Are you one that keeps a lot inside, fearful of letting it all out lest those you love leave?
Thanks for joining us for Monday’s Message with Abigail Rice and Trench Classes United. Guarding our heart and keeping things inside prevents vulnerability and without vulnerability, true love cannot thrive.  

There is definitely ONE we all can be a lot more vulnerable with.
Enjoy Abi’s words today and may they help your heart in your journey.
 
Young
But old
Disheveled
But fine clothed
Bearing burdens of strife
and heavy yokes
 
Behind those tired eyes
Are secrets tucked in
Real tight
Like the smile lines
That only appear every once and a while
 
Tried and true
That old dusty heart of glue
Glued pieces
From listening to what he says
Or she says
and never knowing the real reasons
Always on the defense
 
Guarding that heart
and protecting that mind
Only letting very few
See what’s inside
A rare gem
A true beauty
As endless as time
 
and that’s what we all live for
Counting every second that goes by
Instead of the moments
The journey’s pivots
and sharp turning
Accomplished by only
Listening and learning
The sound of the voices
Having discernment
 
Who is with me?
Who is for me?
When all odds are stacked up to utterly destroy me
 
There is only One
So radiant
So pure
A soft whisper of morning dew
Sunkissed beauty
and natural allure
 
Simply reaching
Simply waiting
On someone like you
To give the final piece
Making a broken heart brand new

~Abigail

What would life look like if we combined our faith with our passion, our dreams?
Thanks for joining us for Faith-Filled Friday with Debra Dolce and Trench Classes United. Today’s love letter is the type of motivation we all need. May it saturate your soul and be lived out in your life.
 
~Love Letter~
 
My chosen one, faith brings your hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things you long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. What a good Word.
 
Take all those hopes and dreams, which I put in your heart, then apply faith to them, declare or prophecy over them and watch what I do. Some think I'm like a microwave god, where you pop in your request and in a few minutes, you have your results. There are instances where that might happen. But if you come to think of Me in that way, aren't you then making Me in your image and then you've created an idol?
 
I want you to trust Me no matter how long it takes for your promise to be fulfilled. Look at Abraham, he believed My promise of his descendants but never saw the fulfillment. Look at Simeon and Anna who were old and had waited years to see Me, the Messiah.
 
What are your dreams, visions and promises? I say don't become passive with your promises but be tenacious in your belief. Let nothing or no one take your Word. Beloved, keep all that I have given to you protected and guard it well that you may see My goodness. 
 
~DebraDolce

After she woke up, a woman told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Valentine’s Day. What do you think it means?"
      
"You'll know tonight." he said.
      
That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it to find a book entitled "The Meaning of Dreams"
 
I don’t know about you, but my first internal response – notice I said internal – would have been what the heck, where’s my pearl necklace? But, when we stop and look at the sweet truth in this little funny, we can ascertain that her husband was listening, and because men like to solve problems, he brought her something that would give her the solution, an answer to her question.
 
Isn’t that just as thoughtful?
 
For more encouragement, take a tour at www.trenchclassesunited.com and check out the blogs and join us on Instagram at www.instagram.com/trenchclassesunited

Love,
Kim-Evinda

Driving Your Thoughts Instead of Letting Them Drive You, Part 4
 
She replayed the disagreement over and over in her mind. Her thoughts of frustration moved like critters scurrying around and around, stuck, like a truck in the mud, unable to move towards understanding.
 
Thanks for joining us today for Part 4 of Driving your Thoughts instead of Letting Them Drive You with Kim-Evinda and Trench Classes United. If thoughts were a car, where would they be driving you today? Have you ever been stuck in a conflict, unable to understand the other person’s point of view? Today’s blog is meant to encourage you up and out of it.
 
She couldn’t believe what they had said, had done what they did. And try as she might to think of a way that she could have steered the final disagreement toward resolution, she hadn’t been successful. In fact, as she replayed the last couple of interactions, it had been obvious then, as it was now, that there was built up resentment used to defend their attitudes, actions, and beliefs, all of which were completely out of her control.
 
She desperately wanted to make it better, to un-hear what she had heard, not just the words but the attitude with which they were spoken, but she couldn’t. She could only run them through the eight-point thought test found in Philippians 4:8 to get unstuck, own what was hers, and set her thoughts on higher ground:
 
She began to go thru them, inviting Abba into her time: “Whatever is true.” “Well, they believed their words were true, Lord, she cried out.
“Unresolved resentment shades the truth.”
His answer brought some clarity. “Well, they definitely believe they were/are in the right,” she continued.
“It’s not about who’s right but what is right. As they seek me in this matter, I will speak to them as I am speaking to you.”
She continued thru the eight-point thought test: “Well, neither of us were being pure in our words, and certainly the way it was all handled wasn’t admirable, excellent or praiseworthy, so now what, Lord”? “Do not add to the conflict by speaking about them in a way that is not true, pure, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy!”
Ouch!!
 
While His admonishment stung, its truth settled into her soul and settled her thoughts. Yes, this conversation with God and His Word had taken her thoughts to a higher place, no longer stuck like a truck in the mud on the last conversations with her friends. God’s Word had steered her clear of any detour of resentment which had begun because of their unresolved resentments and this unresolved conflict.  She smiled, knowing that somehow, some way, He would resolve it if she stayed out of it by not adding to it.
 
Friend, if you’re stuck amid an unresolved conflict, can I encourage you to take this eight-point thought test found in His Love Letters to you and me?  There’s a guarantee that His Words will not come back void!

Love,
Kim-Evinda

Welcome to Tuesday’s Truthful humor where we pull truth from humor.
 
A husband was trying to prove to his wife that women talk more than men. He showed her a study which indicated that men use about 10,000 words per day, whereas women use 20,000 words per day.
      
His wife thought about this for a while. She then told her husband that women use twice as many words as men because they have to repeat everything they say.
      
Her husband looked stunned. He said "What?"
 
Oh, friends, just as Gary Thomas says in his book, Sacred Marriage, the sooner we realize that many of our communication issues aren’t really about those communicating and those not listening, but they are more problems between men, generally, and women generally. When we get all worked up because we feel someone’s not listening, this prevents us from working it out with those we love.
 
Have a terrific Tuesday
Love,
Kim-Evinda

Have you ever hung on to awards of the past, trophies and plaques and such, dusting them off with all the other knick-knacks? Do you find they bring up those moments of the past when you were so determined to get that reward, that trophy, that recognition?
 
Thanks for joining us for Monday’s Message with Abigail Rice and Trench Classes United. Abi’s words today speak profoundly about earthly rewards vs. eternal ones. May we all strive for the eternal trophy…Heaven

Fake
Phony
The world atoning
For a life well lived
Must be worth showing
For nothing other than dust upon trophies
 
So I ask myself this:
What was this day supposed to bring?
I pray to know
For I am weak
 
This mind of mine
A fickle, feeble thing
and when the wind gusts
Scattering debris
That’s when I must hold on to what’s bigger than me
 
Bigger than my dreams
Or the voice in the silence
So loud that it rings
Anything to remove
The cries and the stings
 
A perfect peace
In this not so rare moment of need
I sit and question
What lay in this debris?
What is this feeling?
 
A temporary thing
A moment of agony
Until morning will bring
Songs of pure joy
Love, joy, and peace
 
But I must not go to sleep
With a mind still questioning
and a heart still angry
Wondering what is this feeling
So dark
so tormenting?
 
Where is my hope?
 
Fake
Phony
 
As i question most everything
 
God, You have been so good to me
What now are you trying to prove to me?
 
Relentlessly
Endlessly
 
Lord, please get through to me!
 
This feeling so old, yet so new to me
What on earth am I even doing?
Where is the rewind button?
How do I end this movie?
 
For I am tired
I am weary
Rest come to me
Holy Spirit pour out your presence
Let it flow through me
 
I was tired
I was weary
But Good Lord, you grew me
Because I prayed for this storm and this wind
To cut straight through to me
 
The debris of my darkness
To test my inner vest
Yes, with His Shield of Faith
Armored up to protect
Now I can lay
My sweet soul to rest
 
“The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain (empty and futile–only a breath).” - Psalm 94:11
“And again, The Lord knows the thoughts and reasonings of the [humanly] wise and recognizes how futile they are.” - 1 Corinthians 3:20

~Abigail

Sometimes we avoid disciplining because we just don’t want to deal with it, or we just struggle to see others struggle.
 
Thanks for joining us for Faith-Filled Fridays with Debra Dolce and Trench Classes United. Discipline truly can add to our lives, and not take away, depending on how it is given and who it’s given by.
 
~Love Letter
 
My love,
Do you realize that the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater? This is yet another beautiful example of My care, My provision for you.
 
