oct.24,2011

I found this while I was cleaning out my old room here at my house. I used to live in the now guest room in our house before Scott and I got married. People don't understand that we did this on purpose, we wanted to honor God by honoring the "rules" and wanted to SHOW our kids what is the right thing to do!

Anyways, I found this in my old room from a speech class I took in college when I moved back to California a year or so ago.

I had ten minutes to write a commemorative speech. Here it is

There was a time in my life where my whole world looked so dark, and all I was searching for was a light. The candle inside of my heart was no longer burning. Then there was a man God put into my llife to re-light my flame and passion for living my life.
  He imprinted a belief system inside of me that I live my life by everyday, "When you live your life like it matters.. it does!" He has helped me find my purpose in life and continues to encourage me not only to dream, but to dream it and then LIVE it!
He is a man of great passion and a fire for helping people change thier lives for the better. He leadsa life of purpose by serving his God by serving other people. He gives selflessly to others by giving them his Heart Body and Soul in everything he does.
- His Name is Scott V. Black, and he is the leader of my life, a mentor and my best friend. He brought back my love and passion for my own life, as well as helped me find my passion and fire to help other people. . He helped me realize and believe that my life truly matters.


I love this speech. I love it because it still stands true today. While I was typing this up, I really wanted to add more to it :) Perhaps I will write up something like this and add to it each year! Man, speaking of such, I need a GREAT idea for a Valentines day gift to make my husband this year!

I am up to ideas!

-<3 v.b.

FEB FIVES

@beautifulurself

EXCITED:

1. To continue to be working hard to make our home a comfortable and lovely place to be. I am making baby steps, and am seeing progress finally!

2. To work hard today in my office, and then get to work on a couple of different projects after!

3. That Scott and I got so much stuff done this past weekend! We both worked hard together on cleaning, and it felt good! You could call it PRE-spring cleaning! :)

4. To have had more opportunities to read more because I have been waking up earlier in the mornings

5. For our February being our month of regrouping, getting ready for what God has in front of us! BIG THINGS!

6. For our concerts we are going to this month and next.

GRATEFUL:

1. For the internet when it is used in a positive manner. I love how I can listen to ANY Christian artist I want, for free. I love that I can read every version of the bible online, I love that I can inspire and bring good words to people through Facebook. I am grateful that we are aware of the battles in this world, and we can fight it with GOOD WORDS and the Good Word!

2. For my Husband. My wonderfully under-construction husband! I am grateful that he works diligently every day to change old patterns, create new ones, and working hard to be closer to the man and Husband of God he wants to be. I am grateful I am married to someone who learns from his mistakes, and moves forward in a positive direction! I am just so grateful that God made him ffor me! I am grateful that I get to be his wife!

3. For the hard work I get to do today and this week and the rest of my life. I am NOT looking for easy! I am NOT looking for ordinary! only EXTRAORDINARY!

4. For our wonderful little big family. I am grateful that I got to teach Christian how to paint with watercolors last night without him knowing what I was doing. I helped him with a school project, as well as teach him about the wonderufl world of ART! So awesome, I really miss doing art!

5. For this day.. This is the day the Lord has made, and I will be GLAD AND REJOICE in it!!! 

Bushido

Good morning, Warriors.

YES! Warriors!

I think people often get confused on why we chose to call ourselves Warriors. When you think of what a warrior is, what comes to your mind? Maybe a barbaric image of a caveman holding a club.. Maybe its of a Solider, fighting for his country.. Maybe it's a Samurai warrior wielding a sword, running into the battle.

"The unwritten Samurai code of conduct, known as Bushido, held that the true warrior must hold that loyalty, courage, veracity, compassion, and honor as important, above all else. An appreciation and respect of life was also imperative, as it added balance to the warrior character of the Samurai. He was often very stoic with a deep and strong philosophical passion. He could be deadly in combat and yet so gentle and compassionate with children and the weak."

Thats how I see us. Warriors running into a battle. No armor on the back. Fighting the enemy through hard work and dedication. I see us in that way, but not wanting to hurt anybody.. We are warriors in a different sense, fighting the enemy of the spirit. Battling through the tough stuff to stand for our beliefs.

There is a war constantly happening.. This war might not be something you are aware of, even.
This war is deadly, this war can break up marriages and families.. This war can tear friends apart.

It's the war of the mind.
It's the war of the spirit.

I am under constant assault of my mind and soul. I struggle on a daily basis with wanting to be liked, and with depression. I struggle through the stresses of this world, the bills and the hard work. I struggle with my walk with my God when other Christians want to tell me how far I have fallen.. Or what a victim I am! "Poor Valerie, she's just a little girl.. She can't handle this!"

And then I laugh.

And I laugh hard! We ALL struggle with these things, I am just more open about it!
My future husband and I are consciously working everyday in the battlefield of our mind and soul. I have to be on guard for these things, because when I go on "auto-pilot" and just go through the motions of life, I always open my eyes at the point of feeling so low and say "What is going on here? Why am I depressed?"

I know why.. I haven't been on guard lately. I have been nose to the grindstone, get through this day! I have had so many struggles and when I reach out to people I get burned in the end. I found this verse today and it really speaks to me.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)

The path I will take in life is all determined by what is in my heart. And my heart was being shoved in the wrong place of wanting to be liked!! This is a big thing I am working on to get out of my life. I mostly do not care what other people think about me, but it is human nature to want fellow humans to accept you.
This is where the battle comes in.

This is where I go into my mind and figure out what is true, and what is holding me back. Here is some truths:

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. 

Psalm 118:8 (NLT)

 DUH. Thank you, God. I have wanted so bad to take refuge in a friend. I have wanted so bad to connect with fellow Christians. I really understand why people are so afraid of religion. Most Chrisitans do not remember this Psalm, and its the VERY MIDDLE of the Bible! 

I am a Warrior. A Dedicated, Loud, 100% committed Warrior for our God.

I will not be stopped by man on our mission to Awaken the people of this Earth. 

No Armor on the back.

fives for thursday

EXCITED:

1. I got up this morning feeling good! I feel like I lost five pounds haha
2. To have Christian music playing in my office and house 24/7
3. That I get to see if my rice method took the moisture out of my iphone later today! *crosses fingers*
4. To be drinking lots of WATER! Cleanse me!!!!
5. To be feeling motivated and organized and focused for work today!!!

GRATEFUL:

1.That the majority of the time I have a great attitude about life.
2. That God gave me the ability to smile through the tough stuff
3. For these pablano peppers filled with hash browns
4. That God loves me enough to love me even if I do something wrong
5. That my Mommy loves me so muxh

1. That I got to MAKE my Warrior relax yesterday.. He deserves a day of rest!!

My Fives, July 18, 2012

In our Leadership Awakening classes, we give our students some "homework" to do in the mornings. The homework is to write out 5 things you are excited about and 5 things you are grateful for. This serves lots of purposes, but the main one is to set your mind right! If you start doing your "fives" in the morning, you set your RAS (reticulator activating system, which a stem in your brain where your focus comes from.. basically.) to something GREAT instead of dreading what is going to happen that day or tomorrow.

So I will be posting my FIVES, as much as I can. Here are mine from today!


Five things Im EXCITED about:

1. We get to go to the water park today! I am excited to be in the water and get a tan!
2. We got our For King and Country CD in the mail yesterday! I love those Aussies!
3. Scott and I got our plane tickets for our honeymoon and just put more money down on the trip! WE only owe a little bit more on the vacation, and then we can start saving up for spending moneys!
4. I am excited for our Sacramento class next week, I have some awesome people coming out to staff with me and IM SO EXCITED!
5. My gym membership, and how I actually have been using it! And it makes me feel good!

Five things Im GRATEFUL for:

1. That the God of the Universe loves me enough to be intimately involved in my life!
2. For the love of my future husband, Scott. Even when we butt heads, He always comes back to give me a hug and tells me he loves me. LOVE IS AN ACTION! And my future Husband is full of action!
3. That we have been in our house for so long, I am grateful we are being forced out of here so we can find a NEW place for our NEW family and NEW life together!
4. Red nail polish. I dont know why, but it just makes me happy to be a woman!
5. My little fuzzy kitten Sargent Fuzzy Boots. Hes just SO FUZZY! He knows when we are sad, and he always wants to make us feel good too!

Stars

I feel calm.

Yesterday we got a "foreclosure" note in the mail about our house. Usually when these things happen, I would have the feeling on my heart in my throat.. Tightness in chest, shortness of breath.. But yesterday after opening the FOUR identical letters from the mortgage company, I felt nothing. Not in a bad way, like I was numb, but more of a feeling like it doesn't even matter. It doesn't matter if we get kicked out of our house. It doesn't matter that the economy sucks and our business hasnt been doing well for the last couple of years.

