Guard Your Heart

"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." - Proverbs 4:23
Proverbs is a book that's full of wisdom and advice to help us through life. We're instructed to guard our hearts. Too many times we open up our heart to someone that doesn't deserve it. Too many times we open our heart to a situation that is not worth it. When we become emotionally invested in something, we open ourselves up to a world of hurt. We must give our hearts to Jesus and allow him to be the keeper of our heart. Anything that doesn't line up with Jesus is not good for us. Jesus is and always will be the standard.

When it comes to relationships (romantic or platonic)  it is so important to guard your heart. When you become too invested too quickly, and things do not work out, it will be harder to get over. I recently got out of a relationship. After 10 months, it was over and all I could think  about was how much I invested. When it comes to love, we must take it slow. Songs of Solomon is a book all about romantic love. "I charge you... that ye not stir up, nor awake my love, till he please." -Songs of Solomon 2:7. This scriptures reminds us to wait on love & let it come naturally. 

While I'm sad about my relationship ending, I have to realize that God makes no mistakes. My last post was "The Bad That God Allows",  so I have to trust that God is working it out for my good. I will use this time of singleness to focus on my relationship with God, grow as a person and go after my goals. I will wait on God to send me the right person and until then I will guard my heart. 

-MemoirsOfJazz (MoJ) 

Get Over Yourself

Sometimes we miss out on our blessings because we are too picky. We give God a list of how we want our blessings to come. We have a "type" and "preference" but we fail to remember that our "type" was what BROKE our hearts and our "preference" led us astray.

We keep telling the Potter what His masterpiece WANTS, when He's trying to give us what we NEED. We keep giving specifics to what we think we want, and we're ignoring the blessings right in our face. We let our pride and prejudices keep us from great things. We try to make our lives look glamorous to other people but have we forgotten that God sees it all?

Maybe if we stop fronting, we will connect with those who God sent into our lives. Maybe if we stop trying to build up our image, we will realize there are so many people like us. If we reject others because of their failure to measure up, we give God (and others), a reason to reject us because of our shortcomings. If God accepts it, what makes us think we are too good to accept it?

We claim that we don't judge, but then we handpick the people who get "the pleasure" of talking to us. Do we not remember that ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God? (Romans 3:23) Are we not aware that everyone has a purpose in the kingdom of God?

Don't be the person who keeps you from your OWN blessing. Get OVER Yourself.

.:JRSN:.

Year Twenty

Year twenty, God has brought me thus far,

Even though things were a little bizarre,

A change has come upon my life,

Receiving liberation from hurt and strife,

Take a look around, I’m not where I used to be,

When did I change into a better me?

Everything that happened, good and bad,

Nurtured me to appreciate the life I had,

Take a look around, I like the view, 

Year twenty, I don’t look like what I’ve been through 

.:JRSN:.

Stop the Violence.

Our cities have been overtaken with violence, crime, and evil. We have to stand up for our cities. We have to overcome evil with good. Let go of grudges. Grudges lead to hate which is the root of violence. Love cancels out hate. And perfect love which comes from God cancels out fear ( 1 John 4:18 ).

We need to get back to loving and appreciating each other. We need to get back to praying for the protection of our loved ones. Tomorrow is NOT promised. So pray and love today. It’s time to turn [back] to God.  We have gotten so far away from Him and it shows through the violence and crime. 

These are OUR cities. We should not have to live in fear. We have a responsibility to ourselves, our families and our cities. Start praying for your city, family and friends. Look out for your neighbors. If you see it, it’s your responsibility. We can’t keep doing the same things with the same mindsets expecting different results.

These are OUR cities. If not us, then WHO? If not now, then WHEN? The violence and crime directly affects us! What else has to happen to get your attention? How much MORE can you take? If we do nothing, we LET violence, crime,and evil win. If we do nothing, we have NO right to complain. 

Know God, Know Peace. NO God, NO Peace.

.:JRSN:.

2013 Reflections: Let Go and Let God

2013 was without a doubt the worst year of my life. It was full of so much hurt, pain and disappointments. So many heartaches and headaches that I cannot even number them all. I learned in this year at age 18 and 19 what most people don’t learn until their 30s. My relationships with other people seemed to get worse as my relationship with God got stronger. God begin revealing things to me that I wasn’t ready to accept. I wasn’t ready to let go of a lot of things and people that I knew were bringing me down. It took me all the way until this month, December, for me to truly understand everything and accept it. All the sleepless nights, all the nights I spent crying, all the people who showed me their true colors. It was all for a reason. I thought I was grown at the beginning of the year but now here, the last day of the year, I realize most of my growth came this month. I understand it all now. I truly do. I realize that I don’t look like what I been through. I realize that my greater is coming. I realize that I’m more than a conqueror. I realize I had to let go and let God.

