Tag: Faith

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Blog Spiritual

God Sends Messages at the Right Time

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If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I have my hands on a few projects. One of those projects is my immigration podcast. Immigration is close to my heart since I’m a child of immigrants, and it’s been in my heart to help and get involved with immigration. I want to be able to help in any way that I can, whether it’s being an advocate, educating, or volunteering.

In 2019 I was determined to go to law school to become an immigration attorney because I felt that was the best way I could help. I took the LSAT (the test to apply to law school), but my score was average, and I was disappointed. At the time, I was finishing my master’s, so I had a lot on my plate and couldn’t dedicate enough time to study for the LSAT. Because of my score, I got discouraged.

After starting my podcast, I came upon the opportunity to help a non-profit organization that helps new migrant families find resources for things they need. I help with translating documents and in online meetings.

While doing this, I realized there was a need, and I reached out to an immigration attorney to get their advice on if I would be able to help with the demand that is there, but she told me to be careful – it would be best if the families hire an immigration attorney for that particular need.

So once again, I got the urge to go to law school. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough in the area of immigration and that I could do more. I talked to my husband and a close friend about it, and they both said the same thing, I am doing enough. They both told me that the podcast is doing something; it brings awareness to immigration. My close friend said she would pray with me (I had reached out to her for a prayer request) about the situation and see if God leads me toward law school.

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Well, this feeling of me not doing enough or questioning if what I’m doing is “worth it” comes to me occasionally. Like, right when I think, “what’s the point” and I feel like giving up, God ALWAYS reminds me that I’m right on track. And this time wasn’t any different.

Literally, the next day, I received a message from a person I’ve known since I was a child but hadn’t talked to in years, and she said, “I see you making a difference out there! Keep up the good work.” She then told me she had subscribed to my podcast. And to me, that was all the recurrence I needed to know that I was doing enough.

This reminds me of two bible verses – the first one is Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future, (NIV). And Proverbs 16:9 says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps,” (NIV).

God knows the plans for our lives, all we need to do is seek Him, and it will come to us. And His plans are much better than what we have planned for our lives.

I pray that you surrender any plans you may have to God and have Him establish the steps you need to take. And remember, God loves you, and He cares for you. All His plans for you are for your good.

Thank you, God, for always reminding me that I am doing your good work. Thank you for always being there for me and guiding me. Amen.

With Love, Heidy

Has God sent you any messages recently?

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Blog Spiritual

God is Present In The Heavy Seasons

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Between August 2020 and March 2021 was a heavy grieving season for me. My grandfather went to heaven in August, I suffered a miscarriage in November, and my mother-in-law was called home to Jesus in March. Fortunately, if you can say that, this wasn’t my first season of grief; I learned the hardship of grief early in my life. At the young age of 23, my biological mother passed suddenly.

You don’t think about the passing of your mother. Although it’s impossible, you tend to think of her as immortal – someone who will always be there. That wasn’t the case for me. Everyone around me still had their mothers, so no one could understand my pain. They didn’t know the void in my chest that never leaves, the constant heaviness that hurt even to breathe, and they didn’t understand that a part of me died and I would never be the same. Actually – at the time, I didn’t know it either.

Since I had already endured the pain of losing a loved one, I thought I knew how this season of grief would be; however, I thought wrong. Each season is different because your relationship with each person is different. And losing a baby is another type of grief, but I’ll leave that story for another day. One difference in this season from the first was my relationship with God was stronger. So today, I want to share three things that helped me in my most recent season of grief.

One – Talking about my memories with my grandfather

My grandfather lived with us since I was 16 years old. We lived in a humble two-bedroom house; I slept in the living room while he slept in my room, so he was involved in many milestones of my life. For example, I took my driver’s test with his car. He helped me purchase my first car. He was present for my high school graduation. And when I was younger, I was told that he would go to a children’s boutique in the Dominican Republic to purchase a dress for me as a birthday gift. He did that for the first five years of my life. My mom would then get professional pictures taken of me in the dresses. To this day, I still have the pictures. So, sharing all these stories and memories with whoever would listen was helpful for me.

Two – Going on a trip to the beach

My husband’s birthday is August 13, and I planned a trip for us to Anna Maria Island. My grandfather passed on August 10 – just three days before the trip. I was so conflicted if we should continue with our plans. On the one hand, I wanted to celebrate my husband’s birthday, but then on the other, I didn’t want to seem insensitive to the situation. Since we couldn’t receive a full refund, we went for three instead of going for four days. And I am so glad we went. It’s hard to continue your day-to-day routine when your heart is so heavy, and this trip helped us get out of routine. It gave me time away from everyone to process my feelings and distract my mind for a few days. Also, I feel the closest to God at the beach, which was therapeutic for me.

