You Are Loved No Matter What

As much as it is easy to blame others for you saying "yes", and many times those others can even be our own kids...it is YOU my friend who holds that responsibility to honor your threshold, capacities and limitations.

You know them best.

Your family. friends, co-workers, etc. don't know you like you do. They're not mind readers or body readers where they can tell how high your physical or mental pain is and when you have reached your limits...but you do.

And when you reach them, ask God if whatever is in front of you is something He wants you to take on and pray for strength to do it. And if it's not, ask for strength to let it go and rest.

You are your best advocate. And when you struggle to say "no" for identity reasons...know that you have THE ULTIMATE BEST advocate on your side reminding you who you are despite any yes or no you ever give to anyone.

Fear and Faith

Do you wonder what will happen to your kids if you give them this, or let them do that, or don't choose this for them?

Are you wondering where your finances will look like in the next week or month?

How about if you'll ever experience the healing or desire and dream you so desperately want, hope for and are working toward?

Me too, sister.

I wonder, pray, hope, and even cry out to God these things and a whole lot more.

When we focus on our fear...our faith dwindles, and worry and doubt increase.

But when we focus on faith...fear decreases, and trust, hope, peace and comfort increase even when we don't understand or know what's ahead.

I needed these reminders.

Let's choose together to allow our fears to bring us to God so we can focus on our faith in Him with all the things we have ahead!

Fear and Faith CAN go together if it is like this....but not the way we are used to destructively doing in our lives where the focus becomes off of our mighty God.

Living My Last Days

By the time I got home yesterday, my pain reached an 8. I wanted to do this post last night but by the end of the night, the pain was too great that I couldn’t.

I was not as cognizant. I was dizzy. I was nauseous. My head felt like a combination of pressure, drills, being on fire and more. The pain worsened as the night progressed despite taking stronger pain relief. When I would fall asleep to rest, I’d randomly be woken up by the extreme pain.

It was that kind of flare up.

As I reflected though, even with that high pain, if yesterday were my last day, I’d have NO regrets, and I’ll share why in a minute.

First, let me share with you how I spent it:

• Advocating for something I believed in, despite possibly looking stupid or going against the majority (Fellow people pleasers and approval seekers know how hard this is, especially in a large room of strangers. It would’ve been SO much easier to keep my mouth shut.)

• Serving my community to my best capacity. (Not the high expectation I set for myself or the ones others place on me that I willingly take on where both leave my frustrated, tired or both.)

• Serving those I care about and love to my best capacity. (Not the high expectation I set for myself or the ones others place on me that I willingly take on where both leave my frustrated, tired or both.)

• Serving the women I coach and are a part of Overcoming with Grace to my best capacity. (Not perfectly, but gave what I could)

• Prioritized my health by exercising, reading, read by Bible, praying, listening to a podcast, eating healthy fuel and then having a little joy treat at the end.

• Spent time with my kids. I talked with them. Hugged them. Kissed them. Told them I loved them so many times.

• Ended the night in the arms of my husband watching Friends while eating my favorite: chocolate. PERFECT combo right?! Hubby. Friends. Chocolate!

It was an AMAZING day and exactly how I want to be living the rest of my days. Now I know I won’t be able to live EVERY day as if it were my last. But the aha moment I had in my office before I closed my laptop was this: This is why I’m doing what I’m doing as a life coach. This is what I want the women in my life to know that they can do as well….that we can LIVE…that we can SERVE…that we can LOVE, even with our physical, mental and emotional limitations.

My pain was one of the highest levels yesterday, and yet I felt the most content, filled, and even ALIVE. My depression and anxiety flared up the worst it has in awhile, where I had to be in treatment for months earlier this year, and yet I am living out my calling and purpose more than I ever have in my life.

How is that?!

It’s because of the thoughts I was having.

It’s because of the thoughts I was taking captive. The negative thoughts will always come, and they were definitely coming even yesterday.

As the pain was progressing throughout the day…I was thinking, “How am I going to have my sessions?” “How am I going to cook for my family?”

And although these are valid questions that we often try to fix and find solutions for…what we don’t realize is that these questions sometimes continue to leave us in bondage.

Once I remembered that whatever God had for me yesterday, no limitation or pain of mine can stop, it gave me this strength to finish out my day. But I had to be intentional with remembering it.

I may not have finished my day perfectly….maybe it wasn’t how I would’ve originally envisioned it to be…but it was exactly what it was supposed to be.

AND IF YOU’VE READ THIS FAR, KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT A GOODBYE NOTE.

As I was sharing this with my husband, he was like, “You’re not leaving me, are you?!”

For those that know I have struggled with depression since I was young, this can be a very real question and concern as I am sharing yesterday’s aha’s. But please know this post is coming from a place of FULL passion, excitement, and an even deeper realization that what God has planned for me, nothing can stop.

Not my pain. Not my physical conditions. Not depression. Not anxiety. Not my past. NOTHING.

And my hope and prayer is that those that see my story, those I work with, and those that God places in my life, including you reading, will see me living it out and know that it is also possible for you and them too.