2011 Fight For Air…

 

 

 

 

 

Christian & I are participating in the American Lung Association’s Fight for Air Climb on 04/30/2011 at Aon Center because breathing shouldn’t be an uphill climb. We are asking for your support because…

• Lung disease is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. and is responsible for one in seven deaths.
• Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.
• Asthma is the number one chronic disease of children.
• COPD currently affects 10.2 million Americans.
• Air Pollution poisons the lungs of over 60% of Americans each day.

These are the facts. The crisis is real. The American Lung Association needs your help.

Christian struggles with asthma, and as a parent it’s one of the hardest things to watch your child go through. Let’s help support the American Lung Association by raising funds and spreading awareness about this disease and the others listed above and how important it is for them to have clean air to breath freely. We will be climbing 63 flights of stars, 1377 stairs in total. Our goal is to raise $200 ($100 each) please make a tax-deductible donation to our Fight for Air Climb team by visiting Christian’s Page or Ivonnah’s Page, click on “Support Christian” or “Support Ivonnah” or “Make a gift” to make your donation…

*Please, I ask that you split your donation in half. Our pages aren’t connected, and we each have to raise at least $100.

If you’re available please come and join us. Sign up to be a part of Team Elevated http://bit.ly/team-elevated2011

Details:
Registration: $25
Fund Raising MINIMUM $100*
*you will be charged the difference if you don’t reach $100 dollars
Check out the video of last year to get an idea…LIVELEVATED SERVICE PROJECT 2: Fight for Air

For more than 100 years, the American Lung Association has been the guardian of healthy lungs and clean air. Every dollar we raise enables the American Lung Association to continue its mission to save lives by promoting lung health and preventing lung disease. Every dollar makes a difference.

Thank you for your generosity and support!

Sincerely,

Christian & Ivonnah

The Day From Heaven

Let me tell y’all about my day… mind you it’s only 1:14 pdt (did you know that it’s not pst until winter) anywho… This morning a friend of mine had to go in for a biopsy, as a church family we were asked by Pastor to wake up at 6am to pray for our sister as she went in for her tests. Now, most of you who follow me on twitter know that I’ve been having issues with Sprint about my phone. My OTHER new phone that I JUST activated Monday is already trippin’, so guess what? Yep! My alarm didn’t go off, the phone had shut down & had the “error 202” message. But my God is so good, I’m usually awakened by the need to go potty around 6:40 or so, but He woke me up at 6am on the dot!! Let’s see what lesson did I get out of that? Simple, I had an alarm set for 5:59 & a wake up call from Erika as back up, I don’t need anyone but Him…

My twitter fam also knows that I just got my car out of the shop. When they fixed my fuel pump, something happened with my fuel line so my gas was leaking. GREAT!! So my plan was to leave early, stop & get gas before I took Chris to school because I didn’t want it leaking out over night. But my child wasn’t ready, so I say OK, I can get him there & get back, & get some gas before I bring my car to the mechanic. I decide to hop on the highway, on an UPHILL entrance! Ivonnah!? For reals?? My car starts stuttering & I’m like JESUS PLEEEEEASE. So I get off the next exit which had absolutely NO gas stations!! Sloan stops stuttering, & we’re riding smoothly, I’m like OK I can make it to the one near my house. I have no idea what happened but all of a sudden I was two BIG blocks past my turn! AHHH! I’m trippin’ with NO GAS, really? Ugh, I bust a U, & make a quick right (praying the whole time) trying to get to ANY gas station. Oh no! Red light & the street is slanted upward! AHHH “come on Sloan, you can make it”. By now I can smell the fumes my car was running on. I stutter to the light, she gets a little more gumption, I make the left tuuuuurn aaaaand stutter, stutter, I’m pushing on the steering wheel saying NO NO NO, stutter…it’s a wrap. She’s just cruising as I steer her to the side, I float past a sign, didn’t have time to read it to see if I could park there. *Sigh* it only gets worse…OK there’s a strip club parking lot & next to it is a post office (yeah, I know) I refuse to stall in the strip club lot, even though it was easier to get into. So I’m pressing the gas as hard as I can (like that’s doing something) & I make it to the post office……exit, which is slanted slightly upward as well, I turn in & Sloan just says sorry Von. So I’m stuck sideways in the exit. I get out to try & push LOL, oh that’s so funny. A man sees me & gets out to help, another man at the drive up box hopped out as well & they push me safely into a parking space. My lesson from this…Stay focused, when you’re not focused you get off track. Our main focus needs to be on the Lord, when we take it off of Him we end up going round about, the long way, & eventually running outta gas. Even if it’s seems like the other road is easier. But when you are one of His sheep, He shepherds you, guides you, & if you need a little more push He’ll send His angels & put the people in your life that you need by your side, walking your walk with you.

Whew! That’s over, now the easy part. I have a gas container from my days of running out of gas with Nia Chrystie, all I have to do is walk (4 big blocks) to the gas station. It’s cool, I was going to do 40 minutes on the bike anyway. OK, wait, hold up, where’s my, umm, my debit card is home!! Ivonnah Danielle Erskine! Putting $3 on a credit card just seems dumb. So between my purse, the floor & in the seat I scraped up $1.50 in quarters. So I’m walking up the street, black hoodie, bright blue sweats that say HOLLISTER in pink across the butt & a purple pashmina, black charcol mask on my pimple. Yep, lookin’ good. I had a nice walk, took the time to just be me & Jesus.

Funny thing is, I had on so many layers! I half get ready in the morning before I bring Chris, then I go back & finish before I go to class. But for some reason (Holy Spirit) I put pants under the sweats & a shirt & jacket over my tank top WITH my pash! Y’all know that “something told me to…” is the Holy Spirit right? God always makes sure you’re prepared! It was really cold this morning.

OK, now I get home, I’m making some eggs & bacon before I go to class…*sigh* I burn two of my fingers taking my bread out of the oven that I was warming up. Ugh, I eat, throw on some jeans, take off the purple pash & throw on a white one & brush my teeth. I leave to bring my car, Juan drops me at school, I’m walking & my right sock is smaller than the left one, (or maybe the foot is bigger) it’s sliding off my heel to the arch of my foot. I’m in Spanish class, I’m telling Patti about my morning & I realize that I didn’t take the mask off of my pimple. I get hot, I take my jacket off, where are my boobs? Oh geez I forgot to put on a bra…

Companionship, Marriage, Beans, Franks & Scrapple…

The other day I was talking to my friend about companionship, then the importance of a partnership in marriage & how important of a covenant it is to God. We hopped on over to how I’ll never get a divorce once I am married (’til death do us part sucka). Slowly but surely our discussion turned to his detest for beans & franks (together, they’re fine separately smh) & then somehow scrapple became the topic of conversation…don’t ask lol. This was all via bbm…

So later on I got to thinking about relationships. Now, when you’re in a relationship, well I guess when you start dating someone, how open is your conversation? Do you send your representative like Chris Rock said? Or are you yourself completely? I mean, they say that the best relationships come from great friendships, so how come we can be so open with our friends, or how come when we ARE dating someone we’re able to be open with “him/her” & not with “him/her”? What makes the difference? I’ll give you my take on this…

When I’m dating I’m always very cautious…1 reason is because I’ve had men flip from cool to groupie on me (& they call women groupies HA!), once they figure out I’ve been in videos or was on Wild N’ Out ugh boy oh boy. #2 The ones that know, but don’t care about that think they’re getting Ivonnah from TV & then begin to lose interest once they realize I burp & fart just like the next chick. Sometimes, as awesome as I am, I’m very leery about just being ME right off the bat. I’m a little coo coo, what if he doesn’t like my personality? Or I scare him? “I know, I need an artist who understands my thought process”. HAHA! All types of things go through my brain…

I think it’s pretty sad that at times, we feel like we can’t be ourselves, or we have to stifle who we are & put our personalities under a rock. That’s not OK, when we’re in relationships we shouldn’t have to tread water with what we say & how we act. We should be able to be free, open & honest. I’m not saying spill your guts or fart on the first date, ladies, don’t fart at all…ever…but we should feel comfortable with being ourselves with our mate, just as we are with our friends. I love bean casserole (nothin’ but beans & franks baked with brown sugar & butter) now what if he didn’t tell me that my dinner sounded gross? lol I might have made that one day & I would get the “talk to the hand” & “sick face” like he did on bbm haha. We should be able to be ourselves at all times & be loved & appreciated for it…be able to talk about everything from being in love to corn beef hash. If you can’t be vulnerable with your mate then who WILL you be vulnerable with? The next man or woman? Whew! Jesus, I just felt something in my spirit as I typed that, I really want to start shouting, but I don’t think that’s appropriate.

I digress, Flaws & All by Beyonce describes me so well, “I’m a host of imperfection, but you see past all that”…

It all boils down to the fact that we’re not perfect. When we get into relationships we should be able to be as open & as honest as we possibly can be (without being overbearing). We shouldn’t be afraid to be us because we are wonderfully made. God picked every quirk, snort, & tendency when He was putting us together, He doesn’t make any mistakes, & there’s someone out there who’s going to love all of it. We’re all unique, perfect the way we are…to quote the legendary Marilyn Monroe: “I’m selfish, impatient & a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control & at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.”

Yep, I feel you Marilyn…

Who’s Gotcha Covered…

What are your requirements for a mate? Does he have to be tall, dark and handsome? Have enough money to buy you an island? AND get you there often (That would be amaaaazing, lol). But for real, guys, does she have to be fine? Have a body for days? Always have her nails done? What’s a deal breaker for you? What about your friends? Do they have to be spiritually grounded in Christ? How important is that to you…

When I was younger I was under the misconception that it was cool as long as he/they had SOME kind of spiritual guidance even though I believe Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. I thought that if they are spiritually grounded in whatever they believed that it was all good. Boy was I wrong…

So fast forward to the present…Last week at our church anniversary Pastor Dre was explaining how important it is to have Pastor Chuck covering her. It was like a light bulb went off in my head, well over…you know the one I’m talking about. Everything I thought was important in my mate in the past was so irrelevant, superficial and meaningless. I mean when I meet a man I still check out his shoes BUT, lol… Ok ladies do you know how important it is to have a man (husband) who is going to cover you? Go to spiritual battle on your behalf and for the behalf of your family? When you’ve done all that you can do, and you’re tired, to have a man who’s going to keep you lifted in prayer? Do you even understand HOW important that is!? Gentlemen, are you aware of how important it is for your woman (wife) to be YOUR spiritual backbone? To make sure your kids are in the word? To get down on her knees and pray and fight through the spiritual battle with you?

What about your friends? In Romans 12 it says that we are one body. We are one body in Christ, therefore if we’re in this together and I mess up, I mess you up. Right? Take my high blood pressure for instance, when it’s acting up it causes me to have a headache, my sinuses to hurt, and my ears and my teeth, sometimes my legs feel funny AND now they’re monitoring my kidneys…ALL because of my blood pressure. Why? Because I have one body and when one thing is acting up it affects my ENTIRE body because it’s connected. The same goes for the body of Christ, if I slip up, I slip you up and guess what!? Guess who’s also connected to us? Jesus. Yep, we take Him right along with us into our sin, (as Pastor Kelvin calls it, Self Inflicted Nonsense) People are always quick to say “The Lord knows my heart” Yep! He sure does and He knew when you were lusting over that man or when you fornicated with that woman. He knew your heart alright and you dragged Him right along into that bed, He inhaled that puff of weed with you, and He was right there as you were cussin’ that lady out. Brings the idea of repentance to a whole other level huh?

Yeah yeah yeah, I know a lot of you are gonna say “well Jesus died for my sin” (insert eye & neck roll), but have we forgotten the part about being made in God’s image? So, if we were made in God’s image and so was Jesus and they are perfect then…hmmm riiiiiiiight. Oh don’t get your knickers in a tizzy, NO God does NOT expect us to be perfect that’s why Jesus died for us, BUT as Proverbs 26:11 says “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” So basically if we keep going back and doing the same SELF INFLICTED NONSENSE then we’re fools, God says so. We have to try our best everyday to be like Christ. There’s no way in the world we can be as dope or as fly as He was, not at all but we must strive to be, and have people in your corner who are striving to be as well.

This takes me to John 15, pruning…

He is the vine, we are the branches…We are connected to Him, He is connected to us, and as brothers and sisters in Christ we are connected to each other. Now if you have a tree in your yard and the branches are dead, dried up and not producing any fruit then what do you do? You cut them off so that they don’t kill the entire tree. Who are the dead branches in your life?

Jesus Christ resides on the inside of us! His Holy Spirit! How can we keep dragging Him into our nonsense, into our sin and keep using excuses meanwhile we’re killing ourselves in the spirit. Causing parts of us to dry up, wither and die! Nothing that is dead can be connected to Jesus. If we’re dying in the spirit there’s no way we can be connected to His vine. No way.

