The voice of shame is cruel, insensitive, demeaning, degrading and destructive. It strips us of hope for a positive future and it poisons our perspective, damages our sense of power and robs us of fulfilling our potential and purpose. Shame deceives us into believing we are inherently bad, unwanted, unlovable, undesirable and unworthy of unconditional love, acceptance, and belonging.
Not too long ago, I was telling a friend how much I had grown over the past 3 years and she wanted to know my secret. So I simply said, “pain and pressure.” I think most of us want to grow personally AND professionally but we wouldn’t dare ask for more pain and pressure to be added to our lives right?
Growing up, did you ever wish you could change your appearance? Maybe you wished your nose was smaller or your lips were bigger. Maybe you wished you had an hourglass shape rather than an athletic or full-figured shape. May you wished you had straight hair instead of curly hair. For me, I wanted long, straight hair because heck. That’s what ‘Barbie’ had and she was the standard of beauty back in the 80’s right?
The gift of imperfection is being shared in audio form rather than written form. In this audio file, I share my reflections on how Moses and Gideon both expressed their feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and insecurity when God called them to go and do great works in His name.
I am SO GRATEFUL to have been able to enjoy another year of life and celebrate my birthday!! Although this past year included some BIG disappointments, I’ve learned more about myself (my strengths and weaknesses) and I’ve grown SO much through leadership pain and pressure. I am convinced the things that occurred in my life this past year did not happen to me–they happened for me. For my growth AND my good!!
After almost 43 years, I have finally cracked the code for living an abundant life—a life FULL of happiness/joy, health, success, and prosperity. But it may not be what you may think.
While doing a bit of research on the mind and negative thought patterns, I came across an inner critic quiz that helps you discover your inner critic patterns so you can create a plan for how to change them. Now I won’t list the 7 types of critics revealed in the quiz (you can discover them by taking the quiz via the link below), but I do want to start this post by defining ‘inner critic’.
11 years ago on May 1st, I lost my mother to ovarian cancer. She had battled the disease for 3 years and died a few weeks after her 49th birthday. I remember my mother saying during her last few weeks of life that she had to get better because she still had a purpose to fulfill on this earth. When I heard these words, I remember saying in my heart:
“I don’t want to arrive at the end of my life believing I have yet to fulfill my God-given purpose. I want to be able to say with confidence that I have fulfilled it.”