Striving for Excellence

On April 22, 2013April 22, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Inspirational Thoughts2 Comments

Many times in my life I’ve been told that I like things done right and that my expectations are quite high. I have to admit that to be true. I’m not perfect. I can’t give out perfection therefore I do not expect perfection, but I do expect to give and to be given the best possible. That may be a high call. But guess what? That’s what we are called to do.

The reality is that we do expect Excellence from everyone around us, including God. When God doesn’t answer our prayers, or if the answer is not what we wanted it to be, we feel some kind of way about it. When we call a customer service line and the answer is not what we feel it should be we are less than pleased. However when someone asks us to step up to the plate and follow our own high standards and we don’t, then the line of excuses begin. The first thing we say is that we are not perfect. We excuse ourselves saying that the expectations are too high.

Titus 3:8 this is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

We want quality, but we have a sense of entitlement where we “deserve” to be given what we have not worked for.

Be honest with yourself today, are you giving your best in every area? I know I’m not. Are you even attempting to do your best or are you coasting through life? Sometimes I do.

Do you expect what you don’t give? Sometimes I do.

Today I invite you to search your heart and see where your expectations are. Are they realistic? What are you willing to do or stop doing to strive for excellent for the kingdom?

1 Corinthians 12:30-31 (NIV) do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

Thank you God for giving us your best every day. Even when we don’t deserve it and when we don’t give even a portion of our best to you who are deserving of it all.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Until next time, be blessed…

In Growth Lessons, I was reminded of this beautiful truth: Our walk with the Lord is a process of growing up into the image of Christ. P. Yates

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like some common sense and light added to their life. C. Cunningham

Great for meditations and daily devotions. N. Thames

My Greatest Fear

On April 17, 2013April 17, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Inspirational Thoughts7 Comments

I had the opportunity to meet the bravest 11-year-old. She has gone through a real terrible experience. She went through one of a little girls worse nightmare and a parent’s worse nightmare, she had been sexually abused by her grandfather. This brave girl now speaks up against trying to encourage other children to speak up. Let’s hear from Breann herself.

“My greatest fear happened last year, in 2012, over Spring Break. We went to Michigan to visit my grandparents. While we were there, on Saturday night, my grandfather sexually assaulted me.

On Sunday, while my grandfather was giving a speech in church, I was wondering if what happened to me was a dream. I found out later, that it was real when it happened a second time on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, my mom came and sat down next to me. I told her, ‘I think someone touched me inappropriately.’ My dad confronted my grandfather, and my grandfather confessed and said he did sexually assault me.

We left immediately because of what happened. My father told me, ‘Breann, you’re my hero. If you hadn’t told us what had happened, it could’ve happened to Brooklyn or Morgan or Alexis. You saved your sisters.’

I told my dad, ‘You’re my hero, too.’ My greatest fear was telling my parents about what happened, but when I did, it wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t so bad because, at first I was scared to tell my parents but I felt I needed to trust my parents and tell someone so they could help me.

It was my greatest fear because I didn’t want to get my grandfather in trouble, but I knew that he needed to be held responsible for his actions. I hope this encourages other children to tell your parents or an adult they trust about something that happened, no matter how bad the situation may be.”

Thank you Breann for being so brave. Now, as hard as being able to tell her parents and confront her abuser, Breann was brave enough to speak up. It is quite empowering when victims of abuse of all ages are afraid to do what this 11-year-old has done. If you are a victim of abuse or know of someone who is, follow Breann’s example and speak up.

You can support Breann by sharing her cause on the link bellow

http://www.causes.com/actions/1746131-help-breann-and-voice-today-end-csa

You can also support this organization who is creating awareness about child abuse by supporting the event Volley for Voice.Www.voicetoday.org/volley

Always remember

Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

“This book certainly held my interest straight through to the very emotional ending. ”Mary Anne Benedetto

“With the ever-constant presence of her closest friend, Aimee, Desiree slowly makes her way to God and learns the greatness of His power and love. ”Cynthia

“A very engaging story about faith, love, and friendship, and the trials and tribulations that life can bring you. ”Jersey Gina

CRASH

On April 15, 2013April 15, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Book ReviewLeave a comment

I decided to watch a movie the other night, something I had not done in a while. After my 9-5 I needed a change of scenery. I was too tired to write. I didn’t want to watch any of my regular programs, so decided to watch one of the movies I had in my playlist that I had on hold.

Let me start by saying that this movie’s description is not accurate. The description stated that it was related to the lives of some people after 911 and that’s why I had placed it on my playlist. Unless I fell asleep at some point, there’s not a single mention of the events of 911 throughout the movie.

The other thing that caught my attention was that the movie’s quality seems like a low budget movie. However after looking at the cast, I don’t think that’s the truth. This movie includes stars like: Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Brendan Fraser and those are the ones whose names I could remember.

Aside from the warning to my readers that this is an R rated movie and that it does contain some foul language, the storyline is really good. The movie summarizes the society in which we are living. I can say that it goes beyond racial boundaries,although that’s a heavy topic of the movie. It’s the fact of how our life perceptions and experiences have transformed society into a place of distrust, where we see things beyond reality. A society where our stereotypes limit us from getting to know each other, because we already have formed judgment based on our differences instead of our similarities.

This movie definitely shows us how we are living our lives today without God. It shows the humanity of our prejudices and how in a moment of pressure we can realize the weakness of our flesh, but also how a moment of decision can change our lives. It was quite a good message if you ask me. Let’s learn to see each other through the eyes of God, instead of the eyes of our flesh.

“ For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” -1 Samuel 16: 7

Until next time, be blessed

“This book is in a class by itself, you will not be able to put it down! The characters pull you in and you begin to feel their emotions. Excellently written. The title fooled me, the saying goes” never judge a book by the cover “and this is one of those books.” By Duezette

WF: What if

On April 12, 2013April 11, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Worship1 Comment

On my post on Wednesday titled Back to the Future, I talked about living in the land of what if. But the Land of What if is more than holding on to the past or to negativity.

We all have had a crisis of faith, when we don’t know what to believe. Why does God allow certain things to happen? What if God is not listening to me? What if my sin is unforgivable? What if it’s not God telling me to do this? What if God is not even there?

Even Jesus had a moment where he felt that God was not there.

Matthew 27:45-46 From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. Around midafternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

And there was also a time when Jesus wanted to see if there was another way around God’s plan.

Matthew26:42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done

But see that at the end he still obeyed and allowed God’s will to be done. Although I’m sure it was not easy for him to die on that cross being that he was innocent, he not only got through it but achieved Victory!

Join me in worshipping the Lord and may he help you with any struggles of your heart.

WF: Worship Friday

Until then, be blessed

In Growth Lessons, I was reminded of this beautiful truth: Our walk with the Lord is a process of growing up into the image of Christ. P. Yates

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like some common sense and light added to their life. C. Cunningham

Great for meditations and daily devotions. N. Thames

Back to the Future

On April 10, 2013April 10, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Articles2 Comments

Do you remember the series of Movies “Back to the future” with Michael J. Fox? Maybe I’m revealing my age here. LOL! For those who have not seen this movie, it was the story of a crazy scientist and a teenager. They had created a time machine. Marty (the name of Michael J. Fox’s character) is the teenager. He’s living an unhappy life at home. He goes back in time to his parent’s senior year of high school, witnesses the time where they met and understands the reason why things came out to be the way they were in the present.

He interferes with the past, but when he comes back to the future realizes that his interference has affected the outcome to the point where he now doesn’t even exist. He now has to go back to the past to fix what he has done, but still had to interfere because he wasn’t able to go back to the exact same moment in the past.

There are many times when we wish we had a time machine. We live in the land of if’s. If I had not done this, I had not said that, I had not met this person, the list can be endless. I admit sometimes I can actually pinpoint the exact moment when my decisions led me through the wrong path and I wish I could take them back.

But recently I have changed that perspective. I’ve learned that even the worst events in my life and the worst decisions I have made has taught me lessons that has made my life better. How is that possible? Well , that’s just a fulfillment of a promise from God.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Are you not wiser, more mature for those life challenges that we’ve had? Let’s stop living in the past and the Land of If’s. Let’s use the present with is all we have.

When you feel like the burden of this day is taking a toll on you, stand on these scriptures:

Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Legitimate Rape

On April 8, 2013April 8, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Articles8 Comments

During the US Senatorial Campaign in Missouri, a politician stated that if a woman was involved in a situation of “legitimate rape” the body knew how to reject the products of conception and she wouldn’t get pregnant. This raised a huge issue, as it should have. Starting with the concept of legitimate rape, implying that there are situations of non-consensual sex that are not considered rape. Why am I bringing this up now? Recently, NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” aired an episode dealing with this issue and brought it back to my mind.

