Overcoming One Day At A Time

There is something beautiful in a woman's soul that enables us to carry the weight of our world. We want to help, to love, and to nurture those around us, whether its our kids, our family, our friends, and even perfect strangers. I believe, as women, we are entrusted with the gift of being able to unfold the layers, breaking down the walls that others build because of the things life has brought into their story. All of us have been hurt in some way. We yearn to feel loved, valued, and cherished; wanting to mean something to the people around us. I thank God that each of us are created with different strengths and weaknesses. Being able to see, truly see and promote other's strengths will help us fight through our weaknesses. In order to focus and help develop another person's strengths we must first learn to be vulnerable. Being vulnerable, plain stinks sometimes. None of us want to come across weak or feeble. Most of us would rather hide behind a broken smile than to fac...

  As I was praying this morning, renewing my mind because the last thing I want to do is sit another day in the dang chair with an IV in my chest I just prayed for God to show me hope beyond what it is I see in the natural. Show me to see the future with rays of light even when my mind is saying theres no light at the end of the tunnel. So I wrote, God spoke to my spirit.... I share a bit of a journey here and there in hopes that God's strength is shown in our weakness. I never would have guessed 10 years ago that life would be where it is, perfectly imperfect in every way. Maybe you are there too asking God why is xyz happening? Why do some people get healed while some suffer for years causing them to run from God, lose their faith, and give up on the dreams birthed in their heart years ago? No  one wants to be in physical, emotional, or spiritual pain. No one. No matter how much they may say it, in the end we all want to be happy. Truth is happiness doesn't ...

Sometimes overwhelmed with labs, tests, surgeries, treatments etc I forget to focus on spending quality time with my little bits. I need to spend time with myself, still working on that. One of my pastors had challenged me this year to really focus on me and forget about pleasing and doing for everyone else. At first  I thought how selfish this sounded. However, as the months went on God spoke to my spirit about what it really meant. It meant to find value in ME. If I don't, then how can anyone else? If I see myself as broken then how can I help others? If I'm trying to please everyone else but I'm falling apart how is that healthy? I began the long slow journey of trying to find me....the new me...yes I have limitations and challenges and the whole nine. Yes my life revolves around yearning to be in church, but treatments and drs visits etc, have overwhelmed my life but WHO AM I? I am not the conditions that attack my body. My soul is so much more than that. My soul and s...

Do you know what your love language is? Focus on the Family has made it their mission to help marriages in ways not many others have found solid ground. Having been frustrated in long term relationships and then in my own marriage we sought out answers as to why we don't FEEL loved for years. Through counseling years ago, research and learning tools in our marriage we were able to pin point key reasons why we didnt show each other the love the way we interpret and need to be loved. After taking The test I found out my two love languages are Acts of Service and Quality Time. Acts of Service Can vacuuming the floors really be an expression of love? Absolutely! Anything you do to ease the burden of responsibilities weighing on an "Acts of Service" person will speak volumes. The words he or she most want to hear: "Let me do that for you." Laziness, broken commitments, and making more work for them tell speakers of this language their feelings don't ma...

Leaving room for God to move in your life.... Sometimes we don't realize how FULL of junk our room is until we start going through box, bookshelf, dresser, each layer laying out a part of our life currently, or from the past. I have a hard time letting go of things. I don't have much of anything of actual monetary value, but a lot of things I value that are taking up too much room in my room, my house, and my life. Sometimes we have to reevaluate the things we value and if they are really adding to our life or just taking up space. As I've mentioned I battle daily with chronic conditions that limit my functioning like most people. I have found sometimes these limitations to be a blessing because it has made me HAVE to stop moving. I have to let my body catch up to my mind and this is hard work for my body, a lot of times it never makes it where I feel like I should.  Something I realized is how much pressure I put on myself to be like everyone else, to go to all the mo...

I wrote this a few years ago but it still rings true.... I got awoken from my sleep to write to you... I dont know who this is for but I want to slap you!! Now that I have your attention, I want to slap everyone who h olds a cigarette to their mouth! I dont care who you are or how old you are or how long you have been smoking. My mom was only 47 when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. It starts on a cellular level to grow ten years prior to that. I want you to look at your kids, your bother, your sister and imagine them watching you helplessly on a ventilator fighting to survive. They stand there helpless while the drs come in and say they have done all they can do. The way you think your treatment will go, wont be that smooth. I want you to imagine your worst pain that you can imagine, being alive, somewhat awake but under enough that you cant speak. I want you to imagine your children praying and looking helpless deciding on if they should take you off the ventilator. “This wont ...

I wrote this in April but never got to post it. Hope it helps someone :) Thoughts  at treatment today, It's the cold, unending winter storm that strikes with unpredictability, but makes us appreciate the beautiful days so much more! Our faith is the same, I appreciate even the small blessings most people overlook. Just being able to be out of the hospital, when the sun starts poking through the clouds it gives hope and a peace that transcends all understanding.  Last year at this very time I was in the hospital for 5 days right up until Easter. I was discharged with catheters in enormous pain etc from yet another surgery and complications. That time and time again has left me to rely solely on God for his help and healing. We still made it just in time for egg hunt at church, even though I was in no condition to be there my kids needed it and Jesus is the reason for the holiday after all. He rose again and so will I! I had to be in wheelchair and ...

I was in the hospital yet again with another infection that stubbornly wouldn't go away. As I laid there alone, at times I wondered what is there to learn from this season that I haven't already learned? What insight can I gain to pass onto the people in my world that this is not for nothing? I thought about the selfless woman in my life and how they are so far and few between. I thought about how God uses the simple things in life to align us with people, with women who will change our destiny if we only say yes, yet too many times, say no. Friendship, fellowship should be a part of our every day life, that is how we give and receive love.  Fellowship is not just something that we try to fit into our Christian life after we get everything else together, it should be a part of our every day life.   1 John 3:16   By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.   Galatians 6:2 (NLT)  Share eac...

The bible tells us in Colossians 3:2 - "Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." I know some days I can feel that super natural strength and other days I feel like I'm using all my strength trying to run my race and people pass me walking. That is not a fun feeling. Its not fun to work hard,push through all of your obstacles, over come them, and turn around still waiting for your breakthrough. We put God first in everything we do, finances, we make church a priority, we volunteer for several things every week,w e give time, love, to the people in our world.  so where is our breakthrough?  This is such a hard question. Its not that I don't deserve it. Its not that I did something wrong, but sometimes someone elses plans are transforming faster than mine. It is soooo hard not t...

Thinking of how my husband has grown over the years. None of us are perfect in any area of life but I am so proud of the man he has become. As father's day comes around in a week I'm thinking of the past decade of our life together, through all the holidays we've missed together because of him working I try to make other days special because its just a day on a calendar. We didn't know how much we would have come against us in our marriage, health, finances, family etc. Together we have made it through a lot of things that make marriages fall apart and I credit our strength to God because it is only through our faith that we can make it through it all. I just have to shout out praise to my hubby, he works day and night at one of the busiest stations and no matter how much back pain hes in, or what he has going on he puts God first, meaning that at work he helps his patients and coworkers with love, humor,  and empathy. He had record number of calls day and night in r...

Yesterday we had our provision of the house offering at church. Its a yearly miracle offering where we sow knowing what we sow into building Gods house. Every year we have seen return from this in some way, sometimes more than 10X amount we have given. As we prayed for this years amount I felt God give us this amount that was way out of our "budget". But I know that the reward for obediance is far greater than the reward of holding money in our hand. When you bless others, bless the church, you bless the generations to come. Not only our church but those in the community that our church partners with, such as this year the church is promising to sow a large amount into the city for their new homeless shelter. This is very much overdue for this area.  . As the challenges surround us daily and make it hard to breathe some days, we look to heaven and know that He has been with us all along and Hes here now. This year we sacrificed the most out of all the years knowing that th...

Sometimes I forget in the chaos of life to stop and just say thank you God for this day. I too quickly get overwhelmed by life's circumstances and feel defeated and discouraged. Its in those moments its important  to stop and take a few moments to put my feelings in check. When we listen to our feelings we begin making decisions based on things that are not necessarily true. Our feelings are finicky, one moment we can be mad, sad, happy all within relatively same time. Its in the moments that we want to fall apart the most that is most important to stand firm on what we know to be truth. We can feel that God doesn't hear us or see us because life isn't going our way but its not the truth. We can feel forgotten but that's not true either. We know he sees every hair on our head. One thing I constantly have to remind myself is to not set my standards of myself to anyone elses. Gods opinion is the one that matters. We can try to find our security in what others say about u...

I'm sitting here again at the infusion center contemplating God's work in and through us. There were many words birthed in my spirit this weekend but I couldn't pin point one thing that I wanted to talk about with God. Sometimes, I feel like saying,  Hello God... You know what I'm thinking so can we get through these valleys of pain and reach the mountain top already? I'm done here. Lord Ive been through so much but you have been the strength in my spirit to carry me through all of it, you have never left me. God wants us to profess what it is we are believing God to do.  God is So for us He desires us to cling to His words by faith. If we are not being challenged, then what do you need faith for? Faith is the hope of things unseen, HOPE that there is something good that's going to come out of situations that seem impossible, crazy, or downright hell. Some of my friends are going through life changing seasons. We are starting yet another tough season but beli...

You thought you had hope, until tragedy took over. You thought life was in control, until it erupted into chaos. You assumed you were strong, until you were suddenly brought to your knees. You thought you walked by faith, until you found yourself consumed in the darkness of despair. Hope is gone. You’re facing circumstances in life that seem insurmountable, even for God. We quickly realize that our problem isn’t that we haven’t trusted God, but that we trusted God and believed He’d come through . . . and He didn’t. He could have prevented our pain and suffering, but He chose not to. We cry out, but there is no answer and our faith takes a tragic turn. But God’s silence is not His solution and His absence is not His answer. His goals are eternal, not earthly. You want a way out . . . He’s making a way through. You crave comfort . . . and He brings you to the Cross. It is there that we realize: we can’t deliver ourselves from a crisis that God himself has orchestrated. God is taki...