Fail Forward

If you ask me, I believe the act of failure is sort of like a right of passage, a kind of proof of life if you will. If you do nothing you will fail, if you try something you will fail, I heard a great speaker say, “At least fail forward…”.

If you look at my past you probably would crown me the King of failure, and I am ok with that, in fact I am pretty darn grateful. Naturally I wouldn’t have said that at the time. As a person who has battled depression, failures were a trigger of unending darkness. But I am grateful because I know that my failures are definitely not because I did nothing, but because I have tried things. I have tried MANY things. If you ask anybody that knows me for most of my life , they would probably have a handful of experiences and risk to share that I have probably dragged them into.

You see most people just remember the failures that I have gone through but fail to realize the many successes and accomplishments that were in between. The wisdom and the memories. The positives and the negatives. They make me who I am today. Today I am still taking chances and risk, going out on faith to end where I want to be and need to be.

Sometimes I look back and sit amazed at the times when I had made $3000 in one hour or when some partners and I in a real estate group at the real estate boom before ’08 cashed out going in the deal and cashed out at the sale. Or the times when I get private messages from people still to this day, thanking me for stuff I did for them years ago and how what I charged them was not even close to the value.

Well I can be writing for hours of my experiences, but my point is that FAILURE is not a cuss word for me. It’s actually a positive word, because for me in my life it means that I am moving, doing something, trying something and most of all growing something, ME.

Now, having a family, I still take risk but managed risk. I have been sticking to things longer and building day by day. So if I have any failures now, they’re in fact not failures but just changes in the plan to get there more direct and build a stronger foundation for lasting success.

A man I know wrote a book called “A setback is a setup for a comeback”, and that is the TRUTH!

So on your journey towards your destiny and life fulfillment you will experience process, and in that process you have many purposes. To accomplish those purposes you would almost indefinitely need to stretch your faith and risk it all. Sometimes you will win, and sometimes you will fail. You were destined to win, and if you would just change your mindset, even when you fail YOU WIN!

Be Encouraged!

#failforward #destinedtowin

If you’re going through HELL right now just KEEP MOVING…

 

Whether it’s a season or a cycle, one decision can make all the difference. That decision should be to keep it moving. You can be going through hell and high water but your life is nowhere near the end and you know without a doubt that if you’re still alive there IS STILL HOPE!

 

Today I encourage you after encouraging myself to stay the course. Every now and then we need to be reminded even if it’s us reminding ourselves that we HAVE a PURPOSE, and until we see that through we HAVE to decide to continue this fight, keep running this race and not let anything stop us.

 

The circumstances we face whether large or small are NEVER here to stop us but they are here to challenge us whether to grow or come up higher. Any other perception of it is simply untrue, false and a set-up for your demise.

 

Make a decision with me today and say, I DECIDE TO LIVE FULL AND DIE EMPTY!

 

Make the best of every moment and embrace the challenge by growing in every part of the process.

 

Be Encouraged and HAPPY PUMP DAY!

 

#happypumpday #pumpday

You need to send an Invitation…

If you would consider your mind, your life like a garden, then you as the gardener of your own have a responsibility.

In any garden there is involved the cultivation, planting and watering process for the best possible harvest. In that garden what you sow is what you reap and you reap after the type that you sow. That is the principle and natural law set in motion.

As with every law it has its opposite, and in a perfect world it would not be so. In our world you yield the fruit of your labor but not only the labor of cultivation but of protection. You see a good harvest is the byproduct of not merely a good planting but that of a good extraction.

Now the sowing part is the easy job, but to preserve what you’ve worked for or working towards you need to constantly and consistently remove the weeds. Weeds in your live is considered negativity.

You see weeds don’t need an invitation or any seeding at all they just appear for the sole purpose of ruining your work. A weed used to be a plant that originally was wanted and in the right place and somewhere down the line it lost its place and purpose. Even if its no longer wanted it will still grow to ruin the ones that have a place and a purpose. A good gardener is on the lookout and will remove them and will remove them from the root.

If you take responsibility for the gardening in your mind and life then you know that negativity will without a doubt appear but if you intentionally protect your garden with all the elements it needs for a maximum harvest then you are ACTIVELY inviting positivity you your mind and life.

As it has been said, “If you don’t program yourself, then LIFE (unprogrammed circumstances) will program you!”

INVITE THE POSITIVE, and remove the weeds.

#happytuesday #yourmindisagarden #bepositive #invitethepositive

2017 Attitude

Happy New Year everybody…

Many try the resolution thing at the top of every year. Some have a short list and some have a long one. Whether its to lose weight or love more, or to be more positive or to get closer to God, those are all huge tasks.