Three – Staying rooted in God’s word

As I mentioned above, you can’t do business as usual when your heart is heavy. So, your schedule and routine are all messed up. However, in this season of grief, I was intentional about continuing my Bible reading. I continued my daily Bible plan and enjoyed reading the Bible at the beach. Listening to worship music while going through the miscarriage was comforting. And during my mother-in-law’s passing, I signed up for an online Bible Study; although I couldn’t log on to the calls, I continued to do the study, and it helped me stay mentally and emotionally stable.

These are things that helped me during my heavy season of grief. I know that everyone processes grief differently, and grief doesn’t look the same for everyone, but I hope my experience can help one person. And if you haven’t experienced grief, I hope you save this article and use it as a resource to help you during that difficult time.

I want to leave you with a Bible verse that came up multiple times during this season and reminded me that God was with me.

Psalms 147:3 NIV – “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

With Love, Heidy

What helped you during your season with grief?

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Blog Book Review

Book Review: Out of the Cave & Relationship Goals

Out of the Cave By Chris Hodges

This book was impactful for me because it gives a lot of resources to help with mental health, specifically depression. The book starts very relatable because the way he mentions his depression episode was exactly how I felt during mine.

Chris provided information I had not known about depression and even talked about the music genre “the blues.” He informs of the genre’s origin and how it relates to depression. This reminded me of the Spanish music genre “Bachata” because usually, the lyrics are very miserable.

One thing that stood out to me was that he talked about vulnerability and mentioned that there are two people we cannot lie to ourselves and God. He knows everything; he knows us from the inside out. And another thing that stood out to me was when he wrote about needing balance in our lives. We need to stop and check ourselves to see where our life is when we feel depressed. Is our work, family, hobbies, etc. balanced? What can we do to make sure it is?

“Stop trying to do everything and focus on what God wants you to do.” – Chris Hodges

Screenshot from Audible taken by me

Relationship Goals by Michael Todd

Whether single, dating or married, you should read this book. I loved how honest he was and that he included his wife in the book. He provides practical biblical advice about being single, dating, and married. And there’s a chapter about sex, which I find very important. I know some Christians don’t like talking about sex, but sex is something that God created to be enjoyed between a husband and wife; we can talk about it.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

With Love Heidy

Screenshot from Kindle taken by me

Have you read either of these books? What were your thoughts on them?

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Like this post? Subscribe with your email to receive my free 5 minute journal prompts and weekly newsletters on my upcoming posts! 🙂

Check out my new Etsy shop! https://www.etsy.com/shop/WithLoveHeidy

Journals for sale!

You can get one or all of my journals on Amazon! Links are below! 🙂
My Prayer Journal  Into My Thoughts Journal Gratitude Journal

My poetry book – Words from the Heart available now!

Categories
Blog Spiritual

Patience & Faith

The Bible tells us to ask, and it shall be given, and it also says that God wants to provide us with the desires in our hearts, but we have to be patient. Our prayers aren’t answered right away, we don’t pray for something one night, and then God says yes in the morning, that isn’t how to works. We have to be patient and have faith that God will provide what we ask. And He does provide, at his time.

The concept of time isn’t the same for God as it is for us, with that in mind, are you willing to wait five years for a prayer to be answered? It sometimes could be more, but that is the thing with having faith in God, is knowing that He will answer, eventually. Once you wait, faithfully, and God answers your prayer, you can look back and see why it took so long or why He waited until that particular time to respond. Everything works out, falls into place, and you can tell that it was only God’s doing.

As Christians, God asks us to be patient, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,” Colossians 3:12 (NIV). This is one of the factors that sets us apart! And I know it can be hard because we are waiting for something we truly desire, and we want it when we ask for it. I know I’ve struggled with being patient before, and because of it, I’ve taken some matters into my own hand and realized that if I had waited for God, the situation would have come out better.

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride,” Ecclesiastes 7:8 (NIV). Those times I took matters into my own hands, I was letting my pride get in the way, thinking, “I can figure this out on my own, I don’t need to wait,” or thinking that I knew what I was doing because I knew what was best for me, all to have it come back and slap me in the face. I’ve definitely made a mess of things before for no reason, just because I wasn’t patient enough to wait for God to answer me.

And sometimes, God won’t answer your prayers. Wait, what are you saying? Yeah, that’s right; sometimes God won’t answer your prayers precisely how you’re asking Him, sometimes He will give you something better!

When God is making you wait, it’s because He is working things out better than you could even imagine. God is always working things out for your good because He loves you, He takes care of you, and He wants you to thrive! God is faithful, always! And He will NEVER fail you.

With Love, Heidy

Prayer,

Lord, I will live in patience for my faith. For I know that your promises will fulfill, not when I want, but when your time is right. Patience is a virtue in my trust in you because I won’t always see, but I always know, and you, Lord, are faithful. Amen.

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Blog Spiritual

Identity

We all struggle to find our identity or trying to identify ourselves. We have different titles and different hats we wear, whether it’s in our career or personal lives, but none of this actually defines us. We live in a culture that wants to push agendas about how they think we should be and try to identify us. They want us to look a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way, and do certain things. As a result, we add pressure on ourselves to fit in the box or mold ourselves to meet those expectations, thinking that this will give us an identity in this world.

Our identity comes from The Lord. Only seeking a relationship with God will we find our true identity and our purpose in this world. He knows each of us from the inside out because he created us.  Like it says in Psalm 139: 13 – 14, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well,” (NIV).

How beautiful is it to know that the one who created us is the one who we find our identity in? Since he created us he also gives us our purpose, just like it says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” (NIV). Think about this, what talents do you have and how do you use these talents?

The purpose of life is to find our purpose in Christ and do the work He wants us to do. Along the way, we meet people and try to bring them close to God, by sharing our testimonies, our talents, and love towards them.

Do not let this world try to define you. You are a child of God, you are beautifully and wonderfully made, and you have a purpose. As long as you have a heartbeat, you have a purpose, and its never too late to find what it is. Find your identity in Jesus Christ, the one and only who can define you.

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Trusting God With Our Plans

We have many plans for our lives. We have goals, timeline on how we want things to go, but almost always, our plans do not go as we pictured them. Sometimes things go worse, but when you have God in the center of your plans or life, things go much better than what you imagined. I had planned to start looking for a new job, a management position to be exact, at a new company by May 2020. I thought May because by then the wedding would be long over, the honeymoon would be long over, and I graduate from my Master’s degree in May, so that would be under my belt. But like almost always, God had other plans for me. I told myself that this year I will fully follow God’s lead in my life. Well, at the beginning of January, I received an email from Advent Health, one of the leading hospitals in Central Florida, to apply for a position in their billing/collections department. I was confused because I didn’t remember the last time I updated my profile with them since I had applied to the hospital years ago, but I thought about it and discussed it with Jonathan, my then fiancĂ© now husband, and he said it wouldn’t hurt to apply.

So, I applied thinking nothing of it and actually forgot that I had applied. That following Tuesday, I received a phone call from an HR recruiter to do a phone screening for the position. She then invited me for a face-to-face interview for the following Friday. I went and interviewed with the director of the department, and at the end of the interview, she told me she really liked me and wanted me to join the team. That following Monday, they called me back to offer me the position and send over the offer letter to accept. When I informed my then-current employer that I was leaving, my director had a meeting with me to see why I was leaving and if there was something she could do for me to stay. I told her that I wanted to work at the hospital and thought it was a great opportunity.

A few days later she called me into the office again, this time with my manager, to tell me again that she didn’t want me to leave and two new positions were opening up and she wanted me for one of them. She told me to think about it and that she will be able to offer me more money than what the hospital offered me. I’m not money motivated, I just kept thinking about the opportunities available at the hospital. I kept going back and forth on whether to stay at my current job or leave. I interviewed for both positions at my job. But when I went to the HR and health screening appointment for Advent Health, I got excited all over again about working at the hospital, so after that appointment, I made my final decision, I was going to the hospital. The following day I got a call offering me the Team Lead position at my current job with more money than what the hospital was offering, but I went to talk to my director and I declined the offer.

She told me she appreciated me telling her and that it would be a loss for her because she thinks I’m a great employee, but at the end of the day, she wants me to be happy. She mentioned that if the hospital is the route I want to go, then she cannot compete with that, there is no money in the world she could offer me. And she was correct. Something kept pulling me towards the hospital, even when I was trying to make excuses as to why I should stay, I kept getting this pull towards the hospital, and now I know it was God.

He provided this opportunity when I least expected it, but it’s such a blessing. Today I completed my second day of orientation, and tomorrow I start training at my department, and I feel like I am right where I belong. Yesterday before any of the programs began, we prayed, and today every segment started with a bible verse. I absolutely loved that. I genuinely feel like I am in the right place at the most perfect time. I cannot thank God enough for how he moves in my life and how he has moved. I am forever grateful to him, will continue to be grateful to him, and live out my life for Him.

Always remember to trust him in all of your plans and to place him in the center of them. Things may not always come out as you’d like, when you place your trust in Him, they will come out better.

PROVERBS 3_5-6 Trust in and rely confidently on the LORD with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding_ In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will

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Blog Spiritual

Planning With God & Planning Without

There is a big difference in doing things on your own and doing things with God being first and being the center. When you’re doing things on your own, you’re constantly worrying. It seems like things don’t work out how you pictured it, and there’s a lot of hurdles to jump over, and challenges keep coming, one after another, seem like you cannot ever catch a break. But when you pray first about what you want to do and it is God’s will for your life, everything will go smooth. Everything will aline with minimal effort. He will guide you, tell you what to do, and where to go. Everything just falls into place. It may not be when you want or how you thought, but everything works out in God’s perfect timing. You have to learn to trust him. Things will come out better than you expected when you let God take the lead. Trust him with your plans, release your worries to him, and let him guide your steps, it will be the best thing you’ve done. You won’t have to worry about anything because he takes care of everything.

Just. Have. Faith.

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