So You Want To Get Married…

The other day I was talking to my friend/sis Dani. Just about life and why things happen the way that they do. How tragedy seems like the end of the world, but then later on in life we realize why it was done and why it was in Gods plan.

When God created us He had our lives planned out down to the very second! We sometimes (because He gave us that tricky thing called free will) have the ability to screw some things up by making our own way, making our own decisions without asking for guidance first, but because our God is so awesome, He can even turn our screw ups into a way to benefit us and become our testimonies!

We need to learn to lean on our Lord and trust Him fully. He’s the ONLY one who makes the right decision ALL THE TIME! Growing up, I was taught not to question God, because every decision He makes is correct and perfect. But as a fleshly human being HELLO I HAVE QUESTIONS!! Why does this and that happen? She’s such an awesome person why does this always happen to her? How does he always get blessed when he is so evil?

One question I stopped asking was why am I 3….wait no, I asked before now it was more like why am I 28 and still not married with no siiiiign of a prospective husband, not even remotely close! I mean really, my godparents bought me a beautiful pearl necklace when I was 8 years old for my baptism. It had 8 pearls on it and my mom was supposed to put a pearl on it every year on my birthday until I got married…that sucker probably can’t FIT another pearl on it!

I digress…over the past few years I’ve come to realize that when I was in my twenties I had absolutely NO CLUE about what marriage was. Yeah I knew it was a vow to God that should never be broken, you have a ceremony, and I knew you wore a pretty white gown…or off white…cream? And then you partied after and now you are legally and spiritually bound to this person under God for life…life! Ahhhh such a scary concept for me at one point. I didn’t understand the importance of marriage and that marriage wasn’t about me it was about God and glorifying His kingdom. (You know that’s what our whole life is about right? It’s not about us) I use to say that I didn’t want to get married so much that I thought I cursed myself! But no, God knew exactly what he was doing because I also use to say that when I got married, I wasn’t getting a divorce. We gone have ta stick it out bruh…

Definition of covenant: A solemn and binding relationship which is meant to last a lifetime.

Back in the old testament they had to cut a lamb or a goat into two halves and walk between them O_O and say Lord I give you my solemn promise in this covenant and if I break it split me in two like this here carcass. Uhhh yeah, as far as ancestral tradition goes I think we’re gonna stick to jumping the broom.

But seriously! Marriage is a covenant between you two and GOD, it’s not a legal piece of paper, it’s a solemn promise that you’re making with your creator. The one who has the ability to wake or not wake you in the morning. Marriage is like thee most important covenant to God! Which is why you’re supposed to wait to have sex until you’re married. That’s when you two become one with God. (I’ll get into that on a later post) We need to take marriage as seriously as they did in the past. People take their promise to God far too lightly. “She’s not as cute as she use to be” “He’s not as cut as he use to be”. Maaaan please! It’s about so much more than that.

We were getting schooled by Miss Pam the other night and one thing she said was. “Go into marriage knowing you’re not divorcing, you have to work it out”, she also said meet their family (yikes for some of us). With that said, you HAVE to KNOW the person. People get married so quickly now and days you look up and they’re divorcing! Why? Because they didn’t know each other . They’re not on the same page. The person I marry will have to have the same mind set as me or it isn’t going to work. Will we have to agree all the time about everything? No, but on major things? Indeed. That comes with being equally yoked. I can’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah and he believes that Jesus was just a prophet. No bueno, not gonna work boo.

Ok, once again I don’t know how we got on this road over here lol. Maybe it’s because people keep telling me that I’m next…and I receive that in the name of Jesus. I’m so glad that God spared me the pain of divorce or the pain of “sticking it out” with someone that I didn’t want to be with or didn’t want to be with me. He waited until I was ready and mature enough to handle all that marriage entails. I can’t thank Him enough for that…now, how ’bout that husband 🙂

Jesus, Church and The NBA

me and ivonnah had a bet during the NBA Finals game. she was rootin’ for the celtics and i was rootin’ for the lakers. whoever won the bet would be able to write a guest blog post on the “loser’s” blog. we ALL know what happened last week.
so here i am.

hello. i am patricia. and i am a laker fan. i love food. coffee. people. prayer. i’m a single mother. i love Jesus. and i am determined to change the world. that about sums me up. if you wanna know more you can read about my wonderful life at my blog www.ricianne.com or follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/pa3cia

anywhoo, i decided that it would be apropos to write something about basketball since this was what the bet was all about. so here is my take on “life lessons from the NBA: what the church can learn from the lakers/celtics finals.”

