autumn, change, God, journey, life plan, message, October, purpose, seasons of change, the butterfly journey, travel, treasures, women, worthy

Come Journey With Us!

Well autumn will officially be here next week!  I love this time of year, when the air is crisp and cool.  The trees begin to change colors and the earth is preparing to go to sleep for the winter.  I love the seasons of change.

Years ago, my mother spoke at a women’s retreat about the seasons of ones life path and it was amazing!  Some of those attendees still stop her on the street and tell her how that message impacted their lives.

So we, (The Butterfly Journey Ministry) have decided that it is time to begin our journey of change.  In the month of October we will guide you on a 30 day virtual journey called “Down the Path of Worthy”.  We are excited about what the Lord is going to do in our lives.  Each day each participant will receive a journal exercise to complete and explore.  Along our journey we will find the understanding of our “true” worth.  We will collect treasures of wisdom that only God can show us.  It’s going to be amazing!  Once you find your worth, your purpose is just around the corner!

Please consider traveling with us.  In order to get your ticket, please register on our website www.thebutterflyjourney.com and put “I’m on my journey!” in the comments section.  This is one trip you won’t want to miss!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

destiny, dreams, God, journey, life, motivated, the butterfly journey

Motivated!

Ok world here we go!  I have wasted enough time doing things that do not bring me closer to my destiny, my dreams.  But you know what the only thing holding me back is ME!

This morning as I looked over my calendar with a sigh feeling overwhelmed before I have even got started; I reminded myself everything on there has a purpose in helping me reach my destination.

So I prayed for the physical strength to push on and to complete everything with vigor and purpose.  I had to motivate myself!  I just imaged the results of my efforts and it all is worth every moment.  The momentum is building up in me as I type this post!

God said He has a plan for my life and I must do my part to make it a reality.  It isn’t about me, it’s about my desire to give Him the glory!  It is about helping someone else along their life’s journey!  I got to move, I have to push!

I will not allow my tiredness to defeat me before I even get started.  The goal is greater than the parts.

I have been battling this weight issue (only in my mind) for a long time, but not doing anything about my health issues is pure self-defeating.  I want to reap the results, but I didn’t want to put in the work.  We all know that is not going to work.  So today it is on!  So get out of my way laziness, it’s my time to get it right.  I have work to do!

Get motivated today to begin your journey!  Pump up your desire to reap the results that you want to see.  You can do it, I know you can!  I’m cheering you on!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

book, God, Healing, journey, Joy, let it go, life, love, move on, past hurt

Past Hurt? Let it Go!

I have had a lot of stuff going on in my life over the last several months.  Writing my first book, starting a ministry, developing a business and transforming to higher levels in my spiritual walk.  It all has been a marvelous journey and I am blessed beyond measure.  I have the love of my life there beside me to share it with.  My children and grandchildren are thriving and all is well.

Accept for today I woke up with a heaviness on my heart.  Not sure where it came from but it decided to visit me today.  There has been some past hurt in my heart because of a couple of people that were important to me, but I thought I had moved on from it.  But is seems that I have not completely healed from it.

Today I resolve to forgive the situation and the person(s) which the hurt has come from.  Even though I have never talked to them about the hurt that they caused and I feel that I may never get the opportunity, it is okay.  Today God gave me permission to let it go!

I am more than blessed to be surrounded by a group of people near and far that support me and love me for who I am.  Most importantly God loves me and that is all I need.

In life we will face these situations, but one thing I don’t want you to do is dwell on them and allow them time and space in your heart or spirit.  God will replace any hurt with joy and peace.  You can trust Him in that.

I have the spiritual covering from people that know me well and those whom I have just met.  And God has shown me unwavering favor in this journey!

So today if you have any unresolved hurt or unforgiveness, I want you to let it go now!  Open up your heart and spirit to the Lord and allow Him to fill you with His grace and mercy, love and joy.  Move on, it’s time!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

 

 

book, brokenness, connection, God, grief, hurting women, journey, the butterfly journey, women

Are You Connected?

Con-nec-tion: a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else.

What or who are you connected with?  Are your connections a positive influence in your life?  Are they challenging you to be the best you that you can be?  We all are connected with something or someone at some point in our lives.  So it is all the more important to make sure those connections have your best interest in mind.  It is also great to be a part of something or something that is more than what you can be or do by yourself.

Connections whether big or small allow us to have more ability together than we would have if we were alone.  A three strand cord is stronger than one strand.

As we journey through life’s trials and triumphs we should share with the connection of people who are like-minded in our cause or passion.  Together you can move mountains!  God created us to be dependant upon each other, not in the sense that we replace Him, but sometimes we need that physical connection with others to encourage us through.

When you hear good news or you have accomplished something great, what is the first thing you do?  Call one of your friends.  We are dependant people and it feels good to have someone to enjoy our accomplishments with.   Likewise, when we are going through our toughest hours or some tragedy has occurred, we long for someone to come to hold us and let us know that they are there.  Whether they can help the situation or not, we yearn for that physical connection.

My friend, Denise Hall Brown, just finished writing her first book called; 2Grieve 2Gether.  It is all about her journey through grief from several tragedies that happened in her life.  One of the main points is that we shouldn’t go through this process alone.  We need others to come along side of us to just be there.  It doesn’t matter where the grief comes from because there are all sorts and levels that occur in our lives daily, but the important thing is to share, connect, be there.

Just knowing that you have someone or a group of people in the world that are there to support you when you need to be uplifted or to be there to cheer you on when you are living your best life, is one of the most important parts about life.

That is why God created The Butterfly Journey ministry. God showed me many women in the world suffering with brokeness, grief, unworthiness; alone.  They feel they have no one to turn to not even Him.  And that is my mission to reach those women who need someone to come along side of them in their situations, to listen, help, pray with, and encourage them back to wholeness in Christ.

Are you connected?  Reach out to your connection, your circle of friends or family that have been there for you during the good and bad times and “thank” them for being your connection to God.

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

coach, depression, facebook, journey, plans, purpose, radical, women

Radical Change

The strangest thing happened this morning while writing my blog.  I completed what I thought was a pretty good blog and hit “publish”, all seemed well until I went to view the post and only the title was there.  Technical glitch or something else?  I understand that the opposite of good is evil and we can’t remain naive to the fact that the adversary is lurking around to try to “halt” the mighty plans of the Lord.  Unfortunately for him that is not an option.  Whatever plans the Lord sets in motion will prevail!

The ones close to me know that my life today is nowhere near where I was over 2 years ago.  I was stuck in a place of depression with little hope to make it through to the other side of sane much less a place of purpose and abundance.  But you see the journey that the Lord placed me on was a divine intervention of my life.  I truly have been transformed by the renewing of my mind.

It has taken an emotional toll on me to write about the place of desolation that I was in but God knew that was where I needed to be in order to be radically changed for His purpose in life.

I could have wasted away in my place of darkness, but instead God had plans far brighter than my most horrific days of depression.  It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures: Jeremiah 29:11 ~ “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

God has great plans for your life too.  A radical change is waiting to take place in your life right in the middle of your struggles.  Will you embrace it?  Will you die in your place of desperation?  Or will you decide to live out your true purpose and have an abundant life full of promise, healing, and restoration?

I am here to help you through your journey; to coach you, to help you find the resources that you need to catapult you to the next level, and to pray for you in the midst of your storms.  Are you ready for your radical change today?

Join The Butterfly Journey Facebook page by clicking the “like” button and begin to live out your God-given plans!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

book, facebook, Faith, God, hurting women, journey, purpose, the butterfly journey, women

The Time Has Come

If you have been so gracious as to read any of my blogs, you know by now that I am currently writing my first book – The Butterfly’s Journey.  I just received my copyright papers today!  The time has come!  My deadline is set for October 2011.  I am sending another copy to the editor tonight!

