I’m currently leading an incredible bible study on Pastor Steven Furtick’s new book Greater.  Last week we were challenged to burn our plows, meaning to sacrifice something that is holding you back from the Greater life God is calling you to.  For some of the women in the group it was automatic, they knew exactly what the needed to give up and then for others, like myself, it wasn’t that easy.  It was a process to figure out exactly what God wanted me to give up.  To my surprise, God laid something on my heart that made me sick to my stomach!  I can barely even write the words on the page.  He said I need to get rid of p….p…..p…..pride!  Ouch!  At first I was like, really God?  I’m Not prideful! …LOL When any human being can speak the words, “I’m not prideful”; there is a problem.  Pride is the root of the fall for every one of us.  When Eve took it upon herself to disobey God’s specific instructions not to eat from the tree of knowledge or surely you will die, that was pride.  No way around it, every single one of us has pride.

After seeking God’s understanding on how this pride thing is playing out in my everyday life, one of the first things He spoke to me about was adjusting my attitude.  I thought how exactly do I need to adjust my attitude, and God every so gentle referred me to becoming more like Jesus in Matthew 20:28.  The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  In order to let go of pride I must have a continual servants attitude and mindset.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  Does that sound easy?  No way!  But I do believe after studying scripture, that when we become smaller it allows God to become Greater in and through us.  And when I really am honest with myself and think about what I want my life to be and represent, I long to be a reflection of Jesus’ love to others.  Jesus is all goodness, righteousness and truth.  No matter how hard I try I will never be all that Jesus is, but I can however let go of trying and just allow Jesus to live in and through me.

I would like to challenge you today by asking you a few coaching questions.  What plow do you need to burn in your life?  How will you surrender to God today?  What will your life look like after you sacrifice the one thing that is holding you back?

Have you ever had a time in your life when you are so overjoyed that you burst out in tears?  I’ve had so many moments of joyous tears streaming down my face lately.  I don’t know if it’s the season in my life of healing and affirmation or if I’m just hormonal?  I’m going to go with the first option….healing and affirmation.

Yesterday I had the privilege of doing a video shoot with New Life 91.9, our local Christian radio station in Charlotte.  When they arrived at my home, I showed them around where I thought we would do the recording.  To my surprise, they picked a spot that hasn’t been cleaned in months, my front porch.  I was a little embarrassed about my dirty porch, but what was I going to do?  As I sat on the chair while they sat up their equipment I couldn’t help but think about sitting in that exact spot 3 years ago while going through chemo, loosing my hair and sleepless nights when I would gaze at the stars and wonder if I was going to die.

Yesterday was a moment in time where gratitude of joy overflowed from my heart.  I could never thank God enough for the miraculous healing in my body.  I could never thank God enough for allowing me more time to become the wife and mother He so desires for me to be.  I could never thank God enough for the countless beautiful relationships I have.  So I woke up this morning and prayed, “God what can I do to thank you for all the blessings in my life?”  He spoke to my spirit and said, “Receive”.  He doesn’t need me to do anything right now, but to soak up his amazing grace and unconditional love.  That’s it!  Today I am going to focus on receiving God’s favor in my life.  What favor has God shown you in your life?  How will you thank God today for those blessings?

As I am writing this post, tears pour down my face.  The Lord is taking me through an emotional healing process from my cancer journey from 3 years ago.   The other day I took my dogs on a beautiful trail near my house.  As we were running, a flashback from 3 years ago came rushing back to my mind.  I remembered how I felt walking that trail 3 years earlier while I was going through chemotherapy.  I’ll never forget thinking, “this cancer is never going to end” and asking God why I had been dealt the cancer card?  Little did I know what was getting ready to happen to me physically, mentally and spiritually within the days ahead!  On September 29, 2009 I was hospitalized and put into a coma.  I have to say, my life has never been the same since that day.

Something I noticed while I was on the trail a few days ago was how the light from the sun would shine so bright that I could barely see anything in front of me.  I knew if I would continue moving forward and take a few more steps I would be able to see clearly again.  I couldn’t help but think how that related so well to my entire cancer journey, as well as the call God has placed on my life.  The Lord has spoken clearly to my heart and said that I am to share His story in my life to women all over the world, but that means I have to continue taking steps forward in the blinding bright light of His love, even when I cannot see the end result.  To be honest with you, that scares me to death!  I believe God can use all things for His glory, but that means I have to be willing to let go of ALL things in order for God to show off in my life.

What I’m writing about today goes hand and hand with Pastor Steven Furtick’s new book and sermon series Greater.  I highly recommend listing to his sermon from this week, Burning the Plow.  On page 45 of his book Greater, Pastor Steven says, “If you’re going to walk by faith and trust in your Father and if you’re going to see your life set free from the tyranny of the ordinary, you’re going to have to learn how to obey God who doesn’t do details.”  This means that I might not ever know God’s exact plan, but I must obey His call for my life.

