Living for others

God calls each one of us to live beyond ourselves for others. Quinton and Dee Abrahams from Hillsong Church in South Africa share the story about how God started growing a heart for people in their lives. Quinton and Dee share wisdom on how you can live for others in whatever job or position God has put you in at the moment. 

Wisdom for Life

I love what the internet can add to life during this special time in history. Every week I'm strengthened and encouraged by the wisdom shared by my pastors at my church in Toronto. Thanks to the internet and Youtube I also have access to sermons from churches all over the world. I'm grateful that I get to live during this exciting time in history! This week I thought I would share the links to seven different churches that I follow online and on their Youtube channels:

1. Elevation Church, in North Carolina, Virginia & Ontario, Canada.
http://elevationchurch.org


2. Fresh Life Church in Montana & Utah.
http://freshlife.church/


3. Oasis Church in Los Angeles, California.
http://www.oasisla.org/


4. Vous Church in Miami, Florida.
http://vouschurch.com/


5. Life Church in Oklahoma, New York, Florida, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas & New Mexico. https://www.life.church/


6. Hillsong Church in Australia, Europe, North America, South Africa & Argentina.
http://hillsong.com/


7. Life Church UK in England, Ireland and Poland.
http://www.lifechurchhome.com/

I Am: Meet Jamar

What I love about February

I can't believe that we are already at the end of February! I wanted to list a few things I've enjoyed the most during February this year.

The snow! In January we had very little snow in Toronto so all the kids in the neighborhood were very happy when the snow finally arrived in February.

I love seeing our neighborhood dressed up in a layer of crisp, white snow.

The Celebrations! My husband and I celebrated our anniversary and three people in our family have their Birthdays in February. On Sunday we are invited to one more birthday party that I'm looking forward to a lot. Celebrations make life fun and interesting!

Sunday Brunch! When it's cold outside I love spending a couple of hours enjoying a really tasty brunch together with friends or family.

Eggs Benedict is my favorite brunch food at the moment. Next I'm looking forward to the month of March, which includes March break here in Canada.

Staying in Love

Pastor DawnChere and Rich Wilkerson from Vous Church in Miami preach a great sermon about love that lasts. DawnChere and Rich talk about how to build lasting love in marriage, but this wisdom can be applied to pretty much any relationship. All different types of relationships require these qualities; protection, trust, hope and perseverance. I like what Rich Wilkerson says: "If you want a quality life you are going to have to learn how to have quality love." No matter how much money, possessions or power we get in life nothing will give us more joy than our relationships. If we love well, we will live well.

The Bible teaches us many things about quality love. The first thing we learn from the Bible is that love always protects. When we are married it's our job to always protect our spouse's heart, to always protect them emotionally. When we learn to be self-controlled and respectful in our conversations we can have tough conversations without hurting our spouse in the process. Protecting our spouse also means that we are not only going to tell them what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. When our spouse is going through something difficult it's our job to speak truth wrapped in love to them.

The second thing the Bible teaches us is that love always hopes, always trusts. It's very important for every relationship,every marriage, to have hope. The thing is, your marriage will never have hope if you do not first have trust. Rich and DawnChere mention three different ways we can build trust in a relationship in the sermon video.

The third thing the Bible teaches us about love is that love always perseveres. Not even one of us can say that we have a perfect marriage, that we have never made any mistakes in our relationships or that the past five years of our marriage have been pure bliss. Perfection is not what we are after in relationships, because it can never be achieved. What makes all the difference in our marriages is when we stick it out, when we decide not to quit. Sometimes we will get tired, sometimes we will feel like quitting and other times we will be stretched in our marriages. What makes all the difference in a marriage is when we decide to persevere. Perseverance is what's going to take you to a love that lasts a lifetime.

How to Be Content and Joyful

How can we be content and joyful in life when our dreams still haven't come true? It's easy to assume that when our dreams come true, then we will be happy and satisfied with life. We look at other people and think to ourselves: "She's got everything I dream of, she must be very happy and content with life." The grass is always greener on the other side, even the person who we think has everything doesn't have a life free of struggles.

It's good to have big dreams but problems arise when we become convinced that we can't be happy before our dreams come true, this kind of thinking sets us up for disappointment. If we think that we will finally be happy when our dreams come true we will most likely be disappointed when they do. There are many stories of people from history who have searched the whole world for happiness and come to the conclusion that nothing in this world can truly satisfy the human heart.

It's wonderful to see a dream come true in life but it's not going to keep us satisfied forever, in a little while we will be craving something more again. When we come to know God and develop a personal relationship with Jesus everything changes. The closer we get to God the more we start to experience his peace, joy and contentment. It doesn't make any sense to people looking on, because even if nothing else changes in a person's life but she finds God it changes everything. There are women in this world who have everything: the dream job, money, status, possessions, kids and a wonderful husband, but they are still unhappy. There are people in this world who live in prison or in poverty and still have joy, peace and contentment in their lives. That doesn't make any sense to someone who doesn't know God. When we turn to God and let Him fill that hole in our hearts we can walk through life with joy, peace and contentment every day, no matter what our circumstances look like.

You're Gonna Be Ok

I know it's all you've got to just be strong
And it's a fight just to keep it together
I know you think that you are too far gone
But hope is never lost
Hope is never lost

Hold on, don't let go
Hold on, don't let go
Put one foot in front of the other
Just take one step closer
Just follow the light in the darkness
You'll get through this
You're gonna be ok