Paint & Parcel launch

Happy day of Thurs. Besides the fact that today is Thursday, I am without a particularly substantial reason as to why I have decided to finally launch my new creative website. The simple truth is that I have a peculiar love of Thursdays and felt like it might be time to let people know about my new creative outlet. So, here I am doing this very thing on this very day and I could use your support. 

Here is what you can do to help me: 
A. If you feel so inclined, you can go to http://paintandparcel.com/ and subscribe to my fabulous email list. 
B. Eat a cookie on my behalf and smile. 
C. “Like” Paint & Parcel on Facebook. You can also like it in general. 
D. Add Paint & Parcel on Instagram 
D. Repin things, post things, like things, smile, and comment. If you comment, please leave your very own wonderful blogs//websites for others to discover and explore. After all, this is a creative experiment of sorts. 
E. All of the above, especially B. 

Thank you and have a splendid day. 

Sincerely, 

Me.

Gita

Today I was remembering Gita, a sweet little friend of mine. She taught me so much about love. We didn’t speak the same language, but we were able to laugh. We might not have understood each others words, but I understood her heart. When noises were absent we smiled.

I am beginning see more and more that love is very simple.

I desire to be like Gita. She wasn’t caught up in figuring out what to say, because she was more concerned with love. She was hungry for love and wasn’t afraid to go for it. Love looks like something. It looks like this little girl who sought me out every day and shared her smiles and giggles. To this day she comes to mind and I still smile. Her love and her hunger for love have greatly impacted my life.

Just Dance

If you have time, take a moment to click on the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQzlJ-GexVk. I watched this a month ago and was greatly encouraged. “There is no dance that He can’t dance with you…” – Paul Manwaring 

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I have come to find that God enjoys dancing. In fact, He is a marvelous dancer. As such, He is a brilliant lead. He does a great job showing me off even when I feel incompetent. 

In dancing you don’t simply go back and forth, you also move from side to side. In other words, life is not just about moving forwards. It is a lot more like a dance. The more you let go and trust the lead, the easier it becomes to flow. 

I don’t know about you, but this is thrilling. When life is seen as a dance there is room for mistakes. There is room for growth. The more you increase in intimacy with the Lead, the easier it becomes to glide and enjoy each step.

Even amidst the pain and uncertainty that comes with life, I can lean closer in and remember His heartbeat for me. It will be okay. He is with me every step of the journey. This must be what it feels like to remain calm amidst the storms of life. It feels like pressing in, remembering his Huge heart, and knowing that Love really is enough. He is enough. This is comforting. 

upward half circle

Imagine if everyone just stopped for one person and bared some pearly whites to form an upward half circle. This imagery may at first seem a little strange, but stay with me…

This afternoon, I told an older lady that she was beautiful. She genuinely thought that I was trying to sell her something and asked me what I was doing. I told her that I wasn’t selling anything, but just wanted to let her know that she is beautiful. I had to say it twice because she didn’t believe me. This same scenario happened last week and many times before. People really don’t realize how amazing they are. They don’t realize that they are absolutely wonderful and beautiful. I don’t want to forget to stop for the one. To stop for the strangers walking by that are unaware that they have immense purpose and value. This simple action, an intentional grin and maybe the exchange of a kind words, changes things.

It may feel a bit strange at first, but I encourage you to give it a try! I would love to know what happens. It is always so encouraging to hear stories about people encountering Love.

 

 

 

expect love, love, and more love

It was cold outside and I sat in my car waiting to meet a friend for dinner. Whilst waiting, I decided to read a little bit of the Bible. To be honest, this thought doesn’t always occur to me, but I am so glad that it did. I stumbled upon Jeremiah 31 and tangibly felt God’s love as I read through the verses.

I encourage you to read it and put your name in the place of Israel.

This is the way God put it:

“They found grace out in the desert,
these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest,
    met God out looking for them!”
God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will.
    Expect love, love, and more love!
And so now I’ll start over with you and build you up again,
    dear virgin Israel.
You’ll resume your singing,
    grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
You’ll go back to your old work of planting vineyards
    on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit—
    oh, how you’ll enjoy those harvests!
The time’s coming when watchmen will call out
from the hilltops of Ephraim:
‘On your feet! Let’s go to Zion,
go to meet our God!’”

- Jeremiah 31:2-6 (emphasis totally added).

