Allowing God to change your spots

Can you think of a person that has made a difference in your life? If so, what was it about them that made a change in you?

When I hit rock bottom, and God entered in because I allowed Him to....I then began to crave more RIGHT decisions than wrong ones. I want to point out a key element...I began. Wasn't an instant change, but one step at a time. Not only crave right choices but I actually began to walk a narrow path of right choices. If you are just starting to do this, please don't give up! It takes time, consistency and determination. It takes a lot of elbow grease and mountains of grace!


If you haven't yet, I totally believe that you will.....come into contact with women who will be used by GOD to make a positive difference in your life. How can I say that? Because God knows your heart, and if this is something you desire, He will place them in your path. This woman will cheer you on, strive to steer you from making some of her very own un-wise choices and most importantly she will love you. (You have free-will and you have to choose this path because of her openness to share her own mistakes) You can and will TRUST her.


What spoke life to me from others was: encouragement, investing with their time and heart, patience, transparency, and allowing me to see Jesus through their words and actions. A woman that I love dearly, and have been involved in her life for several years now encourages me often by telling me that she so appreciates that I have always loved her right where she is at.

I believe, honestly, that there are two types of people in this world.

A. Committed, Positive, Encourages, Thankful, Giver, Fills one up, Believes, speaks LIFE, & is intentional


B. Quitter, Negative, Discourage, Ungrateful, Takes, Drains, Doubts, speaks Death, & Un-intentional


Do you see a forming of how we can change our world? Which are you, A or B? Who would you rather be around, and have involved in your life? Honestly, a Believer can be in either group.

List A causes us to be all that we can be and more. Reflecting Christ, Himself.

List B will leave one empty and defeated. Perhaps, this list is even a recipe for disaster?

When I find myself around someone that is totally a list B type of person, it doesn't take long for me to realize that I need some distance. Why? Simply, they aren't making a difference in my life for the better. Proverbs 27:27 "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." I want to be one of those types of women that when others leave my presence they say with complete sincerity, Yolanda is making a difference. I just came away sharpened, not dulled.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has made a difference in my life. That I have very few list B characteristics in my life TODAY. By allowing God to change these spots in me and align more than ever before with The Word Of God, I will in turn make a difference for the better in someone else's life. To apply God's promises and provisions to my own situation, will encourage another to do so.

If you tend to be more of a list B type of person and desire to be the opposite, ask GOD TO CHANGE YOUR SPOTS and BELIEVE that He can do it! Thank You Father for changing my spots! 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

Do You Love A Surprise?

Have you ever been around someone that says they don't enjoy spur of the moment outings? That they like life all tied up into a nice little tidy box. Do you know some one, perhaps it is even YOU, that plans everything. Every part of the trip down to the smallest detail? And if not plan it, must know what it entails? How about not just a trip....but your day? CONTROL FREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can say that because I once was one to the nth degree. But today, I am learning to let go and enjoy what comes. I still plan, but there is room for changes. I do find myself at times trying to figure everything out, and then there is no element of surprise. Sheesh, that sure takes the fun out of things. My husband enjoys, in fun, calling me Miss F.B.I. Today, I say that's right...Miss Firm Believer In Christ!

I don't know about you, but I get the biggest kick out of a good surprise! Talk about lifting my spirit and putting a bounce in my step, just give me a surprise. I've been blessed this week, yet I am every week because I have learned to have my eyes, ears and heart ready for God. To be in tune to Him, ANTICIPATING and EXPECTING to be a part of blessings and goodness; GIVING & receiving. A precious friend and I were sharing a day or so ago about LOOKING FOR GOD in all that we do. In this conversation God gave me such a visual, that it is like knowing there is a really good radio station and you just can't seem to find it, you are not in tune at all to receive or you are not quite in tune so you only have static. The best option, what our goal was from the very beginning was being in tune to that station.

Our walk is like that Sisters with our Heavenly Father, our ABBA. His desire is to be the most important part of our day, our week, simply our very existence. He is to be our God, and we are to have no other god's. He is a jealous God and our purpose is to be in tune to Him, bringing GLORY AND HONOR TO HIS NAME.

Back to surprises...you may be thinking to yourself, what is Yolanda talking about? Here are just a few from my week, to BRAG ON GOD.

.a card in the mail
.a spur of the moment call for "girls" tea
.sharing of senior pictures that have been taken this summer
.my husband asking for a surprise, spur of the moment date
.beautiful sunrise this VERY morning
.to witness God working in a young woman's heart towards her husband
.my a/c working with the 100 degree days we have had consistently

God loves to surprise us as well. In all honesty, these surprises are from Him, because others have allowed themselves to be used by God. But God also surprises us through The Holy Scriptures. Has a particular scripture this week, just leapt of the pages of GOD to your heart and mind? If so, would you be willing to share the scriptures with me and others?


