Talents from God

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a plan to read the Bible in 90 days. I am using YouVersion, an amazing helping tool.

I love to see how God used the people from the Old Testament. When He was giving instructions for the fabrication of the Arc of the Convenant, the Altar of burning incense, the clothing of priests, among other things, He was very specific about the tiniest details. When I was reading Exodus I thought “who’s going to make all that? Who’s going to be able to follow God’s exact directions?”

My answer was found in Exodus 31:2-3. He picked someone for the task – Bezalel was filled with with God’s Spirit, skill, ability and knowledge. God Himself equipped Bezalel with the abilities, knowledge and skills required for such an important duty. Most importantly, He filled Bezalel with His Spirit.

This passage from Scripture can only bring hope. When God has a plan for your life, a plan to serve Him, He will give His Spirit, skill, ability and knowledge to fulfill such a plan. He will equip you with everything you need. God is powerful and He is able to do ANYTHING!! What a hopeful message.

Until next time,
B.

90 days with the Bible

Nearly a week ago I decided that I needed to study more the Bible. It wasn’t simply something I wanted to do, it was more like I had to do it. It is a feeling out of necessity. I went on the youversion website, where I discovered various plans for reading the Bible. The one that caught my attention was the 90 day plan. I thought “you know what? I have plenty of time to do it”. So I started and I am almost in the middle of Exodus. What a beautiful way to study Scripture and understand context and meaning of what is written. Among various things, I was so touched by God’s promise to Abraham, the trans-generational patterns I’ve observed in Abraham and Isaac and the beautiful Passover. I have to say though, reading the Bible has a different meaning to me and that is because I just came back from an amazing journey which included Israel.

I hope I get to share with some of my notes. I will leave you with the one I made based in Genesis 26:6 – “The men of that place asked him about his wife. He said, “She’s my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She’s my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me because of Rebekah. She’s a beautiful woman.” NIRV

“I find it so interesting to see certain characteristics in human kind that were present since the beginning. For instance, the first murder happened in the second generation of human beings. Given my line of study, I can clearly see one particular aspect of the family system’s theory – a trans-generational pattern. The account from Abraham’s life describes at least 2 times when he said that Sarah was his sister, not his wife. Here we see Isaac doing the same thing. Both father and son where afraid for their lives and preferred offering their wives to save their own.”

Until next time,

B.

Patience

Patience is something I am not sure I have. Someone asked me for patience but it felt so hard to comply to such a request. I wondered and wondered why this seemed so difficult? And that was when I realized – I hate waiting! I believe I have fractures of hyperactivity, highly adapted I have to say. I don’t leave my home without entertainment in my purse – a book, magazine, and most recently my Iphone – just because I hate waiting and if I must wait, I might as well entertain myself – thus  I deceive my own perception of waiting.

Someone once said: “Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”
I am not sure I’m fit for this kind patience, but it is definitely worth trying. Let’s see. I will keep you updated as much as possible.

I will finish this post with John Mayer’s words – “We keep on waiting,
waiting on the world to change“  .

10th Anniversary

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I was talking to my mom on Skype yesterday and she brought me back to the days when I started dating Douglas, who is my husband today. I remember how romantic he was, even before we started seeing each other. He would give chocolate truffles every single day and hearts of palm (my favorite food) was part of my daily diet thanks to him. He was so kind, thoughtful and sweet. Did I mention that he is 6 years older than I and back then I was only 16, so imagine what kind of patience he had to have lol

December 10 of 2001 is when we started dating.It was magical. Our first kiss was at downtown Arthur Nogueira. I will never forget it. Neither the first time he told me loved me, in a bus terminal in the south of Brazil. At the time we were dating for a month only. Shortly after I told him I loved him too.

Our love grew stronger and stronger. Despite differences, we always made the choice of being together. After 4 1/2 years together we decided to get married. Our wedding day was awesome and our honeymoon was incredible. Amazing relaxing time in Natal.

