Why is it so hard sometimes to just be willing to ask God for a new perspective on things?

Happy Monday! Life sure is pretty amazing. I really love that saying, you can’t see the forest for the trees. I really hope I got this right the right way. 🙂

So often life is just happening and we lose sight of the big picture. We stay focused on that darn tree. We, or shall I say I, fail to see that when things appear to be falling apart, they truly are just falling together. It’s all the way I look at it. For those who have been keeping up with me know that I have been doing a lot of “reaping” lately. As much as it sucks, I am so grateful for it, truly! These are hard lessons that I have had to learn and without them, one thing I am sure of I would have never changed. I never would have been able to see what I valued most, had no value. It wasn’t until I began shifting my focus to Jesus that I am finding the peace and contentment that I had been searching for my whole life.

And I want to be clear on something. This by no means, means that my work is done, my life is all butterflies and rainbows and I will walk the rest of my life without challenges. This does not mean I have it figured it out and BOOM life will go my way 100% of the time. Today, what it means to me, is I am learning to find peace even in the most difficult situations. I am learning how to move forward in the directions of my goals, even when it seems impossible.

God wants to bless me, I have to get out of the way though. I have to stop looking at the trees and I have to look at the forest. I have to stop fighting it. Everyday I have to ask God for a new perspective on things. I have to be open to other ideas then just my ideas because most of the time God has another way, a better way. The longer I hold on and fight, the longer I have to wait to see the greatness God has in store for me!

Last post of 2012! Tithing….

I want to share with you a little about my experience with tithing.

I would go to church and hear these miracles happening when people would tithe. I wanted a miracle so I started tithing. I was only tithing in the beginning because I wanted the blessings that so many others were receiving.

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the L ord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! (Malachi 3:10 NLT)”

That’s honest. I would give of my 10% begrudgingly. It seriously made me sick to my stomach. I waited. Nothing. So I tithed again. I waited and nothing. I started tithing 10% faithfully. Regardless of finances, I just did it.

This is embarrassing to admit, as I begin to tithe I start getting these thoughts. You’re probably going to get a letter thanking you for all the money you’re giving. You should probably give more money so the church bookkeeper thinks you make more. (um who am I? lol) So I started giving more then 10%. Can anyone else see satans hand in this?? Pride. Pride. Pride. Even when I’m doing something good pride is creeping in! This is why I prayed for humility. I didn’t want these prideful thoughts anymore. Pride disguises itself in so many areas of my life. And yes it’s a disguise, I sometimes don’t even see the pride all dressed up.

As I said, nothing is happening. I started to get angry. See God, I’m giving You all this money, where is MY blessing? I’m even giving more! (Ah satan, tricky devil he is. I give more, I get mad at God and walk away. I’m on to you.) Look what I’m doing for You, what are You doing for me? Why should I trust You?

Each month I tithed, Im not sure why? I was regretting it each step of the way. Lets look at what scripture says:
“You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” (2 Corinthians 9:7 NLT)”

Uh oh! I was in trouble! How the heck am I supposed to do that? Seriously, this is nuts! Who can ever give to the church with a cheerful heart? Back to the drawing board I go.

I had to dig deeper into the word. Tithing is about putting your trust in God and I obviously didn’t trust this big man upstairs. I was giving but again giving for the wrong reasons. How do I begin to trust?

I had to get to know God and learn what He was all about. That took commitment and dedication from me. I had to learn about Him from the bible. I had to conform my thoughts and make them obedient to His word. So when I have a bad day and think, God forgot about me. I remember, He will never forsake Me. When I think God hates me, I have to remember that He loves me so much He sent His only Son to die for me.

I had to literally absorb as much of the word as I could. And it’s not a one stop shop and I’m done. To absorb something I have to submerge myself in it daily.

