Yass.... Twice As Good. #twice As Good #twice As Good #twice As Good. I Got That Into My Head Alright..

anyone else been havin WEIRD dreams in quarantine

Yassssssss..😙😙

my seduction style is genuinely caring about your life & wanting you to improve & be happy 

Mercy

by Thomas Scott

“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.” - Romans 12:1

There is something well calculated to keep us humble in the perpetual reference made in the Scriptures to mercy. We read of nothing granted us on the ground of merit, of nothing that comes from the hand of God as the reward of our good deeds or obtained by us as matter of desert. But the MERCY of God meets us at every point: the food we eat, the air we breathe, the garments we wear, the domestic comforts we enjoy, our civil advantages, and our religious privileges are all represented as matters of mercy – undeserved mercy.

This I say is humbling; yet it is just. Mercy must be the plea of the sinner. Mercy must spare from day to day the man who deserves to be cast into hell. Mercy must supply the daily bread of the man whose very life is forfeited to the justice of his offended creator. And as we are spared and our needs supplied, and ten thousand sources of comfort are opened to us – and not to us only but to all the sinners of our race – we may well say that “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord,” and that “goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our life.”

And, my brethren, it would be well for us to habituate ourselves to look at all our comforts in this light. They are continued to us in mercy, since by sinning against God we have forfeited every one of them. This would silence many a murmur and produce delightful feelings of gratitude under circumstances which excite us now to anything rather than contentment and praise. Our language would often be like that of Jeremiah: “Why should a living man complain; a man for the punishment of his sin?”

But though a most powerful argument in support of a duty like that of the text might be drawn from the consideration of the innumerable temporal mercies bestowed upon us by our gracious God, yet these are not the things to which St. Paul here alludes. He is drawing this epistle to a close, which, while it is highly practical, is also most highly doctrinal. In its commencement he exhibits, in all its awful nature, the depraved condition of the Gentile world. He then urges home upon the Jews the question whether they were at all better than the Gentiles. And having shown that they were not, he draws the melancholy conclusion that “there was no difference, for that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Having thus established the universal sin and consequent condemnation of the whole human race, he proceeds to meet the grand inquiry, “How may man be just with God?” Had he remained spotless, innocent, and pure in the state wherein he was created, the answer would have been easy: he will be justified by his works, by his own acts and deeds, his constant never-failing obedience to the divine law. But when that law had been violated again and again by every child of Adam, no conclusion could possibly be clearer than that by the deeds of the law could no flesh living be justified in his sight. Justification could not, therefore, depend on the law or on merit.

The apostle then goes on to shew that though man cannot justify himself, and is consequently in a state of condemnation, he is not on that account to be shut up under despair. But he proceeds to prove that there is a righteousness imputed without works, even that righteousness which Christ has brought in, and which he has provided by his own perfect fulfilment of the law, and by his obedience unto death in our place. This is by grace; all of unmerited favor, free goodness, mere mercy. “We are justified freely by his grace.” In this righteousness we obtain a part through faith. Faith receives the record which God has given concerning his Son. Faith stretches out the hand to “receive the things that are freely given to us of God.” Faith relies on the promise, and applies in assured expectation of receiving that which it asks, and which it knows God is ready to give. So important is the grace of faith that we are said to be justified by it, and by it alone. Yet faith has in itself no merit. It is no work which will compensate for failures in other things. It only receives with firm reliance those promises and those gifts which God bestows on the sinner – of mere mercy and free grace.

“The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”

-Malcolm X (1962)

(Originally found on insta from @ashleighchubbybunny)

Okay.

Heard Your Voice Lord through her.

Something I recently heard from God about:

Make sure you’re sowing into ministries which have fed you spiritually and make sure you’re being a cheerful giver when you are led, whether you’re in a good position financially or not. Actually, especially when you are not it is important to “sow your mites” and to stop thinking that you’re better off saving your money and pinching pennies instead of giving your firstfruits like you ought to. A Christian friend recently said something really wise to me “you have a special opportunity while in a season that you are struggling or poor to ‘sow out of your poverty.’ You will probably never be this financially unstable again in your life so show your faith now while you have the chance to make that display”

Luke 6:38 ESV

Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-7

Kingdom living requires kingdom giving and I am not promoting a prosperity gospel in saying that, but just the fundamental ideas of sowing and reaping and supporting those working in the field/vineyard

“Let love / be the light that shows again / the blossom to the root.”

Eavan Boland, New Collected Poems; “Tree of Life”

“It was dark, then it was dark again. It was dark so long we thought the day was lost.”

Naomi Shihab Nye, Words Under the Words; “The Endless Indian Nights”

“The first section of Darkness is the densest, Dear — After that, Light trembles in —”

Emily Dickinson, from a letter to Susan Gilbert Dickinson, November 1883

“Following a fearful night I do not quite remember came a kind / of dawn, not light, / But something we could see by.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Poems; “Dream of Saba”

“There is nothing to be done but to go ahead with life moment by moment … try to create order and peace around me even if I cannot achieve it inside of me.”

Katherine Mansfield, Letters of Katherine Mansfield 

“Love is not consolation, it is light.”

Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace; “Detachment”

“This night (she pointed to herself) is irreparable, but where you are (pointed at me) it’s still light.”

Anna Akhmatova, quoted by Nikolay Punin in The Diaries of Nikolay Punin

“This is the way of love, to survive only in perpetual loss.”

Do Nguyen Mai, Ghosts Still Walking; “The Forever Way”

“I have thought of you often since the darkness,”

Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters of Emily Dickinson

“This is us. This is all of us. Before we knew this life would shatter, moving wild and unwanted through the dark and the light.”

