Category: change

be all you can be, change, life, seeking God, start living

Got Life?

livingwholecoaching

Life is not a spectator sport.  On the contrary, you need to get out there and take the bull by the horns and shake things up!  If you don’t do it for yourself, who is going to do it?

I have seen people live their lives with no enthusiasm, no zeal, no dreams, no aspiration and die unfulfilled.  Why would you to do that?  Often times it’s because no one took the time to inspire or motivate them to become their “greatest” selves.  Me, myself I am my greatest motivator!  I desire to have something better than what my life was yesterday.  I knew in my knower that there must be something more to life than just living.  It has to be more than walking around like a robot, being humdrum and just surviving.

But guess what it takes some effort on your part.  Amazing discovery I know, but seriously how is your life going to change if you don’t participate in the change process.  If you never pursue filling that void, how are you going to know if you ever reach it or not.

Back to what I know best; God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.  Okay, so you don’t believe in God, now what?  But why don’t you believe?  Do you have any proof that He is not real?  What would it cost you to seek Him?  A better life, a sense of peace, joy when you need it, the experiencing of a love that is so profound that it amazes you?  These are the things, the experiences that you can have with God.

Many have passed away never really experiencing life the way that it should be experienced.  Sad but it’s true.  You know we all have our moments of reflection when we see how fragile this life we have is and it is at those moments that I want to run and jump and be fully embraced in my life.  I had such a moment last night sitting in the ICU waiting room, while my nephew was lying in the hospital bed breathing with the help of a machine and tubes coming from everywhere on his body.  He is only 18 years old!  Fragile!  As I prayed over him, I asked God to not only heal his body but also his soul.  I asked God to give him a zeal for life that he would never take it for granted, but live it to the fullest potential in God.

You have to be a participant in your life.  We can’t all walk around victims of our circumstances or the world would be in a worse state than it is right now.  If you have a life, start living it to its fullest potential.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

change, depression, God, healing and deliverance, prayer

Only God. . .That’s All I Need

livingwholecoaching

One thing that I noticed about myself since I was delivered from the depths of depression, is that I am very aware of my feelings more.  I know when I am about to feel that overwhelming feeling that causes me to start to feel defeated.  I don’t like the feeling at all, but I am glad that now I can recognize it very clearly and act appropriately.

God has given me a censor (discernment) to know when I am getting in a place that is not good for me and I stop.  I stop right where I am and I pray and ask God to give me the strength and wisdom I need to push pass that place.  You see before I didn’t understand what that feeling meant and I would allow it to take over me and put me in a place of despair and if I wasn’t careful, it would take me right back to depression.

I am so glad though that God loves me enough to help me in every situation whether big or small.  I am glad that He is there for me when nobody else may understand.  I can depend on Him.  That is one of main lessons that I learned when I came out of my depression was I didn’t have to rely on a person to be there because God was there with me every single day of my 730 day journey in depression.  He was the only one there as a matter of fact and I never would have made it if He wasn’t there with me.

Wow, I could go on  page after page telling you about God’s goodness towards me especially during that time because it changed my life.  But  I will leave that for you to read in my book:  The Butterfly’s Journey, releasing in April 2012.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

change, destiny, Faith, God, grace, life, prayer, preparing for transformation, seeking God

Preparing for Transformation

livingwholecoaching

Before we can begin to start our “butterfly journey”, we must first prepare for transformation.  How do you do that, you ask?  It’s not easy!

First we need to change our mindset towards ourselves and recognize that we can’t do this alone.  That there is more to life than just living the way we have been.  We need God to help us through and we need each other to encourage one another along the way.  We have to build trust in God’s process.  Most importantly we need to desire the change.  We have to get tired of being tired of the way that things are with our lives.

Our desire to seek our “true” destiny has to be stronger than turning back or remaining in a life that is dead and unfruitful.  We need to acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers to life and we need God to help us.  We need to begin the purging process and that takes a lot of courage.

You will need to dig deep into yourself to identify the places in your life that need to be understood and then buried.  Asking, praying, and seeking God for those answers is our key to moving beyond our past and starting anew.  I literally had to relive those places in my life that were not so wonderful and ask God to show me why I made the choices that I did and how to move past the hurt and disappointment that people had left in my life and things that I myself had deposited in my spirit.  I had to allow Him to purge me from those things that were keeping me from understanding my “true” worth in Him.

We can’t skip this part of the process because it prepares us for the transformation stage; which in itself is a tough process.  You have to put your trust in a God that you can’t see, but you can feel His love, grace, and peace all around you!

It’s time for you to prepare, let’s go!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

 

 

change, forgiving, God, Healing, Position Yourself for Greatness, the butterfly journey

Position Yourself for Greatness!

livingwholecoaching

My mother and I were talking the other day about how people don’t want to do their part in transforming their lives for greatness.  It is definitely a process.  One that requires some things of you.  God is the one who can and will do the transforming but YOU are the one who has to receive it.  You are the one who needs to open your heart to what it is that God is trying to do for you and in you.