I remember during one of my discipleship calls on Gods love for me, I was feeling so abandoned by God that I couldn’t even read the scripture that talked about Gods goodness. I was just angry and since I was angry I wanted nothing to do with God because I couldn’t feel His goodness in my life. I remember making the other person read those scriptures and specifically saying ha yea God is just so good. I was in a really horrible place. I was very sarcastic during the whole call. I later learned sarcasm is a form of hostility. Great add that to the list because I’m very hostile then!

However, during this process something begins to happen. I begin to get to know God. I begin trusting Him a little more each day. Then it happened! I went to church and tithed and was happy about it! I remember praying, God I don’t deserve anything that you have given me, thank You for everything. I meant it. I was shocked. I remember thinking whoa did I just pray that? The girl who has felt entitled to everything her whole life? And yes I did and I realized I didn’t care about the money anymore. Wow. It’s still crazy. A week before this happened I was praying, God I believe but help me with my unbelief.

My point is. I can’t just pray, tithe, or read my bible and expect a miracle to happen in my life. It takes more then that. I need to live it out the best I can. Not be perfect but do my best. Through the process the impossible has become possible and I’m not changing myself, God is changing me. It’s not a microwave, it’s a process with many ups and downs. But I’m committed to the process.

Happy New Year!

Ps
I will update you very soon with a praise report. God is good and has blessed me incredibly this week!

Xoxo
Lauren

Have you surrendered or are you still trying to control?

Surrendering to Gods will, what does that really mean? What does it look like to surrender? I’ve recently learned that I have always thought surrendering meant, giving up/quitting or I thought I was surrendering as long as things were going MY way. Now I never really actually said that and I’m not even sure that I had a conscious thought about it. However my actions tell me that’s how I have viewed surrendering.

I am learning what it actually means to surrender. It’s not easy stuff, there is no simple equation such as 2+2=4. It’s a process and is like an onion, it has layers. And as Donkey from Shrek said, we say onion instead of layer cake, why? Because everyone likes cake, not everyone likes onions. Surrendering aka letting go of control is a scary thing.

Now I’ve truly believed I have surrendered, again. Do we see a pattern? Lets take a look at how I have been handling Bailey. I pray scripture over him, I try my best not to think the worst. It’s been a trying 2 weeks. I’m not eating, I’m not sleeping, I’m constantly praying, I’m afraid to leave him alone. Every time I come home I run in and check to make sure he is still breathing. Nothing about my life says I’m surrendering. I’m living in fear. It’s horrible. I’m exhausted, physically and emotionally. I believed I had surrendered, just because I was praying. In all actuality, I was just trying to control God.

As James in the bible says, faith without good deeds is dead. I am constantly having to remind myself of this. My actions are not matching the words coming out of my mouth. My emotions are literally those of a roller coaster. It’s a constant battle to surrender. Except I’m the only one fighting. I give it only to take it back 2 minutes later.

So I was at my wits end, couldn’t sleep the other night, waking up every hour to check bailey to see if I could get him to drink and to make sure he was breathing. This is no way to live. So I woke up yesterday morning and called the vet to have him put down.

I had to carry bailey to the car, it was rough, my heart was breaking. I now changed my prayers to me, I prayed for strength, courage, and peace. I decided to stop fighting and surrender on a whole notha level.

We arrive at the vet. Have you ever seen Marley and me? If you haven’t, don’t. Worst movie ever. Baileys whole life is flashing before my eyes, I remember picking him up from the shelter in 2004. I started remembering all the happy moments we had and the moments of thinking, why did I get this dog?

The vets take us back in the room, they are all very familiar with Baileys case. I explain nothing has changed, he can no longer get up without me having to lift up his back end. He is still eating though. They examine him, they consult each other. They tell me it’s not time and they want to pump him full of fluids, double dose him on antibiotics and steroids and give him a shot to break his fever and see what happens in a week. They don’t feel like he is dying of old age. His fever indicates something is wrong, his back legs indicate something is wrong. However his blood work and x rays are good.

