Beautifully Free

I have been recently going through a new devotional this past week and it has been so amazing. There was one particular page that just blew me away. After reading this my eyes were opened and ever since I have seen myself in a new way. Here is a little from the devotional:

What does it mean to display the splendor of God? It means that we were created to have true beauty, inner beauty. It's sometimes easy to strive for outward beauty, because that's what the world wants, but God wants us to have true beauty.

This is the picture I get of my true beauty: I see my beauty radiating from the inside out. That when I love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind (Matthew 22:37), it will naturally spill over to all my relationships and every area of my life. It's as if God's light and beauty is in my heart. And it is being pumped into every cell of my body, my brain, my muscles, and my organs through my bloodstream. And as long as God's Spirit is living inside of me, I will have that beauty radiating from the inside out. People will see the light in my eyes. They'll be drawn to the joy in my smile. And they'll want to find comfort in my friendship.

After reading this, I felt free. I ran and looked in the mirror and usually I automatically find somethings wrong with how I look, but this time I just saw a beautifully created girl, redeemed by the amazing grace of God, with a huge smile on her face. The next morning, getting ready for school was fun. I no longer had to deal with the hassle of trying to find clothes that looked good on me, but more so just picking out what looked cute and fun to wear. Lately, I have been striving to work on my inner beauty, which originates in my relationship with the beautiful Creator. It is a lot more satisfying let me tell you! I am so thankful for a wonderful God who makes me beautiful. It is crazy to know that with God, I can never be ugly. Now without pride or vanity, I am able to stand up to say......

I AM SO BEAUTIFUL 

Here are somethings that I found extremely beautiful this morning. 

Feeling Like Beyonce ;)

Everyone knows that I love Beyonce so in honor of her here is my Countdown!

Countdown

Only 10 more days til I'll be at College Group!

9 more days til I'll be stuffing my face at Thanksgiving

8 more hours until Generation Church tonight

7 cents left on my SPU points

6 more classes left til finals

Averaging 5 hours of sleep each night

4 new desserts added to the Gwinn Menu

3 more weeks til  Deck the Hall Ball and Brandon coming to visit

2 holes in my boots that I'm wearing.... wet feet...

1 happy girl with her life

Katt and I when we went to a pumpkin patch

If I haven't said this enough.....

If I haven't said this enough, I really do love SPU. My life is filled here with some wonderful people. I truly appreciate the spontaneous bursts of joy that I experience here almost every day. I love my little Gwinn family, 2nd East, and all my new friends! Life is soo good! Another thing, I feel God's presence here and it the most amazing thing ever. Walking around campus, I feel like God has included me in His little secret and I am able to see the inner workings of how He is moving in SPU. I see creation, whether from the squirrels scampering about to the falling leaves dancing in the wind, and it sings God's praises. I witness my friends becoming closer to God and it spurs me to pursue Him more too! (Marshall I am so proud of you and I look up to you! Thank you for being such a great friend and keeping me accountable.) I hear God speaking through my PA when she encourages us and gives us advice. There is so much more, but I experience God's grace every day as I continue to constantly fail. -.- I just feel so blessed with this amazing life. I remember those depressing days just a couple of months ago when life was at its craziest. I would sometimes just lay there and cry wishing I was at SPU. Even though I lost so much this summer, God is faithful. He has brought me from those nights when I felt like I had nothing and was nothing to these days in Seattle where my feet are being warmed by the sun as I sit here typing about how glorious life is right now. I definitely would not say that I am completely over what happened this summer, but I am slowly getting there.
Enough with all the talking! Let me show you some glimpses of my day to day life here at the wonderful Seattle Pacific University.

After a night of dancing with friends :) We are thinking of going to a salsa club next!

I get to wake up to this tree every morning. It is so colorful and beautiful!

Sorry if this scared you, but this is my friend Marcella and me! I was Frida Kahlo. We are crazy together!

I love this class so much, but the book is SOO BORING! I cry a little every time I have to read it.

Landry looking adorable waiting for my friend to get back from work.....in her bed. 

One of the many food adventures with the amazing Landry! This time we went and had some amazing cupcakes from Cupcake Royal. Delicious let me tell you!