For me it was out of Isaiah 46:4

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.



God will sustain me? Me...Yolanda? Warts and all, big mistakes, severely poor choices, a sinner? The one that the world doesn't even want, but God does? WOW.................He PROMISES me that He made me, He will carry me, He will sustain me (twice...twice He promises me this). Sustain from Merriam-Webster says: to give support or relief to; to nourish; to prop up. And then this scripture also promises me that He will RESCUE ME.



Do you need some rescuing? Search Sister's, search for His promises are for each one of us that BELIEVES upon His Name, that He is Lord and Savior, our Redeemer. Now, that is the best blessing of all......the richest surprise, the greatest gift.



Now, tell me, you don't love a surprise!

Whose Name Are You Dropping?

Good morning, oh my coffee tastes so good, how about your coffee/tea this morning? I awoke to a low covering of fog making it look so cool out. So I zipped out the door to see if I could enjoy my coffee on the back deck as the sun came over the horizon, and YIKES talk about humidity! NO THANK YOU!

My husband spent some time this week out on a job site in the sun and heat of the Kansas prairies, doing things that he totally enjoys. My Man, simply loves helping others and being involved. When he came home that evening he said something that I, myself, had been pondering over for some time, and continue to find myself doing so. He was concerned about a person whose conversation is littered with name dropping. So I ask, whose name or names are we dropping in our conversations?

This got me to thinking about ourselves, are Bill and I like that? I honestly pray not, but perhaps? Why do we do this? To elevate ourselves so that others think we are important, that we know so and so? That we are rubbing elbows with the elite? Look at who I am for having been in their presence? God tells us to not do this in 1 Corinthians 3:21 "So then, no more boasting about men!"

Yes. Honestly, I think the answer is yes to each of these question that I have asked. What do you think? May you and I take a few moments to see what God's word has to say about boasting. Can't boasting be about name dropping?

"Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast." 2 Corinthians 11:18

I believe that Paul was encouraging those at Corinth to boast not like the world, but to boast in the things of God. That is what I want to challenge each one of us to do, perhaps starting with TODAY. To let go of the worlds ways and speak the name(s) of GOD! Season our conversations with who God is to you and what God does for you and those around you.

Why? Because we are to elevate the NAME OF JESUS. To reveal to the world just how IMPORTANT He is to us. That we KNOW Him, in a deep personal way, which is called RELATIONSHIP. Yes, that we are rubbing elbows with OUR SAVIOR and HE ALONE IS ELITE. That we are spending time in HIS presence!

How cool is that? Doesn't that just place a smile clear across your face??!!! Put some joy way down deep into your heart?!!

Psalm 34:2 "My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice."

Psalm 44:8 "In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. Selah"

Jeremiah 9:24 "but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD."

1 Corinthians 1:31 "Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.' " See 2 Corinthians 10:17 also.

2 Corinthians 2:12 "Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace."

Galatians 6:14 "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

Perhaps you will remember some time ago that I shared with you that I so believe God loves to hear us bragging on Him. I believe, when we are dropping HIS NAME, we are, ARE, bragging on Him! May you find JOY today, in boasting in just who and what GOD is to you!

Drop His Name Girlfriends BECAUSE YOU LOVE HIM MORE THAN LIFE!

Peas & Carrots, or just dessert?

Do you ever look around you and wonder why someone eats just dessert? Doesn't their bodies get way out of whack? Their way of thinking, their way of reacting, their way of communicating? Perhaps that someone is me or even you?

Here are a couple of visuals that I believe shows the difference between the two:

I wonder why one comes to a bible study (for years), but doesn't want to study? They come with their home work not done, week in and week out. Never opening the Word of God, but EXPECTING and ASSUMING that others will feed them. Because they haven't searched for themselves, they come for milk and not the MEAT of God's Word. They come for dessert, things that taste good to their spirits and really doesn't leave any conviction, just feels good to their flesh.

You know what? Looking back, I honestly think I must have been this way because this gets under my skin, because I know they are missing out on so much. Yes, even though I know GRACE, Yolanda, GRACE....I am keeping it real and being honest and this is an area for God to work on me STILL! THERE IS SO MUCH TO GOD and I am so thankful for these women to be a part of the study but my heart is tender for them to just be taking the dessert, they miss the PEAS AND CARROTS. What really gives our souls nutrition, allowing us to grow closer and closer by having a DEEP relationship with Our Savior.

