Do you remember?

Oh heeeey friend. Whatchoo doin'? Reading my blog? Wow. You're cool. B)

I want to warn you that this post ends with a rather sweet song, but don't go to the end first: READ this!

If you're wondering what I'm reading, wait no longer:

Psalm 103:1-14

Reading this passage was truly fulfilling as I went away to a conference this weekend and the one thing (out of several) that I gained with the choice I make to thank God and give Him his dues when I'm focused on negative things in life or how sour things are turning. Example: This past Friday, I was in a funk that had me torn, the most torn and stressed that I've ever felt over the span of 24 hours. Inconceivable how fragile I felt. I cried ever few hours, sighed in contempt for life at school and just overall had a weird funk face (the one when everyone knows that something is terribly wrong--can't even fake happiness). Thankfully, God threw all of my friends in my path that day to give me great advice....or was it just to remind me that He loves me? I didn't take their advice. BUT, I did realize how not alone I was though I sometimes felt it. So shout out to Sara B., Yan S, Mommy, Daddy, Genna M., Kelsey B., Cheyenne O., Erin W., Daphne W., Marcia M., and everyone else. You all helped me get through the day. Seriously.

So, when I got to the conference I was semi still in the funk, but on Saturday God reminded me, through a Spanish song (!!!), that I need to praise Him in las buenas y en las malas (In the good and the bad). I had forgotten how much He loves me and all the great things He does for me. I had forgotten. 

The passage in vs. 2 says "Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not all His benefits." I want to remember how he "forgives", he "heals", "redeems", "works", "makes known his ways". I had forgotten. In the good and in the bad, let us not forget what God has done. Not only to remember, but to praise Him for it. 

So, Do You Remember?

Much love, peace and remembering grease,
      Ife 'Quipayan' S.

Psych yourself up

Well, howdie there.
Welcome to my blog! Thanks for taking the time out to read. It's pretty sweet that you found it (or stumbled across it)! I'm glad you're here. But hold your horses; you have to keep reading to get the gist of this blog here.

Psalm 77: 11-20.

Have you ever tried to psych yourself out? As in, you're feeling one way, but you're telling yourself to feel another or do another? That's what the psalmist did in this passage. At least that's what it looks like to me. I started reading the passage from 11 onward and thought, "Wow! This writer sure sounds happy to have God in his life." Maybe, or he's really sad.

The verses beforehand, the ones I hadn't read, are pretty sad and anguish-filled. The psalmist was probably crying his eyes out. He says "my soul refused to be comforted." If feel that this could be as sad as it gets. Not only was he distressed, but his own soul was troubled! Snaps.

That is the general tone of the 9 verses.

But.....there is a twist!

In verse 10 he says this: "Then I thought, 'To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High." A light turns on in his head where I tries a new approach to begging God for a change in his life. He remembers the good.

By remembering the good, he psyches himself out to forget the awful. He makes the decision to appeal to God's grace in his life. I would have kept moping and producing waterfalls. But seriously though.

Let's remember "the deeds of the Lord: yes...remember [His] miracles of long ago." This is how we appeal to God's kindness and mercy in our lives. For troubles will always come, but once we make the decision to recall the great things God has done, we psych ourselves up, but not on false promises or works, but on true, longstanding acts of the Creator of the heavens and the earths.

Ya'll it's been real. Much love, peace and remembering grease,

Ife  'Quipayan' S.