"Dance with me daddy"

Today I was at the park with my little cousin. I played basketball with him for awhile and then sat on the court to watch him play with his friends. A couple minutes later I see a little boy (age 4-5) running up the hill by the courts and running behind him was his dad. The little boy was laughing and smiling so big, his dad was chasing him laughing too.

The little boy had his own little ball and his dad a regular basketball. They played together on the basketball court for a little bit but since the little boy was still small he couldn't get the ball in the basket so his dad lifted him onto his shoulders and helped lift him up to put the ball in the basket. The little boy again was smiling and laughing. They played for a while more and then started playing (tackling, wrestling, tickling) in the grass area. The little boy never stopped smiling or laughing.

Fathers are very important in a child's life. In our world today there are many kids growing up without fathers for many different reasons. There are kids hurting daily because of the absence of their fathers/mothers. I think boys look up to their father for that guidance and to do that male bonding with to make the boy grow up strong and become the protector of his own family some day. I think the girls look to their daddys for the meaning of what love really means.A girl is her daddys little princess and the first prince charming the little girl meets is her daddy.

Watching that little boy and his dad today made me think back to a movie "Courageous". If I've ever been touched by any movie it's that movie. In the movie Emily (the little girl) asks her daddy to dance with her in the grass of the bank parking lot. Too scared to be embarrassed the dad says "I'm dancing with you in my heart" and so the little girl begins to show him how to dance. In the movie, the little girl dies in a car wreck. The dad is laying in bed one night and has a dream of that day when she was dancing in the grass and he wakes up crying saying "I should've danced with her." That event in his life brought him back to Gods word and he begins studying on how to become a better father to his 15 year old son, who he had an estranged relationship with. His son loves to run and had been trying to get his dad to run with him in a 5k race before the accident. During the fathers journey in scripture about learning how to become a better father he creates this resolution to stand up and be the man and father God has called him to be. My point is cherish every moment cause it isn't promised.

For those of you who don't have your father in your life, I know it hurts, and I know you look at children with their dad wishing you could have that. Maybe you don't know your dad, maybe your dad has chosen not to be part of your life, maybe your dad has chosen a lifestyle of drugs/alcohol over having a relationship with you, maybe your dad passed away, maybe your parents are divorced and you live with your mom and never see your dad much. My encouragement to you is hold on to God. I know it may sound cliche but when you encounter his love you will know what the love of a father is. He may not be able to physically be here with you but he is in your heart if you've accepted him.

My point is, today as I watched the little boy and his dad I kept thinking about writing this blog. I know many of my teen friends go trough this feeling of wishing they had this father figure in their life because their father is absent in their life. In a way I'm thankful I can relate because I can write this knowing how it feels. I also know that Jesus loves us, and because of that we can understand the real meaning of love. Jesus will never leave us, never give up on us, never get mad at us, and will never walk out on us. I believe that's why it's so hard sometimes because we can not fully understand how deep, how wide, how great God loves us. We compare our relationship with Jesus to that of a human relationship. We think that if we mess up and sin, he will leave us and get mad at us. That's not true. He loves us, he loves us so much that he sent his own son to die on a cross. That blood that came from his body shows the meaning of love, because his blood heals us, restores us, helps us, saves us, heals our broken hearts, and gives us strength to make it through this life.

Heres what we can do, we can love our fathers and pray for them. This generation can break the cycle of fatherless homes by loving God and serving him in our lives. Young men can choose to be the father and husband to their kids and wife that God has called them to me and young women can be the mother and wife God has called them to be by serving God and devoting their life to him so that in both their lives/marriages/parenting God is number one, God is the center, and it all revolves around him in our daily lives.

"We were made to be courageous, we were made to lead the way, we could be the generation to finally break the chains" - Casting Crowns song Courageous.

Be encouraged,
Tiffany Elaine.

Just watch me.

Wow ! Only 12 days until I head off to Tennesse for a couple days to visit Lee University ! I also have an appointment to register for my classes :) ! It's all becoming so real ! I've dreamed about these days for 4 years. In this case it's safe to say dreams do come true. In 140 days I'll be moving into my dorm room to begin this new journey ! I'm a little excited as if you couldn't tell haha ! :)

One thing most people don't know about me is im a strong and passionate person. I'm willing to fight for what I deserve and not give up. Unfortunately I've been through things most people will never have to go through in life and in my heart I tell myself that's okay it's made me who I am, it's made me strong :). I lean on Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11 even on the hard days :). I'm always encouraging everyone because I know how it is to have people discourage you, no one deserves that's :).

My positive attitude comes from knowing that there is hope because I found hope in Jesus. I'll admit some days can be hard, DUH we're human ;), but even the hard days I can encounter peace through Jesus :).