Over the course of one week a shift has begun to occur in my journey.  I have been overly blessed to have connected to some amazing, encouraging, women who have been divinely connected to me.  These ladies have already touched my heart and I pray that our journey together will be one of amazement in God.

I didn’t think I was ready for the shift yet, but I knew it would come soon.  God has prepared me for such a time as this.  Now the time has come for me to move out into the territory in faith of ministering to hurting women.  I don’t take my mission and purpose lightly and I won’t move on anything until God tells me where to go, what to do, when to do it, and what to say when I get there.

This is such an awesome responsibility and I pray that I will accomplish all that God will set before me in an excellent way.

If you are feeling generous and have the desire to help me optimize my Facebook page, please go to The Butterfly Journey page and click “like”, as this will help me get the most exposure and reach the women that I desperately desire to touch.  On this page is where I will be holding online discussions, connecting with others, and posting upcoming events.  I am going to also use it to give the progress of my book, unveiling the cover design, and choosing a select few to pre-read one of the first copies to add a review to the back cover.

I thank you in advance for your support!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

blogging, book, God, God has ordained, hurting women, journey, potential in God, purpose, social media, Tweeting, vessel

This is Who I Am

I have been blogging for over 2 months now and I only had a few comments and one subscriber, but I that is not why I started blogging.  I wanted to have another avenue to reach out to other women to share my life as I live it.  It is my online journal of the lessons that God shows me everyday.

Perhaps you can relate to the fact that ever since I started blogging, posting, and tweeting, I have left little time to concentrate on my writing.  I am presently in the middle of writing my first book.  Because it is totally inspired by God I know that He has a fresh, relevant message that needs to reach the masses.  I am just the vessel in which He chose to deliver it.   But honestly I have been slacking back on the writing.  Wasting time on worthless stuff.  I know better than that.

Well on Saturday morning I woke up and as usual I checked all my social media sites to see what was going on.  And to my surprise I had a comment on one of my recent posts.  I was so excited that I accidentally called my mother at 7 o’clock in the morning (I know better than that).  But I couldn’t contain myself.  It was as if I had won the lottery or struck oil.  The reason for my great joy is because I had touched one person with my message that day.

You may not understand my wild excitement, but you see, God has ordained me to encourage and inspire women to live out their purpose in Him.  And to actually have one person touched by my blog meant the whole world to me.  This is who I am, this is what I was put on this earth to do.  And if I can help 1 or 1,000, my journey would not have been in vain.  I will be able to have glorified my God!  I may not have gotten it all right in life, but this one thing is burning on my spirit so deep that I must fulfill it before I die.

So needless to say I need to finish this book.  I can’t spend countless hours just looking at what everybody else is doing.  I need to be about my Father’s business!  I need to be helping hurting women know their true worth.  I need to be helping them discover their potential in God.  I need to be there to pray with them and for them as they go through their storms.  I need to be their sister-friend and encourage them in their dreams.

This is who I am! I am living out the purpose that God predestined for me to be in the world to help transform lives from ordinary to extraordinary in Him.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

depression, God, Healing, hurting women, journey, Mirror, Tough questions

The Woman in the Mirror

When I was suffering from depression and beginning my healing process with God; I had to ask myself some tough questions.  Why did I end up that way?  What were some of the things that I personally did that contributed to my situation?

It took all the emotional strength that I could muster up to ask those questions.  I was frightened more by the thought of what the answers were.  But I had to know, I couldn’t move forward in my healing without knowing the truth.  I never wanted to travel to that place again.

As I saw myself in the mirror of God’s eyes it cut me as deep as a double-edged sword.  The darkness that surrounded me was overwhelming.  I didn’t even recognize myself.  But in the writing of my book I now realize now raw those pains still are.  Whenever I share my testimony, I get emotional about the imagery that God showed me of my life.  It grieves my soul!

