New Everyday!

Today I am very thankful for a beautiful new day!  That's right a new day!  I think sometimes we take each day for granite.  However, we are not promised tomorrow.  So I say "Carpe diem"   or "Seize the Day!"  Everyday should be a blessing and we need to be thankful for each day that we have.   Every day is a New day!  A new day to start fresh.  A clean slate.  You have not written anything on yet.  The day is yours to do with as you wish.  Take full advantage of that!  "Carpe diem"  I love the scripture that says in Lamentations 3:22-23 "The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning."   That is why I look at each new day as a new fresh start!  So I am thankful for each new day.  I am thankful that I can seize the day for all it's worth!  I can make it or break it, it is my choice!

No Strings Attached

Today I am so thankful for my wonderful and awesome wife!  Brenda is the love of my life and she is such a tremendous blessing to me!  Her love and support is unconditional.  No matter what, she is and has always been there for me.  She sees past my quirks and my idiosyncrasies, and still chooses to love me for who I am!  That unconditional love.  Even on my bad days!  Yes I do have them.  There are days when I get frustrated, whether it be with kids, work, or just everyday life, she is still there for me, takes me as I am and still always there to love me!  WOW!!!  What more can I ask?  We have shared this wonderful connection with each other now for over 23 years and it has been awesome and I am truly looking forward to the many more years that we have together!  My wife is the best and I would not have her any other way!  So a big THANK YOU and I am so GRATEFUL for YOU! goes out to my loving and wonderful wife Brenda Lorenzo!!!  You are truly the best!

Are You Counting?

Hello everyone!  I hope this post finds your day going well?  Mine is fantastic!  Today I am counting. Counting what you may ask?  Well, counting my blessings!  That is what I am thankful for today.  The many blessings that have come to me and are still and will come down to me!  You see, blessings can be so many things.  They can come in so many different shapes, forms, sizes.  You just have to realize that they are there and they are blessings!  I know I get accused of a lot of looking at the glass as "Half-full" all the time, but I choose to be that way and try to see the good and the blessings in all situations!  Even in the tough times.  Yes, tough times will come and they have come and will continue to come, it is just how to go through them that will make you or break you!  It all goes back to the "Counting." 

You see, when I choose to see the good in all things and count my blessings, I truly believe that it makes going through life so much easier.  Yes, I do acknowledge that the bad things are there and do effect outcomes of situations, but still I can find the blessing or the good in it somehow or somewhere!  So I will always be "Counting!" 

There is an old Hymn that says this:

1. When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
   When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
   Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
   And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
   
   • Refrain:
     Count your blessings, name them one by one,
     Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
     Count your blessings, name them one by one,
     *Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
     [*And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.]
2. Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
   Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
   Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
   And you will keep singing as the days go by.
3. When you look at others with their lands and gold,
   Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
   Count your many blessings—*money cannot buy [*wealth can never buy]
   Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.
4. So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
   Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
   Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
   Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

So are you counting?  Start today and I think you will truly be amazed at what you come up with!   Now go and be blessed!!!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go!

Day # 7 of the November Thankfulness challenge.  Today I am thankful for my job!  Yes, my job!  Not only because it is a source of income for me and my family, but I truly enjoy what I do.  I am very thankful that I can get up Monday through Friday and go into work and do what I love to do!  I have an awesome group of people that I work with everyday.  It is fun and challenging, keeps me on my toes!  Got to love the rush!  So I am extremely thankful for the awesome opportunity to work with a fantastic group of people! 


P.S.  Now I'm in trouble because I don't think I can get the Hi Ho song out of my mind :)  Keep being thankful everyone!  You will be glad you did!

The Gift of Freedom!

Hello All,

I know I am behind on my own challenge here, however, I have not stopped being thankful for something each day.   Today (Nov 6th) is Election day here in the good old United States of America.  So today I am VERY thankful for my right as an American Citizen to vote and have this democratic process in our country to select our leaders.  As we all know, this opportunity did not come without a great price!  This freedom is a gift given to us by the many men and woman who have fought valiantly for our freedom and ability to vote!  The sacrifices that they have made so that you and I can have the opportunity to cast our ballet will never go unappreciated with me and hopefully you feel the same way.

