Category: Faith

be all you can be, destiny, God, New, spring cleaning

Spring Cleaning

livingwholecoaching

It’s time to do some spring cleaning!  I love spring, the time when everything comes to life again.  The trees start budding, the flowers begin to pop up from under the ground, and we get more sunshine as the last few weeks of winter start to fade away.

Every year I would take a week off of work just to stay home and organize, purge junk and clean everything from the floor to the kitchen cabinets.  It was wonderful therapy for me to get rid of stuff and get everything fresh and new!

Well this year I am spring cleaning my life!  I am taking inventory of the habits (good & bad), my relationships, my career,  my health (emotional & physical), and my finances so I can make changes for a better self.  Yeah I know it is easier to just clean the refrigerator out or donate a bag of clothes to the Salvation Army, but self-cleaning is necessary.  I want to live the best life that I can live and if I have stuff that is not doing me any good to reach that “best life”; guess what. . .it has to go!

I am always praying and asking God for divine wisdom and guidance for my life as I desire to be everything that He ordained me to be.  Sometimes the changes are hard, but I realize in the end the reward is greater.

I am going to start a journal of my experience as I blossom into the person that God wants me to be.  Perhaps this will be the making of my second book!

I think that it’s necessary to evaluate the present state of your life in order to reach your full potential.  Asking God the whys of your life and listening for clarity are lessons well learned.  He will give you everything you need to push past hurt, pain, and unforgiveness and give you the desire to walk in your destiny!

This spring will be the best start for my new life!  I pray that you will do the same.  Happy spring cleaning!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

book, Denise Hall Brown, destiny, dream bigger, Faith, God

Dream Bigger!

livingwholecoaching

What does faith have to do with dreaming bigger?  Everything, we can only dream as big as our imagination can take us.  Beyond that point we have nothing. We can strain and squeeze our brains all we want and we are never going to be able to imagine more that it can contain.  But with faith you see anything is possible.  God is able to do above and beyond our wildest, most creative dreams.

My good friend decided to step off the cliff into a “faith walk” that God had prepared for her.  I was so scared and happy for her all at the same time.  I envied her tenacity to make such a bold move with her life.  I wanted to do the same thing, but I didn’t have the nerve that it took to even get to the edge of the cliff.   But my friend Denise said the urge to step into her destiny was so strong she felt she had no other choice.  So she took a quantum leap with God and the results have been more than miraculous.

You see, my friend, Denise Hall Brown, has suffered a tremendous amount of lost and tragedy since the time that I met her.  Years before I even knew who she was or her story, she had lost her mother to a tragic accident with a drunk driver.  Her mother was her world and at her tender age, it was a devastating event that would rock her world.

Years later, when I did have the opportunity to know Denise very well,  is when she suffered the untimely loss of her 6 month old baby boy,  Isaiah.  I remember that day just like it was yesterday and I don’t think I will ever forget it.  My heart broke in a thousands pieces for her and her family and I feel like a part of me will never be the same.

Yet in still she rose to the top and she survived and she began a deep walk with the Lord.  She opened her heart to Him in such a humble way that it amazed me to see her grow so fast in her spiritual journey after all that she had endured.

Then again tragedy struck when one winter season not very long ago, she lost her husband.  I began to wonder too what was God doing in the midst of this sisters life.  How could she take anymore upon her soul?  But she continued to grow in her walk and she grieved and grieved.  She was down but she wasn’t out.  You have to read her full story in her book: 2Grieve 2Gether for the rest of her journey.   More about Denise’s story and how to purchase her book:  www.2grieve2gether.org or www.amazon.com

Today, she is not only surviving, she is thriving!  If you ask her I am sure she would tell you that she never would have dreamed that she would be in the place that she is today.  Her story/book has just been nominated for: Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author with the 43rd NAACP Image Awards! (www.naacpimageawards.net)  She wrote that book to help other survivors and supporters get successfully through the grieving process.  She understood her purpose and destiny and she humbled herself to give to others.  In the midst of that God has shown her favor.  And because her mind could only image so much, God took over and helped her to – Dream Bigger!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

all or nothing, change, destiny, Faith, God, mission, women's conference

Its All or Nothing

livingwholecoaching

When God gave me another chance to change my life to something extraordinary, I took the challenge.  I am all in.  I never knew that some days would be so challenging that I would want to turn back.  As I was reading the Bible the other night about the story of Abraham, I started to think do I have what it takes to please God no matter what?

A few months ago God woke me up to give me specific details of the things that He expected of me to accomplish through Him.  While it was very exciting to be chosen and spoken directly to by God, as the words unfolded on the paper, my mind began to think “I can’t do this”.  And no I can’t, not in my own might or strength or wisdom, but God said to trust Him.  So I am.

As I immediately began to set out on total faith to begin the plans of what the Lord wanted me to do, He opened doors for me that I can’t even begin to explain.  One of the major things God asked me to do was hold a conference for women to introduce the ministry that He asked me to coordinate – The Butterfly Journey Ministry.  But wait not only shall I host a conference, but it was to be in Seattle, WA (somewhere I have never been) for 1000 women.  I decided not to tell anyone but a few close spiritual friends that would be praying for me and coming along side me to help me see this mission through.  My bank account doesn’t show any signs of opening up with huge amount of seed money to pull this off, so by faith we shall do this.

I connected with an event planner in the Seattle area who has been a true God-send.  I told her up front that this was being planned on faith alone and she never thought I was crazy or anything.  As a matter of fact she embraced the idea and said even if I didn’t use their services to get this event together that she personally wanted to attend because she was so drawn with my testimony.  A few days past as she went to consult with her boss about taking on my event and came back to me to say that her and her boss would be not only helping me to plan this event, but they would be praying on that end of the country for the success of the event.  They have taken hold of the vision for the ministry that God has given to me!  Wow, I am way past amazed!

Needless to say that they have found a wonderful venue to hold the conference and the facility personnel is all in to help me make this vision come to life.  Now I need the women, I don’t know where they will come from but I know that they will come if God ordained this conference.  He wants to give them something that they need, that they seek, He wants to change their lives forever!

Because the outcome is going to so great and far beyond anything I can imagine, I can’t turn back.  I have to fulfill the promise that I made to God that I would lead this ministry for the women of this world.  I want to be the catalyst that will help women heal, find their purpose and move into their destiny.  The mission is more important than anything that I have done in my life and I don’t take it lightly.  It’s all or nothing.

Can you help me find the women that God wants to move in their lives, to change from the inside out, to fill that void that nothing else can fill but Him?  I need your help on this one, to stand in agreement with me that we can do this and lives will be changed and God will get the glory!

It’s all or nothing!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

Faith, God, hope, The BAMs of Life, the butterfly journey, tragedy

The BAMS of Life

livingwholecoaching

Life is so unexpected.  Just when you feel your on the verge of getting started with your purpose and you’re feeling great about all the possibilities and BAM, something comes along to smack you in the face.  There is a trick to being able to stand against the BAMs of life and that is God.

Unfortunately, there is no “real” silver lining in life, but from my experiences with God, I can stand firm that “this too shall pass.”  Nothing lasts forever and tomorrow will come.

Sometimes things come to rattle our whole world.  I just read a Facebook post that a man lost his wife and newborn baby in a tragic situation.  I am assuming it was through child-birth, but the post didn’t really say and they didn’t really have to, after all it was a tragic loss no matter how it happened.  It is in those times that you ask yourself; “how in the world will he get through that?”  We ask ourselves all kinds of questions trying to figure out the reason.  How will he cope with the loss and raise his 2-year-old son in the midst of his grieving?  There is an old hymn that says: “we’ll understand it better by and by” and sometimes this hymn gives me hope that one day we can find out just what happened.  God can explain the full picture of what we can’t see.

Nevertheless, the BAMs of life can leave us numb and full of pain.  What do we do, how will we survive?  For me it is by the faith in God that He has my heart in His hand and  that He will be the one to come along side of me and comfort me.  Sure sometimes  you doubt, sometimes we even question God, that is a part of our human nature.  I find if I don’t have hope in God, then I don’t have any hope at all and that my friends is an awful life to live.

So as I ponder my own BAMs, I can remember that God says that “I will not be utterly cast down.”  I may trip and fall, I may even be laid out prostrate under the weight of the BAMs that come to kill me, but I remember the word of God tells me that “no weapon formed against me shall prosper!”  And to that I hold on to in the midst of the BAMs that come my way.

What gets you through the BAMs of your life?

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

 

God, Joy, love, overcome, past hurt

I Can Overcome!

livingwholecoaching

You don’t have to allow your past to define who you are today.  Past hurts from people you loved or people you didn’t even know can leave a deep wound upon your heart that you may feel can never heal.  But I am here to tell you it can and it will if you open yourself to the healing process of God’s love.

Most people I know have suffered some sort of pain, loss, or brokeness that have left them in a place of deadness.  It is easy to just stay in a place of mourning than to seek healing and work towards moving past that place.  It takes effort and work and sometimes reliving the very thing that caused so much hurt.

For me it wasn’t a good feeling to have to go back over my life and examine the things that had happened to me by others and also realize that some of those things I caused myself.  But if I wanted to become everything that God wanted me to be I had to go back and bury the feelings, bury my past hurts.  At first I had to acknowledge the pain and the cause.  Then I had to forgive the person(s) and then myself.  Sometimes I experienced as much pain as I did when it first occurred, that was the hard part.  Some things were burned into me so deep that I had forgotten that it even happened to me.  My mind had placed it in a box so tightly closed that I was afraid to even open the memory.

Through it all God was there to help me sort through the toughest parts and together we buried each one.  Today, I have overcome!  I don’t have to worry about those things coming back to hurt me again.  I learned from my own mistakes and I can truly say that I am a new person.  My life changed because of the greatest love that I ever known – God!

I want to encourage you today that you do not have to be defined by your past any longer.  I don’t care what it was that happened or what parts you may have played in your own past mistakes.  I am here to share with you and encourage you that no matter where you are in life things can change.  You don’t have to be in the church building, you don’t have to know all the scriptures in the Bible, you just need to ask God to enter into your life and take control.  It’s not easy!  I will be the first to tell you that your life is not instantly going to be wonderful, but what I can say is that God can turn your ashes into beauty.  He can exchange your tears for His joy.  He will help you bury those terrible things in your life that have caused you so much pain.  I have overcome of my past!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 
depression, God, Joy, people pleaser, purpose, women

Women It’s Your Time!

livingwholecoaching

When I began my “butterfly journey”, I didn’t realize how many women in the world were suffering with the same issues that I myself had dealt with for so long.  But I am noticing that it is a common theme for most of us to lose ourselves, our worth, our purpose, and our faith while doing life.

You know when I think about life it is so much more than just working, cleaning, taking care of others etc.  God created it to be a time to understand who He is, understand of ourselves, our worth, our purpose and each other.  One of His greatest commandments is to love thy neighbor as thyself.  But we fall short on this because we lose the ability to love ourselves.  Our society is full of the message that it is selfish to do things for yourself, especially women.  But we must if we are ever going to reach the full potential of our lives as God has planned.

We are expected to have a career, raise a family, be competitive, have a great shape, complete our education, do the laundry, clean the house, serve in the church, take care of our extended family and whole host of other things!  Whew, that made me tired just typing it out!  And nothing is wrong with any of this, we do have responsibilities, but then where do we fit God in all of this?  That’s the missing link!  We end up doing all this and more and we lose our relationship with the one who can give us everything we need.  That’s what happened to me and I am not proud to admit it but it’s the truth.

My personality is one of “people pleaser” or so it was.  I had to fit in and make people pleased with me and my abilities.  What happened was I could finally take no more and I shut down; emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically.  I was a wreck!  I suffered a deep depression for over 2 years and tried desperately to figure out what happened to me.  That’s when my “butterfly journey” began. When I could suffer no more, God showed me my life using the analogy of a caterpillar’s journey to becoming a butterfly, to illustrate where I had gone all wrong. (The Butterfly’s Journey book to be released April 2012)!

The main thing (a relationship with God) had become a secondary, or really even third or fourth place in my life.  I was literally in a place of hell (separated from God) and it was horrific to say the least!  I didn’t understand my “true” worth in Him; I only knew what my worth was to others and to them I was disposable, even to some I was garbage.

I let the God of my creation heal me from the inside out and my life has never been the same.  Through my pain He gave me my purpose, through my tears He gave me joy, and through my newly established relationship, He showed me my worth!

It’s time ladies to take your rightful places in life and live a transformed life with purpose in God!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

2012, destiny, Faith, New Year, purpose

2012: Accountability

livingwholecoaching

Yesterday I spent some quality time with my best friend, my mom!  She is so full of wisdom and love for me and others.  I adore her.