But still everyday, I look in that mirror of myself to see where I am now.  I see the miraculous changes that only God could do.  I see a woman full of life and purpose.  I see the light of life surrounding me taking the place of the darkness that once followed and plagued me.  I can’t forget that woman in the mirror, she is my sister, my friend, she is me.  I will continue to advocate for her and pray for her and help her to find her place in life.  It is not easy looking at yourself in the mirror; seeing your life as it really is.

But I wanted to endure that so that I can be real for other women who are going through their storms of life.  I want to tell them the whole process; every detail is important to the healing process and growth.  You can’t just give someone  the beginning and the end and never share the middle of your story.  It does them no good at all.  Everyone wants to know that they are not the only one who has suffered, who has gone through bad things.  They want to relate to some piece of your story so they know that you truly understand.

Once they see you on the other side they wonder if they too can be healed.  That is why it is so important for me to share, to minister, to pray with and to love all the hurting women no matter what they face because I know that through it all God can redeem you.  He can and He will turn your ashes into beauty if you allow Him to.

If only I could touch a 1,000 lives then I know my journey would not have been in vain.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

depression, Faith, God, hurting women, journey, self-discovery, worthy

Losing Myself to Find Myself

The darkness was intense.  The eerie soundless space was unnerving.  It was as if all living things had disappeared.  I found myself drowning in a pit of sadness and loneliness for over 730 days of pure torment.  This place of depression had stolen my life as I once knew it and there was nothing that I could do.

As unbearable as it was at the time, I wouldn’t change anything; because out of my pit of despair came life.  When God delivered me from the shame and pain of the place I found myself in, I was different.  I was not the same anymore.

He showed me that through this process, although painful, made me useful for His purpose.  Once healed I am able to share my story with other hurting women and help them on their journey to wholeness.  I found my “true” self.

Now I have hope and purpose!  I have the understanding of who I really am and whose I am.  I no longer have to conform to the people or situations around me that pull out all of my good for their own purposes.  And leave me empty and useless to myself and God.

God I am grateful for losing my worldly self to find my “true” worthy self in you.

It is true it is a process and your journey might not look exactly like mine, but nonetheless it is a process for whatever you are going through.  But you must: 1. embrace your journey, 2. self-discovery – understand your role in the mess of your life, 3. seek your worth from the one who made you (God), 4. repent and change by building a new relationship with God 5. understand and pursue your purpose.

Let’s find the real you today!  Email me @ lisa@thebutterflyjourney.net

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

depression, Faith, journey, Joy, New

I’m New Again!

God is so gracious to us!  When I found myself drowning in a pit of depression I never thought I would make it out.  It was the worst time in my life.   I had no one to turn to; no one reached out to me.  It was just hopelessness and darkness.  But God…

God was not only in the pit with me, but He lifted me up and out as a brand new “me”.   He made me NEW!

It was a tough process, but like the caterpillar’s transformation process, it was necessary so that I could FLY.  I am grateful for the entire experience, as it has made me a new person.  I now have clarity about who I really am, my worth in God, and my purpose in life.

I no longer have to conform to the people or things around me to feel valued.  I am free to be me and I will no longer seek the approval of “man”.  I will be excellent in all that I do, but temporal praise is not my goal.  I thrive now for a more eternal approval.  I no longer worship the gifts, more than the Giver!

I am new again!  I was broken in a million pieces and God put me back on the potter’s wheel and transformed my life.  I am now a useful vessel for His purpose.

You know the joy that is expressed in the Bible; that unspeakable joy? That’s what I have with God.   It is not conditioned to any circumstance or situation but it is there all the time.  Even when the storms of life coming crashing down, it is there.  Follow God, He will not lead you astray.  He will replace your ashes for beauty and give you joy, unspeakable!

Embrace your life’s challenges and seek clarity in what God is trying to show you about yourself.  It will renew your spirit.  It will make you new again!

The Buttefly Journey – Lisa