Scripture tells you that no good thing will I withhold from those who walk uprightly. It’s easy to love Me when I talk about My goodness, My blessings to you. But when I talk about discipline or correction, then you don't want to hear any of that.
 
Look at the children of Israel and how they had to spend forty years in the desert because they rebelled against My discipline. The reason they wanted to worship idols, made by their hands is because they felt they could do whatever they wanted with no fear of discipline. They were not submitted to Me, the one Who never forsake them and they had their own idea of Who I Am.
 
Be careful not to make Me in your own image, imagining I am a god that allows all sorts of behaviours. I have set in My Word who I am and what I desire. Scripture says there is a way that seems right, but it leads to death. Beloved, discipline yourself that the correction for Me won't be harsh, but discipline is better than death for it brings life. 
 
~DebraDolce

Did you know that 80% of Christian married men and 87% of Christian married women are not experiencing healthy intimacy?

When I heard these statistics, I wasn’t surprised, just deeply saddened. And these were as of 2017, before the pandemic.

We were all created with a need for intimacy, emotional, physical and spiritual. Why is it that so many of us are going about it the wrong way?

If you’d like to learn how to experience healthy emotional, physical and spiritual intimacy, then plan on joining us for a life-changing nine-week course, How to Love Who You Love…Begin the journey to healthy intimacy.

Love,
Kim-Evinda

Driving Your Thoughts Instead of Letting Them Drive You, Part 3
 
She stopped abruptly, almost letting go of the weights that were in her hands. She stood there dumbfounded and discouraged hearing the words repeated by her trainer that her husband had shared with her.
 
Thanks for joining us for Wednesday’s Word with Kim-Evinda and Trench Classes United in Part 3 of “Driving Your Thoughts Instead of Letting Them Drive You.” Many of us have had lies spoken about us, or things said that shouldn’t have been shared, and if we’re honest, it stings, hurts, stirs up anger and resentment. Today’s blog addresses how to not allow those lies and hurtful comments drive us toward emotional wrecks. As Kim-Evinda shares from her current SOAR (Season of Adultery Recovery) her hope and prayer is that it will encouraging any other hurting hearts out there.
 
She didn’t know if she was angrier about the lie spoken about her to her friend’s husband, or the truth that the person who said it was no closer to returning to Christ than when their whole nightmare came to light over three years ago. The realization that he was still blaming her for his choices loomed over her heavier than the weights she was trying to lift to bring her muscles back to life.
 
Her thoughts seemed to keep returning there, like a car driving in circles trying to find a different route. And they kept returning, and then she remembered His whisper to her all those weeks ago: Finally, Kim-Evinda, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
 
In the days that followed, she pushed the lie away…but it kept coming back to the surface of her mind, and when she made the mistake of talking about it on two different occasions, she found herself in an out-of-control fishtailing feeling in her mind…headed towards an emotional wreck.  She knew she had to do something different.
 
She took the steering wheel of her mind and slammed on the brakes with the first part, daring to test it against this scripture; what he had said wasn’t true. But her emotional foot came off the brake and she steered her thoughts to the next one, noble. Well heck to the no, what he said wasn’t noble; in fact, it was quite cowardly, a way to live with it, I guess, she thought. Nothing about what he had said was right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy.
 
“Then stop allowing your thoughts to drive you,” He repeated. His admonishment settled into her soul, steering her thoughts to a better place…His presence, His promises.
 
Friend, can I encourage you that when someone speaks a lie about you, or even shares a truth about you that hurts, grab on to the steering wheel of your mind and cling to this gentle admonishment from Abba Himself, that you may not be an emotional wreck or cause one.

Thoughtfully,
Kim-Evinda

Do you tend to be a peacemaker, afraid of making those close to you upset or angry, even being dishonest to avoid conflict, or just give in to get it over with, or…can you initiate a difficult conversation in order to resolve a problem/conflict?
 
In my own situation, I am saddened by those who just put their hands up, close their eyes to what’s happening and say it is what it is…all to stay comfortable. Somewhere in our history we were taught to avoid conflict at all costs, and yet, when we do the cost can be incredibly painful.
 
If you’d like to learn how to rise above conflict in a way that brings honour and respect to all involved, then you won’t want to miss How to Love Who You Love, coming to a trench near you. This is the last week to sign up so hope to see you there.

Thoughtfully,
Kim-Evinda