Hello Courage

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. -Joshua 1:9

I admit to you yesterday, I wasn’t very courageous. Doubt and fear had me feeling like I was trapped in quicksand. I couldn’t breathe, I was shaking. I was trying to take a step forward in my life to create a permanent, stable home for my children. I’m buying a house, as a single parent, it scares me to death.

Yesterday, I had to put down the money at the Title Company. Money, I’ve been saving for a moment like this. Money, that at that moment, I really wanted to hold on to.

After praying with a friend at the office, calling friends to get reassurance, I got the gut to walk my shaking self into a title company with a check.

As I sat down in the office, there was this full-of-life woman that was on the other side of the desk. She just started chatting it up me, telling me about her daughter, and how she raised her, by herself.  I told her, “I get it, I’m a single mom too.”

At that moment she turned around looked at me, got the biggest smile on her face and said, “you are my favorite kind of client.” She explained how the office was full of single moms that have bought homes.  She encouraged me that I was doing the right thing, we cried, and hugged… at a Title Company!

She was my angel that God used to remind me that His promises are real.  As I walked out of that office with my sunglasses on to hide the tears in my eyes of joy and accomplishment, I remembered that Courage isn’t just a nice idea, it’s a command.

I can’t find anywhere in the bible where it commands us to be weak and safe. But, over and over again we are reminded to be strong and courageous.

I’ve heard it said that, “Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s having fear and moving forward anyway.”

So, just like I can walk in a Title Company scared to death to buy a house on my own, you can face that thing that is gripping you in fear too. Whatever you do, MOVE FORWARD!

 

 

Live the Life You Love

Come with me on a new journey.  Let’s travel together on a journey that focuses on embracing the positive, encouraging, loving, and wonderful things about our lives and throwing anything else that doesn’t fit out with the trash.

Your Champion

I want this new blog to be an encouragement to you.  I want to be Your Champion.  I want to fight for you.  I want to be your cheering section.  I want to be the one that helps you get off the bench, get in the game, and win!  I want to be the one on the sidelines that is shouting “look at her!  She is rockin’ it!  She is letting her light shine!”

Your Light

All of us have a different light, a different motivation for living, a different way of parenting, a different way of loving. This blog is not going to be full of a bunch of “to do lists” and “how-to’s” and impossible organic recipes to make you the perfect woman, spouse, or parent.  What do I know about how to be the best you?  Only you can do that.  This blog will be full of inspiration and encouragement for you to embrace your natural talents what I will refer to as…Your Light…and not just dream about them, but to actively engage in them.

Your Life

I don’t know about you, but I have spent way too much time dwelling in the dark and trying to be someone I’m not.  Allowing fear to limit me.  My mother said recently to me, ‎”if we let fear dictate our lives…we make a mistake every step of the way.” No more.   I understand that there are rules, I just don’t think they apply to me…or to you.  Throw out the rules. Live the Life you want to live.   Live the Life You Love.  On this blog Your Life will stand for your dreams that you will accomplish.  For example, my dream is to be a published author and speaker.  I want to tell my story and encourage you to make a difference with Your Life.

Your Love 

You have so much love to give.  I believe in the unconditional love of God, and showing that love to others.  On this blog Your Love will stand for all the ways that together we are making a difference.  Loving our children by building them up, loving our neighbors by helping, and loving our world by serving.  On this blog, I will spotlight ways you can serve and ways you are serving. I have found that in the darkest times of my life, a chance to love someone in their darker time has given me perspective, inspired me, and changed me.

When we are able to put this all together we will find true meaning.  When you are able to dedicate Your Life (dream) to Your Light (your unique gift/talent) you will find Your Love (meaning).

It’s time to live. It’s time to let Your Light shine.  It’s time to Live the Life You Love.  I will be your Champion.

Tell me by commenting below:  What’s Your Light?  Your Life?  Your Love?  Help me so I can be your Champion.

“For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.  Live as children of light.”  – Ephesians 5:8

Cue:  “Here Comes the Sun” – The Beatles

Let Your Little Light Shine

Maybe you’ve noticed this too…that the things you get in trouble for as a kid…end up being what you get paid for as an adult.

Maybe you drove your mom crazy by catching bugs…and now your a scientist…or you  drew on your bedroom walls…and now your an artist.

For me  I may not Scrapbook or bake Apple Pie from scratch…but I sure can talk.

I used to get in trouble for talking at school…now my job is to use my words to encourage you…and I love it.

That’s what I call letting your light shine.

Maybe your parents sang “This Little Light of Mine” to you when you were a child.  I remember vividly singing this song in Sunday School and loving all the motions.

Don’t Hide it under a bushel NO!  I’m going to let it SHINE!

Don’t let Satan blow it out NO!  I’m going to let it SHINE!

So many of us let circumstances stop us from shining…money, family responsibilities, debt.  I want to encourage you not to let those things stop you, and to Let Your Light Shine anyway!

I believe that every life has a gift and a purpose.  A special skill that God gives us so we can give it to others.  And as a parent I feel strongly that part of my job is to help my children find that “light” their “special skill given by God” and help them SHINE brightly.

I also want to encourage you to do the same.  Shine My Love!  Share your stories here on how you let your light shine…or how you want to.

xoxo

My Mother the Radio Host

Thanks to the folks at Viva Tyson’s Magazine for the Profile in their April/May 2011 edition!  So cool!  Scroll to page 94 to read the article.

Don’t Call Me a Single Mom, I’m a Professional Mom.

I don’t like it. Maybe I will warm up to that title, but for some reason it doesn’t sit well with me.

In my humble opinion, it carries baggage. Negative baggage.

It seems to imply that you are alone, but I don’t feel alone. I am grateful to my network of friends and family that surround me supporting me during this season of my life.

I have an amazing Nanny and friend that my kids love. It takes a pretty special person to show up at someone’s house at 6am…and greet the kids when they wake up, feed the breakfast, and get them dressed for the day. She is special!

So, I don’t feel “single”.  I feel more intentional in my motherhood than I ever have before.  I embrace it and take it seriously.

What are your suggestions? Have any new terms for “Single Mom”? I’m thinking “Professional Mom”, but I’m open to your suggestions.

UPDATE:  PRO-MOM it is!!!  Thanks to J.C. Larimore…my lifetime pastor!

Get it…short professional and double meaning…I am for moms…empowering and encouraging.  PRO-MOM…with a hot pink superman style logo…oh yeah…I feel a theme and a website coming!

Live with Reckless Abandon

I don’t know about you, but I’m taking life too seriously lately.  I want to go back to preschool.

Yesterday I visited my son, Andy’s, preschool class.  As I parked my minivan and walked across the street to his little school my mind was distracted with some serious worries that are going on in my life right now, until I heard the screams of joy.

My mind was awakened from it’s state of worry when I heard YAY!!!!  WOOHOO!!! and I looked up to see a class of 4 year olds running out to the playground with reckless abandon.  Those kids had no cares in the world.  They were thrilled beyond compare that they had the chance to go outside for 20 minutes to swing, jump, and spin around on the merry go round until they got dizzy.

Life can get to a serious pace as an adult that can made you dizzy.  From work responsibilities, kid activities, and financial burdens…it can really get me stressed out.  You can let it get to you or change your attitude and treat life it as an adventure.  Maya Angelou once said “Life is pure adventure…the sooner we realize that we can treat life as art.”

I dare you today as you walk outside of your home or office to let out a little YIPPEE!!!  Skip, Jump, do a little Irish jig 🙂  Start painting your canvas of life with some brighter colors…

Live Without Religion?

There’s a new billboard around the Washington DC Area that’s getting a lot of attention.  It’s an athiest group that is encouraging people to “Life Without Religion.”  This is going to sound shocking, I’m just warning you.  But, don’t stop reading yet.   They are right.

Sure you can live your life without God, but you can lead a better life with God.