God wants us to be vulnerable to Him and the process.  Your heart has to be open in order to receive.  You have to be willing to let some things go in order to receive some “new” things in.

A closed hand will never receive any gifts.  A closed heart will never receive love.  You have to position yourself for greatness.  I believe it is truly a season of receiving all the good that God has for you.  But you must be ready.  Just like running a marathon you have to condition yourself to endure the challenge, you can’t just go out there and run.  You will hurt yourself.

As it is with receiving from God you must position yourself to receive what it is that He has for you.  You may have to deal with some past hurts, you may have to forgive a few people that you don’t want to forgive, you may have to deny yourself of some selfish motives but it is so worth it my friend.  Those bandages are going to have to come off and some healing will need to take place.

Ask yourself this question are you ready to receive the greatness that God has for you?  Is your heart open to change and transformation?  The caterpillar doesn’t have a choice but to be ready to transform because it is a part of his nature to receive the gift of becoming a butterfly.  But we have a choice and we can choose to remain in the same old place or we can choose to open ourselves up to the greatness that God wants to give us.

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

 

change, Faith, God, hurting women, journey, life, motivated, New, purpose

Don’t Just Stand There

livingwholecoaching

If you are anything like me I get motivated by the visions that I have.  I see the end result and am stirred to high motivation.  It is the steps in between that kill my motivation sometimes.  It looks too daunting to complete!  I fall back and retreat from taking the next step; I feel paralyzed.

God is teaching me in my journey that I need to take one step at a time.  He will reveal the parts as I go.  This life is a test of faith and without it you won’t have a chance.  Sometimes you don’t know which way to go, but you have to stand firm and listen to the still small voice of God to direct you.

God told me this week that I need to push passed my fear of the unknown and He will make every provision that I need.  I trust Him because He has never failed me yet.  I have been commissioned to minister to hurting women at all levels even situations that I have never experienced.  He will give me the words and prayers to pray.  God will be in the midst and it is up to Him to do the transformation not me.  I just need to keep my motivation to move!

Sometimes we lose our motivation to fear, to tiredness, to life itself.  But God is telling us now is the time to change our lives for a better (new) life.  If you can only find the motivation for each day.  Don’t worry about motivation for the entire journey, just search and get motivation for one day at a time.

My mother asked me “how do you eat an elephant”?  The answer; one bite at a time.  Allow the Lord to get you from here to there.

So find your motivation for today and listen to God for what you need to do today that will move you toward your purpose, heal you from your past, and change you from the inside out.

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

change, destiny, Down the Path of Worthy, God, God has ordained, hurting women, journey, life, purpose, the butterfly journey, worthy

God Is Not Through With Us Yet

livingwholecoaching

Several women joined me for a virtual journey this month called – Down the Path of Worthy.  This week marks our final trek.

We have only begun to scale back the pieces of our worthiness during this journey.  There is so much more work that we need to do.  We have found out that it is not an easy task walking back to places in our lives that have caused us pain.  But we had to go there in order to re-write the scripts of our lives back to the original content that God had written for us before we were even a thought in our mother’s womb.

We have realized that this process of finding our true worth in God was more exhausting than we thought it would be.  But we are dedicated to reaching the place that we most desire and that is figuring out our purpose and destiny.

Sometimes the emotional journey is too much and we have to rest along the way.  It’s okay, we understand that we have to press to reach the top of the place that we want to be.   We have to dig deep!  We trek on!  We won’t stop here we will push ourselves with the strength that God gives us to make a difference in our lives and the lives that we touch.

We are not convinced that everyone will understand the process but we hope that all will trust it.  We share this experience because it is the very thing that has helped us; it is our testimony for others to know that it can be done.  God can and will turn our ashes into beauty!

We encourage all women to join us in this journey of a lifetime.  It is not about changing our habits, but it is about transforming our lives for a better life that God has ordained for us to live.

Be encouraged, God is not through with us yet!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

change, Day 5, Down the Path of Worthy, God, journey, purpose, the butterfly journey, worthy

The Journey Day 5

livingwholecoaching

On Day 5 we had to trek up a steep hill.  So we grabbed some protein bars and plenty of water, took a deep breath and made our way.

Today we had to really dig deep and we were not sure what we would find, but we needed to go deep inside ourselves.  We had to communicate how we were evaluating our worth.  We had to share what were some of the temporal things that we were connecting our worth to.

Many of us had a hard time with this one and it took us awhile to get to the top of that hill.  It was a daunting task.  Again, we had to go over that hill in order to reach our next destination on the path to worthy.

The butterfly’s journey is not an easy one.  When we see the beauty of the butterfly and amaze at its ability to be free to fly and dance among the flowers of the field, we fail to realize the journey that it had to take to get to that scene.  It has to change.  In its process it actually liquefies while in the cocoon so that it can become what it is intended to be!