Plenty of times people doubt my ability to do something. For instance, no one ever thought I would be the person I am today. No one could've ever imagined me living my life for God and serving him in all I do. Again, I would NOT be the person I am today without going through things in my life I have gone through. I'm so thankful for my testimony. When you have people in your life who are constantly discouraging you or telling you that you can't do something it can be tough. In my life I've found that the more people tell me I can't do something the more I lean on God. The more I encourage myself in the word the more I build myself up. I also find the strength inside myself that gives me the will and passion to fight for what I deserve. I refuse to settle for less than what God has for me.

I've made it this far on my own with Jesus and I will continue making it on my own with Jesus until I reach the place he has intended me to be. I will do all he's called me to do, I will be all he's called me to be. There's no point in telling me I can't do something because if God has planned it for my life, no one can change it :). Just watch me. I'm going into a new season in my life and Lee Univeristy is only the beginning :).

Xo,

Tiffany :)

Spiritual Growth.

Hmm, where to begin ? I've been reading the word and I noticed I had gained so much understanding since my heart has become hungry and thirsty for the word. Gods doing a new thing in my life. As I was reading, some scriptures were just screaming scenarios at me. Things I never understood before were making clear statements and were so powerful when I read them.

I posted the other night on my Facebook, "What if we all became desperate enough to reach out/push through every limitation and touch Jesus like the woman who suffered from the issue of blood for 12 years. Could you imagine what would happen ?". As I was reading about the woman with the issue of blood, it struck me so hard. For 12 YEARS she suffered, yet one day she became so desperate to push through the crowd, she pushed through every limitation, and reached out and touched Jesus. WOW !!!! It still blows my mind.

We sometimes hold ourself back from what God has intended us to have. We set limitations for ourself and never push through them because we want to be content. Other times in our life we are placed in circumstances and situations that we have no control over. Maybe it's health problems, loss of job, abusive relationships, etc. So in our suffering who do we turn to ? We turn to Jesus, right ? We pray and pray and sometimes maybe it feels our prayers aren't being answered. We long for Jesus to reach out and touch us, BUT what if we got desperate ? What if our hearts became sooooo desperate to reach out and touch God ? What if we pushed through every limitation we had and just reach out to touch him?

I can't even begin to imagine what would happen. I definitely believe something supernatural would take place. Something only God can do. Miracles would take place. Whoa. Could you just imagine that for a moment ? Wow. Wow. Wow.

Last night, I posted another post "You've got to come to that place in your heart where you just believe it's going to happen. You don't know how, you don't know when, but it's going to happen. When you reach this point, what could you possibly lose ? If anything, you could gain everything you've been praying for. I believe."

I've doing a ton of reading and I can just feel myself growing more and more. With this, I've just come to place in my heart where I believe it's going to happen. Anything I pray for, I believe it's going to happen. I've prayed before to have faith like this, but I believe you've just got to come to that place in your heart where you understand that this is real, this is what your heart desires, and no matter what you go through it's worth the fight. Maybe it seems you've been fighting your whole life, I understand that feeling well, but one thing I always tell myself, don't give up it's worth the fight, just don't give up.

Any who, just wanted to share what I've been up to. Lots and lots of spiritual growth taking place. I believe Gods preparing me for big things in my life. New journeys, new levels, and miracles. :)

Xoxo,
Tiffany Elaine.

Learning and Growing Up.

Remember when you were in Jr High and you couldn't wait to grow up, to drive, to get a job, to move out, to go to college, to get married, or to have children ? Well, growing up isn't always easy. You have responsibilities that you didn't have before. You aren't protected from the things of this world. You are pressured to compromise your life for things. You have to learn to become independent. If you are planning to go to college you have to make sure paperwork is done, financial parts are taken care of, and prepare to leave home. If your moving out, you have to get a job and a whole new set of responsibilities are added because you will now have bills. All these things aren't mentioned or in the mindset when your young.
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One change you must learn is to be independent. To become independent you must not depend on someone. From the time your a baby until your a toddler you are dependent on your parents to take care of you. When you become a toddler/preschooler you suddenly learn to do things on your own, but you still depend on your parents for your basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, protection, love, and care. This usually lasts until you're 16 when you can start driving and get a job, even then you are still in someways dependent. Now some people may not have the fairytale lifestyle where they have two parents to depend on. Maybe they are the ones playing the role of parents in some ways, so they're forced by circumstance to grow up much sooner than other kids. The quality this posses can be quite hard to understand, but because that child is playing the role of parent they need emotional dependancy. They search for it, only sometimes to never find it.

Another thing you must learn is to overcome your fears. To overcome your fears you must face them. Fears are natural in every human being. Some fears can be severe and others not so much. Such as; fear of spiders, not so bad right ? Well what if someone has a fear of losing everything ? That fear can cause worry, anxiety, pain, hurt, anger, bitterness, and a whole list of other emotions. If you're scared of spiders you can always turn of the tv or kill the spider, but if you're scared to lose everything your constantly obsessing over having everything. There's a big difference in those small fears that you can do something about and the fears you feel like you can't do something about.

