Evaporation

By: Gabriela Yareliz
Look who is back… I know after much silence. It’s a tough life we lead. (Smile). It’s back to school, and I am already preparing presentation outlines in French, and trying to decide how I will live through my capstone course. I will. I am convinced all things are possible through Christ. This now means, my life has officially evaporated. Yup. Last time before fall, when it really goes “poof!” because of law school (grin).

At least I still have my books. I finished a Queen Noor autobiography “Leap of Faith.” I felt like it was more about her husband, but whatever. Something had to fill the 600 pages. She is an interesting woman with interesting thoughts. I still don’t know how I’d feel being the fourth wife of a man double my age, but hey- whatever, right? That is why is is called “Leap of Faith.” I am now reading Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. I am surprised I didn’t have nightmares (thank God). Truly tragic. It put my problems into perspective by page 3.

Lastly, I read a book called “Cross Examination,” the author will be coming to UF at the end of Feb. it’s about whether our beliefs make our religion true or if we believe our religion because it is true. It was pure excellence. Logic and philosophy at its best.

In the book I found a quote about Jesus, by C.S. Lewis, that I really liked:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -‑ on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg ‑- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse.You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Truth.
I have contemplated much lately. So, I’ll have a lot to share on other days. For now, I depart from you to breathe. I have to get into some social media thing because my professor wants me to have the account-lame- no offense to him.

I am just a weird non-conformist who respects authority, but I don’t like people telling me what to do, when what is ordered is dumb. But here goes-
PS. It is End Sexual Trafficking Week!!!

Christmas

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I have finished two books. I am proud of myself. Today on the radio I cried (again) with Kidd Kraddick’s Christmas wish. Today they granted money and $10,000 (money for tuition) to a 19-year-old girl who has terminal cancer and takes care of her brother’s three kids. When you look at other people’s problems, yours seem to disappear.

Also on the radio, Jose Feliciano sang Feliz Navidad and the DJ said “Ole!” Jose Feliciano is Puerto Rican, not Mexican or Spanish (roll of the eyes). Yesterday, on a Christian station the women were talking about what they expect and want for Christmas. All they talked about was a clean house. For an hour! How shallow. Really? There’s nothing more important?

Christmas is coming and I have survived shopping thus far. I have navigated the stores well; found good finds and good sales. I have also managed to avoid eye contact with pushy sales people and the Dead Sea people that always want to put lotion on your hands. They are so friendly- but scary.

This weekend we get to go to a nursing home to sing Christmas songs and then pastor is having a Christmas party chez-lui. That is exciting! A lot of people are out of town though; the students are leaving and final exams are ending for the general population.

Today, for some reason I feel a bit of the Christmas spirit. I struggle with this from day to day. I keep thinking it better kick in because we are only days away. I think of lists to Santa; reindeer; Frank Sinatra (don’t ask); snow; Central Park; lit up store windows; faith; a baby in a manger; a bright star. Despite the melancholy, I feel a stripe of hope.

Final Exams

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I am done. No more final exams. I took my final final. 🙂 I am feeling great. Now, I must start doing what I dislike most, going to stores. It is that season. This morning, I thought no buses were running and I got all scared until some ghetto bus with what looked like Latin written in its header screen pulled up, and a hispanic driver in a beanie said, “Good morning!” Strange- but miraculous.

Now, I have free time! I have a stack of books waiting for me at the library. I already read one book called Praying for Strangers by River Jordan. It was excellent.

In it was a quote I’d like to share:

“The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, buy unoffered prayer.”         F.B. Meyer

And I found these other ones:

“The reason why we obtain no more in prayer is because we expect no more. God usually answers us according to our own hearts.”         Richard Alleine

“Effective prayer is prayer that attains what it seeks. It is prayer that moves God, effecting its end.”  Charles Finney

Prayer- it is what moves the hand that moves the universe :)(anonymous?)

I also must add that the little town of Williston looks amazing in the dark, all decorated. 🙂 A magical Christmas wonderland.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

 

Empty Campus; cold morning

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Hello! It is freezing outside. Yes, the cold front reached us in Florida. Horrible. This time I was prepared. I am wearing a black long sleeve boatneck, a purple scarf tied around the waist. A black corduroy blazer, and a navy corduroy coat from Gap with black fuzzy gloves that leave their fuzzies on EVERYTHING. But I am warm. My hair looks like I did it with dynamite.

The campus is empty. Not a creatue was stirring, not even a mouse…. okay maybe not. A nice looking Asian girl ran into the lab in her heels. Public Relations major- probably. They always walk around here in heels as if this were New York.

I sat here as the fog outside dissipated, finishing my dvd cover design for class. I am starting to become satisfied with it. Now a charming and smiling fellow in flannel walked into the lab. Smiling to himself I am sure about the empty lab. This never happens. You usually have to fight a-la GOP candidates for a lab computer with the sacred InDesign program in it.

Today I greeted a custodian and went straight to the newspaper box as usual. Today is Thursday- which means Fashion and Style section in the New York Times. Except there are officially no newspapers available on campus. Sniffle. This made me sad. Thursday of all days. Oh well.

