MY GREATEST STRENGTH

Is knowing that I CONSTANTLY need God!!! Today ends the Ramadan fasting, and I’m thrilled as to where I began, to where I am now. No shame in my game, I cried out to God, ‘HELP ME!!!’ and He delivered me from all the crazy thoughts that were just keeping your girl here so down all the time. I’m still not where I want to be, but I’m happy I’m not where I used to be. Thank You, God!

A big part of my transformation came from listening to MANY a sermons from Devon Franklin (search YouTube for him) who tapped into exactly where I was going wrong in so many areas. In fact, I be getting on everyone nerves saying, “Devon said I shouldn’t eat sweets. Devon said I should cut out so much Netflix. Devon said I should not eat fried foods. Devon said I should wake up and have appointments with God. Devon said that I should get an earlier start on my day. Devon said I should FOCUS more. Devon said I should stop judging.” Told ya, I’ve been getting on everyone’s nerves!

But I’m happy with his TRUTH talks that have me working on becoming the best version of myself. I may fall a million times in the process, but I pick myself up a million and one with my focus continually on God asking Him to take my hand like a little girl, and we keep going together.

This morning, I listened to a sermon from him asking people to come up for an altar call who needed more strength from God to resist the temptation to live beneath their calling. I STILL need more strength from God to help me to FOCUS MORE and to stop being so distracted. I watched my daughter, Julie, sit down yesterday for the longest time at our dining room table with a mission to complete a book that she gave herself two weeks to finish. God, I need your STRENGTH to help me more hardworking, diligent and FOCUSED like my daughter. When I told her this, she prayed, “God, help me to be more like my mom, kinder.” (SMILE)

About nine years ago, I had hit rock bottom in regards to my weight after trying so many diets, pills, shakes and exercise plans that I felt like I was losing my mind when I cried out to God, “Help me!” He answered by sending me Dr. Joel Fuhrman. My mom saw him on a late-night infomercial and excitedly told me about him the next morning (seeing all the pain her daughter was in to lose weight!). That did it! I’m still sticking with him following his recommendation of eating lots of raw fruits and veggies, using little to no oil and making my diet 80-90% fruits, veggies and beans. I’m down between 50 – 60 lbs without constant dieting and, most importantly, losing my mind! God came to my rescue after that prayer for sure. Something about crying out to Him!

We can do anything with God! Any addictions, problems, or challenges? Say this pray with me, God, I need Your strength to help me _.” Fill in the blank!

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“I’M JUST TRYING TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE” (REPOST)

That was me to my daughters yesterday! I turned into crazy mom to get them to clean their rooms and study. “It’s about having discipline!” is what I told them. And you don’t go far in life without discipline! The hardest thing we have to do is to conquer ourselves and be the people we know we’re capable of being. In fact, I’ve dedicated this entire year to be a more disciplined person. So far, I’m thrilled with the results! I’ve even cut out alcohol altogether. I found that it was only slowing me down. Now I wake up at 5:30 am, excited, feeling like I’m on a personal mission from God, not lazy and hung over.

Being disciplined in our THINKING is another tough one to conquer! Unnecessary thoughts will bounce back and forth all day long if we’re not careful. Today is another fasting day because I’ve noticed that these days are teaching me to focus on what’s essential and to most importantly keep my eyes fixed on God.

When the thoughts tell me to worry, to dwell on the past, to feel guilty, to be irritated by trivial matters, to be sad, I beat my mind with a stick to focus on things that are relevant to my dreams, goals, and aspirations, and my decision to celebrate everyday like a birthday, while still seeking to be the best wife, mother and person possible.

My meditation book had the best advice for me yesterday, a message from God:

“MY CHILD, there are many matters of which it is well for you to be ignorant, and consider yourself as one who is dead upon the earth and to whom the whole world is crucified. There are many things, too, which is well to pass by with a deaf ear, thinking, instead, of what is more to your peace. It is more profitable to turn away from things which displease you and leave to every man his own opinion than to take part in quarrelsome talk. If you stand well with God and look to His judgment, you will more easily bear being worsted (defeated).”

Such great advice! Sometimes we really have to pretend as if we’re ignorant and deaf. Otherwise, we waste precious time and energy fighting useless battles. That’s where this discipline comes in. Someone says or does something offensive to us, and we must DISCIPLINE ourselves to be SILENT and leave them with their own opinion. We must look to please God in every moment and what He thinks of us. Forget other people and what they think, do, or say and keep looking to GOD and seek to always please Him. Trust me, His ways are best!

KEEP CALM—YOU’RE ROLLING WITH GOD

“ARE KENYA AND MARK GETTING A DIVORCE?”

I asked Mr. Google the other day after catching up on some old episodes of The Housewives of Atlanta. I ended up watching a video of Kenya explaining how she was able to compartmentalize the cruel treatment she received from her mother growing up and not allowing it to hold her back from achieving success in her life. I even remember an episode when she took the cameras of this reality show to the mother’s house to confront her, and her mom refused to open the door, with Kenya even hearing her voice through the door. Talk about painful, being rejected your entire life by your mother.

But I love this strategy from Kenya. That little box you see I’m holding in this picture. I want us all running with this idea and continuously placing all the hurts, pains, disappointments, rejections, cruel, abusive and unfair treatments from our past (future ones too!) and hand this box over to God knowing He Himself will pay us back for any wrongs done to us when we stay on the high road with Him:

‘God, please take these painful situations away and help me to keep my focus on You as I work on being ALL that You created me to be. Help me not to dwell on the unpleasant things of life. Instead of focusing on LOW expectations from other humans (nobody’s perfect!), let me hold at the forefront of my mind grand plans, possibilities, goals, and dreams with HIGH expectations of You. Help me not to get discouraged, but encouraged that no matter what has happened in the past, I can still expect a highly successful future with You as my loving Guide and Partner. May I not become bitter, but better, practicing endless grace (forgiveness without punishment) of anyone who has caused me pain in anyway. Amen.’

KK, my peeps?!? As for me, that means sucking up all my blessings in every moment and focusing on being faithful and obedient to God who shows me such love and attention. Like today, I woke up listening to a sermon where the speaker spoke (Check out Bel Air Church’s podcast and Youtube channel) about turning NOUNS INTO VERBS, and he gave several examples. Like an hour later, I did the same thing telling my sister (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY K!) how my daughters love “caking” turning the noun “cake” to a verb “caking.” Then on my run, a few minutes later, I picked a brand new 6K run, and unbelievably Coach Bennet said the same thing about turning a noun into a verb! The God maniac here stopped her running and starting jumping up in excitement because I knew this ALIGNMENT was ALL orchestrated by God to show me HIS deep love for me. I finished that 6K strong- MY GOD IS WITH ME!!!

Are you having your appointments with God every morning and throughout the day? See how he used that very sermon to make me so happy! Don’t miss out on the best life with Him!

WEROLLWITHGOD.COM

“WE’RE GOING TO GO THROUGH A VERY ROUGH TWO WEEKS” (REPOST)

That was from President Trump yesterday. Pretty scary what’s going on right now, but I’m taking this verse as my message from God to us all today when this showed up two different places for me in my appointment with Him this morning:

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]” – John 16:33 (AMP)

I don’t know about you, but I’m holding on to God’s hands super tight right now. It feels like we’re on an airplane going through lots of turbulence, but I’m trusting our Captain (God) to get us safely through. That means we can be of good cheer, positive, and joyful knowing that God is GREATER than ANYTHING that can come against us.

Even going into the food store is such a risk that I ask, “God, is it OK for me to go?” And then I listen. Feelings of peace are what I look for. If I feel anxious, doubt, or stressed out about going in a certain direction, that’s God saying, “No, don’t do that.” Which was me on Sunday, when I tossed around the idea of my daughters picking up some medication for my mom. I was very uneasy about it, and I felt God saying that I should go. This was after my daughters accused me of trying to kill them by sending them out! LOL!

Let’s not miss out on this opportunity to make our relationship stronger with God, though. I’m back to being God’s girl, resting on His heart and making decisions from that perspective – God, what would You have me to do here? Where would You have me to go? What would You have me to say? “Every relationship. Every decision. Every circumstance.” Everything is between God and us, not between us and anyone else, and I want us living a life pleasing to Him where we honour Him in all our actions and TRUSTING that He can help us navigate through any turbulence. Amen.

WEROLLWITHGOD.COM

‘I FEEL GOOD’

Let me tell ya! I’m having the best time listening to Beres Hammond’s song, as if God is singing to me:

“I feel good
When you’re wrapped up in My arms
Dancing to a reggae song
Feel good, feel good
I feel good cause your perfume isn’t loud

That only I can talk about
Feel good, feel good”


God said I should find new ways of enjoying Him, and I’m doing exactly that imagining that I’m going through my life wrapped up in His arms dancing to a reggae song, with only Him smelling my perfume. (SMILE) Are you with me? We’re rolling with God, and He blesses us and keeps us!I know my quarantine buddy, Verona is with me. We started off the quarantine with our husbands in separate countries crying, sad, and frustrated, but we’re coming out as God’s strong, happy, confident, mature, patient, loyal, and wise women.

“The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands.” – Proverbs 14:1

Our attitude is what God has put together, let no man put asunder. We’re putting on our big girl drawers, and we’re doing our thing for our homes, our community, and the world by being the wives, mothers, and people God has called us to be. That means in every moment, every decision, every relationship, we’re going to look at from a God perspective, doing what we feel He would have us to do. If that means pretending to be deaf, dumb, numb, and blind, we’re going to do it all for God’s glory. KK?!?

Nobody’s perfect! A marriage is learning to accept each other for both our strengths and weaknesses. We can’t choose. It’s a package deal (sometimes very messy deal! But like Trump said, “It is what it is!”) Verona and I had to learn to surrender our husbands to God. It’s hard enough controlling ourselves, much less grown men. Whatever God decides is best. Bottomline, we trust our husbands, and we trust God.

“But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.” Galatians 5:22-24

Thanks to all my quarantine buddies, my mom, my daughters, Julie and Ember, my sisters, Marilyn and Kelly. Thanks for helping me get through a little rough period of my life. Forever grateful!

WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
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