Life After College

So this past August, about two months ago, I graduated from the University of Central Florida with my bachelor's degree! It feels like it's been such a long time coming, when the  moment finally came to walk across that stage I was in somewhat of  a disbelief. After almost giving up, praying to God to see me through, long hours of studying, and what seemed like endless semesters of counting down credits, I'm finally done. I was too excited that day, feeling like I could conquer anything, but then of course when a few weeks passed and you're wondering how you going to pay back all of those student loans the real world kicks in.

I've finished college...now what?

Yeah I can always continue my education and go for my Master's, but I really want to be sure that's the next step for me to take. In this season of my life I'm learning I need to seek the voice of God more than ever. Me being first generation, I'm proud of the fact that I finished my Bachelor's, but at the same time I don't want it all going to waste.

I'm going to get real honest in my upcoming blogs and talk more about some of my college experience, my regrets and what I have learned.

Love this woman, my mom, one of my best supporters in life.

For the mean time I'm really happy to be done with school, and I'm focusing on what it is that I really want to do in life. Of course my passion for writing isn't going anywhere, and I do plan on kicking that into full gear. But now that I'm finished with school my main focus is finding a full time JOB!

I'm happy to share my journey with those who are maybe in a similar situation. Don't give up, something good is in your future. Success doesn't always come easy, just like I learned that it takes time and dedication to get a degree it's the same for my other pursuits.

At times I'll admit I began to doubt my ability to become that best selling author or business owner that I dream to be, but with God and hard work it's going to happen!

Life after college has been a real eye opener for me. I'm excited for my journey and through the up's and down's I know that God is right beside me, even though it may not always feel like it. If we seek God first, He's sure to light the way.

♥ Shaniqua

Woo hoo! So happy to be done!

0

Dead Faith

In my previous post I talked about my goal to having a more self-disciplined lifesyle. And you better believe a test came right after I declared that it was no more of me being lazy and putting off things this year. The very next day I posted my goal I woke up that Sunday morning very tired and with a sore throat. I didn’t feel like going to Church at all and I told my husband that he would be going to Church alone. But as I laid down about to go back to sleep God spoke to me and this is what He said.

God: Why aren’t you getting up to go to Church?

Me: Lord I’m tired and on top of that I’m not feeling well.

God: But if you believe and have faith that you can be more self-disciplined you are going to have to get up and put works with your faith. If you just get up (works) and believe (faith) I will empower you to succeed in your efforts by My strength.

I continued to lay down and think about what God had just said to me. As I thought about it more I suddenly began to gain more strength. Then I came to the conclusion, God is right! As God always is right of course! If I truly believed that I could be more self-disciplined I was going to have to make those steps in every area of my life to achieve that.

I knew that if I was to go back to sleep I would sleep the rest of the morning away and fall right back into my same slothful routine because I had already started off on a bad foot. I wouldn't have been exercising my faith. So I got up and went to Church and there was a reward for my obedience. The service at Church that day was very encouraging. Not only was it awesome, but the message was confirming of what God was teaching me.

The Lord spoke to me confirming to me that the change started now! I was reminded that I must continue to make the steps to get to where I’m supposed to be going. If I keep making backtracks then I was just prolonging my goals and would never reach them.

Don’t get me wrong I’m still a work in progress in this area, but the point is that I’m making those steps to get where I need to go and I can’t go back, I must continue to go forward. Although some steps maybe small, sooner or later those steps are going to add up and I will soon be to the finish line of this particular race of self-disciplining myself with my time.

So in all of this I’m learning the importance of having faith that is alive! Having a faith that produces fruit, because in the end real and authentic faith will produce works and that will show. On the other hand dead faith is the opposite.

What does dead faith produce?

No Works:

James 2:17 Even so Faith, if it hath no works, is dead, being alone. - KJV

When our faith is dead we don’t want to work for those things which God has for us. We may have heard God say something in the past that he has for us, yet we don’t see it manifested in our lives yet, but it could be due to the fact that our faith is wavering. You may say well I believe what God says He has for me is for me, I have Faith, I do believe, why isn't it here yet? I've been waiting and waiting…

But Faith is not just about waiting for God’s promises to manifest in our lives, we also have to have works with our Faith. God may have something for us, but first He wants us to be equipped and ready to receive what He has for us. Just like Jesus had to be prepared first before he did his ministry, hence him fasting for 40 days and 40 nights and being tempted by the devil in the wilderness.

In order for us to be trusted with the gifts and great things God has for us we must first be tested and tried. We are no better than Jesus. If Jesus had to be cultivated first then we will have to do the same as well. Faith and works go hand and hand with one another, so if we have real faith then we will put action with our belief and it will be shown.