For me personally it never worked out so good, maybe that’s me but lately I’ve been a big believer in incremental change. Better said, “baby steps”. To be fair some people don’t believe in slow they’re more like doing it cold turkey. Both of which works for those who work it.

My encouragement for you today is not whether to accomplish your goals overnight or incrementally, but more in the emotional state of your process.

A few years ago I went from 230lbs to 163lbs in a matter of months, off of a bet with someone who never even went through with their part. I was motivated and determined to win. I told myself I was really doing it for me, but never really analyzed the attitude I had towards my own goal. It was win or lose, and when I won and did not get my reward, my attitude was negative and realized it had been negative through the process driven by fear of failure or losing.

Because my attitude was all wrong I failed to see the real reward, a healthier me, a thinner me, and a less frustrated me. Resulting in giving up and retracting back to prior health habits.

Can I lose the weight again? Yes I can and I have, since then this body has not seen above 206lbs and am currently at 197lbs, you know because of flan and lechon but my attitude is different.

It is positive and now I celebrate every pound I lose as a great victory because before any goal or resolution or challenge, “My attitude determines my altitude”.

And that is with every area of my life. So I encourage you today, stick with your resolutions and all your goals, but analyze your attitude. As Zig Ziglar used to say…. “I’ll See You At The Top”

#happyfriday #tgif #thankgoditsfriday #zigziglar #happynewyear

STAY IN LINE…

Ever stand in a line just to have some flan? No, well I have, it takes patience, lol.

 

This past weekend it seemed like that was all we did. Stand in line after line after line just to enjoy a ride, a game or even get some free stuff. All for the children I say, otherwise I wouldn’t of dealt with it!

 

I must say it was a lesson to learn and a reminder… Not so much that “The best things come for those who wait”, because you can’t just sit and wait some times but a lesson to learn is the value of perseverance.

 

The bible talks about the one who stand firms until the end will see the breakthrough (salvation). If a child wants something so bad they will stand in line as long as their body can take it before they fall out.

 

Not too long ago my sister took my youngest daughter to a debut of The Hello Kitty truck that came to our town, both of them being pink and hello kitty fanatics.

 

They were in line for two hours, not for something free but to purchase some over-priced treats from “The Hello Kitty Truck”. It wasn’t long after before my sister wanted out of there, but she looked at my baby girl and saw that expectation look in her her eyes, that although Jocelyn was complaining of the long wait but she had no intention of leaving. She would of waited two more hours if needed.

 

However, my sister saw no value in waiting when she saw that all they had left was cookies and water. So in order to get Jocelyn out of the line she bribed her with a trip to Chuck E Cheese!

 

When children desire something, they put the pressure on or put the patience on auto because they wiiiilllll wait. On the other hand as adults we lost any decent measure of patience, we either want it now, right away, or in minutes or else we quit, leave or give up.

 

A word for you today…

 

STICK IT OUT!

STAY THE COURSE!

DON’T GIVE IN OR GIVE UP!

 

There is definitely a light at the end of your tunnel, God always provides a way out. We must endure and persevere if we ever want anything of significance or of great value in our lives. The easy stuff or the short cuts that you take to get what you want has value as well but common value and not permanent. Often someone can easily take it away or imitate it until the point of being worthless.

 

God called each and every one of us to produce and contribute to this world and many may seem similar to others but most definitely unique to you and your fingerprint on it if you don’t give up.

 

I have done much giving up in my past and quit many things that I have started but TODAY I am not that person anymore. I WILL NOT GIVE IN! and I WILL NOT GIVE UP! I may take a break or sabbatical but the things that I have set out to do I will complete, accomplish and realize. It doesn’t bother me that I am taking longer than most but if I stay the course my value will rise. I am too deep to give up for ANY circumstance!

 

Be Encouraged!

 

#happymonday #mondaymantle

Grace makes it available but…

*** I know this is for someone today***

Too often we can mistake grace with faith. If no process was needed to obtain all that God has for us then there would be no christianity, there would be no need for Christ!

God’s love is so great for us that while in our mess he committed his son to make us right by dying for us and giving us the gift of GRACE.

GRACE is undeserved mercy and favor that allows us to experience and/or receive what otherwise we would not qualify for. But that is all grace does. It qualifies us, it makes mercy, grace, and the blessing available for us. It is up to us to receive it. How do we receive it? By FAITH!

FAITH is being certain of what you’ve always wanted, knowing it existed even if you have not seen it. It’s hope on steroids. More than that, its dual role of energy and tangibility positions us to move in action towards what already belongs to us and/or made available to us through GRACE. So FAITH that stands still is not faith, its hope, but hope that’s in motion is FAITH (faith without works is dead).

Hope in motion is a hope with a target that may only be seen and felt by the hopeful as evidence enough to move towards it. In that process faith acts as a tangible unseen object(ive) that is also energy that acts as a magnetic field to pull into manifestation the reality of your hope into time and space existence. It already exist upon your regeneration of spirit and reconciliation to the master of the universe, but never made available specifically to you until you made your belief into a hope in motion (FAITH).

So remember, GRACE makes all available to you that is promised by God regardless of past, race, social class, spiritual level or even size of faith, but it is not available to YOU until you demonstrate FAITH even as small as a mustard seed (a spec small enough to exist but does not need to be seen).

Be Encouraged and start manifesting what has been yours all along! It’s what I have been doing and growing in it daily.

#victorlriverajr @mr_vicrivera #happytuesday #revhope

Live Life Like If You’re Going To 100

Last year in the fall I had received some very negative news about my health that would put any average person in a depression. You would think everything is normal until you go to the hospital for one thing and you find this other thing that could kill you type of thing.

 

Well I acted like any normal christian I prayed and ignored it until it began to get worse. At the end of last year it was getting so bad that it started affecting my faith and trust that God would heal me. So life began to change. My dreams began to fade away and so was my desires to accomplish anything I set out to do.

 

I went from having an outlook on life with a 70 year plan to I could die any day now. I STOPPED EVERYTHING! I upset a lot of people and distanced myself from most. At one point I had emotionally given in and was living my day-to-day like a robot until my battery runs out.

 

It was affecting my marriage, my family and definitely the rest of my health. Throughout all that I never failed to have people who would encourage me and check up on me. For them I am eternally grateful.

 

When March rolled around I started feeling a little different, I started getting angry at the fact that I wasn’t doing anything. I was angry at the fact that after all this time I was not getting healed or better. It was an inner struggle of faith and purpose. Later that month I had made a decision to try to do all I can and want, sickness or no sickness, tumor or no tumor whether I had 30 days to live or the next 70 years.

 

I REFUSE TO LET MY CIRCUMSTANCE DICTATE MY LIFE & ACTIONS!

 

I would love to tell you right here that my life started to improve but it didn’t. I had decided to live life-like I was going to live to 100 but instead of becoming better I felt it became worse.

 

I was getting more sick, having issues at home and with finances, etc. But I continued to say I am not going to let my struggles dictate my response. I made a decision and finally I am going to stick to it and not give in. I AM NOT WEAK, I AM STRONG, is what I kept declaring. I even had a minister from Wisconsin call me and tell me that the reason I was sick was because I didn’t treat his friend right, who was also a minister. Before I sent him to hell with love I said I forgive him for those words but that is a lie!

 

It was all but for a moment, April rolled around and it was like a 180. I had kept my word and not given in. Started living life-like I was going to live to 100. Everything began to fall into place again and I began to MOVE FORWARD again after many months of stale, still, stagnant living. Yes even being a christian one can profess the faith and live like hell at the same time, it has nothing to do with sin or holiness but all to do with how you perceive your life to be in God’s hands. Is it well and alive no matter what the situation or is it sick and painful because this is the never-ending test that you must bare?

 

I CHOOSE the first part. I AM HEALED, and even if I feel it or not, I am going to act like I am and I am going to live like I am. Not faking it until I make it but growing my faith in a process of holding on to God’s unchanging hands. I believe that an encounter I had with three other pastors was the day that God sealed me with a miracle and I was totally healed, but I’ll share my story when the time is right.

 

No matter what you’re going through, situations, circumstances or sicknesses, don’t let it change your attitude or living. LIVE LIFE LIKE YOU’RE GOING TO 100!

 

Be Encouraged!

 

#truth #life #livingto100 #keepdreaming #moveforward

Make Sure You Care

Growing up in a specific denomination can have its positives and its negatives. The part that I will mention here is a bit negative and partly affected my life growing up and somehow creeps in now and then, and that is NOT GOOD.

 

It was engraved in my spirit since childhood to be humble or to humble ourselves, but over the years nobody defined the meaning of humility and like most folks I figured it was synonymous with being poor. I wish I had Maury Povich to tell me way back then loud and clear… “AND THAT IS A LIE!”

 

Living in poverty those around me would repeat phrases like:

 

Thank you Lord for keeping me humble (poor)

I don’t need money, all I need is my salvation

If I don’t have it, it is because God doesn’t want me to have it

I don’t want anything but the clothes on my back and food to sustain me

If you have money you will be lonely or you’ll have more problems

etc.

