When you hear the word “surrender,” what’s your first thought?
Thanks for joining us for Faith-Filled Friday with Debra Dolce and Trench Classes United.
 
The dictionary defines surrender as: to cease resistance to an enemy or authority; to give up or hand over.
Who or what we surrender to influences our attitudes, actions and choices.KE
 
Love Letter~
 
My child, surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth. I have so much for you as you learn to surrender your anxious thoughts. This isn't a one-time event, but a continual process. It's a whole new way of life.
 
Think of the peace that can be yours as you practice being still. As you are still before Me and learn of Me, your realization of who I am will begin to unfold. There is no one else in all the world like Me.
 
As you begin to get vision, then you will really see. As you begin to see, clarity will be yours. Learn to trust that the path I've laid out before you is perfect- detours are not. You must keep your focus and you do that with the clear vision you receive from spending time with Me.
 
Let My love fill your heart as you sit with Me, as you open up to Me. Let our relationship grow and expand as you gain more understanding of My goodness. Beloved, surrender all your ways so you may walk in the newness of life. 
 
~DebraDolce

Welcome to Thursday’s Truthful Humor with Trench Classes United
where we pull truth from humor

There was this guy at a bar, just looking at his drink. He stays like that for a half
hour. Then a big trouble making truck driver steps next to him, takes the drink from
the guy and just drinks it all down.

The poor guy starts crying.

The truck driver says, "Come on man, I was just joking. Here, I'll buy you another
drink. I just can't stand to see a man cry."
"No, it's not that," the man replies, wiping his tears, "This day is the worst day of my
life. First, I oversleep and I go in late to my office. My outraged boss fires me. When I
leave the building to go to my car, I find out it was stolen. The police say they can do
nothing.

I get a cab to go home, and when I get out, I remember I left my wallet. The
cab driver just drives away. I go inside my house where I find my wife in bed with the

gardener. I leave my home, come to this bar, and just when I was thinking about
putting an end to my life, you show up and drink my poison."

What we do when we just can’t take anymore often determines who we become in
the outcome. ��

For more encouragement take a tour at www.trenchclassesunited.com and join
Facebook community at www.facebook.com/trenchclassesunited

Kim-Evinda

I waited…and waited…and waited for her to give her answer to the question, and when it finally came, I was humbled into thoughtful silence.
 
Thanks for joining us today for Wednesday’s Word with Kim-Evinda and Trench Classes United. I love reliving positive moments, especially when I’m low on joy. Come on in for such a time as this😊
 
Jeremiah 29:13 says “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” The question I put out to each of them was: if Jesus just spoke those words to you, what would “all your heart” look like and what would you ask him?

It was the last night of our first Trench Class together in this transitional home. As I went around the room asking them to tell me their first gut response to the question, I noticed a theme: a desire to surrender and let go of misguided thoughts.
 
I was near stunned at the changes that I had gotten to witness in each of them in just eight weeks. Each of them had showed up weekly with their homework done, or nearly done, and ready to participate and break free from the ties that had held them prisoner in their current situations, all of which began with a thought which bred and bled into another thought until those thoughts finally became an action, and thereafter a behaviour.
 
What about you, what does “searching with all of your heart” look like? I don’t know about you, but those few words can create the biggest chasm. What can close that divide? What in the world must I do to seek Him with my whole heart?
DRUM ROLL………

Practice His Presence.
 
When we practice His presence, we remind ourselves that He’s with us; the more we recognize He’s with us, the more of ourselves we can give Him. The more of ourselves we give Him, the more we will desire to be with Him and like Him, to include Him in all things.
 
Can I encourage you to begin practicing His presence…you will find Him.

Love,
Kim-Evinda

Welcome to Tuesday’s Truthful Humor where we pull truth from humor.
 
On their way to get married, a young Catholic couple is involved in a fatal car accident. The couple found themselves sitting outside the Pearly Gates waiting for St. Peter to process them into Heaven. While waiting, they began to wonder: Could they possibly get married in Heaven?
 
When St. Peter showed up, they asked him. St. Peter said, "I don't know. This is the first time anyone has asked. Let me go find out,'" and he left.
 
The couple sat and waited and waited. Two months passed and the couple were still waiting. While waiting, they began to wonder what would happen if it didn't work out; could you get a divorce in heaven?
 
After yet another month, St. Peter finally returned, looking somewhat bedraggled. "Yes," he informed the couple, "You can get married in Heaven."
 
"Great!" said the couple, "But we were just wondering, what if things don't work out? Could we also get a divorce in Heaven?"
 
St. Peter, red-faced with anger, slammed his clipboard onto the ground.
"What's wrong?" asked the frightened couple.
 
"OH, COME ON!," St. Peter shouted, "It took me three months to find a priest up here! Do you have any idea how long it'll take me to find a lawyer?"
 
Oh, my gosh, that was funny. But why do you suppose marriage has become so…disposable? We’d love to hear your responses.
 
For more encouragement take a tour at www.trenchclassesunited.com and be sure and join our Facebook community at www.facebook.com/trenchclassesunited

Kim-Evinda

Young
Yet old
With a wisdom filled soul
 
Dishevelled
But fine clothed
 
Bearing burdens of strife
and heavy yokes
 
Behind those tired eyes are secrets
Tucked in tight
 
Like the smile lines
That only appear every once in 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 defense
guarding that heart
and protecting that mind
Only letting very few see what's inside
 
A rare gem
A true beauty
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
The sharp turning
Accomplished only by listening
and learning
 
The sound of the voices
Having discernment
 
Who is with me?
Who is for me?
 
When all odds are stacked up against 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 glue the final piece
and make a broken heart brand new
 
"O Lord, you have searched me and have known me.
You know my downsitting and my uprising;
You understand my thought afar off.
You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and
You are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word in my tongue [still unuttered], but,
Behold, O Lord, You know it altogether." Psalm 139:1-4

-Abigail Rice

Who and what we put our hope in determines the strength of our faith.

Thanks so much for joining us for Faith-Filled Friday with Debra Dolce and Trench Classes United.
 
The phrase “Heart strings” comes to mind with this love letter, and if you could imagine a string on each side of your heart, who or what would it be tied to?
 
Love Letter~
 
My dear one, wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within you, knowing that I always keep My promises! Now this should make your heart glad. Hold tightly to My Word, to My promises.
 
Remember I said that I would complete the work I started in you. There are things this very minute I am showing you. I desire to remove some things so I can flood your life with a promise. If you are stubborn and harden your heart, how can I pour out My goodness upon you? If you ask Me to remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, I will do it. I will remove all your rebellion. When you surrender your stubborn ways then I can move, removing all the high places you've built up in your mind and heart.
 
Stop building high places for you to worship your own "goodness." There is none good but Me. Beloved, come and bring all the broken pieces of your life, that you may learn to walk in the Spirit that makes you free. 
 
~DebraDolce

The same sorrow that sank her into sleep woke her up and as she opened her eyes, she remembered it was not a bad dream; it was a new reality.

Thanks for joining us for Wednesday’s Word with Kim-Evinda and Trench Classes United. Have you ever mourned over someone else’s choices, ones that caused you great discomfort or even pain and sorrow? Today’s blog offers comfort for such a time as this.

“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Her first thoughts made their way into her journal. “Please help me to make You my source of comfort, Abba, and not resort to other things.” She understood on such a deeper level why people chose to run from their pain into unhealthy ways of coping. The problem was that the pain was so dense, so deep she was having a hard time sensing His comfort.
 
She reached for her concordance, knowing that a day started in His principles and promises would not leave her as battered and shattered as she was feeling now.
She looked up the first word that caught her attention, mourn. “Mourn: bewail, primarily for the dead.”
 
“Wow, talk about meeting me right where I’m at,” she whispered. Despite all her efforts, prayers and tears, her marriage was dead. She had known from the beginning of this season of betrayal that it had to die to be made new, but it was dead, beyond repair, beyond reviving and she was left staring at the pieces of her shattered heart.
 
The tears came hard and fast as the acknowledgement of it all rendered her poor in spirit, powerless, begging God to take the pain away. And what she read next validated her emotions: “but also includes any other passionate lamenting, a grief so all-encompassing it cannot be hidden.”
 
She needed to mourn, but she needed to be comforted too. Where could she turn for comfort, especially amid all her why’s and wonder? She began writing in her journal, daring to ask Him the million-dollar question: Why, God, did you make me stay?

“To show him grace, the love of Christ, to give him every chance to turn back to me.”
 
She remembered what their counselor had said: He absolutely loves you but would always say he did not deserve you. He was conflicted, tormented. This inspired another truth: He feels he doesn’t deserve me and my love, but he feels worthy of a Jezebel’s affections…because of what’s unresolved in him.
 
Verses of comfort flooded her soul, reminding her that there is a redemptive value in all things; He always has a plan to right what’s been done wrong, to turn sorrow into something significant; that His plan was to lift her up, not tear her down, to help her soar above it.
She closed her journal, comforted by the truth that Abba’s promises never lie, and His principles promised to take her higher.
Learning to Soar

Kim-Evinda  

PS: Please plan on joining me for my first live on SOAR. If you’ve ever had to mourn because of being betrayed or dismayed by someone’s choices, or you’re just curious about SOAR, you won’t want to miss this real-time journey of healing beginning Friday, July 30th @ 5:30 p.m.

Welcome to Tuesday’s Truthful Humor where we pull truth from humor
 
A wife was sitting peacefully in her cozy armchair sewing her husband’s socks. Her husband came in to the room and glanced at what she was doing and started badgering, “HONEY be more careful!  
His voice begins to rise: PLEASE WATCH WHAT YOU ARE DOING; You don’t want to poke YOUR finger!    
 
He pauses for just a few seconds and starts in again: HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, Don’t look up when YOUR’E SEWING!
The wife looks up and then back down at the socks.
There you go now, slow and steady, nice even stitches.
Finally, his wife puts down the needle and thread, looks up at her husband, and says, “What the heck is wrong with you? Do you know how many times I’ve sewn socks before?!
 
“EXACTLY THE POINT I WAS TRYING TO GET AT”, hollered the husband, “DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’VE DRIVEN A CAR BEFORE!? www.greatcleanjokes.com
 
Wow, how many times do we exchange hurt for hurt? What would relationships look like if we practiced emotional integrity, in other words, sharing a need instead of burying a need and allowing it to become a resentment? I can tell you, there would be fewer divorces and many more healthier relationships.

For more encouragement, join our Facebook community at www.facebook.com/trenchclassesunited and take a tour at www.trenchclassesunited.com

Kim-Evinda

Can you imagine a life without fear? Thanks for joining us for Monday’s Message with Abigail Rice and Trench Classes United.

In a world full of chaos, it may be hard to imagine a fearless life, and because of the human condition, to be 100% fear-free 100% of the time may not be possible, but something to look forward to and mirror as best as we can until we see Him face to face.
Imagine…with Abigail.
 
Look around
Soak in the love
The colors of pastel
Painted by the sun
As it sets into its resting place
Soaking up energy for the next day
 
Look around
Soak it up
The sticky fingers
The lumps of mud
As popsicles run
Melting in the summer sun
 
Pray
and be okay
Knowing that this is the season for growth
and this is the time for change
 
Time to change your perspective
and really, truly let Him
Take hold
As you let go
 
Free falling into open air
Crashing down
And down you go
But then
You float
 
Laying on your back
Never wanting to look back
Because you are here
At a place in time
with no fear
 
Not because you have built up an abundance
Of earthly possessions
No,
But because you have peace
 
In knowing that you are going
Exactly to the place
He has called you to be
 
Now, let that sink.
 
"and were on great waters.
The seed or grain of the Shihor,
The harvest [due to overflow] of the Nile River,
Was [Tyre's] revenue, and she became the merchandise of the nations."
 
"But her gain and her hire [the profits of Tyre's new prosperity] will be dedicated to the Lord [eventually]; it will not be treasured or stored up, for her gain will be used for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord [the ministers], that they may eat sufficiently and have durable and stately clothing [suitable for those who minister at God's altar.]" - Isaiah 23: 3 and 18

-Abigail Rice