So on this Election day, I am very thankful for my gift of freedom.  So I challenge everyone of you regardless of your political preferences to exercise your freedom to freely vote.  Just remember to be very thankful for all the men and woman who have fought for this right and freedom!

Counting on God!

Day #2 in our November Thankfulness Challenge.  So what am I thankful for on this second day of November?  I am thankful for God's provision!  In Him I have all that I need or could want.  I am so thankful that I am in the hands of a loving God who knows my needs and meets them according to His riches and glory!   Sometimes though, I have to admit that it is hard to see this.  There are and have been days when I look at my bottom line and think and say to myself "I don't know how we are going to make ends meet?"  and I would find myself starting to get frustrated and upset, then I am reminded that God will and has ALWAYS provided!  On my own, I don't understand how, but it does, God always meets mine and my families needs!  I just have to learn to rely on His provisions and not my own!  So for day two of this challenge.  I am very Thankful that I can "Count on God!" and that I know that my needs are met in Him and according to His economy and not mine!  God is so good and to Him I give all the glory!

So I encourage you today, if you are feeling down and you think you don't know how things are going to work out, I highly suggest you look up, and "Count on God"  He is your provision and HE Will supply all your needs!

Be blessed everyone!

"And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:19 (NLT)

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. 

An Attitude of Grattitude!

Hello All, I can't believe that it is November 1st!!!  Where has this year gone?  Last year I started the November Thankfulness Challenge.  This was where one would choose something specific they were thankful for during the Thanksgiving season.  This year it would be 22 specific things that you are thankful for.  It is a challenge, but I am sure that you can do it!  Are you up for it?   Join me.  You will be glad you did.  As I did this challenge last year, it truly made me look and see how many things that I have to be thankful for!  It has kept me looking on the brighter side of things through out the year!  So are you on board?  I hope so.  Let the challenge begin!

So here I go, Day 1.  I am thankful for the support of my family!  My wife and kids, as I have taken on the adventure of going back to school this past year!  They have supported me in this and have sacrificed themselves to help me do what I truly have been wanting to do for a long time now.  So I am extremely thankful that I have their support during this time of my life where I am pursuing my higher education.  I could not do it without knowing they are behind me!  They are my cheer leaders and encourage me when I get down and tell me to hang in there and that I can do it!  Having that support goes a long way in creating that "Attitude of Gratitude!"

I Blew it!

Hello Everyone!  I hope this blog note finds your day going well?  For me, now it's great, but last week it was not so great.  Yup, Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky was not his usually bubly and happy self.  I had a bad day, wait let me rephrase that...I had a bad week!  Most of my friends and family know that I am just a overflowing bubly case of joy.  I usually don't let anything get to me and I am just an all around nice kind of guy.  Well, this past week, I BLEW IT!  Yup, I had a very stressful and bad week at work.  It was a particulary long week, we had some systems fail and and I am the lead on these systems.  So needless to say my hours were very long, about 12-14 hour days for the last week.  Not to mention the stress load that goes along with trouble shooting and trying to come to a resolution.  Well, I let all this stress get the best of me. 

I try never to bring the stress and issues of work home with me.  I try my best to leave them at the door when I walk out for the day.  However, that was definately not the case this past week.  I brought all that stress home!  OK, now you can see where I am going with this.  Not  a good thing!  I found myself all that week withdrawing from the family.  I found myself getting very quiet and not wanting to talk or letting little things get to me that normally I would not even bat an eye to.  That should have been the warning sirens right there.  MAYDAY MAYDAY...ALL HANDS ON DECK...but I was so consumed in my stress and the issues of the week that I did not see the forest for the trees so to speak.  Well this all came to a head on Thursday this past week.  I came home and was very quiet and not talking very much.  I was also letting all the little things get to me.  This is where my reality check came in.  THANK GOD for a spouse who loves me so much that she is willing to tell it to me straight.  My wonderful wife called me out!  Guess what, I still did not see it!  I said that I was not stressed and that I just had a very long week.  I tried to deflect and push back everything on her.  Well, needless to say once again, THANK GOD for a spouse who loves me and tells it to me like it is, she told me that she did not like this Joe that she was seeing and that I needed to change my attitude.  Well that night, I did some self-reflecting and praying, and YES I did now see exactly what she was saying.  I had let all the stresses of work come home with me and took all that baggage from work and off loaded it at home.  Not a good thing to do!  So I did apologize to my wife and told her how sorry I was for bringing the stress of work home and makeing my family take the brunt of it!

