This Monday I need someone to motivate me lol. I just got back from spring break and starting school today. I am moving really slow this morning but I figure I’m allowed since it is Monday.
Be inspired to do something special for someone else on this day, be a blessing to others by giving them a smile a hug or a simple “Good Morning”.
Enjoy your day everyone!!
“It’s hard for people to accept “it’s not meant to be” when they’ve put so much effort into whatever is. Maybe it’s a career choice you were passionate about but it was never what God wanted for you. Maybe you fell in love with someone during your education years and you two have experienced so much together but it was never who God wanted for you. You begin to ponder… “Lord, why would you allow this? Why would you allow me to go through years of studying and following a path that wasn’t meant to be? Why would you allow me to meet this woman or man in my life where we shared so much together personal and it was never meant to be?” Simple, God gives us free will. Before we make choices He sends us signs and warnings but we missed them because we’re caught in the moment and He will step back respecting whatever decision we make but will not allow it to destroy you.ฺ
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In order for us to learn not to lean to our own understanding or to be led by feelings God will allow us to go through our choices to teach us a lesson. It’s during the process of our mistakes we learn to depend on Jesus. We learn to first seek His face in all things. It’s during those moments we draw closer to Him in prayer and the Word. It’s sad that we have to make mistakes in order to draw closer to the Lord instead of being obedient and learning to trust Him during the test He puts us in instead of us putting ourselves in situations. As an example what Job went through wasn’t caused by himself but God was the one who allowed the enemy to tempt Job; there’s a difference. David on the other hand decided on his freewill to sleep with another mans wife and impregnate her; God was not in that but He knew what David was going to do and already established a plan to turn it around for his good.ฺ
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If you are saved the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you. Stop doing everything on your strength and might. Let the Holy Spirit HELP you. Delight yourself in Him. Trust in Him. Give it all to Jesus, He will never lead you wrong; it will turnaround for your good. When you know your steps are ordered by God you won’t have to worry about about anything. Jesus is all you need!”
Good Morning to all of my faithful followers:
The Tip for today is to love yourself, embracing your perfections along with your imperfections.
God didn’t just make half of you, He made ALL of you. He loves ALL of you and you should do the same.
BE THE BEST YOU YOU CAN BE, ‘CAUSE ONLY YOU CAN DO IT BEST
When you’re unable to say anything at all,
call on the name of JESUS.
Believe it to be true,
He will come to your rescue.
I apologize about yesterday, I haven’t been feeling well and was unable to write my story. This story in particular takes a lot of me to write about, emotionally. Hopefully this story will make up for both days. I apologize in advance for some foul language being used, its part of the story. I will try to tell you what I can remember. I feel like bits and pieces of this night I have suppressed because they are painful. I will try my best to put it together.
A fight broke out between my parents, really can’t remember why, they were yelling back and forth and I knew I was going to have to call the cops again. We lived in a 2-story townhouse, luckily every room, including the stairs, were rugged. If you have read my previous stories, you would know my father never fought with me, only with my mother and sister.
I remember my mother and sister were upstairs fighting with my dad. My dad wanted to lock himself in the room with my mother but my sister wouldn’t let him. I remember standing at the bottom of the stairs watching my dad grab my sister by the neck of her shirt screaming at her, telling her he was going to let her fall. My sister’s feet were barely touching the top of the staircase & she was struggling to grab on to the railing. My mother came out of the room to get my father off my sister, he let my sister go & luckily she was able to grab on to the railing. The next thing I saw was my father pushing my mother so hard she flew across the hallway into our room. At that point, I ran to the phone we had downstairs in the kitchen and I called the police. My father must have known I called the cops because he came down the stairs, but I had already hung up the phone.
I ran upstairs to check on my mother and sister, thank God nothing too serious, just some bruising, cuts and scrapes. Luckily those minor bruises, scrapes & scratches would heel but the memories would scar us for life.
We locked ourselves in my mother’s room and watched out the window waiting for the cops to come. We were so happy when we saw the cop car pull up our driveway, my dad didn’t share the same enthusiasm. We slowly came out of the room waiting for my dad to open the door, when we saw the cops came in the house we felt safe enough to walk down the stairs. We all walked into the kitchen and the cop started asking what was going on, my father stood right next to him, with no fear in his eyes and ready for another fight. My mother & sister were showing the cops the bruises, all I could say was, I was the one who called the cops. The cop tried to ignore my dad’s confrontational attitude at first, but the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The cop told my father to take a seat, my dad said “no”, the officer said, “Sir, I said to take a seat”, my dad said, “how are you going to come into my house and tell me to take fucking sear in my house, you sit the fuck down”. Both officers grabbed my dad and handcuffed him, they literally dragged my father all the way outside the house and into the police car.
There went my dad, another weekend, another night in jail, and another memory for us to never forget.