So this girl is freakin amazing and I love her so much. (even when she is sassy) This is us sending up our love cookies to the boys floor. They were enjoyed and devoured by my now good friend Chris. Crazy how things like these turn out. :)

And that's all folks! More blog posts to come soon. Don't worry ;)

Few of My Favorite Things

This is a list of people at SPU who continuously fill me with Joy:

(in no particular order)

-Shelby Spear

-Erin Pearce

-Marcella Weber

-Professor Davis

-Jason Jay

-Mariah McCarthy

-Landry Desmond

-Katt Holbrook

-Alyse Bradway

-Chris Vertefeuille

- Susan Haldeman

-Noelle Ciaciuch

If you are on the list, you are such a blessing in my life and have made it ten times better. I owe you so much because you have given me something priceless: your amazing friendship. You guys have my heart.



Awestruck

Sometimes we just need to be reminded of who God is. Today God reminded me of who HE is. On my wall I have a banner that has around 30, give or take, adjectives of who God is to ME. They fell down the other day, well more like I took them down in my sleep lol. I just hung them back up a little while ago and a couple of them stuck out to me. 

Pure....

LARGER than my problems.....

Beautiful....

The Lover of my Soul....

and My Loving Father......

 I just sat on my bed for awhile looking at those words and they resonated with me. At first they were just a cute little decoration, but now they are a daily reminder of just who God IS and what I am NOT. There is one thing that I definitely am though,  not worthy. 

So here is my challenge to YOU, yes you reader of this post, take a few minutes of today and think about or write down some adjectives of who God is to YOU! Trust me, it is worth it. 

HAPPY NOVEMBER 1ST! =D

Here are some pictures of the little banner. (sorry for the bad quality)

Searching For Myself....

Seeing this as my 18th day of being here at SPU, I have been through a lot of internal struggles.  There have been a lot of "Where the heck do I fit in here?!" moments. Back at home, I knew that I was a certain thing to one friend, or number 10 in my class rank, or a leader in the church, but here no one really knows me. I constantly wonder what I am putting out as who I am, which made me think of the question who am I? So this has been looming over my head for the past couple of days and it has caused me to be a little depressed. Fortunately, my lovely community at SPU has played a big role into helping me discover who I truly am.
      In my politics class (who would have known) my professor taught us about philosophy and how it is all about questioning everything. Not just questioning authority, but questioning the root of the actions that we do. He then also told us to measure everything to the idea of mortality. For example, Do I want to spend my life doing (fill in action here) knowing that one day I will die? Crazy deep, right?! So I have been really evaluating EVERYTHING that I have been doing these past couple of days. Some of the revelations have been really hard to swallow, but it makes my heart happy to know that God has been revealing these things to me.

    Also, tonight in group we went through a couple of verses in Joshua chapter 1 and God's command to us rang through the room. "Be strong and very courageous." The speaker told us that God called us to be   set apart and then he said some super deep stuff that I would mess up if I even tried to repeat it. But he revealed to us that we are now a part of Israel and that even though we are not preparing for battle like the Israelites, we need to be courageous to be set apart. That hit me like a ton of bricks because I had been trying to blend in and in that process was losing myself. After the speaker talked a little bit more, he gave us a time for quiet reflection. In my quiet time, I prayed that God will give me the courage to be able to reflect God's call on my life to be set apart. As I was praying that, I seriously had this overwhelming feeling of God's anointing on my life to be set apart.

So my challenge to you all is to reflect on if you are living a life separate of the norms of the world or if you are living a life that is conformed to the perfect will of God. If not, I repeat this to you "Be Strong and VERY Courageous." Take courage and take the first step in walking in God's will for you.

 ⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:7-9 


Please enjoy the song :)

So There Was A Blonde, A Brunette, and a Redhead.....

      This quarter I have the lovely opportunity of working in Gwinn Commons, which is the cafeteria at SPU. I actually enjoy working in Gwinn because you get to see almost everybody in the school at their best and  worst. It is downright hilarious. They all come in with a hungry look in their eyes, scanning for the best plate of the day. It really does crack me up. Also it is so amazing being able to talk to people while I serve them. Gwinn is where it is at!

     So you may be wondering what this has to do with my title of the post, but I promise you it is relevant! On the first day that I worked my official shift at Gwinn, I was given the opportunity to serve people at the Classics Station. At Classics, you have your home cooked meals and comfort foods such as meat and potatoes and the like. Classics is always a popular station. So there I was at the station working with Amy and we had a huge crowd of students waiting in line all hungry and slightly irritated may I add. We were working so hard to get the food plated in a timely fashion, but we still had quite a line. We were working along when to our surprise we ran out of food. There were no plates in the burner and the chef told us that the food would be ready in 3 minutes. 12 minutes later, we had probably close to 70 students in line and grouped around our station waiting for their dinner. As we looked at each other anxiously and scared at the ravenous mob that was forming in front of us, I came up with an idea. Time to stall. So for about 5 minutes, I did what I do best; I cracked jokes and talked. I told knock-knock jokes, blonde jokes, and interesting pieces of news. One that I told that I now regret is the story of the bull semen on the freeway, but it got people to relax and laugh. After I went through my third joke, people were asking for more jokes, but by that time the food had arrived and Amy and I started busting out those dinner plates like no tomorrow. For this reason, I love working in Gwinn. I love being able to talk to people, ask them about their day, and hopefully put a smile on their face. I am so grateful that God has given me the gift of gab and this job.

