ç'est la vie RN

Author: c’est la vie RN

  • Time for something different

    Time for something different

    I was talking to one of my sisters last night. She mentioned that it’s funny how our style changes over time. Specifically, the conversation was about home decor. I’ve always been a clean line,  minimalist girl. Her vibe growing up was a little more dramatic. I started thinking about how this is also true for relationships, especially friendships. As you mature in deed and thought, you learn most relationships are only for certain seasons of your life. That doesn’t mean you have to completely ditch your old friends. It’s just accepting how you relate to them in 2024 may not resemble how it did in 2004…and that’s OK!

    I feel like my current friends are in certain categories. I have some that I’ve bonded with over career, some over Jesus, others over academic endeavors, and some have that gift of giving life and laughs when you need them most. No matter what need your friends fulfill, it’s important to choose them wisely. The old folks say, “Watch the company you keep.” As you begin to realize that time is the most precious commodity we have, who we spend it with becomes of extreme importance. Proverbs 13:20 was the YouVersion verse of the day today.

    Are your friends wise or fools? Which friend are you??? I pray that I am the woman ready to give wise counsel to another when it’s needed. There are always moments where a little foolery may actually be good for us, but in general, I would advise to abide with the wise!

  • Highs and lows

    Highs and lows

    Ugh. I hate that it’s been almost 2 weeks since my last entry, especially since I had something simmering in spirit. Seems as though everything in my life revved up at once. C’est la vie right now!

    At the beginning of the year, I was very intentional with my prayer board. I read my way through Fervent by Priscilla Shirer and wrote a prayer for each of the strategies. Early last week, I was in my closet revisiting those prayers. In one of the prayers I asked for my words to come to life in an artistic fashion, like the words of King David. Now, this is why people say you need to read your bible…all those Psalms written by David weren’t beautiful pictures. And the ones that were, well, he had to go through some things to be able to verbally illustrate. I started laughing to myself, and I was like Lord, can I take that part of the prayer back?!?!?

    How many times do we think about what someone else has done or can do and wish that we had the same talent/skill/zeal, never once stopping to consider what that person went through for the expression of that gift? So, I’m going to pass on what David had to deal with and focus on Tiffany. We each have our own valleys, ya know? Psalm 23 was presented to us this past Sunday in a way which we could examine with new eyes. For 2 weeks in a row, David has been schooling me. Myron Golden walked us through this passage of scripture as if it were art. He reminded us that there is always a mountain on either side of a valley (otherwise it couldn’t be a valley). The valley is intended for us to go through…the scripture doesn’t say we get stuck and perish there. Once we reach the other side of the valley, there is a table AND an anointing waiting.

    When I think about it, my life has been a series of mountains and valleys. I don’t know about you, but that gives me a different perspective of the valleys in life. It actually makes me look forward to them because I know the Lord has something prepared for me once I make it through. Again, by default, you cannot experience the fullness of a mountain without the valley. The two lessons from David:

    • Comparison is the thief of joy. Be you, how the Lord created you in Christ! You don’t need to be like anyone else to experience God’s abundance.
    • Grow through what you go through. The valley is purposeful for every season of your life, and His goodness and mercy as always there with you.
  • Monotonous or marvelous?

    Monotonous or marvelous?

    This past week has been a whirlwind! Always so much to take in when starting a new job (no matter what the industry). In healthcare, there are regulatory competencies and education that are completed by all workers, regardless of the work setting, patient population, or geographic location. HIPAA for example…is federal legislation that requires annual compliance training. Breaking that law can get you into big trouble. On Tuesday, I rushed my way through hours of modules on content I feel I know very well. Most seasoned healthcare workers take this same approach. You can be competent of the knowledge and still choose to be ignorant, or should I say laxed for a better usage of words, when it comes to application. Based on my previous example, if I had a dollar for every time a computer screen was found unsecure with patient information sitting on a maximized screen, I could retire.

    On my way home today, I got to thinking about how we often take this same approach to God’s Word. And not just us in modern times but throughout history. Generation after generation, trial after trial, and circumstance after circumstance, we are taught the same lessons. We experience the sovereignty of God, not when we know the word, but when we apply it. Did you know the phrase “Do not be afraid” appears in the Bible 365 times?!?! Moses struggled with fear and doubt that he should be the one to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Elijah, a prophet, at one time feared for his life and fled to the desert. Jonah ran away out of fear, only to find himself in an even more precarious situation, in the belly of a whale. All these men knew of God and His word. It was only when they acted in faith that their fears were overcome, and the Lord led them to do marvelous things AKA His work.

    I guess, my point is don’t just keep approaching the word with a mundane mindset…finishing scriptures you know mid-sentence when the pastor is preaching but have yet to put action to. Use your knowledge to be a doer of the word. Show the Lord you are committed to His will and His way, and allow Him to bless you as He sees fit.

    “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who has looked intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an active doer, this person will be blessed in what he does.” – James 1:22-25

  • Answered prayers

    Answered prayers

    Last week was so fast and furious, I forgot to come and share my good news. My job search has finally come an end! In a neatly organized, colorful corner of my closet, my prayer requests decorate the wall. Above the empty clothing rack is a box titled answered prayers. It felt so good to take that card off my wall and put it into the box!

    No one could have paid me to believe that it would take this long for me to land a job. My plan was three months. The Lord said, I’ll raise your three, plus one! Leaning into my faith was necessary to make it through this process. I had to continuously remind myself, I wasn’t just praying for any job. I was praying for a job where my leadership can serve as a ministry to others, where the environment is conducive for me to thrive as a professional and human being, and where I can show up authentically everyday without worry. And because I’m also a little stubborn and have hasty tendencies, I also asked the Lord to let the first yes be THE yes I needed.

    Receiving a scholarship and a job (which the interview was pushed up) in the same week reminded me that God is a loving God and has unlimited grace for us. He is faithful in His doing and being. And I share my good news not as a brag, but to glorify Him and testify to His goodness. There is something about surrendering to His will and His way that allows our light to shine a little bit brighter. Don’t give up on that prayer on your wall or that desire He placed in your heart. He will deliver in His perfect timing.

    “And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.” 2 Corinthians 9:8

  • Ignorance is not an excuse

    Ignorance is not an excuse

    My insides are still in motion from Desperate for Jesus 2024 this past weekend! Speakers Dr. Nicole Massie Martin, Carol Kent, Jackie Hill Perry, as well as musical guests Niya Cotton and Amber Bullock used their gifts to fill the sanctuary with the Holy Spirit.

    If you are someone or knows someone that needs a good talking to about our LORD and Savior, Jackie is the ONE they need to hear from! Often we are afraid to speak on our experiences because we don’t wanna insult folks or hurt their feelings, but your truth is your truth. And I love hearing Jackie speak it, because it’s the truth. And the truth is (I’m paraphrasing here), we (as a collective) have grown to be morally bankrupt because some preachers just ain’t preaching about Jesus no more. You go to church, do all the things, check all the boxes and still are no closer to your salvation, still sporting phony faith. I can say that my perception growing up was there was a whole lotta preaching to us, about us, which included the installation of fear for God. I was never taught about the love of God, so I missed out on an entire different aspect of His character that I needed to know!

    Here’s the thing though….just like everything else in life, ignorance is not an excuse. At some point we have to take on the responsibility to find out who the Lord is and experience Him for ourselves. Even if someone tells us what we think is “right”, we need to pull out that bible and fact check, because His Word is the foundation. I was in the car this morning and the Holy Spirit gave me this analogy. I’m a registered nurse right. Let’s say I’m about to go round on my patients and another nurse tells me, “Don’t worry about room 123. I just walked by and the patient is asleep.” Let’s say I decided to take their word for it and let my patient sleep. Almost two hour later, I go into room 123 during the next set of rounds to a lifeless, still body. You’re probably thinking, Tiffany, that’s a little dramatic…is it really a life or death situation? YES, SALVATION IS A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION!!! Without it, there is no access to eternal life. And, once you realize and take in the gravity of what needed to occur to GIVE us salvation (not earn, buy, steal, or borrow), it changes you.

    “…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.: – Romans 10: 9-10

    The Word is the absolute source of truth for verification. Don’t live off hearsay. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). To know the Word is to know God. Learn who He is for yourself. Start today!

    Image from Instagram account @ocbfchurch
  • Sowing seeds

    Sowing seeds

    Last night, I attended our Wednesday Night Connect service. Worship led to an impromptu prayer session. We were instructed to pair up. As I turned clockwise from my aisle spot, everyone near me was already paired. There was a young lady across the aisle from me in need of a partner, so there we were. I had never met her or seen her at church before. When I asked if she had any specific requests, she tearfully shared that she needed tuition for her upcoming seminary classes and a job.

