2.11.2018

Beauty from Ashes


"I will give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes. I will give them the oil of joy instead of sorrow, and a spirit of praise instead of a spirit of no hope." ~ Isaiah 61:3 (NLV)

Mistakes.  They are a normal part of life, no matter how hard we try to avoid them.  In fact, the harder we try to avoid mistakes, the more they seem to make a grand appearance.  That's what makes us human - despite what our young adult selves wanna think.

However, let's take it a step further ... let's talk about repetitive mistakes. 
When we make mistakes over and over and over again.  Even though we know those mistakes are wrong, but we don't do anything to change.  Or even if we want to change, but we are worried that we've drifted too far from the Lord ... could He take us back?

The past year and half, I have been living life by my own doing ... the way I've wanted to live it.  I never lost sight of my Savior, but I didn't make room for Him in my life, or my heart.  I let corruption, sin, and every bad thing of the world in.  I was in an ungodly relationship.  I noticed that I wasn't myself anymore, and I couldn't get to the old me ... no matter how hard I tried.  I was anxious all the time.  I was worried/scared that I had fallen so far from God, that He wouldn't take me back.

It wasn't until about three weeks ago that I prayed that God would help me get back to Him.  It was during that prayer, that I knew the first step was to end the relationship.  It was during this prayer, that I had my first conversation with God.

"God, I can't do that.  I love him ... and he loves me!"
"Alisha, do you love Me?"
"Of course I love You!"
"If you love Me, then why were you so quick to end your relationship with Me?  I can offer so much more than Casey ever could.  I want to be your First Love.  I have so much in store for you, but I can't give it to you, until you come back to Me!"
"Okay Lord.  Help me end my relationship with him, I can't do this alone.  I want to be Yours and only Yours.  I love You!"
"I love you too!"

And as a God of His Word, He helped me.  My relationship has ended, and to be honest ... I couldn't be happier.
My view of singleness is so dramatically different.  I don't feel burdened to be single once again ... in fact, it's the opposite - I feel honored!  I love not having to put effort into anyone but me!  I'm all God's, only God's, and that's how it will stay!
I feel as if a huge burden has been lifted, and I am so glad that I listened to God!  When He said that He has so much in store, I wasn't expecting this.
I can't wait to spend this time to get to know Alisha and find out what she's made of!!  2018 is gonna be the year I blossom into God's best, and I'm so excited!!

God truly has made beauty from ashes!!

12.28.2017

Christmas 2017


This year my family and I were able to spend 3 days in Chesapeake with friends/adopted family.  We had a great time, and lots of memories were made.

When we arrived on the 23rd, we had a fantastic dinner awaiting us ... and Sangeria.

Me and Mom

Me and Dad

Me and Rhey
No, she is not drinking wine!  She felt left out and put her root beer in a wine glass lol.
Dec. 24th :
Mimi, Rhey, and I worked together and got Christmas dinner ready.  We enjoyed cooking, laughing, and talking with each other.

Mimi and Rhey took a break and went on a hunt for Brazilian nuts.  Meanwhile, I was being sneaky and took a picture!

They were in charge of the main meal ...

... while I was in charge of making the salad ...

... and finger foods

Nick and I went on a walk the pond ...

<3

Begging to go on another walk






Nick loved cuddle time with his new friend Lexis

So blessed to have this guy as my dad!!
Thankful to have her as my life-long best friend


Miracles happen!  We managed to get a family picture taken lol!
All in all, Christmas this year was great!  I'm thankful to have spent it with my family!

11.17.2017

5 Life Lessons I've Learned as a "Waitress"


Hi, how are you today?”
“I’m good and yourself?”
I’m doing pretty good, what can I get for you?”
…. and so the order begins

If you would have told me five months ago that the job behind the above conversation would teach me lessons, I would have just given you a blank stare and said “Seriously?? Uh huh …. suuuuure.” I would have silently called you crazy, or maybe would have thought you were running low on sleep. However, after being a waitress for five months, I totally understand now. Waitressing in and of itself is a perfect opportunity for learning valuable life lessons.

Lesson 1: Attitude
Your customers can sense your attitude even when you can’t, which will affect how they treat you … and the tip they leave you. So make sure to reevaluate yourself, wear your gorgeous smile, and be happy :)
**I haven’t experienced this lesson yet … nor do I ever want to. But I have witnessed it with two co-workers, and one was actually fired for his bad attitude.