How do I live with a broken heart.....

Is it possible to live with a broken heart?

Sometimes I miss my families so much that it hurts. Today is definitely one of those days. It baffles my mind to think that people who don't speak the same language as me, live thousands of miles away from me,  and just live a totally different life style than me could change and impact my life so much. My families in the Dominican and Mexico have taught me how to live and love in a different and dare I say, better way? There are so many times that I wish that I was in Mexico or in the Dominican. Other times I get really angry that God has placed these amazing people in my life and have them live so far away from me. I know that it is silly for me to think that, but I feel like I only have 10% of my heart and the other 90% is always aching for my families. I hope that in the future I can make a lot of money so that I can always visit my families and support them.

Through times like these when all I want to do is curl up in a ball and pray fervently that I was with them, I seriously wonder how it is possible to live with a broken heart.....

The Shimmy, Shake, and Booty Pop

       So here at the wonderful school of SPU, I have noticed many trends here. One of them being the shimmy, shake, and booty pop. What is the Shimmy, Shake, and Booty Pop? Well, let me explain my friend. Here on campus, you use a campus key card to get into just about any building. You swipe your card at a little black box that has a sensor and that will let you into the desired building. One thing that students have noticed here is that the little black box has a SUPER sensitive sensor.With that being said, many students like to place their key card in the oddest places in order to see if their card will still be read. I have witnessed people shimmy in front of the box, rub their butts against, hip bump it, and even a very odd in-air hip thrust. But of course, my favorite has been the booty pop. Ahaha some students here belong in a rap video the way they pop their butts at that box. It is so hilarious!

    So of course I cannot talk about this without sharing my own embarrassing experience. I used to have a plastic holder for my keycard, but that ripped. So I had to put my keycard in a place that I knew would never get lost; front pocket of my shirt it is. I thought this was genius until I walked into an elevator full of people and stood in the corner. Unbeknown to me, there was a little black box in the elevator that read key cards. Mind you that I am in an elevator full of people, when the keycard reader read my card which was located in the front pocket of my shirt. So everyone in the elevator heard the reader beep, not once, but twice and all at once all six heads turned and gave me a bewildered look. Then one of my friends asked me quite loudly, "JASMINE, Where the HECK do you have your card?!" ------_____------- A good minute of awkward silence followed after that as I wished that I had taken the stairs..... Needless to say, lesson learned.

And the party continues....

           So I seriously feel like the past 10 days have been a nonstop party. From singing some JBiebs in the bus, to having a dance party in the lobby, to  Landry and I shuffling and dancing through the aisles at Fred Meyers, and the multiple times when random dance parties just seem to spontaneously combust, I have discovered that SPU really is the place for me. What other place can you find the Party Rock Anthem and Earth, Wind, and Fire played within the same hour at a campus event? I love it here! The second thing that I love is the fact that SPU knows how to show us a good time, but that they always bring it back to the main thing, which is Jesus Christ. I have learned so much as to what it means to be real, be myself, and love God. There is such a great community here and I feel supported in all kinds of way. I have an amazing PA and SMC! They are such lovely ladies and all the women on my floor are my kind of people. They are sweet, beautiful, and mayb just a lil crazy, but craziness makes everything just a little bit better. Also Emerson is the perfect mix of craziness and serenity. I feel so much at home here. We had an ice cream social as our Tradition and I laughed until I cried, waltzed with a semi-stranger, and fist pumped with friends. Oh ya...it was intense. All in all I can say that I am really blessed to be here in this beautiful city with the amazing family of SPU.