To everyone that hurt me in 2013, no hard feelings. You were a lesson. I know I hurt some people as well, whether intentional or unintentional. I know I was probably a lesson to some people. It's life. People hurt people. But I made a choice. You should too. Choose to get BETTER not BITTER !

So while 2013 was the worst year of my life, it was also the best. You see, I grew from all the bad. Like Alicia Keys said, “Yes, I was burned but I call it a lesson learned.” Although, I experienced so much pain, I’m thankful that I was able to learn from all the pain. I don’t have to go through that stuff again, because I passed the test. All the bad is in the past. So while this year was the best year of my life, it was also the worst year. And I’m confident that this will stay the worst year of my life, as each year will get better and better as God continues to bless me. It took me to lose everything to realize that I had to let go and let God.

.:JRSN:.

Do You Appreciate My Tears?

I try so hard to hold myself together. I desperately attempt to be strong. Seeking for answers, I always seem to do wrong.

The thing about pain is that it is inevitable. We cannot live our lives without pain. To go through life trying to escape pain, is to go through life without living at all. Pain is not the issue. The issue is how we let pain affect us. Some of us let our pain wear and tear on our mental and physical state of well-being. It drains us to the point where we feel we have nothing left to give. We go through life numb. We don’t allow our hearts to feel anything, because to open our heart would present an opportunity for pain to enter. By closing our hearts, we have closed the door to growth, insight and wisdom. Pain is not simply meant to hurt us. Pain is meant to teach us a lesson: to give us experience and knowledge in a memorable sense. We can associate our pain with memories, growth and insight.

I try so hard to feel something. I desperately attempt to open my heart. It isn’t easy. By closing my heart, I blocked my own joy, peace, and sense of fulfillment.  My closed heart didn’t just keep others out, but it kept me locked in. My spirit was not able to be at peace, because I was holding back the very essence of who I am: My love and care for others.

What is pain except the absence of comfort? Growth does not come until we exit our comfort zone and embark on the journey of the unknown.

I don’t shed many tears out in the open. I prefer to cry in the solitude of my own bedroom. So when you see my tears, don’t wonder why I cry. Don’t try to figure out who did me wrong and why. Don’t pretend to understand. My tears represent more than the pain that I have experienced. They represent my past, present and future. They represent the person that I was, am, and have yet to become. When you see my tears don’t be frightened or surprised. Just appreciate them because I’m giving you confirmation of my growth. 

.:JRSN:.

[ written 620/13 ]

Don't Force It

The hardest concept to understand is that God is spiritual and because of that, he doesn't work based on time. He sees our lives as a whole. If we try to make things happen before it's time, it won't work. Even if we're sure it's the right thing. If it's not the right time, it won't work till that time. The right thing at the wrong time can ruin us. It can crush our hopes and cause us to give up. We're too impulsive and we try to make things work, but if it's meant to be, it will be unmistakably clear at the right time. 

You may try and fail 100 times, when all you needed was 101. That right time. Sometimes we are so sure someone/something is meant to be in our lives, but we have confused their role in our lives. God brings everything in our lives for a reason that we may not even know and by trying to force it in a position where it doesn't belong we can mess up what it was actually meant to do in our lives.

Like trying to push a circle-shaped block into a triangle slot, it'll never work because that's not where it was intended to be. Eventually the circle will get damaged from trying to fit where it doesn't belong and when it finally gets to the circle slot, it'll be so damaged it won't fit properly. Don’t force it.

.:JRSN:.

A Look At Pain

Sometimes we have to pretend like we don’t want something in order to keep ourselves from being disappointed. We delusion ourselves into believing that we don’t want something to happen just because we know it’s not likely to happen.

All throughout our lives, we build up walls to save ourselves from hurt and disappointment. A lot of times it still doesn’t work. We still face something that we didn’t plan for.

No matter how much you plan, things don’t always turn out how we want. Pain is inevitable. Things are so painful that sometimes we just want to curl up in a ball and cry.  We have to smile to keep from crying. A smile keeps the pain from showing, keeps the world from knowing. It’s easier to smile than to explain what’s wrong. Smiling no longer represents happiness and joy, but rather it is used to disguise sorrow and pain.

Then there are times when we are hurting too much to hide the pain. An attempt at a smile only leads to tears. We hurt so much that we do everything we can to keep from crying. Crying doesn’t help anything. However, it relieves the body of stressful emotions. It makes us feel a little better. But when we wipe away our tears, the problems are still there. There are some problems that even smile and a laugh can’t fix. There is some pain that can’t be hid.

.:JRSN:.  
[ written 1/12/13 ]