Mom's Journey Blog

I'm grateful that God never gave up on me; that He never decided that I was a "lost cause". Let me explain; I will use many songs to do this.

I was born and raised in Colombia, South America, by Lutheran missionaries Arlene and Viesturs Pavasars. I was baptized when I was about a month old and my parents were faithful to read the Bible to me, take me to Sunday School where I learned a lot of Bible verses and Christian childrens songs, have devotionals with my brothers and I every night when we read Bible stories, sang Christian songs in English and Latvian, and prayed together before going to bed, and made sure I went with them to church every Sunday. I confirmed my faith in the Our Redeemer ("El Redentor") Lutheran church in Bogota, Colombia, when I was 15. I never drank, smoked or had sex before I married in 1995.

Then, in December of 1997, my husband left me for another woman and asked for a divorce. I was devastated. I then started questioning everything my parents had taught me and what I had learned in church as I grew up. I still did not drink much nor smoked at all because it just didn't make me feel good, but I did decide that sex outside of marriage was perfectly fine; I was looking for love in all the wrong places and got badly hurt emotionally and physically.

Finally, out of desperation, I cried out to God, and I felt like he responded to me with the words in this song sung by "Tenth Avenue": "By Your Side"

I started to realize the immense love that God had for me. That He would be there for me. That everything would be okay. That I needed to stop fighting Him and doing things my way.

Then God reminded me "I was there to here your borning cry, I'll be there when you are old; I rejoiced the day you were baptized to see your life unfold." Yes, in a blaze of light I had wandered off "to find where demons live", yet He reminded me that He was still there for me; that I was raised to praise the living Lord, to whom I belonged. You can listen to all the words of this beautiful song by clicking here: "Borning Cry"

I responded with gratefulness as He reminded me of His great faithfulness. This hymn was my song to Him: "Great is Thy Faithfulness"

Still a lot happened in my life.... I had a baby out of wedlock and had to work from the time my baby, Emmanuel David was just 6 weeks old. I was still addicted to sex and had and affair with a man that was married, though I honestly only wanted a friendship with him; I was tempted and fell into temptation, instead of running to God to help me resist temptation. I left that place of work after a year of working there and ended up at the place where I met my current husband - Dana Hayden. He was the person who had come to fix the air conditioning, and, though I wasn't initially attracted to him, as he was to me, we ended up getting married 9 months later.

I was able to stay home with my almost-3-year-old son and not have to leave him anymore during the day in order to get the money to pay the monthly bills. I became a stay at home, but not only to him, but to Dana's 2 sons, who were 9 and 11 at the time. A year later, we also had a baby girl; she never had to be left with a babysitter, and for that I will always be grateful.

As time went by, my love for God grew more. My desire to study His Word and learn His ways has deepened with every passing day. My greatest desire is to serve Him and become more like Him every day. I know without a shadow of doubt that "He who began a good work in me WILL complete it", as it says in Philippians 1:6. I know that it's only by God's grace that I have been saved, through faith in Jesus Christ; nothing that I have done nor can do can save me so that I may never boast, as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9. However, I desire to grow and be more like Him every day simply out of gratitude for all that He has done for me. He has always watched over me, protected me, and loved me with an unconditional love; He has forgiven me so much and has never decided I was a "lost cause", so how can I not love Him back? I want to be like Him; I want the fruit of His Holy Spirit to be manifested through me so that others will desire to come to Him and be transformed and well. I want others to know how much He loves them as well, and how He accepts them and will never rule them as a lost cause either, regardless of what they have done in their life.

I finished my current Oola book - "Oola for Christians" - and realized that God has made a way for me to combine Fitness, Faith, and Field (work). 😍 That is why my journey in Young Living has been so awesome for me 😍 My Family and Friends that are to be with me for a lifetime will be those who journey with me with those same values, and together we will have so much Fun in life as we become more and more Financially fit. That encompasses all 7 Fs of my Oola life - a life of balance in every area.

Just wanted to share that insight with you in this blogpost ... that lightbulb moment.... because it was just such a great insight for me. It’s all just coming together beautifully and I’m so much more peaceful now - I no longer worry about those that don’t journey with me or make different choices than I do. It just means that they are not on the same path as I am; our paths are diverging, while at the same time my path is converging with that of others, and I just have to let God decide all of that for me. I just need to continue to build my relationship with Him day by day and allow Him to use in any way He desires, without making excuses.

I love how God continues working in my life and then lets me know along the way how it’s all coming together 😍

I can't seem to upload my video on this website, so please follow this link to read the blog post I wrote on my business website:   https://getoiling.com/MessengersOfHope/blog/6731/why-i-joined-young-living-and-made-sharing-about-it-my-lifetime-career

Have an amazing day!

As the saying goes, it’s best to teach a person how to fish than it is to simply give them a fish to feed their family for the day. It’s good to be generous with our money and help those in need, of course, but  every person we are able to EMPOWER by giving them a chance to start and build their own business, something only a few people could accomplish before network marketing came into existence, is an opportunity for which they will end up being grateful for the rest of their lives.

That’s why I love sharing about the great opportunity Young Living offers, The journey-length to reach the top leadership position will vary for each person depending on many factors, but the person we become during this exhilarating journey is priceless 😍😎 Not only will we have made it a habit to live fit and healthy lifestyles, thereby enhancing our health in physically, mentally, and emotionally, but we will have helped many others on their journey as well, and our character will be radically transformed. 

If you think God could never use you to bless someone else and to impact the lives of many others in POWERFUL ways, this post is for you. Read on. 😍

I was ridden with guilt and shame because of things I had done in the past. I never thought God would choose to use me in any way because of the horrible character traits I had, and still struggle with actually. But I understand now what the apostle Paul now says - it’s not that I’ve attained perfection yet, but I have left the past behind and strive towards the goal God has set before me.

The devil loves to make me relive things I’ve done in the past - things like being incredibly disrespectful and unloving to my mom, being terribly impatient with my kids and yelling at them a lot as they grew up, and having several affairs with men after my first husband left me (some married, some single, some going through divorce). The shame and guilt I carried around for years caused me to believe I deserved to be punished and mistreated and never, ever succeed in the area where I had felt a strong pull from God to do.

Now, after spending a few years focused on completely surrendering every part of my life to God, whenever I am attacked with self-defeating thoughts I simply agree with the devil and let him know “Yes, I know that I’ve done all those things and still struggle, but praise be to God for HIS power is made more visible in my weaknesses. He is still working in my life daily and will be faithful to complete that work, just as He promised. What you meant for evil, to sabotage my life story, God will weave together in amazing ways to bless others in ways I can’t even yet imagine or comprehend.” Fear, shame and guilt no longer get me down. God is transforming me into a confident leader and, as long as I stay connected to Him and rely on HIS power and wisdom in order to lead those He places in my path, amazing things will continually happen as He works through me.

The same kind of thing can happen to you! 😎 Just relinquish every part of your life to God and allow Him to have complete control. Then, tell others all He does in your life and through you so that others can have a HOPE they never imagined possible.