I am watching my new baby sleep. So satisfied and full of milk, heavy and relaxed. I am reminded to trust Jesus for my provisions and to relax and drink in the sweetness God has given me.
What a blessing to be a new mom for the third time 🙏🏽🙌🏾💕🤴🏾🫶🏽
I am watching my new baby sleep. So satisfied and full of milk, heavy and relaxed. I am reminded to trust Jesus for my provisions and to relax and drink in the sweetness God has given me.
What a blessing to be a new mom for the third time 🙏🏽🙌🏾💕🤴🏾🫶🏽
Dr. Tony Evans breaks it all the way down! What did God call you to do?
Do you ever get tired of yourself? Of repeating the same mistakes? Financially? Relationally? Emotionally? Mentally? With time?
My prayer today is what David prayed.
Psalms 139: 23-24
Search my heart, oh Lord, try my reins; test me and know my concerns. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Raising kids you can see your flaws sharply and distinctively. This morning I read Isaiah 5 and I am familiar with the passage. (So it terrified me and I prayed right away, Lord, please help me to be worthy and produce good fruit 🍌 🍉 🍎 according to all You have put into and invested in me.
I gotta get going on obedience and doing what I know is right. ⚖️ in 2023, it is time to hold myself more accountable and not let myself make excuses for my actions, especially my inactions.
I am normally a consistent evangelizer, but for the past two years, I have been slacking. Judges 5 and 6 tell the story of Gideon and how his doubt did not stop him from having faith. God wanted to do a special miracle through someone who was seen as afraid and low and small; because in all things, God should and must get the glory.
Praying for the removal of materialism, distractions, fear, social media pressures and anxiety, and for all those things to be replaced with PEACE, FAITH AND CONFIDENCE in Jesus name!
Love you,
R.S.
This verse tells us to keep a ready answer for why we believe in Jesus Christ!
What a blessing to get to share the stories and things God has done for us not only personally, but collectively, globally and outside of time!!!
Always have a smile because you are God’s child! A Chosen Vessel! Your circumstances don’t matter in evangelism🎉🙏🏽💕 I wish you know that your God is awesome, I am guilty of missing opportunities to evangelize, but I am going to do better!
7u
“I remember your genuine faith, for you share the ufaith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 1:5-9 NLT
bible.com/bible/1588/psa.5.11.AMP
Scripture to read today: 2 Timothy Chapters 1 & 2 and Psalms 5.
Pray for others and pray for mercy for them. Pray for all leaders and pray for those who love the Lord. Pray for your enemies and pray for your protection. Pray for the discouraged and pray for help.
With love,
❤️ Retrostank
www.bible.com/116/tit.3.4-7.nlt
How do you receive salvation?
Through repentance, faith, confession and baptism.
Thank God for His wonderful mercies,
Not perfect, but striving to obey. No matter the location, the sin, or the temptations, through Christ we can be cleansed and forgiven. And changed!
Love,
R.S.
Be flexible and accountable.
Be honest if you make a mistake and flexible when things change. You can do it, roll with the punches and ADAPT!!
This 1:32 video shows an example of how demonstrate that flexible accountability; life requires grace and adaptation!
Love,
R.S.
www.bible.com/116/1pe.4.11.nlt
So do it full out!!!
In dance, when you practice you might go through the counts and the motions to the music 🎶 lightly like uh uh uh uh.
But if somebody important walks in that room or you want somebody to notice you, you do it FULL OUT!! Boom, boom hip boom!
Live for God full out, serve Him with gladness full out!
Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who art 🖼 in Heaven
You are living art and a living Creation to bring God glory!
Bring Him glory FULL OUT!!
Love,
R.S.
Grace in Greek, charis- is the unmerited favor of God toward man that was made possible by the sacrificial offering of Jesus on the cross. Grace is …
GRACE AND ITS ORIGIN
Give people GRACE! Be okay with where they are and when they hurt you, forgive them.
Treat people how you want to be treated!