I say all this for everyone out there that may be stressing out and bringing all that junk with you to your familes or significant others.  Take stock in what they have to say to you.  Once again I am greatful that I have a loving spouse who is willing to tell it to me like it is.  She gave me a great reality check and a well needed attitude adjustment!

I sure thank God that His mercies are fresh and new every day.  I thank God that I can get up in the morning and know it's a new day.  I thank God that I can run to him and ask for forgiveness and it's there for my taking.  Because I know that I sure need it.  I also thank God for my wonderful wife that He has placed in my life.   She is a wonderful and loving spouse whom I truly appreciate.  She is so full of unconditional love and has the boldness to tell it to me straight.  Thank you Lord.  My prayer is that you have someone like that in your life.  Someone that is there for you.  Someone that can tell it to you straight and put you back on the striaght and narrrow.  Someone that can give you an attitude adjustment when needed.

A Proud But Challenged Daddy!

My son told me about something he did in school yesterday that just made me one proud Daddy.  He told me about how he told one of his friends that they needed to ask God for forgiveness and ask Jesus into their hearts.  He told them that Jesus forgives and that he could take the junk out of their lives. (I'm paraphrashing here, but you get the idea) 

WOW!  That is what I have to say.  He is not ashamed of the Gospel and telling other people about Jesus.  We told him that he is being bold and we are proud of him for standing up for his faith in God! 

The boldness of a child that will stand out and have no fear about telling someone else about Jesus!  That makes me take a step back and ask myself "Am I that bold in my faith?"  Could I be as bold to tell my friends or coworkers about Jesus and the plan of salvation or would I just let the opportunity go by?  Lord help me to be as bold!  We should not let our fears about what others will think or say when we step out and share our faith with others.  Is that not what Jesus commands us to do?  "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel"  It is the Great Commission, not the "Great Suggestion".
So as I write this, I am a very proud Daddy but also a challenged one...Will you be bold?   Will you take a stand and step out and be a witness for Christ no matter what?  Lord help me to do that!

Valentine's Day-What is love?

Hello Everyone!  Happy Valentine's Day to you!  I hope that everyone is geared up and has spoiled their significant other with wonderful pleasantries and expressions of love today.  Valentine's day is a great and wonderful day set apart for "Love."  However, this got me to thinking, what is true love all about?  We immediately think of love as being that deep down warm fuzzy feeling that we get when we see our significant other or we get that box of chocolates or gift from them.  Love though is more than just a feeling, it goes much deeper than that.

 I go back to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13:4-8, better known as the Love chapter to get the meaning of love.  It goes like this.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
What an amazing picture of Love.  Now the REAL challenge....Substitute the word love with your name and that will bring it all the way home.  These are questions that I ask myself all the time...Is Joe patient, is Joe kind, is Joe not jealous or boastful, is Joe not proud or rude?  Is Joe not demanding of my own way (in other words...A Cry baby!) is Joe not irritable, (Sometimes tough after a long day of work), is Joe not keeping a record of wrongs, is Joe rejoicing about the injustices,  or is Joe rejoicing when truth wins out?   Will I never give up, never loose faith, always be hopeful and endure through EVERY circumstance?  Now that is "True Love!"  Challenging isn't it?  Are you up for it? 

