Month: October 2015

Christians, Courting, Dating, Forgiveness, Life, Love, Moving Forward

Give Her A Ring Or Move On!

J. Scott Samarco

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Give her a ring or move on. Bold huh? Not really. This is something I had to wrestle with. This is something I had to do. There is a Scripture in the Bible that says: “When I was a child, I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things.”

Back Story:

I became an unashamed born-again Christian at the age of 17. Before the age of 17, I was a full-blown immature child. When it came to relationships with the opposite sex, I was no good. I struggled. Lying, manipulating, poor treatment and just doing whatever I wanted.

I didn’t grow up with great representations of how a young man should treat a lady. I learned how to treat women from the movies I watched, from my boys and what I thought in my head was right. So when God got a hold of me at 17, I knew there were many changes to be made. Starting with my view on love, relationships and women.  Continue reading “Give Her A Ring Or Move On!” →

Christianity, Life, Moving Forward

You Have To Believe In Yourself

J. Scott Samarco

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The lack of self confidence, the pressure to perform at a high level, life beating you up, all of this can make it extremely hard to have a strong belief system. I am here today to say, it is time for a shift in our lives. You and I have the greatest opportunity in the world to make a difference. Wherever you are on this earth reading this, it is time to take our self confidence to another level. There is no more time for you and I to say we cannot do something. There is no more time for taking the back seat to life. We have to believe and the time to start believing is now.

Throughout my life, I fought against myself. In fact, my biggest competitor has always been the person I look at in the mirror each day. Some of my friends would say to me, “J Scott, you are your biggest critic and you’re too hard on yourself.” I appreciated my friends sharing this with me but what they failed to understand, I had to be this way. There were many moments throughout my life where people didn’t believe in me. People told me I couldn’t do what I was wanting to accomplish in life. I had to dig deep inside and find self motivation and an inner drive. I had to find a way to believe.

“If you don’t believe in yourself, then who will?” – J Scott

I don’t know where you are on your journey in life. What I do know is at some point you and I both battle with having the confidence we need to be who we are suppose to be. I have come to learn and understand, when I have great confidence in myself I usually do a much better job compared to when I lack confidence. I may not be the best speaker, the best teacher, the best leader, but the fact I believe in myself, helps me to understand that I can be confident in who God made me to be. I do bring something valuable to the table, I do have something to offer, I am worth listening to.

Confidence is something I believe God wants you and I to have. If you think about it, usually, lack of confidence stems from having fear. God did not make us to live life on earth in fear. He has given us power to overcome our fears. Imagine, if you and I became a fearless warrior toward our passions and gifts. Imagine the lives we can touch. Imagine the people we can help grow and overcome their fears. I’m getting excited knowing the possibilities that are heading our way all because we have decided to believe in ourselves.

Here are 5 ways you can start believing in yourself:

  1. Write down your fears.
  2. Write encouraging notes all around your house.
  3. Tackle something you’ve been afraid to do.
  4. Get around people who are immersed in self confidence.
  5. Tell yourself every morning, “I can and I will accomplish what I set out to do today.”

“More self confidence and less self condemnation.” – J Scott

P.S. What are some ways you have built confidence in your life? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to share this on your social media with your friends and family.

 

Christianity, Forgiveness, Life, Love, Moving Forward

God, Why Is It Hard to Love You?

J. Scott Samarco

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You’ve been there before right? Telling God how much you love Him. Praising Him for all of the good times. Thanking Him for making it through all of the difficult seasons in life. We’ve all been there before. It seems more times than often we can give God great lip service.

Surely, God is the center of our life. Surely, He is the best thing that has ever happened to us. Surely, He’s been there for us through the good, bad and the ugly. But wait… Why do we have a problem with loving God?

Love, as we know it, is an action. It is a verb, meaning we should be acting upon the love we say we have. What I want to draw to your attention in this post is how our love should be lived out daily, not just talked about daily. In particular, our love to God. Our love to God should come out of obedience. Here’s why I believe this: Take a look at this verse.

“If you love Me, keep my commands.” – John 14:15

This verse continues to work on my heart. In other words, Jesus is saying here, “if you really are about that life, if you really are down with me then you will follow what I say.” He didn’t quite say it like that but sometimes I translate in the hood version so I can better understand.

 Here’s my thought towards obeying and following Jesus words. Following Jesus commands is not a bad thing. Think about it, what bad in your life can come out of following Jesus?

“You don’t have a sin problem, you have a love problem.” – Henry Blackaby

“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” – 1 John 4:20-21

I’ve been there before. Being full with hatred in my heart, not quite understanding why it was there, I had to desperately seek God for years. I had to cry out to Him, have long talks and walks with Him. Many times I had to ask God to rid the anger and hatred in my heart. I still don’t fully understand why this hatred was there. All I know is, God, over the years helped me overcome this hate. Maybe, you need to allow Him to do the same for you.

My last thought towards why it is hard to love God is the love we are to have for our brother(s) and sister(s). If the love of God is in us then how can we hate another human being? If God’s love is in us, how then can we say I hate this person? We love a God we have never seen and we hate a person we have seen? Nah, that is not the love of God in us.

“If you have a hard time loving people, you have a hard time loving God.”

P.S. God wants to destroy the hate in your life and fill it with love. Trust me, He had to do this for me!