Category: encouragement

encouragement, God, golden nuggets, hope, Lessons, prayer, the butterfly journey

7 Lessons I’ve Learned While Going Through My Storm

livingwholecoaching

I’ve learned over many years of life that each storm of life holds “golden nuggets” of wisdom that God wants me to learn.  But like most people I couldn’t see the lessons while I was embedded in the pain of facing tough life situations.  Most recent years I have begun to dig a little deeper to understand just what God was trying to show me about myself during these times.

7 lessonsOnce I began to hunger for the truth, God was gracious enough to uncover the treasures that were hidden in the waves of my storms.

1. My relationship with God is the most important relationship of my life.

There is no one in this world that loves me more or with a more perfect love.  Don’t compromise who you are for the world.

2.  Seek God for direction before making decisions for my life.

I realize that my understanding is limited to what I know and see.  God is all-knowing and He is the best one to give me direction for my life.  Sometimes our decisions can have an adverse affect on our lives and the lives of those we love.

3. Know and believe God’s promises for my life.

Studying God’s word gives us understanding of who we are and what God has promised to do in us and through us, but how do we know if we do not delve into His glorious word?  The trials become unbearable if we have no hope that things can or will get better.  His word is the blueprint that gives us everything we need to live our best lives. Jeremiah 29:11

4. Search for the lessons in each situation.

I began to ask God questions.  What is it that you want me to learn Lord?  How do you want me to wait while in the storm?  Every trial has a something that be for your good; build your faith, increase your trust, restore or turn you away from sin.  Romans 8:28

5. Be grateful in all seasons of my life.

Sometimes this part is hard especially when you are experiencing pain.  This is the time when you really have to dig deep and remind yourself of the wonderful blessings that still are surrounding you.  Look for them, make it a point to seek them, they are there!  There is a greater glory after each storm.

6. Tell my story to others.

There is always someone who may be going through a similar storm in their life.  By sharing your testimony you are giving them hope and encouragement that things will get better.

7.  Pray without ceasing.

I can’t say enough about prayer!  I have learned early in my Christian walk that prayer changes things, situations and hearts.  There is no greater gift than to be able to talk to the Father about all your heart issues.  There are some things that will only come by prayer.  Learn to pray and continue to develop your communication with the Father.  He will never fail you, that I know for sure!

Blessings

Lisa

brokenness, encouragement, God, health, the butterfly journey, women

Heart Healthy

livingwholecoaching

brokenheartFebruary is heart health month.  During this month you can find helpful information about how to have a healthy heart, or about warning signs when something is wrong with your heart.  It is all about the well-being of your physical heart.

February is also the month of Valentine’s Day.  A day set aside to show love to your significant other and others you love in a special way.  Usually we adorn each other with chocolates and roses.  Valentine’s Day is one of the most celebrated and lucrative holidays that we engage in.

What about your spiritual heart?  Is it healthy, do you know the warning signs that something may be going wrong with it?  Do you have the information on how to keep it healthy?  Or have the arteries of life circumstances caused plaque to build up and the flow of love and joy are having a hard time reaching your heart to keep it healthy?

Have you been exercising your heart muscles by showing love to keep your heart strong and in a position to receive love?  Your spiritual heart is just as important as your physical heart.  It warrants your every effort to make sure that nothing foreign comes in to make your heart beat irregularly or cause damage.

We place things in our heart from experiences that we have encountered in our lifetime.  Some things are good, others are bad, but God wants us to make sure that what we put in our hearts are things that will help us live life to its fullest.  Good things that will catapult us into a relationship with Him and others.  When we have experienced something that was not good and we place it in our hearts, it stays there until we release it.  As long as it stays there the more miserable you may become.  You will live your life not fully being free to love or receive love.

That’s why God said in His word: Proverbs 4: 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. NIV

The good news today is that God can help you release the bad things that you have placed in your heart.  The things that will keep you from experiencing a true flow of love and joy, but you have to give God all the pieces of your brokenness.  He will replace those things with wisdom and love.  Trust Him, I do!

Blessings Lisa

 

encouragement, self-discovery, self-examination, the butterfly journey

Worry About Yourself

livingwholecoaching

I had to share this funny video with you.  It was one of the cutest videos I had seen in a long time posted on Facebook!  Although the message was sweet and innocent coming from a 3-year-old little girl, it had some profound content that I thought worthy of blogging about.

The scene is a sweet, cute little girl in the backseat of the family car trying desperately to hook the belts to her car seat.  (This is a daunting task as I have tried many times and failed to buckle my grandchildren in).  Her dad says, “you want me to help you?”  And with the sweet small voice she says, “no I can do it myself.”  As she continues to struggle with it her dad asks again, “what do you want me to do?”  She so innocently says, “worry bout yo self!”  Well you could have bought me for a wooden nickel!  It was too cute!

But how much message is really in those little words?  Worry about yourself, could be a nice way of saying mind your business, but I didn’t take it that way.  I look at it as saying we can always find something wrong or we know how to correct someone else’s issues but we can’t even see our own issues.  Isn’t that the truth?  It is always easier it seems to let someone know what they are doing wrong or not addressing in their lives, than it is to understand our own shortcomings or bad choices.

That is why I am learning (you see that I’m learning) to ask God to show me my own issues so that I can work on me and then I can come along side of someone who may be dealing with similar issues and help not hinder.  I never want to be in a position that I can’t see my own stuff, my own issues or where I fall short.  None of us are perfect so there is always something to work on.  I believe staying humble is the best ingredient for being in a position to help people when they need you.