I thank God He saved us from worse. Although God allowed these situations to happen to us, I truly believe its all for His Glory. He knows what loads we can carry & never gives us more than we can bear. Along with the situations He allows in our lives, He also gives us the strength & the tools to deal with them.
I hope God blesses all the readers and touches lives beyond my reach. Lord I pray that whosoever is facing the same kind of turmoil, you hug them right now Lord and let them know its going to be okay, that they are going to be okay, that they are not alone & you are protecting them.
I was about 13 years old when this happened. My sister and I had just made it to our bus stops after school. We were dropped off about 2 blocks from our house or so. We would always walk home together.
We lived in a townhouse at the time. There was a short cut to get to our house and it would bring us to the back of the house, we usually entered through the side door. This day was different, when we were about to unlock the door we noticed it had been busted open, the lock was dismantled and the wood was cracked and all over the floor. We didn’t know if the burglar was still in the house or not. We also had a little puppy at the time and we were so worried about him as well, but we knew we couldn’t go into the house by ourselves. We went to our friend’s house and he accompanied us. We walked in very quietly and when we made it to the stairs, once our puppy saw us, he came running down the stairs, he looked petrified. We proceeded upstairs and finished checking the house, luckily the burglar was gone,
They did steal several things, like our microwave, my father’s clothes, they went through our drawers, took some of our sneakers and some other appliances. It was a very scary experience. Although we did loose some valuable material things, we were blessed to be saved from such a horrific experience. Our puppy did recover and was back to his little mischievous ways in no time.
It’s memories like these, that make me realize how much God loves me & how blessed I am & always have been. No blessing is too small to talk about because His love & mercy is immeasurable.
God Bless!!!
Good Morning my friends. I hope & pray you all have enjoyed the stories I shared last week about how God has saved me. I will continue this week to share more stories, so stay tuned.
I do have a favor to ask of you all. If you have any stories of when God saved you and you would be willing to share it, please do. If you wish for me to share it on my blog I will, and I will keep it anonymous (if you wish). The reason why my blog is titled Freedom Literature is because I believe writing about your pain, sorrow, happiness and everything you hold inside causes you to feel free, to feel as though you have released a heavy load of your shoulders. The best thing about that, is as you share your story, you bless someone else.
Do not hold back from sharing your stories that God has allowed you to venture to through. You never know who needs to hear that they too will survive.
God Bless!!!!
I decided to end the week with a strong finish. Although this story is fast forwarding a lot from the previous stories, it is one of my favorites.
When I was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer I had no symptoms. All my urine cultures were clear, no back pain at all, no symptoms at all indicating something was wrong with my left kidney.
About mid September 2011 I started having shortness of breath and fatigue. I visited my primary care physician, which at that time was Dr. Konduru, to address theses symptoms. I have a history of chronic iron deficiency anemia. The doctor proceeded to get some blood work done to check my iron level. When the results were ready I was told to come in the office to discuss them with the doctor. The doctor stated my hemoglobin was at an 8, the normal is anywhere between 12-16. He asked if I was still having the same symptoms, I told him I was. Dr. Konduru recommended I go to the emergency room if my symptoms persist or worsen so I could have a blood transfusion done.
On September 26, 2011, I decided to go to Rex Hospital and have the blood transfusion since my symptoms were not getting any better. My shortness of breath was becoming worse, to the extent of not being able to carry on a conversation without having to gasp for air. The doctor on call at the emergency room ordered blood work to check if my levels where increasing. Fortunately, my levels had gone up from 8 to 8,6. The doctor came in the room, where my father, brother-in-law and close friend were with me, and stated since my levels were increasing, he wouldn’t recommend a blood transfusion. I asked the doctor, “how about the shortness of breath, its not getting any better?” He stated, “we are going to have you walk up and down the hallway to check your oxygen level”. And so they did. I walked up and down the hallway with a nurse and became extremely fatigued causing my oxygen level to drop to 87.
At this point the doctor was concerned I had a PE (pulmonary embolism). They send me for x-rays and CT-scan of my lungs, luckily a PE was not detected, but in the CT-scan they went low enough to find a mass or something that looked like a mass in my kidney. The doctor said, “its an incidental finding and its probably nothing, just follow up with your primary care physician for further evaluation”. The doctor decided to have me stay at the hospital that night so I could have the blood transfusion.
A couple of weeks after that, I followed up with my primary care physician for further evaluation of my left kidney. He ordered I have a Urogram done, which is an in depth study of the kidneys. I had the procedure done that week and returned to Dr. Konduru the following day. The night before the follow up, I received a call from Landmark Urology, stating I had an appointment scheduled the following day after I see Dr. Konduru. After I received that message I knew something serious was happening. I went to see Dr. Konduru, I could tell by the expression on his face the results were not good ones. Dr. Konduru proceeded to tell me I had a tumor in my left kidney and it was pretty big. I asked if it was benign and he stated “make sure you do not miss the appointment with the urologist because they will be able to do a biopsy and proceed from there depending on the results”.
