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Where Will You Go From Here?

  • Posted on October 26, 2011 at 12:25 pm

Discover what it takes to obtain resilience to get through any challenge. Find out how to be better and not bitter. These are simply tidbits of the wealth of information in Valorie Burton’s book Where Will You Go From Here?

I had the opportunity to interview her and she shared amazing stories of victory and gave applicable advice with biblical principles. This is one interview you don’t want to miss…

In our current economic climate, more people than ever are dealing with financial challenges, layoffs, and professional setbacks. Add to that the timeless problems of broken relationships, health crises, and various forms of personal disappointment and loss, and it’s hard to find anyone who isn’t experiencing some kind of setback that has thrown their life plans for loop.

 uthor and life coach Valorie Burton’s Where Will You Go from Here? (WaterBrook Press, June 21 2011) gives readers the tools they need to successfully navigate the unexpected turns of life. They’ll find encouragement, wisdom, and strength to press on through the challenges and emerge not only victorious, but with a stronger, more resilient character than ever before.

The process begins with the Five Commitments:

  • I will not feel sorry for myself.
  • I will not stare at the closed door.
  • I will dig deep to unearth all the courage I need.
  • I will direct my thoughts. My thoughts will not direct me.
  • I will choose to believe that all things work together for good.

With these guiding principles, Burton guides readers into a new way of thinking about their setbacks, helping them watch for the big picture of what God is doing in their lives. As they find their way onto a path that was always meant for them–whether it’s the path they came from or a more authentic path they’ve always longed for–readers will gain a set of skills that empower them to be more resilient, now and in the future.

Valorie Burton is a personal and executive coach who has served hundreds of clients in 40 states and seven countries. She’s authored five books, including What’s Really Holding You Back? Burton has been featured and quoted in numerous publications including Real Simple, Woman’s Day and O, The Oprah Magazine. She also has appeared regularly on CNN News with Fredericka Whitfield. In addition, Burton  has spoken for some of the nation’s largest churches including Lakewood Church in Houston, The Potter’s House in Dallas and New Birth in Atlanta. Her website is www.ValorieBurton.com or if you’re interested in becoming a life coach or would like more information regarding life coaching visit www.CAPPInstitute.com.

Redefining Beauty with Candace McQuain

  • Posted on October 24, 2011 at 2:45 pm

Hello Ladies! Candace and I had a great God’s Girls’ Session! We talked about all things beauty from fashion to faith and we had a fabulous time!

As a matter of fact we thought is was so awesome that we wanted to share with you some of her glamorous advice regarding the what to’s and what to NOT’s regarding godly glam and fashion.

If you’d like to find out more about Candace McQuain visit her blog at www.CandaceMcQuain.com!

Check out our God’s Girls’ Session…

 

Take My Hand

  • Posted on September 27, 2011 at 9:30 am

Lord, I’m slipping.

I’m falling so deep I’m almost scared to look down.

I can’t take all of life’s struggles anymore. It’s just getting to be too much.

Please take my hand Lord

 

Lift me up so I can rise above all of my trials and tribulations

Help me to find the way because all I keep doing is slipping.

Going back to my old ways and not caring, I need your guidance

I just need you to take my hand

 

I see visions of what seems like my future and I can’t figure out how to get there.

Each step that I take seems to put me five steps behind.

I feel like all I can do is give up but I know that’s way too easy.

Take my hand Lord.

 

I’m turning everything over to you because if I try to do it on my own,

There is no way that I won’t stop slipping

Falling too deep for me to come back

All I need you to do is just take my hand…..guide me….order my steps….take control

 

-Brii

Who Are You?

  • Posted on September 20, 2011 at 8:08 am

God show me your glory, I know your grace is sufficient,

Show me who I am in you because right now I think I’m trippin’

When I look at my refection all I see is smoking mirrors

An image of what I used to be running the thoughts in my mind

I keep getting suspended in time

I’m tired of catching a slippery rope

thinking somehow I can pull myself up but I keep sliding down this slippery slope.

I know you know but I want to know too

Who I am

Do you know yourself? I asked three people that question over the weekend. What defines you? I have realized that I don’t know myself as well as I would like to. At one point in my life I prided myself on how well I was able to express how I felt and how well I understood my emotions. I’ve lost that assurance over the last couple of years. When life happens, when we go through trials or even triumphs they change us without us realizing it and sometimes we lose ourselves. How can I introduce you to “me” if I don’t know who I am? How can I show you “me” if I don’t know who I am?

My sister’s response to the question “Do you know yourself?” stood out the most to me. She said “I am a child of God that’s really all that counts”. It was that simple and that complex at the same time. As we continued our conversation I got a revelation. The time when I felt that I knew myself I was completely sold out for Christ. My faith was at a level that I long for today and I was consistently chasing God. I knew myself because I knew God. He was who defined me, my name was simply a title. I now have to go through God to get back to me. In knowing God I can come to know myself because He is who created me. I am simply an image of He. It’s not who or what other people think I am. The bible says “lean not to your own understanding” If I can’t lean to my own understanding then I can’t lean to anyone else’s because the bible was written for them too. Go through God to get to you, no one else can show you who you are.

