Tag: love

book, God, love, relationships, the butterfly journey

Relationships: You Still Have Time

livingwholecoaching

I was super bummed when I finished writing a lovely post about relationships this morning and clicked on the publish button and to my surprise or perhaps my demise half of the post was missing.  I had to trash what was left and decided to walk away until this evening.

But in the efforts to post something of wisdom, something positive, something motivating everyday I am re-doing my earlier post in hopes that I capture the essence that I wanted to.

Relationships are a huge part of life that shapes who we are, who we become, and how we handle all the other aspects of our lives.  I was not at all great at relationships.  Not that I didn’t have any but I didn’t have healthy ones, at least not for me. I called myself a chameleon.  I would change myself into whatever type of person that relationship wanted.  I hid my heart, my dreams, my desires and wants deep inside.  It really didn’t matter, no one seemed to want to know the “real” Lisa anyway.  But just like any other woman I wanted a relationship where I could be me; the real me.

It didn’t come until after the healing process started during my depression that I began to understand the why’s of my unhealthy relationships.  God had to show me that I was worthy.  Me, Lisa, was worth something more than what I had experienced in these unhealthy relationships.  But I didn’t know that then and that was my problem.  I equated my worth with how pleased the other person was with me.  And since I wasn’t even sharing the real me I didn’t realize that what they were giving me in return was not equal to my worth.  Whatever they offered I thought that was all that I was worth!  But God said no!  That is not who you are, you are beautiful, lovely, and unique because He made me that way.  I was worthy of great things because God said so.

When God gave me the man of my dreams, I didn’t know if I could pass the test and use my new-found wisdom to cultivate the relationship in a healthy way.  And sure enough the old me came slipping back into play, but God stopped me every time I tried to revert back to my old ways.  Craig, (my fiance) is a wonderful man of God and he was very patient with me in my learning stage.  He has taught me a lot about love, patience and friendship and today he is my best friend!

I explain more about my experience with relationships in my upcoming book: The Butterfly’s Journey coming soon!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

 

facebook, God, peace, satisfied, the butterfly journey

Are You Satisfied?

livingwholecoaching

This was the burning question that I posed to our Facebook fans this morning.  Are you satisfied with you life where you are?  If I had asked myself this question a few years ago, I would have answered a resounding NO!

I have been a Christian since I was 15 years old and though I believed in God, it wasn’t until I was well into my life that I really understood how much knowing Him and having a relationship with Him could make me feel so satisfied.  Being satisfied with my life doesn’t mean that I have everything in control or all the answers to life.  It simply means that with God in my life I can depend on Him.  He is there for me when I need Him.  I am not worried about  people, things, or situations that I may have to face, because God gives me the feeling of peace.

The experience of God is so amazing and although I can write about it and share, it’s something that you have to experience for yourself.  I can’t really put the words together eloquently enough to give Him the due credit that He deserves.

Let me tell you, like most people I have tried to feel satisfied with my life without God, but there was nothing that could fill that void.  I was like most people searching for that something to make my life seem worth living.  I searched for it in the clubs, looking for a husband.  I looked for it in drinks, drugs, and sex.  I looked for it in work, in friends, in things.  I couldn’t find it anywhere, all that stuff was temporal and didn’t last but for a specific time period.   But with God, He is steady, faithful, He encompasses the very essence of “real” love.  I didn’t have to perform for Him, I didn’t need to make a certain amount of money, I didn’t need to be perfect. . . He loves me regardless of my past.

I understand why people end up in way that they do, because they have not come to the realization that God is the one and only solution to a satisfied life.  Until we get tired of being on the wheel of life, just getting by and the feeling of the void growing stronger within us, then we will turn to God.  I feel  sad to think that over the years I put Him last, but I am glad that I did finally come to Him and He was still there waiting for me!

I am so satisfied with my Savior and nothing can take His place in my life!

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

God, Joy, love, overcome, past hurt

I Can Overcome!

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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

 
affirmations, book, love, The Help

You’re Important!