As we were taking our adventure trip to her  doctor’s appointment, she gives me some ideas to becoming financially savvy.  She then goes on and says that she will be keeping me accountable and that she will be my accountability partner.  I started to laugh because I didn’t ask for an accountability partner, but am thankful that she has decided to take the position anyway.  You got to love mothers for giving you what you need, not necessarily what you ask for.

So as the New Year unfolds I see a common theme that God wants me to incorporate into my plans; accountability.  Without even planning for this I now have a prayer partner, a bible-study partner, a ministry development partner, an organizational partner, business development accountability partners, and a financial accountability partner!  God is grand!  He knows what I need and He made it all fall into place.

Having someone or others to come along side of you to help you stay on the course that you desire to see for your life is priceless.  I have always had a problem with staying on tasks and this year I vowed that I would be FAITHFUL and walk by FAITH, then God decided I needed one more level and that is ACCOUNTABILITY.

If you need someone to push you into your purpose and help you figure out your destiny, consider joining and participating with The Butterfly Journey ministry.  What is it that you want to accomplish in 2012?  We are here for you!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

2012, expecting greatness, Faith, New Year, the butterfly journey

2012: Expecting Greatness

livingwholecoaching

Bishop T.D. Jakes said; “don’t just go into the New Year waiting to see what’s going happen, but go expecting great things to happen!”  I am going to do just that!

I decided to take off the first week of the New Year to focus, communicate with God, organize my life, and plan what I expect to see happen in 2012!

In the midst of working, going to meetings, running errands, and a host of other everyday tasks; we lose the time to be quiet and still in the presence of God.  This year for me is all about my faith walk.  Everything that I expect to see happen in 2012 can only come through the power of God.  And in order for me to have clarity and direction, I need to depend solely on the Lord.

You may think well if she is a Christian that is a given, but not true.  Life itself is designed to keep you busier than busy and fall away from the foundation of depending on God.   Walking a faith walk isn’t easy.  Quite the contrary, it is the hardest thing to do in my opinion.  But from experience I know it is the only way for me to live.

I can’t begin to understand all the things that I will face in 2012 and nor do I know how to figure most things out that require divine intervention, so in order to keep myself sane, I have to rely solely on God’s direction.

So that’s why I am taking the opportunity to be still, focus, and seek the face of God for 2012.  I am going into the New Year expecting great and mighty things that I can’t do in my own intelligence or strength.

To God be the glory for the great and mighty things that He will do in 2012!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

2012, Faith, New Year

2012 A Year of Faith

livingwholecoaching

Happy New Year!   We are turning the page to a new chapter in our lives today!  It’s nothing like a new beginning, a fresh start, an opportunity to do things better!

I took a few weeks before the New Year to reflect on the past year.  I thought about all the trials and triumphs, the lost opportunities and the opening of doors, the unchanged habits, obtained goals and I vowed that this new year would be different.  I decided not to make any resolutions, but promises to myself and God.  I didn’t write a list of the must-dos, but I simply decided to focus on one word FAITH.

If I am faithful and I look to God for all my direction, everything else will follow.  I will meet all the goals, aspirations, and changes that I desire to see for myself and others.  If I walk in FAITH, my own limitations will not interfere with what God has in store for me.  If I continue to believe in the things that I can not see or understand with my limited mind I will succeed!  I will win because God is well-pleased with those who are faithful!

I am going into this year with huge expectations and with child-like FAITH!  I choose to walk by FAITH and not be sight because my sight is limited, but God’s ideas are limitless!  I choose to live an extraordinary life today with God!

My resolve reminds me that of Noah, when he listened to God and began to build the ark.  Friends and family laughed at him when he explained what God had told him to do.  They had never even seen rain before so to imagine it raining for 40 days and 40 nights and eventually destroy the earth as they knew it was way out there.  But Noah believed God even though his mind probably couldn’t even fathom the idea!  But his FAITH, moved him to be obedient and look what happened!

That is the type of FAITH that I want to experience this year and beyond!  I desire to see people laugh at me for stepping out with no finances and launching a ministry that God said for me to do!  I want to see the women that the ministry will touch, s change their lives from ordinary to extraordinary.  I want to see the manifestation of every good thing that God stored up for me to come to life right before my eyes!  More so I want to see people come to know the God that I serve!  I want them to say; “Wow, how did you do that?” and I can tell them it was through FAITH in God!

And my heart can hardly contain the joy and praise that I will explode into just thinking about the goodness and faithfulness of God towards me.

What will your New Year theme be?

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