So I took my buddy home. He’s doing really really good, he started running today. Now the thing I am working on for myself is to not let my circumstances or emotions define if I’m having a “good” day. I’m working on surrendering. I know I have done everything to try to get bailey better. All I can do now is thank God for the time I’ve had with him and love on him. And most importantly, live my life. God does not want me neglecting my life and living in fear.

I’m not in control and the more I try to control the more out of control I become. Surrendering doesn’t mean you give up and quit. Surrendering to me means opening up my mind to other ideas and when things don’t go my way, i just roll with the punches and keep on living. True surrender is taking God out of the box, doing the best I can with what I have and then truly giving it to God and accepting the outcomes whatever they may be. It doesn’t mean my outcome will be my first choice but it is what it is and surrender starts with acceptance. I just need to do the footwork, be the best I can I be right now regardless of circumstances.

That’s what surrender means to me today, I don’t claim it to be easy, as you can see, it’s very hard for me. It’s a choice that I must make everyday. But I can tell you as hard as it may seem, when you finally decide to surrender and accept the situation regardless of how you feel, there is a freeing peace that comes with it.

Commitment or convenience?

So the other night my stomach was letting me know it was dinner time. See if you’re anything like me, I’m not on a schedule, I just eat when I’m hungry. And by the time I acknowledged it, I was ready to eat my arm. So I’ve been trying to eat healthy, just wanting to feel better about myself. Which honestly was prompted by vacation with my friends and family whom I haven’t seen since June. I jokingly keep saying they’re gonna see me and ask me if the food tastes better in Florida!

So now I’m starving, faced with a decision. Do I run to the grocery store and buy some healthy food or do I just run to subway? Again I leave for vacation in a week for the caribbean, I have goals. But, the grocery store seems like so much work, not only after I buy the food I have to come home and cook it, that takes time and I’m ready to eat now! But then subway I will feel guilty but it’s fast and easy. Dilemma. I have goals but I’m hungry now. Subway wins out.

Now it may not seem like a big deal right? Subway is semi healthy, I can always start back up tomorrow, I begin to justify. But this process I go through isn’t just about subway. I do it all the time. I lack commitment and settle for convenience. It’s the microwave society we live in. We live in a world that tells us “why wait?”

Do you want to use the microwave or do you want to use the stove? I don’t know about you, I always pick the microwave. And sometimes I limit myself if the stove is involved and sometimes options I have are immediately eliminated because it looks like I will have to use the stove. I have eliminated so many options in my life that looked way better then the microwave option just because the stove looked like it would take too much time. And I know without a doubt it would have turned out better then my microwave options. But I won’t even go there because its too hard, too much work, something I’ve never done. I want quick and easy.

What areas of your life are you choosing the microwave over the stove, God? Business? Relationships? Are your goals being lost because of what you want right now? What if together we took one area of our life and chose the stove for 30 days? Lets see what possibilities we allow into our lives when we don’t immediately eliminate them because its not exactly what we had in mind!

Xoxo
Lauren

I’m God committed, all in!

There has been something going on in my life that has me confused and questioning all sorts of things, I just want to take you through my thought process and what God is doing in my life. In order to get you to that I have to fill you in first.

A week ago last Saturday, my dog started getting sick. It appeared he had a cold. Sneezing, watery eyes, congestion, and very lethargic. Monday we went to the vet, he was put on an antibiotic. Monday night he got progressively worse and wasnt walking and was having a difficult time rising and sitting, all the while still experiencing the other symptoms. By Wednesday he was only eating and drinking if I hand fed him. Thursday the vet kept him overnight for observation did an x ray and blood work.

Now my dog is my kid. I love him deeply, the thought of losing him takes my breath away. I have found myself in hysterics daily. You know, that uncontrollable cry where sounds are coming out and you almost question where they come from? I have been preparing myself for the worst.

