There is Life After This and That

So I’ve been participating in this ‘Pray for Your Future Spouse” challenge online. This is not something new to me as I’ve been doing this for some years now but I do believe there is power in numbers! What a beautiful thing that there are over 60,000 people participating in this challenge and prayers are going up each morning!! The challenge is sponsored by a Pastor and his wife out of Chicago (Pastor Jamal & Natasha) and they have been bringing on different people each evening for the daily teaching. Last evening a Pastor & Wife team out of Atlanta led the teaching on ‘purpose’ and how this must be established before entering marriage. At some point during this teaching, Pastor Pittman said, “God don’t waste hurts!” It was at that moment that the Lord spoke to me and told me ‘there is life after “this” and “that”!

Girrrl, I don’t know what your ‘this’ or ‘that’ is but know that it didn’t come to destroy you but rather God is using it as a catalyst for ministry! We’ve all cried to God at some point and asked Him ‘why me’, ‘why this’ and ‘why that’! But God is saying to you that your breaking will cause you to be a blessing to someone else. It’s okay to say to someone who’s going through something, “it’s going to be okay, God will bring you through” but it’s way more effective to be able to say, “it’s going to be okay, God will bring you through because He did the exact same thing for me when I was in this same predicament”! It’s power in your testimony and what I know for sure is that you can’t have a testimony without a test! 

I want to encourage you today and remind you that there is life after ‘this’ and ‘that’! Your ‘this’ may be disappointments, heartbreaks, depression, regrets, mistakes, poor choices, wrong decisions, family hurt, or even church hurt. Your ‘that’ may be substance abuse, alcoholism, financial setbacks, poor credit, promiscuity, disease, addiction (sex, shopping, gambling, food, etc.), divorce, molestation, and the list goes on. I declare this day that there is life after ‘this’ and ‘that’!

The key is to put it in God’s Hands and let Him take all of your ‘this’ and your ‘that’ and make something beautiful out of it! Your ‘this’ and ‘that’ does not define you, it’s not who you are but rather experiences that were instrumental in shaping the woman that God has called you to be! So you don’t have to walk with your head down because it was all on purpose and for PURPOSE! Even with your mistakes, setbacks, and failures, you can have a beautiful life that God uses for His glory!  

Remember: 

You are victorious! You are an overcomer! You are purpose-filled!

Be Encouraged. Be Inspired.

If you're interested in joining the FaceBook Group mentioned the link is below: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mysavedandsingle/ 

When Love Shows Up

Some 'single girl’ cliches have come to fruition in my life recently, ones that I would clinch my pearls when I actually let them come out of my mouth or roll from my fingertips onto my laptop. You know those ones that singles cringe when they hear them because it sounds so condescending and quite frankly, annoying. Ok so where should my top 5 list start: 

1. He’ll come along when you least expect it
2. He’s probably staring you in your face and you just don’t know it yet
3. God is just waiting to give you someone really special
4. Singleness is a gift (I say this one and I know it’s true but still super annoying!)
5. God will bring him at the right time

Although these cliches are incredibly annoying, I can see them manifesting in my life! God definitely seems to be moving when I least expected it! As is the focus of this blog, empowering Christian women to be their absolute best, I’ve been working on creating the best version of myself. The thing is, I’m not there yet. I’m not at the place where I’d thought I’d be when love would show up. You know we all have that vision of being fully together when love shows up: mind, body, finances, business, and the list goes on. We all want to bring our best to the table, not our mess to the table. The one cliche I didn’t include above is that God is indeed the author of our love story and it is He who holds the pen. I’m amazed and baffled at the way He is crafting my current chapter. Case in point: 

1. I was not expecting love
2. It has been staring me in my face for a while
3. I discern the special wow factor
4. Singleness is indeed a gift but one that I’m okay exchanging 
5. This is the one I struggle with: the right time

The timing seems all wrong by my account but then I hear the spirit of the Lord remind me that He is the author of time and that He transcends time. His timing is not ours - trust me, I sent him my plans some time ago and I do believe he LOL’d me and said Girrrl Stop! I gave him my plans and He overrode them. The ‘breaking’ I have been experiencing was once cloudy to me but the Lord is revealing the ‘why’ and making it clearer each day. I never wanted to be in a vulnerable state when love showed up but that seems to be what God had planned for me. Maybe it’s at this place of vulnerability that the Lord will be able to effectively use me - flaws and all. 

Hello Love, I’m elated you’re here! 

   

Who's The Boss?

In the midst of my inspirational training, I heard the presenter say, “You are the boss of your feelings, not the other way around”. Whet what? You mean to tell me all this time I was actually the one in charge? I could control my own feelings and not let them control me? Why yes! You are the boss of how you feel but then that leads to the question, what is the root cause of your feelings? One word: ingestion. 

By its most common definition ingestion is the process of taking food, drink, or another substance into the body by swallowing or absorbing it. It could also mean the process of absorbing information. What I’m suggesting here is that your feelings are usually directly tied to what you are ingesting or taking in. 

Anybody have a friend, co-worker or even family member that literally zaps the life out of you with their negativity? As soon as you see them, they begin to be negative, complain, gossip, or whatever else and the next thing you know, you’re feeling down or tired with no explanation why! You just ate some grade-A, certified negativity and now it is in your system working its way out through how you feel. 

The same way you would get the bubble guts if you drank some spoiled milk is the same way your spirit will be affected if you ate or drank some spoiled vibes. God instructs us to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Psalm 34:8). To be in full control of your feelings starts first with what you are taking in! When you’re feeling down, take in God’s Word and let it saturate your spirit! Also ingest some positive thoughts, videos, readings, conversations with positive friends, etc. Do what you need to do to switch things around. I mentioned I was taking inspirational training because I was feeling uninspired. So I took in or ingested some material that would get me inspired, hence this post! 

So to all my real ‘boss chicks’ out there - watch what you ingest, it will be the difference between your spirit being bubbly or bubbling out of control! 

Remember: 

You are brave! You are beautiful! You are blissful!

Be Encouraged. Be Inspired.