It’s the same for when we become Christians. If we now believe by Faith that we are children of God, we are going to start behaving like children of God. That means we are going to get rid of the sin and bad things in our life that we know is not pleasing to God. When we put works with our Faith, God’s strength will empower us to be victorious in our walk with Christ, and in our life as a whole.

We need to constantly examine ourselves to see if we are living that real and authentic faith that the Word of God speaks about. That goes for every area of our lives. Don’t allow yourself to never see God’s promises in your life because you were just sitting down waiting for God to do something. He’s already empowered us to do it and trust Him in the process. You can do this!

God’s Grace is Limitless,

0

Following Your Dreams

If we are like most people we all have that one thing that was placed deep in our hearts since we were a child that we wanted to do. That one thing we wanted to be or accomplish when we got older. The passion was so alive and on fire and today it still is, but we may not know how to get there. But God says to walk by faith, be obedient and trust Him to pave the way there. Whatever passions God placed inside of you He wants you to use it, and He wants you to use it for His glory. We can take God with us everywhere and in any profession.

When I was in Elementary school and first learned how to start writing, I fell love with the art of writing ever since. The beauty of weaving words together to create a beautiful message or story has always intrigued me. But I always kept this gift as a hobby or simply a “dream”, something that I would wake up from and never really be able to live out. I became unconfident in my ability to get published or get my work out there so I just settled, but now I am resolute on accomplishing this dream. I will live it out by God's grace.

Anytime you want to live out your purpose the enemy will fight against it and make you feel like you aren't able enough to do it, but God is able to do all things, and if we just let Him lead us in everything we do He will make a way. Don’t give up on your dreams.

I've decided now that I am going to chase and grab onto these God given dreams no matter what. As many of you may know I have published my very first novel titled “Leaving Jade!” I am just so thankful and humbled by all of your support and love, it really means a lot to me.

The book will be available May 5^th, 2014 via amazon.com. I am just so excited to see where God is taking me. I trust Him and I put it all in His hands. I know that becoming a bestselling author is my destiny and that He will pave the way for its success.

So I encourage you to go after whatever dream you had since you were a little boy or girl. You’ll never get anywhere by staying still. Let your feet hit the ground running and grab for what’s yours. All things are possible with God! You can do this! I’m so excited ya’ll! I can’t wait to see God do great things through all of us for His kingdom!

Love and happiness, 

♥Shaniqua

0

What I've Been up To

Hi Everyone!

First off let me start by saying happy new years! Lol, I know I am totally late and that I have been showing my blog anything but attention. I am going to get back on track this year. I have still been pretty busy with school, full time work and ministry. I have learned so many things in this past month as I continue to grow in my relationship with God and my husband.

I am over a teen girls group ministry at my church where I am able to mentor young girls, which is challenging yet rewarding. Sometimes just trying to break the barrier of a teen can be difficult, but once you invest time in them and show them that you care, the relationship developed is a very precious thing.

Well just giving a small update, but I will be posting some topics God has been laying on my heart, plus I will share a personal testimony of my coming to Christ story so stay tuned. God bless everyone!

God's Grace is Limitless,

0

When God is Cultivating You

Lately I have been in a state where God is teaching me lessons about myself. It’s not that I am rebelling against Him or anything it’s just that He wants to take me into new heights in Him so that I can do what He has called me to do effectively. I didn't understand this at first. At first I wondered what was taking God so long to do what He said He was going to do in my life. Don’t get me wrong I am extremely, extremely blessed, but I know what God revealed to me with what He said He was going to bless me with and where He was going to take me. When things weren't going as fast as I thought they should I got frustrated and impatient, where were these blessing He had promised me? Finally I got in God’s presence and asked God what is it that you want me to learn?

I always say when something is not going the way that you think it should or there is chaos in your life there is either one or two things going on. Either

     1. You are rebelling against God and there is a sin that He wants you to get rid of because it is causing your relationship with God to become distant. You might be putting other things or people before Him. He could want you to get rid of filthy entertainment that you watch/read, you might be performing idolatry unknowingly because you adore people who goes against God's Word. Whatever sin it is ask God about it and get rid of it, because sin separates us from God, but if we ask for forgiveness and move away from it then the relationship is back to where it needs to be.

Or

     2. God’s wants to teach you something and in order to do so He is sending situations your way that you have no choice, but to get on your knees and spend more time with Him.

Despite what some people might say there are consequences to our actions.

Romans 2: ⁷ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. ⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. ⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil.