So don’t stop “worrying about people”, but make sure you have the right attitude when you are trying to help them.  Make sure your reasons are pure and if they aren’t then “worry bout yo self and let God do the rest.

Blessings

Lisa

depression, encouragement, God, the butterfly journey

Could It Be You?

livingwholecoaching

20130610_CleanHeart_DM When you are involved in an unpleasant situation, do you naturally look at the other party as the reason for it?  I’m not saying that you are wrong for doing that because in some cases it could very well be because of someone else’s role that the situation occurred.

But this is what I want you to think about for a minute…could it be YOU?  I know you have examples for me that prove that it is not always you or it never has been you that caused a situation to go south.  However, hear me out.

I’ve shared my testimony with you many times, but since I haven’t blogged in a year (and I hope that I will have some new followers) I will give you a little bit of my story.  Thank God it has been over 7 years now since I suffered with major depression.  During the latter part of my dark journey I started asking myself and God why did I get to the place that I was in?  Well talking to myself I could explain a lot of my demise by pointing my finger at others.

God took me in another direction.  He pointed his finger at me!  Me?!  I did this to myself?!  But I didn’t fuss with God, I just listened, because at that point in my life that is all I could do.  I humbled myself and listened to God.  I allowed God to show me, myself.  Wow, what a journey that was; not pleasant at all.  What it did for me though was examine every choice that I had made.  The good, bad, and the ugly.

It was then that my life began to change…for the better.  I learned the most life lessons during this season of my life.  If you want to truly be free and walk in a better relationship with not only yourself, but God and others, you would embrace self-examination.

Would you agree that God only wants the best for you?  When He cares, he wants to show you ways that may be contrary to the what the world teaches you.  He wants to move you into a new level of “trusting” Him.  And if you can’t trust Him with your life, your entire life, than you have a lot to learn my friend.

Give yourself a chance to be the “best” you and trust God to show you, you.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within ME.” Psalm 51:10 NIV

Blessings, Lisa

2015, dream bigger, dreams, encouragement, New Year, the butterfly journey

Dream a New Dream 2015!

livingwholecoaching

While I was thinking back over the last year, I noticed a common theme…I don’t stick with the plans that I have for my life. I am not sure what happens to the zeal for the things that I so long to do, but I get overwhelmed with life in general and I just stop!

Not good! There are so many wonderful, worthy plans that I want to accomplish and unfortunately time is not standing still waiting for me to get my act together.

God is always faithful even when we are not. When I was crying and complaining about my own laziness, He began to intervene on my behalf. Wonderful right? Well not so much. What God did was allowed me to be in a situation that caused me to be uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable and usually when I’m uncomfortable, I run. I run far away from the situation, the people, my calling….everything. My head in the sand.

But this time God said no more running. You will stay and you will face this situation head on with me by your side. Wow! Everyday I prayed as hard as I could for the answers to come, what do I do, where do I go, can I escape? Everyday for months I prayed for an answer.

One day it finally came! Yay, but hold on it wasn’t pleasant at first. The same feeling of hurt, pain, and confusion came as it did for the many days before, but this time I reacted differently. I trusted God and I did it His way and boom the outcome was not the same!

I say all this to let you know that until I was able to conquer this situation and the way it was making me feel and react I was going to be stuck and not doing the things in my life that I long to do. You see these situations come to blur our focus, cause us to retreat, to throw up our hands in surrender. Instead we should figure out the reason for the test and learn to conquer it and not allow it to conquer us.

So now that God was able to get my attention and teach me some wisdom, I am more than ready to move into the life that He was created for me. Without that situation rubbing me the wrong way and me learning to deal with it in God’s way I would still be stuck.

God told me to “dream a new dream in 2015”, not to let go of what He has already showed me, but to breathe new life into those things. I need to encourage myself and recognize instantly when the enemy is trying to distract me from my calling.

2015 is my year, what about you?! You can take a close look at the patterns of your life and determine that what held you captive then will not be the same thing that holds you back this year. Time for a good self-evaluation and talk with God. Let Him show you what you need to do to move toward your destiny.

Blessings,

Lisa

encouragement, God

Encourage My Soul

livingwholecoaching

Often times we go along in life with expectations of what we would like to do or see happen in our lives. Sometimes things don’t turn out quite the way we had planned.  Or little set-backs come along to steer us off course.  Things happen to get us down and out and disturb our souls.  Every time something happens that I didn’t plan for (and that is often) I  start to feel discouraged.  Like it is just another thing to hold me back from accomplishing the things that I set out to do.

We must have the wisdom to understand that life is not always good and things do come along to knock you down.  But we must have the resolve to encourage ourselves and others.  Did you realize that when you encourage someone else your own troubles start to feel less intense?  I mean you walk away feeling great about helping someone see the possibilities in themselves.  You actually begin to see the possibilities in yourself!

It amazes me that little words of encouragement can go such a long way.  Just think if we all paid it forward the encouragement that someone has given to you!  What kind of world would we live in?  Where people all over would be affirming one another, coming along helping you to see the endless abilities that you possess.  This would be a wonderful place!  And it can start with you.

If you know God and the wonderful promises that  He has stored up for you, then you can even encourage your own soul!  You can speak to yourself about all the good things that God has given you, has placed in you, has stored up for you and get yourself in a place of expectation!

Please take the time to look outside of yourself and encourage someone along life’s way.  You will be amazed at how it makes you feel.  Encourage your soul today, the world needs what you have!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa