And now you know and knowing is half the battle!

Hi.

I'm Dorena.

And now that introductions are finished...

I have been craving some way of journaling for the past month and for some reason I kept putting it off. I am very excited for my new adventure with this blog. 

The past couple months have been quite interesting to say the least. It seems like I have experienced everything from breaking up with my first boyfriend to having old friendships restored, from seeing God provide everyday to not being able to see anything good. Sometimes I get so involved in something I am going through that I don't stop and take a step back and look at things in the correct perspective. I hate that. I don't like that one situation can take me away from the new mindset God has been teaching me over the past few years.

I have nothing. Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, but that's how I feel sometimes. My family is broken. My mom and dad split up last year and although their relationship is much more healthy now that they are apart, my relationships with my dad and my brother have pretty much diminished. I miss having a family. I have over forty cousins and speak to none of them. My grandmother, the matriarch, died last year and everyone fell apart without her to keep us glued together. I realize now that I took comfort in knowing that I always had a huge family behind me to support my every decision. Perhaps God took that away so that it would be just me and Him. 

"Hindsight is 20/20." It amazes me how true that saying is. Looking back, I can see why God gave and took away certain things. I see why certain relationships had to be broken so that I could grow in Him. I can see why my mom and I had to live out of our car and out of motels for months last summer. I know that last year God was trying to shake me and yell "Dorena, I AM here! Stop relying on other people for comfort and happiness and provision. I AM here!" 

I love it.

I love. The other day, I was having a conversation with one of my good friends and I noticed how many times I use "I love..." as the beginning of a sentence. I started wondering if that was wrong. Do I say things like "I love *enter meaningless thing here*"? Am I taking the power away from the word love by saying it so much? I started taking note of when I used it and found those answers. I believe I use it in a way that glorifies God. When I say "I love this song" or "I love you" I truly mean it. When I say I love you, I feel it in my heart. 

I am an emotional person, I get that. I feel like that has such a negative connotation. Yes, I am emotional, but God loves someone that feels, right? When someone cries, I cry with them. When someone is joyful, I feel their joy. Isn't that what Romans 12:15 is all about?

¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

This popped into my head while thinking about the above verse:

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

 ¹ There is a time for everything, 
       and a season for every activity under heaven:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die, 
       a time to plant and a time to uproot,

 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal, 
       a time to tear down and a time to build,

 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, 
       a time to mourn and a time to dance,

 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 
       a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up, 
       a time to keep and a time to throw away,

 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend, 
       a time to be silent and a time to speak,

 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate, 
       a time for war and a time for peace.

In conclusion, I love God && I love you. :]

always His,

dorena rene <3