After 6 months of being married we moved to Canada. We started from zero and we encountered all sorts of barriers you can think of, how to rent a home, buy appliances, start having a phone, TV, internet, using a language that you’re not so good at, among others. I like to think that these challenges just brought us close together because we only had one another.

Douglas is my person, the one I love with all my heart and soul. He knows me so well. He is the one I want to tell about my day and the one I love to wake up with. I love his brunch cooking skills and his silly jokes. I am happy because these past 10 years have been an incredible self-discovery journey. At times a bumpy road, but I guess that is part of being in a real marriage. And I can only hope that there are many amazing years to come, until we are together forever.

Happy 10 years together my love!

Yours truly.

Celebrating the mom I love

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Today I am very happy because I get to celebrate the life of the one who brought me to life, my mom!! – partially because my dad counts too!) She is an ever-present person and thankfully she is always there when I need to share.

One of the things I like most about her is how I can open up without being judged. I know I can ALWAYS tell her things because she won’t ever belittle me. She may even have some great tips like, back in high school, if a girl had hurt me she would give me ideas of what to say, such as telling this mean girl that she had very bad breath. It never worked but it was fun to see how creative my mom could get. She was and continues to be very protective of her kids. Almost like a mother bear. lol

One of the things I always do with my mom is to laugh. We find the stupidest things the funniest ones that is why not matter where we are, at home, at the mall, grocery shopping or skyping, we are always surrounded by laughter.

Mom, you are such a giving person, always loving and caring. You are a great listener and friend. You are a beautiful, elegant, trendy and lovely. I love to have you as my mom because I know I have the best one! When I was a little baby you almost lost me but you decided put my life in God’s hands. That was the best thing you could have done for me and I thank you for that. Now I am alive, learning from you in so many different ways – cooking, how to be a good wife, how to love God, how to be kind and generous… Most of all I am happy because I can commemorate your 51st Birthday. I know I am far but soon I will see you and give you a big tight hug.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

I love you very very much! From your youngest…

Happy 5.6 Dad

Today one of my favorite people in the whole world turns 56, my dad. If I had to pick a single word to describe him it would gracious, which encompasses courteous, kind, and pleasant. I could also pick patience, care, protection, availability, priority but really, if I have to pick one word, my ultimate decision would have to be LOVE.

I believe God blesses people in various different ways and my dad was blessed with the spiritual gift of sharing Jesus. He has an amazing ability of preaching and sharing what the Bible describes as love, which transpires in EVERYTHING he does.
I tend to say that I need my daddy fix everyday, which means that I want to have some time with him everyday, whenever I can, personally or through skype, facebook, twitter, you name it. If I get to talk to him, my day becomes better. And that is because of gift of loving and caring.

Today (October 31st) many people celebrate the Halloween but I choose to celebrate my dad, my first and foremost male model, spiritual counsellor, provider and male friend.

Daddy, it makes so happy to celebrate your birthday, specially because you taught me about the eternal life, and I know that this 56th birthday is just one of the infinite birthdays we will spend together throughout Eternity, with Jesus

I LOVE YOU!! Feliz Aniversário!

kisses from your youngest

26 and counting

Yesterday I turned 26 and it was a tough day for me.

I started my day by helping someone who was somewhat suicidal and the weight of having someone in that situation is heavy on the shoulders.
Then I spend the day trying to feel good but it was so hard because I was all by myself, all of my family was in Brazil. It was hard, really hard, not to feel sorry for myself. I did not feel comfortable sharing with close friends what a horrible day I was having because I hate worrying people.

But at the end of the day I realize certain things, things about my life that I am thankful for, things that I have throughout the year not only on my B-day. It was good. It felt good to be able to shift my perspective towards something positive. Maybe that is the secret of being content.
Today is my 2nd day being  26 and I am truly happy, thankful for being loved by some many people and cared for by so many amazing individuals.

I am thankful for my 26 years of life