I believe my life will always be God’s story because He is the author, not Me.  However, I am willing to let God continue to write his story on my heart and then share that message with others.  There is something to be said about surrender….a sense of True Freedom that God can only provide.  Tell me, are you willing to obey God’s call even if you do not know all the details?  I would love to hear from you!

I love Frogs!  When I was going through cancer, I would say over and over I must Fully Rely On God – FROG.  To be real with you, my back was up against a wall and I had no choice but to Fully Rely On God.  One thing I’ve noticed in my life is that when things are going well, no major crisis or life change, it’s very easy for me to fully rely on ME.  This is a scary place to be when you don’t think you need God and you have everything under control.  When you get to that place, you become complacent, self-absorbed and even negative.

What I have learned in my walk with Christ; is when I completely surrender and depend on Him; my entire perspective on life will change.  It’s like someone has removed dark sunglasses from my eyes.  When I wake up in the mornings, I’m excited to see and experience God’s miracles that day.  It can be something as simple as my daughter laughing or watching our dog’s play.  I promise you, my mind and perspective on life shifts when I continually depend on God.

As a Women’s Life Coach, my “job” is to ask questions that lead clients to a shift in their thinking, and that is why I end many of my blog post with questions.  So I would like to ask you a few questions to think about today.

1)     What makes you Fully Rely On God (FROG)?

2)     How do you Fully Rely On God?

3)     What does it take to change your perspective on life?

O.K., I read a verse this morning and it struck a nerve.  You see I have a certain “image” of myself in my mind.  My purpose in life is to Love others.  Honestly, that is the deepest desire of my heart.  I consider myself a kind, caring, compassionate and very empathetic person.  Those are some of my top values.  So here’s the verse I read.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Luke 12:34

I really started pondering the word Treasure.  I treasure loving others more than life itself but….here’s the problem, when I examine my life it does not reflect that.  When I get real honest with myself, I treasure making sure I’m comfortable, satisfied and fulfilled.  My treasure is making sure I am Happy and making sure my family is Happy.  So what I realized is that my treasure is ME and my heart is not able to share the abundant LOVE it has for others because my treasure is in the way!  I’ve decided today to really take some quiet time with God and listen to where and how I can make some changes in my life so that my treasure and my heart are in alignment.

Where is your treasure?  Where is your heart?  Are they in alignment with each other?  I would love to hear from you!

At different times in my life I struggled with depression on and off.  In growing deeper in my relationship with Christ I discovered the secret to pressing on and pushing through those challenging times.  It all comes down to my mindset.  Now I am the first person to tell you, I cannot just snap my fingers and say, “ok, just think positive thoughts” and I immediately have a brand new attitude.  Nope, it doesn’t work that way for me.  If it works that way for you, then praise God!  Really Praise God!!  What I’ve discovered over the years is that it’s a day-to-day process for me.  I realized that whatever goes in must come out.  For example, when I listen to certain types of music consistently, I start developing an attitude or mindset of what I’m hearing.  When I listen to Christian music I’m more positive and uplifting or when I listen to Pink the pop-rock star, my husband better watch out because I’m in charge and don’t mess with me.  LOL!!

But in all sincerity my perspective on life is completely different depending on what I’m focusing on and that is why it is so very important to stay in the word and meditate and pray on scripture.  The verse I’ve been reading this morning is Romans 8:6 “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace”.  I don’t know about you, but for me I want Life and Peace, not death or in other words negativity, hostile, depressed or a hopeless mind.

So I would like to challenge you today to take a look at what you’re putting in your mind in all different areas…reading, listening, and speaking.  Could you use a positive mindset and peace in your life today?  If so, what are you going to do to make sure your mind is controlled by the spirit?

Today is the first day of school for my daughter and I have to say Praise God that my child was actually excited to go!  This is a huge blessing for our family because her early years in public school were a disaster.  It turned out that she just needed a different environment and structure to learn.  By the grace of God, my husband found the perfect school for her a few months before I was diagnosed with cancer.  Long story short, she has been thriving ever since.

The reason I titled this post “A Fresh Start” is because I’ve been through a challenging season in my life the past 6 months, and honestly I’ve been in desperate need of a Fresh Start.  After my much needed R&R at the beach last week, I feel like a new person!  I had no idea how much I needed a break from “life”.  I really didn’t do anything unique on my vacation except hang out with my family on the beach and cruise around the campground on a golf cart.  Before I left for vacation, I kept planning all these different ways to spend my time to get clarity on my coaching business and ways to seek God’s director for my life goals.  Well, all that planning was a big waste of time because once I put my toes in the sand, all I cared about was relaxing and being with my family.  What’s so funny is, once I walked back in the door from vacation, it was like a switch went off in me and I started cleaning my house, unpacking and I was ready for a fresh start at life!

After talking with my life coach I realized how important it is to schedule a time to rest and relax more frequently.  I typically go away one week each year where I feel truly refreshed.  After processing the importance of self-care, I’ve decided that I’m going to schedule a mini-vacation every 3 months.  I don’t have to spend money to go away, but I can plan to take a few days to forget about my responsibilities, let go and do something different.  I would love to know your thoughts, ideas or suggestions on different ways to experience a mini-vacation while not leaving your home and is this something you could benefit from as well?