So if you have anything in your life that is not pleasing to God get rid of it ASAP because for one it’s breaking God’s heart and it is also bringing destruction in your life.

Back to God preparing me, when I got into God’s presence and asked Him what is it that is holding me back from my blessings He told me that there has to be discipline in my life. Before I go any further let me give you a brief description about me.

For one I love to sleep! It’s like one of the best things ever to me. I could sleep about 10 hours straight if I could. Matter of fact I love sleep so much that sometimes I would run late for work just to get another ten minutes of sleep in, sometimes even another hour of sleep in. I didn't care at all to be on time for work. I would even call out. I thought hey it’s a “secular” job why should I care? It’s temporary until I start working my purpose so I shouldn't worry about doing my best. In high school I missed so many days, about forty in my senior year, (I know right that’s a lot of days). But praise God for His mercy I was still able to graduate in high honors. I remember one of my teachers telling me that I missed so many days, but still did good, just imagine what I would be able to accomplish if I went to school every day. I could have been valedictorian, but I didn't put in greater effort, I just settled for less. Graduating with high honors is still a huge accomplishment, but I know I wasn't putting in the best effort that I could have.

And sometimes I don’t follow through with where I say I am going to be at, actually a lot of times I reschedule appointments.  I can procrastinate and I don’t plan ahead.

So God got on to me about all of these things. He told me to be faithful over a little, and then He could trust me with a lot. There has to be structure and order for things to run more smoothly. He wants His children to perform in excellence; we shouldn't look like the world we should perform better.One thing about God is He will challenge you to do great because He loves us and He wants to see the best accomplished in our lives.

So for the past couple of days I have been waking up earlier, and continually making an effort to be to work on time at 8am in the morning. I am so not a morning person! But with God’s grace I am progressing. And I am actually appreciating my job more by getting my work done. We cannot be lazy, God has opened my eyes to so many scriptures about it and how laziness leads to destruction and stagnation.

Proverbs 13: 4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.

I was too focused on “men” and not “God”. Everywhere God places us is for His glory. Christians shouldn't be seen as lazy people. We should model God everywhere and put forth our best effort.

God has to see if He can trust you with much. If you have a beat up car, act like it’s a state of the art BMW and take care of it. If you are in a one bedroom apartment, act like it’s a mansion and take care of it. Appreciate God for the little things, be obedient, and He will bless you with more. Pray for me ya’ll as I continue to wake up early for work. I feel like God wants me to write more about this subject so there will be a part two, but for now work towards your dreams. You Can do this! And I can too! J

God’s grace is limitless,

4

What it's Like Being Young & Married So Far

So it’s almost been about 3 months married and I can honestly say that these last few months have been the best 3 months of my life so far. Being married young is awesome! Being married in general is a beautiful thing.  You should be so connected to that person that you can’t imagine life without them and you know without a shadow of a doubt that God created that person just for you and that they were created to be your spouse. When God created Khalid God was thinking about me and when God created me He was thinking about Khalid and how absolute we’d fit together.

There is not a day that goes by that Khalid doesn't make me laugh.  He is there always encouraging me and helping me to become all that I can be. He is always pushing me to God and he is patient with me. I don’t believe our marriage would be so peaceful if it hadn't been for us both giving our lives to God before we got married. Read our Courting story here if you haven’t already.

In our courting stage we decided to stop doing anything that was physical and we focused on getting to know each other as Spirit to Spirit, which is what we truly are. We are Spirits having a human experience in earthly bodies. If we are only attracted to someone because of their outer shell then it won’t work because you won’t know how to effectively communicate with that person and minister to who they really are by speaking life into their spirit.

I still get butterflies just holding his hand because I know how patiently I have waited to do so. Kissing him makes me warm with joy all over. I enjoy just lying in the bed being cuddled up with him, I love talking with him and him understanding me sometimes without me even having to say anything, when I might be feeling a little down he knows just what to say to lift my spirit again and when I am away from him it feels like a part of me is missing, I can’t stand it. I honestly believe without him I wouldn't be what I am today. Without any questioning I know God created us to be together. We have endless fun I am so blessed to be married to my best friend.

Here are a few questions I have received since being married.

Q: Is it any different being married?

A: Yes! It’s extremely different. For one there are no restrictions and we now get to be intimate with one another how God intended it to be within a marriage between a husband and a wife. Not only that, but I feel like we are extremely intertwined with one another. Now I understand what the Word means when it says two flesh become one. I truly feel like I am one with my husband because spiritually we are connected now because we made a covenant with God. I came from Khalid’s rib and no one else’s.

Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Q: Have you had any big arguments yet?

A: As I said in my blog post Our Not So Ordinary Courting Story we don’t yell or argue, we talk things out if we don’t agree with something. I will admit there have been times when my flesh wanted to be prideful and stubborn, but those are the times when I have to seek God’s voice the most. He will tell me to listen to Khalid and apologize when I was in the wrong. Other than that my husband knows me and he knows how to handle me and keep me in check, and I can say the same about me for him too.

Q: How’s married life?

A: Lol, this is a no brainier question and I suppose we will get this question asked often in the beginning; hence the title of the post, but married life is awesome and I am so happy that God has placed us together, I feel extremely blessed to experience such a beautiful thing.

Other than that those are some common questions we get. If you have any other questions yourself feel free to ask. Of course with anything you have to put in work. I would say the best advice that I have for married couples is to communicate. It’s good to listen to your spouse and be genuinely concerned and interested with what they want to talk to you about, or if they are having something that they want your input about. Also you have to be on the same page to make it work. I wouldn't advise anyone to be unequally yoked. Be with a person who loves God the same as you do, if not even more so they will encourage you to go higher in God.

If your foundation is set on God it will be strong and unbreakable. Include God and God will bless it. You CAN do this!

                                                     Love and happiness, 

                                                            ♥Shaniqua

4

Our Not So Ordinary Courting Story

So as you all may know I am married to Khalid Snowden, that fine guy in the above picture with me! My rock, my best friend, my lover, my one and only, my everything! Ahh, I just love that man! We actually got married November 30, 2012, exactly 2 months ago, so happy two month anniversary to us!!Yay! I know there is going to be plenty of more time for us to grow together and spend the best time of our lives together. I am so excited to spend this journey in life with him and for us to grow old together. I will discuss in another post on how we met…

To begin I want to share a testimony of how God completely changed our lives. When we first got together we weren't saved in the least. It was our senior year of High school and then we both decided to move in together with roommates that we knew for our first 2 years of college. Mind you we were raging sinful teens when we first started to date and didn't do things God’s way at all. And let me just tell you this doing things your own way is NEVER a great option and it will always, always lead to destruction. It is NEVER OK to put your girlfriend or boyfriend before Christ. We submitted to the lust of the flesh and disregarded God’s law. And as the consequence of our sins this lead to many arguments and break ups to make ups. It was like there wasn't a day that went by that we wouldn't be going off on each other. And then when we did get saved at one point we were kind of up and down with that too, we were like those “sorta, kinda Christians.”

Finally there came a point to when the arguments ceased for a bit after a really big argument had escalated. We decided we should really start maturing if we really loved one another. We started loving God more than we loved each other and we wanted to begin taking our walk with God seriously. God convicted us that if we were going to profess to be Christians it was high time that we started acting as ones. God became number one in our lives and we really started to serve Him. We made the decision to stop dating and start courting. There is a difference between the two and I will also be making a post on that topic later as well.

When we started courting it took some getting used to at first, but God’s grace is truly sufficient. Through His grace we were able to break the power of the lust of the flesh. We were still room mating with friends at the time. It was a 3 bedroom apartment with four people. But being now committed to our relationship with Christ we started taking turns sleeping on the couch. We stopped kissing and even stopped holding hands. He wanted to wait until we were married to kiss because kisses are powerful and can lead to something more that you have no business doing until marriage. Read my article here concerning the The Power of a Kiss.

I saw a real change in my now husband. He inspired me and encouraged me to run after God with my full heart even more, as he still does to this very day. His love for God and his servitude for God truly amaze me.

And as a reward of being obedient to God and doing things His way we reaped the benefits. We learned how to talk things out if we disagreed with anything instead of arguing. We actually don’t argue anymore, and by argue I mean yelling at each other and disrespecting one another. We do have disagreements, but we talk them out with respect versus arguing. At first I thought this was impossible when my pastor would say to the church that her and her husband never argues. I thought “as if!” But after taking the psychical aspect out of the relationship we learned one another and we begin to know each other from spirit to spirit instead of flesh to flesh. We have to remember we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but we are spirits in a human body having a human experience. If you can’t get to know a person from their spirit and it always requires something psychical then your love for them is conditional. You love the feeling and not the person because their spirit, which is who they really are, should be enough to satisfy you to the point of no fornication.

Us in our courting stage, notice the space between us, lol.

