Janina B.

I was in an interesting place six years ago. I was unhappy, I was in an un-ordained and emotionally draining relationship, and I was in need of something or someone to rescue me. I kept making the mistake of thinking that I could fill myself up with pills or that somehow my relationship would give me purpose, but those things didn’t work. I was in need of Jesus, but I didn’t know how much I needed Him. Even when I accepted Him as my savior, some negative behaviors still remained. I was still filling my empty places with things that couldn’t give me peace instead of going to the prince of peace. I’m still learning to find my peace in Christ. In this world, we have to learn to break up with those things that many of us are not even aware that we have made gods in place of the everlasting God that we really need to allow to reign over our lives. This time of year is special to me because it was when my Father found me in a desperate state. It is so easy to fake a smile, but God k...

People have a tendency of telling me that I am nice. Some people say that I am too nice and other people attempt to take advantage of my niceness and mistake it for weakness. The truth is that I am really not that that great, I just get convicted. I cannot treat people any way that I want to and receive the things that God has for me. I cannot kick your cat just because you kicked my dog. There are many instances where I have to apologize, work on my heart, and repent instead of blaming other people for how I feel they treat me. “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”. (1 Samuel 16:7) I cannot go before the Lord with a filthy heart and truly believe that he is going to bless me. You have to know who you are in Jesus regardless of how people treat you and you have to respond with wisdom and with the heart of Christ. “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I...

I remember growing up in a place that required inspections. I used to hate them because I knew that my mom and I would be up all night making sure that the house was clean. I understood that everything had to be just right before the apartment manager came in to make sure that things were how they needed to be, so I got to cleaning. I had two methods of cleaning depending on my mood. I had a lazy way of making everything appear spotless and I had a thorough way of cleaning that I learned from my father and grandmother. When I was in my lazy mood, I just stuffed everything into closets and under the bed because I knew that no one would look there. It produced great results and we passed the inspections. When I cleaned the way that I observed my father cleaning, I would make sure that everything was how it needed to be. I eventually began to dislike things under the bed and I got into the habit of cleaning out my closet. These results also produced great outcomes that I didn’t ha...