Category: life

God, hope, journey, life, perseverance

And We Journey On. . .

livingwholecoaching

Everyday God is showing me new things about life, my life.  I realize now that when He began to show me things about myself that helped to heal me from the dark place of depression it would not be the only lessons that I would learn.

To say the least, it has been a learning experience ever since I opened myself up to Him.  When I decided that my own way of living life was limited and literally a mess, I finally turned wholeheartedly to God.  And when I did the “real” journey began.

It has not been easy!  But everyday as life plays out before me, I try to learn what it has to tell me.  What is it that God wants me to understand about the situation I am dealing with.  Sometimes the answer comes quickly and sometimes not so much.  But I continue to persevere to find out.

More and more I am understanding that we don’t just reach a point in our journey and stop learning.  We continue to evolve with each new challenge, every triumph and even with every failure.  One thing I know is that God is consistent in who He is.  He never changes, His promises are true.  He doesn’t lie.  I can trust Him with everything.

There are a lot of things that still leave me wondering what am I supposed to do with that?  But God always has the answer and if I seek Him, He will reveal it to me in due time.

The reason I blog is to tell my story as it unfolds, not scripted or rehearsed but just like it is.  My prayer is that something that I share will help someone else as they travel the road of life.  With God I can be me, the real me.  He knows me better than anyone and He loves me.  Just knowing that for me is priceless!

I will never stop learning and asking God about my life.  I won’t stop because I need to know in order to live my “best” life on this side of heaven.  I want to please my God with my life, it is all I have to offer back for what He did for me!

So as you continue on your journey of life, keep an open heart and mind toward God.  He will give you everything you need to make it.  Yeah, it may get hard some days, but the reward in the end is greater than the worst day you have to live.  One day we will understand it all.

I love you God and thank you for loving me!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

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

book, distractions, life, mother, procrastination, purpose, success, the butterfly journey

Stop That Procrastination!

livingwholecoaching

I am trying to get the word procrastination out of my life!  It creeps up at the most untimely times.  I don’t want it to be my friend but I can’t seem to get away from it.  I have so much to do and really am very excited about all the projects that I want to complete, but still the little friend and his cohort distraction come to visit almost every day.

I know my problem and I know how to fix it so why is it so hard to get past it?  I don’t know I guess if everything were easy life would be that bowl of cherries without the pits.  Unfortunately, you must have the pits in order to have the cherries.  I’ll get to the place of progress soon.  If I have to fight procrastination and distractions for the rest of my life, I will!

When you finally find your place of purpose; that’s all you want to focus on.  However, in life you have many more responsibilities to take care of  and sometimes you can’t just do want you want.  I am learning the hard way that I have to prioritize, organize, plan and oh yeah execute to be successful.

Do you remember how “Bewitched” used to just wiggle her nose and things would happen.  Well I definitely don’t want to be a witch, but the trick with the nose is pretty impressive and I could use some things happening in that type of quickness.  It doesn’t work that way, I know.

My mother is a super planner and executor.  She always tells me just do one thing at a time and you will eventually get the task done.  But I am a visionary and I always look at things in “big picture” form.  So it is hard for me to look at the little steps in between that make it a reality.  I just want to jump from concept to vision!

I have to stop this crazy thinking if I am ever to get to my full place of purpose!  I have to get started somewhere.  Well today looks like a good of a day as any to start moving forward.  Book editing; ready or not here I go!

The Butterfly’s Journey book is due out in April 2012!  Pray for me!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

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

Preparing for Transformation

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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, 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 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

destiny, God, journey, life, love, prayer, purpose, seeking God, the butterfly journey, travel, women, worthy

The Journey Part I

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Today a group of adventurous women have set out on their “butterfly” journey!  Our first trek is “Down the Path of Worthy”; were we are seeking clarity and understanding of what our “true” worth is.  Until we understand this foundational point we will not understand our purpose.

We live in a world full of things to connect our worth to, but unfortunately those things are not our “true” worth nor do they hold any substance.  They are temporal and once they fade away then our worth goes along with it.

That is why it is so important to understand what God ordained as our worth.  The way He classifies us as worthy is much more than anything or anyone in this world.  It is of an eternal substance and will not wither away with the passing of time.

Our “true” worth is directly connected to our purpose.  So once we understand that pivotal point we are well on our way to understanding our destiny!  There is no better feeling than to walk in one’s destiny!  Until you are walking in your destiny your life is ordinary and feels like it has no basis.  Do you ever ask yourself what is it all for?  Waking up, going to work/school, back home to start all over again.  If God created you don’t you believe He had something marvelous in mind for your life?

Well He does, but you need to get deep into the things of Him to understand  and start living it.  That is what the butterfly journey is all about.  This month is only the beginning of a series of journeys that we will take.  There is a definite process to finding your true destiny.

I pray that you will join us on one or all of the journeys as we discover life!

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

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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

 

a place for you, book, depression, God, grace, Healing, healing and deliverance, journey, land of Oz, life, live, love, purpose, the butterfly journey, women, worthlessness

A Place for You

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There have been times in my life when I thought I wouldn’t make it to another day.  The feeling of endless sadness and pain.  So many disappointments, far too many to count.  And this feeling of pure worthlessness.  But I knew intellectually that people cared about me and loved me but this feeling grew larger than my common sense.  It drowned my rational thinking like it was nothing.  It had me teetering on the edge of life itself.

I know I have talked about my depression a lot because it was one of the most difficult times in my life.  I never had experienced something so strong that was not a tangible thing that it baffled my normal thought process.  The more I tried to figure it out the more elusive it became.  You can’t even articulate the feelings in real words.  The more you try the more frustrated you become and you just begin to give up.

I suffered in this place of depression for over 730 days and I know other people have dealt with this terrible sickness for years and never really have come full circle from it.  I pray for those people everyday, for the strength to battle this monster with no face.  This enemy of mind and emotion.  This life threatening fog of doubt, fear and loneliness.

Once I received my full healing and deliverance from God.  I was inspired to write about my journey to this place of darkness and back to a place far better than what I left.  A place of purpose and confidence.  A place of undying love and grace.  I am forever grateful to God for saving me from this place of torment.

You really don’t realize that people all around you suffer from some sort of pain that they don’t openly share with others.  We work beside people who have suffered emotional and physical abuse from their parents.  Others that may have been damaged by things that happened to them in relationships.  They hide these things that have shaped who they are today because it is not accepted.  But we all are in the same boat, yet none of us want to open up and cry for help.  We would rather suffer silently and die a slow death inside ourselves than look like a failure or  be judged by the very ones who say they care.

My story, coming soon in a book form is for those kindred spirits that are lost in the land of Oz (depression) or some other sort of terrible place with no avenue of escape; nowhere to run to; to find release.  The Butterfly Journey is a place where you can share and feel safe that no one will judge where you have been or what has happened to you.  You can come to us and get the encouragement and rest that for so long you have needed.  A place of peace!

We can’t walk this path of life alone.  God is always there and we are his vessels in which to show you that you can be free of all that “stuff” and walk down a new path with your head held up, shoulders back and with an assurance that you do matter and you have purpose in this life.

Won’t you join us?  www.thebutterflyjourney.com or www.facebook.com/thebutterflysjourney

We have a place reserved just for you!  The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa