Month: August 2015

Fashioned For Freedom Runway Show Event 11/5

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Did you know that human trafficking is the 3rd largest international crime industry, generating $32 BILLION a year?! Take a stand and join us in our fight to help our girls.

What is My Refuge House?

My Refuge House is non-profit in the Philippines that provides education, medical, and emotional care to girls rescued from sex trafficking. We are raising money and getting the word out about human trafficking. We feel that a fashion show is a great vessel for promoting ethical fashion brands and raising awareness about how individuals can better the world through their everyday purchases.

Will you join us in raising money for this worthy cause?

Frontiers Flight Museum at Love Field

November 5th

Tickets on sale now!

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/fashioned-for-freedom-runway-show-tickets-18059852505

Check out Fashioned For Freedom FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/fashioned4?fref=nf

Faithful Fall Fitness Tips

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Faithful Fitness Tips for Fall 


As summer season is starting to slow down, we are less concerned (thankfully) about that ‘swimsuit’ body that society so pushes and more concerned with all the activities that keep us busy during the school year.  Its also easy for us to put our own health and fitness on the back burner while we put others first. Here are a few of my tips that I have found helped me stay consistent and persistent in staying in shape even during the busy seasons of life. 



1. Get Ready!

Before you even get started, you need to prepare yourself for the ‘game before the game.” Having the right mind set, attitude, and goals are very important before you start any fitness regimen. I see it often. You’re excited to get started on a fitness program, you get to the gym, meet your trainer, hop on the treadmill for 10 minutes, and then you check the mirror and get discouraged. You may feel that you have a long way to go before you get where you want to be. You feel defeated before you ever got started and you give up. The cycle continues. ..

 In my experience with fitness, you truly have to set your mind on the prize and stop at nothing until you get there.  It’s a warrior type position where you will fight until you get what you want. Sometimes you will have to do things you don’t want to do in order to get where you want to be. Whether its waking up a bit earlier every day to make it to the gym before the kids wake up or fitting in a quick walk between appointments during the day. Think of your workouts as an important meeting that you have scheduled with yourself. Bosses don’t cancel so don’t you cancel! I believe that old saying is true, “If it is important to you, you will find a way.” Keep photos, tear out magazine pages, take pictures of what you picture your body looking and feel like in 1, 3, 6 months.  Go shopping and buy an outfit that you are determined to get into, select a race and aim for training for that day so that you will finish strong. Have an accountability partner walk with you in the mornings before the chaos of the day begins. Having someone you are consistently talking to about your goals really is helpful!
 Its okay to feel discouraged and overwhelmed, and not want to go workout one day, we all feel that way at some point.  It’s just important that you just don’t give up and you don’t give yourself too many ‘outs’. Be careful convincing yourself “I am not a morning person, I’ll do it later.” Any sort of procrastination or excuse will quickly derail you from bumping off course. Also, you have to shut out the constant chatter of negative thoughts that tend to sneak into your mind and take them captive! A negative mindset is a huge obstacle that will keep you from getting where you want to be.  You will become stronger both physically and mentally if you keep persevering and pushing past the negative thoughts that fill your mind.  Your ‘willing to’ has to be greater than your ‘want to’.




2. Build up your inner motivation
Spend time reflecting on what your INNER reason ‘Why’. Why do you want to being a fitness routine in the first place?  Is it so that you will feel more confident? Have more energy?  Fit into the pre-baby jeans? Have more endurance, more stamina? Or is it a challenge that you want to see yourself overcome. If it is any or all these above, you have a great reason to start somewhere.  However, if your inner reason is to look good for others, to impress others, or to validate yourself, realize that you will be setting yourself up for failure and it is less likely to stand and the test of time. Have a firm vision of where you want to be.  The vision is crucial and it is what will carry you through the discouragement, exhaustion, and tendency to want to give up.  Know that inspiration and motivation may come and go but consistency is key. Commit to consistency in order to achieve your long term goal. Once you have established you core reason ‘why’, maintain your focus, put one foot in front of the other, and visualize yourself achieving your goal. Know that results won’t happen over night but the good news its that results will come. Have patience and concentrate on exactly what you want, don’t take your eyes off of it, and make every day count.



