Tag: Lifeway Resources

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Is there Peace in the Present Moment 

20170413_105212Why is it that people always advise you to live in the present moment?

Sometimes our present situations are scary. If you’ve ever experienced a true crisis, you probably wanted to think about anything other than those circumstances.

What about those seasons in life that seem to never have an expiration date, like the time when I finalized a divorce and was diagnosed with cancer within a two week time period and lost my job while going through treatments. All three of those challenges were my present moment and that sh*t was horrible. I wanted to think about anything other than my reality.

I know we can’t completely check out of life when we experience hard times but I do believe we have to narrow our vision and focus on getting through the storm to actually progress through it.

The thing that kept me focused on rising above divorce and fighting cancer was a simple Bible verse. Luke 1:45 “Blessed is she who believes that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.”  From God’s word I know that he’s promised long life, good health and a sound mind. In order to take hold of those blessings I had to narrow my vision, limit my conversations and focus my mind on being well physically, mentally and emotionally

Almost two years later and I can appreciate my experiences, learn from them and move on.

Hmm, if it wasn’t for my divorce I would have never fallen in love with myself and discovered my unique flavor of love. Now a days if I’m not working out or trying a new vegetarian or vegan dish, I’m spending time with people who truly love me or I’m participating in activities and events that serve a higher purpose than myself.

I don’t know what crisis or challenge you may be navigating through right now but my advice to you is acknowledge your current situation and get ready to kick, claw and fight your way into a new reality. Sometimes the peaceful have to fight too.💖

PeaceMode,

Melissa

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P.R.A.Y.E.R.

When your Peace is disturbed, it’s easy to lose focus of your goals and fall into a system of making bad choices. There’s something about being aggravated, discontent and stressed out that can cause a person to spiral out of control.

It happens to us all at times, we are only human. We all have free will and emotions that play a significant part in how we respond to situations.

I’ve grown to understand that life hands us victories and lessons in every situation that we face. Even if things didn’t work out in our favor there is a victory to celebrate as well as a lesson to learn from it.

It’s extremely important to do some analyzing and uncover the victories and the lessons. By doing so we are stocking our prayer toolbox with powerful ammunition to fight our spiritual battles.

As the Word of God says, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

In the book Fervent, A Woman’s Battle Plan for Serious, Specific and Strategic Prayer, Priscilla Shirer discusses the top 10 strategies that the enemy uses to throw us off of our game.

He attacks our Passion, our Focus, our Identity, our Family, our Past, our Fears, our Purity, our Pressures, our Hurts and our Relationships. If we do our work and prepare for battle, we are then better equipped to stand against the schemes. You are well aware that the enemy doesn’t have any new tricks, he uses the same old material.

As Priscilla says, you have to pray God’s Word back to him and allow him to respond to it according to his own will.

Prayer

Releases

All

Your

Eternal

Resources

Get locked, loaded and come out praying in a blaze of Glory!

Prayer is the only way to stand!

Peace and Wellness

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Usable Experiences

1 Peter 4:12 NIV – Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

Sometimes life just isn’t fair. We’ve all encountered situations that have left us asking the question “how did this happen?” or repeating the phrase, “why me.” Some of the stories that we hear about in the news are simply heart-breaking. We hear about senseless killings, reports of abuse and attacks on innocent people.

Whatever happened to common courtesy and basic human decency?

The word of God instructs us to not think it a strange thing when we face trials. We are actually encouraged to rejoice in times of pain and uncertainty. I know it’s a hard thing to hear but, as long as we live and breathe  conflict will forever be part of our story, with new chapters spontaneously forming daily.

In the newly released book: Stand, Learning to Lead Through Conflict, Dr. Timothy W. Sloan encourages us all by saying, “we are men and women who have been endued with heavenly power to fulfill our divine purpose of leading others.”

To become more effective in dealing with others and their circumstances, we have to face our personal crisis with authority and boldness.

Here are a few things that we can do to transform our personal conflicts into opportunities to help others.

  1. Be Transparent in your approach: People are more willing to listen to what you have to say and follow your lead if they can relate to you and establish a sense of trust. Use your experiences to create opportunities of Peace by listening, offering encouragement and simply being available.
  2. Step out of you Comfort Zone: Change your approach. If you’re constantly running into resistance, it’s time to do things differently. Create your own personal prayer of Jabez. Dee Marshall of Girlfriends Pray says it best, “Lord show me how to take Who I am, Who I want to be and What I can do and use it for a purpose greater than myself. Now that’s a prayer that will certainly enlarge your territory!
  3. Be Flexible: Be willing to work with others, the word says, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Remember, experiences both good and bad are usable. Incorporate your experiences and the three approaches listed above to deal with others and help them along their path to healing.

Peace and Wellness,

SuGa

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Purpose Driven Work

We are often blessed with the privilege of helping others during their challenging times. Our communities are filled with neighbors who have fallen due to challenging circumstances. We have the homeless population, domestic abuse victims and veteran affairs just to name a few. What may seem like an act of service to us is actually an opportunity of growth.

How awesome would it be if we were more intentional in choosing the areas of service where we work? Could we make a bigger impact or maybe discover a new way to serve the community?

Helping others, starts with helping yourself first. If we self-reflect on those painful events from our past, and how we were able to overcome them, we might find out that we are the solution to someone else’s problem.

It’s a fact that we all have gifts and talents that are to be used to create peace on earth.

Have you unwrapped your gift? Have you discovered your talent?

Think about it. In Romans 12:18 the Word says, “If it is possible, As far as it depends on me, live at peace with everyone.”

Your gifts and talent make peace possible.

Within each of us are existing problems and possible solutions. Share your solution!

Peace and Wellness

 

 

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There’s No Other Way to Explain My Pink

 Luke 8:10 NKJV – And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that

‘Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.

On Tuesday, October 20, 2015, The American Cancer Society changed its breast cancer screening guidelines to begin screening woman on an annual basis at age 45 instead of age 40. Their website states that these guidelines were put in place to detect breast cancer early and when treatment can be most effective (www.cancer.org).

I’ve read the statistics of breast cancer diagnosis by age and I agree that in the past most new cases of breast cancer have occurred in older women. There has been an increase in women being diagnosed at an earlier age.

My concern is that this new guideline doesn’t take into account the thousands of women who are under the age of 45 that are diagnosed yearly with these ugly disease. Marketers dress breast cancer awareness swag in pink to make it appear more appealing, but there is nothing pretty about this disease.

I was inducted into the “Hall of Pink” in April of this year. In my case there wasn’t a sign or a symptom, there was simply a suggestion and yes that suggestion came straight from God.  I was 39, recently divorced and trying to establish a new sense of normalcy for my life. As I went about my normal, daily activities, God spoke clearly to me and said; “Melissa, go get a mammogram.” I didn’t hesitate and because of my act of trust, the cancer was found very early and it has been removed. I now try to live each day more aware of the power that is available to me when I trust God and believe that his words for my life are true.

So that is my story but for many others it doesn’t happen that way. Many women and men walk around with no symptoms of breast cancer, although the disease may already be attacking their body. African-American women under the age of 45 are more likely to get the disease and die from it than any other female ethnic group.

With as much fundraising and research taking place because of this disease, I don’t understand why the screening guidelines would move in a direction opposite of the increasing number of women who need to be screened. It would seem that more would be done to catch it early with the hope of eventually eliminating it. Delay the screening means delaying diagnosis.

As a society, we have to become our own advocates. It’s vital that we eat healthy, exercise and take an active part in managing our health care needs. I highly recommend the book, The Cancer Prevention Diet by Michio Kushi.

Be well and stay in peace!