Life is a Rolling Session

Here’s the thought for the morning…

When someone is in the center of God’s will… When someone is on the path that God has intended for them what happens? Is it going to be an easy road to go down? Not usually… Why? Because, Satan is going to do everything in his will power to stop it from happening.

When God has great plans satan is going to try to destroy them and he’s going to use whatever resources necessary to block that path or take you down the wrong path.

If satan can use suicide, he’ll plant that thought, if he can use issues between spouses, family or friends, he’ll use it. If he can use financial troubles, trust me… He’ll break everything that is important to you… Costing you several thousands of dollars in vehicle repairs… For MONTHS! Or maybe that’s just me… Anyway, those thoughts of doubt, lack of confidence, frustration… If you are in God’s will you are going to go through it without a doubt and you’re job is to come out on top…

You know, when we do Jiu-Jitsu, yes, I’m relating a God thing to Jiu-Jitsu… But when we do Jiu-Jitsu the first thing in learning it is to stay on top. Stay in a dominant position. You get kids in there that are rag dolls and will essentially let you do whatever, you get others that will fight like their life depends on it, and you get others that give it everything they’ve got, but due to their lack of knowledge they know they are essentially along for the ride and when they get stuck they start asking questions in which their partner gives them the basic tips. The latter is my favorite newbies to roll with…

But you see, that first roll, the first several rolls, you aren’t going to catch any submissions… You are going to get crushed, choked, armbarred, get caught in shoulder locks, leg locks, ankle/wrist locks, it’s unavoidable until you start learning to hold your own through a roll. When you are first starting Jiu-Jitsu there really is really no feeling that is better than when you make your first roll without getting submitted, did you win? Yeah, I consider it so, because you didn’t lose either. You held your ground and you didn’t give in and you didn’t open an opportunity to be submitted.

Eventually as time goes on your rolls become more fluid, more functional, more purposeful and you can start processing what is going on during a roll and you can start landing submissions and it starts making you feel better about your rolls.

I guess looking at life, looking at being where God needs us to be and satan doing his best to stop it I can easily look at it as a live rolling session, stay on top, stay dominant, fight for the submission… Yeah, you’re going to have bad times, you’re going to feel like you aren’t getting anywhere because you are frequently being submitted, but the test comes with are you going to get over yourself bump fists and go again?

And the thing is, that even before you can get to the finished product of a good roll, there’s a crap load of conditioning to help you get through that roll, cardio, strength… It’s not fun… It’s a challenge, but it’s important to keep you on the mat without injury and preforming at your best. The roll is not all there is to it… Where in life, the trial is not all there is to it. You can still prepare to a degree, you can still condition yourself to handle it better.

Keep sight of why you are going through what you are going through, know that there’s a purpose and a reason and know that it’s our job to not let satan ruin it. Because again, being on God’s path is the last thing he wants.

God has a plan for greatness… and has had them since the beginning of time. Sometimes we see it, sometimes we don’t.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

 

God Bless,

Jessica

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My Stand With Firearms

Sooo… I know with all the hype on the gun bans and crap and everyone flipping out over the ARs and every other firearm for whatever dumb reason, which just a side note, but those ARs are freaking AMAZING! Anyway, this may or may not be the best time to write on this but honestly my decision in writing this was made solely on my own with nothing to do with the current or past issues…

I was checking in on a Concealed Handgun Class at a local gun range and the guy that I spoke with was explaining to me the importance of getting my license and keeping up with my skills so that I was able to use them confidently at any given moment. He proceeded to explain to me that they average out at 3 people a year who are involved in shootings and that it was again, important to stay up with a Carry license.

Which, I totally agree. I had the opportunity to get my handgun and license last year and I opted not to because… In my mind, if I can’t protect my weapon it would be about the equivalent of me shooting myself. I say that because my reaction times were slow, I didn’t know how I would handle close attacks and even if I managed to draw my weapon, could I do it before it got taken from me? Would I have the capability of handling multiple attackers?

So instead I chose to take MMA and Jiu-Jitsu, since, my confidence has improved, my awareness has improved, my reaction times have improved and heaven forbid I don’t have a firearm accessible to me, I can still defend myself AND if it comes to a situation that doesn’t necessarily need lethal force, but needs a good choke sunken in to de-escalate the situation I have that ability. I think one of my biggest concerns with relying on lethal force to protect me was wondering, what if it came to a “friend?” I’ve been in that situation and I can tell you now, knowing me, I wouldn’t be able to shoot them. Even in that situation. I wouldn’t have been able to do it. So I wanted alternative ways in handling things.

Now, that being said. In my opinion, firearms self-defense and Martial Arts go hand in hand, you need them both. But the more I’m being exposed to the crazy of this world and some of the crazy even just in my new line of work with Swedish Massage the more I’m finding that we need to have something that makes an impact, that will stop someone before things go beyond bad. The more people we have who are RESPONSIBLY carrying the better off we will be. It takes one, one to make the first move and the others will follow and when crap hits the fan the unarmed are going to be looking for the ones who can protect them and more often than not, they are going to try to get with someone who is armed. Someone made the point after the shooting in Dallas that people ran to the ones who had guns to protect them…

Personally myself, I’ve always felt more comfortable around people who are willing to use lethal force if the situation called for it and there’s a kind of comfort when I’m around people I know are carrying. For myself, I think that it is an advantage that my clients will have as I go deeper into the massage industry because should anything happen, when I am carrying to protect myself, I’m going to protect my clients as well and honestly, I’ll probably have a big fat sign on my office window saying “Concealed Carriers Welcome” or something to that effect…

I really don’t see what all the hype is about people carrying, I challenge you to go look at the statistics on concealed carrying and ask yourself, Do you trust police, law enforcement, military, whoever you want to refer too? What makes someone who wants to protect their family and friends any different? Even if they only want to protect themselves? Sure, maybe they’ve not had decent training and aren’t all that good of a shot, from what I hear, that could be one thing that Texas might improve on is requiring a certain level of training to ensure safety. But I think the biggest thing that separates your RESPONSIBLE concealed carrier and your police officer is that one is doing it as a job and lifestyle, and the other is simply doing it as a lifestyle to protect themselves and their family and friends. So with that being said ask yourself this… What makes your responsible concealed carrier any more dangerous than your average police officer? They are both people, they both have feelings, they both make mistakes, it boils down to responsibility and how much they care.

We all know that gun-free zones mean nothing to someone who is going to cause trouble, we all know police though may respond as fast as they can, may not respond fast enough. Why throw a tantrum over needing gun bans and removing the people who would be willing to protect you whether intentional or not, because if they are protecting themselves, family or friends inadvertently they are going to protect you. Or maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll happen to notice your children and they’ll do what they can to get your children or you and your children out of harm’s way if they have the ability… You never know. But people don’t consider this stuff till crap hits the fan and it’s too late.

Anyway… All that to say in a roundabout way, get informed, be responsible, be safe, not paranoid, but ready. Carry a handgun, learn martial arts and lets quit accusing the weapons of being something they aren’t. Because the weapons themselves aren’t dangerous… Seriously, a horse or a dog is more dangerous than that weapon… Shoot, your freaking house cat is more dangerous than that weapon… Your cat alone could be a weapon with a mind of its own… Just throw it at whoever is breaking into your house and they’ll run screaming like a little girl after that cat is done with them…

Ok, I think I’m done now… I feel like I haven’t gotten to my point… But it’s sounding good in my head… So I’ll go with it…

God Bless,

Jessica