I knew Dr. Konduru did not want to be the bearer of bad news, and I didn’t blame him. The following day I attended my appointment with the urologist, Dr. Daniel McCrakan. My father accompanied me because I needed the support just in case things went bad. Once Dr. McCrackan pulled up my imaging on the computer, he explained to us what everything was and showed us where the tumor was. The tumor was located inside my left kidney, the cancer had not spread, it was contained within the kidney. Than he turned in his chair and looked at my father and I, he said, “We need to start talking about surgery”. I was a little shocked at the rush on the topic, and I said “I thought I was going to have a biopsy first to indicate if its even cancer” I responded. The following words he spoke changed my life forever. He said “I’m 85% sure the tumor you have in your left kidney is cancer and we need to act fast to remove it because luckily it hasn’t spread as of yet.
I remember my dad crying trying to ask the doctor if I was going to be okay, but he couldn’t get the words out. I turned to Dr. McCrackan and he teary eyed as well. When you get news like this, its like having a bucket of iced water spilled over you. You don’t know how to react and it feels as though your mind, body & all of your senses are in slow motion trying to process all that’s been said. I’m thankful to God and everyday I give Him all the Glory & Honor for allowing the doctors to have found the cancer on time. This experience made me reflect on life and how I was living it. It made me realize what is really important in life and what I should be doing. Although this experience took a toll on my family, my friends and I, I’m thankful God allowed me to go through this wonderful experience because it opened my eyes to how much He loves me, has mercy over me, and how He has kept me through it all. For this and so much more I have to be thankful to God.
On November 18, 2011, I had my left kidney removed by Dr. McClure & Dr. McCrackan, who prayed with me before we entered the operating room. After the surgery the doctors spoke to my parents, who were in the waiting area with all my friends & the rest of my family, and told them I was blessed because the cancer was caught right on time. The tumor was almost as big as my kidney. The doctors informed my parents I had one more year to live before it would’ve killed me. But praise God for His mercy & grace, He allowed me to survive and here I am 2 years later Cancer Free!!!!
Let me tell you a little bit about my background so you can understand the story.
I was born in Puerto Rico, the baby of the family ;). My sister and I are 11 months apart and we look like twins. My father and mother were both born in Puerto Rico, but unlike my mother, my father was raised in Bronx, NY. My father is a very smart and loving man who has had to endure a lot of hard trials during his childhood and as an adult it didn’t get any easier. He served this country in the Vietnam War, enough said. When they say that a father is a daughter’s first love, they are so right, because that is exactly what my father is to me. My dad is an amazing man, he is also the type of person who gives without expecting anything in return. My dad had one problem, the coping mechanism he used to deal with his pain, alcohol. My daddy, unfortunately, is an alcoholic and has been one throughout our lives.
I remember being about 6 or 7 years old. We lived in Springfield, Massachusetts. My mother had to go out and decided to leave us with our father. I don’t think he was drunk when she left us with him but it didn’t take long after she left for him to loose control of himself. He was so intoxicated he started vomiting right in front of us and passing out from time to time. Someone in the neighborhood must have noticed because the cops were called and were told that we were under my father’s care and thought we were in danger.
When the cops came, I remember just being really scared because they wanted to take us away from my father. I just thank God for the neighbor that came over, she was a close friend of my mother’s, she told the cops she was watching us but we came over to see how our dad was doing. The cops believed her and allowed us to go with her until my mother got home.
Although the years to come where not so great in our household, I thank God everyday for not allowing my sister and I to be taken away. Who knows what could have happened. I believe God saved us from much worse.
Stay tuned for the following story!!!
Good Morning My Friends:
Yesterday as I was trying to figure out what I should write on my blog, and one question came to mind, “How many times has God saved me?”. I don’t know about you but I lost count. Being able to wake up every morning is a blessing all on its own, imagine all of the many things which allow us to go about our day. The fact that are brains function, we can breathe, speak, move, walk and so on that’s more than enough all alone. So many of these things are the norm for us and as a result we don’t think they really count as a blessing, but try for one whole day to close your eyes and get around that way than we can talk.
We have to realize that day by day we are continually blessed even though we might not be doing right before God. We have to learn to thank Him for every little tiny detail that make our days possible. Realizing such wonderful things and the love and faithfulness He has for you will make you do an about face and return the faithfulness and love to Him. We are nothing without Him, we must come to that conclusion and give thanks and Glory to the one who deserves it all.
With this being said, in the next few weeks I will be sharing stories of my life where God has saved me. The goal of me sharing these stories are not because I want attention, I do this so you can reflect on the times when God saved you and thank Him for it. We tend to forget He has been there for us and He will continue to be.
I look forward to hearing your feedback and follow my blog so you don’t miss a post. 😉
Freedom Literature 