Welcome to College =) Day 1

So I have decided to go a different route with this blog and now am going to give updates on my lil life at SPU! So this goes out to you my peeps who were wondering WHAT THE HECK I have been doing out here! Anywhoo! There has been so much happening since I moved up here 9 days ago. So I came up here early on the 17th for job training with Sodexco. Since I was coming up only for job training, I only had two hours to move in. You think I would be scrambling to move all my stuff in, but I literally only had two suitcases to unpack. ahaha Not because I am such a wonderful packer and able to fit my whole room in two little suitcases, but because all 13, yes 13, boxes that I had sent up were trapped in the mail room until Monday. So after unpacking, moving the furniture, and crying over how dreary and ugly my room was, I had to book it over to my first job training session! I was so excited to meet my bosses, get trained, and learn a ton about the company, but little did I know that the sessions were SO INCREDIBLY BORING! Our bosses literally just sat there reading the powerpoints. You should also know that these power points were made in the 90's. -.- Even though the training was really boring, it was also super important and strangely enough I came to love my bosses even more.

 So I discovered that the phrase "misery loves company" is totally true! Through all the training, a cute little group of sodexco workers were formed. There were possibly 10 in this group and we would sit together, eat lunch together, fall asleep in the sessions together, ahh it was magical. lol But the best thing about the group was how adventurous we all were together.

 On the first night, yes the very first night may I add, our little group of hotties went and explored the city. We went to Fremont and ate some Coldstone, then we visited the Fremont Troll, and THEN we walked all the way to Gas Works. This was the best way to begin the journey at SPU. When we got to the top of the hill at Gas Works, it felt like you could see the whole city. It was later in the night so all the buildings were lit up and the lights shone on top of the water, and the Space Needle looked like a heavenly white beacon. It was the most amazing view ever. We explored a little more and as we were walking back home, we met some very interesting folks. They all seriously looked like extras that walked right off the set of a Panic!at the Disco music video. Turns out they liked to perform with fire. So we were able to see them dance with fire, which was pretty awesome. Then we all walked practically a couple of miles back to the school and my wonderful friend Landry and I shared some amazing spicy noodles as we looked out onto the canal. Mind you that this was all on the first day. Pictures to come soon!

Lent: A New Way Of Thinking

Why Helloooo!
So for the past 3 weeks I have been in the process of celebrating (do not know if that is the correct usage of the word) Lent! Woo! Ya Jesus! But as I was in this process, I came along some bumps in the road. First I said that I would no longer eat fast food, well, NOBODY told me that COSTCO counted as fast food! haha So right after I posted the Countdown to Easter post, I ate fast food, but I promise you that I did not know that food from Costco counted! Heck that is all my family lives off of: Costco and Sam Club meals! So there was no way that I was going to be able to do that one. Now onto my second bump in the road! I said that I would replace all my usual drinks (coffee, tea, soda etc) with water and I must say that that had been going pretty darn good UNTIL Mexico. So I recently went to visit the fambam down in Mexico and I was doing good there. They offered me cafe, soda, and lemonade numerous times and I turned them down. Ya, I felt good and I thought in my head 'This is for you Jesus!' lol anywhoo we went to sit down and eat lunch and they had given us all our meal accompanied with a nice glass of lemonade. So the lunch was BOMB DIGGITY! We had manaray! yeah the fish! Craaazy good! So probably like 3 hours later, as we were driving back home, I realized that I had taken 3 sips of the lemonade. Trust me, when I say sips, I mean sips. Anyone who knows me, knows that I guzzle down drinks like no tomorrow. But apparently, I just took some sips without even thinking or really even enjoying it.  So when I realized this, I started beating myself up about it because I really wanted to make it through the whole thing without even cracking.
So fast forward to last week: My friend Kailie and I were talking in the car about out Lent experiences and I told her about all the stuff that I had been craving recently and how it was becoming a little bit more difficult for me. Then her gorgeous genius butt told me to not get legalistic about it.
 The concept of Lent will not bring you any closer to God people. Now stay with me now, I am about to explain. The only reason why Lent will have an effect on you is if YOU  allow it to. Lent is not about giving and sacrificing, it is about CHOOSING to do something else. If I just went through the motions of Lent and it wasn't about giving glory to God then it would be pointless. Lent is an act of worship not an requirement. If you do not do Lent, then you will not backslide in your walk with Christ. Even if you participate in Lent, there is chance that it won't have any affect on you whatsoever IF you do not have the heart behind your actions. So Lent is not about me giving something up and suffering in the process. Here is how I think of it:

1. God should be our number one in everything!
2. For Lent, I will give up something that I really like because God is my number one and is better then that thing anyway.
3. During Lent, my FIRST choice will be an alternative to what I really like. For example juice. My first choice will not be juice or soda or etc. but it will be water.
4. Say that I am in a restaurant that does not sell water then either I will not have anything to drink OR I'll drink some light lemonade. I do not HAVE to do anything. It is all about choice, intent, and where your heart is. God knows that my first choice would be to glorify Him by drinking water, but if that is not an option, then there is nothing that I can do.

