Most Valuable Lesson Learned

So I picked this blog topic before I even really knew what I was getting into. This will be cool; we'll be able to learn from each other. I began to think of certain life lessons God has taught me. He used some pretty great people too, friends family and strangers. Here we are: seek him first, quality of friends is better than quantity, treat others the way I would want to be treated, and so on. However, everything I was thinking of became better than the next until I realized the thing of upmost in importance in my life:

the love of God

I wish I could say it was a certain day I remember, but I dont. In fact, it has been many days I've encountered and days Ive had to reencounter. My whole life, I knew and trusted that God loved you. Its easy for me to believe that God loved everyone else and I always said he loved me too. But then when I truly thought about it...

God loves me personally!- not matter what I have done, and no matter how many more mistakes I will make, He loved before I was born. He knew I was a mess and He chose me!

Say that to yourself right now. Do you believe it? It brings it to a whole new level of God is Love. God is love but he is giving it to YOU! And He is right with you, wanting to show you how to live free!

For me, when I really think about it and really get how much He has done for me, sent His son to die for me, so that I could live forever with Him, its amazing and tears flow automatically.

I have to admit though, when I haven't spent time with Abba, its easy to forget how much he loves and is for me, nothing can be against us when were together! It would be the best to start everyday with that undefeatable thought. Truth is I can and you can. The best part is God is always there and my prayer for you and me today is that He will continually keep us at a place where we need and can't live without Him, that our lives would be wrecked until we come to him and see it through His eyes and His love.

Love you girls.

Heres some more thoughts on life's most valuable lessons by some awesome chicas...

Shelly and Emily

Consider it Pure Joy.

This is hard for me to write this morning. As I thinking of my greatest joy and biggest trial right now, I laugh because they hardly differ:

My time with Jesus is a sincere joy, and often I fail to meet with him on a regular basis.

Truly being a homemaker this year rocks my world, and at the same time trying because I know it would be easier and perhaps more instantly gratifying to step foot back in the barbershop.

Ministry loving kids in the Nursery is amazing, but I struggle in almost every aspect of running it.

I love doing hair, and have trouble managing my time.

Pregnancy is a great treasure, and at this moment I feel like I could a) nap b) vomit.

I long to have a me-moment (take 5 min n paint my nails), but hardly do it because I don't think I deserve it.

One of my greatest joys is helping others, but I can do it with the wrong motive.

I know all this might sound crazy to you. God is challenging me. I know that I can't stay the same. Things have to change. He is teaching me to be faithful in what I have. I'm learning to manage and make use of what I've been given. I want him to be able to use my life for His glory, and right now he keeps showing me how I must be faithful in what he has already given me.

I really think that in every joy we have, the devil tries to steal a part, if not all of it. Im determined not to let that happen. Im going to run this race. Heb. 12:1

God made me who I am, where I am for a reason. Im so incredibly thankful that He loves me enough not to leave me how I am, and Im so ready for Him to change me into what He wants me to be.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,

not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

A servant's heart

The motivate of a servant's heart shows it to be true or not.

Many moons ago a topic, chosen by my accountability group, was to describe yourself in one word. And in this one word we were to describe ourselves, the good and the bad. My first thought was how can that be possible? As I pondered the thought more, the first word to illustrate both the good and bad parts of my character was: servant.

I'll start with the unpleasant. One bad part about serving is that sometimes I can serve for my own benefit, serve so others will serve me, or serve so others will like me, mostly serve so things can work out my way. I see myself as a hard working person who loves to be appreciated much to the extent of doing things for others just for approval & apprecitation. Thank Jesus, he nipped this in the bud. How he did this was kind of interesting. I was at the barbershop cleaning my life away, and began to have conversations with myself (come on we all do it) about how if I wasn't cleaning it wouldn't matter because no one appreciated it anyway. I mean my peers or my boss didn't even notice! Then I heard the voice (we've all heard it) ya know sounded like my own but its the one that shows me how wrong I've been. It's the voice of God. What he reminded me of that day was Gal. 1:10 and how I was living quite the opposite. NLT states it, "Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." It wasn't until I heard His voice, that I understood why I did not recieve appreciation and pat on the backs from people. He wanted me to get my approval from Him, and now thats all I really need.

