Tag: life

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Broken

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28‬ NLT)

As a counselor, I saw a lot of broken people. One thing I witnessed was, in the times when my clients were the most broken – God would show up in a mighty way. It was beautiful and always moved me. That is the God we serve – God is Love (1 John 4:8).

If you feel like you are broken right now – know that there is a God who loves you & is there for you. He has already carried the burdens to the Cross so He is waiting for you to hand it over to Him (1 Peter 5:7). All you need to do is fully surrender it into His Hands!

Be blessed everyone. May His peace rule your life.

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Generations

A great leader leads his family first.  My grandfather was that type of man. He was not someone who you would notice in a crowd or ask to lead a company.  No, he was not one to be in the spotlight.  But the thing he understood was the value of those around him.

This year marks 20 years since he has passed.  It is fitting – and no way ironic – that the vision for my church home is Generational Blessings.  My life has been blessed because it was set on a foundation that Milburn Brook Gann built.

It was never the big things that I remember fondly – it was the small things.  For instance, how he planted a yellow rose bush – because I have blond hair – and, every time it bloomed, he’d bring me a rose.  Or just sitting and listening to me talk as a very young child – hanging on every word.  In those seemingly small acts, he taught me my value.

He was a man of character – a man who loved God.  He set the standard for us who came after him.

So, you may be asking why do I decide to write to you about this person?  Is it to brag on him a little?  Partly, yes it is – because he deserves it.  But it is also to outline the responsibility we all play to those around us.  As my church leadership speaks on the importance of setting a great example for the next generation – I cannot think of a better example in my personal life.

To make an impact on the generations around me – I don’t need to be a successful business person or a person of great wealth.  I just need to let those around me know how valuable they are.  This could be in sincerely listening to people when they talk or tiny, yet meaningful acts of kindness or just spending quality time with someone who may need it.  It doesn’t take much to impact the world.  It just takes true effort.

I encourage you to watch your actions and understand the impact they have on others.  If small acts of kindness can make a positive act on someone that lasts a generation – so can small acts of carelessness.

Be blessed, everyone.

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Another day…

This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. (‭Psalms‬ ‭118‬:‭24‬ NLT)

This is the first full week of 2015 – a chance to start again & change some things up. One of the things that I am doing this year is making everyday count – not waisting a day to laziness. Why? Because God gave me another day!

With the world as it is, we are blessed to wake up & get another chance to make a difference. How many people do not get that chance today?

What are you going to do with that chance?

Be blessed everyone!!

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Healing – The Next Step

Healing – an essential part of life. So often, when we seek healing, it is for the physical…for sickness in our bodies in some form. Emotional healing is just as essential. Just like the physical, without it, we could die.

Unforgiveness is a poison no one needs to hold onto. Please see more on this in my post Forgive 4 U. We must not let people/situations hurt us so much that we cannot move on – that is the work of the enemy!

Healing needs to come – which begins with forgiveness. Unfortunately, there is more to it than that. After forgiveness, there still might be some pain. The emotions & the changes that occurred due to the incident(s) can be hard to swallow. Don’t give up! Don’t let the enemy steal your joy!

1 Peter 2:24 says: He Himself (Christ) bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live righteousness; by his wounds we have been healed.” (NIV). Give all these things over to God & lay them at the Cross. Jesus already paid it all so that we might live in victory. Let God fight this battle for us.

I pray that in this new year, the things that we have held onto for years will fall away & we might be able to enjoy life the way God intended it to be.

Be blessed everyone!

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Happy New Year!