We did make the huge mistake of moving into a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom because we couldn't find any roommates that we could separately roommate with when our lease was finally up with our previous roommates. Our previous roommates decided to get their own places so that option was off the list. It was still a new city for us at the time, because we moved from our hometown to go to college. We didn't want a stranger because we didn't want to go through the nightmare of having a complete stranger who was an immature college kid. Granted, we regretted moving in together to the point that we became willing to move in with a perfect stranger even if they turned out to be psycho. We just wanted to please God and not allow what is good to be spoken evil of.

Even so we couldn't change the matter. We couldn't move back home with our parents since they lived so far away and we couldn't break the lease. We decided we were going to continue to keep our boundaries. We still wanted to live for God because that was our first heart's desire is to please Him. We made the mistake of moving in together, but we were still going to be accountable, and we weren't going to be having sex outside of marriage and sinning against God. We did tell our pastor about it, because we didn't want to hide something like that away from our leaders. Of course she didn't encourage it, but God confirmed to her that we were setting boundaries and not fornicating, she saw the love we had for God and our actions did match up with our words.

So how were we able to live together without fornication? We SET boundaries and we KEPT them!

1.       We always kept God First.

Before there is Khalid there is God, and before there is Shaniqua there is God. We love Him more than we love each other so in that way we respected and honored His ways before our own. His ways actually became a part of us because we loved Him so much.

2.       We slept separately in separate beds.

You can’t expect to fight off temptation but invite it into your bed.

3.       We did not walk around naked or in boxers.

My body was not officially his yet so in order for him to see the goodies, we had to be married first, flaunting off your stuff inevitably causes lust, point blank and we can't cause others to stumble. 

4.       We didn't kiss, hold hands or get intimate in any type of way.

We kept away all that would lead to temptation.

Of course there were people who talked about us and didn't believe we were keeping ourselves pure, but I learned to tune them out. As long as we were staying abstinent and God and my Pastor knew that we were, then we were holding ourselves responsible. Let’s get this clear, I am in NO WAY CONDONING for couples to live together before marriage. That does not please God. This is just my testimony and one that I hope can help others from making the same mistake, or if you are in a similar situation without any type of way to get out of it, that you can still put God first and remain abstinent before marriage. Whether you have backslidden or slipped up, it’s never too late to start living for God, God can grab you out of any mess and turn it into a beautiful message, but we have to at some point stop the backsliding and the back and forth and remain faithful to Him because the word says in John 14:15 If you love me, you will obey what I command.

While living together we learned the power of God's grace and how it can keep you. We didn't allow for there to be any temptations. We didn't allow for each other to kiss one another, or fondle one another. We were basically living as roommates. Of course I was excited for the day for us to marry, but I didn't let my mind wander to that far in time. I wasn't going to open the door for the enemy even one bit because my heart, mind, body and soul belonged to Jesus. If I claimed to love Him, I was going to obey Him like His Word says.

Courting removes all of the psychical and places it on what’s inside of the person; their thoughts, their ways, their future. And once Christ became a part of us I loved what was inside of my now husband even more. Words can’t even describe how much I love Him. I am so glad God came into our lives and turned everything new for His glory.

We kept off marriage for awhile because we were college kids dependent on financial aid, we weren't sure if the aid was going to get reduced or cut off if we got married so we originally set a date for 2013. Then we started discussing it with one another again and decided why wait? It wasn't because we were struggling, like I said the barriers we placed plus God’s grace helped us not to struggle with lusting after one another. We didn't want to wait anymore because our source came from God, not financial aid. And also God was taking us higher in Him and in ministry. We didn't advise such a thing for anyone to live with their boyfriends/girlfriends and we didn't want our good to be spoken evil of. Not to mention we didn't want to look like the world and do what the world does. Nowadays people think it's OK to move in before marriage, but that's not so. Besides we loved one another, was equally yoked and on the same page so marriage was just a natural thing for us to do.

God was so gracious to us while we lived together because He saw our dedication to serve Him. We weren't going to let our mistake steer us off the path of righteousness. We were going to obey God and do as He said by honoring His word.

When we got married everything felt like new. Our marriage day was the best and most joyful day of my life, besides the day I invited Jesus into my heart. We didn't put on a grand show for our wedding, that will come later, but everyday with him is already like a celebration. So here starts a new journey and as always God will be leading the way. And I know wherever God leads, my husband and I are headed in a good place to give Him the glory.

So honor God through everything you do and I can guarantee you that you’ll reap the great benefits He has for you if you obey Him. There is so much great things God has in store for my husband and I, and it all starts with obedience. Stay strong and be encouraged. You CAN do this!

Love and happiness, 

♥Shaniqua

Throwback pic of us. My have we grown.

12