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I know that there are times that we have a full schedule and we just can't get into our bibles for any length of time. But what about a snack? A quick devotion, or just a few passages out of Proverbs, or any of the scriptures? One minute? We'll give that to our friend on the telephone, text message or an email? A call and the next thing you know, we have found a whole half hour to run down to the local shop for a soda YET not 5 minutes prior you were telling God you were so sorry to not have found time to spend with Him today. OUCH! Ouch? Yes, I've been there and I so want more for my relationship with MY GOD! And for YOUR relationship with God. I have had to make choices to say no and give that time to God. WHY? Because He is my JOY, my STRENGTH, my HOPE, my SAVIOR. The most important relationship that I could EVER have. And Sisters, not condemning you, but wanting to encourage you that He will be that for you also, if you will make some small choices until those larger choices become much easier. Saying YES TO GOD, and have a heart for action and obedience. WALKING IN FAITH!


I may be stepping on some toes and coming across as very PIOUS, but that is not my intention at all. I feel a little like Paul this morning as I exhort and encourage others that loving Jesus/God with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, with all of our strength, and with all of our minds and loving our neighbors as ourselves, is where unspeakable rewards & joy that is not even comprehendible becomes attainable. Not because of rigidness, or rules, or strict living. By being soaked in God's word, and when one does it doesn't have to be a "time table". Simply like the Nike commercials from long ago...."JUST DO IT!".

I hear of others saying they can't find the time, but it's sad because we WILL find the time for the things that are important to us. Remember the phone call that lasted 15, 30 or even 60 minutes from yesterday?

I was having one of those bummed days not to long ago & discussing with my Best Friend Forever (Jesus) and my Best Friend (Bill) a situation that I had found myself in. A few hours later my Best Friend shared something with me out of "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day".

"Most of us want our opportunities nicely packaged and presented to us as a gift we simply have to unwrap. We want our lions stuffed or caged or cooked medium well and served on a silver platter. But opportunities typically present themselves at the most inopportune time in the most inopportune place.

The two Moabites didn't schedule an appointment with Benaiah's assistant. The Egyptian didn't knock on the door. He knocked down the door. And the lion didn't roll over and play dead.

Here is the great irony about opportunities. They usually come disguised as insurmountable problems. They look like five-hundred-pound lions that want to eat you for lunch. Or they look like six hundred Philistines charging at you.

To the average person, the circumstances presented to Benaiah were problems to run away from, not opportunities to be seized. But Benaiah didn't see a five-hundred-pound problem. He saw a lion skin hanging on his tent.

Lion chasers are the kind of people who rise to the occasion. Lion chasers are the kind of people who refuse to be intimidated by Moabites or Philistines. Lion chasers play to win. They fight for what they believe in. They don't live life sitting back on their heels. They live life on the tip of their toes waiting to see what God is going to do next."

I have been accused this week of having high expectations as a Mentor. This is a challenge because I know from my OWN walk when I give less than my best....I'm hurting no one but myself. I believe with all of my heart that I care deeply for hurting women and I want for them, what Jesus died for them to have!!! Sisters, I love you!!!

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I have also been blessed this week to be told that I am a "tool" that God is using in a friend's life to challenge her to seek more. These few paragraphs from the book by Mark Batterson, I found so much encouragement because I AM A LION CHASER!

I will close with asking that you read 1 Corinthians 12. This is what touched me from verse 5: "There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord." And then One Body, Many Parts in The Church farther down in chapter 12. Meaning, the entire body of Christ, not just the church we attend on Sunday morning.

What do you sense God is putting on your heart, speaking to your spirit, that He wants you to be doing for service to Him? YOUR OWN SERVICE, not emulating someone else's service. This is the part that stings my heart as others want my life. What I do, what I say, what I have, etc....it saddens me because it won't work!

Girlfriends, I say this with much compassion and gentleness. The reason why I have such a conviction about my own service to God, and YOUR own service to God is: I KNOW I HAVE TRIED TO COPY WHAT SOMEONE ELSE WAS DOING, their service to God. It caused a friendship to be broken and separated, and still not healed. I saw a friend that I wanted to be around doing her own ministry that God had placed on her heart, and I tried to do the same. I was a baby Christian that had been pulled in under her wings. She was mentoring me and I thought because it worked for her, it would work for me. Because God had asked her to do, then I was to do also. I got worn out, tired, and it flat out didn't work because God didn't tell ME to do that, He told her to do that.

I think that is why God's word here speaks to me so much because He says we can't all be feet, we can't all be hands. We have to work together.

