my birthday by moving into our new apartment.

In April, I met up with some of my old high school pals while Michael was in town.  We had so much fun reminiscing and it was great spending time with some of my favs.

Easter fun with the fam......

Sister came in to celebrate Mom's birthday.

April 6th marked the first year anniversary from when my cousin Raul passed away and we had his memorial in Brownfield.  My Aunt Ofelia and Uncle Raymond came in, along with my sissy and brother in love and we celebrated his life!

I was also asked to be a part of Miles For Missions hosted by Church On The Rock.  This organization is amazing as it's focus is sending God's servants out into the mission field!  I was able to link up with my sweet friend Annie.

Silly way to celebrate my niece MacKenzie's birthday but we had a lot of fun.... LOL

We took a family trip to Colorado for my cousin Alec's graduation and we had SO MUCH FUN!!!!! Colorado is BEAUTIFUL and family trips are a blast!!!!!!

Unfortunately my family has lost a handful of family members to cancer and we also have some survivors.  So every year my family gets together to support Relay For Life.  This was the first year that I was in town to participate and it was an honor to be among so many survivors and their family members, including my own family!!

Summer was fun.... I watched my little cousin Kinley play an awesome game of ball....she rocks!!!!

We had fun in the sun!

and sweet visits from literal angels on earth....

And I helped celebrate one of my best friend's birthdays..... Natasha!  I met Natasha this year through unusual circumstance and we immediately became besties.  I love her so much and she has already proven to be an amazing life long friend.  She has helped me through some trying times this year and her faith in God is amazing!!!  I prayed for amazing Christian girlfriends and God is providing!!!!

This year I walked the Koman Breast Cancer walk with the gals from work.  We walked in honor of one of the sweet nurses that works with us, Dixie and I also walked in honor of my Aunt Barbara who is also a survivor.

Every year, I celebrate Teal Toes for Ovarian Cancer and this year, it was hosted by my friend Margo.  I also had several friends from all over paint their toes and send me pics.  It was amazing seeing my friends participate in this cause.

Fall is my favorite season and my cousins and I had so much fun having our Pumpkin Patch and Carving night..... We picked some big ol' pumpkins and had a blast carving them!

Halloween was in full effect at the office.

and we can't have fall without TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL!!!!! DUH!!!!!

One of my cousins is having her first child and it was an honor to celebrate at her baby shower with her.  She is one of the sweetest and kindest people that I know! It's awesome to watch all of her dreams coming true!

We kicked Christmas season off with Cousins Painting Night where we painted Christmas paintings.  We had so much fun and I reflected a lot on how special my relationships are with each of my cousins.  I have made it a point to honor my relationships with my cousins since my cousin Rachel passed away twelve years ago.  Cousins are like siblings that you don'tt have sibling rivalry with haha..... they are our best friends and the ones we grow up with and I'm so blessed to have amazing cousins in my life!!!!!  My cousins and my sister are truly my greatest and bestest friends in my life!!!!

Ending my year of favorite memories is of course Christmas Eve with the family!!!!  We had so much fun and it always makes me thankful for the family I have.  Sure we have our differences and we can be "dysfunctional" from time to time haha but they are my family......my blood and my biggest supporters!  I love you guys!

In looking back at my memories, I spent the majority of the year with my awesome family and I wouldn't change a thing.  I moved back to Texas specifically for my family, so it's awesome to reflect and look back and see that the majority of my year and favorite moments are with my family!  I'm so excited for 2014.  I know it's going to be an amazing year for myself and for all of my loved ones.  2013 was a year of seed planting and 2014 is the year for the harvest!!!!  Happy New Year GUYS!!!!!!!!!!  

My Soul Has No Wrinkles

So, a lot has happened over the last week.  Some things that have left me in awe of Him and His love for me.  Some things that have made me question what I am really doing with my life and circumstance that have allowed me to realize that I have not been completely putting God first in my life.  I try to be a good Christian.  I pray, dig into The Word, and talk about Jesus non stop.  However, the one thing I have failed to do is to totally trust Him and trust how He wants my life to unfold.  So many times I take matters into my own hands and end up creating my own destiny.  I have done this over and over again. 