1. HISTORY CAN BE CHANGED. [isaiah 66:8]
these 2 teams have met 12 times in the NBA finals and the celtics have won 9 times against the lakers. history and stats showed favor towards the Celtics winning this series. after the embarrassing loss in 08… the lakers were called “weak and soft”. it took this team being humiliated for them to work hard & grow in their “weakness”, as well as grow in their strength. and with determination, they were able to change stats and history.

the church has been called “useless” in this day and age. in fact, christians are mostly humiliated in media coverages, calling our stand for purity and life “weak and soft.” our teachings have been irrelevant and our lifestyles are a joke because, instead of being an example, we have become hypocritical, hypercritical, and judgmental. we need to study how and where and what we’ve been doing wrong and right as a body of Christ and see to it that we implement the changes that are needed to be made in order for us to win our family/friends/school/workplace/city/nation back for God.

2. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A ONE MAN SHOW. [proverbs 11:2]

game 2 – ray allen shot eight 3 pointers in one night and set a new NBA record… but during game 4 he couldn’t even make a shot. game 5 – kobe shot 19 points in one quarter and stole the show. and yet even the MVP could not win the game all by himself. don’t rely on your “own” talent and strength to win. you can’t be a one man show. which goes hand in hand with my next point….

3. BUILD A GREAT TEAM AROUND YOU. [ecclesiastes 4:12, mark 6:7; acts 2:1]
because you weren’t made to shine alone. you need a coach to help you become a better you. you need a gasol and a fast rondo. you need vets like garnet and fish who’s been there longer than you have and know how the game is played. you need a drooling big baby, a little nate and a flying shannon. and ofcourse do not discount the “weird” people in your life – ones like ron artest, the ones who we love to hate but grow to love.

to make it in this world, we need to build a team of christians around us who can help us live out this life victoriously. even Jesus invested His time and His life to His 12 big men and a few crazy women and with that team… they were able to change the world.

5. FOCUS AND BE DETERMINED. [hebrews 12:1b; james 1:4]
this video says it all http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2B-NSNn3IY&feature=fvst. you can have haters hate and talkers talk. but if you keep your head in the game (or in the destiny that God has called you to do) and stay on your mission, nothing will be able to stop you.

6. SUPPORT OTHERS AND STAY LOYAL. [ephesians 4:16, hebrews 12:1a]
jack nicholson. an award winning actor. he doesn’t really need to be on the court side cheering young kids on. but he does, and he has been for the past 20 years. he is NO bandwagon fan. his presence is so felt during the games that he’s even quicker to defend the players than the coach does. his loyalty to this team has paid off as he has become a laker/forum/staples icon that his nickname is “coach nicholson”. (it’s been said that he donates his own money for parades to happen.)

are you that loyal to your church family, friends, and the team that God has given you? do you stick with them through good times and bad? and if you’re one to have “arrived”…. do you stay complacent or do you still get involved and cheer the next generation on? this is a challenge to become like jack. make a mark in history by staying loyal to God and your team. do what needs to be done by sowing your life [money, resources, time, encouragement] to help the next generation reach their fullest potential so that they can be winners as well.

that my friends, is the top 6 lessons i learned from watching the NBA finals.

my finals thoughts on this: they need to bring the NBA short shorts back to make basketball more entertaining 😉

have a great week!

How Deep Is Your Faith…

So I’m sitting here, and I’m thinking, and I’m chit chatting with Jesus…I do that pretty often, just like I would do with a friend, without running the risk of my business being in the streets in 60 seconds flat (if that offended you, well…). Anywho! I have this gift right, He trusts me with peoples secrets because He wants me to pray for them. I’ve always been that friend all of my friends trust. I know her side and his side…knowing the two people I put both stories together and come up with the truth. I say all of this to say He was training me up all of that time to make sure I could be trusted with the secrets He had for me.