That is where our journey took us on this day.  We had to look deep inside for all the flawed ways that we have equated our worth.  We are so used to connecting our worth with temporal things of the world which may be counter productive to the way that God values our worth.  Because of years of evaluating ourselves that way it is hard to then change.

This exercise was super important to this pivot part of our journey.  This is the part where the scales on our eyes can start being removed and in turn we can begin our transformation to our “true” worth and purpose!

Keep moving we will meet you there!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

change, Day 3, Down the Path of Worthy, God, journey, letter, New, seeking God, the butterfly journey

The Journey Day 3

livingwholecoaching

We are really moving now!  Day 3 we wrote one last letter.  We wrote a letter to God from us.

In this letter we had to express to God everything that we are, what we were not and all the little things in between.  We took this opportunity to ask God questions about our lives.  The things that have happened to us that have shaped the person that we are today.  We asked about the things that happened to us that we did not understand.

Even though we understood that God already knows these things it was important for us to write it out for ourselves.  The exercise allowed us to reflect on our lives the good, the bad, and the ugly and just let it all out on paper.  We believe that it is very therapeutic to write.  It allows you the opportunity to express what may be inside but no other opportunity to release.  We must purge those thoughts and pains out in order to allow the good things and new things into our spirit and heart.  We will now be able to allow our minds to receive the new ideas to flow into us so that change can transform us.

We told God how we viewed Him in our lives and then gave thanks for the things that He has given unto us through out the years.  It was a time to give thanks!

What do you need to tell God?  Write Him a letter today!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

change, Day 1, Down the Path of Worthy, journey, letter, life, the butterfly journey

The Journey Day 1

livingwholecoaching

Starting our journey to understand our “true” worth began with self-discovery.  We have learned that the most impactful way to understand any concept is to discovery it for yourself.  You can image what someone is sharing with you but when you begin to understand it from your inner self it really opens up your heart and mind to the process especially when it pertains to you.

So that is what we started doing with Day 1 on our journey – Down the Path of Worthy.  We wrote a letter to ourselves.  This exercise was developed to get us to open up and really evaluate who we are and how we view ourselves.

The starting point of understanding our worth is understanding how we view ourselves whether it is a negative view or a positive one, we need to know where we stand with ourselves in order to understand how to change our mindset.

The letters that we received were all wonderful and meaningful to our process.  Many of us realized that we have a lot of wonderful characteristics and attributes that we may have overlooked over the years.  But the letter allowed us to think and dig deeper into the wonder that we possess.

I believe that everyone came away with a sense of self-worth that they may not have remembered they had.

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

be all you can be, change, comfort zone, Faith, God, hope, Jesus, journey, life, live, New, prayer, purpose, the butterfly journey, travel, women

The Change Zone

livingwholecoaching

Traveling to a new place is sometimes a little scary.  You don’t know what to expect.  You don’t know if the people will be friendly or will you make new friends.  It is just a big unknown.  That is how it is changing your life from one level to the next.

We don’t know what the new level  will be like because we have become accustom to where we are right now.  Most people tend to stay in their comfort zone; well because it is comfortable.  To me the thought of never trying to reach that new level is even more scary.  Never trying to be all that you can be; just living the ordinary life.  For me if I didn’t ever try, I would always wonder if I could have made it to the next level and actually enjoyed the benefits of living that extraordinary life.

I believe you go through a series of emotions and growing pains when you decide to launch yourself into the new level of life.  It isn’t an easy process; that’s why so many of us will decide not to venture out into the new zone.  No one wants to fail, so we stay comfortably in the place that we may or may not be excited about being.  The thought of stepping out is too daunting.

When I decided to walk a life of faith in God and allow Him to grow me into a new level; I never thought I would feel so indifferent.  I know God is great and would always lead me to a better place in life with Him.  But the journey isn’t easy and each day is a challenge just to stay on course.  I can only imagine what Jesus felt as He walked through His journey on earth knowing His ultimate assignment was to die.  I am grateful that He did complete the assignment for you and me!  It allowed us to have hope and  a future!

God is not asking me to die for Him, but He is asking me to walk into this new level with Him.  When I think about Jesus, He didn’t have many who understood His journey and at the end some of the ones closest to Him would betray Him.  But that didn’t matter to Him, He knew He must fulfill His calling.  He did suffer; and we too sometimes will have to suffer in this life in order to reach our full potential in Him.  To complete our assignments.

My prayer for each of you is that you trust God in your journey whatever that may be.  You are better off  finding your true self than remaining in a place of unfulfillment.  More so, I pray that you will have someone there to encourage you through the tough spots that are sure to come.  I vow to be that someone who will come along side you when things get unbearable and pray you through.  I will be that one who you can express your feelings to that will understand, because I too am on my journey and I can relate to the rollercoaster of emotions that come with growing into that person that God would have you to be.

The butterfly’s journey isn’t easy; what you see when you see it fluttering freely through the flowers is the end result of its journey to become what it was meant to be.

Don’t stand still in the place that you are in right now; God has something greater for you!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa