Monday Inspiration: February 9, 2015

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By: Gabriela Yareliz

Greetings! It’s a Wintry-Mix Sunday/Monday. Let’s get pumped for an awesome week! Ready?

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“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” Mexican Proverb

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“If you wear the wrong glasses, you won’t see things correctly.” Dr. Tony Evans

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“Yet one thing secures us whatever betide, the scriptures assure us that the Lord will provide.” Isaac Newton

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“There is an inner beauty about a woman who believes in herself, who knows she is capable of anything she puts her mind to. There is a beauty and strength and determination of a woman who follows her own path, who isn’t thrown off by obstacles along the way. There is a beauty about a woman whose confidence comes from experiences–who knows she can fall, pick herself up, and keep going.” Unknown

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“Yes, we could have been great, but I find a strange comfort in knowing you aren’t going to be my best.” Best (Tumblr)

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“Every idea we form, He must in mercy shatter. The most blessed result of prayer would be to rise thinking, ‘But I never knew before. I never dreamed…'” C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

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“Truth has been relegated to subjectivity; beauty has been subjugated to the beholder; and as millions are idiotized night after night, a global commune has been constructed with the arts enjoying totalitarian rule.” Ravi Zacharias

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“The female doesn’t want a rich man, or a handsome man, or even a poet. She wants a man who understands her eyes if she gets sad, and points to his chest and says, ‘Here is your home country.'” Nizar Qabbani

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“You may fear the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: He who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved. Approach Him and be at peace.” Charles Spurgeon

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“He is always doing something–the very best thing, the thing we ourselves would certainly choose if we knew the end from the beginning. He is at work to bring us to our full glory.” Elisabeth Elliot

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“She asked, ‘You are in love, what does love look like?’ To which I replied, ‘Like everything I’ve ever lost came back to me.'” Nayyirah Waheed

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May the next few months be a period of magnificent transformation.

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This is cute:

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Throwback to December 2014; We are like different countries with our own foreign policy and culture, but when it’s time for war, state dinners, changing the world, etc. we are and will always be allies.

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This dress:

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“When it all seems so numb and bleak, may your Spirit remind me gently that I am to burn with love and hope. I am falling, teach me to stand back up. I am drowning, teach me to kick and never stop. I am bound to heartbreak, teach me to love again. You are calling me, and I have grown deaf, so come to me and hold me; I need you Lord, I need you, and only you.” T.B. LaBerge, Thy Will Be Done

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An old Nicole Richie Madden family portrait.

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“Don’t worry about having the right words; worry more about having the right heart. It’s not eloquence He seeks, just honesty.” Max Lucado

“You belong to a patient God. Not to a hurry up and fix yourself God, but a be still and let me heal you God. Not a why do you keep doing this God, but a God who gives you the keys to break the cycle. God is patient, and He is pleased to take His time with you.” Unka Glen 

Love is patient. Let’s live it out this week.

[Photos from Tumblr]

If You Are Going To Shop…

“For you say I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” Revelation 3:18-19

“The gold here recommended as having been tried in the fire is faith and love…the white raiment (garment) is purity of character, the righteousness of Christ imparted to the sinner…the eyesalve is that wisdom and grace which enables us to discern between good and evil, and to detect sin under any guise. He says: ‘Buy of Me.'” Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, pg. 88, 89

Thursday Brain Dump: February 5, 2015

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INSANITY. INSANITY. INSANITY. So, I thought I would post some of my favorite things.

That tree reminds me of home.

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Sleep for 4 hours, and then waking up feeling like this:

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Another snow storm on Monday? Wintry mix, you say?

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Agreed.

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Photo below from @soylavalverde. I love this. We need one in the clinic.

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I am going to find a pile of melting snow, and make it my little stream.

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Someday, my kids and I will say:

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Continue. Being. Fierce. &. Unstoppable.

Jordanian Retribution

After the insanely brutal, scarring execution of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbe, King Abdullah II has decided to hit ISIS, and hit it hard. Now that tragedy has touched home so directly (we must keep in mind Jordan is also home to more than 640,000 Syrian refugees; another crisis the country is dealing with), King Abdullah II has sent ISIS forces a message, You will be destroyed.

[Badass photos from: The Royal Hashemite Court Instagram]

Wednesday Musings: February 4, 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

So, Wednesday just about killed us all here. What a day. It has been a day of exhaustion, true brain power and learning. I needed to take a minute and just breathe.

“You’ve been invited to taste & see.
Don’t be satisfied to just believe & agree.”

“Jesus plus nothing is the answer to humanity.”

Judah Smith

“I do the very best I know how–the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Maybe the heart is tired because it has been fed with all the wrong things.”

Unknown

“God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.”

Martin Luther

“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

“I have learned that if all we ever do is seek God’s hand, we may miss His face; but if we seek His face, He will be glad to open His hand and satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts.”

Daniel Henderson

Today, I learned:

Note to self: Don’t seek to be relevant, or liked, seek to be undeniable. Seek to be compassionate. Seek integrity. Seek humility. Seek light. -Unknown

[Images from Tumblr]

Monday Inspiration: February 2, 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Happy Monday! Freezing rain and snow have made us go slippin’ and slidin’ to school. This week is going to be a challenge. Time to get some inspiration in the veins.

I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.

Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.

Vincent van Gogh

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

Mother Theresa

These are the days that must happen to you.

Walt Whitman

The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in a single, solitary, even humble individual. For it is within the soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.

Henry David Thoreau

It’s part of our human condition: We want to be known. We want to be great.
And God is whispering it to our love-hungry hearts:

You already are. You are known.

You are loved. You are approved.
Look how much.

Ann Voskamp

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Rainer Maria Rilke

People matter, not organizations and systems. People. People. People.
Alex Seeley
Love does not pamper. It prunes and perfects and pursues. It is a sweet embrace and a sanctifying chisel.
J.S. Park
Our prayers may be awkward.
Our attempts may be feeble.
But since the power of prayer
is in the One who hears it
and not in the one who says it,
our prayers do make a difference.
Max Lucado
[Images from Tumblr]

This Month’s Picks: January 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

The first chapter of 2015 has just closed, and we turn the page. New beginnings; new challenges; new inspiration. I hope that you find a bit of hope, laughs, reflection and fun in this corner of January favorites.

1] Girl Meets World knows the New York struggle.

2] I’ve read a lot of Isaac Newton recently.

“Sir Isaac Newton was asked how he discovered the law of gravity. He replied, ‘By thinking about it all the time.'”

3] Hilarious. Cats.

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“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.” Job 6:24

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“God who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.” C.S. Lewis

8] Macarena Garcia being retro.

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“It is easier to hide behind philosophical arguments, heavily footnoted for effect, than it is to admit our hurts, our confusions, our loves, and our passions in the marketplace of life’s heartfelt transactions.” Ravi Zacharias

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11] @YasminSewell had her baby on New Years Day. (from @YasminSewell)

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12] This man writes so beautifully. T.B. LaBerge, I am a fan.

“Does she scare you a little? Good. She should make you fear her love, so that when she lets you be apart of it, you won’t take it lightly. She should remind you of the power that beauty brings, that storms reside in her veins, and that she still wants you in the middle of it all. Do not take this soul for granted, for she is fierce, and she can take you places that you never thought you could go; but she is still loving in the midst of it all, like the calm rain after a storm, she can bring life. Learn her, and cherish her, respect her, and love her; for she is so much more than a pretty face, she is a soul on fire.” T.B. LaBerge// Things I am Still Learning at 25

13] Leila Bekhti’s hairstyle. Perfection.

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“Whatever you immerse yourself in is what will pour out of you.
Today and everyday, I’m choosing to make that Jesus.” -Unknown

15] Zidane.

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“It’s better to know God than to know why.” Unknown

17] Always.

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“Listen–are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” Mary Oliver

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24] I hope that at the end of 2015, we say this:

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28] The job search face. 🙂

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29] Books are friends. Read something that will change your life.

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31] Open the windows to your heart to let light stream in.

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32] Things to write home about: Blizzard?

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38] Blanca Suarez

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39] New Yorker humor.

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40] #JeSuisNico is epic.

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46] The Grace Tour came to Gainesville, Florida, and I got to see them. It was such a blessed time. Grace, service, ministry and transformation.

[Images from Tumblr]

Reflections Before Bedtime #7

“We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.” C. S. Lewis,  Mere Christianity

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I finished the book of Deuteronomy today. I finished the books of the law. As I continue to journey on through scripture, I am studying and scribbling down notes and observations. It is incredible when scripture brings you to see God and His character in a clearer way, and it can be impacting when it brings you face to face with yourself.

Tonight, after much praying, reading, discussion and thought, all I can say is:

“For I will proclaim the name of The Lord;

ascribe greatness to our God.

The Rock, His work is perfect,

for all His ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,

just and upright is He.”

Deuteronomy 32: 3-4