 

Those saying that may have a sincerity towards humility but all in the wrong way. While many of them quoted those sayings minutes later you would hear them say, “Man I wish I had a …

 

Car

House

Better Job

Vacation

Decent Clothing

 

It took me years to realize that wanting things in life IS NOT VANITY or GREED its human nature (and not the flesh). There are borders and lines you do not cross where desire becomes lust and so forth but that is what your bible is for and bible-teaching pastors. I say that because not every pastor is for the kingdom and God’s people and that is just a FACT.

 

I remember hearing a pastor talk about a businessman in negotiations and the pastor said, “Can you believe that guy he is such an opportunist all he cares about is money.” This was coming from a guy who was trying to get business done at cost and take away from that guy’s family’s mouth just to save his own money. Come to find out that it was the pastor who was an opportunist and a money-hungry lame. Well that’s enough of the venting back to my sharing.

 

Like I was saying there are lines that are in place that determines the difference between desire and lust, want and greed, or hunger and gluttony. GOD PUT IT IN US to want to grow, progress and multiply and to do that we need resources. “My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory…” It’s not only spiritual or emotional it is also in the physical and material, and I had to learn that the hard way.

 

All these years having the potential to be in a better place but my limiting beliefs kept me bound even if there was nothing holding me back. Literally there was nothing. The sky was the limit and God even gave me the power to create the wealth and produce that which I needed and wanted but yet still the self-sabotaging attitude that said being poor is being humble.

 

WELL I REBUKE THE DEVIL, HE IS A LIE!

 

In recent years God has been causing me to grow in my faith and in my wisdom through his word, leaders in the faith and living examples. I have always tried to do a business and be self-sufficient and had success to a certain point but not at the level of my dreams and what I believed I can do. The battle has been hard. I’m talking about daily declarations, my personal mantras and confession sessions, and personal devotions. In addition to that putting my faith into action and taking courses, self-study, risk and working for free under those mentors that are there already.

 

I am in the constant by rejecting fear, doubt and pushing poverty out of my face. I remember when I first got a job that paid me the most I have ever made years ago. I went to apply for a grant for my oldest daughter to be in christian school thinking I was not going to qualify. They said I more than qualified, because I was still way below the poverty level. I was like whhhhaaaaaatttttt! This ain’t no money.

 

Since then my journey has been inspired and though slow has been the process but it has been nothing but growing, progressing and moving forward. I have learned without a doubt that a setback is a setup for a comeback, and you can call me the COMEBACK KING! I am ready for the challenge and stare at rejection right in the face. I AM ALREADY A SUCCESS! & I WILL CONTINUE TO SUCCEED!

 

Well here’s my testimony for this morning, yes I wrote all that to share a quick testimony.

 

As I was driving in the morning commuting to Chicago with the whole family, they were all asleep and so I began to think and reflect as I often tend to do. A sudden depression tried to creep in and fear was trying to remind me of the recent bills in the thousands that I had just receive days prior. He was hitting me hard. I was hitting back hard, with the word and the promises of God. After what felt like over an hour but really was a few minutes I began to say to myself and think,”Yeah, why am I trying to do all this or buy all this? For what? I don’t really care about a bigger house, and RV for ministry or another car for my wife. I don’t really care.”

 

*I kid you not, my hand lifted to God this is what happened next.*

 

As soon as I was moping and doping those words, within seconds I heard a loud voice, “YOU BETTER CARE” “IF YOU DON’T CARE I CAN’T BRING THE STUFF TO YOUR LIFE!”

 

I was like “whoa”

 

Just a few seconds later I was in awe and did not realize I was slowing down on the fast lane in the left and a car cut me off, and then a truck cut me off. So needless to say I sped up to get back on track and as soon as I got closer to the truck in front of me, his plates read this…

 

CAREES

 

and that’s when I heard the voice again say, “YOU BETTER CARE” “IF YOU DON’T CARE I CAN’T BRING THE STUFF TO YOUR LIFE!”

 

Thank you Lord for always being on time.

 

In order for God to bring what you need and what you want in your life you have to be honest with yourself and CARE about all you desire so much so you expect it because of your faith in the Father.

 

Be Encouraged!

 

#care #trustgod #happypumpday #pumpday

#alllivesmatter

As I sit here at my desk with a heavy heart, with questions asking myself AGAIN, how can people have so much hate or beyond that have no regards for life at all, that you can take it in your own hands????

