Live to Love and Love Living!

Love definitely makes you feel empowered. Love makes you sing. Love envelopes you; swallows you up. You feel it coursing through your veins. It's embedded into your soul. You pursue love and it pursues you. It's a unique song. 

To know love is to know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8). When you experience His presence and sense that amazing love He has for you, you can't help but feel lost in it. Blissful. Content. Perfect. You ponder it and meditate on it. You think about the very essence of it. 

Paul says that love is patient, kind, and unfailing; that it hopes, protect, and perseveres (1 Corinthians 13). It's pure, unselfish, and forgiving. Love casts aside all pride, anger, and jealousy. Love, real love, is TRUTH and joy. 

Those verses are always rooted deep into my heart. Whenever I think about what love is, or how to love others, I measure it by those verses. Does my love look like that? Is God at the heart of it? Is it virtuous? Is it good? Is it truthful, patient, kind, and unselfish? How strong is the love in my heart? I want it to be genuine; fueled by God, for He IS love. He enables me to love.

Grace and peace to you, my friends! I hope that these words, verses, and this song will empower and motivate you to love! At this time of year, people seem more inclined to act in love. We feel generous and compassionate; wanting to bless others' lives during the holiday season. Though, we must remember, love shouldn't just be a seasonal thing. It's God's greatest command (Matthew 22:36-40). Live to love and you'll LOVE living! Be infused (with God's love)! God bless you!

Let the World Hear You ROAR!!

Recently, I have become aware of Katy Perry's new song: "Roar". When I first heard it, I felt very empowered and awestruck. In general, I feel that her songs are becoming more meaningful and deep ("Part of Me" and "Wide Awake" are the two examples I'm thinking of). I can't help but relate to her in the sense that sometimes pain opens our eyes, transforms us, and also sparks our creativity. We begin expressing ourselves and venting a lot when we are hurt (hopefully, in constructive ways like through music, art, writing, etc.). Katy Perry has channeled the pain of her divorce through her music. No doubt she has inspired, empowered, and helped so many others heal in various ways as she finds her own healing. Those three songs have definitely done that for me as I've pondered the lyrics and remind myself that no matter what, I'm going to be strong and overcome it all. I'm going to continue moving onward and upward; dealing with and healing from all the pain I've gone through so that I can be the best I can be!

I definitely feel like some of the lyrics in "Roar". I'm not being held down by anyone or anything now! I continue to just shake the dust off of things that I'm leaving behind and am feeling more and more liberated! I AM a champion! I am LOUDER than a lion! I have a voice and I'm going to be loud, proud, and make myself heard (not that I've ever been a quiet person anyways lol)! More than anything, I'm going to remember that I've "earned my stripes" and that "I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire." The world is going to hear me ROAR!!!! :)

Grace and peace to you, my friends!! I hope that reading this inspires you to roar your loudest! We are all created with purpose! Be loud and proud for Jesus and live your life out LOUD for Him! Keep persevering in your lives and continue to work hard to achieve your goals! You're going to make it! He's right there with you to give you all you need to accomplish it! Watch the videos below and listen to the lyrics. It's really powerful! The first video is Katy's original song. The second is a cover done by Alex Goot and Sam Tsui (if you haven't heard their work before, you'll get hooked on it in no time! Trust me! They're amazing!). Let the world hear you ROAR!! Make your mark on this earth and remember that you are inspiring others; including little tiger cubs (BIG shout out to MY tiger cub who turns 8 years old today!! Happy birthday my beautiful, fierce little tiger! Mommy is SO PROUD of you!! Keep roarin' loud and proud!). Be infused! God bless you!!