On Kidd Kraddick, Kelly Raspberry told Jose he should make a live nativity scene in his front yard for Christmas since his wife is going into labor any minute now. I thought this was hilarious.

Anyway. This was a quick update of the happenings and a morning in my life on reading days before final exams start for some and end for me next week.

I am about to start eating my lunch and it’s only 9 a.m. I know- this is what the cold weather does to you.

Stay warm!

PS. I found an awesome story about an Occupy Wall Street Protestor getting a job on Wall Street. I was just thinking of the reporter who found this story. They must have been in utter bliss. It is a great story! Check it out:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/07/us/occupy-wall-street-job/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

PSS.

John 14:

John 14

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions;[a] if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”    6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

The Answered Prayer

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask[c] anything in My name, I will do it.

(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2014&version=NKJV)

Changing the hand of God

Recounted conversation by: Gabriela Yareliz

The hand of God is one that cannot be hindered. In ways that is very comforting. His plan will happen; God does not lie.

In a moment of faltering faith, I expressed the opinion that what will happen will happen, could I really change the future?

My mother then reminded me of Moses. God was angry with the people of Israel. They had broken the covenant.

Exodus 32: 9,10 tells us what God said to Moses:

.9  And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

And so God is ready to destroy these people. But suddenly, Moses begins to plead for the people.

Exodus 32:11

And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why does your wrath grow hot against your people, whom you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Of course, Moses here is a type of Christ. He represent Christ as a mediator and saviour. Someone who didn’t give up on us, humanity. But here we can also see that Moses’ prayers and pleading with God change the course of history. God listens to Moses and has mercy on the people.

And so, if ever your faith falters, remember that God is good. He hears us and our prayers can change the course of history.

Prayer changes things.

“And the Lord said, “I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name.”Still the prophet did not cease pleading. Every prayer had been answered, but he thirsted for greater tokens of God’s favor. He now made a request that no human being had ever made before: “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory.”

God did not rebuke his request as presumptuous; but the gracious words were spoken, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee.” The unveiled glory of God, no man in this mortal state can look upon and live; but Moses was assured that he should behold as much of the divine glory as he could endure. Again he was summoned to the mountain summit; then the hand that made the world, that hand that “removeth the mountains, and they know not” (Job 9:5), took this creature of the dust, this mighty man of faith, and placed him in a cleft of the rock, while the glory of God and all His goodness passed before him.” Patriarchs and Prophets pg.328, Ellen G. White

When we are filled with the boldness of Moses; when we commune with God; when we are obedient and find favor in His sight; God makes all of His goodness pass before us.

A.W. Tozer

Compiled by: Gabriela Yareliz

“A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man’s greatest tragedy and God’s heaviest grief.”    ―  A.W. Tozer

“No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he should be.”

A.W. Tozer

“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.”    ― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

“We can afford to follow Him to failure.  Faith dares to fail.  The resurrection and the judgment will demonstrate before all worlds who won and who lost. We can wait.”    ―  A.W. Tozer, Born After Midnight

“True faith rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the One who cannot lie.”    ― A.W. Tozer

(http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1082290.A_W_Tozer)

 

In the midst of finals, study guides, final projects, printers that are spewing out hundreds of pages in seconds, Christmas shopping, crowds, traffic- I hope you retain your sanity. May God give you peace and the stamina to continue.

 

Holiday Spirit

By: Gabriela Yareliz

So, this weekend was great. Sabbath was lovely, and then after church we went out with some families from the church, ate, and walked around the festival of lights display at the North Florida Regional Hospital. It was magical. Lots of lights and sparkly things- music and young people hand-in-hand having some romantic night out and snapping photos of each other holding candy canes which I am sure will later make an appearance on Facebook.

The weather was really nice. I had my Spain sweater on, and I was a bit of an idiot because I had a racerback under it so I did get a bit cold, but that was because of my stupidity. Then, yesterday was the Sounds of the Seasons celebration concert at The Philips Center. It was hosted by Bernie Machen (UF pres) and he wrote a killer poem including “anthopology-loving” Rick Scott. It was awesome. I was thrilled. The music was divine and the conductors are truly maestros.

While at work, my brothers assembled the Christmas tree (something I was not in the mood to help out with this year), and it looks beautiful.

This weekend I was thinking about how excited I would always get for Christmas. I’d play Christmas music in September. I made a list. I decorated my room, complete with tin-foil snowflakes. My American Girl Dolls would be in their special dresses. I would read Richard Paul Evan’s The Christmas Box. I would find eggnog, and eat Turron sent from Abuela in P.R., a nougat dessert originated, I think in Spain.

It was the best time of the year. My Christmas spirit has fluctuated since. I mean, Christmas is the perfect time to remember the people who are missing in your life (familiy members who have left or died). But still, despite my melancholic apathy this year, between my thin racerback in the lit-up night and my orange-ish foundation look yesterday at the Philips Center (I was very upset about this), I somehow found peace, and I did begin to succumb into the Christmas Spirit. The music seduced us all softly into a tranquility and peaceful joy yesterday.