Live Without Religion?  That’s what Jesus taught us to do.  He taught us that all these silly rules we put around faith and God….don’t matter.  Jesus taught that the greatest of all commandments was to love and that he came so that we longer have to be slaves to the law.

“Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.” Galations 4:7

They are right, but missing the meaning to life.  It’s one thing “to hope…to care…to love…to live” when everything is going well in your life, but what happens when it comes crashing down?

Man will always fail you, but God is always fighting for you and working for the best for you.  Creating HOPE…a confidant expectation of good things from God.  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for hope and a future…”

The only way you can continue to as the billboard says “to hope, to care, to love, and to live” in the midst of tragedy is because of a strong faith and the realization that God is on your side, he’s not counting up your sins, he knows it’s impossible to follow a religious set of rules and be perfect, that’s why Jesus walked this earth and taught us it’s not about religion, it’s about relationship.

Because of Jesus we have forgiveness when we fail, there is Grace (unmerited favor…an ability to do in us what we cannot do on our own) upon our lives. 

Sure, you can choose to live your life without God, but you can lead a better life with God.

I choose to lead a rich life that has meaning and inspires other people WITH God.

A Little Daily Note from God

Maybe you’ve done this…as you face a big decision in life, maybe a crossroads, you collect every bit of information you can to help you make the best decision. Maybe you’ve even resorted to reading your horoscope.  Admit it we all have at least once.

But, if you’ve ever read your horoscope in the newspaper you’ve probably read the wrong sign.  Astrologists now say that the signs are one month off.  The Star Tribune reported“The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was “in” on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon’s gravitational pull has made the Earth “wobble” around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars’ alignment”.

Wouldn’t we all love a little glimpse of our future.   Sometimes maybe even cried out to God asking if he could just tell you what your future holds.  I think that’s why people sometimes read their horoscope.  It gives a moment of clarity for your future in this most uncertain life.  Wouldn’t it be cool if you could open up the newspaper and there was a little personal note to you from God?

Something like, “Good morning…just wanted to let you know that there is nothing that’s going to happen to you today that you and I can’t handle together…have a good day…talk to you soon.”

What kind of daily note would you like to receive from God?

Speak Life and Possibility

Sometimes the only way to deal with such tragedy is to find a way to learn from it and become better.

That’s what I got out of President Obama’s speech yesterday at The Memorial Service honoring those that lost their lives in the Tuscon, Arizona shooting.  In his speech he said…it is time to talk with each other “in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds…We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us.”

My co-host Brennan says his goal is to speak life and possibility into people’s lives.  I love that.  I think it starts at home.

Every night as a part of the bedtime routine with the kids I tell my kids what I am “most proud of them for” that day. Maybe it’s playing nicely with their siblings, or helping Mommy put away the groceries.  I try to find something that involves helping others.  It’s something my husband says his mother used to do with him every night.

It trickled down to our family.  I think that’s the whole idea.  Once we speak life and possibility into the lives of our children, they speak it into the lives of their friends, and the lives of their children, and their Grandchildren…and just maybe the world around you will become a better place when more people hear the words, “I believe in you.” instead of “You’re not good enough.”

Tell me you speak life and possibility into the lives of your family by commenting to this blog.

 

Bald and a Beauty Queen

Bad Hair Days, Good Hair Days, what about no hair days? As a woman hair can be so defining, but what if you lost it all?  What if you were bald at 22 years old?  Would you still feel beautiful?

Kayla Martell does.  She’s 22 years old, and competing this week for the Miss America title.  She’s Miss Delaware.  She’s been bald since she was 11 years old.  She has alopecia areata, a rare condition that results in unexplained hair loss. But that’s not stopping her from competing for her lifelong dream.

She wears a wig in competition, but not at home.  “When I’m home with my family, I’m always without my wig — that’s who I am,” She told Today.com.

Maybe it’s that confidence that gives her  True Beauty.  Her story reminds me that no matter what problems you have, what mistakes you have made, they only limit your future if you let it.

Tell me about the most beautiful person in your life…

Click here for her full story