In the midst of all of this I have been praying, more like begging. Please God, ill never do that again, just save my Bailey. Dear God, I’m so sorry please don’t punish me for my sins.
Now we all know this is not how God operates, God is not punishing me. God has already forgiven me of my sins. I cannot bribe God. But this is where my auto pilot takes me.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. (Hebrews 4:16 NLT)

There was nothing bold about my prayers. My prayers were weak and full of fear. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that. But my prayers were not confident, I was lacking faith and trust.

Now this is a little intense, but hey I had to make a start somewhere. Prayer is specifically used to draw you closer to God, that’s the point of prayer.

This next part is hard for me to write because I’m still experiencing much of this stuff for the first time and it still sounds unbelievable to me. If I wouldn’t be going through this I would pretty much put myself on the crazy Jesus Freak list!

Now my dog has had hands laid on him in the midst of all this. Sometimes when you’re desperate you’re willing to do things that otherwise you never would have done and I’m desperate to save my dog. Yes, I turned to God for healing last. I have some friends who have the gift of healing from God. I actually believe now that anyone with the Holy Spirit in them possesses this gift. Google scripture there are many verses that talk about the spiritual gifts and healing.
We prayed and prayed over bailey, casting out spirits especially the spirit of infirmity which I later learned was sickness.

Trust me, I know this sounds nuts, I do. Oh do I know. But stay with me. The vet calls me yesterday afternoon, the blood work is back and it’s okay, liver enzymes a little high, nothing major and x rays okay. He is perplexed. He doesn’t understand what is wrong with my sweet boy. Nothing makes sense to him and he just doesnt have an answer but obviously Bailey is sick he says. His concern is the swollen lymph node but I can pick Bailey up. He refers me to an internist.

When i arrive 3 hours later, he goes over the Treatment. He gives me two medicines an antibiotic and steroid. The vet was awesome, very accommodating and very compassionate. He feels horrible. He takes me back to Bailey and the poor guy can barely get up. I fight back the tears. The vet just keeps going on about the lymph node and how much it is swollen and how that is his biggest concern because its indicating an infection somewhere. He checks his lymph nodes one last time before he sends Bailey off. He has his tech come over to feel, they look at each other, his lymph node had gone down drastically over those 3 hours. They are amazed.

All day long I had been praising God for healing Bailey. Every time doubt came in my mind I started speaking scripture out loud. Scriptures were coming to me that I didn’t even know I knew. So on my way home I continued to praise God.

Then we get home and I’m looking at my boy, it looks bleak. I start to cry again and fear floods me. I start to panic, God I thought you healed him? Why is he not better? Then I remembered, I got out my bible and started speaking Gods word. It went a little like this. God you say if I have a mustard seed of faith nothing is impossible for you. You are my healer, you can do immeasurably more then I can even think of. You tell me I can pray for anything and if I believe it, it will happen. I can ask using Jesus name and it will happen. You are a compassionate God and you heal the sick. Your word is always true, you never lie. You know the desires of my heart. You tell me because of my faith it will happen. So thank you for always being the same in the beginning as you are today, thank you for healing bailey. Bailey is healed in Jesus name, your word tells me so. Thank you God, thank you Jesus.
Here are the scriptures I prayed on: mark 11:24; John 15:7; Luke 17:19; proverbs 17:22; proverbs 18:21; mark 11:22-23; Matthew 9:35; Matthew 14:14; John 16:23-24; Isaiah 40:8; Ephesians 3:20

Last night something happened as I fell asleep. For the first time I felt Jesus’ presence. I felt something hug me tightly, I can’t explain it. I felt peace and I felt safe and I didn’t want to move because I was afraid the security would leave me.

I woke up in the morning, went into the kitchen and guess who was behind me when I looked down? Bailey, wagging his tail. Up until this point he still hadn’t been drinking and was barely walking. He walked over to his dish and gulped down his water, I fed him and he ate wagging his tail the whole time. I took him out and he even was briskly walking. It was amazing! I began to praise God again.

After about an hour Bailey retreated back to his sick self. This time I stood strong in my faith and immediately I just started praising God and reminding Him, just kidding, myself what His word says. I didn’t waiver.