By the way, my foundation is like orange on me now, because in a lapse of two weeks, now that it gets darker so much faster, I’ve gotten pale. I was tan two weeks ago; and now I am white, white, white. As white as olive people can get, you know what I mean.

And so yes…. and this upcoming weekend is going to be amazing. Not only is it “13th Sabbath” and the children will do the program, but I have a special trip I will have to tell you about after the fact. 🙂 This will hopefully include pictures 🙂 Also, I am preparing for a duet in a Christmas song medley at church. The First Noel. I hit notes I didn’t know were humanly possible.

And so this week begins with jolly good tidings 🙂 A law school acceptance letter (number 5) and a design final tonight. Bummer.

But even though I know I must slave over my law final study guide… There is so much to be happy about. God is so good.

 

 

“I came to win, to fight, to conquer, to thrive; I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise- to fly “-Nicki Minaj

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

Blessings

By: Gabriela Yareliz

It has been an amazing day so far and it’s only 9:51 a.m. Yup. It started out with me getting an extra hour of sleep after my exam filled day yesterday. I pulled out my new make up palette and had some fun with some new eyeshadows while listening to Kidd Kraddick. While driving to school I belted out to “All I want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey (it was great, too bad you missed that)…

I got to school; the sunshine is everywhere. I found out that I got a good grade on my economics final yesterday, which means a good grade in the class overall. I drank orange juice this morning, and it’s like the whole world is wonderful today. It was great yesterday too, but today takes it to a whole new level.

(If you aren’t having one of those days, I am very sorry. My sympathies.)

Kidd Kraddick is in New York today. I’ve never been there, but I wish I could go see Central Park. That is the one place I’d want to go see. If that was all I saw and then was forced to leave, I’d be satisfied.

Anyway… I have been taking my prayer life to a whole new level lately. I think it’s important to realize the power we can have through prayer. Prayer changes things right? We can make things happen; we can change someone’s world…

I have been spending a lot of time in prayer. Sometimes sacrificing sleep (a lot of the time actually). I can only imagine how Jesus felt when He’d spend the WHOLE night in prayer! I haven’t even done that! But such was the need He felt to be connected to the Father. If He needed to be connected, imagine lowly me! (I really need to stop using exclamation points today. As my reporting professor said, there is only a limited amount of exclamation points one should be allowed to use in a lifetime- I think I just spent all of mine).

The point is, that I’ve felt more in peace and different through this prayer-a-thon situation. I encourage you to try it yourself…

Slowly, He begins to mold our minds more and more, and our desires become His desires, and His peace becomes ours.

I wanted to share the lyrics to Laura Story’s song, “Blessings”

“We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe
‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise”

 

Have an amazing day-

 

Fred, darling…

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I saw this picture on www.snippetandink.com (my favorite wedding blog), and it made me smile.

Cat and Holly. My blog, this collection of random thoughts that unravel out like a yarn ball out of control…

Breakfast at Tiffany’s for me will forever be this strange meeting of shallowness meets depth of thought. Holly is often used as a symbol, a shallow one I’d say, but it’s a cute movie anyway, despite the bad dance moves.

1] Anyway, it is 35 degrees outside with no prospects of improving. Horrible. Today, I have two exams to fry my brain. I am later going to get a pumpkin spice bagel from Einstein’s and read the newspaper and then peruse my economics notes.

2]People keep criticizing Tim Tebow- they say he praises Jesus too much. I like how people complain about that. At least he has shown himself to be a Christian and wholesome person. Random celebrities will “praise Jesus” in thank you speeches, etc, when all they do is offer the world trash. No one complains there do they? People need to let him do whatever God is leading him to do. I admire his firmness in character. He is human, but people, get real. Okay, my Tim Tebow rant is done for the day.

3] I am going to miss my ethics class. It taught me to think about repercussions even for crossing the street (kidding). I learned a lot. Those who follow this blog know my virtue ethics stance and how difficult it was to be so logical, but with God’s help-all things are possible.

4] When it comes to our lives… and trusting in God (a topic I am ever-so-deeply exploring- we must realize that He is good and will not uphold any good thing from those that love him (Rom. 8:28)

Proverbs 3: 5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God;
         I will be exalted among the nations,
         I will be exalted in the earth!

God has left us so many promises and He is not a man to lie. Faith is recognizing that God does not lie.

This hymn is so wonderful:

/’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
and to take him at his word;
just to rest upon his promise,
and to know, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him!
How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust him more!

2. O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to trust his cleansing blood;
and in simple faith to plunge me
neath the healing, cleansing flood!
(Refrain)

3. Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
just from sin and self to cease;
just from Jesus simply taking
life and rest, and joy and peace.
(Refrain)

4. I’m so glad I learned to trust thee,
precious Jesus, Savior, friend;
and I know that thou art with me,
wilt be with me to the end.
(Refrain) / (http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh462.sht)

5] This is the time when we remember more than ever that God came down to be with us and save us.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

The Prince of Peace- a God who came down to restore what was broken because of sin.

I can’t believe it is already December 1st.

Crazy. Fred, darling- can we slow down the time?