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When I read the book The Help one of the things that stayed in my mind was not the horrible way they were treated, but the way in which they carried themselves in the midst of so many injustices.  The one “help” named Abigail was raising the daughter of her employer and I was so happy that the little girl had “Abbie” as she called her in her life.  The little girl’s mother didn’t even want to be bothered with the child because she was a little chubby and not the most pretty little girl of the bunch.  But what Abbie did everyday was told her  positive affirmations about herself.

Abbie having lived in a time when she was treated differently and sometimes unjustly because of the color of her skin she knew all too well the negative affects it can have on a person.  She wanted to make sure that if there was something that she could do to change someone elses self-worth that she would, just by saying those same little affirmations to a little girl in hopes that she would continue to believe them as she grew up with a mother that didn’t seem to love her.

Those little words of confirmation, uplifting phrases that we can deposit into someone elses spirit can mean a whole difference in that person’s life.  Hopefully, that little child grew up remembering those words that Abbie spoke into her and she believed them no matter what life threw her way.  I hope that deep inside those words would reverberate back to her remembrance in those times when she didn’t feel so beautiful or loved.

The same concept holds true for most of us today and that is why I believe it is so important for us to tell our children, grandchildren, and even someone elses child that they are wonderful, smart, and important.  You just never know how important those words can be for them in life.  We can still deposit positive affirmations to one another in our adult life.  It holds the same strength to an adult as to a child.  Just like the effects of negative verbage that comes to us through life experiences whether true or not we begin to believe what people say to us and about us.

That is why I love the Lord so much because His love is so perfect and He affirms us with it everyday.  He doesn’t change His mind about us even when He should.

The Butterfly Journey – Lisa

Day 6, the cross

The Journey Day 6

livingwholecoaching

Thus far on our journey we have exerted a lot of emotional energy, but we realize that in the end it will be well worth every minute.

Once we reached the top of the hill of evaluating our measures of worth we were exhausted.  We decided that on each 7th day we would rest and reflect.

On Day 6 we had to peek inside a scary cave of information.  We had to get a true sense of the worth that God has connected us to in Him.

We have all read or heard about the crucifixion of Christ.  We have been moved by the account of His death that had been foretold in the Old Testament and New Testament in the Bible.  But did we have a clear view in our mind’s eye of what really happened to him that day?

We read a full medical account of what Christ had to physically encounter on that day.  I will not be able to write everything in this post but if you desire to read what we read about that day please email me directly and I will send you a copy. (lisa@butterflyjourney.net)

After reading that account there is no way that if you are alive and have blood running through your veins and have a heart of just a little compassion can you not know how worthy you are to God!

I personally went away with a new thanks in my heart for what God did for me that day!  I can’t even express it, it is too deep.

We hope that you will continue this journey with us!  You can connect with us via the social media tools that we use that are on this blog page.  We hope to see you  on your path to worthy!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa

Day 4, destiny, Down the Path of Worthy, God, journey, love, the love chapter

The Journey Day 4

livingwholecoaching

Day 4 of our journey to find understanding about our “true” worth and we are doing pretty good.  Our energy level is high and we can’t wait to reach our destiny!

On Day 4 we completed an exercise that I found on another blog (What Would Jenn Say?!) a few months ago.  We read 1 Corinthians 13 (The Love Chapter) and we had to then re-read it and insert God were the word love was used.  We also had to insert other names in the place of the word love to see how those around us measured up to the word of God!

This was an eye-opening exercise for most of us.  Just starting with replacing the word love with God gave us an instant understanding that God truly is “love” and He wants the best for us.  Moreover, when it came to inserting our own names it was a humbling experience that showed we all have work to do in the love category.

We have all heard this chapter read many times, especially during weddings.  But have we really measured what it is saying to us?  We discovered the depth of what this chapter is telling us what “love” really is.

Many of us said that when we hear this scripture read that we will never hear it the same from this point on.  It really came to life for us and it will be used as our measure of real love from this day forward.

Try this exercise for yourself and you will be amazed of the understanding of  “real” love as God has ordained it to really be!

The Butterfly Journey ~ Lisa