I don't think I have to talk too much about the good side of it. It's pretty self-explanitory. I do believe its a desire God put in me and puts in all of us to serve and love him. By doing this, it most always means we have to serve and love others. When I am spending time with God on regular basis, to serve others is second nature. When serving now, God reminds me of this verse in Phil 2:5-7

In your relationships with one another,

have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God

something to be used to his own advantage; rather,

he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Please enjoy some other good blogs on One-Word descriptions by Emily-Kate & Shelly.

Simple by design, manner, & style.

So You may ask, what's simple? ... but Probably not! However, Today I'd like to start this blog out with the definition of simple. My fav descriptions were...

1. unaffected; unassuming; modest: a simple manner.

2. not complicated: a simple design.

3. not elaborate or artificial; plain: a simple style.



I've been thinking a lot lately about how to live simple, in our means, rid of excess, and self inflicted complications. Needless to say, this started the inspiration for this blog. I picked these 3 definitions because I would like to live simple, unaffected by the influence of others, unassuming of the ones I love, modest in fashion as well as life style, not complicated in ways of communications, not elaborate in speeches needing a quick point, not artificial in face and and last but not least, Plain. I would like for God to show me plainly the steps he has for us to take, and be with us every step of the way!

If you ask people what a "simple life" for them might look like, We would get a ton of different answers. Some people live in messy houses and don't mind, to them its "simple" --just don't pick up your stuff and others know in order to be stress-free they must pick up the house before they can fully relax. (I'm the this one, if you couldn't already tell.) But what I am beginning to see and seek out is living a simple life daily led the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For me right now, complex comes before simple. I run a hamster wheel in my head 24/7 of how, when, what, where, why and, will it be done in the most time efficient way? See, I don't like to live in regret, so I always must make sure the order of things are going to work out perfectly before I try them, otherwise I just wasted time if they didnt. (so wrong I know)To put things into a shorter version, instead of going to God and asking him what should I do next? I spend 3.8 Bajillion years of try/fail/try/fail...before I come to him and ask what I really should be consuming my time with! Why is this?--Comment if you know but I think Im just going to say it like it is I, Alyssa Arredondo, can complicate things beyond reasonable need. Although sometimes, my effort to work things out in efficient ways is a great blessing. Such as combining trips to save gas, time, energy, etc. However I realize I spend an unreasonable amount of time thinking about whats next, prepare, whats next, prepare. I don't take time to fully enjoy where I am. (which right now is tea time, midnight snack and blogging.) I really want to. So I'm asking God to show me in ways to live simply where he wants me. My most efficient way to do this is to stop and listen to his voice. And seriously I know its crazy but I will get a thought about doing something and roll with it, and things work out better than I could have planned myself, and not so good if I didn't listen. Anyway, I am here to say...God is awesome. Pray, Put Him first in your life, and complex becomes simple. Things that maybe took you years to figure out are become second nature, problems you rack your brain trying to think of answers...now have solutions. God loves you so much and is waiting for you to just ask, he will answer, he loves to love us. God wants better for us than we want for ourselves. Lastly, and Im out, I just want to share a few verses that are Simple by

-Design-
Ps. 139:16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.


-Manner-
Ps 62:11-12 God has spoken plainly,
and I have heard it many times:
Power, O God, belongs to you;
unfailing love, O Lord, is yours.
Surely you repay all people
according to what they have done.


-Style-
Ps 55:22 Give your burdens to the Lord,
and he will take care of you.
He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.


Check out some great friends of mine wrote on their idea of Simple.


Emily Kate & Shelly HD

Wow I want this for nursery and preschool.

Just read an inspirational teaching on Developing a child's sense of worship, here's the conclusion...


In review, our services need to be such that they develop a sense of worship in our children. First, our services must go beyond technical excellence to absolute dependency on the power of God’s Spirit for true spiritual change to take place. Second, we must preach with a message of commitment to God with urgency because spiritual response to God is a matter of life and death. Third, it should be obvious to the kids that the overwhelming focus of the service is Jesus, not the contemporary methods being used. Fourth, song worship needs to go beyond physical involvement, beyond hype, to a point of intimate worship and stillness before God that brings soul searching and repentance. As we, as pastors, implement these principles in our services, our children will develop a sense of worship that creates a desire for God, a responsiveness to His Word and the moving of His Spirit, and a commitment to personal, spiritual change.

Check out more, and please comment on your thoughts for kids worship.

http://childrensministryvault.com/ministry-lessons-ideas-training/281/developing-a-childs-sense-of-worship/