Latest News

Most of you reading this know that I have written a book which I am trying to publish.  It’s been a nine year birthing process and like a mother-to-be in her final trimester; I am more than ready to birth this baby!  I am keeping busy by writing this blog, and creating a workshop based on what I have learned living in the medical community. That said, there are days when I just feel unsuccessful in my life.  I have a passion for food, okay; it’s an addiction that causes me to consume more calories than I can burn through exercise.  I tend to be an extremist and perfectionist in work and can be impatient and judgmental.  Lately, I feel like my faults are mountains and my gifts small streams in the desert.

Do you ever wonder what God’s purpose for your life is and are your living it?  Are you a success?

Our society defines us successful by what we do for a living, our income, the size of our homes, cars, and toys.  Then there is the pressure to have the perfect size, the sculpted body, the six pack abs, silky hair or a head full of hair.  By societal standards I am unsuccessful.

But how does God view success?    God measures our success not on our physical attainments but on our spiritual ones.  He looks at our hearts and our motivation.  Colossians 3:23 states “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.  You are serving the Lord Christ”.   The bible teaches us that the measure of success is the ratio of talents used to talents received.  What are we doing with what we have?  Who are we becoming?  Are we growing and maturing?  Are we using what is learned through Christ and sharing it with those we come in contact?

I was wallowing in feeling unsuccessful when my daughter, son-in-love, and grandson came to visit.  We had a great time swimming in the pool, going to the park and catching up.  But the climax for me was in a simple event that changed my perspective.  My grandson wanted to show me a favorite U-tube video of a Christian rock group called Rend Collective playing the song: Build Your Kingdom Here.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbdJXKqVgtg    He had learned the words and the hand signs in school.  We cued up the video and my grandson began to sing and do the hand movements with my daughter sitting on the floor next to him, swaying to the music.  Smiles and sparkling eyes showed the passion that filled their hearts.  As I sat there listening and watching them, I felt the Holy Spirit envelope me.  It whispered in my ear and in my heart – “This is success, Loretta!”  Goose bumps made my skin come alive as the Holy Spirit continued to say to me: “Through you, your faith in Me lives in them and future generations will come to know Me and I will love them as I have loved you.”   I saw the purpose in my life.  While I received accolades at my various jobs, as a business owner, in my volunteerism, my published works or the writing I am doing now; it is the sharing of my faith to my daughter and her teaching her son to know God that makes me a success.  In those four minutes, I knew that in God’s eyes I had succeeded.  Yet, it wasn’t what I did or did not do; it was what God did through me!

The reality was that I had no clue what I was doing.  Oh, I prayed a lot – what parent doesn’t during the course of raising a child.  Nevertheless, Thad and I placed our faith in God and were guided and helped through the Holy Trinity.  And thirty four years later, Francesca is finding her way as an adult, a wife, and a parent; praying those same prayers that we did, holding onto her faith and God.  Most importantly, she is passing that faith onto her son.  And that my friends, is the definition of success.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19-20 (NASB)