    Prior to Monday, we had the same exact prayer requests: On Monday afternoon, I received a call awarding me a scholarship that covered my upcoming fall tuition. First of all, y’all, I saw the scholarship on scholarship.junkie’s Instagram page the day she posted it on May 7th. The scholarship due date was May 15th. Electronically, that’s plenty of time, but the application had to be sent via USPS. One of my transcripts had to be mailed, so I paid for an expedited copy. It arrived on the evening of May 13th. On May 14th, I made sure everything was in order and overnighted the application to the sponsoring foundation. Being out of work for over 7 months now, it was very possible that I would have had to sit out a semester if I couldn’t find a way to cover the tuition.

    With that said, I would never consider this meeting a coincidence. The Holy Spirit intentionally brought us together. I may not be in a position to pay her tuition, but I am a legitimate source of truth that God is faithful and knows our needs. I simply smiled, shared my testimony, and reminded her that God is Provider and our source for all things! It brought me joy to be able to glorify the Lord and encourage her at the same time.

    “Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:11 NASB

    Never underestimate how sharing your journey can plant seeds in another human being. It’s not up to us to nurture and grow it. That’s the Lord’s job. You may never see the harvest of your planting. Just know He is willing and able to make all things fruitful.

    Live with your eyes open and be intentional. Who is He asking you to sow into today?

  • Idols

    Idols

    I went to the rental center at DFW airport Wednesday afternoon, and in the middle of the building, propped in the air is this bronze bull. It struck me as odd because I did not believe any of the companies had a bull as their mascot, and then I laughed to myself a little based on a message delivered a few days earlier.

    Last Sunday, Pastor Jonathan Evans gave a sermon from 2 Kings 13 about Joash missing out on his victory because he didn’t shoot all the arrows. It was a sermon I had heard before, but Jonathan added context as to why the king was down to 50 horseman, 10 chariots, and in need of a spiritual victory. He referred us back to 1 Kings 12:28 when a previous king of Israel, Jeroboam decided to sin against God, “So the king consulted, and he made two golden calves; and he said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” It goes on to say how this angered the LORD (rightfully so), and other kings followed in his example, so Israel was defeated over and over by their enemies until all that was left, was surely not enough.

    It is very easy for us to make idols out of anything…other people, jobs, relationships, possessions, drugs, alcohol, sex, ambition, political parties, and of course, money! Jonathan had mentioned the Bull of Wall Street, that’s why when I saw the bull in the rental center I chuckled. It made me wonder if people who are believers stop to consider the symbolism of things. Are we even aware when the stage is set for us to easily engage in idolatry? Idols are easy to identify. They move us out of alignment with God…His word and/or His will. It’s important to note how the consequence of sin was not limited to the one king, it continued down the line. As a rationale thinker, I would assume the first of the Ten Commandments is the most important. If you’re not sure about whether there are idols in your life, you can always ask the Holy Spirit to show you. Just be prepared to accept and act on what is presented to you. I hope you have a wonderful week!

    2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3“You shall have no other gods before Me. 4“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” – Exodus 20:2-6

  • Building new tables

    Building new tables

    Last month, I learned I had been accepted into a communicator’s coaching program. Our cohort met in-person for the first meeting in Dallas yesterday. The group was an amazing group of women, in all seasons of life, from different areas around the country. I need to tell a little backstory before I get to my point…

    The summers before my junior and senior high school years were spent in Houston, TX on the campus of Texas Southern University (TSU). I was selected into the NASA Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) PLUS Program. It was essentially a S.T.E.M. research program that afforded high school students the opportunity to perform research within the industry, and several universities hosted the apprentices on their campuses. The program director on TSU’s campus was Dr. Halcyon Watkins. We mostly engaged with our facilitators, but during some reflection time last month when I was seriously considering walking away from nursing leadership, Dr. Watkins’ name came to the forefront of my mind. I googled her to see if she was still teaching at TSU and found all of these articles about her life experiences. Having lived in both the north and south during the Civil Rights movement, she participated in national events, campus organizations to support minority students, and local sit-ins in the Houston area.

