Influence For Purpose

Have you ever been on a Guilt Trip ? . Of all the trips to send someone on, avoid sending them on a guilt trip. . A guilt trip is something you say with the intent to make someone feel guilty, especially to make them speak or act in a way they don't want to. .  Encouraging your desires through guilt on someone who doesn't want to do something would cause them to speak or act reluctantly. The Bible is clear about times when you shouldn't act out of reluctance; see 2 Corinthians 9:7. Even though these verses refer to money, the principle can apply.   I was guilty of sending people on guilt trips more often than I'd like to admit . It's something I must regularly remind myself not to do when my expectations aren't met.   Remember the last time someone sent you on a guilt trip? I've been sent on several of them and never want to send anyone on one again because of how I felt.  What happens when someone sends you on a guilt trip? And what do you do?  . I used...

When we're young, some of us are all about aesthetics for the wrong reasons. In my early 20s, I sought a quick, surgical way of attaining breast enhancement that was popular at the time. I tried to address an  emotional behavior with a physical fix to look good.  I thought I had a good reason because after giving birth to my one and only daughter, my breasts immediately went south; so I chose to fill in the gaps by implanting saline-filled silicone bags in those spaces. A much better solution would've been to learn to love myself in the natural, albeit imperfect, beauty I was uniquely given. After the implants, although I felt confident and thought I looked great , my body didn't seem to feel good about them. Because I have very high pain tolerance, I ignored many of my symptoms after the implants. One of them that never went away but returned on and off throughout the years was a sharp pain just between my underarm and chest. It was always very uncomfortable to sleep beca...

Brett and I have been reading about the life of Moses, and we find so much to be learned from his life. One of the things that spoke to us the most is how God called him to a task knowing he would face resistance in the process… not once, not twice but ten different times. He had to attempt the same task in ten different ways to fulfill one of the many assignments God gave him, to free his people from slavery.   We love how Moses continued to obey God without question despite the resistance he faced.   We are not saying he never questioned God because he did  when the initial instructions were given. But once he made the decision to obey,  he did it without questioning despite sometime looking like what some might consider foolish. Many of us, including Brett and I, might have given up after the third time. We might've been like, "okay, one more time, but third time's the charm, so if they aren't freed then, we're just gonna give up!" Can you relate to that sa...

As a massage therapist, I love seeing how God uses me to help someone physically recover.  Even more so, as a mental health expert from more than 14 years of personal experience and research, I love seeing how God uses my husband and I, among others, to help people recover from mental breakdowns through the sharing of our testimony . 😇 . We are referring specifically to people who who’ve been told something along the lines like that they should consider going on disability because they might never be able to work again, and/or they will need to remain on psychotropic medications for the rest of their lives. Basically, these people have been told to give up. This was also my story. 😔 . It’s our passion to see people overcome mental struggles and not be defined by a diagnosis. God’s word and truth about who we are  can not only give us hope,  but allow us to live a life of fullness.  His definition of full is joy, peace, and love.  This too, is my story! 🙋🏻‍♀️...

Emotions can be so tricky!  . We have many positive emotions,  but often we have just as many negative ones. . And just because we "feel" those negative emotions doesn't mean  we need to become one with them. . We can acknowledge them, but we don't have to welcome them.  . Whether they are from our past or our present,  it's very easy to contemplate those emotions.    Some of them feel nice to hold on to! . I keep having a dream in which my subconscious  keeps trying to take me to a past emotional state  as if desiring me to acknowledge it  and become one with it.  . I used to ruminate on these thoughts in the past.    . The word ruminate means to think deeply about something,  and I used to think so deeply about this that  I used to feel so sorry for myself and angry about the injustice   that had been done to me and others. This was a problem because I do not want  to revisit painful memories that I ...