 

Candace McQuain – Tomorrow Will Worry About Itself

  • Posted on September 14, 2011 at 9:10 am

One of my favorite bible verses is Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

I love this verse because no matter who you are or what you are going through you just have to nod in agreement. It’s that crystal clear. There is no point in worrying today because there is so much more to come and our worry will only make things worse.

I used to be a top notch worrier.

I would worry about everything to the point that it would make me physically sick. Here’s the kicker though, the majority, if not everything I worried about were things which I had zero control over. I suppose that’s what worry is all about. Once I grasped the concept of Matthew 6:34 and used it with Psalms 55:22 (NIV), “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken,” I was freed from my shackles of worry. I had awoken to the fact that God has got it under control. After all, He orchestrated it all.

Everything we have been through, everything we are going to go through and everything we will go through has got His hand on it. We need to let go and trust that God has our back. The only place we’ll find ourselves if we let worry consume us is in bed with a migraine and worst of all telling our Heavenly Father that we don’t trust Him or need Him.

If our Father has our whole heart and we ask Him to take on our burdens, He will. It really is that simple and there is true physical relief that comes from doing this. It feels as though you are taking a breath for the first time. A sense of calm and lightness will overcome you and right at that moment know that you have pleased your Father. He has waited on you to come to Him for so long.

God wants us to kick worry to the curb, give Him all of the burdens which cause us to worry and for us to know that He will get us through.

Matthew 11:28 (NIV) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

He wouldn’t ask this of us if He couldn’t deliver. Trust in Him. Go to Him today.

To learn more about Candace McQuain visit www.CandaceMcQuain.com.

True Beauty by Candace McQuain

  • Posted on September 13, 2011 at 4:58 pm

What is “True Beauty”?

  “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
your works are wonderful,I know that full well.” 
Psalm 139:14

So what is “true beauty?”

True beauty is finally feeling free in knowing that we are exactly who we are supposed to be, just as we are.

We are ”fearfully and wonderfully made” by God, our heavenly Father!
All of our inadequacies, our insecurities, they are not real. The only thing real thing in our life is that we are a perfectly created child of God.

Over the years society, our peers, co-workers, spouses or significant others may have dooped us into taking drastic measures to change who we are physically. Surgeons may have cut our bodies to either add or take away from our heavenly sculptured bodies. We may have allowed insertions of dangerous, foreign substances to smooth our aging skin. We may have also taken drugs to make us not eat.

Beloved sisters, that’s okay. That was then. This is now.

There is such freedom and completeness is looking in the mirror and knowing that there is truly only one person’s opinion that matters when it comes to how we look. That person is not our husband or boyfriend, he is not the new guy in the finance department or anyone who has an earthy opinion of us.

The only person who should matter to us in the One who created us.

Those “fluffy” hips we have had since we can remember, those small breasts that have always made us feel insecure about our overall figure, what ever our own plight it, girlfriend they were given to us for a reason. “What a cruel joke!”, is probably something that could be said in response to this, but there is nothing cruel in how God meticulously wove us together. We were created with love.
My sisters, let’s show the world around us that we don’t give a crap what we are “supposed” to look like. Let’s show the world how we were created to look!
It won’t happen over night, but it can and will happen. When we are able to completely surrender to letting go of everyone else’s earthly opinion of us and fully open our hearts to understand that we were indeed, “fearfully and wonderfully made” by THE CREATOR, the sky is the limit as to how far we can soar.
Go ahead, give it a try.
Let’s accept our God given body as the gift that it is, then have a blast dressing, accesorizing and showing off!!

The Gift of Generosity

  • Posted on September 13, 2011 at 2:51 pm

Are You Trusting?

  • Posted on September 12, 2011 at 10:41 am

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,

deceiving your own selves.”  James 1:22 (KJV)

 

Are You Trusting?

As I was doing some last minute school clothes shopping with my son, I was seeking inspiration for something to blog. While waiting impatiently for my son to exit a dressing room, I happened to turn and see this t-shirt. It read, “Practice Truth…Fear Nothing.” Immediately, the post for the blog was birthed.

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;

and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5 KJV

 

Are You Fearing?

In our everyday lives we have plenty of opportunities to “practice trusting the Word of God” which is the Truth. We also have times when we simply worry, which is a form of fear. We as Christian women, whether single, married, divorced, widowed, have children or not need to begin to realize that just hearing the Word and not doing (practicing) it can allow fear and doubt to take root.  Isaiah 41:10 KJV states, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” When you don’t do the Word, it’s harder to believe that the Word will do something for you.

 “Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word;

instead, put it into practice.”  (Good News Translation)

 

Are You Meditating on the Word of God?

The pressures of life can be overwhelming at times. In Luke 10:38-42 tells a story of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Jesus had come for dinner and Martha was busy with the preparations while Mary chose to sit at Jesus’ feet. How many times have we chose to wash that load of clothes instead of spending 15 minutes communing with our Abba Father? The story concludes with…”And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42 NKJV.  When we spend time in His presence, meditating on His promises will cause our hearts to fear not.