Be humble, forgiving, gracious, and grateful; It will help YOU FIND CONTENTMENT! 💃🏽
www.bible.com/bible/114/luk.19.11-27.nkjv
How many of us have talents that we are hiding? Or that we are to scared to share?
How could you hid your light…from shining?
God said, “There is a lamp stand put it right THERE!!””
Remember, Matthew 5:16 and “Let your 💡 LIGHT so shine before men that they may see your good works and GLORIFY your Father which art in Heaven!”
Let them look at your beautiful talents and know that there is a good God above, share that art, that acting, that singing, that cooking, that creating, that rap, that pottery, that furniture, that instrument so they can KNOW there is still a God above!!
Read this parable of Jesus to see what it looks like when you do it right and when you do it wrong.
With love,
R.S.
apple.news/AB-j_ff2aR-6XjPFRQgNfmA
As a person who has given people closest to me the silent treatment when I was so mad that I didn’t want to put it into words, I have recently learned that the silence kills as well.
Very thought-provoking article that I must share for the good of us all.
Hope you enjoy!
R.S.
www.bible.com/bible/1/jer.1.4-10.kjv
“Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.”
Jeremiah 1:4-10 KJV
Watch “Naaman and the Servant Girl” in the Superbook Bible app!
http://www.cbn.com/superbook/app/video/?&language=en&videoType=superbookepisodes&videoId=481721You can also watch Superbook shows, music videos and even download episodes to watch directly on your favorite device!
The Superbook Bible app even has fun Games, Bible Profiles, Questions & Answers, and an interactive Bible.
Download the Superbook Bible App Now!
http://www.superbook.tv/app
“Count your many blessing and see what the Lord has done.” -Church of Christ song Look What the Lord Has Done
Always be grateful.
-R.S.
Devos for Teens – Stand Where the Fire Has Been
— Read on tecartabible.com/share/2004/322/11
This is a inspiring story about how to stand when a fire is raging around you.
Amen.
-R.S.
Don’t give up!!
2020 is hard but don’t let go!
God has not left you. There might be some changes you need to make in your circle, changes in your thinking, in your habits.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, hold us up!
Strengthen our hearts, feed our souls so that we can hang on.
Forgive us of our many sins and iniquities!!
As Christmas comes, let us remember that Christ was born to die for our sins and make us right with You! Help me to continue to encourage and serve where I can. May Your perfect will be done in our lives!
In Jesus name I pray!!
Amen!!
Jesus rose with ALL POWER IN HIS HAND!!
I miss going to worship but this track right here gave me that collective feeling!
My brothers and my sisters, one day we will adore Jesus in person as He descends to Earth! Oh I want to see Him!
We will who believe and have been baptized will be raised on the last day and make our way to Heaven because He rose with all 💥 power in His Hand!
Love,
Retro stank
www.bible.com/bible/59/jas.3.13-18.esv
“Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
James 3:13-18 ESV
Galatians 5:22 The Fruits of The Spirit
“You’re not a natural being having a spiritual experience, but you are a spiritual being having a natural experience!”
This song is so beautiful and the meaning so real.
Enjoy!
~RetroStank
This song is soothing and true. It speaks of unconditional love and reciprocity.
“You’ve always been there for me, and so I’ll be there for you…”
Love it 😍
Today, if you need your spirit lifted, watch this!!
“I feel so much better since I laid my burdens down!”
Cast your burdens on Him for He Careth for you!
www.instagram.com/p/CFMtagen1DW/
This video healed something deep in my stomach!
Praise God!
We have been born for such a time as this!
God knew what was going on 2029, 2020, 1996, 1987, 1958, 1972, 1819, all of that! He is a God outside of time! Bigger than that!!
🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾👏🏾🙏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🩸🎼🌹💪🏾👍🏾❤️
www.bible.com/reading-plans/13542/day/4
Recommending this Plan if words have become tools for heartbreak in your relationship 👸🏿👸🏿👸🏿👸🏿👸🏿
There is a new Hero on the scene!! I love the concept of World-Travelling Product Connoisseurs who everybody trusts to have excellent taste!! Meet Aasha and Darcell ❤️❤️❤️ Also, for this particular issue, my Beauty Brand, Hadassah Beauty, was featured. Good things, good things and good news!! Letting our lights 💡 shine! Love, RetroStank
We are so excited to launch our blog. This is our first post and we have been working extremely hard to gather 10 favorite things to share. It was hard to pick from so many amazing things but we have narrowed them down. Below we have listed our favorite things of July.
Aasha’s favorite things of JULY:
Darcell’s favorite things of JULY:
*A special thing to note is Curlmix, Mented lipstick, Hadassah Beauty Shea Butter and Scotch Bonnets by Dani are Black owned businesses.
Obvious issues are vocalized and worn proudly, “Yeah, I am working on it, just not there YET.”
“Sure let’s talk all about it…my mom was grassroots organizer who never had time for her five kids because she was too busy passing out flyers and signing people up to vote. So I had to take care of the entire family instead of being a teenager. Thus, I wild’d out when I graduated high school. I started drag racing, doing tattoos, drinking, smoking, whatever. My real dream was to become a food scientist.”
Question #1 What two qualities failed this imaginary person, keeping him from achieving said dream?
Possible answers: Confidence from Encouragement & Support. Direction and Tenacity. (This qualities are capitalized to respect them as individual personalities.)
I marvel at women bosses. Female business moguls, lady tycoons. In my head, somehow, the partriachal structure of both my five person nuclear family and America at large scrunch their nose up, like “What? Lol.” Lady tycoon? The accepted and traditional career paths are as follows: teacher, lawyer, nurse, home economics teacher, seamstress, banker, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, and teacher.
To pave a path, to pioneer, one must be fearless, and certain.
Sunday, December 18th, 2016 at 1:00 p.m., at Jackson Street Church of Christ, a exceptionally MOVING and BEAUTIFUL memorial service took place in honor of Gloria Charles née Gloria Carr, my husband’s cousin Sugar Dumpling.
Sugar Dumpling was one of those Lady Tycoons.
She was BEAUTIFUL.
She was elegant.
She was particular.
She was glowing in the large framed photograph in the center table surrounded by her loved onze who had gone on before she.
I had barely known her.
Yet I cried like a baby that ran outta milk on her grandma while her parents were thirty minutes away at the mall and nothing could be done to make it better! Her life said treat yourself special, treat others special. Be fearless. Laugh. Love what you love. Be particular. Demand the best. Live out loud.
Gloria Charles glowed.
Little Glow worm.
Her obituary proclaims that she left the south for Hollywood!
Google her.
She played Richard Pryor’s girlfriend in Brewster’s Millions.
She had Confidence, Direction, and Tenacity.
One of my most favorite quotes is from Oscar Wilde, “Beauty for Beauty’s sake.”
Her cousin Jeff and her brother Hugh spoke of her surrounding herself with the best, with beauty, with cleanliness ( she learned this from her mother, Aunt Pa). “Fine and dandy like candy.” was quoted as one of Gloria’s favorite sayings. She loved romantic Soul songs from the Commodore, Earth, Windows, and Fire, the Dramatics, and Deniece Williams.
Can’t you just love a person you never met but who lived full of love and tenderness!
Truly, it moved me.
That Saturday night I dreamed I was at a church event watching my students perform a play on ice. My dad was putting the babies in the car and I ran back in the church to pee really quick before we left. I was in the bathroom when I saw these black square glasses I recognized as my grandmother’s (in reality, she is deceased). I pulled the glasses out and they were attached to a beautiful pink Bible case that was embroidered with 1 Corinthians 12. I put it back down, washed my hands, and started a conversation with a teacher from a school in Murfreesboro. I shared with her my (actual) desire to create a Spoken Word Scripture team.
Well when I got up and read 1 Corinthians 12, Paul preaches about how we are all members of One body with different administrations or roles, but One Spirit. Romans 12 speak of the same: differing gifts and using your gifts Excellently!
“Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others. God has given each of us the ability to do certain things WELL. Sone if God has given you the ability to prophesy, then prophesy whenever you can–as often as your faith is strong enough to receive a message from God. If you gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are teacher, do a good job of teaching. If you are a preacher, see to it that your sermons be strong and helpful. If God has given you money, be generous in helping others with it. If God has given you administrative ability and put you in charge of the work of others, take the responsibility seriously. Those who offer comfort to the sorrow ingredients should do so with Christian cheer. Don’t just pretend that you love others: really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with brotherly affection and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy in your work but serve the Lord enthusiastically. Be glad for all God is planning for you. Romans 12:6-12
More to come…
pride (countable and uncountable, plural prides)
The quality or state of being proud; an unreasonable overestimation of one’s own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, rank etc., which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve and often contempt of others.
(often with of or in) A sense of one’s own worth, and abhorrence of what is beneath or unworthy of one; lofty self-respect; noble self-esteem; elevation of character; dignified bearing; proud delight; — in a good sense.
He took pride in his work.
He had pride of ownership in his department.
(Can we date this quote by Macaulay?)
A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants.
(Can we date this quote by William Blake?)
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
Proud or disdainful behavior or treatment; insolence or arrogance of demeanor; haughty bearing and conduct; insolent exultation; disdain; hubris.
(Can we date this quote by G. K. Chesterton?), Introduction to Aesop’s Fables
Pride goeth before the fall.
That of which one is proud; that which excites boasting or self-congratulation; the occasion or ground of self-esteem, or of arrogant and presumptuous confidence, as beauty, ornament, noble character, children, etc.
(Can we date this quote by Spenser?)
lofty trees yclad with summer’s pride
(Can we date this quote by Bible?), Zech. ix. 6
I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
(Can we date this quote by Goldsmith?)
a bold peasantry, their country’s pride
Show; ostentation; glory.
(Can we date this quote by Shakespeare?)
Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war.
Highest pitch; elevation reached; loftiness; prime; glory,
to be in the pride of one’s life.
(Can we date this quote by Shakespeare?)
a falcon, towering in her pride of place
Consciousness of power; fullness of animal spirits; mettle; wantonness.
Lust; sexual desire; especially, excitement of sexual appetite in a female beast.
(zoology, collective) A company of lions or other large felines.
A pride of lions often consists of a dominant male, his harem and their offspring, but young adult males ‘leave home’ to roam about as bachelors pride until able to seize/establish a family pride of their own.
(zoology) The small European lamprey species Petromyzon branchialis.
Alternative letter-case form of Pride (“festival for LGBT people”).
For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:pride.
Synonyms
— Read on en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pride
Today’s Scripture of the day is Proverbs 16:18:
“Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”
PROVERBS 16:18 AMP
I ask the Lord to forgive me for my pride. Looking at the definition, I realize how easy it is to fall into pride! Pride will take over, and you do not even have the faintest idea that the way you answered that text message is pride! Or because you won’t communicate with others, that is pride! I am saddened at my ignorance to the truth about my pride and I am grateful that my eyes have been opened!
Ask yourself if you can see where pride needs to be cut out of your heart.
Father God, in Jesus’ name, I ask you to work pride out of us and free us from this ugly mentality. Lord, many, including me, are blinded to our ways and their impacts. Help us to turn from this and be more holy as You are holy and be honest enough to face our fears about what ever we are suffering and stop hiding because of our pride. Help us, dear Lord, to be humble and not boast in what we can do and be puffed up. Help us to esteem others better than ourselves and ask forgiveness to those our pride has effected. Please forgive me. In Jesus’ name, amen!
Mederma.
Cocoa butter.
Scars…
Reminding us of the time something got the best of us.
A cool scar lived on her inner left ankle from the time the chest of drawers kissed her. Trying to do a cartwheel to a fast song in an itty bitty, tiny, little boarding room.
That is a happy scar.
The basketball got the best of him. It tricked him into fighting another man’s elbow.
Ouch scar.
Remember the pain of asking, “Daddy, I was wondering if…?”
Whatever the silly, young request met with an indignant “NO”.
Dang, man.
Teenage scar
Like flies swarming poop.
Scars are little alarm clocks, “Hey, get up!! It looks like you are about to take an old road!!!”
© 2016 Lauren Fitzgerald
Steno Pad
Via:
Lauren “Nadi” Akins
Preface:
Prosper.
Goodness, good news, and good people:
May they come into your aura.
Magnetize beauty, power, creativity.
Bold–Courageous–All Around Square Biz
THE BEST
10-23-2013
Seedz of joy grow magnolia flowers yall mistake as my teeth.
Smile centered,
Anatomy diagonal to the dirt.
Sun spits rays,
Faster goes the merry-go-round.
Weird and strange.
My eyes wrinkle,
Cheeks become parentheses
With as much royalty as Rameses.
10-23-2013
come here,
let me.
be your.
life-sized centerfold.
8-10-2013
LAUREN OPINIONS
Something special in writing a book,
story or song,
to sustain the thought long enough
to feel and to meddle
with the possibility
soaking in the emotion
b/c mine are so passing, ephermal, and forgettable.
Getting my mind to stay in gear:
a great feat
-seeing as how I desire to be
planning out my career
Right Now.
Need to let myself stop feeling the need
to (get)
caught up.
And let old promise,
commitments, whatever
fly off with new wings
to see new life
as from this day forward.
The need to share ideas like water
in streams flows free.
Sleep is slipping her hands
around my waist and pulling me close to her.
I done spent the better part of the day
on a Scandal marathon with good food and catnaps:
unhaunted by tasks or to-do-lists,
a Saturday to just be.
Be flooded with a differing life pace and be sucked into a visual storybook.
When in his company 3-D is a place that’s calling my name over miles. I
love you.
I want the world so bad, friction is sandpaper on silk.
I was officially a new mommy, as of October 10, 2014 at 11:56 pm. A warrior of all the pain, joy, and anxiety: childbirth is beautiful.
Sun splash,
Crystal Palace,
Bob Marley and green pear tea.
Pancake breakfast for three:
The century before cars, ministers travelled on their feet.
Prayer amidst the pain, mellifluous and soothing.
Rich enough to spare a smile when the purse is down to dimes.
Life (is) spiced by relationships.
As permanent as white beaded anklets, sincerity is its own tatoo.
The ratio of joy to rain is 3:2.
-R.S.
Written 5-2-2015 amidst surviving.
to a jewel of a man,
always strong even in the dark.
my sunbeam.
love streams from my soul for u.
its a keynote, played at fortissimo.
i send u the fruit of my fancy.
as we pen this love tale.
forevermore.
-Ladylove blu (Lauren Fitzgerald, me)
Her name is Magenta
She makes life feel like a fable,
Running on train platforms to catch unicorns flying to the Brooklyn Art Museum and Abyssinian restaurants.
She paints with a mixture of crushed ochre, wet lilacs, and oil:
Her paintbrushes are enchanted.
She practices with each picture, until for painting she is paid.
Offertory grins offering the World through her eyes.
Offhand politeness, a pretty bird from down South.
Doing slightly better on her Odyssey than Odysseus:
Her only offense, singing octagonal octaves with tremble fit only for October.
It’s that frighteningly authentic.
Official oddity, settling into her weirdness
That psychology officiates.
Her head cocked in analyzation,
An amendment to her peers’ playfully shallow scope,
And a nod to her ancestors.
She is analogous to a princess,
Petals envelope her lavender body as she drops them every now and again
Like the globe’s flower girl decorating dirty streets.
by: Yours Truly (Lauren Akins)
I promise I try. I promise I give, and naively use magnifying glasses to look for the good, like Battleship game map searches. I X out general flaws because I want to be right.
Pure in spirit, a heart pinker than flamingo feathers—a cotton candy melted by pleasant tones and gestures. Moments that remind
That eyes bear: pregnant with tears.
Caterpillars have camped out a month of Sundays in my stomach as I know my potential,
but i get nervous.
Six-prong fork with me at the center
left,
northwest,
diagonal left,
south, diagonal right, and south east.
But you know, with certainty, I attest the Butterflies will at best carry me towards… where I will be Blessed.