Imperfect And Wonderfully Made

My first friends were my cousins. As you might recall, my mother came from a very extensive family. Not only were there many members in the family, they were very close knit. All the aunts and uncles looked out for each other and each other’s children. My favorite cousins were my two best friends. We used to spend as much time together as possible. We would stay for days at each other’s homes. One of my cousins was my pen pal. We would write each other constantly. Summer and holidays were always a blast spent with these cousins. We were always laughing and could talk about nothing for hours. These two cousins knew everything about me. We stayed very close up until we got married and started our families. When we see each other now in our sixties, we just pick up where we left off. It's funny how time can change what cousins become your best friends and influencers. I had a cousin who was an Executive Secretary, she was beautiful and I actually emulated her in my career because of h...

Everyday as I wake up, I pray and do devotion. That's how I choose to end my day as well. It hasn't always been that way, but it has been for a long time. As I begin my day, now that I'm doing my testimonial blog, I pray for the Holy Spirit to give me a topic for someone who might need to read what I'm going to write for the day. Needless to say, my head comes up with all kinds of topics to share. Today, I feel compelled to put a couple sensitive topics in the forefront of my blog, just so you have a better understanding of the type of person I am. Choices and free will go hand in hand doesn't it? Some of the choices we have made in this life are excellent ones and some are just horrible ones. One day when my brother and I were out exploring our neighborhood in Lomita, CA, we had ventured down Pacific Coast Highway from Pennsylvania Avenue to Walnut Avenue (where I can recall is where my future middle school was located). While we were on Walnut Avenue, a young man ...

In my life it was my goal to do things right. I think that is how most people think. Sometimes things just don't work out the way we had anticipated for our life to work out. At least that's how it has been in my case. I love watching people who set wonderful examples. They live according to a belief system they have developed. They do life decisions based on what is moral and right. They are goal setters and don't compromise at all. I am surrounded by couples who have known each other since they were very young. They have been married for over 50 years. They picked that one person who they have ended up spending their whole lives with. My biological parents divorced when I was around 3 or 4 years old. I don't know the specifics. As I was growing up, I had always told myself that I didn't want to end up divorced. It was such a sad memory for me. And I don't know why I never listened to the part of the Bible that speaks of being equally yoked.  2 Corinthians 6:14...

  1 Corinthians 10:31 --"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (NKJV) I was a thin child and teenager. Ever since I had my second child, I have struggled with my weight. When I had my twins at the age of 38, that's when my weight went out of control. It was also near the age where I found out I had Graves Disease and Hashimoto's Disease which are two Thyroid issues. I actually had Thyroid Disease since my 20's, but they attributed my rapid heartbeats and panic attacks to stress. It actually was an overactive thyroid, but my labs showed normal ranges. Needless to say, it didn't help the weight issue. I had tried every diet on the planet. I wasn't so much concerned about being skinny as I just wanted to be healthy. Due to carrying the extra weight, I developed high blood pressure, high cholesterol, fatty liver and eventually diabetes. Some of this was caused by the extreme measures I took to lose weight. Rememb...

Ever since I can remember, music has been in the core of my soul. Even before I heard it coming from the sun. Probably my earliest remembrance of music was when we were traveling from New Hampshire to Los Angeles via a Greyhound bus. All along the route, when we would stop at the bus depots, there was always music playing very loudly. I'm thinking I might have been about three years old at the time. As a little girl, I used to love to dance. Of course, these were during my lucid moments when I wasn't walking in endless circles in the middle of a floor captive in my daydreams of running through meadows. At weddings and at my Buelita's and Aunt's houses, they used to have music playing. I remember family members enouraging me to dance in the middle of the floor. They used to love to watch me dance. They would always say that I could really dance and that I had natural rhythm. All I know is I loved music. I've always loved all genres of music. It wouldn't be until ...