I don’t agree with the biology of this concept and I know a lot of people were outraged by the insinuation. But then it became an issue of faith when the Bible was misquoted insinuating that God approved of Rape. These were some of the scriptures utilized.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29– This scriptures talks about pre-marital sex not rape and how a man who was already engaged to this woman should marry her after having sex with her.
Deuteronomy 21:10-14 This scripture talks about marrying a prisoner of war women, not rape. Now historically no woman had a choice in the men they married in those times. Within that logic every woman before the 19th century was raped and we know that’s not true.
Zechariah 14:1-2 This scripture is describing the situation going on, not asking for women to be raped.

Personally I couldn’t serve a God who believe in rape, but I know this is far from the truth. I know how he has healed me from situations that were not His will but someone else’s misuse of free will. Taking the Word out of context is a old trick from the enemy to distract us from the healing that God has for those who have been hurt.

If you have been sexually assaulted, I know that you are hurting. Do not believe this is your fault. Do not believe that this was God’s will. This was the misuse of someone’s free will and God wants to free and heal you.

Now this is what Jesus has asked us to do with each other and it shows the Truth of God’s heart:

John 13:34 says “”A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” NIV

We also read in

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.Love never fails” NIV

Jesus said that when Moses was giving the law, he allowed certain things because of the hard hearts of men. Although he said that in relations to divorce, I can see that translating to other subjects. God has not approved for women to be hurt. If we love others, we would not hurt others and that’s the True command.

Until then, be blessed.

“This book certainly held my interest straight through to the very emotional ending. ”Mary Anne Benedetto

“With the ever-constant presence of her closest friend, Aimee, Desiree slowly makes her way to God and learns the greatness of His power and love. ”Cynthia

“A very engaging story about faith, love, and friendship, and the trials and tribulations that life can bring you. ”Jersey Gina

The Many Legitimate Inspirations for SVU’s Legitimate Rape Episode (nymag.com)

WF: All things are possible

On April 5, 2013March 24, 2013 By Naty MatosIn WorshipLeave a comment

As part of returning to blog, we are also back with our Worship Fridays. Like I said at the beginning of this week, sometimes life gets in our way. We can find ourselves in a place where we feel limited to what we are able to do. Let’s not forget that those can be distractions from our purpose. As humans we can allow ourselves to stumble but let’s not allow ourselves to fall .

Let’s live by the words we read in Matthew 19:26

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

WF: Worship Friday

The Glamorous Life of an Author

On April 3, 2013March 31, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Writing Happenings1 Comment

By Rikki Strong

When I tell people I’m an author, I invariably get one of two responses. The first warms the heart: “Oh, you write books! How cool is that! What a great job!” The second… not so much. “Boy, it must be nice to have enough money to not have to have a real job.” (Coincidentally, those are the same two responses that I get when I tell people I’m a homemaker.)

But what is this glamorous job that allows me to stay home and do the two things I love best in the world? Well, here is a typical day for me:

7:00 a.m.: Alarm goes off. Since Hubby is working out of state, it’s up to me and only me to get Boy up, dressed, fed, and ready for school. Which, since Boy is six, that can take up to an hour and a half.

8:15 a.m.: Put the dog outside, let the chickens out, and Boy’s off to school. House is quiet.

9:00 a.m.: If I’m not out running errands, I’m home and the house is mine. This is my time. What’s it full of? Not writing. Nope. Marketing. Every author’s nemesis. This time is mostly full of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and actual work. Not the fun kind of work, either. Books don’t sell themselves, as much as people want to believe that my life is just sitting at the writing desk watching the money come in. This is a particularly busy time for me as I have a brand new book out.

11:00 a.m.: Suddenly remember that I should probably eat breakfast, but I usually choose to write a little bit instead.

11:50 a.m.: Pick up Boy from school (he’s still just in half-day kindergarten).

12:00 p.m.: Lunch. Finally, something to eat… well, something that’s at least semi-nutritious.

The afternoon is usually full of house work. It’s very difficult, though not completely impossible, to write to the video games’ fight music or while also reminding a certain someone that he has homework obligations.