3. Get Set!
1) Get excited and be prepared to take on the workout by having a few things in line before. MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC!  I love all kinds of music, I literally have it streaming all day every day . Having a great playlist is crucial.  With that being said, I am pretty careful about what I let into my mind.  I realize that everyone’s taste in music is different and that’s a good thing, but be mindful that your ears are the gates that lead to your mind so don’t just let anything inside. Does it lift you up? Does it feed your soul? Does it inspire and make you feel good about yourself and others?  Lately, I have really come to love worship songs while working out. Honestly, it took me a while to even try listening to ‘Christian’ music because I just didn’t realize what great music was out there.  I know what you may be thinking, ‘worship music, really?” YES!! Have you heard of Christian House music? (that will get you moving!) Yes, its out there and it is AWESOME!   Sometimes while I am running, I get so emotional listening to the beautiful lyrics and praising my Heavenly Father, my heart starts racing, my feet start accelerating and I am all of a sudden running twice my normal pace! Why? Because my soul is being fed.  I feel so alive and on fire that nothing, and no one can stop me.  Check out Spotify or Pandora for some amazing worship workout music.  2) Have your plan ready. Don’t just go to the gym without a rhyme or reason to your routine.  Don’t just go on a run without consideration of how far or how long you want to go. Having a plan aligns you with success and keeps you on track with your goals.  3) Find some comfortable workout clothes that you love.  There is something great about feeling good (and looking cute) in what you’re wearing. It makes you feel more confident and ready to bring that workout ON.    
4) Consider sleeping in your workout clothes.  I have done this before and it truly helps make the early mornings even more possible when I am dressed and ready to get out the door.  5) Find your cheerleader. Tell your husband, your friend, your trainer about your daily, weekly, monthly goals and objectives and allow them speak positivity into you and encourage you often.



4. GO!
1) Remind yourself your inner ‘Why’, your goals, and your visions for yourself and GO!  In regards to running, I like to think in minutes, not in miles.  Set your focus on a mile marker and tell yourself that you WILL get there in x minutes. I’ve done this before. I tell myself to get to the end of the road where the lamp post is and come back within a certain time. The funny thing  that happens is not only will I get there, but I’ll be so thrilled I made it, I just keep going! It’s amazing what your body is capable of, its your mind you have to convince.
2) Meditate on scripture.  Again, this may sound funny to some but I wholeheartedly believe that God’s Word brings life! Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edge sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow”.  When scripture permeates your heart, things change, hearts change, attitudes change.  It is unbelievable how this practice has developed me into a much stronger athlete and has transformed me from the inside out. I dare you to try it too! It may sound daunting or intimidating at first, just start slow and start small. What I do is I pick one verse from notes I’ve created in my phone, and as I am running, I will repeat it a few times and let it sink in.   It not only distracts me from the workout at, but it renews my mind and strengthens me- exactly what my heart needs everyday.   I love 1 Corinthins 9:24-25, “You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins.  Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one thats gold’s eternal.”  Here are a few of my other favorite scriptures for running and racing: http://www.mile-posts.com/bible-verse/26-2-bible-verses-for-running-racing.html




5. It’s Ok to fail sometimes.
I have a love/hate relationship with peanut butter. The struggle is real y’all.  Don’t get me wrong, peanut butter is an excellent choice of protein and healthy for you, but when you eat the entire jar 2-3/week, you have a problem.  Its inevitable that we go off course sometimes and get off track on our fitness journey.  Please don’t beat yourself up. Give yourself grace, take a deep breath, and start the next day refreshed and ready to resume your mission.

6. Have Fun 
Find something you love and do it with enthusiasm! When you find your passion or something that just excites you, you are motivated to do it again.

7. Celebrate YOU 
Don’t forget to celebrate yourself and your successes along the way. You should be proud of yourself for staying committed to you. In life and as a parent,  we often put others before ourselves.  Staying dedicated and investing in your physical and spiritual health will reap major rewards for years to come.  Fitness is about so much more than just exercise or a quick fix. It is a catalyst for positive changes that will affect every aspect of your life. So get out there, have fun, and refuse to give up!

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Be-YOUtiFUL.






This past week marked a pretty exciting day for me and my daughter. It was the first week of cheerleading practice! You have to understand a bit about my history to understand why I was so elated yet, a bit nervous for her. It had nothing to do with the sport of cheerleading- I think its an absolute wonderful sport. It has everything to do with the past disillusioned lies that I believed about myself that controlled so much of my childhood. Let me explain my story in the making…. 

Middle school through high school,  I was a cheerleader.  The idea of ‘team spirit’ and being apart of something bigger, something positive & encouraging really excited me. Oh, and let’s NOT forget about the uniforms.. Oh how stinkin’ cute are the uniforms! I remember that feeling walking through the hallways of middle school wearing my uniform, thinking to myself, ” I am so proud, I am SOMEBODY.”… So that time of my life was great fun but there were also painful memories that erupted from that season that I am not so proud of.

You see, I was always a bit heavier and ‘stockier’ than the other girls on my team. I was never the cool ‘flyer’ that did all the cool tricks in front of the audience in the stands, I was the base girl who lifted all the other girls because no one could pick me up!  I remember one day during practice, being teased and called ‘big boned’ . To most, this type of teasing doesn’t amount to much- it should have been something that I just brushed off but I didn’t.  When you are an insecure young girl in middle school, you certainly are aware of how others see you.  In that moment, after hearing those words come from another’s mouth, the lies of insecurity, insignificance, and inadequacy were birthed.  These lies changed the course of my life for the next 10 years ( I am so sorry Mom!) .  It wasn’t long after that incident where I began I began experimenting with all the various fad diets, eating only an apple and a handful of crackers a day.  When I saw how deprivation slowly began to lower the number on the scale, it only perpetuated the behavior.  I was seeing changes in my weight but the weight always came back.  Not long after that, I ‘tried’ being a bulimic but I just couldn’t do it.  I developed body dysmorphic disorder where no matter how think I got, I always saw myself in the mirror as the ‘big boned’ girl- I felt defected.   I started to hate myself. I hated myself that I wasn’t the ‘small girl’, that I wasn’t getting the attention I so wanted, and that I couldn’t CONTROL my weight.  I found myself struggling with athletic anorexia which is the tendency to compulsively, over-exercise in excess to control every last pound.  I was completely disillusioned of who I was. These habits of eating and the self-deprecating lifestyle lasted  well over 10 years. Everything in my life was out of balance, off -kilter, and out of order.  What is so interesting about this story is that I grew up in church all my life.  I remember going to church every Sunday, praying before every meal, and driving around with a fish sticker on my car. I thought I was DOING all these things a ‘good’ Christian should do in order to live the life God wanted me to live so why was I still struggling so much?  A problem with ‘religious’ ideas and traditions; they are powerless to truly liberate you.  

Fast forward a few years, I can now say that I am free from those very destructive behaviors.  It wasn’t until just recently (it took a while), that it was revealed to me by the Lord that it is less about the DOING and more about the KNOWING.  Did I really KNOW him? Knowing is more than the mere acknowledgement of its existence, it implies relationship. Where was the relationship? Did I even really have one with Him?  What was the truth about me?

What changed for me was my perspective. I began looking at the Father as a 
l o v i n g  father. A father that cheered me on every day and who wanted the best for me; Not  the “big guy upstairs’ who only wanted to shake his judgmental, angry finger at me for all my mistakes that I had successfully made in my past.  Through reading His Word, I began understanding how he sees me and I chose to allow HIM to be my audience who cheered me on from the stands, to whom I sought acceptance, applause, and praise.  Everything changed.

I look back now and remember feeling SO exhausted of looking to the right and to the left, trying to BE what the world deemed as ‘beautiful’. Who was I anyway?   What was my purpose in this life? Was I SOMEBODY like I felt walking through those hallways in my cheerleading uniform so long ago? Sometimes we look to the wrong source to find out how others see us. We look to pleasure, possessions, and people’s opinions that only give us distorted views of ourselves. I know that can be true because I fell prey to that- “Only if I had these outfits, was apart of this group, If only drove this car to preschool, had those shoes, was this size, I would be deemed ‘accepted”.  It goes on and on doesn’t it. We are constantly inundated with magazines, celebrities, trends and fads that all try to tell us what’s ‘hot’ and what’s “not”, what’s acceptable and what’s not, and how to have ‘lasting beauty’.  We won’t understand our own beauty until we figure out who we ARE in Christ.  The better we KNOW God, the better we will know ourselves. The depth of this knowledge is knowing what God’s Word says about us.  . His Word, the Bible, is the ultimate mirror.  It is His thoughts, his ideas, his love letter to us telling us exactly who we are to Him. Jeremiah 1:5 says, ” Before I formed you in the womb, I KNEW you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet of the nations.” So forget what the world thinks, I focus now on what He thinks of me and that has changed everything; It has totally recalibrated my thoughts. 



When Adam and Eve looked away from God and chomped on the big apple, this was the first circumstance where man looked away from God and listened to the enemy instead . The enemy wants us to doubt the position and place God has has for us. The lies whispered in our ears- ‘You’re not good enough” God doesn’t want the best for you” slowly begin to create deep insecurities in our lives. When Eve took her eyes off who God she found herself OFF the path that she was intended to go. God  says in  Jeremiah 29:11 “For I KNOW the plans I have for you…” He’s already got this life figured out for us. He is very strategic in his plan for our lives.  He wants us to know that the work has ALREADY been done and we are covered by the blood of Jesus. The Cross is the ultimate mirror of sacrifice that was given out of LOVE for us. He is the One who tells us who we are – we are made in the IMAGE of Him. Have we have allowed the image of the world to be imprinted upon us more deeply than the image of Christ?

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

I want my daughters, my son to know that they don’t have to look to the right or to the left to figure out who they are or what their purpose is in this life. They don’t have to worry when they don’t have the right outfit on, the cutest bow in her hair, or the coolest toy on the block that he or she isn’t VALUED and loved. Jesus has already told us who we are.  The bigger question now is do we 
b e l i e v e ?  Do we believe the things he wants us to know about Him? 


He wants you to know who you ARE:
-You are Forgivable. No matter what junk you have in your past, please don’t ever think its something God can’t let go and forgive because He already DID! There’s NOTHING you have done that has surprised God. He already knew we were going to mess up, that’s why he sent Jesus to cover us and redeem us..That is EPIC! 

-Valuable. God sent his ONLY Son to die so we could be forgiven, rose again so we could have eternity with our Father. I can’t even fathom having a love so strong and so deep that I would sacrifice MY ONLY son. But He did. If you were the only one on the earth, He still would have done that for YOU. 

– Lovable.  Love has to have an object, I am an OBJECT of God’s love. Loved by the God of the universe Made in His image,  Let that sink in for a moment… 

– Capable. God has a plan and purpose for our lives and He has equipped us us with a pretty awesome plan but its up to us to understand that we are capable and able to walk in that plan. The question is, are we AVAILABLE  for Him to put his plan to work in our lives. 

Every day is a choice NOT believe the lies of insecurity, insignificance, and inadequacy that ran my life for so long. Everyday is a CHOICE to believe that God wants the best for myself and for my family. Everyday is a CHOICE to lay down at the foot of the cross, all my hurt and pain that I carried for so many years. EVERY DAY is CHOICE not turn to the world and allow the world to define me.  I believe now I am living a much healthier lifestyle both physically and spiritually and this life has never been so fulfilling and so free now that I have found my SOURCE of life. 






8/11/15
“We can’t GLOW if we don’t grow, we can’t GROW, if we don’t
K N O W….”
“We don’t have the ability to PRODUCE light, but we do have the ability to REFLECT light.” 
Have you ever been somewhere, in your house, at the park, at the nursery and heard a child crying? I KNOW my child’s cry….I know the second I hear it and I don’t know about you, but I come running to be with her, to help her. Why? How is it that I just know her voice? It is because I have spent TIME with her, I have been around her, in her presence, getting to know her for a while now. I know her voice like I know my OWN. Our Heavenly Father KNOWS our voice. He hears us when we cry out to Him and is right there, closer than your breath, just waiting for you to run to Him….. Will you run to Him today? 
Be encouraged today that He HEARS your cry smile emoticon
James 4:8 “When you draw close to Him, He draws close to you.”