My prayer is constant and fervent that as a human race we can begin to act and be in solidarity when it comes to human life and the sacredness of it to hold its value no matter what ethnicity, culture or community you belong to and DECLARE that ALL LIVES MATTER!

It is easier said than done but I know and believe it’s not a pipe dream and choose to trust that our world is not going to hell in a hand-basket. Yes I am a Christian and I know what’s promised and predicted in the word, but that same word tells me that hell and the lake of fire was not created for my fellow brothers and sisters and that LOVE wins in the end.

We don’t have to damn people to hell because of their choices, we don’t have to be violent to defend our beliefs. I am not naive to think that the whole world could be at peace because our adversary lurks to and fro and that WAR is inevitable to some degree, for God is a God of War to his enemies (spiritual) but what makes up the sum of the God that I believe in, is that he is the God of LOVE. LOVE CONQUERS ALL!

Call me what ever name you like but when I was awoken by a phone call yesterday morning with the news and began to watch the coverage my heart was broken, so broken I had no words or reaction but a nudge in my spirit to pray and to hope for those affected directly.

This was not solely a hate crime, domestic terrorism or even an extremist cult following through with their terror. This was one man who was desensitized by hate, disconnected by the agenda of violence and terrorism through the OVERWHELMING propaganda of the media outlets and those who do anything that brings harm on another human life.

Don’t get me wrong I am not taking any political stance on the media, or a specific culture and not even guns, because the root is none of that. The root of it all lies in the heart and mind of humanity. I believe in the freedom of speech and we all have our different opinions of defining that right, but what I believe more than anything is that we need to express that right by speaking more LOVE, expressing more LOVE and doing more LOVE towards our fellow-man.

Despite all our diversity that makes this COUNTRY SO GREAT, we should never let our guards down as to cease being fellow Americans, fellow brethren and at the very least fellow human beings.

At the end I can only speak for myself and react for myself and I choose to be proactive in every action of love I take. If you see me in the street say hello because I really want to meet you. If you need a hand and it’s within my power, I want to help you. If you need someone to pray with or give a listening ear, it’s what I do best, I AM HERE.

I may not be a pastor anymore but I am still a CHAPLAIN, I am still a christian (far from perfect), and at the very core, I am a loving and giving human being. I may get mad here and there (who doesn’t) and may exhibit it on the road a bit but all in all I want to live in a world that I can find peace and preserve it for my legacy and those that come after us.

Be Encouraged!

Continue to pray with me for the victims in Orlando, FL.

#alllivesmatter #inchrist #orlandoshooting

STAY AWAY!

It took me a while to learn this… I say the better part of my early years…

I always thought you should preserve all your relationships and never burn any bridges… It’s the connections I never addressed that may have caused my demise.

There’s no need to keep in touch with the ex or the guy that dissed you but time has passed and you are cool again. No Need! No matter how Christian you want to be.

There are two quotes that help me keep moving…

1. “Always reside where you are celebrated and not just tolerated.”

I honor all my genuine relationships, all others just tend to fall by the wayside…

2. “If you’re the smartest one in your group of friends then it’s time for some new friends”

This one was a hard one because growing up in the “hood” or “barrio” whatever you want to call it, it was viewed as selling out if you moved on. It didn’t count if you moved on to bigger and better and finally were escaping the poverty or poverty mindset, you were still a sellout and you ain’t family no more.

It makes me sad and makes me laugh at the same time. It makes me laugh because you can see them now 20 years later and they’re still using the same slang and making the same jokes and hearing the same complaints. It makes me sad because I grew up loving them but have no control of their mind or decisions.

Don’t get me wrong I am not where I want to be but I sure ain’t where I used to be. Partly because I decided to separate myself from certain people friends or foe alike.

The other day I ran into a friend from my old high school and we got to talking and he was like man we could of been cool back in the day. I asked him then why weren’t we? He was like because you were like proper and smart and stuff. I was like what! Who you talking to? I was in the drop out program! Whhaaattt?

But today I am smart and on my way to achieving everything I set out to do. In spite my circumstance and health issues, I made some hard decisions, some bad and some good but I did it. I’m done with drama just watch me … Ooh watch me, watch me…

I guess I just want to encourage you today that if you do anything significant today, then make sure you take a look at your surroundings because they influence your success rate. I know the bible say bad company corrupts good character, but in I Rev Hope 7:1 it says Bad Company Corrupts EVERYTHING!

I’d rather suffer the loss of a friend then the loss of a life of achievement, fulfillment and success with the people that really love me.

Be encouraged today and really invest in your relationships especially the ones that bring the best out of you.

May God Bless You Today!