Safiya Sinclair, excerpt of “Family Portrait”

“…there are still so many people of courage who go on fighting in spite of all these reasons for despair.”

May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

“Still, a great deal of light falls on everything.”

Vincent van Gogh, in a letter

“No, the abyss isn’t infinite. A half-light lurks even there.”

Traci Brimhall, Our Lady of the Ruins; “The Labyrinth” 

“I hope you have the power of hope,”

Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters of Emily Dickinson

“Maybe this is what love is, / And always will be, all my life. / Whispering, I give her an inch of hope / To bite on, like a bullet.”

Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems; “Aunt Elsie’s Night Music”

“Alas, I know that these consolations amount to so little, for they are quickly used up and the heartache incessantly replenishes on its own.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, in a letter to Magdalena Schwammberger

“Everyone is dying, everything is dying, and the earth is dying all, eaten up by the sun and the wind. I don’t know where I get the courage to keep on living in the midst of these ruins. Let us love each other to the end.”

George Sand, in a letter to Gustave Flaubert

“Tenderness is always timely.”

Susan Sontag, Alice in Bed

“You do not have to be good. / You do not have to walk on your knees / for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. / You only have to let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves. / Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. / Meanwhile, the world goes on.”

Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems; “Wild Geese”

“How lightly we learn to hold hope, as if it were an animal that could turn around and bite your hand. And still we carry it the way a mother would, carefully, from one day to the next.”

Danusha Laméris, The Moons of August; “Insha’Allah”

“Make it your ambition to take heart.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, in a letter to Magdalena Schwammberger

“Faith, not fear, she said. She’d heard that once and was trying to stamp the phrase on her mind. At the time, she couldn’t speak it aloud.”

Claude Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”

Mary Oliver, Evidence

“Tonight there is no ocean that does not sing. Even sorrow, which we have felt again in all our lands, has hands.”

Naomi Shihab Nye, Words Under the Words; “With the Greeks”

“In the dark times / Will there also be singing? / Yes, there will be singing. / About the dark times.”

Bertolt Brecht

“This is the human way, she thought. On the edge of destruction, at the end of all things, we still dance. And hope.”

Rosamund Hodge, Crimson Bound

“The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

— Isaiah 58:11

Consuming less. Working less. Enjoying efficiency of labor. Saving the planet. Acknowledging climate crisis. None of these things need a higher GDP.

Become The Player & NOT the Spectator of Your Life

Don't waste your life being a passive watcher of things that you could be doing yourself! In life you must learn to be resourceful and build a drive force that can allow you to be involved in the field rather than to be an observant from afar. Get out of the stands and back on the field, be a part of the game, where the action is, where you get to hit, to score, to win.

• Average people use the tools they have at hand as a form of excapism from their reality, great people utilize the tools they have at hand in a resourceful manner to improve their quality of life.

• Average people use social media as a form of distraction, great people use it for business purposes.

• Average people become complacent with the routines and people/places they have grown accustomed to because they fear change, great people embrace change and allow themselves to get out of their comfort zones to constantly try new things.

• Average people are followers of the crowds, trends, other people's behaviour, lack the capacity to think for themselves. Great people are leaders, trend setters who don't rely on the approval of others to feel secure in themselves and do what's best for them.

• Average people seek comfort, even if that same comfort keeps them stagnated in the same mediocre place, great people learn to thrive in their discomfort because they know that growth can only occur when one pushes oneself our of the boundaries of what we have previously been accustomed to.

• Average people are ok with doing the bare minimum to get by, great people are allergic to mediocrity, complacency and the possibility of succumbing to reaching their maximum potential, they give their best to whatever it is the do or they simply don't do it at all!

• Great people have and seek for vitality, average people numb themselves down with cheap entertainment, fast/unhealthy foods, unhealthy comfort habits and a lack of vision for themselves and their lives.

Do you want to be an spectator or a player in your own life, to be average and mediocre or an over achiever and successful person? The choice and the power to choose that is yours.

I've read some.

Hoping to read some more.

80 Young Adult Books by Black Authors

Supporting Black authors is something that I definitely need to start doing more, so I’ve compiled a list of 80 YA books by Black authors. I’m putting the ones that I’ve read at the top in bold, and the rest will be books that I have looked up and have put on my list to read. I can’t do much to change what’s going on in our world right now, but I can do my part to support the Black community in any way that I can. These are in no particular order and please feel free to add more!

On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Calling My Name by Liara Tamani

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Odd One Out by Nic Stone

Jackpot by Nic Stone

Dear Justyce by Nic Stone - coming out 9/29/20

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

Oh My Gods by Alexandra Sheppard

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi

Love Me or Miss Me: Hot Girl, Bad Boy by Dream Jordan

Spin by Lamar Giles

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan

Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds

The Belles Series by Dhonielle Clayton

The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

The Voice in My Head by Dana L. Davis

I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

The Evolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika and Maritza Moulite

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett

The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown

Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles

Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

Solo by Kwame Alexander

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow

By Any Means Necessary by Candid Montgomery

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

Light It Up by Kekla Magoon

Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert

Learning to Breathe by Janice Lynn Mather

I am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina

The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Opposite Of Always by Justin A. Reynolds

Buried Beneath The Baobab Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

The Effigies Series by Sarah Raughley

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope edited by Patrice Caldwell

This Is My America by Kim Johnson

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

Nightmare of the Clans by Pamela E. Cash

Black Boy, White School by Brian F. Walker

Behind You by Jacqueline Woodson

Hush by Jacqueline Woodson

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now by Dana L. Davis

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson