When Work Sucks.

Today was not fun. Honestly going to work is never fun but today was just one of those days where work was miserable.  Absolutely miserable. On top of having thousands of tourist from all over the world give me attitudes I was just not feeling today. My heart was heavy and all I wanted to do is cry and be alone. That's not a good combination for someone who is supposed to have a smile on their face while kindly asking guest to take  a picture for a memorable experience. I found myself getting agitated with God. "Why do I work here? What is my purpose? Why does my heart keep feeling so heavy? Where is my joy?" These questions burned in my mind and heart all day, distracting me and breaking me. As I've said its been a tough day but one thing I can't help but realize is that I work at one of the biggest mission fields there is. Everyday I encounter thousands of people from all over the world with all different religions. Everyday I speak with hundreds of Muslim girls with their faces covered, hundreds of Hindu Indians with dots on their heads, Buddhist monks, English people who are cussing out their kids and me, the list goes on and on. My point is not many people get to be in  a safe environment where it is there job to talk to all different kinds of people with all different kinds of beliefs. But I get that opportunity. And I take it for granted. My biggest passion is Jesus and yet somehow when I step into the work place I instantly get drained and feel the total opposite of reflecting the glory of Jesus. The other day I felt led to pray that every single person that I encountered would somehow see the glory of Jesus through me. As hard as I tried there were times where I still had an attitude with visitors, especially the ones that have an attitude with me. I'm beginning to realize that if I continue to do this out of my own strength, this being, to reflect Jesus and host the presence of God everywhere I step that the Muslim girl that comes up to me for a photo feels Him nugging at her heart, I will fail. My strength has to come from Him. My passion has to come from Him. Without passion all of the tourist I encounter everyday are just annoying, rude, smelly, tourist. But with passion every tourist I encounter is a beloved soul that is precious and that Jesus' heart is beating for. I am a human. I don't always feel like being like Jesus, especially when people are getting on my nerves. But I am broken. I'm broken over the fact that I have brothers and sisters fighting for their lives in different countries because they are Christians. And here I am in America where I can scream the name of Jesus and people would just stare, but yet I struggle to reflect Him in the work place. That's not okay. I want to be bold and loving. I want to reflect Jesus and hear His voice when He asks me to speak to a particular guest. I have the world at my fingertips when I'm working and I want Jesus to take over. It's so hard as I'm sure some of you can relate to. But I can't give up. I can give up on my flesh because my flesh constantly fails and is way to weak for a mission like this. But I can't give up on Jesus because He has never given up on me. He is my strength, He is my portion, He is my hope when I'm at the end. Even if it doesn't feel like it, it sure didn't feel that way today, I will trust that He is strong when I am weak. I hope this encourages you all to look at your workplace as a mission field. Even if you hate your job look at it as the harvest field. Like Jesus said "the harvest is great but the workers are few." - Marthew 9:37 Lets be the workers that have a supernatural passion only provided by Jesus to be a missionary every where we go. We're in this together. - Sofia  

Jesus Saves

"No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; He'll never let you be pushed past your limit; He'll always be there to help you come through it." - 1 Corinthians 10:13 (MSG)