Lesson 2: Conversation & Connection
I’ve read countless stories from waitresses who say that the greeting part is their least favorite, only because it gets old really fast. The thing about it is, is you have to be willing to make conversation and make a connection with your customers. I will change up the conversation depending on who the customer is.
If young guys walk in I may say “how are you gentlemen today?”
If a family walks in with their adorable 2 year old, I’ll greet the parents and then start a conversation with the two year old. (Thursday, the two year old and I talked about his favorite teddy bear <3)
Connection is key, because they can tell if you’re there to only make money, or if you truly love your job. Making the customers happy isn’t only by bringing them their food, it’s about giving them the best experience they can have.

Lesson 3: Phone skills
Before I started working, my phone skills were awful. I couldn’t really carry on a conversation with a random person. If you weren’t one of the three friends that I talked to on the phone, yeah well … forget it haha.
Answering the phone to take to-go orders has tremendously helped me in this area. I can finally carry on a conversation with a random person, and there not be an awkward silence! (okay I take that back … there still is, but it’s only when they can’t decide on something to order. For reals, what am I supposed to say? Haha)

Lesson 4: Confidence
When I first started my job as a waitress/counter-person, I was not confident in who Alisha was.  I was always wanting to please those around me.  However, I have learned that in order to really succeed at this job, you need to have confidence in yourself. If you are constantly worried about the job you’re doing, you’re bound to make more mistakes (trust me on this one).
Be you ... not who someone else thinks you should be.

Lesson 5: Laugh at yourself
Mistakes are bound to happen.  Especially if you are slammed and everyone and their long distant relative decides to either dine in, order take out, or call in a delivery.  Whether the mistake is sounding as if you cannot speak, ringing someone up wrong on the register, totaling up a delivery order wrong, etc.  So what are you to do in a situation like this?  Easy ... just laugh at yourself.
This is a recent lesson I have learned.  It seems kinda weird at first, but after a while it almost becomes like a second nature.
Before, I would worry that the customers were judging me (this kinda ties into lesson 4).  Five months ago, I would apologize profusely for any mistake I made around them.  Now, the conversation goes something like this:
"Uh oh ... ooops.  Well ... will you look at that, another void needs to be made, I think that makes the second one today.  Let's try this one more time!  After all, they say 'third time's the charm', right?"
When you take on this attitude, it helps relieve the stress you're feeling, it calms everyone else down too, and I have personally found that it actually increases tips.  Why's that?  Because the customers see that you have a great outlook on trying times ... and it helps make their experience enjoyable!

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What are some recent life lessons you've learned?
I'd love to hear what you have to say ;)

7.19.2017

The Bible & Contradictions // The Mission Field Series


(This is the first post in “The Mission Field” series)

 “How can one believe the Bible? It’s full of contradictions … it even contradicts itself!”

C’mon Ali, you’ve completed Bible school … you have to have an answer for this. I thought to myself as I stood there appalled at what I just heard.

The Bible may seem that it’s full of contradictions, or that it even contradicts itself. Just trust me when I say that it doesn’t contradict itself.”

But it does! It does contradict itself. So if it’s full of contradictions, then we can’t believe it.”

But that’s the thing, we can believe it, because it’s the infallible Word of God. What contradictions are you referring to?”

God says He hates jealousy, however, He Himself is a jealous God. Explain that one.

That’s right, God doesn’t want His children to be jealous of others. But that’s an attribute of His, because He is the One True God – He has every right to be jealous when we give our worship to anyone/anything other than Him.”


This was a conversation I had with a coworker last week while I was working an all day shift at the restaurant. It shocked me to hear what was being said (don’t know why I was shocked, I’ve heard it before), not to mention … I was saddened. Not only was I realizing the seriousness of this coworker’s eternity, but I could not for the life of me remember Bible verses that could explain the exact opposite of what this person was saying. Like always, the devil didn’t want me to have the opportunity to be apart of bringing another into the fold (1 Pet. 2:25)

It’s been almost a week since that conversation, and I’ve still (to this day) mulled over the conversation. Praying God would show me how to bring Truth out of what my coworker had said/and believes (basically to twist it around to Christ). Then God did the amazing, it was like a Spiritual light-bulb moment.

The Bible doesn’t contradicts itself. It contradicts us, because our brains cannot comprehend what the Bible says, or because we have our own interpretation of the Bible.

(I don’t know why this couldn’t have come to me, almost a week ago lol)

When I discussed my God given “light-bulb moment” with my parents, my dad said something else that has stuck with me.

Anyone can say anything is contradictory. When someone doesn’t understand the ‘why’ behind something, it seems contradictory. It takes understanding to get rid of contradiction.”

Which is totally true, that’s why Proverbs tells us to get wisdom and understanding.

But that didn’t satisfy me at all. I had to know more, so I could help my coworker see that the Word doesn’t contradict itself. A new question arose in my mind:
So if it takes understanding to get rid of contradiction, and the Bible doesn’t contradict itself, but yet still seems that way to a nonbeliever – is there a middle ground?

For some there is a middle ground in regards to contradiction.

What do I mean by a middle ground? Let me explain it this way:

The Bible is God’s Word to humankind, I’m sure the majority can agree with me on this. However, it has also been mediated through authors that are man (or human). So there could be mistakes, yes? After all … humankind isn’t perfect. And if it’s God’s Word, wouldn’t have God actually written the Bible Himself? This in and of itself is a contradiction, yes?
The middle ground are for those still searching for answers, but who believe. Those who can’t fathom how the Bible doesn’t contradict itself.

Does the Bible contradict itself?

First off, let’s take a look at a couple definitions: the definition of “contradiction” and of “difference”.

contradiction
[kon-truh-dik-shuhn]

1. the act of contradicting’ gainsaying or opposition
2. assertion of the contrary or opposite; denial

difference
[dif-er-uh ns, dif-ruh ns]

1. the state or relation of being different; dissimilarity
2. an instance or point of unlikeness or dissimilarity

Now that we know those definitions, let’s put them into the context of our question.

There are two accounts of Jesus’ lineage (Matt. 1 & Luke 1). These are known as “one of the contradictory passages”.
These passages show us that there are two different lineages, however – Jesus only had one earthly parent. How could this be??? This is a huge contradiction, therefore I won’t believe it!

Why are there two passages when Jesus had one earthly parent?

Matthew 1 gives us the lineage of Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph.
Luke 1 gives us the lineage of Jesus’ mother, Mary.

See – not a contradiction … just a difference ;)
The contradiction would be:

Matthew 1 gives us the lineage of Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph. While Luke 1 gives the lineage of Jesus’ mother Mary, who conceived Jesus through Joseph.

A couple other passages that breed contradiction, are the death accounts of Judas Iscariot (Matt. 27:5 & Acts 1:18).

Matthew 27:5 tells us that Judas hung himself
Acts 1:18 tells us that Judas fell headlong, and all of his organs gushed out

Again, this is not a contradiction … just a difference.

But Alisha, these passages are contradictions! They give two different accounts of Judas’ death!”

Yes they do, however, let’s put it in a couple different perspectives, shall we?

1. Let’s say Judas did hang himself like in Matthew 27:5. And a couple days, his body decayed, the rope snapped – making him falling headlong, and causing all of his organs to gush out (just like in Acts 1:18).

2. Let’s say Judas attempted to hang himself Matt. 27:5), but it didn’t work well for him (I would probably chicken out too – just saying). So instead he fell off a cliff (Acts 1:18).

Does it really matter how the man died? No it doesn’t! What matters, is that both accounts say he died (by his own means), and they named the field he purchased the Field of Blood. How he died is irrelevant!

The contradiction to these passages would be:
Matthew 27:5 says he hung himself, while Acts 1:18 says he went and purchased a field and lived a long life – regretting the betrayal he displayed towards Jesus.

The last “contradiction” is a “big one”. It has to do with a matter of faith, rather than facts.

Paul tells us three different times in Romans (3:20, 28; 5:1), that our faith is justified through Christ alone, and not our works. But yet in James 2:24 Paul tells us that a man is justified through works.

So which is it?

We have to look at the context of the word justification in all the passages.

In Romans, we see that justification is in regards to standing before God, while in James 2:24 justification is in regards to standing before people.

So yes, our faith isn’t justified through works in order to be saved, but once we’re saved – we need to be showing the fruits of the Spirit to those around us.

The contradiction for these passages would be:
Romans tells us that we are justified through Christ alone, and that James would tell us that we need works to get to heaven.

I could go on and on about the different “contradictions” the Bible seems to contain, but I won’t.

Instead of ironing out every single “contradiction” the Bible looks like it contains, we need to focus on how we can apply it to our lives as individuals. We need to focus on how we can be the change we want to see in the world.

It’s all in how we read Scripture!

We have to be careful to not presuppose what Scripture is saying in regards to a particular view, and then try to stuff it into our preconceived notion. We have to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us with Scriptures He wishes to convict us with.