I’m not going to walk in fear. Fear takes me away from God, fear makes me doubt God. I can’t judge God based off my circumstances and my emotions. God doesn’t change my emotions and circumstances change. I’m not saying this is always easy, it’s been one of the hardest things Ive ever done and its a process and it’s taking commitment from me. Trusting God does not come naturally for me and a lot of the time it seems easier to give up on God. Those times happen when I’m walking in fear and not going to Gods word for truth.

I don’t have the answers. I don’t understand what’s going on. But lets say the vet gave me a diagnosis and explained it to me. I still wouldn’t understand it. It wouldn’t give me answers to why Bailey was sick. I wouldn’t understand any better. I wouldn’t understand how the medicine was working. I would still be confused but I would be taking solace in the medicine was going to make him better. I would have faith in the medicine, not because I understood it, but because I could see it. A pill when one is sick gives us comfort because it gives us hope. What if we sought comfort in God? What if we cast aside our doubts? What if we tried the life of prayer and speaking Gods word, even when the situation looked impossible?

I don’t know what is wrong with Bailey, Gods word tells me Bailey is healed. For once I’m going to listen to Gods word instead of my emotions and what the world tells me. When I experience fear which is not from God I will speak Gods word out loud. Because let’s just say there is a spiritual battle going on that I just can’t see, I do have the armor (Gods word) so I better use it and put it on because I do believe it will save my life. Today I am choosing to speak Gods word instead of my own fearful thoughts. If I’m going to believe in God I have to believe in Him for everything. God doesn’t want me Luke warm. God is all or he is nothing.

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! (Revelation 3:15, 16 NLT)

I don’t know the outcome, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, and when people ask how Bailey is my answer is no longer he is sick, my answer is according to Gods word he is healed and God is faithful, praise God!

Ps as I finished writing this, Bailey got up and went over to his water dish and chugged down his water. I don’t need to know how or why but I do know the only thing that is changing in this situation right now is my faith and it’s growing through Gods word!

Xoxo

Do we take things too personally?

How many times does someone close to us hurt our feelings? How many times does someone do something to us and we’re left feeling, ouch I can’t believe they just did that to me? Or how about this, how many times does a friend say something about another friend and we say nothing or even worse, join in and say I can’t believe that?

Which brings me to my next point. Do you ever just have a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad season? Something that just knocks you down, that has you so consumed with self that maybe you don’t even realize you’re doing something hurtful?

What if the next time that occurs in our life, we take a step back, take self out of it and look to our friends character, the friend that you know. What if the next time your friend does something to another friend, instead of agreeing or saying nothing, what if you said, wow that’s not who they are. Something must be going on with them. What if we stopped judging someone and instead started being a friend? Everyone is going to go through a bad season of life, including you reading this. What if the people in your life judged you on the season of life you were in and not the person you were?

My challenge to you, next time someone does or says something out of character, take the time to be a friend and see how you could help them instead of worrying about what you possibly could have done wrong or how you can’t believe what they did to you. When we step out of self we usually find there is more going on. What a concept it’s actually not all about me.

Everyone has a campfire story.

As I sit back looking over my life, I wonder how I got here. Where’s here exactly you ask? This stage of my life. How did this catholic girl grow up to be a Jesus lover? Seeking, searching, wanting to know His truth? If you would have ever asked me if I ever thought this was going to be the path my life took, I would have told you there was a better chance of pigs flying then this life.

Ya see, people who read the bible, listened to Christian music, prayed with their hands in the air, and who’s answer was always- pray about it, see what God says. Were, well, nuts, crazy Jesus freaks. You could not have convinced me otherwise. And I was not ashamed to make fun of my “Crazy Christian” friends.

I mean from not doing yoga, reading certain books, watching certain tv shows and movies, to listening to certain music, to going to psychics and I’m sure so much more. I mean these things listed above are just weird to say I cant do these things and I did all of the above. And I was not going to stop being me. Period.