Its a peace that surpasses all understanding. I know that we will be taken care of. It is SO amazing to have this feeling, especially when things like getting past due bills in the mail, or a foreclosure notice. I feel like we are being handfed by the God of the universe. Things might be tight, things might SEEM like they are falling apart, but I cannot shake the feeling that something HUGE is about to happen. Its like the Sidewalk Prophet's song,


"Make empty
So I can be filled
‘Cause I’m still holding
Onto my will
And I’m completed
When you are with me
Make me empty"

Scott always says, "He is the God that gives and takes away, and even when He takes away, He still gives us so much." I really get this now. It seems like everyday a new struggle or problem gets presented to us. But its okay, it always gets handled in the most awesome way. I never understood before doing our Leadership Awakening classes that sometimes God needs to take everything out of us (or around us) so the only thing we can be filled up with is Him. It's our "dirty sponge philosophy" in motion. The only thing that can come out of a dirty sponge is what we put IN it. And in order to put nice clean water in a old dirty sponge, we gotta get rid of all the crap that we have put in it before.

 "Til You are my one desire
‘Til You are my one true love
‘Til You are my breath, my everything
Lord, please keep making me"

I want to be everything I can be for my God, for my future Husband and my future children. I think that the Good Lord put all this stuff in front of us for a good reason! Some people have been calling me extreme, or telling me that I have changed.. They are right. I have changed.

Two years ago, if this happend to me I would probably sleep all day, not wanting to deal with it. I would probably drink my worries away. I would probably be destructive 'because it doesnt matter anyways'. I would say, who cares?

This new me.. Im okay with it but for different reasons. I am okay becasue I can be sober and deal with my problems because I serve  GREAT GOD. I am passionate about everything I do and say. If I seem to aggressive its because IM PASSIONATE! I would rather be alive and loud and crazy then dead and quiet!

Life Lesson: They were right. All you need is LOVE.

Testimonials

God gave us a incredible week!

We just got back from Anthem, Arizona (Phoenix) on Sunday night after doing a Leadership Awakening class there for a church. Wow. The class was a struggle initially, but as always, the end result was just mind blowing! It was our second ever Awakening we did for a church, and let me tell you.. Sunday church service at The New Creation Community Church was AMAZING. It was full of heart, deep soul provoking thoughts and real honesty from all of the church body. People stood up in front of everybody and confessed their idols and asked to be held accountable and we danced and cried out during worship. It truly was full of heart, body and soul.

During this week, we have gotten the chance to peek into the impact the training has had on the graduates from Arizona. There are ten more people in this world that have a fire burning deep in their hearts and souls to change this world for the better. There are ten more people in this world with new eyes to see the broken and the hurting, and with new hands and feet to help them out! Here is a testimonial from the bass player in the worship band.. I just LOVE the way he describes the way the training had a impact on him!

Recommendation Letter.

Being able to be a part of Team 105, in the Like it Matters program, completely changed the way I see the world.

I walked into this with preconceived notions, that were all incorrect, and found not only a new direction to walk, but much more importantly… How to walk it!

I have been playing music in the church band as a bass player for a couple of years, although playing music is always fun, and being on stage was always exciting, I never knew how good it can be when you learn how to let God take over and just “be” in the moment. No more looking at the Music, counting time, worrying about the next note, making sure the stops are clean. A little into the first song and I realized God was playing and I was just a bystander. The Music flowed from my heart, not my head.

Learning how to “turn off” my mind, and let God take over, is a tool I will carry with me forever! Each time I get the chance to use this tool, it keeps getting easier also. Using this in my business, my ministry, and my music makes everything make sense and So much more impactful on those around me. A fun byproduct of the class, is when those you see every day in business, ask you what happened as you seem so much happier!

I have been to Sales seminars, leadership classes, tech trainings, and management schools… None of which really changed anything other than a few techniques… Like It Matters, Changed EVERYTHING for me, and showed that it really DOES matter!

 - Trace Tolby, Anthem, AZ


HOW COOL IS THIS!? I just am beside myself when I get to read letters that people send us like this. God CHOSE me to help with this company. God chose each one of us for a special purpose. And This gets to be my special purpose! I am so blessed.