This picture of a guardian angel has always hung somewhere in my childhood home and also in my own home as my children were growing up. It has always brought me a sense of peace and assurance that there are angels among us. I honestly believe that to be true. Not only guardian angels, but unseen angels wherever God permits them to be to protect us. As a very young child, I was riding in the car with my Aunt as the sun was setting. She was playing music on the radio and I asked her to please shut it off. She asked why and I told her, "Don't you hear the music from the sun?" She told me no that she didn't hear it. She let me listen to it for about five minutes with a perplexed look on her face. I'm sure she saw the peace that had come over my face as I listened. I finally told her that the song was fading and we continued driving along. Usually at sunrise or sunset, I always heard music coming from the sun. It was beautiful and indescribable. The only time I heard s...

Psalm 71:15-18 "I will tell everyone about your righteousness. All day long I will proclaim your saving power, though I am not skilled with words. I will praise your mighty deeds, O Sovereign Lord. I will tell everyone that you alone are just. O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do. Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me." (NLT) As I was growing up in the Los Angeles area as a very little girl, I was constantly surrounded by my cousins. There was a whole slew of us as our parents were from a large family of eleven siblings. So times that by two or more children. I was especially close to one cousin who lived nearby while my Mom was living with her mother after she had relocated us from New Hampshire back to Los Angeles, where she would file for divorce from my biological father. Needless t...

Today and every Thursday over the summer, I have worked in a community garden. It started in June. There are only two people thus far working on it. Myself and the community center project coordinator. We started the garden with seedlings and seeds. It was sparse when it first was planted. Together we have watered and cultivated it. Who would have known that the last time I prayed over it that my life partner would slip on ice and fracture two vertebrae in his back. So I took two weeks off from taking care of the garden to help him through the worst part of his pain. As I walked into the garden area, I saw the enormity of the garden and didn't recognize it at first. I just thanked God then and there. Not only did he answer my prayer, it was a miracle grow moment.  I want to share that no matter how big or small your prayers are, God definitely listens. The answer sometimes may be no, but when they are answered, they are not in our time but rather his time. I know this from experien...

Yesterday I shared that I was baptized at the age of 12 years old. I took bible studies from a pastor of a Seventh Day Adventist church in Inglewood, California. This church was the church my family attended for many years. We made a lot of friends there. I had several mentors who took me under their wings and they showed me the love of Jesus. It seemed everyone was happy and I wanted to learn why. Through bible studies I learned what it meant to be a Christian. So through the encouragement of the Pastor, my parents and my wonderful mentoring friends, I was baptized as a Seventh Day Adventist. I held on to that faith and religion for many years until 1977. I never quite took on the whole vegetarian, non-make up or non-jewelry religion. I was what they referred to as a rebel. From Friday sunset until Saturday sunset, we weren't allowed to watch tv or do anything outside of worshipping and thinking of religion and Jesus. We observed the Sabbath. So what happened in 1977? I was a seni...

I was reminded of the time when I was a little girl and in Kindergarten that our art project was to make a handprint using clay. I remember we used glaze. I picked yellow because I knew that was my mother's favorite color. The teacher had them fired and then they were distributed back to us to give to our parents. The picture to the left is a picture of the handprint that I have to this day. I had wondered what had happened to it for a long time and then forgot about it for years. Late into my adulthood, I was visiting one of my favorite cousins. She informed me that their family had discovered a little handprint. They were trying to figure out who it belonged to. It has the initials CG on it. My cousin finally remembered that is Cindy's!! So she presented it to me. I have to say at the time it really brought tears to my eyes. To see that my little hand had touched what was given me. My aunt used to watch me as a child and I must have forgotten to give it to my mother. I'm ...

  My name is Cindy. I’m a seasoned senior at 65 years old. To say I have had an interesting life is an understatement. My goal with this blog is to encourage individuals with excerpts from my life story — my testimony. My blog will mention a lot about my relationship with Jesus Christ. So, there is a chance you may be inspired as well. I came up with the title of my blog by recognizing that I am imperfect, but in accordance to scripture Psalm 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  (NIV) — I know I am wonderfully made. I know that everything I am was thought of long before my life began — before I was formed in my mother’s womb. Oh how I wished I had the wisdom I have now at my age when I was a young girl as to how wonderfully made I was and to have been able to turn off the noise that affects one’s confidence. Everything I am was put together by God. I am wonderfully made. I was born with a purpose. ...