    I think knowing her personally, somehow made it more real that someone during their lifetime did something so that I could live a better life. It made me rethink my decision about continuing the good fight. There is a lot of talk in our culture about having a seat at the table. Let’s be real, some seats are hella uncomfortable. Maybe your seat is a folding chair and doesn’t even allow you to be at the same level as everyone else at the table. MAYBE your seat makes you feel like you’re sitting Indian style on the floor. Maybe your seat is SO comfortable, it’s molded to your butt cheeks! Either way, the truth is sometimes it just ain’t about the seat. Maybe it’s the table that’s wobbly and uneven, has rotted out over time, is beyond restoration, or maybe was eaten up during a horrible termite season. I love this TED talk by Lilly Singh that popped up in my LinkedIn feed this morning. I came to two conclusions after listening to this video.

    1. There IS still value in having a seat at the table, building on the work of those before us.
    2. AND sometimes the need we are trying to meet requires building a new table.

    We have to continue to do one or the other. Even if we don’t get to see our promised land, generations down the line will still benefit from our commitment of being present and being a wise builder.

    “If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward” – 1 Corinthians 3:14 NIV

    To come back full circle to yesterday, there were some women in the room that are being called to build new tables, navigating spaces in the life that are new and unknown. I am excited to see how the Lord will use this process to do His work!

  • Hurricane Season

    Hurricane Season

    I’m not sure if I ever shared that I grew up in Southeastern Louisiana. Hurricane season has always been a thing, although it seemed a lot more fun as a kid. Since 2005, the year Hurricane Katrina rolled over into the gulf and turned into a monster before hitting the gulf coast, I make it my business to follow hurricane tracks until I know FOR CERTAIN my peeps are safe. When I moved to DFW, part of the reason I bought more house than I needed was for it to act as a refuge for my family during hurricane season because evacuating can get expensive. AND being without a/c, water, or access to gas and food during the summertime in the south is torture. It is still rather early in the season, especially for storms to hit the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, here we are.

    Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Texas gulf coast this morning and is tracking its way inland through eastern Texas. I’ve always been fascinated with how some parts of the storm have the worst winds, while others have the worst rain…maybe a tornado, the calmness in the eye, and depending where the storm lands, outcomes range from uncomfortable to catastrophic. An old co-worker of mine is from the island of Grenada, where her parents were still residing when Beryl made its initial landfall. Complete devastation. Millions more will be affected in the days to come.

    Ironically, as Beryl treks north through the somewhat middle of the nation, the east and west coasts are experiencing record heat. Accompanying the heat in the west, wild fires. I always find it strange that hurricane season & wildfire season coincide. They never cross paths. Both leave trails of destruction. No matter where you are in the world, will you show kindness and say a little prayer (pick a community or geographic area) for the people who are experiencing storms during this season? Sending love & prayers of safety for you all.

  • Waiting season

    Waiting season

    Since having passed the six month mark without a job, I’ve been like, “Lord, now what?” So many emotions tend to bubble up when we don’t know what happens next. I have been intentional about using my moments of angst to fuel my faith. I went to church Wednesday night. The sermon was about what happens during the waiting. Pastor Bryan Carter referenced King David and how he was anointed as king more than a decade before he actually was appointed to the position. Pastor Carter shared 3 attributes about the waiting time:

    • 1. Waiting time is testing time.
    • 2. Waiting time is working time.
    • 3. Waiting time is NOT wasting time.

    As I have reflected on my own situation the past couple of days, I can say I know these 3 things to be true. The YouVersion app started going over Psalm 23 this week for the verse of the day. This morning was verses 5-6, and what spoke to me through the spirit was, “You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.” It was a rhema word. I remembered Pastor Carter said anointment comes before the appointment. During my interviews last week, instead of saying all the right things I know everyone wanted to hear, I answered with the truth. I can honestly say I feel the antointing God has placed over this area of my life. And when I read those verses this morning, the Holy Spirit told me my appointment is coming. Do not be afraid of the challenges that will arise; I can be reassured God’s presence will be with me. And all the overflow from my cup will spill into the lives of those that surround me. Isn’t that goodness worth waiting for? If you are in a season of waiting, remember this…

    • God wants to see your true character during the test(s).
    • God is always working during the wait.
    • God wastes nothing. He uses every season.

    Thank you Pastor Carter for message. Hope y’all have a great week!