——————-You’re welcome. *wink*

miracles happen. they do.

Miracles really happen. Let me share a quick little testimony:

Two weeks ago, while just hanging out on the UCSD campus with some others, two students prayed for a guy using crutches and he walked away holding his crutches. He was completely healed. Don’t believe me? What if I told you that the guy was so stoked that he asked for my guy friends number and texted him later to not only question how on earth he had been healed, but also inform him that he shared what happened with his whole entire house. Talk about a person of peace!

*chuckle*

I love testimonies like this, because they stir up expectancy…

God is on the move. He always is. I, for one, don’t want to miss out on what He is doing. It doesn’t take much, it just takes faith the size of a mustard seed, which He supplies, and the knowledge of a big and tenaciously loving God.

{Shhhh} you’re cordially invited to a soft launch!

Today I officially began working on a new blog//creative website called Paint & Parcel. Feel free to check it out and give me some feedback. I hope to have more content up soon and a few more cool features. For now, baby steps…

It would help me tremendously if you could either tweet, facebook, or pin a post in the next week.

OR

Subscribe to get Paint & Parcel goodness in your inbox.

OR

Just look at the site and tell me your sage advice.

 

That is all. Good day to you.

 

red balloons

The other day I decided to buy a few red balloons and take them to campus to give away. Some friends and I got together, wrote ten encouraging notes, attached the notes to each balloon, and handed them out.
Honestly, the whole thing felt a little silly. Some people, for an unknown reason, decided that they didn’t want a free balloon. My guess is that life has taught them that things are never free. At least, that is what one student told me. Upon seeing the balloon, he was elated that it was free, but then he looked down at the note and thought that there must be a catch. I told him that there wasn’t. To confirm what I had said, he read the note and smiled. He said that the note was way better than the balloon and hoped to meet again one day. Handing out red balloons and encouraging notes ended up being a simple way to love people.
It was neat to see random people throughout campus with red balloons in their hands. In fact, it was a tangible picture of what it looks like when love spreads…you never really know where the love will end up, but it often impacts others.

Apparently there is a helium shortage. For all balloon lovers, like myself, this is an absolute atrocity. *moment of silence*

when truth sneaks in

I woke up this morning and just felt sort of numb. This week has had a few unexpected surprises, both good and unusual, and I suppose my heart just felt a bit tired. I tried to get some things done, but couldn’t focus. Then my little sister texted me the following:

“Hi Coco, I’m praying for you and papa God is telling me it’s all going to be alright! Just wanted to tell you! Love you Mucho!”

Me: A big mess of tears.

The truth once again made its way into my heart and the response was favorable. It is good and important to feel, just not good to allow those feelings to dictate your day.

 

 

always enough

The past few weeks I have been learning a lot about what love looks like. As such, I was given some fun opportunities to put love in action by giving things, both time and money, away. I quickly began to notice that the more I gave, the more things I received. You really can’t out-give God. For instance, a few days ago, I bought my friend a little coconut bun from work. Right before I left work, I was given TWO HUGE bags of yummy treats to take home. I was beyond ecstatic, because I had a lot of bread to give away. Amazed at the amount of bread that I was given, I heard God speak to my heart about stewardship. Essentially, He told me that the more I freely gave away, the more He would give me in return. You see, when you share your resources, you are blessed with even more resources to give away. This reminds me of the little boy with the loaves and fishes. He gave what little he had and it multiplied to feed the many. Not only that, but he ended up receiving even more in return. The Kingdom of God truly is upside down in the best of ways.

Unfortunately, stewardship is a kingdom principle that many seem to neglect. Most wait to share until they have an excess of resources. If you can’t share what you have been given, however, what makes you think that you can steward even more? It is almost like the parable of the talents, where the one servant hid his masters money in the ground and received nothing, while the others put the money to use and were later given even more things to steward. Waiting to give, until there is excess, simply leaves a lot of people waiting. In the meantime, nothing really happens. I think that it is time to believe that God really is a good provider and begin to give freely from what we have been given. I am still learning how to do this, but I know that if God can multiply food, He can certainly multiply other resources. There is always enough in the Kingdom.

 

I not only got to give away a coconut bun, I also got to drop off a considerable amount of bread to 6 different houses. In case you were wondering, I still came home with a lot of bread to share with my roommates. Crazy.