My Aunt Ofelia came to visit and if you have kept up with my blog over the years, you know how much this woman means to me.  She is the most precious person in my life and I always adore my time with her! 

She is just so amazing!  I spent the afternoon with her yesterday and we talked about so much!  We talked about God, relationships, and death.  In our talk about death we talked about aging.  She explained to me that she had asked God the other morning if she was getting old and wrinkled and she said He answered her with "your soul does not have wrinkles".  We giggled but I walked away so inspired by that one comment. 

As we age, we begin to wonder where the time has gone.  We look back and remember the bad choices we have made, the loved ones we have lost, and we often find ourselves wondering if we truly did everything in our lives that we were supposed to.  As I said my prayers last night before bed, I wondered if God felt the same way about my soul, that it has no wrinkles.  See, somebody like my Aunt who has given her whole life to serve Him, I know does not have one wrinkle in her soul.  As I sat in prayer with my head hanging down, I wept.  I asked Him what I could do have a soul and a life to honor Him.  I asked Him questions about love and life and what I needed to change for my life to be more honoring to Him.  I fell asleep in prayer (I do this often because I pray and pray and pray until I wake up the next morning realizing I never quite ended my prayer).  As I awoke this morning, I felt His warmth in my spirit and He whispered, "I will make you wise and show you where to go."  As I did my Bible study this afternoon, I stumbled upon Psalm 32:8, "I will make you wise and show you where to go."  I love how He confirms when He speaks. 

I don't have all of the answers and I will always fall short but I know I have a loving God who I can come to and ask questions, who I can call upon when I'm not really sure what I'm doing or what I am supposed to do next.  He always comes through for me and He always guides me.  I need not worry about what the next chapter in life is because He already has it written for me.  All I need to do is follow His lead.  He will show me where to go and most importantly, He will always smooth out the wrinkles in my soul! 

Birthdays and St. Patrick's Day

I'm a month behind on pictures, which is very unusual for me but I've been so super busy these days! I'll get better....I promise!  

One of the perks to living back home is that I see FAMILY pretty much EVERY SINGLE DAY and I love it!  Spending every holiday and birthday with them is AMAZING!  I will never take this for granted again.  I took total advantage of it before I ever moved to Arkansas and being away for so many years and losing family members along the way has made me realize how special family is!  Sure we fight and get on one another's nerves from time to time but I love 'em!!!!  I'm pretty sure I have the best family ever! 

So, my birthday was a little odd this year because it was busy, stressful, yet awesome!  Regina and I moved into our apartment that day and Daisy also had surgery.  However, we were still able to enjoy the day and my family made it very special for me even though we were busy with moving and all. 

Here is Daisy's little wound....she was so pathetic after getting out.....my heart ached for her!

 

Momma started my birthday off with her amazing hot chocolate and yummy breakfast!

 

 

And our moving day began!

 

 

 

 

A couple of weeks later we celebrated my uncle's birthday by taking him out to eat!  I am pretty sure he had the time of his life!

 

 

St Patrick's weekend came upon us and my mommy and I drove to Oklahoma to visit and help take care of my sister who had just had surgery.  We spent St. Patrick's Day with her and laid around all day in our pajamas and matching St. Patty's Day socks! :)

 

 

We had a chance to meet a couple of her sweet friends there and one of them sang beautiful praise and worship music.  Even Daisy was in love with her music and couldn't take her eyes off of her....

 

 

 

 

We spent a few days with sissy and on our way back to Lubbock made a stop at the convent to see my Tia Ofelia.  My Tia Ofelia is also known as Sister Celine and who just so happens to be the most amazing woman I know!  Sharing her blood is an HONOR and nobody will ever understand how much this woman means to me!  I love her and always enjoy our time together!  She fell in love with Daisy and asked me to bring her back to visit soon!

 

 

I love being back home!  Dorothy hit the nail on the head when she said, "there's no place like home...."  All is good in Crysal's world! 

 

 

 

God Bless....