I was so condemned by these Christians. They would say things to me like, well let me rephrase. I was curious, so I would ask questions. They would say things like, well this is just for me, I don’t care if anyone else does those things, but once I got to certain place with God, there were certain things I couldn’t do. I felt so condemned, but who was the one really condemning me? Thinking back to those talks, I can now see today that it wasnt the Christians I am friends with that were condemning me, it was me. I was condemning myself. Sometimes it’s easier to blame someone else then take a look at why I was having such conviction. Somewhere in me, I felt there must be some truth to what I was hearing but I refused to investigate it. So of course what did I do? I made fun of it and separated myself from them. I was not ready to take a look at myself.

I always felt 2 things about people who called themself Christians.
1. They were judging.
2. They were hypocrites.

I always held people of faith to a higher standard. In my mind, to be a Christian you had to be perfect. I would see Christians make mistakes all the time, the same way that I did. So I thought, ha and they think they are better than me just because they say they know God. This was a lie I told myself. The truth was, I thought deep down they were better than me. I thought in order to be a Christian you had to be perfect. I knew I would never be perfect, so what’s the use? Why even try? I didn’t want to be a hypocrite.

The question I had to ask myself, who’s fault is it that I had the Christians on a pedestal? Was it their fault? And honestly, it’s not about placing blame, what I had to see is that in fact it had nothing to do with the Christians and it had to do with me and my own stuff. Now are there some people out there who call themself Christians who stand for everything opposite of what the bible teaches? Of course, you will find corrupt people everywhere, but it’s not my job to judge these people and condemn them. They will have their day of judgement with God soon enough. But it is my job to love them and to pray for them. I am not saying that I’m perfect, almost everyday a sinful thought creeps in but what I have to do is take it to God and ask Him to show me where in my life I need to look. I need to get to the root of why what someone else is doing is bothering me so bad. And unfortunately it’s usually because it’s something I do or have done. But who likes to admit that? Not me, it’s easier to judge others for their faults then dig deep to find the truth.

Recently I was enlightened. And boy was it an eye opener for me. I went on this retreat with my church, about 30 women attended this retreat. I didn’t want to go, which meant for me, I really needed to be there. On the last night of the retreat, we had a campfire. Sounds fun right? Well… At this campfire we opened it and if you felt that there was a seed of unforgiveness, anger, shame, guilt, really anything that has happened in your life holding you back. Now was your time to squash it, own it, let it go, and break the chains of bondage. One by one women stood up, shared their deepest darkest secret and threw it in the fire. It was one of the most powerful moments of my life. Not only did it personally free me, it gave me some compassion I’ve never had before.

Every person we encounter, has a campfire moment, Christian or not. So before I go to judge or condemn someone, I remember the campfire. Were they abused, raped, molested, cheated on, did they cheat, were they abandoned, what are they carrying that is keeping them in shame? Sometimes it’s easier to make up our own scenarios then to actually take the time to love people and see whats really going on.

I am a Christian, I am not perfect. But God is working on me. He is changing my heart and has given me compassion I could have never received on my own. My only hope for you reading this is, next time you go to judge someone, look at your own life, dig deep. Find out why you are judging. And remember, we are all humans, no one is perfect, but if we make love our primary goal think about what a different world we would live in. Everyone has a campfire story, are you going to help free them or help keep them in bondage?

You are not who you think you are!

So today I was driving in my car and I just started thinking. I swear my brain works best in my car. Good thing I spend a lot of time in it 😉

Have you ever met that person that just lights up when they talk? Everything they say is exciting. They draw you in with their words. They are usually great at describing things, there is a lot of emotion behind their words. With those people it doesn’t matter what they’re talking about but you are listening intently to everything they say to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Who is that one person coming to mind? Write it down. Seriously, write their name down, right now. I’ll wait.