And the very next chapter calls each one of us to LOVE. I wanted to share with you because I've been there and done that and I don't want to see you making those mistakes. I love you. Girlfriends, what has God placed on your heart, for your very own service?

Are you ready for some peas and carrots, or perhaps is dessert enough?

Who wants to dance?

Saturday morning I was reading out of Romans when I came across this scripture:

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers" Romans 8:29

What speaks to your heart from this scripture? What I saw and wrote in my journal was this: "Am I ALLOWING God to conform me?" He predestined it, but do we become hardened from the get go by not ALLOWING ourselves to be more like Him? To be Christ-like? His image, His thoughts and His ways. What am I or you holding onto causing our paths to go a different direction than what He intended for us?

I have a visual of this being a very awkward dance, don't you? You've seen couples dance where one doesn't feel the same beat. They pull against one another, going in opposite directions. When our hearts & our Christian "walk" beat with the same heart-felt beat as Christ's, we see a beautiful and graceful dance. Like a two-step or even a ballet, where Christ is in the lead and you and I are His partner. It is so BEAUTIFUL and brings much JOY to our souls!

When our feet are stepping into line with His footsteps; there is unity, grace, and peace. Our hearts mesh with His, beating as One. Being conformed to the likeness of his Son!!!!!

" And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" Romans 10:15


Dancing here on earth is walking out our faith, placing our hope in the One to guide and direct us, allowing Him to lead us to show the world, that we are a peculiar people. That we love the One who died for each one of us because He loved us. When we have that love in us, we can then love others. Because of Him, we have beautiful feet, a beautiful dance! Remember, you and I have the PERFECT dance partner, so lets dance!!

Message Psalm 51:7 "Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing."

Are you in NEED of a cleansing, a bath?

I had been procrastinating all last week at giving our Basset Hound a bath as I had an appointment for her annual check-up at the end of the week. Friday as a matter of fact! I'm thankful that Bill pushed me Thursdy evening to give Daisy her bath, so I could enjoy a very leisurely Friday morning with the Lord. Bill used reverse psychology on me. It's DREADFUL at times living with a Psychology major!



We got home from having a nice dinner out Thursday evening. Just the two of us which is rare these days, and upon arriving home I shared that I think I'll wait until in the morning for her bath. Bill said to me, "I knew you wouldn't wash her tonight." As he puts the vehicle in the garage, I change clothes and head out the back door for Miss Daisy and the baby pool. REMEMBER REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY!




There is a major lesson in this that I saw Saturday morning. She was filthy! I had been spraying fly spray on her every couple of days, and the fact that we had received some rain didn't help her coat any at all. Then on top of that, it had been at least 6 weeks since her last bath.

As I'm soaping her all up, I think about how we come to God filthy and he cleans us up. In my mind He has two cleansing agents....His BLOOD and THE WORD OF GOD. Psalm 51 is a great place to start. If you don't have a bible handy, click here.


After I lathered Miss Daisy up not once, but twice, I really wasn't able to get all of the soap out of her. I desired to get her super clean for she had been super dirty. Perhaps yourself, or some one you know hasn't surrendered to God yet, because they sense they are super dirty. Guess what? Jesus Christ's BLOOD is more than enough to cleanse any of us.

Back to this great visutal God gave me. Bill is outside watching the two of us by now and he suggests the COLD water hose to help get the soap off of her. After being handed the hose and the faucet turned on, only then am I able to get out all of the suds from her coat. She is THRILLED, she throws off that cold water by shaking it off and then just has a hay day. Running and running in the freedom of being clean and totally enjoying herself. We laughed and laughed, Bill & I, and found ourselves laughing once again as we crawled into bed Thursday evening of how much JOY she had from being clean. Aren't we the very same way? When we have repented and been forgiven MUCH....we have much joy!

Satan is like that cold water, in the fact that he likes to stir us up by throwing cold water on us to dampen the HIGHS of what God has done or is doing in our lives. What are we to do when others throw cold water on what God has called you to do? What He has specifically laid on your heart as you walk this out in obedience? Matthew 10:14 NIV "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town." Just like Daisy, shake that cold water off Girlfriends...shake shake shake.


Remind yourselves, GOD LOVES ME! And that we, YOU AND I, are a reflection of Him!


Thank YOU Jesus that we have the Joy of the Lord, because we have allowed You to clean us up. That we can SHAKE OFF THE COLD THAT SATAN & OTHERS INFLICTS UPON US, and run in the freedom that You alone can give us. THANK YOU JESUS. Amen.