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I hope this post helped some out there, who have wondered why the Bible “contradicts” itself. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so be sure to leave a comment below ;)

7.12.2017

Hello World



Here I am again .... after a long while of silence on the blog.
I would say I'm sorry ... but I'm sure the "I'm sorry's" are getting old!

Allow me to fill you in on what my life has consisted of lately:

→ I went to Dallas for three weeks back in May (a post will be hitting the blog soon ... I hope)

→ I am now working two part time jobs.  The busyness of life now is taking some getting used to, but I love it.  It's a great way to keep your mind off certain things and just grow, spread your wings ... and learn.
The first job I'm working is at a small Italian restaurant.  I'm a "waitress"/cashier, and I absolutely love my job there.  I'm a people person, so it's the perfect job for me 😊
The second job I'm working is at a friend's father's place.  I'm a personal health care provider, and that's taking some getting used to.

So yeah, that's really all I've been up to lately lol!  Nothing too special ... but not too boring either.  Each day is a new adventure and I'm loving all the adventures life is sending my way!

Just so y'all know ... I have a couple posts in the works, so hopefully I will be posting them sometime in the near future 😉

Until next time
xoxoxox

5.18.2017

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Hello everyone, it's me again ... Alisha?  The girl behind this blog ... yeeeah her 😝

I felt it was due time for another post, because ... well ... I hadn't posted in a while, and who loves a silent blog, right???

I sincerely apologize for the silence on this blog - 2017 has proven to be the year of travels for me (totally not complaining here lol), and other things have happened here at home ... so that explains the "neglect" y'all have seen here on the blog.

As y'all know, Rhey and I spent a little over two weeks in Kentucky visiting our totally awesome friends (you can see past trips here ... here ... and here 😉).  While we were there, we were able to celebrate Chloe's birthday, Sammy-boy's birthday, Chloe's graduation, and our one year friendaversary (technically we've been friends for much longer, but we first visited them last year!).

Here are some pictures for you all to enjoy 😁

God made us best friends and not sisters because ....

our mothers couldn't handle us as sisters lol 😂

listening to music with Sammy-boy

ME: "how about a normal picture????"
HIM: "Oh fiiiine"

.... there ya go lol 

Noah

Chloe and Me at the park

I don't think these two ever get normal pictures together ....

... ohhhhh wait ... look ... there's a normal picture 😂

This is what I find in my gallery when I leave my phone unsupervised haha

shopping with Chloe (fyi ... she hates shopping) 

Me and Noah

We went to Illinois on Sammy-boy's birthday.  He wanted to go fishing and hiking ... so that's what we did 😊

Their caption for this picture was "Pals forever!"

Hiking with this girl was a blast 😁

Sammy-boy taught Rhey how to fish 😊🎣

Finding the perfect worm

... she was a real trooper.  It was cold, windy, and she didn't get anything ... but she didn't quit.

... the birthday boy

Noah and his nephew

... Little Man loved to fish too 😍

Chloe and I couldn't fish, but we still had a great time 😀

Oh yeah ... it flooded while we were there 😨

Reya and I went shopping with Grace and Mama Hale for Chloe's graduation.

... I had to get a selfie with the graduate 😁

.... yeah, we're both crazy!

See, what'd I tell ya???  Rarely do we get a normal picture haha 😂

... then again - I don't think we get a normal one either lol

... never mind, I take that back 😜😏
So there ya have it ... we had such a marvelous time with our second family!!!

U P D A T E   O N   M Y   L I F E  :

School:
I am no longer in school, I felt God wanted me to quit and I'm glad I did.  I do have a diploma from the School of Biblical Evangelism, and am proud I went through that!

Relationship:
I was recently asked by a blog reader if the reason I wasn't blogging was because I was distracted by a special someone.  So to possibly ease everyone else's mind ... here is my answer.

I am .... not in a relationship, nor do I see that in the near future.
I'm very happy in my singlehood, and love just being at home with my family.

However, if there's a change in my "relationship status" ... I will let y'all know 😏

Travel:
The day after tomorrow (Saturday, May 20th), I am leaving for yet another trip - this time I'm gonna be gone for three weeks!
I'm headed to the place my heart truly belongs ... Texas!😍😎😉

When I get back, be prepared for lots of pictures!

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That's all I have for now, I'll catch y'all June 15th 😊

(if you follow me on Instagram and Facebook, you can keep up with my trip.  Look for the hashtag alishas 2017 travel adventures 😉)