Another thing you must learn is you are going to fail. To become successful you must know what failure is. No one wants to fail because it hurts. In our world today, you can get whatever you want at the time usually instantly. Whether it be you're hungry so you go to fast food, you want to listen to a certain song so you go to iTunes or YouTube, you want to watch a certain show you can search for it or record it on DVR to have at all times. We live in a time where we want it now, we don't want to wait. Do you think Thomas Edison wanted to fail 1000 times before inventing the light bulb ? No, I'm sure he didn't. He took his failure and learned how not to do it the next time. It doesn't matter if he continued to fail because eventually after learning what not to do, he learned what to do and it's then that the lightbulb was invented. Everyone wants to be successful but you will fail so take what you've learned from your failure and let it create drive, hardwork, perserverance, and determination. Never stop learning from your failure, only then will you succeed.

I've learned that having a relationship with Jesus Christ is much like all three of these points. You must not be dependent on man but You must depend on God through Jesus Christ and the word. You must face your fears because God doesnt want us to be fearful of the wrong things but to be fearful of the right things. You must fail in your life to know that your failure is the reason why Jesus carried his own cross to die on Calvary so that his blood would cover your failure and forgive you of your sins.

I know what pain is, but because of that pain I know how it feels to have God do open heart surgery and heal the wounds of your heart.
I know what sorrow is, but because of sorrow I know how the joy of the Lord brings a smile to your face and that sweet laughter that is uncontrollable lightens your spirit.
I know what its like to feel weak, but because I've been weak I know that in my weakness God is made strong and he will uphold you and carry you when you can't walk.
I know what it's like to be broken, but because of brokeness I know what it feels like to be free from bondage. When your broken God can begin to form a foundation that is rooted in him and you will be molded to fit his will for your life.

I'm learning in my life that I can't put my sole faith in man. We were never intended to. We were always intended to solely rely on God. Sure, God places people in our life to trust, to encourage us, to build us up, to love and care for us but if you solely rely on that person and they let you down you're going to cause yourself alot of heartache. I'm not saying not to trust people, I'm saying to put your whole trust in God always and not on a person because they're human too.

I'm also learning God is bigger than my circumstances. Well some may say, duh, that's common sense. It may be, but when your human we tend to allow our circumstances and the pain of our lives dictate and determine our outcome. If God said it in his word, it is so. Nothing can change what he says. Everything in this world is his. No one, no thing, can determine what he has already said we were going to be or do in life.

Our "Amen" at the end of every prayer wasn't meant to be just an ending to a dialogue it was meant so that when we end "it is so, so be it". I want to start meaning "Amen" when I pray to God because when you ask you will receive and we live so low of what God has intended for us because we're not asking him for what we were intended to have. We compromise and settle for less. I don't want to settle, even if it doesn't come instantly, I don't want to settle for less than what God says I deserve. If God says that he's going to provide for me to go to school for ministry AMEN "it is so, so be it", if God says he's going to birth something in your ministry/church AMEN "it is so, so be it", if God says your going to be healed of the illness you've been battling and your wondering how much longer you have to battle it I say AMEN "it is so, so be it" you're healed. You see AMEN is a powerful word that can change your life, but we must have faith. What is faith, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It doesn't work the way we want, we cant say God heal me then I'll believe in your healing, we must believe and have faith to posses your healing.

I'm also learning not to care about what people think of my relationship with God. At Winterfest when I believe it was Clay from Hillsong New York who said "You weren't called to fit in, you were called to be set apart". I knew that so many times I have limited myself and Gods will because I was more concerned about fitting in with other Christians instead of wanting to be set apart to carry the fire of God to a generation that needs revival. I can only be accountable to God for my relationship, we can't worry about what others will think of our relationship with him. If you have to impress everyone else so they think your some super holy saint of God then you need to reevaluate your relationship with God, because so many times we are pretending to be something we weren't made to be, so we limit Gods power and love when it's limitless to begin with.

This isn't just post-winterfest hype for me and I'm not some super spiritual teenager who is living by a temporary moment of an event. This is what my heart craves and desires. This is what I was made for. I was created to serve God and to bring his word. To be part of a revival in this generation that will spark a revival in this nation. I have never wanted the favor of God in my life to fulfill the call on my life as much as I want it now. This is my life. This is what God has purposed me for.

I have alot of growing up and learning spiritually to do, but that should always be a continuous thing throughout ones life. I can't look back on my life and wonder what it would have been like if I didn't serve God to his full purpose, because that's a life wasted. It took "ONE MOMENT" for God to wreck me, to break my heart, to destroy all I've ever known so I could know his will, his purpose, his plan for my life.

Hope this post reaches someone.

Tiffany Elaine