I greatly encourage you to write down what you are expecting for this new year.  Put something on paper.  It is more final. Take some time today to do this.  Here are what I am declaring for myself in 2015:

  1. Stop all self-centered thinking and behavior. It is exhausting and hurts everyone around me…including me.
  2. I am going to start seeing the prophesies that have been spoken over me to come to pass. It is a necessary thing for my Heavenly Destiny. I must live out my PURPOSE.
  3. The things of my past – thinking, acting, living – will be put to rest and a new me will become the norm. My latter needs to be better than my former.
  4. Absolutely no more laziness. There are times of rest that is needed, yes, but no more procrastinating or putting things off. It hinders my progression.
  5. Take more ”me” time – I need to learn more and more how it is to truly rest rather than working to the point where I crash. There must be a balance.
  6. Take care of my body – health wise. I do not need to be skinny to be happy, but I do want to be healthy. Watching what I eat and exercising more is necessary for a better me.
  7. Read the Bible in some form EVERYDAY! My relationship with God is the most important thing…I need to start really walking that fact out.
  8. I am expecting a greater peace than I have ever known. Not worrying about the small, insignificant things and allowing God to take care of the rest of it.
  9. Focus on what the plan of God is for my life and do things that will get me to where I need to be – I can’t just sit and wait for Him to do it all. I must go out and plant those seeds myself. I cannot wait to see what He is going to do…
  10. Owning what I do and apologize when necessary. Forgive others when necessary, as well….as quickly as possible.
  11. Work on me…staying self-aware and know when I need to do work on me. Not allowing life to get in the way of remaining a vessel the Lord finds pleasing.
  12. NO MORE DOUBTING!
  13. Pray for bold things. A lot.
  14. Love people the way they are…no matter what they do.
  15. Understand what is truly important in life and put my emphasis in that. No more giving a lot of my time to things/situations/people that are not worthy of it. Realize that I am valuable…just as much as everyone else is. Make sure that, when things go wrong, you lose everything, when life gets really hard, that what you have built will remain. If you build things on sandy ground, when the storm comes, things may not remain. Build your house on solid ground.

Be blessed everyone!!

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The Seed That Was Sown

This year (2014), my church declared the theme to be Greater. Greater things were supposed to happen this year for all of us. As I look back on my year – my idea of what a Greater year was not what God had in mind. It was a little crazy, a little chaotic, and a little painful. How is this greater?

If you understand God, you know that He works in mysterious ways. He sees the big picture & has our life all laid out before us, knowing each move we are to make in order for our life to end up where it should.

I truly believe, and declaring, that the things I (& many others) experienced is a time of Greater by way of purging the ground & in seeds sown. There are some seeds that need time to manifest, to create roots.

Trust that God (our Abba) has our backs!! He holds our world in His hands!

I’ll leave you with this Parable.

Be blessed, everyone!

One day Jesus told a story in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him: “A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants. Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted!” When he had said this, he called out, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they look, they won’t really see. When they hear, they won’t understand.’ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word. The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved. The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation. The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity. And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest. (‭Luke‬ ‭8‬:‭4-15‬ NLT)

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Shift, shift

Have you ever felt like things just keep going wrong? No matter what you do, you just can’t get it right.  So many believe that this is an attack – and it very well may be – but I also believe that God will do this in our lives when He is ready for something else to come in.  He must make room.  As a new year approaches, I believe that He is getting a lot of His people ready for new things.  If you are going through a situation like this – I encourage you to take some time and seek God;s face.  Let Him show you what your current season means.  I truly believe that we are going to start seeing a great shift in Christ’s people.

The following scripture was above the main stairwell at my University.  It always remained above our heads, covering us.  Let it cover you today.

For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for well-being and not for trouble, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Be Blessed

Shift

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The Race

Are you a people pleaser? Well, I am. I absolutely hate when someone doesn’t like me. Odds are, I am going to come into contact with a number of people who will not approve of who I am and what I do.

There was a time in my life that this idea would consume me – so much that I would do everything to make sure it didn’t happen. That way of life is a slippery slope and I found myself in a place where I no longer knew who I was. That is not just a problem for me…but also for our Creator. He “knit us together in (our) mothers’ womb(s)” (Psalm 139:13). We are to work & please Him only, not others. (See Romans 12:2).