It's June! My favorite month in the year for many reasons but the number one reason being that it is my birth month! I'm not going to lie it's been a rough past month. Transitioning back into being home and away from college is hard. This season has definitely taken me out of my comfort zone, stretched me beyond belief, and tested my faith over and over. Learning to doubt my doubts and press into Jesus even when I am uncomfortable and even when I can't feel Him is a process but I'm thankful that I'm going through it and that my faith is being tested so it can come forth as gold.  Jesus makes us different. It's a fact. You can't encounter Jesus and spend time with Him constantly and not be changed by it. People of God stand out, not because of themselves but because they've been touched by the living God. I like to look at Christians as humans in a world of zombies. We used to be just like the zombies, walking around with no life in us, But God. He breathed into our lungs and boom we became alive. But being surrounded by people that are dead can be challenging. In a world where temptation to go back to our once dead lives is constantly slamming us in the faces it can be hard to fight to stay alive. Being a woman of God in a world where everything else screams the opposite is challenging. Everyday I have to fight against the temptation to doubt what God has said about me and my life opposed to what the enemy and spirit of this world has to say. Standing up for holiness is not easy. Having a modest and gentle spirit is not easy. Standing up for the Word of God in a day and age where persecution is rising and going to church is considered old school is not easy. But Jesus makes it so worth it. If it wasn't for the passion of Jesus living in the hearts of believers we wouldn't be able to make it. Life is hard and living under the bondage of sin and fear makes it even harder. Fighting to not get caught up in the things of this world but to get caught up in the things of God is hard. But Jesus gives us life. Jesus breaks our chains of sin and fear. I'm learning more and more that Christianity is not cute. It's dirty, rough, painful, and full of tears. Why? Because it's all about Jesus taking the dirty people of this world, removing their rough, painful, broken parts, and putting them on His shoulders and saying to us "you are free." I used to live with this mindset that my life was perfect, Jesus humbled me quickly and showed me that wasn't true, now I realize that my life is so far from perfect. I experience hard and painful things, I mess up, I turn my eyes from Jesus, but yet He continues to pursue me and perfect me with His perfect love. That's the way this works. We mess up, Jesus fixes it and changes our lives all in the process. I'm thankful that Jesus' heart beats for me and I'm thankful that for some reason He saved me and wants to use me to show others that they to can be saved. But I'm also thankful for the testing of my faith. I'm thankful that life isn't easy and that I'm not always comfortable because if that weren't the case I wouldn't know how to rely on God. The hard times remind me that I am totally  dependent on Christ. The moment I start depending on myself is the moment that everything becomes unbearable. This life was not meant  to do alone. It was meant to be carried by the lover of our souls. I don't have it all figured out, and I don't know what God has in store for me next. But I know this simple truth. Jesus loves me. He loves you. And when we submit our hearts to that love, everything changes. So if you are a follower of Christ and struggling with doubt and temptation know that you are not alone and that God sees it all and is moving on your behalf. We all struggle but Jesus has promised that we will overcome.  Happy June! - Love Sofia. 

So my best friend got this dress for me and I'm obsessed. I love the slits and that it's sleeveless. I also love that it's cotton fabric so it's fitted and doesn't look like a bag on my body. I'm probably going to wear it all the time. It also works as a skirt if your wear a t-shirt over the top! 

The squad. 

Freedom in Appearance

11-13 Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they doobserve. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

14-16 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!  

Galatians 6:11-16 

Jesus is freedom, not bondage. Jesus is grace, not regulations. I think we all may have encountered people that care a little to much about outward appearance. I've met people who think tattoos, piercings, makeup, jewelry, wearing pants, and a list of other things, are wrong. To be honest these beliefs complex my mind, I can't help but read this scripture and see the freedom that burns in my Heavenly Fathers eyes as He looks at me. Holiness is important to God. Honoring Him with our dress, our mouths, our actions, and thoughts is an absolute must, but here's the thing there is a release of freedom in those things. When Jesus enters our lives and makes us over from the inside out we step into freedom not bondage. We don't step into this mindset of "okay this is my rule book, I can't say this and I can't wear that." We step into a new spirit and mind of "wow I'm finding myself not having the desire to say these things or do these things anymore and I have no idea why!" You see Jesus is in the business of making things new. He takes our dirty and broken hearts and transforms them into something completely different and so much better.  One thing Jesus never tells us to do is boast in the flesh. He always tells us in His Word to boast in Him. Why? The flesh counts for nothing. The Bible tells us to not live by the flesh but by the Spirit! The flesh is what gets us in trouble! I just wanted to speak to those out there who have been wrestling with holiness and outward appearance. For me personally as a Christian girl, I've never been convicted by things like wearing jewelry, pants, makeup, I think if a man or woman of God wants to get a tattoo, go for it!!! If you want your nose pierced and pink hair and want to do that all while serving Jesus, please do!! Wear those cute jeans with the holes and that hot pink lipstick! Quite frankly in my humble opinion I don't think Jesus cares! Yes modesty is important, yes honoring God with our bodies is the will of God, but what's going on with your heart? Jesus cares about the heart. You can be all holy on the outside but going to hell on the inside. I've had people ask me if being a Christian girl effects what I wear. Yes it absolutely does. I won't wear things that are to revealing /provocative. Because I desire to honor God with my whole self. But I know with all that's in me, God does not care that I'm wearing lipstick. He does not care that LeCrae just got another tattoo. He does not care that the girl serving Him day and night with her life decided she wanted blue hair. God cares that we love Him, love people, and follow Him in this new freedom He has given us. He cares about the girl who is suicidal, he cares about His children whose lives are being threatened for their faith, He cares about the family struggling with finances. Just like Paul was talking about in the scripture above we've been given freedom in Jesus, not freedom to do what our flesh wants but to do what the Spirit wants. Christianity is not about appearance it's about sacrifice, submission, and pure love and joy! So let's step into this amazing grace of Jesus and step out of man made regulations. Life with Him becomes so much more filled with revival when we do this. I hope and pray this blessed you guys today. - Sofia

What Is Pentecost?

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you all have been enjoying the weekend. Today has been wonderful! After a long week of work ( I mean really long) I got to go to church today and just get filled up on the Holy Spirit! I always look forward to going to my home church Calvary. It's one of my favorite places in the world. Today was Pentecost Sunday (I have to be honest every Sunday at my church is like Pentecost haha) but anyways it was so powerful! Seeing hundreds of people filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time is AMAZING. I love being reminded of the day that the Holy Spirit came to dwell on the inside of believers. The day the Holy Spirit filled us with a prayer language that would shake this world and make the devil shrink back in fear. God made available to every single believer the power to witness to the nations about the amazing love of Jesus. He gave us the power to cast out demons, raise the dead, heal the sick, and see an abundance of miracles, signs, and wonders all through the Holy Spirit. Tongues are powerful. They don't save you, nor are they a requirement to salvation, but they empower you to do the things of God on a whole nother level. There are times when I am to weak to pray my own human words, when I am to broken and I need the Holy Spirit to step in and pray on my behalf, that's where my heavenly language comes in. The fact that God has made available to us sinful humans to literally have God Himself pray through us, will never cease to amaze me. As amazing as speaking in tongues is, the power that it releases is even gretaer and the Holy Spirt behind it surpases it all. They Holy Spirit does more than pray through us. He leads us, speaks to us, comforts us, brings things to our remembrance and so much more. Pentecost is about receiving power. Not power to do as our flesh wills, but power to carry out the miraculous things of God and deny the flesh. I am thankful for Pentecost. I am thankful that on that day God gave us Himself in a new and fresh way. I pray that my life is constantly an outpouring of Pentecost and that I continue to be bold in the supernatural things of God. I also pray that the church as a whole does not shrink back into the cessationist view of "this is not real or for today." but that we boldly dive into the power of God and watch what happens when we let the Holy Spirit have full control. Lives will be saved, people will be healed, an no one will walk out of church feeling the same.  Like my pastor said in church today " So much of the church has been to Calvary for pardon but has not been to Pentecost for power." We need this power guys! I pray that each of you encounter Him in a new way and are filled with this powerful gift. It's for everyone! -Love Sofia

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. - Acts 2:1-4

You Are Life

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. - John 10:10

Happy Saturday everyone! Today I just wanted to take a minute and share these amazing photos taken with my best friend in the whole wide world! Shonda and I are obsessed with the ministry/clothing line/song...called You Are Life. Founded by Taylor Madu (who we are also obsessed with) this amazing ministry literally screams the amazing restoration and redemption of Jesus Christ. Jesus is life guys and He has given it to us freely. Seriously when I wear this shirt I am reminded that I'm not just here but that I am revived by the resurrection power of my savior and that no matter what I go through or what hardships I face I am alive because Jesus lives in me. I highly reccomend that each and everyone of you visit taylormadu.com to get more information on this amazing minstry, read her testimony (it will levae you on your knees) and check oput the amazing merchandise that Shonda and I are rocking in these pictures! Join the You Are Life movement why? Because it's a Jesus movement and there's nothing better to be apart of!  Thanks so much to Shonda's cousin Orien Henry for taking this awesome pictures!! Oh and another thing, Black is beautiful, White is beautiful, biracial is beautiful, EVERY ethnicity is beautiful. Life is beautiful. Just thought I should add that in there. - Love Sofia.

Outfit Details:
Me: Shirt- You Are Life white v-neck
      Skirt- Forever 21
      Shoes: Converse
Shonda: Shirt: You Are Life black and gold
            Skirt: Forever 21
            Shoes: Target
            Hat: Forever 21