I’m talking to Him and I’m like umm Lord, OK I’ve been praying for my family, friends, my twitter fam and whatever strangers You tell me to pray for! (yeah I was yellin’…walking down the street…on my prayer walk) How come when I pray for myself it doesn’t happen!? Or it takes a LONG time! But my friends call me the next day like “Thanks for praying”! (Like they KNOW that He used me to get their prayer to Him). I know, all bad, but hey I’m human…I apologized. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE that He uses me, and I LOVE that my friends trust me and they know that it’s a gift that He has given me, but I’m like dang Jesus!? Now I feel like Job! (Oh yeah, I did say that I wanted you to have faith in me like you did Job didn’t I?) That was about a three weeks ago…

As we were chit chatting the other day I’m thanking Him for my new niece, I was layed out on the floor cryin’ and snottin’ and…OK you get the picture, but He gave me a word that lead to a revelation…Faith. I say “OK, Lord you know I have faith in you”, but as I wiped my tears and blew my nose I thought about it, and I realized what He meant. He knows that I have faith in Him, because I do. I trust Him with all of my heart and soul! But when I pray for others my faith in Him is so much stronger! I get on my knees, I pray and I give to God. I don’t dwell on it or worry about it. I KNOW that whatever they need He will provide, but with myself I lack that confidence. I still worry and wonder, I’m not releasing it to Him like I’m supposed to. But by not releasing it to Him I’m showing a lack of faith. Why? Why do we do that, because I know I’m not the only one. Think about it, in life, when we’re pros at something we walk in BOLDNESS with our heads high and our chests out because we KNOW that we have learned whatever it is we need to do. We, we learned, us by ourselves by our own understanding (what does Proverbs 3:5-6 say?) Now we all have God given gifts…Hello! Given! He GAVE us something, we didn’t have to earn or work for it, it’s free! Something made from Him which is perfectly and wonderfully made, custom designed for each and every one of us. All we have to do is use it, share it to help others which is really helping ourselves because YOU GUYS He’s gonna bless us if we follow His word and do the will He has planned for our lives!

I have faith that when I ask my friends to pray for me that they will. I have faith that when I ask them to pray for strength in my nieces lungs that she will be OK because I’m confident in their relationship with Christ. That’s what it all boils down to, how is your relationship with Him? What does that say about me? How often am I studying my bible, not reading a passage and checking it off for the day but really digging deep and studying His word? The fact of matter is if our relationship with Christ is where it should be then there shouldn’t be any doubt in our minds. Our faith in Him should be strong.

I believe our lack of faith comes from us judging ourselves by our pasts. “Why would He bless me I’ve done x, y & z not to mention l,m,n,o,p”…We want others to forget and stop bringing up stuff that we already gave to God so why do we hold ourselves in bondage? I shouldn’t be secure in my prayer for others but shakey in my prayers for myself.

The crazy part is that He has faith in us…yeah us, ha! Our flesh, our spotty pasts, our pride, our mess ups. He has faith that we’ll do right by Him, once we get to know Him. Haha! He has faith that we WILL get to know Him! The Almighty, Most High, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Giver of Life has faith in us but we can’t have faith that He can pay a light bill or save a marriage!? With a single touch one can be healed from terminal cancer, He doesn’t even have to say a word. There was a woman in the bible who bled for 12 years, she was healed by simply touching the hem of Jesus’ garment. The instant she did her bleeding stopped! When He asked who touched Him she was afraid and it says she came trembling and fell at His feet. She told Him why she touched Him and you know what He said? “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” He was the man! Is that the problem? Are we afraid? Yep! Leaving that job is scary, leaving that relationship is scary, moving to a place where you know no one is scary. But if we have the faith in Him like she had what do you think The Lord will say to us? “Daughter, Son your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” All we have to do is have faith.

Oh, and last Sunday at church I was reminded that Job was blessed double after he prayed for everyone else…

The Ugly Truth

Ok I have a question? How come people don’t like to hear the truth? And how come when you tell someone the truth, or someone tells you the truth we’re so quick to say “Why you judgin’ me!?” *rolls eyes* Ok, that was two…but really people what’s the problem? Do we not want to better ourselves?? We’re supposed to gird our waist with truth, and speak truth to our brother & sister if we truly love them. Now that DOES NOT mean you go running around throwing your opinions at folks all willy nilly. I mean if you see your brother or your sister killing themselves in the spirit. Doing something that is detrimental to their life!