Now next I want you to write down all the qualities this person has that draws you to them. Are they withdrawn or are they expressive? Do they talk about themselves or other people (gossip) or do they talk about life and about you? When they talk, how do they describe things? Do they paint a picture that you can actually see? How do they make you feel? Are they a Debbie Downer or are they a Positive Pete? Go ahead, write! I can wait.

Did you write yet? It will take all of 2 minutes. You’re not that busy. 🙂
This is important.

Okay, I’m going to assume you didn’t cheat and you did the quick assignment.:)

Now for those of you in network marketing, this is important. Actually, I think it’s important for anyone who is in the business of relationships and all businesses with a solid foundation are built on relationships. So yep, I’ve decided this is for everyone. 🙂

If you want to be successful, you must be the source of inspiration in your field. Now this isn’t saying, become someone you’re not. I would say 100% of the time we hold ourself back from doing something is because of fear. Fear covers many things. Lets list a few.

1. Fear of rejection
2. Fear of commitment
3. Fear of failure
4. Fear of the unknown
6. Fear of success
7. Fear of not knowing the answer
8. Fear of looking stupid
9. Fear of what others will think
10. Fear of letting someone down.

So here I have listed 10 fears. Look back on your life, look at something you thought about doing but didn’t. Whats that one thing you want now but haven’t gone for it? See what area of fear held you back or is holding you back.

The reason I say this? It’s biblical. How many times in the bible does it say, do not fear? God did not make us to be fearful people. Look how many times in the bible it says do not fear.
scripture on fear. click here.

So just because we experience fear, it does not define us and its not who we are.
Fear is an emotion we experience, it is NOT who we are.

So my challenge to you reading this, be who you are, don’t let fear hold you back. We all experience it, the question is who lets it define them and who uses it as an opportunity to grow?

So many times I’ve heard people say, that’s just not who I am when it comes to doing things. Well I’m here to say, you are not who you think you are. Living a life of fear is just not who you are! You are the source of light and hope! The only difference between you and the person you wrote down is they chose not to let fear define them!

Something to think about!

Xoxo
Lauren

I’m super excited!

I’m just so excited I must share!!!
My company just announced a promotion for this week where we all can earn a $200 bonus for every person we help!!! This includes you reading this email!! Woot woot!!

The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25 NLT)

I have been in the health and wellness industry for 2.5 years which allows me to help people physically with natural products for their health and financially get debt free! (If they’re responsible with their money, eh hem unlike I have been, but that’s all changing.)

If this is answering a prayer for you and sounds like something that could help you or someone you know, email me. Times are tough right now for many people and sometimes the unexpected opportunities that come our way turn out to be some of the biggest blessings!

website: skinnywrapstarteam.com email: skinnywrapstar@gmail.com

Thanks for following me!

Xoxo
Lauren

Gods way is always better than my way.

About 2 months ago I deactivated my Facebook page. When I did this, you would have thought the world was ending. Seriously. People were calling and texting me asking if I was okay. People were truly concerned. Then they had to ask me, why’d you delete your page? Um… I didn’t have a tangible answer. I didn’t really know why? I just knew I had to delete it. How do you tell someone, God told me to without them looking at you like you’re crazy? I don’t think you can. I know, some are reading this, going she’s crazy right now at this very moment. Lol

What do I mean when I say God? Well, it starts with a thought, a thought that is something I would never think of on my own. I hear it and immediately dismiss it. Typically it’s something, that I don’t want to do. Almost always. It’s usually always proceeded with confirmations. Here are some examples.

1. One day when I first started attending church, my friends mom text me in the morning to go to church. I didn’t want to go and decided I wasn’t going to go. On my way to Starbucks I get a thought, you really need to go to church. I have an argument with myself. Then finally said fine I’ll go. Yes to myself. Lol. The night before I journaled and when I got to church, late of course. The whole message was on everything I journaled word for word. It was the craziest thing I have ever experienced. The woman speaking told my story. So that was a confirmation. I got a thought, was obedient to it, and God confirmed it was Him through this woman speaking.