Lately I’ve been in a period of soul searching and questioning God on his call for my life.  To be real honest with you I’ve been struggling with fear and anxiety lately.  This summer has been difficult on our family emotionally due to my mom’s unexpected triple bypass surgery; that really was an absolute MIRACLE from God.  She was literally a heartbeat away from a massive heart attack!  What was so unfortunate was that she still ended up having a minor heart attack after she came home from the hospital due to the collapse of one of the bypasses.  So to say the least, this summer has been a whirlwind for us.  The good news is, mom is in rehab now and improving every day, thank God!!

After being faced with a life or death situation once again, it has forced me to revaluate my life.  I’ve started coaching myself unintentionally by asking myself some tuff questions.  For example:

1)     If this was the last week of my life and I had time to reflect over my life, would I be pleased with what I accomplished for God?

2)     Do I live each day with passion?

3)    What am I doing that makes a significant impact on others?

4)    Am I consistently living in the present moment or do I spend more time in the past or future?

5)     What’s stopping me from living a life Fully Relying On God to achieve the deepest desires of my heart?

I strongly encourage you to spend some time journaling and answering these questions too.  It has been an eye opening experience for me.  Honestly, I’m not too thrilled with some of my answers, so as my husband always says to me, “there’s nothing to it but to do it!”  With that being said, I’m going to take his advice and start living life with no regrets and embrace the Miracle of the moment I have been blessed with and keep moving forward in God’s call for my life.  I hope and pray this post has encouraged you to take some time and do a little soul searching as well!

I’m leaving today for San Diego to run my half marathon (13.1 miles).  I’m excited and nervous at the same time!  When I started training four months ago I realized very quickly that God had called me to do this on my own.  I felt he wanted to teach me something.  I have been training with a team and I will meet them out in California for the big event, but I will not have my family there to cheer me on the sidelines.  However, there will be hundreds of spectators that will cheer for the team in purple…which are Team In Training participants for The Leukemia & Lymphomas Society.  But honestly, there is Nothing or No One in this world that can Push and Encourage you more than your loved ones, especially when you when you get to a place where you want to stop or when you think I just cannot do this anymore.  The BEST example of this in my life was during my cancer treatments and hospitalization.  Thinking back over that year, my loved ones spoke countless words of encouragement to me.  And sometimes they didn’t have to say a word, I could see the look in their eye it said it all, I would win the battle of cancer.  I saw Jesus in them!

The scripture I was lead to this morning was Hebrews 12:1 & 2…and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…

After mediating on those words, God spoke to my heart.  He said, Child you must look to me and NOT others as your strength.  I use others as a vessel for my love to flow through.  Once again, I realized that God is strengthening my relationship with him.  He loves for us to be in relationship with others.  He did not create man to be alone.  However, there are times when we need to be alone with God to build a stronger and more intimate relationship with Him and my race is going to one of those times.

When I get fatigued and weak in my race (which will be around mile 6 or 7) I am going to run with perseverance and fix my eyes on Jesus.  I am also going to remember ALL the love he showed me through every act of kindness from my precious loved ones during my illness and PRAISE him for the gift of life, health and perseverance!

My sweet baby girl (who is 11 years old) is on a camping trip with her school this week.  I miss her so much, but I know she is having the time of her life with her classmates in the wilderness “roughing it”.  Last year when she came back from this trip she was a different child.  She had so much respect for others and a new found independence.  So this week at home and in my normal routine I have a sense that I’m missing something.  Even though I was looking forward to having a break from my mommy routine weeks ago, I now have a missing piece in my heart because my girl is not at home.  I’ve also thought about how fast the past 11 years have flown by and in a blink of an eye she will be off to college or out of the house.

I could write all day long about my pitiful heart missing my little girl but I wanted to share with you what God spoke to me this morning about this missing piece in my heart.  In my quiet time I felt God saying I must take this time as an opportunity to become aware of my priorities.  When I really reflect and I am completely honest with myself I must confess that most of the time, my child is the top priority in my life before my relationship with my husband.  OUCH!!  Don’t you hate it when God speaks and it feels like you’ve been kicked in the gut!  That’s actually a kick of humility for our own good.

I also felt God saying that I must not view my spiritual life from a hierarchy perspective.  I’ve always said God First, Family Second, Career Third.  Instead God wants to be the central point of all the relationships and activities in my life.  The scripture that I read this morning gave me comfort, peace and a connection to my daughter.  Colossians 2:5 “For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit”… In all things we are never alone and we have the gift of the Holy Spirit too not only be connected to our Heavenly Father, but also to our loved ones.  I would like to encourage you today to take some time and really reflect on your priorities.  Is God giving you a kick in the gut?  If so, please leave a comment.  I would love to hear about it.

Honored to serve in Charlotte, North Carolina – Women’s Christian Life Coach