People always claim to be able to handle the truth but in all actuality that’s far from the truth! The minute a friend lets us know something that isn’t quite right about ourselves we’re QUICK to throw up that wall and just block that person out. When they’re the ones we need in our lives!! They’re the ones who won’t let us make stupid mistakes or better yet be our accomplice while making the mistake!! Y’all know we all have that friend that we can call anytime of night to roll out to do some foolishness. Shoot I’ll still dress in all black and do a stakeout with you, but I won’t let you bust his windows boo or help you jump the girl, no sir ree bob. #1 I’m grown #2 It’s just plain dumb. But we will get evidence!!

Sorry, I don’t know where that came from…seriously we need the people in our lives who are going to check us (with love) not sit there idly by and let us do stupid stuff! When our friends tell us something that will benefit us we need to take a moment, take a look at our lives and see if what they’re saying makes sense. Then pray and ask God to help change it. I mean, I’m hoping that the people we call “friend” are people that we trust! People that have our best interest at heart, and want to see us grow. We all need a little sprucing up! I know I’m a brat at times I have OCS (only child syndrome) which is funny because it didn’t kick in until I was an adult #tricky…but the first step is admitting you have a problem :).

The truth is, that the truth can be ugly but we can’t keep it hidden in the closet or under the rug. We have to bring the truth to light in order to work through it, over come it and move past it. Jesus’ scars we ugly, and they were painful, they were exposed for all to see but those scars healed us and saved our lives. Keep the people close to you that help you heal and will keep you from killing yourself not the ones who will just rub salt in the wound or push you over the cliff…

Introduction Of Moi…

Hey everyone! This is Ivonnah and this is my very first blog entry!! Just a small introduction for you all to get to know ME. I’m so excited! This is going to be a place where I can just be free! Write what I want, say I how I feel with no concern of sentence structure or proper punctuation…much like my twitter page with more than 140 characters.

First and foremost I LOVE the Lord! Will all of my posts be preachin’ ? No, but I will reference Him a great deal because He is in the forethought of my mind throughout the day. I’m not religious, I have a relationship with God. There’s a BIG difference! I use to be religious, go to church, stand, sit, kneel and repeat, drink wine from the same cup during communion (glad y’all are dippin’ the cracker now St. Luke’s). I’d pray everyday…pray that I would get to my men’s magazine photo shoot on time, and thank God that there were no accidents on 95 South! Hallelujah Jesus!! Who moves to Los Angeles and finds God, not the surface God, the spare tire God, but the almighty, all powerful God and gets to have a deeper, more intimate relationship Him? ME! Most people move here and find drugs, sex and alcohol…me? I’ve been abstinent for almost two years (oh yeah God, about that husband?), I don’t drink…ok a sip of Moscato here and there, and cocaine looks like it burns and I hate when I get dust in my nose!

On a serious note, if I had never done a video or a photo shoot for men’s magazines then I would have never been a Wild N’ Out girl (everyone’s fave I hear), then I would have never moved to LA and found a church that helped me grow up so much in Christ! The girls that know me from television wouldn’t feel comfortable telling me what they need prayer for, but they do because they feel like they know me and they trust me with their problems. The guys who had my pictures on their prison walls (except Whalley Ave. my godfather is a CO there…nuff said) wouldn’t have had the courage to send me prayer requests with no funny business attached. I wouldn’t have people telling me that I make them want to go back to Christ or get to know Him better because of my twitter prayers. Please! They wouldn’t be following Ivonnah the hairdresser from New Haven! But they do follow Ivonnah, from the Avant video or Ivonnah the short haired girl from Wild N’ Out…

In conclusion, God has a divine purpose for our lives but we HAVE to follow His word, He orders our steps. Sometimes we have to go through things in our lives to protect the next person coming behind us, so they won’t make the same mistakes we did. Following Christ doesn’t always mean your life will be perfect, there are some rocky times that we have to go through in order to come out victorious in the end. Even when we mess up He’ll use it to get us to our destiny. Lord knows I feel like Joseph all the time!! He was sent to prison following Gods word, he wouldn’t disrespect the covenant of marriage. He was lied on and sent to prison, betrayed by his brothers (not in that order) but if it never happened then he would have never become the ruler of Egypt!

We are all Kings and Queens because we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. He’s just waiting on US to get our act together so he can bless us with our inheritance!!

OK welp! That went in an entirely different direction than I planned! Haha! That was for somebody…