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Moving Forward

Hello everyone!
Have you ever done something that you regret?  Have you ever said something that you wish you could take back?  I think we all have including myself.  The real question is what are you doing or going to do after the fact?  Are you going to let your past mistakes haunt you for many days and years to come?  What is the right thing to do?  I think we have to move past them and move forward, not dwell on them.  We should not let our past mistakes, words or deeds control us.  We need to move forward.

You might be saying..."Wait a minute!"  You don't know what I've done or said.  Maybe not, but I do know this, we server a mighty and merciful God who DOES NOT remember the past!  It is covered under the blood of His son Jesus!  The Bible says in Lamentations 3:22-23 "The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  GREAT is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning!"  The Bible also says that “In Him [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us” (Ephesians 1:7-8).   We can also be assured that our sins are thrown as far as the east is from the west according to Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far He removed our transgressions from us”   2 Corinthians 5:17 says this "This means that ANYONE who belongs to Christ has become a NEW person.  The OLD life is GONE; a NEW life has begun!"
So I just want to encourage you today, if you have been struggling with forgiving yourself of things in the past, or if you have been or are currently thinking I can't get past this, YES YOU CAN!  There is a song that rings out in my heart every time I hear it and it just reminds me that I'm not going back, but moving forward...I'm moving forward, what about you? Here are the lyrics to the chorus.

I'm not going back
I'm moving ahead
Here to declare to you
My past is over in You
All things are made new
Surrendered my life to Christ
I'm moving moving forward

Cling to this song and I pray that you decide to move forward and not look back!  Let today be the day that you move one and declare that your past is over and that ALL things are made new!  God Bless!

Lessons Learned

Hello everyone!  I'm back!  After taking a month long break from blogging, I am back.  This post will be longer than most of my previous post but hopefully you will read on. 

During the month of January, like most everyone, we all like to make New years resolution to better ourselves and our situations.  Yes I did make some, but I would like to look at them more so as goals not resolutions.  I believe that we need not just one area of our lives to "resolve" to get better or to change, but make it a total make over.  Every area of our lives.  So this is what I decided to do, I decided to make my resolutions or I now like to say "My goals" for the year in all areas of my life.

• Physical
• Mental
• Spiritual

Here is what I plan on doing, yes I am announcing it to the world so I can also be accountable to what I say and do.  So here it is...

• Physical-My goal is to loose 60 pounds this year!  That seems like a lot but if you take it in little chunks it equals out to 5 pounds per month.  I am trying to get into an exercise routine and be more active and eat healthier.  It is all for the good.  I am also proud to report that I not only made my monthly goal but exceeded it!  I am very happy for that!  I have lost 6.5 pounds during January!  So I am on my way! 
  
  What about you?  What are you doing to better yourself physically?
• Mental- There is an old saying that goes like this..."A mind is a teribble thing to waste."  I agree.  We have to keep challenging ourselves not only physically but mentally as well.  I believe you never stop learning.  This year, I set the goal of reading at least one book a month that will help better myself, my relationships, my spiritual life, my job.  I have also set the goal of listening to various motivational speakers through their podcasts.  Keeping my mind sharp. 
  
  What are you doing to stay sharp mentally?
• Spiritual-  This is one area of my life that I hold dear to me.  My faith.  I have been challenged this year to pray harder than I ever have before, draw and seek God more than I ever have.  I have resolved to do the following to help me in my pursuit of drawing closer to God.  I have made it a goal to read through the entire Bible in a year.  I have also made it a goal not to let a day go by that I am not in prayer.  Begin and end my day with prayer.  Keeping a journal for all the requests.  I have also been attending a weekly prayer meeting that our church has for our men every Monday night.  I believe that through the reading of God's word and seeking God through prayer that my spiritual goals for myself and my family will be made!
  
  What are you doing for your spiritual life?  What keeps your spirit man charged up?  Don't let your tank get on empty!

So through this past month of January, it has been a real big challeng for me.  I am expecting great and wonderful things to come for the year of 2012.  Not only for myself, and my  immediate family, but also for my extended and church family as well.  Greater things are yet to come!  I believe, I'm praying, I expect!  I Cor 2:9 says “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”