2. Once I was working from home, got a thought that I needed to go to Starbucks. I didn’t want to go, that would require getting ready. I argued with myself, then finally went. I got there sat down, had no idea why I had to go there. I’m there all of 15 minutes and a man walks up to me needing help with his résumé, I helped him then immediately left. I knew then I could leave. Later I received an email from the man, thanking me for helping him and how it turned his day around and how grateful he was for me. I told him to thank God, not me. That was my confirmation.

3. I was getting ready to go to a women of faith conference. The day we were leaving it seemed that everything that could go wrong was going wrong to prevent me from going. I almost didn’t go. I got there feeling out of touch, feeling disconnected, questioning my sanity of everything I had been experiencing with God. Then this woman speaker gets up and starts speaking, and word for word she starts talking about my feelings. Word for word, it was so freaky that two of the girls I was with turned to me and said, you just said that last night. Then the same speaker closed with a prayer, it was the same exact prayer I had prayed a couple nights before. And not a catholic prayer that everyone knows, a prayer from my heart. Confirmation from God.

So when I say I hear from God, it’s not a voice coming down from the sky. So with the Facebook thing, I started getting thoughts that I needed to delete Facebook. I ignored them for weeks, maybe months. Then one day I just couldn’t ignore the thoughts anymore and decided to delete it against my best judgement. It was scary. How am I gonna work my business? Manage my teams? Communicate with friends? I just couldn’t see the benefit in this. Then when everyone is having interventions with me on am I really okay? That didn’t help because I was already terrified about am I doing the right thing? The whole world is on Facebook. But I just explained it as, idk why I did it, I’m okay, I just had a strong conviction I needed to delete it.

I knew there was going to be a blessing in this obedience, I just didn’t know what it would be. 2 months later, here is what I have learned.
Facebook for me was a main resource for my sin. Jealousy, envy, pride, laziness, sarcasm, bitterness, anger, and control. I’m sure there are many other sins that I’m just forgetting at this moment.

Facebook, unfortunately kept me in a state of always wanting and never feeling adequate or that I measured up. As if I needed anymore of that in my life. Facebook also took away my identity, It was always, I know you from Facebook. No, you don’t know me. Facebook took away personal relationships from me, especially with my team for work. Can I just tell you how much closer I am with so many from my team? And we have real intimate meaningful relationships. Facebook took away my confidence from interacting with people in the real world. I got so comfortable stalking a page that in my mind i felt, oh i already know whats going on, so i would forget to call. Facebook took away my work ethic. I got so caught up in my Facebook work groups that I actually confused that with working. It’s an easy mistake to make, you are posting useful info most of the time.

It’s crazy! Isn’t it? Facebook effected every area of my life and not in a good way. But what’s really cool is that I never would have known all of this unless I deleted Facebook. Once again, confirmation.

What is that one nagging thought in your head, the one you can’t make go away? Try praying about it, asking God what He wants you to do. Google scripture, find the answer in God’s word. Try walking in obedience to God, see what happens! Keep in mind, we live in a microwave society, and God doesn’t always work like a microwave. Just because you may not feel like you’re getting an answer immediately, know He hears your prayers and loves obedience to His word! And most of the time, God has a much better plan then we could even imagine. As my pastor once said, “has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?” God never says, wow, I didn’t know I could do that. God never says, I never thought of that. God knows all and ALWAYS His way is much better. We just have to trust God and the only way to trust Him is to get into His word, start building your relationship with him. Just the same way you build relationships with your friends. Spend time praying, talking to him, telling him how you feel, and reading His word. Have a problem? Lets say fear? Google scripture and fear, check out open bible, see what the bible says on fear. It’s really that simple. Meditate on His word, not yours. Most of us have lived a life our way, why not try Gods way? You may end up being like me, saying why didn’t I do this sooner, what was I so scared of?

Xoxo
Lauren