So obviously if someone is Catholic then they are not going to agree with me on this, but this is what I believe to be correct. As Christians, we always totter on the lines of legalism and it is not about the practices or rituals but about the relationship! Well, Happy Lenting! Hope this helped! :)
-Te Amo
Jazz

Let's Have a Hurrah for Trials! =D

Hola Bonita!!
OK so this post is a little bit difficult for me to write...but I think it is for the best if I do!
So today I received my first rejection letter...ouch I know! I knew it as soon as I saw the letter! The envelope was too tiny and it just did not feel right. And then I read that they appreciated that I sent in my application, but unfortunately they did not choose me to receive the scholarship. The scholarship that I applied to was the Ames Leadership Scholarship for Seattle Pacific University. I have to admit that a wave of sadness and a little bit despair came over me, but then this verse came to my mind.

 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

-James 1: 2-6 NIV

So after it came to my mind (after I moped for a couple of minutes hehe) I looked it up and isn't it amazing?! First, we should consider it pure joy when we are faced with trials, conflicts, or rejection letters because faith produces perseverance! And then perseverance produces wholeness and maturity! Second, when you are going through these trials you can ask for wisdom and God will give it GENEROUSLY! So not only does He mature and complete us with trials BUT He also gives us wisdom to get through it! So He helps us as He is making us better! How great is God?!? And all we have to do is get through it and BELIEVE without a doubt! Crazy right?! So now I am excited because this scholarship is not what is best for me and God has something even BETTER for me! Wow! Maybe SPU is not the place for me after all and He wants me to go to Pepperdine. I have no clue. But yes so even though I do feel a little self conscious and maybe even a tinge of disappointment, I am glad that I have a God who loves me and is in the process of making me complete! :)

Pray for Me!

Te Amo <3

-Jazz

The Unknown Factor

Hey Amazing!
So this past weekend, I went to vist my family in Mexico. It was amazing and I still wish that I did not have to leave. Everyone there is so amazing and just down right stinkin awesome! I love everyone and miss them very very much! As I was riding back to California, I started to think that when I go off to college I will not be able to see them as much anymore. Partly because I would be in Seattle and secondly because SPU is on the quater system which means that our breaks do not match up...which stinks! These people are a major part of my life and a part that I do not want to give up. So you know, now I am not so sure of where I want to go to college because I need to factor in how this will affect my Mexico family...ay caramba..
Please pray for me :)
Te Amo
-Jazz <3

日本のために祈る- Praying for Japan

I can not even imagine what they are feeling right now...As I sit here completely saddened and feeling helpless, I remember that I do have the power to make a change. This power comes from the One within me who is MORE than capable to make a difference. So as I sit here, I am doing the most powerful thing that I can do for Japan, I am sending my prayers up. Here is a poem that I found really powerful and a great insight into the situation...



The Haiku - We Are Thinking About You 

By Robert T Gasperson

First there's an earthquake
Then the ocean surges in.
Destroys everything

The ground should be still;
Something sturdy to stand on;
But not on this day.

The floor is moving.
It's shifting beneath my feet.
Can't keep my balance.

Shelves and cabinets
Are dropping all they can hold.
Then they fall over.

All the people brace
Trying not to be buried,
Hoping they don't die.

When the shaking stops
It takes a few moments for
People to come out.

Eyes slowly open
Fear burning deep within her
Tears flowing from him

Everything destroyed.
There is nothing left standing
'Cept maybe our pride.

It was not over.
Nature had one more surprise
For us to endure.

Everyone wide eyed
Watched as a wave crashed towards them
Washing them away.

Go online and find out how you can make a difference. A little effort goes a long way...

Te Amo
-Jazz

First Post: First Date ;)

Hey beautiful!
So this is the first post of my first blog, but we will just say that it is our first date! ;) But in this blog I will be writing about my love for God, food , fashion, and just interesting tidbits of my life! But yes, I hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as I will enjoy writing this! Anywhoo! This is me! and yes I really do love you!!

and this is my family! lol not of blood o sangre but of my heart! I went on a trip down to Mexico and I fell in love with the church down there and I can not wait til I can see them again! I miss them soo much!!!

Don't worry I will post more pics of my life soon! ;)

But that is all for today!

Te Amo!!!! -Jasmine