“But his delight is in the law of the LO RD;

and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Psalm 1:2 KJV

In conclusion, our Father God desires that we cease to be anxious, and begin to cast all of our cares on Him for He cares about every aspect of our lives.  When we begin to “Practice the Truth and Fear Nothing,” we’re on our way to experiencing a deeper relationship and greater peace with the only one, true God–Jehovah.

Sandra T.

 

I’m In Labor

  • Posted on September 12, 2011 at 8:54 am

Recently I have been in spiritual turmoil. Having high levels of anxiety, my stomach in knots, losing sleep. Feeling that at any moment my heart would burst, from being broken time after time. I was tired of my “up” being dictated by everyone else’s down. I needed my power back. It seemed that I didn’t know why I was feeling depressed, I was worried about things that I couldn’t believe were bothering me because  I knew they were so small to God.

I was caught up on what to do next and I wanted a microwaved answer from God. I didn’t want to take the time to lay prostrate before God and find out why I was in the place. I was lost, I couldn’t open my mouth to pray, at moments all I could muster up was “Jesus”.  Crying and screaming constantly on the inside, not able to verbally express how I was feeling. I felt alone because I thought no one noticed but God was in the middle in of my pain, He was meeting me where I was.

I was in a place of appointed suffering. God will allow pain in your life to position you on your knees. God was showing me how to praise in the pain. The bible says that we should offer up the sacrifice of praise. Its a sacrifice because that means that I have to put down all of my baggage and the uneasy yokes that I have been carrying to lift my hands and praise. When I realized what was happening God spoke to me and said “This is labor, you need to learn how to labor”. When a woman is pregnant and goes into labor it can take hours before she gives birth. God planted a seed in me and before it could be birthed it has to be watered and I have to labor.

Don’t despise the storm, don’t despise the labor pains, how much more will you appreciate the outcome if you have to suffer to receive it? Without the rain seeds won’t grow. In the storm dance, worship, give God praise, sometimes your immediate reaction can determine the outcome of a situation. God wants to see that you have faith in Him, that no matter what happens you can say “Lord its in your hands and I trust that you are working this out for my good.

BJ

 

 

I Love My Man

  • Posted on September 7, 2011 at 8:22 am

I love my man! I am surprised at myself because I never even thought I would be in love. Why? Oh, well I have had quite a few unsuccessful relationships; the most significant one was abusive mentally, emotionally, financially… I have a few scars inside and out to remind me. After dealing with so much, I pretty much shut down. I never allowed any man to get close enough to really know me so I could never be hurt again.  It wasn’t worth it and besides I was too busy and I didn’t have time to be bothered.  I had to raise my child, live a holy life and take care of God’s Kingdom! There was no need for a relationship, no room for one.

I was really ok with the status quo-my child is almost out of the house (yes I am counting down!) and I can finally get some ME time to do all the things I’ve been putting off by being a full time mommy.  Ok, so this was my plan, yep MY plan. As my countdown is nicely progressing, along comes this guy turning my world upside down. In my mind I am thinking hold up buddy, I didn’t ask for a husband! I wasn’t whining and crying about why I wasn’t married yet, I didn’t get jealous of other couples, I didn’t ask the Lord when will it be my time. No, no, no, that was not me. I was too busy keeping myself busy and raising my child! As I was saying, he comes along and all of a sudden my heart becomes flooded with feelings and emotions that I just didn’t recognize.  All the while, my head is telling me to slow down, get rid of him because this is a distraction that you don’t need because it doesn’t fit into your plan.  I had to evaluate myself, why am I having these ‘emotions’? These were weird feelings I did not know how to explain. Once I really thought about it, I realized all these ‘weird’ feelings indicated I was in love and no matter how I tried to fight them or how I tried to deny or ignore it, it was true and I had to accept it.Good grief, when and how did that happen?

Coming to terms with the fact that my plans don’t always align with God’s plans is an eye opener. I certainly thought God’s plans would agree with mine simply because I was focused on living a saved, sanctified life and working out my soul salvation with fear and trembling! Of course that didn’t leave room for a husband because I didn’t feel as if I needed one. Most certainly God wanted me to focus on serving Him and I felt as if I had not pleased Him enough yet. Besides I am getting older and my child doesn’t need a father at this point so what is the purpose of a husband at this point in my life? Apparently my logic is a little off because it didn’t make any sense to my friends despite the fact it made perfect sense to me.  I guess I was thrown off by the fact that if it ever did happen, I expected it to happen a certain way. Although it didn’t happen the way I would have expected, that doesn’t mean it isn’t God ordained. When I think about it, certainly there are pieces of evidence to attest to the fact that God’s hand is all in this.   I once recall saying, if the Lord ever blessed me with a husband I want his family to be saved too. I had forgotten about that but it came back to my mind not too long ago. Amazingly, this is definitely a sign that God has ordained this. And now, let’s see what the rest of the journey brings…..

MMB