6:00 p.m.: Dinner.

7:00 p.m.: Skyping with Daddy. Since Daddy is far, far away, we Skype every evening. Fortunately, time zones work in our favor this time. Family time is not a time for working.

8:30 p.m.: Boy is in bed. We are currently reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes as a bedtime book.

9:00 p.m.: Mommy’s time. This is my time to write (or read) until the eyelids can’t stay open and the eyes won’t focus. Usually, it’s less than three hours.

So, that is the life half of the people I meet seem to aspire to; glamorous, huh? It’s not all bonbons and soaps. Neither is it late-night cocktail parties discussing the plight of the common man and how high school English students should interpret our book. It’s just kind of… life.

Sure, there are some fun months, like NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) or Camp NaNo (http://campnanowrimo.org/), where the goal is to write at least 50,000 words in 30 days. There are those weeks leading up to a book release that are full of marketing and the fun stuff—like this week, since I just released Flash (http://amzn.to/WNzPvV/). And there are other months—like when we will be moving to join Daddy—that very few days will have any kind of writing in them.

There will always be people who say, “Oh, that’s nice, but when do you plan to get a real job?” But this life is glamorous enough for me. Who needs a “real” job?

Rikki Strong has always been enamored with superheroes, and started writing the My Life as a Superhero series (currently Karis and Flash) when she was a sophomore in high school. She began writing for fun and profit in 2006 and has since written or ghostwritten more than 10 books and over 50 web articles. When not writing—which is most of the time—she is a stay-at-home wife and mom to a very active 6-year-old boy who is already about 500 words and 25 chapters into his own book.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/R-M-Strong/281097011925041

Twitter: @RM_Strong

Blog: http://rachelstrong.blogspot.com

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106319550273644506645/posts/p/pub

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/rmstrong

FLASH Borrow/Purchase Link: http://amzn.to/WNzPvV

Competing Faith

On April 1, 2013March 24, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Articles, Inspirational ThoughtsLeave a comment

Have you ever been in a competition where Christians discuss their denominational differences almost like football fans? I think what we miss as believers is that our differences are really as the many ways of making white rice. What do I mean?

Growing up I learned that to make white rice I had to place oil, water and salt, bring it to a boil then pour the rice. Some people use butter instead of oil, some add garlic powder. At the end of the day you get in your plate the same thing: white rice

The Word of God tells us in John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I believe that our particular rituals work for us in our humanity. Just like music is a matter of taste, but at the end of the day is the message of the Word of God that we are called to live by. I also believe that our discrepancies are used by the enemy to distract us from our real purpose which is to spread the Good News to others. So when you find yourself and those around you that we are ALL here to do the work of the kingdom and not for our purposes. I also invite you to use that opportunity to come together and do something for the kingdom that all of those in the conversation can agree. You will see that you have way more in common than you imagine.

Until next time, be blessed!

“This book certainly held my interest straight through to the very emotional ending. ”Mary Anne Benedetto

“With the ever-constant presence of her closest friend, Aimee, Desiree slowly makes her way to God and learns the greatness of His power and love. ”Cynthia

“A very engaging story about faith, love, and friendship, and the trials and tribulations that life can bring you. ”Jersey Gina

Home for Easter

On March 31, 2013March 30, 2013 By Naty MatosIn Inspirational Thoughts2 Comments

As you have probably noticed, although some of the great authors from Grace and Faith Connection have done appearances at The Rising Muse, you have not heard much from me. I wish I could tell you that I was finishing my next book for your reading. Yes, I did some of that and the book is not yet ready. That has not been the reason for my absence. Life just got complicated. You can blame my 9-5, you can blame some health issues, but the reality is that at some point I had to be back.

I was born to write, and in these weeks when I was away, rather than resting I was wilting. It is this space that allows me to connect with you, to tell you how God is working in my life. More than my books, this is the place when I can share with you the message of hope. So I saw very fitting to resuscitate this blog on the most important day of our faith, Resurrection Day!

With that I know that life still happens and it’s always complicated, but one thing I’ve learned in my walk with Jesus is that you don’t need a lot of time, you just have to be intentional.

May the Lord Bless you this day and always. May his blessings be upon you. May the light and hope of his resurrection reaches your heart today.

HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!