Now, my goal is to make Him happy. Do I still fall into the pattern of my past? Of course, I am human. But I don’t let it control me or change who I am. We are all too precious to compromise who we are in Him for someone else…who isn’t Him.

No, this post is not a post encouraging rebellion against authority. God has commanded us to list to authority and follow their commands – see Mark 12:17. We cannot make false gods of them, though.

One of my favorite quotes by Mother Teresa reads:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway

Also, ponder this scripture:

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! (‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭1-3‬ MSG)

We are to live for the One who gave His life so that we can live. Follow His lead. Live like that & I truly believe you will know what it is like to be happy. Be you & trust Him – it is enough.

Be blessed.

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Confessions of a Control Freak

Trust – one of the most beautiful things in this world. There is something about someone giving you their trust – it shows you how much they value you. It is also one of the hardest things to give to people and yet is the one of the few components in a relationship that you need to be in relationship with someone. I think our society, especially, has an issue with trust as we are so independent. We take care of ourselves and then take care of those around us. Eat or be eaten, right?

How this is so far from the message of Christ. One thing that strikes me in the story of the time between when Christ is captured and before He is crucified is how He just takes it (see John 18). He doesn’t give His accusers the satisfaction of saying that they are right, but He also doesn’t try to run. He knows His assignment and puts up with whatever He needs to do in order to get His job done.

I am all for independence and fighting for what you believe in, fighting for your boundaries, and keeping your dignity. God does not want us to be miserable. He desires for us to be happy and content, living well. Is this always the case? No, it isn’t. Unfortunately, because we live in a world where there is turmoil everywhere – we will have to face trials.

If you are like me, when you go through trials – you try to figure things out. I can actually make myself sick trying to figure things out. I want to know what is going to happen when I take the turn in front of me. I don’t want to put myself at risk for being hurt or to be put in a more precarious position that I already am in. The issue with this mindset is that I do not control the universe. I didn’t speak the world into existence. I am not omnipresent or live absent of time. I am here on this Earth, walking this thing out, living day to day. I do not have the capabilities of controlling such things. I MUST trust God.

There are times when I will struggle with this for days. As a result, I must repent. Why? Because not trusting God is actually a sin. We are telling Him that we know better than He does – with is rebellion. That is the original sin. I am making more of this situation than I need to – all is asked of me is to trust Him and follow Him. Simple, right?

Ponder this scripture: When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. Isaiah 43:2 NLT

For all you fellow control freaks – know that whatever you must endure, God will not allow it to consume you, but will be right there beside you (Matthew 28:20). God has it all planned out. Just trust Him!

Be blessed

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We are all Anne Frank

I was recently watching a movie where, for one scene, they visited Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdame. I have read her diary and learned her story, as many have, but while watching the movie, a concept hit me that I have not given much thought – Anne, someone who is pretty much known world wide as giving a voice to the victims of one of the world’s worst genocides – died at the young age of 15 not knowing how great her impact on this world will be. It is all because her father decided to publish her diary that we now know who this old-soul is.

Very few of us will have this type of world-wide legacy, but do we fully understand how Our Father can use even the simplest of things we say & do without us even knowing it? I don’t think so. I honestly don’t think we understand the authority God gave us when he created us in His image (both male & female). See Genesis 1:26-27.

How often do we say or do things without thinking, especially when we are around people we don’t know? A lot, at least for me – if I am perfectly honest. Are we considering the fact that God may be bringing people into out lives for even just a moment so we can show them Him? Or how He can use us to answer a prayer? Like Anne Frank, our impact on people’s lives may never be fully understood by us, but to those we, even briefly, come into contact with are potentially changed forever because Our Father is using those little, somewhat insignificant things to change the world.

I dare say that we have a responsibility, first to God and then to each other, to always be us and don’t waiver because we had a bad day or people wouldn’t like it.

Ponder this scripture:

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭14-16‬ NLT)

No matter how small the thing is – a smile, holding the door open, a thank you – it can be used by God because we are made in His image & there is no thing that He does that leaves a small aspect.

Be blessed.

anne